Here is the cover that I created for Mary Ann Moss’  Remains of the Day on-line journal class.

The cover was created from some old quilt blocks that I had made from a stash of Kaffe Fassett fabric.  The tie is a strip from that same fabric with silk sari yarn sewn on for texture.

Here are some of the signatures that I have sewn.  I’ll be adding more paper tid-bits and some fabric scraps to them before they are sewn into the cover.

And here is my workhorse!  This sewing machine is over 50 years old and runs perfectly.  It  was a gift to my mom.  I started sewing with it when I was 7.  It is an old and dear friend and I plan to give it to my daughter some day.

Now back to sewing papers.  Keep it simple.

More pics of my Christmas Journal.  I’ve been adding to pages and creating some new ones.

More to come soon.  I wish you a Very Merry Christmas.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Christmas Journal post to show you this Mail Art envelope.  I have been watching Roben-Marie Smith’s Altered Mail Art video and finally decided to create one today.  I ordered some supplies from her shop a few weeks ago and also downloaded some of her fabulous door and window photographs.

Here is the front with the address and return labels.

Here is the back with one of Roben-Marie’s window photos.

This envelope is 6 inches by 9 inches – plenty of room inside to put a nice piece of artwork for a swap or just to say Thank You for being my art buddy.

Don’t you wish your bills came in something so colorful and creative?

Enjoy and remember to keep it simple, especially at Christmas when we seem to stress ourselves out with things that don’t really matter.  Keep a smile in your heart and on your face.  Hugs.

While going through a box of postage stamps from my great-uncle, I found a few lovely Christmas postcards.  This one in particular caught my eye.  On the back of the card is a one cent stamp postmarked Dec 23  9 AM 1911, New Bedford, Mass.  This card is almost 98 years old and still looks great.  What you don’t really see in the photo is that the card is embossed, the white ribbon and the holly leaves as well as the gold trim at the top and left side.  Very pretty.  I am going to add it to my Christmas Journal by placing it in a pocket that will protect it but so that you can still see the beauty.  

Please feel free to download this image to use in your Christmas Art projects.  You can right-click on the image to copy it.

Merry Christmas to all of my art friends near and far.

Keep it simple.

Woo hoo! Registration for Mary Ann Moss’ newest on-line class “Remains of the Day” has opened.  If you have not seen her journals, take a look.  They are fabulous!!  Class starts on December 15 – still plenty of time to sign up and start collecting your bits and pieces for this one of a kind journal.  Won’t you join me?

Over the weekend I created a few more pages in my Christmas Journal.

Prompt #3 – The Christmas Aromas

Prompt #4 – Doodle Christmas

Movies that put me in the Holiday Spirit.

I created the list on the right and then created a pocket on the left by hand sewing a piece of printed cardstock onto the page to hold printed pictures of the movie posters.

I glued the pictures to pieces of Christmas cardstock and used StazOn ink in Red to add some highlights and texture to the cards.  I love to add things that can be hidden and taken out to look at in my journals.

I’ve been working in the Christmas Journal, painting some backgrounds and journaling the prompts that Dawn has been posting to get the group motivated.  The first prompt was “Around me I see…..”

I was sitting at my art table looking towards the east.  I could see the multi colored Christmas lights strung on our deck railing and this beautiful full moon rising over Mount St. Helens.

My interpretation of the prompt.

I used glitter glue to create the light bulbs so there is some dimension to them.  Onto prompt 2.

Yesterday I posted the completed painted canvas cover for the 12.31 Art Journal that I am working on in Dawn Sokol’s on-line class.  Last night I pulled out scrapbook Christmas papers to create one signature with 32 possible pages to journal on.  I used a six hole stab stitch to bind the pages in and added a twist of using small 2 hole Mother of Pearl buttons as the anchors on the top and bottom.  Take a look at the pics to see what I did.

Below is the stitching detail for the signature on the outside.

Below is the stitching detail for the inside of the signature.  

Here are some pics of the pages waiting to be journaled.

I rounded the corners of the pages to make them look more like a book and then punched a small star in the lower right corner of each page.  I may cover some of the pages with gesso or perhaps write on some white cardstock and glue those onto the pages.  Not sure where the muse will lead, but I can’t wait to get started on December 1.

Merry Christmas.

In my last post I wrote about Dawn Sokol’s  on-line class called 12.31 Art Journal.  I’ve made a lot of progress the past two days.  Today I finished up the canvas cover for the journal.

This was created on a piece of green duck canvas about 10 inches by 13 inches (I wanted to use up what I already had on hand).  I covered it with a coat of gesso, let that dry overnight and then painted the whole piece using three shades of pink that I mixed.   (I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio acrylics because they have a hint of gloss to them when dried).  Once the pink background dried I then sketched the scene of three snowy hills with Christmas trees.  I applied dots of white paint to simulate snow and them smeared them to look like it was really storming and windy as the snow was falling.  I used my sewing machine with a heavy-duty (#18) needle and sewed a zig zag stitch to hem all of the sides.  The finished size is 9 inches tall by 12 inches wide.  When I fold the cover in half, the page size will be 6 inches by 9 inches – a perfect size to carry with me.  I had planned to add some 3-D embellishments but decided to leave it as is (at least for now).  Another tradition has begun.

Tomorrow I will be collecting the pages to make signatures and then sewing them into the  journal.  Stay tuned for more.

I hope to have some graffiti covers and papers to show you soon from Mary Ann Moss’  –  Stencilry class.  Check out her blog – Dispatch from LA - very cool.

Merry Christmas.  Keep it simple and start some new traditions.