pamgarrison

upcycled garland

Hello there! HOpe that those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a lovely day yesterday! We had a nice day here. It was quieter than our usual, but that helped make it feel slow, and long, and sweet. I even had time to add to the fall garland. 

In a previous post, I showed photos of these diamonds I'd been cutting out of boxes that my Studio Calico orders arrive in. I'd been painting them too. I just love these colorful diamonds and used some of them to make a garland (of course!). I've got a few other projects to create using these in the works, but wanted to get the garland up for the holidays.

After the paint had dried, I just ran them gently (aka, slowly) through my sewing machine. Making for a very easy and very fast garland diy. One tip I'd recommend is to change up the way you feed the diamonds into the machine, from all paint side up, to the box graphics side up every so often. Like I did above. 

 

Just in case you have any boxes arriving with some graphics that might look good cut into diamonds, or circles, or squares ... well, you get the idea! Let the holiday crafting officially begin!!! 

gifts from moss garden

I took the round-about way to Moss Cottage yesterday; put holiday music on Pandora, turned off the ringer on my phone, and did some good thinking while driving. It was a beautiful day to drive and think. 

Always fun to see snow on the mountain tops in Southern California. 

As soon as I arrived, Mary Ann had some promised succulent cuttings ready to be placed directly in my car. Brilliant solution, since the last two visits we have discussed my taking some, but forgotten by the time I left.

Look at the beauties I came home with!

I brought them out back this morning to fully take them in and couldn't resist making a heart shaped thank you tribute to Mary Ann. 

I've been having lots of good luck with them in pots this year, like this one that has Lamb's Ear plant as well. This one did so well, it's time to divide and re-distribute the succulent wealth! 

But I digress, back to my Moss Cottage visit.

The second thing we did, after loading the succulents, was our usual sharing of recent journal pages. I plopped down on the perfectly placed (wink) orange/red chair...

well, after the children made way for company that is...

and I began my inspection of her recent work...all received straight A's of course! 

The girl knows how to handle a journal page, that's for sure! 

She also knows how to buy pretty paper (that roll on the left was a gift from me last summer, found at HomeGoods , I like to think I know a thing or two about buying pretty paper myself!). 

She also knows all about making pretty things with that pretty paper! Both the above and below are part of her SEWN online class. I can not resist photographing them each time I visit. They are worthy of the constant adoration. 

And then it was time to get back to the task at hand: the art journaling e-course that's in the works. Lots of discussions about editing, lenses, cameras, tripods, class format, fonts, you name it. By the time I left, long past dark, my head was tired. My body gets tired a lot, my head hangs in there a little longer usually. It had no room for more learning last night! 

Apparently, my mind ran out of room before packing up, becuase MA called to report I had forgotten one of my tripods. I was too far gone to turn around, so I'll get it next time. Succulents or tripod? Glad I remembered the succulents this time, fair trade-off I suppose. 

This morning I am back home again, unloading the baskets and bags I brought and still whirring on the ideas that percolated in my noggin overnight. Totally looking forward to the holiday, just wish it were another week out...I've got things to do! Need to download my mind so I can move on ;). 

Hope you have fun pleasant holiday plans on the horizon. I'll be back before then with some sort of report or another..hopefully, it'll be of a picked up home ready for guests! 

 

project life • week 30

Project Life week 30, July 22-July 28, 2013. And, I cheated a little on the dates. 

This is the week my husband, son, and I flew to meet our daughter who had been studying in Spain. Our trip wasn't really July 22-July 28, but I figure, who cares? Not me.

I liked the idea of having one spread documenting our Spain trip, (for this Project Life weekly format), so went with that vs. the true week 30 calendar dates.

I got the idea of including a big trip like this in Project Life from the way Ali Edwards documented her trip to Paris. Love hers. You can see how mine is heavily influenced by her concept (one spread, large photos, minimal text), but I wanted to include a few more photos, so came up with a way to do that. 

A lot more photos is more accurate. I was sure  I wanted oversized photographs to be a major element. I ended up printing 2 sheets of 6x12 photographs using my awesome large format printer that I have for making art prints. (I used this paper.)

It took me quite a bit to figure it all out, but once I did, I was thrilled with the result! 

