living artfully

holidays in hand clipboard

Holidays in Hand is underway and today we printed our journaling prompts for our December album. Rather than keep the prompts in a binder, I altered this clipboard to hold the 5.5 X 5.5 version of the prompts. Before printing, I recolored the date circle in Photoshop so it would be red rather than the brownish color it came in. And since this will be on display, I wanted to keep the design simple and clean. This little bit of holiday cheeriness is now sitting on my desk, reminding me of how excited I am to create our album.

 

have you made a wordle?

 
Another post about art made with words? I know, I know. But if you love words and haven't yet made a Wordle, go check it out! They are customizable "word clouds" made out of words you provide.

My word cloud is made with the words on my blog. Wordle counts the frequency of the word to determine its size in the cloud... and the rest you can customize.  How fun is it to see a visual representation of what you've been blogging?! Just visit Wordle and plug in your blog's URL to make one like this.

I also love the idea of pasting in other meaningful text. Around election season last year I saw some striking clouds made from transcripts of the debates, followed by one made of the President's inaugural speech. You could also make one with your wedding vows, a favorite poem, song lyrics, or whatever is meaningful to you!

christmas ornament wreath

Remember my early obsession with creating a white Christmas?? Well I couldn't wait any longer and made this wreath today!

 

I've never made anything like this before and was surprised to find it really wasn't too difficult.

To make this wreath I used:
an 18 inch evergreen wreath from Michael's
about 80 large and medium sized metallic and white bulb ornaments
about 50 mini sized metallic bulb ornaments
high-heat glue gun and lots of glue
and my favorite Christmas music playing in the background!

 

To get started, I simply removed the hardware from all the bulbs and set them all out within arm's reach. Then I flipped the wreath over so the back side was facing up and began gluing medium ornaments around the inner edge of the wreath. Once the inner edge was covered, I did the same to the outer edge of the wreath with the large bulbs. Since I was working from the backside, I made sure the openings to the bulbs were facing me.


 
After a short break to make sure the glue had set, I flipped the wreath over and began gluing bulbs in a random pattern. I made sure the bulbs were sitting as close to one another as possible and I covered visible gaps with the mini ornaments.

 

Once the whole wreath was covered, I let the glue set again. Then I simply threaded thick gold ribbon through the metal frame of the wreath and tied the top of the ribbon in a bow. Now it's ready to hang on a mirror or door!

 

 
 
A few lessons learned and ideas...
- First, I needed WAY more bulbs then I had initially guessed. I recommend buying more than you think you need and returning leftovers if there are any.
- The evergreen wreath provided a lot of "surfaces" to glue the ornaments onto. I'm not confident it would work as well, but you could attempt this using a styrofoam, tinsel, or wooden wreath. 
- I chose to keep my wreath green but next time would consider spray-painting it beforehand to match my ornaments.
- This wreath could be done on a budget by purchasing cheap ornaments (such as from a dollar store) or even by using those old ornaments that are just taking up space in your basement.
- And lastly, this wreath would look fabulous on a front door, made with shatterproof ornaments.
 
My new wreath is now hanging on the mirror above our sofa in the living room. I love it so much, I don't think I can bear to take it down. I guess my hubby will just have to deal with the early Christmas decoration!

homemade fall decor

There is something about the crisp fall weather that inspires me to focus on warming up the house with seasonal touches. Normally I put out store-bought decorations, but this year a challenge at the Paper Posies site inspired me to make these items with their October 2009 kit.

 
The pumpkin garland is an idea from Lisa Dickinson and I thought it was too cute not to make! The patterned paper is adhered to pumpkin-shaped chipboard, then embellished and strung onto burlap cord. 


And this paper wreath is now decorating our kitchen. For this project I free-hand cut about 50 leaf shapes from patterned paper, rolled them a bit, and attached them to a styrofoam wreath with Zots. A glue gun would probably offer better adherence if you have one. Lastly, I just added some flowers and a burlap cord to hang from the top. 

Love having reminders of fall in my home!

 

world cardmaking day

Tomorrow is World Cardmaking Day! As someone who is primarily a scrapbooker, I've also enjoyed my fair share of cardmaking.  Check out the details and celebrations at the World Cardmaking Day website.  And to leave you with some inspiration, here are a few "thank you" cards I've made...

 

 

art goals

Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here, I was hungry, I was defeated, I was happy, I was sad, I was in love, I was afraid, I was hopeful, I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art.
-Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Lots of art-related goals floating around in my head right now, this blog being the first of many.  As I challenge myself to live in the moment, to live more consciously (with gratitude!), and to record those moments through art, I knew this blog would be an answer.  So I'm here, to write and make a record.  Whether this blog has the good fortune of being enjoyed by others would just be a bonus.

Besides this site, I'm challenging myself...

- To photograph all my scrapbooking layouts, not just to archive, but to post online and share.  Making Memories had a great posting about this on their blog.
- To become a better photographer with our dSLR camera.  I really want to sign up for the Portrait Course at JessicaSprague.com with Candice Stringham when it's offered next!
- This one's for "I don't know when" and it's a big one... I really want to do a Project 365 or some other type of timed photo study.
- To increase my skill level with Photoshop Elements.  I've spent way too long using such an amazing editing tool just for cropping and red eye removal.  I poured over Jessica Sprague's Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking.  But I think it's time to take one of her Photoshop courses. Definitely want to take her photo editing class and her Intro to Photoshop.
- To take advantage of Flickr.  For the inspiration and for the opportunity to load and share our photos.  There is so much to look at on Flickr; I could get lost for hours!

So that's enough to keep me busy for a while, don't you think?!  I'm feeling excited and more than ready.  Can't wait to see where these art goals take me!