random.on purpose.

In Memoriam

No frivolity today...  I have just returned from California, where services were held to celebrate the life and honor the passing of the greatest man I have ever known personally - my father, James Grant Shumway (8/15/28 - 1/11/08).  His greatest loves were his family - especially his life-long sweetheart, my mother; his faith; and the ocean.  He leaves a legacy of honor, integrity and service, as well as six children, twenty-five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.  I was blessed beyond measure to have known him.  Here are a few glimpses into his life:

Tutorial: Faux Tumbled Tile

I've been playing with ideas for a swap I'm hosting, and sort of tripped over this technique and thought I'd share.  I wanted the look of tumbled tile without the weight or thickness, so...

Materials Needed:  Chipboard, tissue paper, white acrylic paint or gesso, decoupage medium, stamps and inks of choice.  I used CTMH stamps from "Vintage Valentine" and "Love You" sets, CTMH Vineyard Berry and Desert Sand inks, and SU! Purely Pomegranate cardstock.

   

Cut your chipboard the size of the image you plan to stamp (my example is 2 1/2" square).  Get the chipboard damp and distress the edges by running along a countertop, tearing off small pieces, etc.  (The idea is to get rid of all the obviously straight edges)  Also crumple it like you do cardstock when you're distressing it.  Smooth it out and let it dry.  After it's dry, paint the entire front and the side edges with the paint or gesso to cover the raw chipboard.

   

Stamp your image onto the tissue paper, then tear around it, leaving enough extra to wrap to the back of your "tile".  Spread a layer of decoupage medium onto the front and edges of the chipboard and smooth your image onto it.  Spread a little more around the edges of the back and smooth the excess tissue paper around the edges and onto the back.  Spread another coat of decoupage medium over the front and sides of your "tile" to seal it, and let it dry.

   

"Antique" your tile by dabbing desired ink color with a baby wipe, then wiping over surface of tile.  Sponge more around the edges, if desired.  You're done!  Here's what I made with mine (I promise the colors match in real life - the camera changes it somehow):

I was hoping this would work for the swap but - alas! - it's just too big!  Back to the drawing board, I guess...

"Cheater" Templates

Quick idea this morning before I get on with my day (and yes, I'm aware that I am not the first person to think of it - consider this a reminder):

I had a sheet of punch-outs that coordinated with my papers (many "slabs" or "scrap pads" have these included), and after I punched out the shapes, I couldn't bear to throw away the "negative space", so I cut it up into templates.  I used the heart ones when I made my planner.  These pics show the templates, some of the original shapes, and the ones on the planner (I just traced on the back of the paper and cut out with scissors):

   

Totally free templates, and you look oh-so-creative!  Okay, that's it!  Carry on...

Tutorial: Tri-fold Planner

It's been a while since I posted a tutorial, and I just completed a project that I thought might be a fun one for you to try, so I'll give it a shot.  First, the background on this whole deal, though...

I was going to make an address book and an event calendar as part of my whole getting organized and remembering the people I love resolutions for the new year, and I found this cool little trifold planner at WalMart that made me re-think my plan:

   

I bought it with the thought that I would just alter it with paper to match the notebook and gratitude journal, but I liked it too much to cover it up, plus I wanted to do the inside a little differently.  I wanted an "event calendar", as opposed to a regular one (you know - it  has birthdays and anniversaries and such in it so you can remember), and a pocket to put stamps in so they'd be handy.  So, like I have a tendency to do, I started to examine how it was made to see if I could just duplicate it.  This is what I came up with:

Materials Needed:

• Chipboard:  6 1/4" long by the following widths:  3 1/8", 3 1/2", 3 5/8", 5/8"
• Patterned Paper for Outside Cover:  7 1/2" long by following widths:  5 1/2", 7", 3 1/2"
• Patterned Paper for Inside Cover:  2 pieces 6" long by 7" wide
• Patterned Paper for Inside Pocket:  3 3/4" long by 4" wide
• Cardstock:  2 pieces for cover of Calendar, 6 pieces for pages of calendar, each 3 3/8" wide by 6 1/8"long
• Blank address book with cover removed, and patterned paper cut to fit for new cover (approx. 3 3/8" wide by 6 1/8" long)
• 2 magnet strips 6 1/4" long - one 5/8" wide, and one 3/8" wide

Using the old cover from the address book as a guide, punch holes in the patterned paper for the new cover.  Assemble and set aside.  Also assemble the pages and covers for the calendar (any way you choose to - I robbed an old notebook of it's o-wire and used one of the covers as a guide to punch holes) and set it aside.

   

On backside of 5 1/2" wide patterned paper (outside cover), glue the 3 1/8" chipboard and the 3/8" magnet strip, spacing them 1/8" apart.  Repeat with the 5/8" chipboard, 3 5/8" chipboard and 5/8" magnet strip on the back of the 7" wide patterned paper, again spacing them 1/8" apart.  Fold and adhere excess on outer edges to inside, mitering corners, leaving the top and bottom edges free.

   

Spread the two pieces you've finished to this point apart far enough to allow placement of the 3 1/2" chipboard between the 3/8" magnet strip and the 5/8" chipboard strip, allowing 1/8" between, as shown in photo.  Carefully remove 3 1/2" chipboard, apply adhesive to patterned paper, and replace chipboard on top of adhesive to make entire unit.  Carefully flip unit over and center remaining piece of patterned paper over chipboard to cover.

