Right now I have the mail art bug. I always love playing with papers and paints and pens and all sorts of embellishments.  I joined a swap on my favorite mail art trading site, ATCsforAll, for ATCs (Artist Trading Card) in a pear theme. The swap required the pears be and drawn or painted.  I started with collaging a background of graph paper and some pretty paper that looked like it has handwriting on it.  On top of that, I “painted” with my Shiva Paintsticks.  They’re oil paint in stick form.  They’re similar to an oil pastel, but creamier, and you can manipulate them with a brush, your finger, or as I chose to do, a palette knife.  You can mix them and blend them like oil paints.  The real benefit to the Shivas though compared to oil paints is the drying time.  They only take between a day and a day and a half to dry, which is great.  Here they are all finished, and  now they’re on their way to San Diego to be swapped out with other pear themed ATCs.  Mail day at my house is always so fun, getting art in the mail rocks!

I’m working on getting caught up on posting the journal pages I’ve already completed in my art journal, so I can post new ones as I make them (that’s the intention anyway).

First up, I did this spread using some of the bright bold paper ephemera from my stash. I love papers – patterned, textured, interesting – you name it, I’ve got it.  So, I collaged a bunch of papers, and embellished with metallic paint pens, markers, and ink.  I think I accomplished a summery feeling.

Next up, I had bought a new bright and colorful paper pad, and was inspired to use it that day.  I just wrote about the random things I did that day, a day in the life kind of thing.  I added some collage bits, and snazzed it up with markers and gel pens.

Lastly, I used a journaling prompt I found online (just Google journal prompts), A-Z About Me.  I started by smooshing some acrylic paints around to make a background.  Then I cut out the “A” and “Z” from a black and white comic book page.  Then I just came up with something for each letter, which was harder than I thought it would be. LOL  But, I managed, and voila!

You artsy-crafty people know what I mean – from the minute you see a project that you MUST make, you don’t have a choice and can’t stop thinking about it until you DO it.  My art journal was a project like that.  The moment I discovered them online (I believe it was Flickr – LOTS of art journal eye candy there!), I had to run out and buy the perfect book to use as a journal.  I chose an Ecojot- the cover is heavy, the pages are relatively thick (I knew this would be very important for the mixed media pages), and it is spiral bound, with a good, sturdy spiral.  Since then, I’ve also discovered Strathmore has a “mixed media” journal, with pages that are even thicker. <3  So, I found some funky paper in my stash, a batiked handmade paper, batiked with what looks like silver glitter crayon, and then the background is a pretty splash of colours.  I made a title, but honestly I hate it, it’s just not artsy enough, and was rushed.  I’ll make another to cover it sometime.  I’ve also tied some ribbon bits to the outside of the spirals.  All in all, I think it’s a great first art journal!

Here’s the very first page in my art journal. I made the background using the melted crayon technique.  First, you use an iron to smear crayon wax all over the paper, then you place some plain paper over top of it and iron it. This pulls up the wax, but leaves the color stained onto the page. I’ve made some gorgeous papers using this technique.  After making the background, I used coloured pencils, gold paint pen, and a couple of little mixed media elements to create the page.  I used white pencil crayon for the lettering on the lower half of the page, because it was the best thing I had at the time, but since then I’ve gotten my hands on some white gel pens, which work marvellously.

Next up is one of my favourite pages to date.  I did the background in a watercolour gradient. Over that I used acrylic paint to make the border and put in the text of one of my favourite poems.  Then I used a silver paint pen to outline the words and add some doodles.  The metallic paint pen adds some sparkle and depth.  Love this page – it looks way better in person too.

I’ve been up and listing on Retroheart.etsy.com for the past few hours. I’m a little tired of that now, so I think I’ll do some work on alljenn, namely posts I need to get caught up on, and on my other etsy shop, 3ApplesOnline.etsy.com. I changed the name to 3ApplesOnline from bubblecup.etsy.com, and still haven’t sat down and designed a new banner. I have some new things to list in there too! So, today I’m devoting my time to that.

