I made these bookmarks to giveaway as Valentines. There are a few more on my table that are half done.  I used some old vintage fabric that I picked up at a thrift store a  long time ago. The fabric pieces were small, perfect for accenting the canvas.

A few people are doing Valentine exchanges and  I wanted do the same.  I thought it would be fun to make something that you can use all year long, maybe as a marker for a project in your favorite sewing, art or craft book.

I have 6 left to exchange, so if anyone would like to make me a Valentine in exchange for a Valentine book marker, let me know and we can exchange addresses and hopefully get these in the mail before Valentine’s day.  Just to clarify, I am looking for 6 different people to exchange with. Leave a comment saying that you are interested and I’ll get back to you. (thanks!)

If you’d like to make your own bookmarks, here is my ‘how to’.

You’ll need:
Canvas (heavy cotton duck)
pretty fabric scraps
glue stick
white glue
scissors
paper clamps
iron
sewing machine
thread
letter stamps
ink

1. Cut canvas into strips about 2.5 inches wide x 9 inches long.

2. For the back, cut pretty fabric into strips,1 inch (or so) shorter than the canvas and glue to one side of the canvas using a glue stick. Iron. (This step is optional, but it does add some extra sturdiness to the book marker).  The bottom inch that isn’t covered with fabric will be the fringe.

3. Fold the top into a point, glue and use paper clamps to keep in place until dry.

4.  Cut a small heart (or any other shape) out of fabric.  Glue into place with glue stick and iron.  This just keep everything in place while sewing.

5. With your sewing machine, sew freestyle around edges. Sew around heart too.

6. Pull threads of canvas to make fringe on the bottom edge.

7. Using stamps and ink (I use versa magic inks), stamp any message you desire.  I thought it would be fun to make some that said “reading is sexy”.  Heat set with hot iron.

8. Give to your favorite bookish friends for Valentine’s Day.

Have I mentioned how I much I love Marissa’s In the Fishbowl e-course? Well, I really do love it.  She has brought up some really tough (for me)questions about why I do what I do, why do I love it, and most importantly how do I see myself in relation to my work. THe last one is the hard one for me. There is more. So much more that she has covered.  It’s been hard for me to really figure this all out. My thoughts and ideas seem so fragmented, but I feel progress in straightening all this out in my head.  Slowly, slowly, slowly.

During this last session, Marissa spoke a lot about blog presence and making your blog a place you love and want to be, like your favorite room in your home.  I do love my blog, and feel some freshening up needed in terms of a new banner (it’s been a while) .  Then she spoke about inspiration or vision boards. The whole thing got me thinking about my craft room and my boards. My craft room has been in a disastrous state for a while and it has not been a space of creativity. I’ve been camped out on the dining room table. I decided to put an end to that and cleaned everything! EVERYTHING. It was liberating. I threw a bag of stuff away and a box of stuff to donate to goodwill. I also tackled my inspiration wall.  It was wonderful, like I cleared out my head a bit.

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I hung new art up, new images that I love from magazines and covered the drawers of my FIRA drawers.  I accomplished so much today and am ready to tackle the rest of the house.  The kid’s room and living room (which is covered with toys)is on at the top of the list.  I feel energized and excited to get this cleaning out of my system.

Now, I’m off to watch Glee!!! Yippeeeee!!

1. Almond leaf burnished in silver and gold, 2. desert gold, 3. 2006-01-29 015 Locust Trees and Gold Sunset, 4. golden leaves, 5. Left For Dead, 6. try to remember, 7. Fields of Gold, 8. Morning has broken, 9. Golden Lichen…

Thought I’d share some really cool stuff I’ve found around in the blogosphere:

* Amy’s Halloween ATC swap

* Wild women poster- free pdf from Bliss Chick.

* Liberty Bird Brooch– so cute!

* Zucchini Noodles with pesto – fresh and yummy

* Homemade Kombucha– I’ve already mixed mine and am waiting for it to GROW.

* New York Portrait-time lapse

* Tim Holtz demo videos.  I’m not really into scrapbooking, but I find scrapbook products quite fun for mixed media art and art journaling.

* Galleries on Flickr.  Here are mine.

That’s all folks.  Happy Tuesday!!

Art tags and specialty fibers are now my two new obsessions (like I needed any more).

