Bluehaven Studio

Mom's Birthday Present

I get my love of making things in part from my mom who did a variety of handcrafts when I was growing up. I enjoy making things for her because I know she always treasures anything handmade.

Sometime last fall I saw an Advent calendar made from a 24-section muffin tin. Small magnetized cardboard squares covered each opening with a small surprise in each section.  My Mom's birthday is November 25, so I decided a "Christmas Memories" Advent calendar would be her gift for this year.  

When I decided to make one for my mother, I used the basic principle from the one I saw, but I decided I would make small booklets to cover the openings.  In each booklet, I recorded one memory from childhood years to present. 

I decided to spray paint the muffin tin a bright Christmas red. I used old Christmas cards and tags to make the covers for each tiny booklet and attached those to chipboard squares which I had painted and then added decorative Christmas paper. 

I added a circle with each day's number to the front of each little booklet. For each daily surprise, I bought miniature Christmas ornaments and added a small Christmas tree to her birthday package. 

I wanted to add a larger booklet for Christmas Day. The tiny gift for December 25 was a miniature manger scene.

 

Since I only had 24 sections in the muffin tin, I got brave enough to get out my Dremel for the very first time to  drill a hole on the bottom right to attach the booklet for the December 25.  I also drilled a hole in the top for the gift tag and ribbon which made it possible to hang the "calendar" on the wall.  

When I started this project, I had no clue how many hours it was going to take me. I had a lot of fun making it and used more glitter than I have since I was a child.  It was all worth it when my Mom told me she was staying up past midnight each night  so she could open the next day's booklet.  I think it was the memories shared that meant the most, both to her and to me.

Journal Spilling

Bob brought in today's mail that included an intriguing package and asked me what I had ordered.  "Nothing," I replied. "It's something I won!"

I found an email last week in my spam folder (always check your spam folder) that I was the winner of a copy of Journal Spilling by Diana Trout.  

 

When it arrived today, I felt so inspired that I made a commitment to myself to write a blog post for the first time in almost a year.  I think that Journal Spilling is just what I needed to get me out of the creative funk I've been in recent months.

I was excited to win the book, but when Diana's package arrived today, I felt like a child on Christmas morning. I can't wait to use all of the amazing goodies in Diana's package. Just look . . .

If you have any interest in art journaling or mixed media techniques, please check out Diana's wonderful book.  You won't be disappointed.  You can also check out Diana's blog, Hub Bub, her website, or her Etsy store.

Thanks Diana for your generous giveaway and for jump starting my creativity and encouraging me to get back to my journal to "spill my heart." 

Whimsical Wire Art

Today Bob and I both took one of the  new classes offered by  The North Carolina Arboretum this season, Whimsical Wire Art.  We both really enjoyed it.  

We have had a membership at the North Carolina Arboretum for almost as long as we have lived here. We enjoy going to the Arboretum in every season and often take our house guests there.  There are special events we look forward to each year like the Orchid Show  We have not taken classes there since the early years we belonged, but we signed up for several classes each this spring. 

Today we learned how to make some funky plant identification stakes, quirky fasteners, hooks and a small twig trellis.

I decided to use a couple of the wire flowers I made as plant identification stakes as embellishments for my trellis. 

                                           

I've always loved making things with my hands from bread making to needle arts to weaving my own wild grapevine wreaths.  I work more slowly than I used to because of arthritic hands, but I'm OK with that

In addition to ideas for the garden, today gave me some great ideas for embellishments for some of my other creative projects.

On the evaluations for Arboretum classes, they always ask a question about what you noticed at the Arboretum today.  What stood out to me on this rainy day was the beautiful texture of the lacebark elm trees that line the drive near the main building like the one in the first picture above.

Jane's Soldering Class

Last Friday afternoon, I took a soldering class from Jane Powell at RandomArts.  I've done a little soldering before, but have been wanting to gain confidence in working with soldering tools and techniques. 

In Jane's class, we each got to make two charms.  We started by making tiny collages.  For the first charm we used microscope slides to sandwich our collages. The second charm was made with a small collage between to pieces of square glass.

charm fronts

charm backs

Like many tools and  techniques, I know that practice is the key. Jane's class gave me the confidence to try it on my own.

Stamp Carving

Several "divas" did demos during our recent creative retreat weekend.  Jane brought enough Speedball tools and materials from RandomArts for each of us to be able to carve a stamp.  We started by drawing or tracing our design on vellum.  Then we burnished the pencil drawing onto the stamp carving material before cutting away to produce our designs.   Some of us did carvings on both sides of our stamp piece.

After we made our stamps, each of us stamped or image and signed our name  in each person's journal.  My favorite was the tiny detailed flowrers and leaves stamp done by my studio partner, Bob (also, my husband, for those who don't know).  GREAT FUN.  Try it, you'll like it.

Playing with Pastels

Since the first of the year, I've been playing with painted backgrounds for art journal pages.  This weekend at the retreat, on a whim, I decided to do some backgrounds with pastels which I had never used before. I really liked them.

One of the divas had brought some napkins for each of us. On the first background page,  I cut up the napkins and used matte medium to put them on top of the pastels.  Then, I added some more pastels, some gesso and walnut stain.  The, I stamped the entire page with a scroll stamp.