Ok, so I’m sure you’ve figured out that I failed at the 365 days of creativity challenge. But, it really wasn’t my fault. Shortly after my last post in April, I got a sinus infection and the flu at the same time. I was totally out of commission for a week and a half. So, that ruined my crafty mojo. I knew I wouldn’t catch up. I thought about just picking up where I left off, or starting over, but I was just too discouraged. I’m very much an all-or-nothing kind of girl. So, I saw it as failure, and walked away from the whole project. I’m finally ready to think about trying again, but I’m not sure. I’m so busy now that I work full time, I don’t have time for daily craftiness (tragic, I know). Maybe weekly, I dunno. For now, I’m going to post when I can here and there. I do have a few projects on the go, so let’s see where it goes.

Day 37 – Today I completed another journal page in my little journal.  Acrylic paint, collage, marker and rhinestone.

Day 36 – Today I finished painting the numbers on the little polymer pendants I had made a couple of weeks ago.  I’m not telling what they’re for yet!

I am behind on posting! I didn’t mean to go this long without a post, so here’s a big one!

Day 35 -Today Rob, Mom and I went on a little road trip to Amherst, Nova Scotia.  We did some shopping around town, and found this liquidation store that was just full of random things.  I got 2 rolls of really cool printed packing tape, and tonight used it to cover the little art journal I got in Hali a few weeks ago.

Day 34 -I did the background of green and copper paint for this page awhile ago in my art journal, and I knew almost right away I wanted to use it to make a New York themed page.  Collage and mixed media.

Day 33 -Today I found my inspiration for my project at the dollar store.  I bought this darling little canvas (a teeny 2.75″), and it came complete with the wooden easel.  Some paint, and a card from a game, and here it is:

Day 32 -Today, I finally finished a culinary masterpiece a week and a half in the making;  I finally took the plunge and made real French Macarons!  After reading the intense instructions, including aging your egg whites for 5-7 days, and then aging the baked and filled cookies for another 3 days.  The end result was well worth all the trouble.  I’ll be making another post with a little more detail and lots more photos soon, but for now, here’s a taste. They are plain macarons with Fleur de Sel caramel filling.

Day 31 -For today’s craft, I made a cute little pic with the rubber stamp I carved yesterday, using a couple of stamps from another stamp set I had bought awhile back.

Day 30 -I have been wanting a wood grain rubber stamp for awhile, so today I finally broke down and made one myself.  I had some stamp carving rubber, and a carving tool, so away I went. It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would!

Day 29 – Today I hauled out the clay (air dry pottery-type, not polymer), and made a few components for pieces I’m working on.  I’ve missed working with real clay!  Someday I’m going to have a kiln damnit.  I’m going to sand the edges, and attach them to the piece.

Day 28 – Today I finished up a couple of recipe cards I was working on.  I make these and trade them just like other mail art.  I always made 2 of each recipe, so I can trade one and keep the other for myself.  The left shows the fronts of both cards, and the right shows the backs.

Day 27 – Today, I didn’t get any projects finished, but I was in the craft room, cutting out some quilt pieces!

I’ve been busy this past week! Not just with life and work, but busy in my craft room.  I owe you 7 projects, so here they are!

Day 26 -Tonight I whipped together this mixed media collage page in my tiny journal.  I’m funny like that – some pages take months and months, I go back and add an element here and there, others I do from start to finish in a couple of hours.  For this page, I started by gluing a page from a vintage school notebook, and painted it using a doily stencil and some pretty colors.  I then added the collage elements, and lastly I covered it with a clear plastic that had silver zodiac signs and stars on it.

Day 25 -For today’s project, I grabbed the bicycle stamp set I recently got, and made a set of 4 notecards. Short, sweet, and oh so cute!

Day 24 -I made my first ever book!  Well, ok, it’s a lame book compared to all the books people hand stitch and all of that, but it’s still cute.  I used a chipboard square I had that was pre-printed with a cute cherry.  I backed it with some plain chipboard, and lined it with purple paper I had a big stack of.  I clamped that all together, and then drilled 2 holes into the top.  I added a couple of binder clips, and voila!

Day 23 – For today, I completed another tiny zentangle, this time in black micron pen.

