Our Kodiak Wall

This project has been a long time coming!  I've been planning it and collecting pieces for a while, and it's finally come to fruition after painstakingly gathering everything I wanted to use.  Wahoo!

I've been visualizing it, picking accessories and photos out, having Alaska themed art professionally framed, and anticipating seeing the final project complete since long before we even left Kodiak.

I was a little intimidated by the idea of a gallery wall.  It seemed like it would be difficult to get a handle on how to make what was in my head look straight and appropriately spaced on the wall. 

To the internet!

I found a few tutorials and jumped right on in.  God bless the internet. How did we even figure shit out easily before?  It's exhausting just thinking about how much more effort doing stuff inevitably was before we all had google to tell us crap.  Anyway...

The easiest way I found to tackle a gallery wall is to lay out the pictures and pieces the way you'd like them to be arranged on a large sheet of butcher paper.  Outline each frame and put  a dot where you want to hang each frame.

Of course, I didn't have any butcher paper, so I used what I had.  Which was newspaper.  Taped together in the approximate size of the wall I planned to use.  Not pretty, but it worked just fine.

I replaced all of the black and white photos with new Alaska pictures we took over the three years we lived there.

I messed around with the layout until I found one I liked, and then I outlined all of the pictures with a black sharpie and marked the spot where each one was to be hung.

Next, I taped the giant mess of newspaper to the wall, and hammered a nail or hanger into the spots I marked for each picture.

As you can see, I started with paper I had, but quickly realized I didn't have enough and switched to newspaper.

Once I hammered a nail into each dot, I carefully ripped the template off the wall and started hanging.  Truth be told, I had to readjust a few of the pictures, but overall everything looked good.

Not too bad for my first attempt!

I had to specifically request he include Kodiak!

I collected art from local Kodiak artists while we lived there, but the bulk of the wall is my own photography. 

One of my favorites is the reclaimed wood cut out of the state of Alaska. 

I found an artist on Etsy and thought it would be a perfect addition to the wall.

Too damn cute!

The colorful, rectangular piece on the top right is a picture by a local Kodiak artist of an old, historical cannery on Moser Bay.  The hubby got it for me for one of our Christmases in Alaska.  Another one of my favorites.

I've got an Alutiiq mask, a mini Alutiiq kayak paddle, the Crabfest poster from our first Crabfest, and all sorts of Alaskan photography.

I love it for my very first attempt!  Let's hear it for my Kodiak wall!

Ta-ta for now.

The Negativity Monster

Talk about a surprise!  My old boss contacted me recently with a completely unexpected and awesome creative opportunity. 

Ready for this?  She offered to hire me to create an altered book display for the library to promote the library association and the upcoming altered book art show.

 

Wait...what, now?  That was pretty much my reaction!  All I can say is that I was extremely flattered that she thought of me.

I've created my share of altered books over the years - you can check out a few of them here and here if you're so inclined.  Crafting altered books was always just for fun, so the fact that someone wanted to pay me for something that had been a hobby in the past?  Well, elated about covers it!

Along with feeling both flattered and enthusiastic, I was also freaking out a little bit.  Because of course, the negativity monster popped up on my shoulder to add his horrible and unwelcome two cents.

You know the negativity monster.  We all do.  Mine is an ugly, pointy eared, little shit that asks patronizing questions like, "Who do you think you are?  You're no professional artist, why would you ever agree to take this on?" And, "You know you're not artistically talented enough to make something that doesn't look like a 3rd grader did it, right?"

I told you - he's a shit.  Not to worry.  I told him to shut the hell up and I accepted the offer.   And I'm so glad that I didn't give in to doubt and fear!

Once I agreed, it was time to ratchet up the creative confidence and know that I could pull it off.  What fun it was, too!

The idea behind the project was to promote the Kodiak Public Library Association, emphasize that a membership to KPLA is an excellent holiday gift, and also to promote the upcoming altered book art show that the Kodiak Public Library Association and Kodiak Arts Council puts on every year.

Again...fun!  I started by viewing a few youtube tutorials on paper tree folding, as well as several step-by-step how to articles on carving books, etc. This was what I used to make the trees, and it was super straight forward and easy to follow.

There was quite a bit of paper folding & cutting to craft Sitka Spruce tree look alikes, since that tree is predominant on Kodiak and was part of the request.

It was basically lots of this:

Once I refined the technique, I made about a half a dozen trees to make a little forest of various sized "Spruce" trees.  They turned out cute!

After I made all the trees, I used an X-ACTO knife to cut out a rectangular shaped dropped space inside the main body of a hard cover book, using this step-by-step tutorial.  The pages are sealed with Mod Podge, so the whole bottom half of the book is secured to the back cover.

I covered the pages with colored and patterned scrapbook-type paper to pretty-up the tattered and glue covered pages so the finished project looked a little sleeker and more polished.

The last step was to come up with a way to promote a KPLA membership as a holiday gift.  Initially, I wanted to stencil on the opposite page, but I quickly realized that stenciling with paint was more challenging than I anticipated.  It was coming out messy looking, and I totally effed it up not even halfway through.  Case in point.

