An Envelope Book

Recently I got together with my craft group, and we made these lovely envelope books. We got together at Kate’s Paperie, where I taught a demo, using Martha Stewart punches, and rubber stamps (mostly) by 100 Proof Press.

Remember: double sided tape is a VERY good thing.

Craftiness in action.

You’ll notice the first shot was taken at home. I couldn’t get a good shot of the book inside the store, in the evening like that. So I went home and took the picture the next day.

I used a Martha Stewart snowflake punch, white glitter, and of course, envelopes.

We had so much fun! If you’ve never been to my crafty events, you should come join us.

The Craftaholic

Day 268: Dwell Banner and a Silly Dance with my Daughter

Quote:

“Rather than speaking badly about people, we should practice a purer perception of them and speak only of their good qualities.” -The Dalai Lama

Gossip is referred to by most religions as evil. Why do you think this is? Think about it. So many relationships have been severed simply because of gossip and ill speaking of others. It’s addictive though, isn’t it? It’s so easy to just start bitching to your friend about how so and so did something that bothered you. Then you start talking about how stuck up she is, or how annoying her kid is. Right? It’s easy. It makes you feel good to talk about someone when they annoy you or make you angry. It’s harder to let peace into your life in these situations. Because you don’t really want peace. You want to  be angry with them, because in some way, you think you are punishing them. But you are only punishing yourself.

It doesn’t matter how ill you speak of someone, they are still going to live their life. It’s like I always say: no one really cares. Life keeps going and going. And if you don’t stop to let in the peace to your life, it will pass you by. Stop talking about people. Try to see the good in others. I know it’s hard to do this, especially when people continue being asses. But they are not the important thing in your life. What is important? You. Your family, your life, your home, your future.

I made a banner for my home.

These are chipboard cut outs I got from a swap (I think). I glued vintage music sheets to it, glued some pretty flowers, and the letters to spell out, “Dwell”. I also glittered the edges with pink Martha Stewart glitter.

Here’s a close up:

Here’s what it looks like, against my record collection:

I didn’t even bother cropping the picture, sorry.

I love love love this banner! I put mini clothing line clips on the back, so if I want to, I could just clip them anywhere. Here, they are on a pretty ribbon, again from a swap.

The nice thing about being broke is that you end up really using what you’ve got.

What else? Oh, me and the baby randomly broke into dance. My daughter loves dancing, and loves dance music. Don’t ask where she got this, cuz she didn’t get it from me. I love old jazz and classic punk. But ohwell.

Cute, right? Can you guess what she was dancing to? Lady Gaga. YES. Can you believe the the child of two bohemian artists likes Lady Gaga? Oh man. What am I going to do? I just indulge it, really.

She loves to dance, dude. I uploaded a video of it on youtube, but it needs to be rotated, and I don’t know how to do that.

Here’s the link though, if you don’t mind tilting your head.

The Craftaholic

Day 196: Easter Bunny Gift Tags

Quote:

“All human beings come from a mother’s womb. We are all the same part of one human family.”

Just as I was saying yesterday how we should revel in our humanness, this is just a confirmation. We must learn to realize that we are all the same. It’s not just about race. It goes beyond that. It’s about race, creed, religion and sexual preference. None of us are better than another. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what god you worship, or which way you think is the exclusive way to the proverbial “heaven”. The truth is, no one, unless you’ve been there, knows what awaits beyond the grave. So stop thinking that you should exclude someone from your life, simply because of the way they choose to live your life.

Perhaps this a very blunt way of putting it, but I’ve never been one to mince words. And the truth is, I really hate it when people leave others out, or criticize a group of people, simply because they have different ways of approaching life. Instead, try to find things you have in common with a person. This goes ESPECIALLY for you New Yorkers out there reading. You all are so good at excluding, and segretating. Truly. It’s the one thing about living in New York City that I cannot get used to: the segregation. There is so much segregation in NYC! I was astonished at first, but I guess that’s what one can expect in a city where the richest and poorest dwell. Go beyond the discomfort of differences. Go beyond that.

When I first got serious about my art, I wanted to find other artists out there. The aforementioned bit about NY made it hard for me to really find true friendships. So instead, I just decided that everyone is an artist. We are all creative in one way or another. It’s my job in life, to show you just how artistic you are. So that’s what I do now. Like my friend Holly. She doesn’t even knit or crochet. But she can cook like no one’s buisness. That’s creative, don’t you think? So then, I connect with her creativity on that level. Just ask Martha Stewart or Emeril Lagassi just how creative the kitchen can be. Creativity is everywhere. Everything is everywhere. Look at the commonness in others, instead of the differences.

