Happy Halloween Bookmarks

Corner Bookmarks

We don't celebrate Halloween, but for the few kids that come around we give them something. For the last few years we have given out glow-in-the-dark bracelets which the kids love. Several have asked if we're giving them out again this year, and yes we are :) We have quite a few, but we needed something other than candy to give out if we run out. (Candy in the house is bad for me and actually for the rest of the family too.) So I thought about bookmarks and looked for some to print out. I found a bunch of corner bookmarks that are super cute on Pintrest, but they were pieced, not printed. Thinking that that wold be easy enough, I made a pattern (it looks like a fox), found my googly eyes, and proceeded to piece some. I made 25 which should cover what the bracelets don't. As an added bonus, I can give the extra's to tutees who have done a superior job on something. My husband and kids even wanted one, so they should be popular.

Have a great day!

Theta



Materials:
Paper: DCWV - 8x8 cardstock stack neutrals; Fabriano Cartacrea
Glue: UHU all purpose; Leeno white glue
Googly eyes
Pen: Letraset Promarker; Micron

Journal Book

After finishing the Summer 2015 scrapbook and getting it mailed off, I made myself a Journal and a planner, but more on that in another post. Since I usually make my things fairly uniform, I decided to make my journal a junk type journal so I could journal and put ephemera in it and be happy. As I started adding more pages, I kept having to change the binding to be wider and wider. An advantage I have found with the Combind is that it's easy to swap out the old coil for a new one. I alternated paper types and put in some pockets, both small for journaling cards and large to hold stuff not yet put in. I decided to use 5 tabs to break up the book into sections. I have labeled two of them Journaling #1 and Journaling #2 (inventive, I know) the other three I haven't labeled, but one will probably be 'Bible Journaling'.  I have peppered positive quotes and Bible verses throughout and bound in 1 cm tabs to attach journaling or more quote cards. You can see one of the tabs attached to the bottom of the plaid envelope.

Sometimes I journal every day and sometimes I go for weeks without writing a word. I am truly enjoying the freedom of this book :)

Have a great day!

Theta


Materials:
Ephemera
Combind
Paper: Binder paper, graph paper, cereal box cardboard for cover, Cardstock - ROCO, scrapbook paper - Recollections - Michaels
Washi tape: Longking Corp, Twin Seven, Somi Tape
Journaling Cards: Vintage Writing I - Vintage Glam Studios, Heidi Swapp's Sugar Chic Collection - Canon, Pure Happiness - Ashley Ann, Printable Tabs and Printable Journaling Cards - Sweetly Scrapped, Labeled for Travel - Creativity Prompt ( all these can be found on my pinterest boards here )

One Card 3 versions

Yesterday I made these cards from a card design I saw in Stamptington & Company's magazine Take Ten or Stamper's Sampler. I can't seem to find the card I took the design from which is a bit of a bummer, because I really like the way my cards turned out and I'd like to give my source credit. I also stamped the animal inside the card.

One of the twelve cards is already in an envelope ready to give my neighbor. During Eid they brought over some mutton for us. It was a mixed bag of ribs and backbone. I ended up cooking them like my mom does spareribs: boil for an hour, smother them in Mrs. Chans (an old neighbor of ours) sweet and sour sauce, then bake for another hour. They were quite yummy and interestingly enough, after all the cooking and baking, they had lost most of their sheep flavor.

Have a wonderful day!

Theta

Note: I found the card design! - Take Ten, summer 2015, pg. 19: Relax and Chair Up - Beverly Sizemore

Materials:
Patterned paper - Colorbok: Hootenanny
Ink - Tsukineko: Memento
Cardstock - White and Cream: ROCO; Brown: Fabriano: Cartacrea
Rhinstones - unknown
Stamps - Owl, Cat, Butterfly: Inkadinkado

Thinking of you card

Thinking of You

Stamps - 

Thinking of you - Studio G

Background - H Clear Stamps

Striped pumpkin - Recollections

Large and small pumpkins, cat, leaf border - Graphic 45, Hampton Art

Paper - 

scraps, colored copy paper, Ikea craft paper for wrapping glass items upon exiting

Washi tape - 

Somi Tape

Ink -

 Tsukineko

I'm going to send these cards out with the books. Hopefully they will make it to the states and their destinations before Halloween... we'll see, they might get there before Halloween, but I won't hold my breath.

Have a wonderful day!

Theta

Summer Travel Album

Cover 1

Cover 2

I haven't posted for a long time because we went on our trip home to Hawaii and to California.  Then jet lag hit us all hard. It seems jet lag flying against the sun is much worse than flying with it. For several nights we were up most of the night, we were slightly dysfunctional. When I figured out which way was up, I started working on our trip pictures and memorabilia. I didn't have many pictures because my camera decided not to charge when we got to Hawaii... and is still not charging. Omega had his camera (thanks mom and dad!) and he took a few pictures. I could have used his camera, but I forgot about it. So, I asked family for pictures. They all had a few, but not many... I guess we all were having too much fun or working too hard to take pictures. I used cardboard covered in scrapbooking paper for the covers, made a suitcase in photoshop and stuck one of the maps to it, put a title on in photoshop, printed it out, stuck on washi tape and glued the suitcase to the cover. The cardboard from the cereal boxes fit in my Combi Binder (which I brought back from Hawaii, I've been missing it, but I didn't want to buy one here when I had a perfectly good one there), but the cardboard from the boxes of sheet protectors was too thick. I ended up using a template to cut the holes for binding out of the thicker cardboard, easy, but time consuming. I like the way the covers came out.