I learned a new technique in in SuziBlu’s class involving faces, clear gesso, graphite pencils and colored pencils all on a paper tag.  I found that working on something small, like a simple tag, can be very rewarding and satisfying.  I was so excited about it that I made four tags, all one right after the other.  The original idea was to make a prince. Well, he needed a few gals to go with him. The mysterious red head, the party girl, and the eccentric Frida.

These specailty fibers are from BeckandCallGirl on etsy.  They are so wonderfully perfect for adding a little fringe to my art tags.  I just love the colors and now I want more.  Fortunately for you, she is having a buy 2 get 1 free sale right now. Unfortunate for me because I just missed the sale!!

Sorry it has been so quiet over here.  I’ve had one of those weeks: an extra shift, sick kids and a deadline for a project.

Today I took some time for a bit of visiting with a friend, thrifting (I’ll show you what I found tomorrow) and journaling. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit. So nice and so needed.

I am deeply loving two books right now that are fueling my love for art journals: The Awe-manac and Life is a Verb. I love these books and want to take them EVERYWHERE with me. They are both packed with tons of inspiration.  I’ll share a little excerpt from The Awe-manac that inspired the above journal page. I can never get anything on the first couple of pages of a journal and this helped.

Moving forward little by little to change our thoughts, and actions is a strategy vital to our creative success. Write a thought you believe will serve your creativity or the creation of contentment, such as ” Each moment I believe more in my creative brilliance” and gradually practice feeling it in body, mind, and spirit 15 seconds at a time. Over time its gradual influence will accelerate your creative movement.

My SuziBlu workshop is helping with the journaling as well.  I spent yesterday cutting out images from old torn up magazines and doing my suziblu homework. Faces are becoming really fun to do.

I have few new journal items that I love:

Sharpie fine tip pen- LOVE it! The Martha Stweart fine tip markers are nice too and come in lots of colors.

Prismacolor colored pencils- smooth, creamy, and divine.  The colors–delicious.  The kids have been using them too.  I’ll have to gather up all the crummy “school” colored pencils and give them away.  They pale in comparison. My set was gifted to me last January from the kids and my hubby.  They are all finally sharpened and sit on the dining room table full time.

Moleskines!! The sketchbook one.  It’s wonderful!

And lastly, I received my Artfest registration booklets.  Eeeeeks!!!   I am on the waiting list for one of Misty Mawn’s classes (which is one of the main ones I REALLY wanted to take), a precious metal clay class making earring charms and another painting class. It’ll be fun to learn new techniques to add to what I have so far, but mostly it’s all about the experience, being inspired and meeting new people.  I can hardly wait!

I just wanted to share these awesome pendants I received from artbeads, my favorite bead shop.  They have free shipping.  How can you beat that.

Anyway, check out this beautiful bird pendant.  I have a thing for birds (as some of you might know) and this really caught my eye.  It is made by artisan Tania Hartman out of resin and sterling silver.  It is very dainty and sweet. I plan on adding some beads to that wire.

I also got these great wood pendants and a couple of beads.  I am very smitten by the wood.  I’ve already made a pair of earrings out of these matching pendants.  I would have taken a picture of them, but it was getting late and I was losing daylight very quickly.

Only two more work days and we’re off on our vacation!! We are counting down the hours! Yippee!!!

A friend shared with me this truly amazing and astonishing story of brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor.  She had a stroke and shared her experience at a TED convention.

I watched it for the first time over a year ago and watched it again a few weeks ago and then again today.  I put in on my right sidebar as something that is inspiring me right now.  It has inspired me for quite a while, to tell you the truth, and I wanted to share.

You, the creative person that I know you are, will find it particularly interesting because it talks about the right hemisphere vs. the left.  Now, I am assuming that you are like myself and tend to be a little more right brained than left.  At work, where I must be organized, methodical and very focused on logistics and can feel my left brain waking up and working hard.  It’s stressful for me, as a nurse, to maintain a left side focus for long periods of time.  It is when I am able to focus on a mom and a baby– teach them, help them, touch their lives that I feel a calm wash over me like nothing else.  It is the same feeling I get when I make my family happy, or when I create.  It is what keeps me going to work. To be able to tell a mother: “You are amazing and your baby is amazing and you and your baby will thrive because you love each other.”  I need that interaction or I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore.

So, you will see if you watch the video why it is so important to be more on the right side of your brain. It’s the reason why I think there is such an amazing sense of community, love of sharing, peacefulness and giving hearts among all of us crafty-artsy bloggers.  Please watch.  It’ll only take 20 minutes.

