Missalayneeah

ICAD Week 4

Just finished up another week of icad! I can't believe how fast the time goes every week. I'm really enjoying the process this year. I think I've either learned to let go a bit more or that I just kept it easy for myself. Maybe a combination. I don't feel like my stack of scraps is getting much smaller! I've been cleaning and purging through the room that I store a lot of the stuff I had for my shop when I used to have it open. As I've been going through stuff I've found a lot more scraps and tiny bits to use. That's good and bad. Good, because it gave me new stuff to sort through and choose from. Bad, because the pile got bigger not smaller. Some things I don't mind tossing, but other bits I have a hard time letting go of. I've had a few questions about where I get my stuff. I'm thinking of putting together a post later this week to give you some ideas. Those little bits and pieces can be found everywhere!

Day 19 This was a fun card to put together. It has a few of the pieces I found while cleaning. The little background piece with the triangles is from a business envelope. Something I like to collect. In fact I've stopped collecting the ones that come to our house, because my stash is too big. The monopoly money was a fun use since my favorite number is 5. It even tore perfect for me right next to the 5. Of course I grabbed some book paper and this jumped out since yes I talk to myself. 

Day 20 I started by grabbing the background piece that came from a book about wiring or putting things together. As I layered the other stuff and finished it up I decided to add some words. It was funny how these were the words that jumped off the page. I love picking the words out. It's like every time I grab a piece of paper just the right words pop out. Sometimes I even find words that I'm needing to hear. 

Day 21 This one didn't go together as fast as some of the others. Sometimes you have to move the pieces around until you love where they sit. Sometimes you leave them where they are and move on. The little blue tag was from a purchase at a thrift store. I thought it would be fun to keep and use. I love seeing others handwriting and how it adds to a piece. 

Day 22 I remember being in an odd mood the morning I created this. Not a bad mood, just a quirky odd mood I guess. I was drawn to the patterns and mixing them together. It was fun layering them and then adding a few little x's with a black pen to finish it off. Does your mood ever effect the way you create? Or do you just try to move past it? I notice that it tends to really come out in my doodles. Some days they are just easy and flow, others they are scribbly and scratchy. I love both. 

Day 23 This is another card that I had to fiddle with to get it where I wanted. I was wanting it to be just right and then finally settled with it. As I was over thinking it and pulling out the book page my eyes landed on these words. It was a good reminder that things don't need to be perfect or what we perceive as perfect. It's good to let things go and just be who we are. This works not only in our art, but in our every day lives. I love it when these messages find me right when I need them. 

Day 24 This one is filled with lots of different layers including little bits of painted papers. 

Day 25 For this card I decided to just keep it with the neutrals. When I photographed it for IG I ended up cropping it into a square and ended up liking it better. Sometimes that happens. 

Last week as I was making the cards I decided to video tape the process. I always enjoy seeing the process videos of others. One of my favorite apps for doing this is Hyperlapse. I've shared them all on my IG account if your interested. I've also put together a board on Pinterest where I have all the cards from this year. Have a great week! I'm off to stay cool in this Az heat!

ICAD Week 3

Another week has come and gone. It's hard to believe how fast these weeks are going by! Does anyone else feel this way? Trying to enjoy the process and things along the way for this very reason! This week has been a fun one with creating. Probably because it's still early in the challenge. About half way through I get hit with why am I doing this or I don't know what else to do, or I want to do something different! I have learned though from the 100 day project that it's good to continue and push through it. I haven't finished it yet, but almost there. I think it's good to challenge ourselves in different ways. I know I learn a lot and grow in ways I didn't realize I would. So here we go with a recap of week 3!

Day 12 - For this card I used some leftover paint on the background. After I had let the paint dry I added the doodled leaves. A fun and quick way to make a card or even a journal page. 

Day 13 - This was a fun card. During the week I made some card swatches to refer to. I wanted to see all the colors I can make from my watercolors. It was a fun process and I found it very relaxing. As I cleaned up each set of colors I used index cards to mop up the left over paint. I hate to just wipe the paint away. I was left with several cards with lots of different colors. For this card I grabbed one of those and just added some fun doodles in black ink. 

Day 14 - This was another fun experiment. I got 2 for 1 here. I again reached for the cards that I used to mop up the left over paint. For the card on the right I drew the leaves on the back of a painted card and cut them out. I glued them down to another painted card, added some doodles and it was done. For the card on the left I used the left over pieces from the other card when I cut it and glued them back together onto a white card and added some black ink. The idea of using the scraps from the first card actually came while I was cutting it. It was fun to try something new and see how it would turn out. 