As you can see, I misaligned the M and the E and then promptly FUBAR-ed the last E.  Not to mention it looked sloppy.  So, I scrapped my grand plans to stencil, since it was my first time attempting it, and frankly I sucked at it!

I went in a different direction, and I think it's worlds better than my feeble attempt at stenciling.

Once I put it altogether, I was pretty happy with the final product.

Now all that's left is to ship it to Kodiak.  It's still a little surreal to me that this was work.  This?  How could this possibly be work?  It was nothing but fun, creative time for me, so I can't feel anything but gratitude that the opportunity came my way!

The author Seth Godin said it well:  "If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try."

So there's only one thing left to say.  Screw the negativity monster. Always say yes! 

Ta-ta for now.

Halloween Wreath

Full disclosure - this one was a teensy bit tedious.  It took me weeks to make all the pom-poms that make up the bulk of this wreath.  Mostly because lazy.

My grand plan is to make the accessories exchangeable, so I can flip it from Halloween to a Thanksgiving or harvest theme.  The orange color pallet makes for a nice autumnal blank slate to play with, and I think it looks nice just on its own, without adding any accessories. 

Supplies are pretty simple:  a straw wreath form, two different tones of orange yarn, floral pins, and scissors.  I used two packages of the light orange yarn, and 1 for the darker orange. 

The pom-pom tutorial I followed can be found here.  Super easy, by one of my favorite crafty gals, Miss Mustard Seed.

I interspersed the darker orange yarn amongst the pumpkin colored yarn, which I chose as the primary color.

Once you've made the pom poms, it's just a matter of attaching them to the wreath using the floral pins.

I hung  a few Halloween-themed whimsical guys I've had for a while inside the wreath, and on the bottom.  I got them at Pier One years ago, and I just love them.  I break them out every Halloween.  They make me happy.

Here's the full wreath in all its fluffy glory:

I think in a few weeks, I'll either replace the less than menacing monsters with pine cones or just leave it plain, so it's not Halloween specific, but just autumnal.  It's a multi-functional wreath.  Happy fall, y'all!

Ta-ta for now.

Altered Book Christmas Trees

Who's ready to get their Christmas book craft on?  Now here's when you pipe in with, "I do, I do!"

This is an easy tutorial, and the end result is so cute.  I set up a display on the front desk of the library where I work with the finished trees and it looks adorable.  Bookish and festive!

I'll go through the step by step of what I did, which was based on the instructions I found here.

It's one of those projects you can work on while you're watching t.v. - You fall in to the repetition of folding the pages and before you know it, you're finished.

You'll need a few old books that you don't mind re purposing, an exacto knife, dry adhesive, and any accessories you'd like to use to decorate the trees.   I like to use books that are older and have yellowing pages because of the antique-y effect it gives to the finished tree.

Here are the steps:

Step 1
Remove the front and back covers from the book

Step 2
Count out 30 pages, and carefully slice down the binding to separate the pages from the rest of the book

Step 3
Count out another 30 pages, and slice down the binding again. 

Step 4
With the binding an the left, fold down the top right side of the page into a triangle

Step 5
Fold the page down toward the binding a second time, sort of like you're making a paper airplane

Did I mention I used a very old children's book for my trees?  Nice werewolf picture, right?

Step 6
Fold the little triangle at the bottom of the page up.

Continue folding all of the pages in this way until you've folded all of them, and you have half of a tree.

Once you've folded all of the pages in both 30 page sets, thoroughly coat the back of one of the tree halves with dry adhesive, and affix the two tree halves together.

I decorated the tree with crafting supplies I had on hand, and my final result looked like this:

Like I said earlier, I set up a cute little display for the Christmas season on the front desk at the library where I work, and I think it's too damn cute:

How fun for folks to walk in the front door and have these festive altered books greet them.

Merry Christmas, and happy book crafting if you give this one a go!

Ta-ta for now.

Classic Monster Pumpkins

I decided not to do any pumpkin carving for Halloween this year.  Instead I tackled painted pumpkins.  I went with classic monster characters for this year:  Dracula, Frankenstein, a mummy and a vampire bat.  What fun this was!

Certain parts turned out to be a little more challenging than I expected, and I wasn't really crazy about how some of the eyes turned out.  Eyes are hard! 

I used paint, felt, crafting foam, and hot glue.  I don't have much of a step-by-step for these because I just used pictures I found online for inspiration.  The rest I sort of free-styled.

I think I like the carved pumpkins I've done over the last few years better than my painted project for this year.  But out of the four from this year, my favorite is the mini-bat pumpkin.

Just too damn cute.  The hubby thinks it looks like Toothless from the movie How to Train Your Dragon.  I can see it!  So, along with the bat, as I mentioned already, I painted a Dracula...

And a mummy...

And a Frankenstein...

Those eyes!  They make him look a little...special.

My favorite part of Frankenstein is the bolts in the side of his "neck."  In this case we're working under the assumption that pumpkins do in fact have necks.  I can't help making the MREEEEEHH Frankenstein moan in my head whenever I look at him.