Nothing creative.  Can’t seem to get going- to do SOMETHING–anything.  Just don’t feel like it.

I am doing other things that don’t require much effort or creative thinking.  For instance:

*Watching this guy dance.  He is crazy cool, don’t you think?  He’s got m-o-v-e-s. I could watch him for hours.  He’s been a favorite of mine for a long while and he’s got ton’s more dancing videos.

*Listening to Laura Marling and watching this great video. I think she’s pretty cool.  This video is awesome too.  And since we’re on the topic of music, THIS is what I’ve been listening to lately.

*Watching Penelope and eating homemade organic popcorn. I’m a sucker for fairy tales. So inspired by her clothes and bedroom.

*Looking at this beautiful piece of art and wishing I wasn’t watching my wallet.

*Enjoying FB WAY too much. Considering a FB diet.

*Looking at birds and still waiting for 10 more packages.

*Getting inspired for Amy’s ATC swap by swooning over all these different hearts.

*Making button eyes.

That’s all I’m doing.  What are you doing? Anything creative?

1. three wee bird ornaments, 2. isbn4893969013-03, 3. Paper Bird Ornament, 4. Whit’s Knits: Holiday Bird Ornaments, 5. bird ornaments, 6. felt bird ornament, 7. Peace Birdy– Side 1, 8. Peace Dove Ornament, 9. Felt Love Birds, 10. Two little birdies, 11. crochet bird, 12. Fabric Bird ornament, 13. Linen Bird Ornaments, 14. bird ornaments, 15. Spool bird ornament, 16. a bowl of birds, 17. Christmas ornament pink bird, 18. French Dots, 19. AllThingsPretty Garden Bird, 20. Summer Flowers Pintail, 21. ivory with red scroll, 22. Friendly Birds, 23. Hangin’ in there, 24. Molly’s Sketchbook: Simple Sewn Bird Ornaments, 25. bird mobile 2

I was not surprised to find all of these amazing birds on Flickr.  There are tons!  And they are all very beautiful and very different.  Some are fabric, felt, paper mache, paper, yarn… wow!!  I love them all and wanted to share them as inspiration for the Birds of Change Exchange.  Several people have signed up already, so this promises to be a very fun swap.  I’m so excited!!

Here’s is a bit more lovely bird inspiration:

1. Hand Painted Birds!, 2. Holiday Ornament Swap 2006: Group 33 Red Clay Bird by Fi Foott, 3. little birdie ornament made for Heather (sweet little nest swap), 4. 37:365, 12-10-2008, 5. Carmen, felt bird ornament, 6. Red bird ornament, 7. Felt Ornaments, 8. Bird ornament green, 9. Re-Cycled Owl Ornament tag, 10. patterned paper bird, 11. green bird bearing gift, 12. Little Bird Ornament, 13. Bird Friend Ornaments, 14. Bird Ornament~, 15. Handcrafter Bird Ornament, 16. bird ornament 1, 17. Bird ornament, 18. Bird Ornament, 19. black bird ornament, 20. Bird ornament

So don’t forget, sign up ends in 8 days!

I finally met, face to face, with my new niece and I am totally and completely smitten.  She stole my heart and now I am sad to be away.  She is a 3 and a half hour drive away.     But I filled up with as many snuggles and kisses as I could before I left.

• *see the cute little calendar patch?  It has Ruby’s birthday circled. Isn’t that the cutest! I got it from the very lovely Rikkianne at Chakra Pennywhistle

I have this little fantasy of stealing my two nieces for a weekend, when they get older, and sharing the finer things in life with them. Things like chocolate, pretty fabric, beautiful skirts and vintage buttons.  My guys just aren’t into that sort of thing (well, except for the chocolate).

I am currently in the process of decorating my home for the holidays.  I’ve started a gumdrop wreath and want to make a button wreath too, but have you seen this starbucks wreath, this scrappy wreath, or this cardboard wreath?  How about this shiny wreath.  Way too many lovely wreaths and so little time.

I also really heart this advent garland and advent calendar.  I don’t think I’ll ever get my act together enough to finally make one of these for my guys! Maybe next year? Ha!

Wait!  There is one more thing.  I have to show you this embroidered tree.  Wouldn’t it make the prettiest holiday pillow!

Well, that’s it for today.  Tomorrow, I reveal the ornament winners!  Yay!!