Today’s crafty endeavor, is a set of easter themed gift tags!

This is easy peasy.

You’ll need:

One sheet of easter themed scrapbook paper

grocery bag paper

a cursive or french script stamp (mine is from stampin up , tho I can’t remember the name of the stamp)

a black ink pad

blender marker

brown pigment ink pad

one chocolate bunny stamp from Stampin up

sticker paper

So the first thing, is to stamp the bunny four times on sticker paper, then let the ink dry.

After that, blend in the brown ink a bit with a blender marker. This makes the bunny a nice light chocolate color. And cut it out, of course.

Then, cut out four small envelopes from a template. I used a plastic stencil template by Paper Pizzaz.

After that, stamp the cursive french writing, onto the unfolded envelope, and glue.

Then stick the bunnies onto the envelope.

With your easter themed scrapbook paper, cut out four tags. I used a die with my big shot.

Then, glue the envelopes onto the scrapbook paper. I added a bit of yarn for the tassel.

You like it?

Oh! I also made these cool little paper flowers, they are for sale in my shop.

Like them? They are in my shop, just click on the above photos, as they are linked to my shop. They actually are listed with free shipping, now that I think about it.

Tomorow I’m going to the Whole Bead Show. I am so excited!

Day 193: Children’s Hair Clippies

Quote:

“Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk”

What did the Dalai Lama mean when he said this? We all long to achieve amazing things with our art and creativitity. But what is needed to achieve the wonderment that Fridha Khalo, Pablo Picasso and Martha Stewart achieved? It is summed up into two words: passion and determination.

Passion alone really doesn’t get you too far. Determination AND passion must be present in order to achieve great things. That’s what I admire about Martha Stewart. It’s not just what she does, but HOW she got there. I love that she built all that she has now, from her determination to succeed. It came at a price, perhaps in looking at her personal life. But I think that your drive and determination to achieve what you want, actually highlights the things in your life that are flawed. Speaking from the heart, I feel that sometimes our passion for our art and our craft blinds us from our personal life. It is then that we must strive to achieve balance in life. We must keep both in our hearts-our love and our career.

Today, I made some more hair clippies. These are for little girls. I made these same exact ones for my daughter, and everytime she wears them, I get compliments, saying that I should list them for sale. I have several craft fairs coming up in April, and I’ve decided to make a bunch of these little hair clippies to sell in my craft fairs.

What do you think? You like them?

I am quite busy! Really and truly! I am sewing away at my machine, making books like a mad woman, and prepping for a bunch of craft fairs in April. Today I’m off to the Fashion district for some E-6000 glue, because it’s cheaper there than anywhere else. I also would love some new fabric, so we’ll see what I find.

Until tomorow,

The Craftaholic

Day 171: Make a Paper Goddess

Quote:

“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.”

Change. I’ve used this quote before, I know. But the thing is, change can be fearful sometimes.

I’ve changed some. I’ve learned to focus more. Focusing, for the multi medium artist such as I, is quite dificult. It’s hard, because when you like to make art with many mediums, you tend to be scatterbrained. My husband is always telling me, “Diana you need to learn to focus, so you can accomplish more”. He’s a taurus. Tauruses are great with that.

I’m a sagitarius. We are scatterbrained by nature. But that’s okay. I’ve finally learned how to take all that scatterbrained fury and focus it on my art and my goals for myself and my career. How?

Well, it helps to know what you want. What do you want in life? Okay, good. Do you REALLY want it? I mean…do you want it with your mind, body and soul? Is it your passion?

So then, how do you get there? You want success with your art, to make art for a living. Before you subscribe to all the newsletters and self help guides that all say the same thing, remember this: you know how to get there. Seek within yourself. Focus on what you want. Focus on it, the way a race horse focuses on his goal ahead.

What are the things that hinder you from reaching this goal? There are of course, every day things, like your spouse, your children, etc. But I’ll use myself as an example. Do you know what I want in life? What I want in life (in regards to my art) is to be able to make a decent living wage off of what I do, and to teach the world that art is within everyone.

So then, how do I get there? Hmm…well, mainly, my art (I feel) lies with working with paper, and knitting. So then, this means that this should be my focus. This should be my emphasis. You see what I mean?

