Just Add Glitter and Stir

Sick Sad Little World

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:56:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Believe it or not, I'm making a ton of stuff lately, just never get around to blogging about it. Oops. lol See???

So this is a new art journal I started a few weeks ago. It's music themed and I chose music because it's just everything. It can fit your mood, make it better...make it worse. lol And I love love love cleverly written lyrics. So, I decided that for this journal, each spread would feature a lyric of some sort. Hopefully as I blog them, I can add links or videos to the songs themselves, maybe you'll find something you like. :D

**If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen them already ;)

So here's a spread, the lyric is from "Sick Sad Little World" by Incubus:

So here's where I started,

Of course, I started as I always do with spraying the background with Dylusions ink sprays, I just LOVE these guys. lol I also add some braille paper and washi tape, then splattered some ink here and there. This is what is known as the calm before the storm where I throw a bunch of stuff on top of it. lol ;) And this is my finished spread:

Mainly, I just add some painty streaks after adding the lyric. Hopefully I can get more spreads posted soon! :D

Mirror, Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 10:12:00 +0000

Hi everyone! January is OVER ALREADY. omg crazy!

Anyone else into the rusty and patina-y looks? I love them! I finally bit the bullet and splurged on the effects pastes sets from Finnabair. I was a little intimidated at first on how to use them and what to use them on, lol, but then I found this neat video from Keren Tamir on YouTube:

Seemed easy (and fun) enough! My first "victim", heh heh, was this plastic mirror I found at a thrift store:

I think I paid a couple of dollars for it. Score! I started by adding the Rust Effects pastes:

Patina is what I really love though so I added the Patina Effects pastes on top of the Rust:

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it. I've got an idea to do a rusted shrine display, we'll see if anything else gets the rust treatment to hang out with the mirror. lol ;)

Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 14:34:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I have a good friend who performs in a local production of "The Nutcracker" every year. This year she was able to dance "Snow" or Waltz of the Snowflakes on stage with her daughter. Mommy daughter ballet? Love! I really wanted to make her something to remember the occasion so I snagged a picture of them backstage and created this mixed media canvas for her:

I wanted to add the music from the piece but I'm not swimming in Nutcracker sheet music around here. lol So I printed some out, tore it up and Mod Podged it onto the canvas, leaving one title visible:

Obviously, that stark white was not going to work. lol So I took some Distress Inks and wiped them on using a paper towel.

Finally, I added some bubble wrap stamping and punchinella stenciling here and there. Background Finished!

When I decided I wanted to make this canvas for my friend, I went out in search for doodads and whatnots to add to it and found these pretty snow flowers and glittery pick. But once I started this canvas, erm, well, turns out the decor I chose was GINORMOUS. And no way would it work:

lol Right? So now I had to figure out what the heck to do with it...So I did what any creator does when faced with a need to switch directions: Make as much work for herself as possible. lol! I ended up cutting apart the pick and individually gluing the stems along the bottom and here and there around the rest. It sort of reminded me of ice and snow which I thought was cool.

The snow flower I decided to cut up as well and just added a couple of petals to accent the picture. And of course, I added washi tape around the edge of the canvas to finish it off. :)

And here it is!

Just Add Glitter and Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 18:14:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Let's catch up...

As you can see, I'm slowly getting the blog completely reorganized. My new look is thanks to BD Web Studio. Emily was dreamy to work with, totally recommend her if your blog or site needs a makeover! So between that and correcting EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of my blog posts, things are starting to look better around here.

It's also put me in the mood to create again. I've been crocheting and doing some cross stitch recently but haven't really felt connected to get back to gluing stuff to other stuff. I experienced a miscarriage a couple of months ago (a surprise pregnancy and our first loss) so I'm just now coming out from under that cloud.

Holidays went well, we added in a trip to Universal Studios and Disney World, which was great fun.

Two Jyn Erso's met Starlord and Baby Groot! W00t!