I'm not sure I can capture the size here in a photo- that paper is 13x19, the book, with it's two 12" sides is shown above, that might help with scale.

Since I had a lot of photos to include, and becuase I wanted them all encapsulated in this one spread, I decided to add on flaps to both of the 12x12  page protector sheets. I simply trimmed the edges of the page protectors (close to, but not cutting into the opening):

And then I sewed the the flap page protector (a 6x12) to the 12x12 page protector using a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. 

 Here's a close up of the left spread sewn together:

Totally works like a charm! I slipped the 6x12 photos I printed in there and still had a few extra that were cut up and put in either the regular spread, or another 6x12 insert in the middle of the spread. 

This is the left side of the spread with the flap open. 

I included very little writing in this photo heavy week. One bit seen above.

What this week lacks for in text is made up for in inserts- there are 3! (the back of first insert on left, the front of second insert seen above on right) So, for those of you that are counting, that's two added on flaps, and three inserts...I told you, I had a lot of photos I wanted to include! It was a big, meaningful trip for our family.

This is the front of the third insert. The only other written documentation I did for the week, as many other thoughts are included in the Spain travel journal I made. 

I just painted my own geo-tag and used it to explain this insert about our unexpected time in Brussels. 

And the back of that 3rd insert about Brussels, above. 

Here's the right side of the spread when the flap is open and all the inserts are turned to the other side of the book. 

It was a challenge for me to figure out how I wanted to best incorporate this trip in the Project Life binder format, but a fun one. I'm sure you can imagine that this is actually a very small portion of the photos taken on the trip, but enough to really tell the story to my thinking. Pretty sure I'll make a Blurb book about it too. I can put lots more photos in that way. And of course, there are more in the Spain travel journal as well. It's been a fun little puzzle deciding what goes where, and I'm sure proud of myself for learning how to print good photos at home this year! Not sure why, buy I had a big mental block about all of it before.

Okay...off to work on the ecourse some more ;) ....

p.s. I'm pleased to report I'm totally caught up with project life! a post to come on what I changed to get those 17 weeks done and in the book! 

 

art journaling e-course and thank you!

If you missed the news in the last post, I'll share my big news again: a pam garrison art journaling e-course is really, truly in the works and on it's way!! In no small part due to Mary Ann agreeing to produce my first venture into the online class world. I know it's going to be as excellent as I've always hoped it would be thanks to her expertise, and I can stop worrying about all the very-unexciting-and overwhelming-to-me technical aspects required, and put all my energy into creating the content! Such a relief! We'll keep you updated of course, for now we don't have any details to share, still all in the works and all. But I wanted to thank all of you that have asked for the course over all these years, or left comments on her post or mine, or emailed to share in the enthusiasm of our venture...thank you!!! I really really am grateful for you, and your interest in one of my great creative loves; art journaling! Here are just a few behind the scenes shots, just to prove it's really truly happening. I have a hard time believing it fully myself, it's been on the back burner for so long.

 

More to come...!!!

 

field trip • moss cottage

I spent another lovely day visiting Mary Ann yesterday. I brought her chair up to her that she bought while on our Palm Springs art retreat which wouldn't fit in her car. After we moved her furniture all over her living room only to end up with almost all of it back in the exact place it all started, we had her lovely orange club chair left over. Mary Ann went to the computer to list it on Craig's List while I was determined to see it in a sunny corner of her art room. I love moving furniture around, and do it at all my friends' homes with the slightest hint of permission from them. It's so fun to see what a big change can come from a different use of space. Look how great the chair looks in her art room:

It's such a pretty room and that chair is perfect there! Just like I told her it would be ;). Even she agrees, which you can read on her blog post here. You can also read why I was up there in the first place...it's really gonna happen people!!! Shocking, I know. I'm so grateful for your patience with my perfectionism.

You can see I enjoy visiting with my camera, so many pretty photo opportunities. I look forward to many more visits soon as we continue to get the wheels on the cart before she starts her task of keeping them on! Even though she's an excellent task master, and will try to keep me from dilly dallying with my camera, I'll be sure to sneak in some photos to share with you here!

project life • week 29

Here's my project life spread for week 29, July 15-21. A pretty simple "fill the pockets from pictures from those dates" week.