On the second page, I did not get any further than using the pastels, napkins and a little gesso.  I'm going to work on it some more.

I made these in a large 8 1/2 x 11 spiral journal. 

Diva Retreat Report

We gathered at Snail's Pace in Saluda on Friday afternoon. This retreat was the first time that all twelve of us were together for the entire retreat. I made sure to get a picture as we began on Friday.

Friday afternoon several members set up our creative space with a new layout which worked better than last year.  We all gathered at 5:30 p.m. for happy hour and sharing.  Our main agenda for the first evening was getting on board and sharing our exchanges. 

The creative exchanges were delightful.  You can see the creative variety. (picture to come)

We were all working on different projects this years, but had a number of demos that were fun and informative.  We learned how to draw our own hands to transfer to fabric.  We experimented with soot stamping on clayboard and we each carved a handmade stamp.  We stamped  a copy of each persons''s stamp design in our journals.

Saturday was a rainy day so we canceled the afternoon hike. The rain could not keep us from taking a trip to town to shop at RandomArts.  

We had a lot of discussion about next year's retreat. There was universal agreement about needing a longer time together. Next year, we're going to start on Thursday.  Our theme will be New Beginnings and we will each make a journal cover before we come.  We will put together a hand-made journal at the beginning of the retreat which we will use for the retreat journal exercises and notes on the demonstrations.  With the added day, each of us will do a demo next year.

The retreat ended earlier than we had anticipated when the snow fall began around 11 a.m. Sunday morning.  Instead of our closing journal exercise, I asked each person to share what they were thankful for from the weekend. Everyone from out of town then packed up quickly and got on the road while a few of us who did not have far to go helped clean up.

It is a joy to take time to focus on creativity and to share that time with friends. We all agreed that the value of friendships combined with art is a blessing in our lives. 

Shhh, Don't Tell - Diva Suprises

Very late last night, I finally finished my items for the Diva Retreat gift exchange.  I don't ever seem to be realistic in my calculation of how long it might take me to do things.  Everyone should be on the way to the retreat by now, so I think it is safe to post pictures without ruining the surprise factor.

For each of our Divas, I made a diva charm using Louise McClure's technique for making the scroll charm.  I'm hoping that my wire wrapping will improve as I do more of it, but I was pleased with how the charms turned out.

 I found paper and fabric that matched almost exactly.  I stamped the word Diva on each little scroll before inserting it.

 
 

The main body of the charm, the scroll part, is less than one inch long and the overall length with the dangles and wire work is about an inch and a half.

 

I think I had as much fun or more than I had making the charms  putting together the gift packages

I distressed some small bright white envelopes with coffee and decorated with rubber stamps. Then, I wrapped each charm in a piece of fabric before inserting in the bags.

I  hope everyone will enjoy the charms as much as I enjoyed making them.

Diva Retreat 2009

Our third Diva Retreat begins tomorrow (Friday) afternoon.  In January of 2006, Random Arts  sponsored a Passport Subscriptto Creativity retreat with Kristin Steiner.  There were ten of us. By the end of the weekend, Kristi was calling us Divas.

A year and a half ago, Sharon Kolbye, one of the original members of the first retreat invited us to participate in an art project exchange. The theme was trees.  Two additional people were invited to participate.  We each made a dozen small quilt squares based on our own interpretation of the theme.  We met in November of 2007 to exchange our squares.  The picture below was taken of the original ten when we got together for the exchange in November of 2008. .

The idea of doing another retreat came up when we got together for the exchange.  Bob and I are volunteer chaplains at the Snail's Pace  in Saluda, so we suggested meeting there. Bob was one of the two members added to the group when we did the quilt square project.  So, now we are the Divas and Bob.  Last February we had  a delightful creative weekend together.  And, tomorrow, we''ll gather there again.

This picture was taken of half the group on a hike to Pearson's Falls during our 2008 retreat. Bob was taking the picture and some of the group went shopping at Random Arts instead of hiking.

This year we are each to bring an item we purchased at a thrift shop and alter it to make a new creation during the weekend.  I will also be leading the group in journal writing exercises and discussion of Patti Digh's, Life is a Verb.

I'm looking forward to "show and tell.'  It will be great fun to see what people have been creating. There will be a gift exchange at the beginning of the retreat. Each of us has made 12 items to share.  I have been working hard in the studio most of yesterday and today finishing my gifts. I have a few details to add and then I will post a picture here. 

One of my goals for this retreat is to get someone to take a picture of all twelve of us!

Louise McClure's Charm Bracelet Class

Last Saturday I took Louise McClure's Charm Bracelet Class at Random Arts.  Below is a picture of the six-strand charm bracelet designed by Louise  All the supplies were provided, but it will take me a while longer to finish my bracelet. It is definitely a project that I want to complete.  When I do, I will post a picture.

We worked with beads, findings, a variety of wires, coin holders, button backs, special papers, rubber stamps, embossing powder, mica, UTEE, ball chain,ribbons and more.   My favorite of the charms we made on Saturday was the scroll charm:  It is done with beads, findings, paper and aquarium tubing.

I've taken classes with Louise several times before so I was not surprised at the generosity and organization in her teaching.

 

It was a fun day despite my arthritic hands.  THANKS LOUISE!