Back to the blog, I'm not really sure which direction I'm headed in, but I just couldn't let it go. I've put so many years into it, Toot was a few months old when I started it, I think. So yeah, I couldn't Elsa this one. lol

I am hoping to blog more and create more. I'm hoping to be able to visit other blogs and see how things have changed. I would love to have you along for the ride with me. :D

Static

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 13:57:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Welp, as you can see, the old blog looks different. lol Photobucket has graciously decided to charge an obscene fee for third party picture hosting so my whole blog is broken. lol I'm working to get the pictures moved around and back up and deciding on what to do with everything here. To be continued! :D

Snow White!

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 20:40:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Yeesh, I started writing this post and then into the drafts it went which is kind of like the blog equivalent of a sock eating dryer. Well, the weekend before Easter (so long ago, yikes!) we were in the midst of the Youth Ballet's Spring production of "Snow White". Toot was the Queen's attendant. (The original queen that was nice, not the evil queen that shows up later. lol)

Volunteers for the production were needed so I spent a lot of time sewing tutus and giving the maypole a refresher.

Here's some before and after. It's amazing what artificial flowers and a glue gun can do. LOL

It was a really fantastic show!

Easter 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

The last few weeks have been NUTS but it ended with a beautiful Easter weekend, filled with sugar, family and me officially joining the Catholic Church.

Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday:

This was my first time making these...they came out okay. They made great French toast the next morning. lol Looking forward to trying them again next year.

Easter food prep:

This is my Easter cheese setting up in the fridge. Yes, my mold is a flower pot and yes, that is a dumbbell weight on the top. lol I got the recipe for both the cheese and Easter bread from the husband's grandparents (his great grandparents were Russian so that's the versions we make). This is my second year making them and I look forward to it. I wish they were here to be impressed by their granddaughter-in-law who has no clue what she's doing. LOL ;) So that turned into:

Basically what we live off of for the next week. LOL :P Then of course, we dyed Easter eggs:

Peeps cookies!

Gotta get my Peeps in there. lol It was a great holiday weekend!

The Nontoxic Project: Amazing You

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Whew, FINALLY back with an update on The Nontoxic Project.

Why has it taken my so long to post this? Well, this one kicked my butt, quite frankly. I just couldn't get a handle on what I wanted to do with the second two page spread. And to be honest, I wasn't sure direction this whole thing was going in anyway. LOL Like, I knew that I wanted to completely demolish and rebuild (in a sense) this toxic journal of mine from 2003 but did I want to go all schmaltzy and positive vibe thing? Or some new sort of angst? Or something that had nothing to do with anything? I started out with the intention to alter it, without any real plan or theme or whatever. So this one took me a while. I'd throw some stuff down and pick it back up, I liked what I was doing and then I didn't...

But in the end, I feel like it all worked out:

This time I started by gesso'ing the pages before spraying them down with Dylusions ink sprays. That made the inks less vibrant which I liked. Then I thought to break into my old bottle of Crackle Accents and completely covered them. lol The effect was cool but it brought back the vibrancy of the inks....which I liked even better. lol

Lots of stenciling and washi tape on this set as well. I also added Crackle Accents to the ladies, but that didn't show up as well as it did in my head. Bummer. lol I decided I kind of wanted it to mirror the previous spread so I did another tag/tag pocket combo. :D I also used the second witch from the napkin I used on the first tag...I like continuity....sometimes. lol

I also altered this "Shopping Queen" and made her "Queen of Baggage" instead. Get it? HA!

I combined two Cosmo Cricket phrase stickers and changed them to read, "Do something nice for amazing you". We all need to do something nice for ourselves as well as others, right? :)

More to come soon, I've still got the shadowbox area in the front of the book to do as well as the cover...think I'll do something with the cover... Do you have toxic things on your shelves or in your drawers (dresser drawers not the, you know, underwear kind) that needs a detox? Let's do this together! If you're inspired, pick it up and run with it!

Whatever you do, please do share with me!!! Leave a link in the comments, send me an email, @ me on Twitter or Instagram, let's clean out and reclaim together! :D

Time to detox...mixed media style! :D

Friday Night Fab Five: Random Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 22:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone! This week's Friday Night Fab Five is all sorts of random. lol I apologize for being somewhat absent this week, Toot had her ballet exams so we were all up in that and then Zippy came down with some sort of stomach bug which was so much fun and you should really try it sometime*.

