House for Sara

My niece Lisa's little girl is named Sara. And she is receiving this dollhouse over Memorial weekend. It's a surprise for her but with the blessings of her parents. I used my 40% off coupons from Hobby Lobby to purchase everything I needed. The dollhouse was a kit and I thought...."this should be easy". I had no idea that there would be millions of tiny little pieces AND an instruction booklet that was about twelve pages! It's a good thing my very dear husband loves constructing and engineering! It's also a very good thing that we began this project in January of this year. It just takes time to glue, dry, paint, dry, etc.

I can hardly wait to see little Sara's face....she has been wanting a dollhouse (in little kids timeline) FOREVER! Her favorite color is pink and so we painted the house a color of pink that was called "Princess Pink". PERFECT!

Here are photos of the house empty and then with the furniture.





























































SHE LOVES IT!

Journal Pages

I used a bleach pen to write the word "Journal". When you are using the bleach pen, be ready to write as the bleach comes out pretty darn fast!!! This is on Canson paper and I really like how it turned out. The drapery trim was given to me and I attached it to the bottom of the book.

My friend, Pat Lynn, showed me a journal idea when I attended one of her workshops. I took a photo from a magazine and then extended the photo using color pencils. You could make your own drawings small or large. This was my first effort and I was happy with the result.


I like layering images on text or vice versa. I used brush lettering on ticket stubs to write out the quote.


I decided to splice a magazine photo into three parts for this layout. I used the bottom of the ticket stubs as an embellishment for the pictures. The alphabet was using a Pentel brush pen.


After I recorded some information in my journal, I added a photo on the next page so I wanted to punch out circles so you could see bits of the picture from this page.


This is the back of the last page....and I wanted to carry on with that theme.


Now you can see the full photo. I really like "windows" that peer into the next page. It doesn't matter to me the shape that the "windows" take....circles, squares, or torn holes.


I used a "cola" pen to write the word "art" and I bent the pen in two. I pressed too hard as I was trying for lots of "chatter". I will have to make another pen! So to fix where the pen broke, I added paste paper that I made with a stamped image. Problem fixed!


The background I was trying for on this page didn't happen. I need to find really tiny, tiny straws! The one I used was for stirring coffee and it was too large. I placed a drop of FW Acrylics and then used the straw directly over the drop of ink and puffed air to move the ink. If you use the smallest straw, you'll get a star burst pattern. I actually chased the ink all around the page for fun because I didn't get the first result I was looking for. You can see from the right side where I punched out three square holes. You are looking at a piece of paste paper that is behind this page.


This is the paste paper that I made. I really loved the colors that I made and now have officially used all of it!!


I have five different journals that I am working on right now. All are for different themes. My "workhorse" journals are NOT "journals" even though I call them "journals". They are only for taking notes, writing an address or directions to somewhere or ideas. There is nothing cohesive about the workhorse journals. I always have one of those types of books in my bag at all times. But the other 5 journals that I work in are done in my studio and those journals contain my art! My workhorse journals do not contain my art.

Cute Storage!

I have so much STUFF....and I want it all stored into very cool containers. This ceramic chest of drawers is from Old World Market. It holds all my very "necessary" little items from the Tim Holtz collection.

Fabric Book for Jan

The house book exchange was inspired by the newly published book "In This House" by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. Our art group decided on partners for this exchange with only one rule. The book needed to be house shaped. In the back of the "In This House" book is a template that I used and enlarged it to my desired size.

The other inspiration for this book was from taking Lisa Engelbrecht's workshop. I had already made one fabric book for Annie (earlier post). Jan, my partner and awesome neighbor, really loved Annie's book and gave me lots of compliments. So I immediately knew that she would love and appreciate this book! !

Originally, I thought I would make it a surprise but that didn't work out so well. I needed Jan to supply me with family photos. She was generous in giving me lots to choose from which made planning the pages easy and fun! All the photos except one were transferred onto muslin fabric.

Enjoy!


You can click on the photo for a closer view. I made a blanket stitch on the roof line on each page.

































There is a special message on this page. I don't know when Jan will discover it....but it will be a surprise when she does!


You can still see the purple marking pen...however, if a few days the lines will completely disappear. I took the photos as soon as the book was completed!







This is the back cover.

My Secret Garden

This is the smallest Funk & Wagnalls enclyclopedia book I have ever seen! It is 6"x4"!

I took a class from "And Bears Make 3" in Moore, Oklahoma. The instructor was fun and she makes lots and lots of altered books. I thought this book would be perfect for a dear friend's birthday in September. She LOVES her garden!


This is in the inside cover with a fold out page using a transparency. The transparency was printed with beautiful flowers...and the "SG" of course, represents Secret Garden.

There are all kinds of pockets that are tied up with green ribbons with special surprises and messages inside.


This is the same page as before...just a different camera angle. Since my friend visits my blog from time to time, I didn't want to give away all the secrets! Inside the pockets are images and treasures. The other page has a garden gate that folds down to reveal a quote.


This page has all types and shapes of tags with poems about the garden. On each page are the garden gnomes....the whole book has these cute little creatures!



This page has a tree where the gnomes are swinging. I did some restructuring after the class as my book was breaking at the spine. I made a good repair and design change.


I am not too nuts about my handmade mushrooms...


I really like the garden statues on each page.


The hand is a tracing of my hand with a poem "Blossom by blossom frienship begins". There is a message on the backside for my friend.


Isn't he an adorable gnome!

I love the little door with the tiny roses and lizard!