Day 15 - For this card I just went back to the scrap box. I just grabbed a few and added them to a painted card. I shared this card in the ICAD group and someone mentioned they thought it was clever that I added the chapter 15 at the top for card #15. The funny thing is I was never very good about the Roman numeral thing, so when I added it to the card I had no idea! It was just a happy accident! 

Day 16 This was a fun card to make. Last week I decided I really needed to sort through some old stuff from having a shop. I needed to purge and clean since it feels like forever ago when I went through that stuff. So while I was cleaning I came across some fun scraps in a folder. I decided to add them to my scrap pile I was using on these cards. I loved that I had new stuff to play with. It was the boost that I needed. So I made this card with some of those scraps. I also had some time to do a video of this one. If you stop over on my Instagram post of it and swipe through I have a video of the process. I love watching videos of the process of others and really want to figure out how to record better videos. So I'm working on that in the mean time. 

Day 17 I was still feeling inspired by all the new scraps that I found in my cleaning and purging. Plus have I ever mentioned that #5 is my favorite number?! So I highlighted it with this little tab in my scraps. 

Day 18 - Another card using up some scraps. I don't know what it is about working with collage. I love working with so many different types of mediums and trying new things, but I find myself drawn to collage over and over again. The process, the sorting of papers, the texture and touch of papers, and the end result are all part of that process. I could sit and just work for hours on cutting and pasting collage pieces. Something about it just transports me into another world where everything else disappears even for a few minutes. Do you have anything that you love that helps you to just get lost and rejuvenate? 

Looking forward to another week of creating these fun cards and seeing where the process takes me. Continue cleaning and purging and hoping to find some new fun scraps to use this week! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week and creating time!

Week 2 ICAD

I can't believe that we just finished up week 2 already! Definitely have to learn to enjoy the time and the process since it all goes by so darn fast! Happy to say that I stayed on track this week and have my cards all done. I know it's not like I'm turning them in or getting a grade, but I really want to finish up all cards this year! Also staying on top of my 100 day project as well. I'm working on day 69 and 70 for that! I will try and share later this week about that project and a few pieces. Onto this past weeks cards!

Day 5 was a fun day. I had finally decided to tackle my sewing machine problem. I love using my machine on my paper projects and it hadn't been working. After about 20 minutes of fiddling with it and tons of extra balled up thread I realized it wasn't threaded right! Gotta love those kind of moments. So I grabbed some scraps and the thread that I had just accumulated and put together the top card. I loved how it turned out so I did a bonus card using up some of my painty paper towel. I love the texture and color on both of these.

Day 6 I decided to just randomly pick out some scraps. I was okay with the card and then added the ink in the middle. Then it went from okay to meh! That's okay there are a few spots that I still like. Cards like this are great reminders that it's about the process of creating and trying new things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Not a problem it's just an index card!

Day 7 I decided to have my daughter pick out 5 scraps for me. With this card I started on it and got part way into it and decided to flip over the card and start over. There were a few pieces she picked that were kind of throwing me off. If you stop by my IG I have photos of the scraps before they are assembled onto the card. I've also been sharing the process of making it some days in my Instagram stories. 

Day 8 I had my daughter pick my scraps again. Thank goodness 2 of the papers had paint on both sides. It gave me something better to go with. I have found that having her pick my scraps or by just pulling them out randomly I'm definitely getting things that I wouldn't normally put together. This has really helped me to look at things in a different way and try styles or things that I normally wouldn't do. 

Day 9 was another random pick by my daughter. This is another one that was a stretch for me, not my normal way I put collages together. I think it will be fun to flip back through all these in the end and get ideas from for new projects.

Day 10 I had her pick my scraps again. Not sure why she picked these scraps that are more my style. Maybe it was all the complaining she heard me do on the other cards. This card went together pretty quick and was fun using my sewing machine to add some texture with. It ended up being one of my favorites so far.

Day 11 Another set of random scraps. Since the machine was out from the day before I decided to use it again. I also grabbed some book paper and picked part of a random sentence to finish it off. I love using book paper in this way. To me it's just a fun element that makes me smile. 

Bonus card - During the week I had a package that needed to be mailed out. I was trying to figure out a way to make a card to add to it. With my index cards right there on my desk I thought I would try putting one together super quick. I picked through my scraps for a few pieces of book paper. They were fun to just layer and add the stitching to again. This left the back of the card with space to write the little message. I tucked it under the string that was wrapped around the gift and it was on it's way to a new home. 