   

Flip unit back to front side again, and apply adhesive to top and bottom edges of excess patterned paper.  Fold them to the inside, pushing paper down into cracks between chipboard pieces with a bone folder.  Starting from left side, apply one piece of patterned paper for inside cover over raw edges of outside cover to finish.  Work your way across the piece, again working paper into cracks with a bone folder.  Repeat with remaining piece and beginning from right side.

   

This is pretty much what it should look like at this point.  Make a pocket for the left panel by scoring the 3 3/4" x 4" piece of patterned paper:  3/4" across bottom, 1/2" from each side.  Trim excess paper out of corner, fold along score lines to form pocket, and adhere to lower edge of left panel.  Adhere calendar to center panel, and address book to right panel.

   

Embellish everything - inside and out - as desired, and you're done!

Now that I've finished this little item, I have a complete set to keep me organized and functional:

I'm STOKED!!!  The first full week of the New Year, and I'm doing great so far!  Woo-hoo!

Adventure in Self-Portraiture

Okay, so I've been playing around with "new" things of late...  New haircut, new attitude, new ideas, new toys...

I decided to try to take a picture of myself - for whatever reason.  Probably because I'm always behind the camera, and there aren't all that many pictures of me around (no, I'm not sad about that)  I'm trying to write a "book about me" this year for my kids, so they can know a little bit more about me than "I'm the mom".  Maybe I thought a picture wouldn't be a bad start.

Now, I consider myself a relatively proficient - albeit not professional or overly creative - photographer, but this is a whole different ball o' wax, this is!  Today's little experiment was laughable, to say the least.  I thought I would try to take pictures of myself in the bathroom mirror (yeah, great idea!), and this is what I ended up with:

   

How about, I just play "spy" with the camera instead?  Or just take a good picture of the camera itself?

 

   

Maybe if I get a line on where I'll be, and then move into that spot...  I'll have to remember to turn my eyes before I click the shutter, though...  Maybe if I concentrate really hard...

   

Okay, I'm done...

I guess I'll have to recruit my husband or someone else to take a pic for me, but hey - at least I tried!

Something to Ponder

A fellow blogger, Erin, has a feature she calls "Thought for Thursday", where she relates a quote or thought or whatever, and expounds on it a bit.  I like this notion, but I can't think that I will want to/be able to do it with regularity, and certainly not on a particular day.  I guess I'll just throw something out there for you to mull over whenever the thought strikes.  Today is such a time, and this is the thought:

This morning I was thinking that I needed to look up a couple of things in my Dreamer's Dictionary.  I don't consider the information I get from it to be definitive, by any means, but it's always interesting to see if there's anything that seems relevant.  I guess I approach dream analysis the way I approach most things - with an open mind and a bit of skepticism.  I'm willing to entertain a notion and mull it over to see what I think of it, but it doesn't get included in my belief system unless it rings true.

Part of what I believe right now is the thought that we already know everything, we've just forgotten, and so when we identify a "new" idea as true, it's really more of a remembering...  It makes sense to me on several levels:  if it's true that time is relative, and there's truly no beginning and no ending - only the NOW - then why wouldn't we know it all already?  The limitations and "laws" of mortality are where we get hung up.  If we learn how to transcend those limitations (rephrase - when we remember how to transcend those limitations), maybe that's how/when we move into godhood or whatever's next in the eternal scheme of things.

It's an interesting notion and, as I said, one that makes sense to me, but I'm willing to go with the thought that I could be missing the mark.  All "religious" thought and belief is fluid with me, anyway.  I think that we can believe and hope and have faith and all of that, but truly knowing isn't really possible, so why spend time worrying about it?  Do what works for you and brings you comfort without infringing on/annoying/violating those around you, and it's all good...

I think one of the most valuable things I've learned is this:  Ask yourself, "What would be for the greatest and highest good of all involved?"  Go with that, and it would be difficult to go too far wrong!

A New Notebook

As I mentioned before, I am going to complete the course outlined in "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.  I needed a notebook for the morning pages, the tasks, and the check-ins.  Since I had some more really pretty papers by Fancy Pants that Sherry gave me, I decided to beautify a plain notebook by making a cover for it:

I sewed two of the papers to a cardstock "spine", then folded the extra to the inside and stitched it to make pockets for the covers of the notebook to slide into (think bookcovers like you used in high school...)  The heart and the strips used to make the frame were on a punch-out sheet that coordinated with the papers.  (The strips say "Imagine a Dreamer, a Make-Believer, shining so bright for the world to see".)  The red mat was cut with my Fiskars Ultra Shape Express and template from a sheet from the K & Company "Hannah" Scrap Pad to Go, the blue cardstock is sanded CTMH Crystal Blue, and the stickers spelling "dream" and embellishing the mat are Sonnets.  I inked everything (just a little) with Chocolate Chip from SU!

Again, everything is relatively flat and simple, since the daily wear-and-tear comes into play.  Two more projects are in the offing, then I'm done for a bit!  Now, back to the grind - my sewing machine and I have a date...