*That was a joke. Stomach bugs are the worst, don't try them sometime.

Anyhoo, here's my hastily blogged together Fab Five! They're random picks but I'm a random kinda gal sooooooo....

1. Twinkie Chan's Cupcake Hair Clip

Twinkie Chan is my hooking hero. She's one of the artists that really inspired me to start hooking again and I can't wait for her new book to come out! And speaking of Twinkie Chan...

2. The Tissue Box Bakery

I think I may have written about Tissue Box Bakery here before but basically, you can crochet a super cute cake type tissue box cover, donate it to TTBB and they'll add it to their store, with proceeds going to FoodRunners.org.

3. Ballet Cuteness

Our lives are BALLETBALLETBALLETBALLET lately with no signs of slowing down. lol We found this super cute warm up jumpsuit from Dancer.NYC14 on etsy. Very cute and comfortable, done and done.

4. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

Not that I have time to play video games anymore...but Happy Home Designer is a great little addition to the Animal Crossing series, one of my favorite franchises ever.

5. Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base

One of the best SNL Star Wars bits!

And there you have it! A very random Friday Night Fab Five! Have a great weekend! :D

Birthday at Swan Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone and happy Leap Year!

My new update for The Nontoxic Project isn't ready yet since today Toot will be taking her very first Royal Academy of Dance exams (wish her luck!), so instead I'm going to share what we did for her birthday party last year. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What do you want to do for your birthday this year?
Toot: I want a ballet party!
Me: Great! Any particular theme?
Toot: I want a Swan Lake party!
Me: Mmmmkay.

Hey guys, guess how much Swan Lake themed birthday party stuff you find at the party store? That's right! NONE. Luckily, the wedding section had some black and white things (for Odette and Odile of course) and I fudged the rest of it as well. lol I found this cool tutorial on altering ballerina cupcake toppers so I started there and worked outwards. lol

I made dark chocolate cupcakes for Odile and white almond cupcakes for Odette:

And because I'm a crafty mom that can't leave well enough alone...I also altered two pointe shoes in honor of our birthday girl and rival princesses:

I was coughing up feathers for a week after making these. lol! But everyone had a blast and Toot was able to turn 7...it all worked out! :D

Illusion(s)

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Andddddddddd with this post I have officially blogged more in 2016 so far than I did in the whole of 2015. LOL

Anyhoo, I have a new art journal spread to share today, inspired by Marlene Dietrich and "Illusions"...

Of course, she offers multiple illusions and I'm only selling one. LOL ;)

And here she is, in all her layered glory...the journal spread that is, not Ms. Dietrich of course:

I really wish I had a picture of these pages before I did anything to them. The background was one of my Dylusions inks inked-up pages, I like to spray on a ton of ink, smoosh the pages together and just do that for a while in my journal before really creating anything. lol But these pages were junk, like the edges were turquoise but there was this black blotch right through the middle and it was gross. lol So I started layering and just did a lot of random stuff. lol

More sprays, stenciling, gesso, random bits of book pages, paper towel rings, flickin' stuff...you know...Chaos as usual. lol I made Ms. Dietrich's resting shelf out of Japanese fabric tape (thanks Chrissy!) and then added some weird collection of washi tape. I really love combining washi patterns that probably shouldn't go together. Just love it! lol

So from an initial background that sucked to hosting a Hollywood legend...Movin' on up! lol

The Nontoxic Project: Take a Journey, Make a Mess

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Time for an update, here's some progress on my first altered something or other for The Nontoxic Project.

Last week I mentioned that I found two two-page spreads that had no writing on them in my toxic journal. I left those bare so that I could alter them along with the shadowbox portion I had already glued up. The first spread is finished, let's check it out!

