Dahlias!!

My neighbor grows these beautiful dahlias and I thought I'd send out a virtual bouquet!!!

Beauty speaks for itself. 

Love this use of paper!

Went to the Chicago History Museum and saw this creative display with a costume from the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Love the paper hair!!

Chicago!!

I used to live in Chicago over 35 years ago. Just visited and the city looks amazing. Chicago has amazing architecture and there are so many cool things to see.  I was eager to see Millenium Park. They have fountains where they project photos of native Chicagoans and they "spray" water on people!  Whimsical and clever and the kids love them, particularly at this time of year. 

Public art that is interactive is the best!!

We saw "the bean" as locals call it. Amazing from every angle, and it's great watching people interact with it. 

Love this selfie!!

Then we went across the street to the Chicago Cultural center. Totally amazing building beautifully preserved with intricate, gorgeous inlaid mosaics everywhere. 

This stained glass rotunda is breathtaking. 

Loved this tour!  

How about this table at a restaurant we passed by?

Then we walked past the Tribune building and embedded in the outer walls are relics from all over the world. Fascinating!!!  Too many to take pictures of, but there is a piece of a moon rock on the building. 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-tribune-tower-wall-artifacts-htmlstory.html

Here's a link to a story about it!!  

I just adore this city, the people are nice and it looks fantastic. There is a lot of pride and those stewarding this town are doing it well. 

Kirigami

I think I have a new addiction! It's KIRIGAMI, which is similar to origami, using knife cuts, in addition to folding.  

A search of Pinterest opened up my world to this topic. I found some amazing templates, which I was able to print on the back of cardstock. Doing this allowed me to cut on the back and reveal the design.

The one below is one of my favorites. It's supposed to be a pencil/pen holder, but I cannot help imagine Ida, the charming protagonist from the game Monument Valley, walking up and down these steps.

I found the template at the site below:

http://www.extremepapercrafting.com/2010/01/improved-pencil-holder.html

The card below is a castle that I found on YouTube. I love it because it's primarily straight cuts, only a few curved ones. Plus, it's a great pop-up card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmEolXRQd4s

Give it a try!!  It's really rewarding!

Have a great week!

Smash books

You know how sometimes a new thing comes along, or a new way of looking at an old thing?? Something that totally changes your perspective?? I had no idea what the term smash book meant until five years ago when I watched a YouTube video by a company called K & Company. They created their own line of journals called smash books. They coined the term and came up with a really clever video that just made me want to create them. 

In fact here's the original video that really got me started I love everything about it I love the music I love the demonstration versus words to show what it's all about. 

https://youtu.be/_PFsArr4Z1s

I think what I loved most was the idea that you didn't have to be perfect, you didn't have to agonize over what to put in the journal. It was meant to be a daily life journal that you wrote in every day and that you used to capture the ephemera of your life. 

That concept really freed me up!!

So my smash books have evolved from composition books that were decorated to the official smash book. Some were gifts. The nice thing about the official version is that it comes with a pen attached to the journal.  Also the pages are not blank, so it takes some of that fear of the white page away. It really doesn't matter what you use for your smash book. The main idea is that you capture  moments and have fun. 

I went to break in a new smash book and found my old ones and decided to stop and reminisce. 

There's really nothing like going back and looking through these books it takes you back in time and remind you of all kinds of fun things you did. 

Addicted to rosettes

I started making rosettes out of scrap paper and I just couldn't stop it's so fun!!!

Window boxes

So in the interest of spring cleaning I've been pulling out all kinds of amazing embellishments that I had stashed away. I had a plethora, an amazing collection, of little gems.  Some of which I featured in my Spring cleaning post not long ago.  It dawned on me that I could try to use these pieces to make a collage. 

What I also had laying around was a piece of a shower curtain liner and I couldn't help but think it would be fun to cover the pieces and see them each in their own little "box". 

So I used beautiful embellished flowers, paper scraps, tiny little colored images with clear shapes, faux postage and stamped images. 

I had some die cut chipboard shapes and cool papers with interesting images.These came from Somerset Studio magazine that used to include collage papers in each issue. 

I loved making these and finding a way to arrange and use the pieces. 

I have just barely scratched the surface of what I have lying around. My goal is simple, use them up and make art!!!

The piece below is a teeny bit different because instead of closed in stitched boxes, I made pockets. So the elements I tucked in each pocket can be removed for inspection. This idea came from my need to save a beautiful two-sided tag that a friend gave me. I had my smashbook and wanted to make sure I could still look at this gorgeous tag so I created the pockets and that's what inspired me!!!!

This collection is interesting, a diecut frame, images of one of my favorite characters Totoro. Finally, I found a big stack of tree punches all made from sandpaper. I think I originally punched them in order to sharpen up my punch but the images are perfect color and texture. In order for it to stand out on the khaki colored background I had to put it on brightly colored paper so it pops. 

All my works were done on a khaki colored background card stock, I found this color very appealing. Khaki is a neutral and it was perfect with the black thread. 

I challenge you to take out your stash and make a collage.