Day 22 -Here’s another art journal page I started forever ago, and didn’t know what to do with.  I have this thing for rainbow colors, especially when it comes to arranging supplies in my craft room.  I find it very visually stimulating.  So, I have some papers and bits that I know I’ll use for paper crafting, organized by rainbow colors.  From this stash, I made this page. Just randomly cutting out bits and pieces of  textures and patterns and gluing them to the page.  The page sat like that for a long time.  I finally decided today that I didn’t want to over-do it for this page, I didn’t want to add too much more, as the background was so pretty.  So, a little black paint for contrast, and I think it’s done.

Day 21 -I’m working on finishing up some of my unfinished pages in my art journal.  I had done most of this one awhile ago, but just finished it. I started by gluing SNOOZE in chipboard letters, and gluing the image of the sleeping lady.  I then base coated with white and blue acrylics, completely covering the chipboard letters so they blend in a little.  After that was dry, I added some detail to the background, including stamping the letter Z in all different fonts on the right hand page.

Here’s a closeup of my favorite part of this page.  After stamping the Z’s I laid a clock shaped mask over the page, and dabbed a white ink pad around, which I then embossed with clear embossing powder. Then, I rubbed a blue ink pad over the area, and that made the un-embossed area (the clock) stand out.  I love the effect, especially the how the Z’s are hazy looking. <3

Day 20 – Since I’ve been feeling the embroidery bug lately, I decided to do some embroidered inchies.  I only got 3 done, but I’m definitely going to do more in the future!

Soooooooooo. I hadn’t had coffee for weeks, since before I had my wisdom teeth out, as I didn’t want to have hot hot liquids. Well, today I’m 3 cups in, and I am just zinging.  Ask Roxanne, we went for Starbucks and I talked her ear off. LOL  I have been inspired though, so off to the craft room I go!  I may emerge later for crafty blogging.

For days 18 and 19, I worked on a few journal pages.  I was inspired by a similar project I saw online, but I for the life of me can’t find the post now.   Anyways, How I did the backgrounds for these, I cut vintage papers into various sizes of rectangles and squares, and then glued them onto my page, completely covering the page.  The first I did in my new mini sketchbook. After getting the bits of the background glued down, I have the whole page a gesso wash.  After that dried, I stamped the images. I had bought a fantastic set of bicycle stamps on Etsy, and thought this one would be just the thing for this page. What do you think?

For the 2 page spread in my art journal, I made the background the same way, but then I did a line drawing of Luna on the right page.  I then did the rest of the background in a gesso wash as well.  I added the quote with sharpie, and then covered the whole page in beeswax, which really brought out the browns of the aged papers on Luna.

Here are my beeswax tools. They’re both awesome!  A little crock pot for melting wax to brush on, and a little travel iron (flat on the bottom, no holes) for spreading wax around the whole page.

While I was in the craft room working away, Rob brought be a snack! Yum!

Today I did a little painting. Among the things I worked on, I finished up this component for the junk journals I’m making for me and my Mom.  They’re polymer clay, embellished with paint.  I’ll post more about the junk journals when I get them done! 

Day 16 -For today’s craft I continued working in my new little sketchbook, and I doodled what’s called a zentangle.  A zentangle is just a doodle, usually randomly divided, with all sorts of different patterns in each little space. They’re fun to do, in all sizes from inchies to big BIG!  My favorite zentangles are done in black ink, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I used a light blue fineliner. (note – ignore the eraser booger at the top by the spiral binding, hehe)

Day 15 -I’m super excited about the new little sketchbook I got at Deserres in Halifax, but then again, I have a thing for shiny new EMPTY books! I get all excited thinking about what I could put in said book.  This particular little book measures a mere 3″ X 5″, is spiral bound, and made by Strathmore.  It’s super thick too!  I meant to buy the mixed media one, which has thicker paper, but grabbed a drawing one instead. The paper in it is still pretty sturdy, so I’ll have to give it a try with mixed media too.  Today we received a very beautiful wedding invite in the mail, in black and hot pink <3, which was the inspiration for the colors of this doodle.  The style of flower was inspired by my friend Roxanne, she draws lots of cute little flowers like this.  And the quote is from “Get Happy”, originally sung by Judy Garland, but I’ve been hooked on the rendition they did on House a couple of weeks ago. The whole thing was awesome! They jazzed it up, added dancing, a top hat, bow-tie, just crazy awesome stuff.