I started, of course, with some Dylusions ink sprays and the pages soaked.them.up. (Sidenote: I added gesso to the other two page spread to see if that will keep that from happening next time.) I also did some chalk ink punchinella stenciling and ink spray through a Dylusions stencil. I had an envelope that was dated 1936 that I've been holding onto so I used that as a pocket for the tag I made:

The tag is pretty simple: more Dylusions inks, stamping, stenciling, a Cosmo Cricket phrase sticker, and the witch was from a napkin. I don't make a lot of tags so this was fun to try out! The opposite page was pretty simple as well, I used vintage books pages on the background along with a playing card and picture of a lady along with my usual bizarre selection of washi tape. lol

I'll be sharing more of this work in progress as it comes along! In fact, would you like to join me? Do you have toxic things on your shelves or in your drawers (dresser drawers not the, you know, underwear kind) that needs a detox? Let's do this together!

Whatever you do, please do share with me!!! Leave a link in the comments, send me an email, @ me on Twitter or Instagram, let's clean out and reclaim together! :D

Time to detox...mixed media style! :D

Shadowbox Ballet

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I'll be running around like a crazy person today so there won't be a Friday Night Fab Five this week. Instead, I wanted to share a couple of shadowboxes I made to commemorate Toot's current years of ballet. I don't even want to tell you how long it took me to finally get around to making these...or how long it took for me to finally blog about them. LOL Ballet seasons run like school years so I used the end of season year for each one, since the pictures were taken then.

For as long as I waited, these were incredibly quick and easy to make! I used inexpensive shadowbox frames and fancied up the background with some punchinella stenciling.

For both, I had saved her ballet shoes and flowers she received after her recitals and for the one above, I saved the ribbon she wore in her hair and used it for more background decor.

I saved her "crown" comb for this one. Luckily, I still have a stock pile of Thickers so I used those for the years. lol I suppose I'll keep adding them as long as she'll keep dancing! (Or her feet get too big to fit in a frame. HA!)

Punch It Twice

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I wanted to participate with the "New Beginnings" challenge over at Mixed Media Place so I decided to remake one of my older art journal pages and give it a new beginning of its own. lol

You might remember this page, omg punch it. It's very simple and although simple is awesome and I liked it just fine, now that some time has past, I thought it could be a bit..."more". But still, it wasn't bad:

And this is the new and improved page:

Side by Side:

Well? What do you think??? Different, right? LOL I love it. It's all full of stuff and things. Yes!

I started by spraying some Dylusions spray ink through an UmWowStudio star confetti stencil and added an arrow between omg and punch it.

I piled on the washi tape and UmWowStudio star confetti chipboard with I painted with Distress Paint. I also flung White Linen Dylusions ink all over the place. lol

The original page was nice and clean...I've figured out that I'm more of a mess. At least for now. LOL

The Nontoxic Project: Where I Rip This a New One

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

You may remember last week I introduced The Nontoxic Project. This will be an ongoing series of artistic detox, as I uncover things I've been saving under the guise of "memories and sentiment" when really some of it is just plain toxic i.e. not sweet and "Awww, I wrote some funny stuff!" but more like sour and "Freaking holy crap, I really hated myself!" lol

Now obviously, I could throw away these things or I could hold on to them with the idea of "learning" about myself but for me personally, these things on my shelf and in boxes were sitting there, just being stagnant and moldy...metaphorically speaking of course. lol This project isn't about getting rid of diaries, pictures or things that necessarily trigger sad memories, it's more about reclaiming and repurposing a time in your life that might have been "toxic". (As always, check out the "Nontoxic Project" tag at the bottom of the post for more of the journey.)

So with that in mind, let's get started! Last week I shared the journal I found from 2003 that was full of ugly, toxic things I thought about myself:

My initial idea was to make a sort of shadowbox frame where you open the cover and there's a cool looking something or other on the inside. (Obviously, everything is completely planned out already. :P lol) The first thing I did was Mod Podge the pages together. This worked pretty well, the pages were thick and glued together with little problem so that I could just run glue along the edges and be done.