During this week, I attended Alt SF with my friend April. (You can see the little bit of mail fodder there tucked in too. ) My little brother lives in San Fransisco, so it was super fun to see him and I am very glad I have a picture in here that I'll see, instead of only in my computer files. 

That mail fodder I mentioned was actually the wrapping on a tube that Alt SF sent, I just peeled it off. (While I was doing it, I was reminded of those crescent rolls I used to have when growing up...I was always so afraid of that pop when you unpeeled it just enough!) 

The rest of the week was all about getting ready to head to Spain. I took the easiest route possible and wrote directly on photos or on the journal cards, with limited embellishments. I am liking more plain. I do wish I had used a bolder black pen, but not enough to re-do anything- progress not perfection all the way now!

 

 

It's funny, the project lifes that I like online tend to be less colorful and more simple, timeless, but yet when I sit down with my photos and pick any embellishments to go with it, I end up having a colorful spread. It's just an interesting design note for me to mull over...what I like vs. what is my real life. Of course, there is no right or wrong! I'm still really glad I decided to do this project this year, and next PL post I'll show you how I decided to include our trip to Spain in this format, since I also have a travel journal for the trip.  

 

paintings in progress

Hello. Hope you've been having a lovely long weekend (for those of you in the States, that is). We have here. My daughter came home for the weekend on Thursday night and my son had off Friday, so I've been checked out of most everything other than family since then. She's left to head back to school now, always a little sad to see her go, but it's also good to check back into the other parts of my life too. All as it should be, I suppose. 

Before my week sort of stopped last week, I was spending a lot of time painting. I'm looking forward to getting back to it, hopefully, a little today even. 

Some pieces saw good progress, and will be showing up in my etsy shop soon. Others, I found to be quite trying on my patience with my painting process. 

I'd like to spend hour after hour, day after day, learning new things about paint, color, shape, tools, myself. I like the challenge of risking "ruining" what I like to see what else may develop. That said, often, I wish I could go backwards and undo, but I know that is not what this creative pursuit is about for me, but instead, I need to push through and discover something else. I'm also learning patience, with myself, with my ideas, with paint and process...or being presented the opportunity to learn it anyway...working on it. Always something to work on, but happy to be (mostly) enjoying the journey. Grateful that I have those that stop by here to share the journey and creative pursuits with. xo

recent journal pages

This was the quote delivered to my inbox via TUT, notes from the universe. I don't know if you've heard of it, or Mike Dooley, but I like the positive messages sent daily, some more than others, like this one here. 

I like writing with dip pen and ink in my journal because it forces me to slow down and pay attention to what I'm writing. In case you are wondering, this is the nib I was using, pictured in the top photo. I know I like to know those kinds of things, being the lover of all lettering tools that I am. 

Been on a quote in my journal kick these days. But I also like to just write random thoughts on pages, and pages with no writing at all too. Anything goes in my art journals! 

project life • weeks 27 & 28

This is why I am doing Project Life this year. It's the main reason anyway; for my kids to look through and remember our lives, and see our lives through my eyes. What surprises me is that they already enjoy looking at it, and it's all from 2013, not even long ago. It's why I promised myself that I'd finish it, even though I'm behind. I'd rather adapt my idea of it, simplify it vs. not get the photos in those pockets. I've been keeping that in mind as I've been working on catching up. Here are the spreads from weeks 27 & 28:

My daughter left to study in Spain at the end of the previous week, but I ended up putting the photos in this week because I had already finished that week. Not letting small details like that get in my way of progress!

Here's the spread for July 1-7:

I added an insert about her leaving, the front (seen on right side of spread above) was the night before, the back the day of. Here's the left side of the spread:

Left side of the spread without the insert.

Right side of the spread with the insert on top. 

I love the details of the project.

The insert page front above and back, below.

The back side of the insert, and you can see the July monthly divider too. 

Awww, so sweet. So glad she's gone and come home already! 

The right side without the insert. 

And here's the left side of the next week's spread, week 28, July 8-14:

and the right side:

Again, my favorite parts of each spread are usually some of the little details:

Been making good strides, printing pictures like a madwoman from July through November, thankful that they are dated in the computer as to when they were taken! Liking less stuff in there too. Found this beautiful Project Life album and felt inspired all over again. And so it continues...

field trip • día de los muertos, santa ana

This past Saturday, my boys and I ventured out to the Día de Los Muertos celebration in Santa Ana. We loved it.