Day 14 -Today Rob and I went to Halifax for a road trip.  We actually went to see Sue the T-Rex, the largest and most complete tyrannosaurus skeleton ever found.  She was amazing!  For a period of about 5 or 6 years when I was a kid, I had my heart set on being a paleontologist. I’m not sure whatever happened to that dream, but I’m still feeling the dinosaur love apparently, because I was SO excited to see Sue!

While in Halifax, I of course had to visit Deserres, a big art store downtown.  I was so excited to score a supply I’ve been looking for for awhile.  They’re called Shiva Paintsticks, and they are oil paint in a solid crayon shape.  They feel somewhat similar to oil pastels from what I’ve seen so far, except you can manipulate and blend them with a brush, palette knife, or your finger.  And, unlike oil pastels, they actually dry after about 24 hours.  I played with them a little in the car on the way home.  I just played with blending a few colors, but that’s the only crafty thing I was able to squeeze in on our road trip, so this is it.  I played in my new little chunky sketchbook I also got there.

Day 13 – In keeping with my spring mood, I created some little wearable chocolate bunny brooches!  They are felt, and all hand stitched, on Easter-colored backings of course (except for baby yellow – pale baby yellow felt apparently does not exist!)  These measure about 2″ High, and will be listed on Bubblecup.etsy.com tomorrow,

Day 12 – For day 12, I created some much-needed labels for some buttons I’ll be listing on retroheart.etsy.com this week, using Photoshop.  Watch for them!

*Whew* I’m finally all caught up on my 365 Days of Creativity Challenge.  It should be smooth sailing here on out *knock on wood*.  I’ve been working on a few things the past few days, here’s a little sneak peek of what i was doing today:

Weee, what fun!  I can’t what to show you what that’s all about.  I’ve also been working on another little Easter project, maybe I’ll finish that for tomorrow.    I’ve also resolved to make 2011 the year I finish up some old half-done projects.  I’ve been doing good so far, with the tree-skirt, so hopefully I’ll get some more done and posted soon.  I’ve got lots of good ideas for more projects, so keep an eye out!

Day 11 – Happy St Patrick’s Day!  For today, I made a cute little chipboard shamrock, free-handed and decorated with glitter. I was thinking about gluing a pinback to it and wearing it all day, but I didn’t get around to it., so he’s just a shamrock without a purpose.

Day 10 – For today, I finally created a poster for my craft room that I’ve been meaning to do for awhile.  If you craft, you understand how hilarious this statement is. Once you have glitter, you will never get rid of it.  My sister-in-law says she knows when my niece has been at my house, as she finds glitter on her when she gets home.  The majority of the jobs I’ve worked in the past have involved glitter too, lol.  Face painting, I’ve worked at 2 craft stores, and 2 home decor stores, which surprisingly see a fair amount of glitter.  hehe  Oh, and ironically enough, when I was making this poster, as I was trying to put the dark blue glitter back in it’s container, I somehow dumped a bunch of it down the front of my shirt. The girls were looking mighty fine!

Day 9 – For day 9, I crafted out of necessity.  As an Etsy seller, I like to tuck a little hand written thank you note into each package I mail out.  So, I make these little cards, decorate them, and write my thank you.  I do a bunch at one time, so I have a stash of them for a bit.  When I run out, I cut, punch, glue, and write up a bunch more.

Day 8 – I’m feeling really blah lately, what with all the trouble I’ve been having from my wisdom teeth extraction, being stuck in the house, not being able to eat much, etc.  So, I’ve been trying to work some spring things into my day. Spring is happy, it’s refreshing, and pretty.  I made these little origami butterflies in pretty pastel colors, just right for spring.  I strung them all on fishing line, and hung them in my front window.  Artemis was all about this project, from folding, to stringing, to hanging.  hehe

Day 7 – For day 7, my creative project was inspired by my friend Nick. He described it, and I felt the need to draw it.  It is indeed me, and a muffin.  It was a quick little drawing, so I wasn’t going for neatness or perfection here keep in mind. hehe