I did have to rip some pages out and try closing the cover as I went to make sure it would shut. lol So here's where we're at now:

All that toxic muck and gunk is now smooshed together for eternity! lol After I got the pages glued together, I started whacking at them with an exacto knife. As you can see, I did not try to be straight and/or neat in the least. LOL For me it wasn't so much about neatness or perfection as it was slamming these ugly words in the face and destroying them. lol I added a little gesso on the "frame" but didn't completely block out my handwriting, I figure it'll add to the background. :)

Oh and can I just say, the tip of my finger STILL hurts from wielding that knife for who knows how long getting those pages out. LOL In fact, I didn't cut as deep as my original plan because I discovered 2 sets of pages that had nothing written on them! Soooooo I not only have the shadowbox section but I also have two double page spreads where I can create something new. This project keeps expanding and I love it. lol

I'll be sharing more of this work in progress as it comes along! In fact, would you like to join me? Do you have toxic things on your shelves or in your drawers (dresser drawers not the, you know, underwear kind) that needs a detox? Let's do this together! If you're inspired, pick it up and run with it!

Whatever you do, please do share with me!!! Leave a link in the comments, send me an email, @ me on Twitter or Instagram, let's clean out and reclaim together! :D

Time to detox...mixed media style! :D

Friday Night Fab Five: Mixed Media for N00bs

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 22:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

This week's Friday Night Fab Five is off the cuff and completely rushed but I was really excited to answer this question! lol I got this wonderful comment from yaya snaps on my light bulb art journal post:

"Love what you're doing...and want to try it...but I don't have all the stuff you use. Is there a beginner book or info. somewhere that tells what basic equipment is needed to create this kind of art?"

Whoa whoa whoa...you want me to talk about mixed media?!?! Um, please and thank you!

Okay, no way is this post exhaustive on the topic and if you like, I'm more than happy to delve further so keep leaving comments or email me! So keeping in mind that I'm barely scraping the surface here, I'm going to share 5 tools for N00bs, newbies, and mixed media know-nots that are super easy to get a hold of and, for the most part, are either cheap already or can be cheap with craft store coupons. lol

**I'm going to assume that everyone knows what mixed media is, long story short, if you take two or more things that aren't the same thing and create something with it, you're making mixed media thingies. (Thingies is a techincal artist term...patent pending.)**

So first, let me say...ANYONE, yes ANYONE can create with mixed media. There are NO RULES. You do not have to use expensive supplies, you do not need the "latest thing" and you don't have to go into a craft store if you don't want to. Granted, there are some super awesome happy fun toys in craft stores but if what you're wanting to do is give this a try without too much investment up front, let's just cover the basics.

**Disclaimer: I know there is a TON of stuff out there but these are just the simple essentials that I hope will be easy for anyone to find!**

1. Things!

So first you need something to use as your base for turning into something else. Anything is fair game for you to alter with mixed media: envelopes, playing cards, old books, notebooks, boxes (regular boxes, gift boxes, cereal boxes), cardboard, $1 kids paper canvases (my personal favorite), candy tins...ANYTHING you want to alter, nab it and grab it!

2. Stuff!

Now we need stuff to add to the things. This is where you'll save money in SPADES. Bubble wrap, newspaper, more cardboard, pictures, magazines, junk mail, catalogs, menus. All of these things can be used to add layers, texture and/or interest to your project. Stuff you would normally throw away or recycle, upcycle it instead, rip it up and glue it down on something! Speaking of which....

3. Sticky Stuff!

We need something to keep all the stuff on the thing so get some glue! Regular old white glue is fine, tacky glue is great, glue sticks are perfect for tacking something down before committing. Hot glue guns are good too for some projects, the glue itself can even add dimension to your projects! My personal favorite is matte Mod Podge, you can use it as a glue as well as a sealant. You can get fancier with gel mediums, beeswax and a tons of other fun things but for those starting out, just grab some Mod Podge. Target recently had little bottles of it in their dollar bins for yep, $1.

4. Brushes!

You can get fancy paint brushes but for those on a budget, go get some sponge brushes. You can find them just about anywhere and they are C-H-E-A-P.

5. Color!

I'm currently in love with spray inks and you can find these for less if you use a craft store coupon. But barring that, and to make this as easy as possible for first timers, get some acrylic paints. You can mix with water to make them thinner, you can use them in conjunction with white glue for different effects. Crayons, watercolor pencils and paints, chalks, colored pencils, pens, markers, the list goes on and on and a lot on the list is cheap.