So, here are all of my monster pumpkins out on our table in the front.

These were fun to do, but like I said earlier, I think I'll go back to carving next year.  They're cute, but I think last year's zombies and the year before's vampires came out better.  19 more days till Halloween!

Ta-ta for now.

DIY Harvest Wreath

Oh, it's that time of year again alright.  Harvest time!  I seem to do way more crafting in the fall and winter, and this harvest wreath is my first project of the season this year.  Between Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas I definitely tap into the craftiness much more often once fall hits.

I guess it's the holidays & crispy weather.  Or perhaps it's because it coincides nicely with Alaska hibernation season.  Definitely one of the two. Because really - what better way to wile away the winter dark & cold than with crafts.  And booze.  But once again, I digress.

I've wanted to create a burlap wreath like this one for a long time, so I'm glad I finally got off my ass and did it.  It wasn't hard, thanks to you tube.  I followed this woman's tutorial for the burlap part, and free styled the decorating part.

I had a bunch of fall-themed decorations on hand already, and I found the orange thistle flowers I used on one of my favorite craft sites, www.save-on-crafts.com.  It's hard to believe how affordable their stuff is - well, minus the outrageous Alaska shipping costs, anyway.  Check it out, you'll be surprised at the variety and price.

I started with a standard Styrofoam wreath form, wrapped it with burlap & secured it with hot glue so the white wouldn't peak through.

Next, I cut the burlap into 5 x 5 squares, and glued each piece into little "pillows."  You basically just fold the pieces into triangles and glue the corners together to make little poufs.

There were more than a few sessions of picking the hot glue off of my fingers.  And I may or may not have burned my thumb a few times.  I never said I was precise. 

The finished poufs are on the bottom right

The fun part is arranging the poufs onto the wreath.  I squished them together and secured them with hot glue and pins, rearranging and jujing as I went.

Coming along

The part I struggled with was the design and spacing of the harvesty things I used on the wreath.  You can use whatever floats your boat, decorations-wise.  I was set on the harvest-theme, but you could easily go in a totally different direction.  Flowers, berries, something holiday specific...whatever you want. The burlap is pretty much a blank canvas.

I used mini-pine cones, acorns, wheat, orange thistle flowers & some brown nut/flower type carved pieces.  I still question whether my spacing, amounts, and positioning works, and I was especially unsure about the spikes of wheat sticking out, but overall I think it looks good.

I have to use this close-up picture of the flowers because the hubby thinks he's hilarious.

After I had a few days to check it out on the door as I was coming and going, I decided I love it!  Not too bad for my first autumn burlap wreath!

Now...what to tackle next at the start of hibernation/crafting season?  New harvesty cocktails or something crafty?  What the hell, who says I can't do both?  But maybe not together.  Could be messy.  Ha.  Gotta make the best of the winter suck, so standby for...stuff.

Ta-ta for now.

DIY Jewelry Board

Every last one of us has those - we'll just call them quirks - within our personalities that we're not exactly screaming from the rooftops about having.  Are ya with me on that one? 

You know the ones.  Those less than positive traits that your friends/family/significant other probably cringe over.  Or maybe even outright harass you about.  Like habitually running late, unintentionally talking with your mouth full, or interrupting others when they're talking.  (I'm guilty of that last one.) 

One of those - ahem...quirks that I'm in a constant battle with is the P word. 

Procrastination. 

It's bad.  I will always, always, always put off tasks until tomorrow.  Or later.  Or some other time.  It's a wee bit of a problem.

Which is why I'm so happy to finally be able to share this project.  Because talk about procrastinating.  We're talking years!  This project has been on my DIY/crafting radar for about 4 years.  Maybe more.  And it wasn't even a difficult task!  Who knows why it took me so long.  Procrastination at its peak.

So I'm thrilled that I finally finished it!  Some of you I'm sure have seen them before, and some of you have even made your own - it's a DIY jewelry board.  I love how it turned out!

Supplies for this project were mostly what I already had & re-purposed:  a cork board, fabric, craft paint, and hooks. I started with this:

The pinhooks were a great find. - They're basically thumb tacks with a hook on the end.  They were just what I was looking for.

I painted the bulletin board frame with white craft paint, and cut out the amount of cloth I would need for the space on the board.  Truth be told, I hadn't done any sewing in a while, so the final seams on the fabric turned out to be a bit of a shit show.  Crooked, uneven, you name it.  But, it was done!

After the painting and sewing, I used a little bit of basting spray to secure the fabric to the cork board, and sort of shoved the edges under the frame border.  Came out okay.  Not perfect, and most definitely an amateur job, but I still love it:

Of course, I ran out of pinhooks and couldn't fit the rest of my rings, so I'll need to order another box of hooks.  Perhaps some would say I don't need more hooks, but less jewelry.  Nonsense.  Variety is the spice of life, right? 

I love that I can see everything all at one time now. - And I'm wearing pieces that have been hidden & stuffed in the back of a jewelry box for years.  Earrings and necklaces I forgot I even had.

Procrastination be damned, I'm calling this project a win.  Crooked seams and all. 

Ta-ta for now.