Day 15 and 16

The good thing about plans is that they are just that plans-they can be changed and frequently do in my world.  Yesterday I'd planned to just hang out and work on a project before work and as I'm laying in bed contemplating if I wanted to stay in my nice warm bed a little longer or get up, put in a load of laundry and work in the studio I got a call from my friend and owner of Assemblage Studio.  She had a flat tire, the auto club wasn't able to come for at least 1 to 2 hours and she had a couple of ladies coming into the studio to complete a project. She asks "Can you open the shop for me?" After a brief discussion I was up and out of bed getting ready to go to the shop...plans changed-not gonna hang in bed today...I guess I was meant to work on a project today (not lounge in bed)! One of the things I love most about working at the shop is I can work on projects while I work-the best of both worlds...work and play!  I packed up a few supplies and headed off to open the shop, stopped at Starbucks for a venti (it was gonna be a long day-had to work my "real" job when I got done at the shop), and settled in for a day of art and meeting lovely new people.

I got to the shop, did all my usual opening stuff-turning on lights and music, filling the cash register, opening the door and then settled in to work on my latest page. The ladies showed about half way thru my page, worked on their project a beautiful memory box for one of the ladies grandparents.  As they worked we chatted (shocking I know...I'm such a quiet person after all! LOL). I always love to hear if this is a customers first project or how they got into doing projects-every story is always so different but also comes down to one similarity- Love.  Either love for art or for the person the piece is for or even for the piece itself. It always amazes me how art brings so many different people together. The ladies finished their project, went on their way and I was back to working on my page.  It still needs a few finishing touches but overall I got thru most of the work, whether I had intended to or not.

My nearly finished page

Today I woke excited, I knew I wouldn't really be completing a project but I'd be prepping for a project I'd been looking forward to for a while.  My friends daughters are having birthdays and I missed the party last weekend because I went to Chicago with the boys to see Stevie so I thought I'd plan a little birthday surprise for them.  We're gonna have a paper doll birthday party tomorrow! I received the Cricut Paper Doll Dress-Up cart for my birthday several years ago and love it and I think the girls would have a total blast dressing up paper dolls and watching them cut like magic.  I dug through my studio for paper, embellishments and all kinds of fun stuff and packed it all up. Then I had to do a test run-I'd used the cartridge before but never with the Gypsy and I had to make sure I knew what I was doing before I was surrounded by 3 squealing girls waiting for their new paper doll to be cut and I didn't want to be standing there clueless-took a few cuts to get it right but I think I might have it down now.  Really can't wait to have fun with the girls tomorrow!

The beginning of my paper doll-ready to be embellished

Don't forget the party at Assemblage tomorrow 4p-7p. Hope to see you all there to celebrate 5 wonderful years with Teresa!

Days 10 thru 14

I know there are some of you out there thinking "Well that's it, she's quit on the project already," not the case just had a few days away. I didn't stop working on my art just took a break from the blog.

Friday was a day of planning what to pack for the trip and tentative projects.  It also consisted of the "art" of dodging the crazy Chicago traffic and a few pictures along the way!

This picture doesn't nearly do justice to the beautiful scene of the buildings fading into the clouds but we tried to capture it

A couple of the beautiful old buildings we passed while shopping downtown

Saturday morning I camped out on the middle of my bed in the hotel cutting and gluing bits and pieces into my altered book. We were then off for a wonderful breakfast at Stax, some shopping, a quick dinner (and a stop at Starbucks of course, considering the company I was keeping!) and an amazing Stevie Nicks concert.  We returned to the hotel late Saturday night and I broke out the Altered book again and started working while we chatted and shared a bottle of wine.  I managed to finish a page and in the early morning hours of Sunday start another page. We finally decided to call it a night at 4 am.

Finished altered book page

Sunday brought a beautiful morning walk to Starbucks, a chat in the Piazza Dimaggio and a trip to Honkytonk BBQ for a yummy lunch. I said goodbye to Steve and Miguel and started on my way back home. What started out as a beautiful drive ended in a white knuckle drive in a raging storm between Oshkosh and Appleton-what a way to end the night but I'd made it home safe and in one piece!

After the crazy trip home Sunday night I decided to take Monday off to recoup-just didn't have the energy to create and work that day.