BONUS: More Stuff!

A lot of the fun of mixed media is using things to add texture, dimension, and fun stuff to other things. Paint on a toilet paper tube makes circles. Wine corks make smaller circles. Bubble wrap makes a lot of circles. Glue down lace trim or dab it with paint and use it as a stencil. Use masking tape as part of your design or to cover up something so you can add color somewhere else. Busted up jewelry can be glued down. Wipes can wipe off boo-boos as well as color something without covering it up. Cut out words and lines from magazines or torn up books and ta da, instant quote/statement maker. Scissors...well, they just cut stuff but still important!

The point is, everything is fair game, anything can be glued down to something else and it's ALL fun. In fact, if it's not fun, don't do it. Seriously, creating things should, at the end of the day, be fun for you. The more you do it, the better you'll get. This post just covers basic tools but search for tutorials, techniques and just start doing stuff! I find mixed media to be A BLAST and I hope you'll give it a try!

Then a Light Bulb Went Off

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone! New art journal page to share with you today:

I started with my usual Dylusions ink sprays on the background and then just started layering here and there. Added some stamping with bubble wrap, lots of splatters and messy things. lol I also used a tiny script handwriting stamp lightly all over the page.

I glued down some random pieces of paper in the corner. The pinup is an image transfer I did with packing tape. I'm still not a pro at doing transfers. lol But she came out pretty cool and I used an UmWowStudio stencil of a light bulb to give her an "idea". lol

Finished off with some washi tape, done and done! :D

I'm really into backgrounds lately. I've always felt like my backgrounds could be "more". I've finally ventured out and just continued to add. I can really tell a difference as I flip through this journal, some of the older pages are a little less..."messy". But it's neat seeing what things looked like versus now. And I hope to keep going, still think I could always use "more". lol

The Nontoxic Project: An Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

As promised, here is my newest project which will be ongoing for a while (hopefully, lol). But first, some background:

Before I discovered "art" journaling, I did old school journaling. lol I used to write a lot and when I was younger, I would keep a diary of sorts. I can't say I did it regularly and would rarely write off an entire book before starting a new one. (I loved shopping for journals and ended up with more journals than thoughts. lol) I still have a stack of these things. But there was one journal in particular that I wrote in until the end. It was back in 2003 and spanned almost the entire year.

I used to think that my journals would be fun for my kids to read through once I was gone. After all, I lived in the age of no cell phones, no internet, smoking was cool, and there was only one kid in my entire elementary school who was allergic to peanuts and we felt horrible that anyone should be deprived of peanut butter cups. lol

Until I started to read through my journal from 2003 (the future is here!) and decided that I would never let my kids or anyone else read it. It wasn't embarrassing...but it was...well...

TOXIC.

It was full of the most hateful, ugly, mean and disgusting things I had read about anyone. And the worst part was, this was me talking to me. This was me telling me everything wrong with me, real or imagined. It was the most toxic thing I've ever read and there was no way I was leaving this behind when I was gone.

So what do I do with it? I caught the spark to flip through these old things in the first place by this exchange with Mandy Steward on her Instagram. But I didn't want to just throw it away, not only would it be out there in the universe somewhere but now I wouldn't know where it was. lol I could have ripped it up and shredded it I suppose...but instead, I decided to remake it. To make it new...to make something toxic into something nontoxic. It was time to detox. Which led to this:

I decided it was time to clean out and reclaim by getting rid of the toxic things I've been clinging to for so long. Whether it's pictures, letters, journals, whatever, if it's toxic, it's time for it to hit the road. Or hit my creative space in this case. lol I wanted to completely alter this toxic book into something beautiful and creative. Maybe not "uplifting" per se, but definitely NONTOXIC. And here is the toxic journal in question:

Of course, altering things with mixed media is loads of fun so I'm looking forward to this a LOT. And this journal was really cool too, it had this neat burlap cover and the pages were those handmade style pressed heavy papers, loved it! Too bad the crap I wrote on it stunk. LOL

I've already started making this Book of Yuck new again and I'll be sharing everything I do to it right here on the blog. :D I hope you will share this journey with me and even better, would you like to join me? Do you have toxic things on your shelves or in your drawers (dresser drawers not the, you know, underwear kind) that needs a detox? Let's do this together!