Cover 3

For the inside pages I started off using my new Photo Sleeve Fuse (the one thing I wanted to purchase before coming back here, looked lots of places for, and finally found at Michaels in Chico the day before we flew back), but I didn't like the way the pictures kept sliding out every time I turned a page. Sometimes in my albums pages slip up in their protectors and have to be pushed in, but this was ridiculous - one or more inserts popped up every time I flipped a page, on both sides... grr. So I revamped my page plan to print the pictures, cards, and ephemera like I was going to slip them into pockets, but actually glue them onto cardstock. This worked much better and odd sized items were easier to accommodate. I used the Photo Sleeve Fuse to make pockets in between the pages and that worked great. Most of those pockets I sealed off.

Page 1

Anyway, because I didn't have very many pictures, I used a lot of scanned images of memorabilia we had collected on our journey and fun quotes. There are pictures of all of the members of our family, so everyone is included. I like that. I also like all of the ephemera I was able to include. Where else can you get a USDA inspected sticker saying ALOHA, but in Hawaii. The KLM postcards are really neat and I was able to include them too. Some of the menus I put into Photo Fused sleeves so both the back and front can be viewed - we don't have those restaurants here and seeing the menus brings back yummy memories.

Page 7

We had a good trip. Most of our time in Hawaii we spent cleaning the yard, house, and garage; buying parts to fix things; and trips to the dump. Not really a vacation per se. It was good to see the house and get it cleaned up, but best of all it was great to see the kids. We had more vacation time driving and walking on the beach in California (the water was so cold compared to the water in Hawaii, yowch!). It was great to visit with my parents and our daughter. We also were able to visit with everyones boyfriend or girlfriend and with my daughters house parents/mentors/friends and their horses.

Page 14

Page 11

It turned out to be a good trip. Both boys said they would do the trip again, but my older one rejoined that he would do it again, because, since we had done so much fixing and cleaning, there wouldn't be so much to do next time and we could go to the beach more. That sounds like a good plan to me.

I hope you all had great summers and got to do something different.

Have a great day!

Theta



Oooops I forgot to post the materials list...

Summer 2015 Trip Book Materials:

Paper - Recollections, Michaels Stores

Page Protectors - Roco

Scanned Ephemera - tickets, inspection sticker/ticket, menus, tags, KLM postcard from the plane

world grunge map; globe-Never Stop Traveling; vintage poster-Life is like photography - freepik.com

Posters - Delta Airlines, San Francisco; United Airlines, Hawaii - freevintageposters.com

Antique Map, red and cream - knickoftime.net

Tickets; Journaling cards not listed, I made in photoshop, some original and some composite ideas from around the internet - mine: Theta

Monterey Bay Aquarium - the jellyfish image is from Dover

Fonts - Onyx, writing stuff, TXT Antique Poster, Print Clearly, SBC Distressed typewriter, Book Antiqua, American Typewriter, Miss, Bookman Old Style

In between pages 16 and 17

Cover: font - Marketing Script; Map - knickoftime.net; Washi Tape - Twin Seven; Paper - Recollections, Michaels Stores

Last page

KLM Postcard

ATC Flower #30

417

Flowers shaded and unshaded are today's fare. I thought about shading #417, but decided I liked it the way it is. #418, though, was begging to be shaded.

Have a wonderful day!

Theta

418

ATC Flower #29

Enjoy these two flower ATC's and have a marvelous day!

Theta

415

416

ATC Mushroom #16 (and rooster)

413

Two ATC's, one mushrooms and the other a doodled rooster. Enjoy them.

Have a great day!

Theta

414

Sketchbook 2

I have been trying to draw/sketch something everyday and work on my next painting intermittently.

The sketches aren't posted in any particular order and some pages are done over several days. At the bottom are some leaf dragons from the front. Someone in the house commented that all the leaf dragons are from the side and it would be nice to have a different view. I said that is the 'traditional' view... ;)

The painting I am currently working is also from the side, but I may do the next from a different viewpoint, possibly 3/4, as that view can show a lot of personality.

Have a wonderful day!

Theta

11 1/2 by 16 in. Leaf Dragon in Oil with notes

I think it's finished... maybe... I'll hang it o the wall and live with it for a while, but I think it's abandonment time. Besides, he wants his portrait ;)

Some thoughts or things I may have learned:

1. I started out with my background too light on this painting.

2. I do better with layers like in photoshop than wet on wet.

3. Waiting for the paint to dry before putting on the next layer interrupts my creative process and I have to remember what the plan is/was which is problematic since I'm done with it and the project has faded from my memory.

4. If I start out with a general concept and let it grow layer by layer, I'm much better off. Otherwise, I have to make sketches, detailed plans, a mock-up, and then start on the project... I do this with the horses I have painted in watercolor, to some degree. And, that's work.

5. This is supposed to be fun and if I have to remind myself too many times that it is supposed to be, then I need to rethink the process.

6. Once reconciled to the waiting time in between layers, I am beginning to enjoy the process.

7. It is more productive to have several paintings in progress than to only work on one at a time. This creates havoc with remembering which one is for what... I may have to tack notes to them.



Have a wonderful day!

Theta