There were so much to take in, I was disappointed that the light was fading fast, but I was happy I shot some sights to share.

 

Attendance was assigned by my son's Spanish teacher as they had been studying the tradition in class. (Sad how something can be pretty close, and pretty easy to partake in, but unless forced to...)  

We're already looking forward to going next year!

paper marbling experiments part 2

Day two of the great paper marbling experiment I felt like I knew a little more what to expect. I set myself up with a little more room, and experimented with mixing new colors using various inks and acrylic paints I had on hand. Some worked, some didn't. I can tell that this is one of those art forms that you learn a little something every time you try it. I love that. I can see why each and every marbler will have different results and a unique style.

I took photos along the way this time so I could share them with you here. I really enjoyed the process of marbling, from the dropping on of paints above, to the moving the paints with various tools provided with the kit I used, (a stick in this case) below.

On the paper above, I was trying all sorts of tools at the same time. Experimenting, so fun. Each tool and each movement of the tool changes the resulting design dramatically. 

Not only did I find every part of the making process fun (and challenging due to my inexperience), but I found each stage visually pleasing too. 

Because I was experimenting with making my own paints, I had a lot of fails, like many of the solid drops you see above, those have sunk below the surface. I am pretty sure that the above tray made the paper design below, not what one would expect when first looking at it. I wasn't good at keeping my size clean, like experienced marblers are. 

Truth be told, I didn't love love love some of the results; I made some beginner mistakes, and made some ugly paper, but beautiful ugly, if you know what I mean. I will certainly use every bit of those pieces. But the process is really fun, regardless. Even though I am beginning, and make big mistakes, and get results I'm not crazy about, it's still all a big win. With experience and exploration, the resulting papers will surely please more, which is awesome, because even these "fails" please a heck of a lot!

I know that the above paper turned out to be this one below. Learning to see what the resultant paper will look like is something that will develop over time as well. So far, I'm mostly totally surprised by the colors and sometimes can't tell which "before" tray photo goes with which "after" paper photo. 

Like this. Would you guess that the above would come out like below? I couldn't have. This is a good example of what I would call a mistake. I probably used the wrong type of paint when trying to acheive a certain color, or didn't add enough water or ox gall to it...or my size wasn't clean and I didn't rinse it off well enough afterwards. All likely reasons why I wasn't as excited about what the paper looks like vs. what the water looked like (above), but still, all that said, I would never throw this paper out, and it was still very fun. I love a good creative challenge, and for me the art of paper marbling provides that. But unlike some art forms where you really don't have something useable until you master it up to a certain level, this one seems to provide useable results regardless. Something this experimenter appreciates! 

I mean, that's just insanely fun, isn't it? Well, it is to me, but I know I can run on the overexciteable side when it come to creative adventuring, but I really believe that if you have ever wanted to try your hand at paper marbling, you too would find it very happy making. 

So much fun, and worth the prep. A note about the prep, as I don't want to overstate it and scare anyone off; it's really not that bad, just making a mix and painting it on your paper then letting your paper dry, and making a different mix that has to be made in advance (but not too much in advance) that is your size (the water the paints float on). Other than that, it's a little setting up of your station- rinse water, newspaper cut etc. and the typical setting up for a messy creating and time carved out. Keep in mind the fact that I'm the type of girl that wants to open the box, open the paints, and start playing now when considering my prep whining. ;)

I hope one day to take a class from  Heidi , maybe even a class at Jenny's  Studio Crescendoh, but it's a little bit tricky as Heidi lives in Michigan, and would have to travel with all the supplies etc. But, if you're like me and think you'd come to a paper marbling class taught by Heidi at Studio Crescendoh, leave a comment and maybe we can convince her there is enough interest to make it worth her while. I know it'd be awesome to really see her paper marbling live and in action. That's my favorite way to learn; to watch and then try and then ask questions that develop from the exploration. Anyway, short of that, if you want to go the on your own route like I did, I recommend it. If you do join in, leave a link so we all can see your papers! 

Also, for those of you traveling to Italy with Amy and I next fall for class, we'll be venturing to a paper marbling studio one day...watching Italian paper marblers do their thing and then shopping their wares...yes!