Whatever you do, please do share with me!!! Leave a link in the comments, send me an email, @ me on Twitter or Instagram, let's clean out and reclaim together! :D

Time to detox...mixed media style! :D

Friday Night Fab Five: How To Do Art Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 22:00:00 +0000

So this post went up on Thursday for some reason. LOL Oh well!

Hi everyone! Wow, it's been a while on this, right? lol No matter, I'm back now with another Friday Night Fab Five where I list 5 things I like, love or like just not in that way for the week. This week I'm going to share some cool artsy tutorial/walkthrough videos I found on You Tube. I've been looking around to find new things to try and although I haven't done every thing in all of these videos (yet), I thought I'd share ones I enjoyed watching recently. :D

1. 10 Basic Background Techniques for Art Journaling from Jodi Thompson

Link to video

I really loved this video and cannot WAIT to try some of this stuff. With every step I kept saying, "Wait, but that was awesome don't cover it up!!!" Then after she was done I kept saying, "Of course!" Lots of good techniques here and they look like fun all layered like this.

2. Art Journal - Layering Technique from Iris Fritschi-Cussens

Link to video

This is the same video I referenced in my Mixed Media Space Oddity but it bears repeating, this one was a lot of fun to do! I would love to try it again after I get a gelli plate. I will definitely be using masking tape more often in my journals!

3. River Song Tardis Journal | DIY from ellawelly

Link to video

Being a big Doctor Who fan and a big book/journal fan, I really really really want to give this one a try soon! If nothing else, I'd love to start making my own art journals...or at least make one once. lol

4. Dylusions Art Journaling Creating a Page - Part 1 from Ranger Ink

Link to video

An oldie but goodie, this is what sparked a lot of my art journal backgrounds. I basically had a bunch of ink sprays and had no clue how to use them. lol I love this video and still use the ink/smoosh technique for most of my backgrounds. lol

5. Scrap Time - Ep. 657 - Art Journaling Techniques with Dyan Reaveley from ScrapTimeVideos

Link to video

Another video with Dyan, I just LOVE watching things come together. In the past I've wondered how in the world people can create these beautiful layers that build up into beautiful projects. This video is a great walkthrough and I really like the gesso stenciling.

And there you have it, an all new Friday Night Fab Five! What were your favorites this week?

Mixed Media Space Oddity

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I have an art journal page for you today! It's full of layers and spacey goodness. lol In fact, let's get in the mood:

Okay, good. So I've been roaming around You Tube looking for new things to learn/try in my art journal. When I go AJ, I tend to be more "art" and less "journal". lol I call it art journaling because I'm journaling art, not necessarily my life or anything. lol Anyway, where was I? Oh right, to You Tube!

I found this neato layering video, I followed a lot of what she demonstrated except for using a gelli plate. I...er...well, I don't have one of those. lol (Soon, my pretty, SOON.)

(Here's a direct link to the video on You Tube.)

I really like how she started with tape and I'm always down to use paint on a paper tube. lol So off I went!

Then I sprayed over the tape with some Dylusions ink spray. I also smooshed the pages together to start another background for later. lol

I added some turquoise circles with the paper roll, then added Distress Stain around the edge of the page and splattered with more Dylusions ink spray.

I did some chalk ink stenciling with punchinella and once everything was dry, added more ink splatters.

Since I didn't have the gelli plate to finish off the background like in the video, I just kept picking at it until I made myself finish it up. lol I Mod Podged on a piece of sheet music with the words, "Oh I will take you back" with some burlap and punchinella and a fireworks labels. The sparkly thingie in the corner was a brad I attached to the burlap/punchinella.

