Procraftination In Progress

You can expect to see a lot of "Procraftination In Progress" posts in the future. It is our favorite form of procrastination.

So, I should be packing up the car to head back home (Emma and I are currently visiting Gramma and Boppa), but instead I am writing this post.

I am writing this post because this morning, instead of packing the car, Emma and I drew.

Emma is working in her Art Journal 

(Duct Tape Journal with watercolor paper)

As I was working on my drawings, I let my mind wander and it started to back track, trying to figure out where this latest desire to draw came from. And that old brain figured it out! 

It all started with this spread in my Jan/Feb Altered Journals

The little grayish brown circle on the right hand page led me to create jump-roping Ivy. Ivy led me to try out anther girl.

This girl was beginning to look like Mulan, so I googled images of Mulan and did what I could. Then I decided to try drawing Crickee, and Khan (the horse). Then I thought, why not try drawing Mulan to look more like Mulan. She didn't turn out exactly, but I cut myself some slack considering I just started teaching myself to draw this past summer (and I don't practice very often).

So... I decided to give myself a bit more room and try drawing Mulan again.

Still not great, but I was pretty happy with it considering I don't like to use pencil and so did this with a marker.

I decided to try other faces. Off to google to look at face drawings.

Some came out better than others. My favorite is the left eye at the top of the right hand page.

Which led me to drawing more eyes.

The middle right eye is Emma's from the photo below.

Which of course made me want to try drawing her entire face.

Which is from this picture

Phew, my brain gets tired sometimes. This brings us back to the second photo at the top of the page.

But, just so you don't have to scroll all the way back up, here are some close ups of the four pictures I drew today.

The Thingamabob by Il Sung Na

I needed a break from faces and eyes apparently.

(we love our silly pictures)

From the same series as the silly photos of Emma up above.

And one more- Emma and Icky 

I actually colored this one because Icky just didn't look like Icky with all that white. 

Well, that about sums up our procraftination for now. Thanks for following along with my wandering brain!

Preparing for March

March is just around the corner. I have been using my current journal for two months, which is fine, but I am ready for a fresh start, a blank slate, a  new beginning. 

So I started working on my March/April book. I like the idea of having a journal for 2 months. If I fill it up before the month is over, I can always add more pages or start a new one, but this way I don't feel as pressured to fill it up in a month (not that I feel I need to have something on every page).  

Yesterday and today I added some functional type stuff.

Weekly planner with meal planners (week 1) in the center. 

I really wanted to have 2 weeks per spread, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to also include 2 weeks worth of meal planning. I got pretty sneaky and squished 2 weeks worth of meal planners by taping them together and creating a "3rd" page with them. Ah, more layers :)

Meal planner week 2

I love this meal planner created by Kira. You can get your free copy at Kira's website Oops, I Craft My Pants. (Isn't that the best website name every!!) I use my meal planner a lot differently then Kira talks about in her post, but I still love it, and it makes meal planning so much easier. 

 After getting all the planner stuff figured out, I found myself stamping and creating in it as well. 

 A stamp here, and a stamp there are not such a big deal, but I didn't want to get carried away. This is, after all, my March journal, and it isn't March just yet. So, off I went to find my current journal.

Apparently, today was a good creative day. Days where I am suppose to be cleaning/packing tend to turn out to be my best creative days. Imagine that.

Gesso to start, then just layering on some pinkish maroon and wiping with a baby wipe (just to see what it does). "Oh, I think I might like some green dots along the side. Oh, and a green stripe on this side..." 

I love it.

I was in love with the colors of the last page, so I made another one, but focused more on the yellow and added blue. The only green on the page is the dots along the edge and some of the tiny dots throughout the page. I used a tracing wheel to create those dots and that was a lot of fun! The other lines are made from string dipped in paint. 

My favorite page in the entire book! It started as a receipt from the library glued down, then other random pieces of paper and even some scrap window screen. I then put gesso over it all, added a few paint chip circles and some chipboard letters. The "Once upon a time" is my homemade transparency from this post (with tutorial). 

