Is it a Book?

This was another challenge in swap-bot. I had to make a book out of something that isnt usually a book , or alter a book into something not a book.

Get that?

I was gonna change up a nursery board book I had and cut and paint on it, but then I decided to make a book out of something that isnt a book.

I used a map! I have tons of maps here and this one is of Ontario from a 1978 National Geographic.





I folded it and cut it and bound it to make a book. Then I decorated and made the cover.




Then I did some inside pages with all views of Ontario. Here's a couple of them.











This is getting sent to California, so hopefully she can get a sense of seasons and what its like here.

Envelope Book

Another swap project. At least it keeps me creating! The challenge was to make a book out of at least 3 envelopes and make it functional - using the envelopes as pockets. At first I was thrown for a loop, and then just started playing. I used 2 different sizes and kept going.






I then punched holes and strung a ribbon through.



Then I kept adding paper. She likes moon, sun and stars and silver, so I used that as inspiration.



This is the middle of the book when it opens up.







These are the inside flaps







And these are the inside of the little envelopes. I found vintage paper with the moon and sun writings on it.

I put some little presents in each pocket and tied it all with a silver cord and it is ready to go! I am pretty happy with this, cause a lot of time, I use something to go by - another picture or a pattern or something I saw somewhere and this I did from scratch! And it works! Pretty cool.

I'll leave you with some more mail art. I just signed up for another one for 10 more! So I should be getting some neat things in my mailbox. Love that!

Monday Musings

Well, I got home last night about 430 WITHOUT Sarah :( It seems weird this year for some reason. She has stayed at her Dads for the summers for the last 10 years and this year seems different. Maybe cause I am at home a lot too now and used to seeing her at 3pm. Also I think because she has a job, so I know I just can't pick up and grab her and go somewhere. Her job seems to be going great! She likes it and she is getting full time hours which I know she will like for the wallet!

This weekend went good. I was at Moms and got a bunch of stuff organized for her auction.We also snuck out and went to the flea market on Sat! That was fun. BUT most of the day we worked! Then we treated ourselves to dinner.

Sunday I left early and spent the day by myself going to thrift stores and flea markets! Poor me....

I had a full car AGAIN. I think I have made a pact with myself that I have to make something with these things to sell. I love the hunt tho! The living room AKA craft room is getting full of stuff again- its a good thing that we have the addition for the TV and couch.

Sean took Sarah's boyfriend Tyler with him to a fishing tournament. This weekend was the opening day of bass. They had a great time and Tyler won the whole thing!! Over 35 people entered and he had the most weight. I guess he was really excited- he had to call Sarah! We couldnt go cause Sarah had to work. I guess they took a pic with his fish, so I will post if OK. The picture up top is a shot I took out on the lake with Sean last month.

Today I put some more stuff on ETSY. Lovin that place! Such a neat way to sell your things and cheap! One thing was this awesome paper. It has glitter on it and is 12x12.




Isn't it cool?

THen on ebay I listed an old pattern book I found. It's from 1908 and really neat with all the old fashions. All patterns were only 10c.



It has over 60 pages of old illustrations.

I'm in a swap in Aug for 30 pictures for a scavenger hunt. We get words and have to take pics with what we think of the word. I went on walk on friday aft at Moms back to the lake and took lots of shots. Here are some..



This one was on moms deck.








OH! I almost forgot. MY mailart got to England! YAY and it is in one piece. It is now posted on www.mailmeart.com. So cool.

Mail Art

I am in a swap that I have to send 6 people mail art. So I looked at their profile and made them all envelopes out of things they like - then I stamped and drew on them. Inside I have a little something that is personalized for them. This swapping thing is so fun!







Tomorrow I am picking up Sarah at school and I am taking her down to her Dads for the summer :( . She likes her job tho and I think it will be good for her. I will see her soon, we are going to Niagara Falls the long weekend -next week! Yay!

So I am taking her out to lunch to celebrate the end of her year and getting such good grades.

Then I am going to my Moms to get things ready for an auction sale she is gonna put stuff into.

See everybody monday!

Book Tuesday

I have been wanting to find this book for awhile and I got it at the library. YAY!
It's called Living out Loud - Activities to fuel a creative life by Keri Smith.





I have been reading her blog for a while and she is in Morocco right now! How cool is that? I want to go there.

Anyways...

The book

She gives lots of ideas for coming up with MORE ideas if you are stuck or need to get more creative and add some LIFE to your life. She illustrates it all through with her quirky style and it is a quick read but still some nice ideas to get GOING.





The ideas? I dont wanna give it away, but a nice read for anyone interested in creativity.

She now has a new book out and I would have to BUY it cause it is called Wreck this Journal. She gives all kinds of prompts for each page and you have to do something to each page. Sounds cool. I havent seen it up here yet tho.

Well, Sarah is done school in 2 days and then 2 exams and then done for this year! I got the next LOST dvd tonight - so guess what we are gonna do?

I think I am gonna try and make some turpentine paper now too, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Flowers....

This is a pic of a flower I have in my front yard. I never noticed it before - it's just growing there wild with all its buddies looking the same with their green pointy hats behind them.

The plant I got from my grandmothers is coming up and I am so glad I got that last year and planted it - it's like a piece of her is here with me.