I also went back over the sheet music, burlap and punchinella with the paper roll, to make it look like it's a part of the whole thing. lol

Sometimes it's hard for me to leave a lot of space and/or call something finished. A lot of times I think, well, it's good but I feel like there should be MORE. lol Do I add more or do I stop? This time I decided to stop. lol

Happy 2016! Late! lol

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Well, obviously I'm wishing you a happy new year very late but I hope you're having a good 2016 so far anyway! lol One of my goals for this year is to blog more often. I left it for a while and am finally starting to feel the urge again *urge to blog...rising...* lol

Blogging for as long as I have (and taking a break for as long as I have) has been interesting. Some of the people I used to "blog with" i.e. visit have moved on to other things while some are still writing and creating and doing all sorts of fun things. Ah, the good old days of bloggy tribes, blog parties and daily promenading around the blog-o-sphere. lol I started this blog (under its original name) when Toot was 8 months old I believe. She turns 8 YEARS old this year while Zippy will turn 5 and I live in continuous disbelief and denial. lol

So I've been around for while. >.> Still using Blogger, still gluing stuff to other stuff and hookin' with yarn as much as possible. I stopped all that for a while...once my little brother died, everything felt...I don't even know, just off I guess. But I miss the old days of blogging, my "tribe", my daily haunts and sanctuaries. A lot has happened since this and I hope to revitalize this blog, if for no other reason that to document me talking to myself. LOL

Fortunately, I love talking to myself so what better time than now? So I have some projects up my sleeve, lots more crochet, art journaling and covering things with other things. This is one of the projects I'm working on that I am excited about:

I can't wait to share this with you!

But more about that later...

Until then, I hope to get my virtual and creative act together, start visiting blogs again and sharing my own creative journey...and I sincerely hope you join me!

Hobbity Birdsong

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 10:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I've got another shawl for you to take a peek at, for this one I used another gorgeous colorway from Vivid Fiber Arts called Birdsong.

The pattern is a new one from MADuNaier on Ravelry called Crossing the Brandywine. She has created an ebook of Hobbit inspired shawl patterns so this shawl was a win-win-win-win for me (crochet? check. awesome yarn? check. shawl pattern? check. shawl pattern inspired by one of my favorite books? check.)

Funny story: I was almost finished with this shawl when I realized that it was more shallow than I like my shawls to be. So I ripped it (otherwise known as "frogging") all out and started over to make it deeper (that's what she said). More work for me, but worth it in the end! :D

Ballet Boutique

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 10:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

Toot has started a new season at her ballet school, oh my how she has grown from her first year there until now!

I keep telling her to stop growing up but she just won't listen. She also likes to say that I'll be driving her around forever because she won't be getting a license so I guess we're both dreamers. :P Anyway, her school needed some signs and I thought, "Hey, I've got glue for that!"

And yes, you could just print out something that said, Ballet Boutique but why would you do that? Why? WHY.

This sign was a quick work up using some sheet music and lots of ink. I actually didn't have any neutral color lace so I painted various pieces white and then used Distress Ink to discolor them a bit so they weren't so WHITE. lol

Discovering Atlantis

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 10:30:00 +0000

You know, there's a good reason why I don't blog with any regularity anymore. I can't think of it at the moment, but I'm sure there's a good reason why I don't blog with any regularity anymore. ;P

Anyhoo, new shawl to share! :D

I snagged some of this awesome yarn in the Atlantis colorway from Vivid Fiber Arts during one of their updates. It's probably a good thing they don't update their shop all the time as I probably would be homeless...yet have beautiful yarn. Ah, the struggle is real.

This yarn was just so dreamy to hook with...

The pattern I used was Fantastica by Katrin Klaffenböck. This was an easy pattern, definitely pick it up if you're looking for something simple and beautiful!

She's a Dancer

noreply@blogger.com (Maggi) — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 07:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I've got a canvas to share with you today. :) Toot has been all up in ballet for the past couple of years with no end in sight. I made this canvas as a sort of "end of season" gift for one of her friends who also dances:

My original idea was to get the letter that her name begins with (it starts with "S") and alter that but then I found these ballet stickers, which were too big for my "S" idea so I Mod Podged sheet music onto the "S" and then affixed that onto a canvas also collaged with sheet music.

The rest was stenciling and toilet paper roll stamping. lol It was a lot of fun to make!