I had two meetup groups before. One was my original group that I opened a while back. The other is a recent take over, after someone stepped down. I renamed the group, changed the focus of it, and decided to make it my group. So if I wanted to focus on myself better, that would mean deleting the other group, since it was not so active anymore, and really, I wanted to create a group that had my name, The Craftaholic, and really revealed my true calling, and my true passion in life. So I did just that. I started this new group, called “The Craftaholic’s School of Art & Creativity”, although as I mentioned before, it was previously someone else’s art group on meetup. She stepped down, and I took over. But this is what I mean. I focused on my goal. My goal is me, and my art. Not doing silly little workshops, teaching someone to make cards. This group is about me, and my art.

So you see how I learned to focus?

Also, my etsy shop is about my paper craft. I have a separate forlorn and neglected etsy shop for my knitwear.

Focus. Before you act, think about this: is this empowering my art, or just scattering my brain even further?

So that’s all.

Today I made a Paper Doll Goddess for a swap that I’m in.

I used a template from the Enchanted Gallery, and some paper from Prima Marketing.

I cut out the dolls of course, and then embossed it with a flower embossing plate with my bigshot. The plate is from stampin up. I actually put the doll through twice, to add more embossed lines.

After that, I distressed and inked the edges with green pigment ink.

Then, I went over a couple of the embossed lines with glitter, from Martha Stewart of course.

What else? I really struggled with the head. I realized with this project that I am SO not good with heads and faces. I stamped and cut out a face with a 1 3/4″ circle punch. Then, some flower stickers add a nice touch to the head and neck.

The ribbon around the waist, is in case the person wants to hang it. I like things that are purposeful, you know? In her hands, she holds the word DREAM, because she reminds you to dream big.

Her head is more like a moon, which I sort of like. But honestly, I’m not too crazy about her face.

What do you think? You like it?

Day 145: Mixed Media Collaged Journal Page

Quote:

“The ultimate way to solve human problems is with nonviolence.”

It seems like we try to agree with this. Right? What does non violence mean?

Well, I can tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean arguing. It doesn’t mean that instead of fighting with hands, you fight with words. Your words have power, more than your hands do. Through your words, you can heal or destruct someone. It’s sad, that most of us, we pretend to understand this, but we do not truly get it.

What we do know, is that we want good things to come to us. But we still label ourselves and others. We still form cliques. We still exclude people, in a childish fashion, as if we were “good enough” to exlude someone. As if we have some right to leave someone out. This is a violent thing we do, act in these childish ways.

Non violence. Hmm. I doubt that you ever saw Ghandi or Mother Theresa leaving someone out. You are probably thinking, well I don’t really want to be Ghandi or Mother Theresa. I know. Neither do I. But my point is that these two people are the prime example of what a compassionate life is.

Life isn’t about adding to your bank account, or trying to be someone famous. I doubt very much that Ghandi said to his wife, “you know I just want to be a world leader, and become very famous and have a movie made of my life.”  He didn’t. He just knew what his calling was in life, and chose to pursue it, through peace and non violence. The opposite of peace is strife, right? Who wants that? Not me. So if you want peace and non violence in your life, then show it. Be it. Find your passion, your calling in life, and just pursue it. You don’t have to be the next Martha Stewart. There is only one Martha Stewart, Fridha Kahlo, or Ghandi. They all have distinct roles in life.

Your soul will tell you what your life’s calling is; your passion and drive will get you there.

I don’t think that Martha Stewart has to try hard to be her. She just is who she is, and does what she does. Like birds just fly. That’s what they do. They don’t have to over analyze it. They just are. So just be who you are. Take steps forward, and move. One foot in front of the other. That will get you there. Just move. Life, and move within yourself. Just like the birds in the sky. They just are. They know how to be a bird, because that is what they are.

That’s what is so wonderful about art. Through our art and our creativity, we can discover ourselves. We can find out who we are. Do what comes naturally.

Speaking of art, my creative endeavor today, I am sharing with you today, a journal page from my sketchbook. There’s a small book that I made, with some collage work with my poetry. The little book is glued on the collaged page. The owl is there, of course because as you all know, I love owls.

The book is made of grocery bags.

This page features my poem, “I was afraid to speak”

La Dama.

This is my poem, “Once upon a time, while sleeping”.

My poem, “Cellophane Girl”

Like it? I hope you do.

The Craftaholic