As I was doodling on the circles, I saw a cute little face appear on the one to the left. It made me think of Madeline. Then I thought, "Hey! I can use these paper circles to make a cute little girl!" 

And then Ivy was born :)   

Good thing we have a bit ton of time before we have to get all packed up to move. Not a lot is going to get packed if I keep having creative days like today :)

Happy Creating!

March Altered Journals

Yes, I made more than one journal. Here are some photos of the first one I made today.

I took the pages out of a hard cover book, made some signatures out of scrapbook paper and other paper I have had laying around for the last 4 years, and stitched them right onto the spine of the book (which I didn't take a picture of).

A folder glued to the inside front cover

I love the layers I have in this book

And all the different types of paper

More fun layers

Can't you just see horses wandering along this hill top and little doodled flowers?

Or maybe an airplane, birds, or Super Grover flying through this beautiful sky?

After making the first journal, I decided to make another. I am not entirely sure why, but sometimes I just have to go where the crafting tells me. 

Here is the second journal I made. This one is also made from a hardcover book, but the spine wasn't big enough to accommodate all the papers I wanted to include in it, so I had to make a new spine. I loosely followed this tutorial for creating the spine, as well as for stitching the books together. 

I love the fabric, and the button. Not sure if I love them together. 

(Jared thinks it looks like a pigs nose).

Very different papers, randomly placed.

Some layers, and some interesting pages I found buried in the scrapbook paper stash

More interesting pages.

This is one of my favorite papers, as well as the one below.  

I enjoyed creating both journals, but at this point, I think I love the first one, while I only like the second. Seeing as I only need one journal for March (and most likely April as well), I think I might put the second journal into a box to be opened when we move to Montana. Or maybe I will sell it. Oh the choices. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy creating!

p.s. All my pictures are pretty crappy because I never think to take them during the day because I am too busy creating. One of these days though, I will remember. 

DIY Printer Transparency Overlay Thingy

Emma and I are working on a secret project. I can't give out many details, but I can tell you this. It involves this board book we got for free at the library,

 which I stripped the first few layers of paper off of each page so that we could be left with this.

I didn't manage, as you can see, to get every little piece of picture off. Most of the pictures came off in little pieces.

 I did manage, however, to remove a few entire pages that I might try to reuse in the secret project or in a future project.

As I was playing around with what I wanted to do for my secret project, I had the idea that words on transparencies would be kinda neat. That way I could do all the images in the secret project and go back later to add the words where they would fit without having to cut each individual letter out.

I am sure at some point in the last year I probably had some transparencies laying around somewhere, but I have been trying to purge my house of things that haven't been used in a while and that I doubt will be used in the near future.

Transparencies fall into this category. Plastic page protectors do not. Thus, my tutorial for...

DIY Printer Transparency Overlay Thingy

(Yes, that is a technical term)

Materials needed:

Page protectors

Mod Podge

Paint Brush

Scissors

Sheet of paper 

Step 1.

Place a sheet of paper into the page protector (optional). Using the paint brush, apply the Mod Podge to the entire surface of one side of the page protector. Allow to dry.

Step 2.

Once dry, apply a second coat of Mod Podge going in the opposite direction of the first application (not essential, but you will get better coverage).

Step 3.

Place a sheet of paper (I used one that was already printed on) into the page protector for a bit more stability. Using scissors, remove the side of the page protector that allows it to be inserted into a 3 ring binder. Cut as close to the seam as possible. Place the page protector, with the the paper inside, into your printer tray so that the closed side of the page protector is the side that will be grabbed first.

***Make sure you know how your printer works. For example, when my paper is in the tray, the side of the paper that is facing down is the side that will be printed on. Check your printers manual, or run a test page if you are not sure what I am talking about.***

 Tada!

I noticed on my first page (the one where I only did a single coat of glue) that the ink didn't adhere well on the spots that didn't get a good coat of glue. The smudges you see in the picture above are from my attempt to send just the plain page protector through the printer. It smudged like crazy. Hence the reason I decided to apply a coat of Mod Podge :)

If any of this is unclear, don't hesitate to ask questions.