BOOKS!!

(me standing up)- Hi, My name is Cheryl and I am addicted to Books.

(Everyone) -Hello, Cheryl


-It all started when I was little - trips to the library in school and a whole new world in each book. I grew up around books all my life with my mom always with a novel in her lap to watch during TV commmercials and my Dad always with a magazine or a non fiction book. No wonder I'm addicted!! And I love it. I love the bookstore - spend hours in there! A lot of people dont understand my obsession and its not just books. It's magazines too. I try to limit my magazine buying cause they're so expensive and it adds up. I also love paper and scrapbook things and oriental papers and vintage books and papers and..... ya get the idea!

I am in love with my library right now. I can order any book I want and it is delivered to my local library - here in the middle of nowhere! I also can suggest new books to buy which I did last week and already they have bought 6 of them and I am on the hold lists!! Some of these books are over 50 bucks to buy so I'm lovin it.

Which brings me to my post of today. On Wed I went to town and of course had to hit all the stores and thrift shops. I got some neat stuff but also..... right! books. I then went to the auction sale at 530 and bought some more. So just for fun, I counted them all yesterday and I bought 82 books!

Yes, 82.

Am I insane you ask?

Just a little-HA! No, I bought most of them to resell and some others to cut up for art and yes, some to read.

Someday.

I organized my bookshelves a while ago and put all the book I need to read in one section and there is way too many there. I dont even WANT to count, cause it will depress me. I get books from the library and I read those cause there is a deadline on those. I am STILL reading a novel from last fall. EEK! And its over 900 pages- that would be one reason.

Here is the boxes of books to sell. Some really neat kids books from the 30's - 50's. All in good shape too. Goin to ebay!




I also got this bunch of paper yesterday and was in paper heaven! Handmade, embossed, thick cardstock, glittered, inked, and flocked with velvet!! Can you say gorgeous?







Like, look at that. It looks better in real life- nice red velvet. How am I gonna USE that? I just wanna frame it and look at it!

I'm deciding now if I want to share..... I'll let you know.

Book Tuesday

This weeks book is "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore. I am sure a lot of people have heard of the movie, but this is the book from it and with some more background on him. I am still waiting to see the movie - I have it on hold at the library - but this was a neat way to see it too.

We have all heard of global warming. The talk of it is everywhere and with conflicting stories and half truths. Al uses the facts from the past hundreds of years. It's pretty hard to argue with facts.






Fact: Tons of glaciers are receding and some disappearing in the last 20-30 years.






Fact: The population of the earth in 1776 was 1 billion , in 1945 2.3 billion and today 6.5 billion. That means it has almost TRIPLED in the last 60 years.




Fact: The record for the most hurricanes ever in a year was set in 2005(the year the book was out). They ran out of letters! I always thought that there has always been hurricanes, tornadoes, floods - and there has, but now there are MORE. And they are more violent.

There were many more things too like the lowering of the ice in the poles, the destruction of coral, the effects of no warm gulf stream meaning Europe would be like Canada's arctic, the propaganda the oil companies are feeding us about " It's all a big hype, no worry, etc."

A really thought provoking read.



This is our home and the only one we have. Time to start listening?

Art Journal

I am in a swap right now that I have to start a Journal of mine and send it to someone who works in it and then sends it to someone else and then back to me! I am mailing it tomorrow, so I thought I would show the start of it and what I did.



It was an old recipe book holder that has envelopes for each kind of recipes. I altered the cover and the pages and am keeping the envelopes to use to put other things into. The cover has follow your heart and a wire shaped like a heart I attached there.


Here are my pages:





This page has a pull out tag on it that says " Happiness is like a butterfly.... the more you chase it, the more it will elude you."





This is the inside of that page showing the inside of the envelope.




I am also getting their books to add to too, so I will show that progress!

Shed renovations continued....

Well, we left off that the shed was fixed and a new roof put on it.




Next, the trees came down fast! We rolled them out of there and started on the foundation.



This was attaching the house to the shed. Here is Sean putting up walls!!


This is from the backyard and you can see one roof truss is up and next is the roof!

Book Tuesday

This weeks book is cool. It's from the library again and one that I had to renew! It's called Making Memory Boxes by Anna Corba. It shows many boxes she makes and she gives the patterns and directions to over 30 different kinds. There are boxes made of cigar boxes, drawers, tin boxes and other ideas.There is also a gallery at the back of different artists boxes.








Great inspiration!

Sorry for the blurry pics, its been raining here for 2 days and its crappy lighting! Tonight we might even have a chance of frost - yeah, in June.

Etsy Update

My goal today was to put 2 more things on my Etsy shop and I did 3! I hope to make some things to put up for sale and I have lots of ideas churning around!

The first thing is a vintage sewing basket full of goodies! It has a bunch of old sewing supplies and notions. A neat gift or to use!






The next is a pile of pink and purple buttons to use for sewing or crafting.






And then an assortment of old bingo chips with metal around them. Pretty neat!





We had a good weekend and then RAIN all day today. I got some stuff done and hopefully some more tomorrow. And Good News! Sarah found out today she got a job for the summer in the produce section of the local grocery store at her Dad's! She was psyched! and me too. I think she will like that.