Tuesday I headed off to a meeting at work with a back issue of Somerset Home in my hand and as I was flipping thru it before my meeting my co-worker Kim pointed out a project she thought was cute-a crochet metal birds nest embellished with beads, charms and fibers.  I said "It doesn't seem too hard, I'm gonna try it" and rushed home after the meeting to start the project. Two hours later I had the nest crocheted and 3/4 of the beading done, I threw it in my purse and headed off to my next meeting to show off the project to Kim. After the 2nd meeting I came home and worked on finishing up the project, wanting to get it done before I had to go back to work.  No luck-by the time I had to go back to work it still wasn't done!  Off to work I went for a quick 4 hr shift only to rush home to finally finish the project!

Crocheted birds nest-not the best pic-I'll attempt to get a better one soon and post

Now after finishing my project and catching up on this blog I have to make my way off to bed now or I'll never want to get up and work on projects in the morning. Happy Creating everyone.

P.S. Don't forget about the 5th Anniversary party at Assemblage Studio on Friday April 15th, 4pm-7pm. I'd love to see you all there!

Day 8 and 9-Playing with my new baby!

Yesterday wasn't very productive in the art area for me.  After a mere 3-4 hours of sleep I was wide awake and on call for the ED til 7 am, a quick shower and out the door I shot to make it to Bay Park Mall to do BP checks for the St. Mary's Pacers walking club. By the time I got done doing BPs I realized Hobby Lobby was open AND I was only a block away-it was calling me to claim my rain check for a Gypsy. For those not familiar with the Gypsy it's a handheld device that you can load all your Cricut cartridges on and make wonderful die cuts without all the hassle of inserting multiple cartridges-you can also use more than one cartridge at a time. I raced over there, claimed my newest gadget and was home in no time.  In my mind I'd open it up, hook it to my Cricut and the art projects would flow. I WAS SO WRONG!

My new "baby" Gypsy with now cooperative and interactive sibling Cricut!

I got home, ripped open the package and discovered my beautiful new "baby" needed to be updated-no problem, this shouldn't take too long-wrong again! I finally got all updated and ready to go and discovered it was time to go to work. Arg...is nothing going to go my way today? I went off to a crazy evening shift at work (Shocking I know! Crazy should be synonymous with evening shift at the hospital). When I finally got home I realized my Cricut also needed to be updated before they would play together nicely (typical siblings!!!). I gave up on creating art for the day, kicked back on the couch with a glass of Zinfandel and hoped tomorrow would be better for art.

I woke up today anxious to play with the new "baby" and online I went to print the instruction manual (all 40+ pages)-I really miss the days when new toys came complete with instruction manuals! I figured out how to update my Cricut (much easier and quicker than updating the Gypsy)-things are looking up!!!! A few false starts and I actually had the beginnings of a new project..."Start slow Love, it's a learning curve" I thought as I start flinging paper around the studio.  About 30 minutes later I actually had my first completed project using the Gypsy-not the best project I've ever done but I've turned out much worse! I think I can count it as a successful first project-another tile ready to be shipped to Prima for the Orphan Charity Auction.

4x4 "Live, Laugh, Love" Tile for Orphan charity auction

Now the challenge for the rest of the night is to figure out how I'm going to continue this challenge and take it on the road (for my weekend trip with Steve and Miguel to Chicago)...I'm thinking I'll work on the altered book I started at Assemblage a while ago-still a long way to go with it and lots to do but fairly easy to pack, take with me and work on while one the road.  Stay tuned to see how it goes!

Days 6 and 7

I got a late start on day 6. After a much needed (and probably best) sleep in a week I headed out to get the mail only to find I wouldn't even have to go all the way to the mailbox. The order I'd placed from ARTchix had arrived and my mailman had graciously left it and the rest of my mail in the door. ARTchix to the rescue! I was already wondering what the challenge for the day was in the book but now with this delivery I was sure I could find something to do without needing the book for inspiration. Off to my studio again ripping open the package as I went. Here's what I found

Well, there was also the traditional chocolate that ARTchix includes with all their shipments, but that didn't make it as far as the studio...those of you who know me know I can't resist CHOCOLATE!  I'm not sure why I ordered the Halloween ATC creativity kit but when I was shopping around their site I just needed it.  I'm not usually a Halloween kinda gal but it came with some fun supplies and I came up with 2 projects so far using the kit.

