What do you do with the wood from your stamps?

I peel the rubber stamps off the wood blocks they came on.  I find it much easier to store them, and use them without the wood attached and getting in the way.  =)

I was looking at the last one i took off, and wondering what to do with it:

Then i realized it would make a great drawer knob for the new desk i built.  Well its not a new desk, the top is old and salvaged, and the supports are new.  One side holds 4 drawers and the other 3 shelves.

What do you do with your stamp wood?

I made some wire hooks for my new outdoor tree ornaments.

I haven't blogged in ages.  Just thought you may enjoy seeing how I spent some time last night making hooks for my outdoor tree decorations.  I made a few while relaxing watching a movie.  I will try to make a few each evening, thus not getting bored and keeping my creativity fresh.

Before I added the curls, I closed each end with a small loop for safety.  No scratches from bare wire.

I just curled the wire into big curls.  Sometimes turning them around and curling again.

All done and ready to hang.

You can also view the video here.

Just wanted to share some images showing how I use my home made foam stamps.

The white circles.  This page was just a mix of things found on the under paper.

Here its the orangish colored things, I think here I only sprayed water on the stamp and then stamped, revealing the color below it.

On the bottom right corner in the orange-red you may be able to see the curve of this stamp, I use it for sun rays too, or a flower.

You can see in the top, the flower on this stamp, it also has just the petal shapes all around the flower.

This is before, and

after.

Happy Mail Journal for all the lovely papers I just cant bring myself to use!

I've received some of the most beautiful papers in Happy Mail, and decided I cant use them.  So I made a little envelope journal from a happy mail envelope and used hair pins to put them in temporarily.

See that beautiful feather under the ribbons?  Thank you so much Anne Ryan.  I think I will put a tiny magnate on the backside and a washer inside the pocket and keep inside the journal, for safety.  But for now its where i can see it easily!

Some of the beautiful papers i have received.   You can see the hair pins at the top and bottom of the journal there. 

I put more of the special pieces inside both the front and back pockets.  I havent finished yet.  I will paint the inside and strengthen the flaps.  I do have some ideas for more decorations, but am stumped on what to paint on the inside.  Then Im adding one of the small pieces of paper to the back pocket flap and a magnate to keep it closed.  Can hardly wait!

This weekend I will be working on some shoes and different pieces of happiness to mail out.  I have so many ideas, I need more space!

I created this for SOC.  When I saw this weeks challenge last night, I admit, I really really didnt like the color choice.  I thought about it all night and most of today.  Then finally got out some watercolors and just started painting with the royal blue washes, then tossed in some flourishes of red and splatters of both.

It seemed too dull, even after I added the pop of blue here and there.  Sooooo... I grabbed my homemade stamps and stamped some dark royal blue all over the page.  That helped ... still needed a little something.. I cut the page up into pieces, and there .. look a tag was born!

I added the face, received in happy mail, painted in the light blue, and the word Believe.  The blue sharpie I used for the word, was off color after applying so i went over it with the lighter blue...  Not happy with it, but shrugs.

The colors for the pale blue seem to be washed out, too bad they are actually very pretty.  I guess I need to build a proper light box, but its so much more fun, running around trying to set the camera up, get close enough and take 30 pics to get on good one!

With the other pieces:

I can add a small pocket to it:

The July challenge for Art Abandonment is to make a kit that will start someone on an art journey.  Sounds like fun, and actually is what I did for last month.  I had started making another secrets journal to sell on Ebay, but may use it for this months drop.

Although, I have been spying on my jewelry making supplies, and think it would be fun to make a kit from them, maybe do both!

I am adding this as my challenge for this weeks Summer of Color.

Front

Back

and the inside.

This is the one I dropped off last month, I filled it with many pieces of art to get the new owner started. 

This is the only art I did on the inside, you can read more about it from the menu on the right.

Making happy mail again!

I've been working on Happy Mail again.  Oi, what a process to make for three lovely people that mailed Happy Mail to me!  I just love working on it.

I was out of almost everything except cut-out circles.  =)  These are the last items I made for each one:

I hope everyone has an Art weekend.

Just playing with my new stencils and found out to not wash out the paint in the pouncer, but to press really hard to use it.

Today I was playing with the new stencils I received in the mail friday.  Love them.  Made some tags, or papers to cut up and use elsewhere for happy mails.

 Above I havent edged them yet still playing.  I wanted more so I kept going with another stencil by stencil1.pochoir1.plantilla1  via Plaid Folkart.  First I just stenciled all over most of the darker tags with a lighter paint.

 Then, when i was almost done and running out of paint in the dauber, I noticed that pressing the dauber down very hard and twisting forced the older colors in it to the paper!  I pressed HARD and turned the dauber and....

 got these beautiful center flowers.  I just love them love how they look and now have something to do with all that left over paint in the dauber.  Usually just smear it on the under papers, not pretty like this!

A play day and a little ATC I painted in Monet impressionistic style.

Well today was a play day.  YaY!  I was watching this YouTube video and just had to stop it and make a Monet style, impressionistic on an ATC card that I will mail in a little journal I made (my first scrapbook style ever) as happy mail.  I hope he likes it, as I had so much fun painting it.  Now I will paint a larger one for me.

This is the first page of the little journal.  I made the graphic from happy mail I received yesterday from a beautiful woman in Australia.  This is for a nine year old boy, I hope he still enjoys jumping in mud puddles!

 This is what the little journal looks like expanded.  The clips allow it to be clipped in a spine or other journal.  Cute idea, but the original YouTube dimensions turned out to be too small for my needs.  I did make it much bigger and added in a landscape section which was fun.  You can see the video for it here. 

Last night a lovely woman in DLP asked if any would like to trade happy mail with her 9 year old twins, son and daughter.  She said her daughter is working on her own moleskin planner and her son is making his own art journal.  How sweet, huh?

Today I made them both happy mail and made these special items for them:

Yesterday I finished making this Secrets Journal following Terri Kahrs excellent tutorial  for my first Art Abandonment drop:

I didnt have any ribbons long enough so I cut off some a piece of beautiful stretchy lace for the closure.  I also didnt have any beads to fit over the heavy binding thread.  =(  Im sure who ever finds this will have fun putting new beads on it right away.

This is the inside front cover and first page.  I made a little tag for secrets and added a butterfly to the flip pocket.  The butterfly is on a spring so it flutters.  

On the left under the tag you can see the small erasable board I made.  The board has a magnate so is removable for writing front and back. 

This is the inside front pocket.

Blank pages.

I opened the back up so there is also an usable pocket there too.  I put several pieces of papers, words, icons, etc, like happy mail in both the front and back pockets.

I had a ball making this, and will drop it off soon as i get the info printed out at the library.  I hope it finds the perfect someone and they will enjoy spending time painting, drawing, and journaling in it.