"Mysterious" ATC



The first project was an ATC using parts of the kit, some fun black and white hounds tooth washi tape and some fabulous vintage German Scrap my wonderful friend Skye shared with me. After I finished the ATC I discovered a great background for a microscope slide project and decided it should be the first one I tried to solder.  I'd bought a soldering iron over a year ago with the intention of learning how to solder in my projects but just hadn't made it to that point yet.  I gathered up everything I needed and started down a road that was longer than I expected.  It took a bit and it's not exactly professional looking but I got the soldering done-the lumpy bumpy of it might just work with the theme of the project though.

"Just Batty" microscope slide pendant-my first attempt at soldering-I need a bit more practice but I don't think it turned out bad for a first attempt

Finishing up the pendant I looked at the clock and realized that Day 6 had dissolved into Day 7 and I was still in the studio so I decided to start on a new project for Day 7.  I gathered up a few more supplies and muddled together another ATC-by far not my favorite that I've ever made but it's done.

"Trace of Nuts" ATC

With a couple of days projects done I need to get out of the studio for a few hours and get some laundry done. The laundry fairy still hasn't shown up this week and I need to get packed for a road trip this weekend with the wonderfully fun Steve Dupuie to see Stevie Nicks in Chicago. Look out Chi-town! Shopping, food and fun with friends-some of my favorite things-I can't wait!!

Day 5

I woke up this afternoon with the intention of heading to my studio and working on my apron collage (and maybe even finishing it) but somewhere between walking into the studio and starting on the project I got sidetracked cleaning and straightening-I'm still not sure how it happened.  For those of you who know me well, you will know this urge doesn't hit very often and when it does I just need to run with it! As I've said many times "If God wanted me to be Martha Stewart he would have given me her staff!" There are few things I dislike more than cleaning and this spurt of domesticity couldn't have come at a better time.  Looking around my studio it had EXPLODED and taken over the majority of the studio and family room in the basement-time to reign in the chaos! Forty-five minutes later at least some of the clutter was wrangled and I was grabbing a quick dinner before another 12 hr at work.

Day 3 and 4

After a busy night at work I made my way home to tackle the Day 3 challenge which was "Make something out of paper but don't use scissors or glue or draw on it." I thought easy...not a problem...this will be easy. I had a concept in my head and things should just fall together right? Not so much. After over an hour of struggling, frustration and multiple "re-dos" I still couldn't get the finished product I wanted and gave up. I found a glass of wine and camped out watching old episodes of "October Road."

Feeling like a failure because I couldn't complete the days task I realized maybe adding the stress of having to create something new based on someones random suggestion was too much to add to the stress of a crazy day at work and was just counterproductive to the task at hand. I decided from now on if I'm coming home from work and planning on working on that days project I would look at the suggestion in the book but if the inspiration for that specific project doesn't come to me in a timely manner I need to just move on to anything creative to keep the creativity going.  It may not be the task in the book but at least it's keeping me creating and in my studio which was part of the goal of this project.

A glass of wine, a good night sleep and the morning brought me to day 4.  After the fiasco the night before I decided to just do what I know and what makes me happy so I worked on finishing my project from the Thursday night class I attended at Assemblage Studio http://www.theassemblagestudio.com/

When I came home from class on Thursday night I had a good start on the project but it had a long way to go. 



This is what I finished in class

I wandered into the studio and collected up a few supplies.

After another hour or so I had made some progress.  I'd created a mini cookbook out of a stack of papers Teresa had given out at the class and I'd gathered up a few other things from my "stash" to add to my project.

Mini cook book cover-complete with ruler for scale (as per Skye's request!)

I still have several sessions of work to complete this collage, embellishing the cookbook, adding words and details and a few more goodies but today was a much better creative experience than the stress of last night.

Work in progress-still a long way to go but looking better!

I plan on hitting the studio tomorrow and working out a few more of the kinks but am so thankful today was a productive and creative day!

Hope you all have a wonderfully creative weekend.  Don't forget the challenge for Reece's Rainbow-I have extra chipboard tiles if anyone needs a starting point. I'd love to share some with you.  Let me know if you want to be part of the challenge and I'll get you a tile.

New Class Scheduled

Several of you have asked when I'm doing my next class at Assemblage Studio http://www.theassemblagestudio.com/ and you're now the first to know the next class is scheduled for June 9th, 2011 at 7 p.m. We'll be putting together some fun portfolio style boxes.  The box will hold ATCs or a standard deck of cards or is a great size for a small gift.



Portfolio Style Box

 Hope to see you all there. Call Assemblage Studio (920) 337-6212 to sign up for class or let me know if you're interested but can't make the scheduled time/day and we can arrange a class at a different time.