I'm really enjoying the process of having the scraps picked randomly. It's been a fun way to step out of my comfort zone and learn more about my style. This weekend I was using index cards to make some some paint swatches and used more cards to mop up the leftover paint. I'm thinking of using those as the base to this weeks cards. If you want to follow along or see the before of most of these cards you can find me over on Instagram. I also started a board for all my cards on Pinterest. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

ICAD season

Wow it's been 2 years since I've blogged! It feels like I'm starting over! It's been on my mind off and on for the past several months. I finally broke down and switched things up to be a bit more simple. I've really missed the days of the blogging community and all the many friends and inspiration. I'm hoping to be back at least once a week.

Last week started another year of ICAD (index card a day) This will be the 5th year I've participated. It's a fun challenge to get you in the habit of creating on a daily basis simply by using an index card and any other art supplies you may choose. All the details can be found over at Daisy Yellow. 

Honestly I don't think I've made it all 61 days. I tend to get distracted with new things and then move onto something else. This year though I've been working on the #100dayproject and have made it through 60 days. So there is hope for me this year! I was reading a post in the the  ICAD Facebook group about reasons to participate and how much it has helped others with various things. It got me thinking back to why I decided to join. 

In March of 2011 our 16 year old daughter unexpectedly passed away in her sleep. She had been diagnosed 3 years prior to that with Type 1 diabetes. She passed away due to complications with her diabetes. There are a few posts I shared on my blog during this time if you are interested. This one and this one when I started a new blog. I may get back to that new blog as well. Anyways I've always loved painting, creating, and anything in between. Most of the time that's what you could find me doing in my spare time. I loved working on our house, making gifts and just creating. When this happened it was like taking my breath away as everything just fell down around me! I can honestly say it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Pretty much anything I enjoyed doing just didn't seem to matter anymore or anything else for that matter. It was probably like this for the first 3 years and slowly with time it started to get better. I just had to really work at it. It was kind of like walking through life in a constant fog. I don't even remember how I stumbled on to finding ICAD that summer. I'm sure it was probably through someone on Facebook. So I figured what could it hurt to try and get back into something creative. My heart and soul just missed it, but for some reason just hadn't been up to it before. I had tried many times and would start and then the darkness and fog would over take me and I would just let it go. Maybe with creating on an index card there was no pressure of it needing to be a master piece or something that would hang on the wall. I could literally just slap some paint down and call it good. So I had my younger daughter who was almost 9 at the time join in with me. It was something we could do together and have some quality time. It honestly was a blessing for both of us! The daily work on these cards got me interested in my other stuff again. It was like it was slowly seeping it's way back into my creative heart. The group of mostly women was equally as amazing. So much support and sharing happened on a daily basis. It was good for my heart and soul! It really has been like a roller coaster with good and bad in between, but I'm so glad I took that step in getting back to my art. It honestly has helped me heal in ways I hadn't thought it could. Creating is just a huge part of me and always has been. 

I'm hoping to share my cards weekly with you just for fun. I hope you follow along or better yet join in the process. This year I've decided to try and make use of my always growing scrap pile. So I' will be combining scraps from my vintage stash, hand painted papers, junk mail, or whatever else crosses my desk. 

Card #1 was super simple, but fun! I had some leftover "under paper" (paper underneath when your painting to catch the extra) I had doodled some fun leaves on the paper and decided to cut them out and just glue down on my card.

Card #2 A little bit of everything. Some book text with a bit of oops paint, some doodled on paper, little pieces left from cutting out shapes and then a bit of doodling to top it off. 

Card #3 Some vintage paper, pattern tissue, some doodled seeds that I had leftover, left over painted leaves, and completed with a reminder to myself to enjoy the process!

Card #4 For some reason I wasn't very fond of this one when I finished. Now that I've seen it several times I'm liking it a bit more. I had mixed up some gray paint on an index card for another project. I decided to just use it as the base. I added a piece of vintage paper that had been played with and hole punched, along with lots of other fun little painted extras in my pile. One of my favorite things to do is to add fun or quirky words straight from my old books. So this one received a title to finish it off. 

If your interested in following along I will be putting together a board over on Pinterest. You can also find me over on Instagram. Have a wonderful day and thanks for following along!

Here and Now

One of my favorite things to post used to be what I called "Here and Now". Of course this was several years ago when I was better about posting on my blog on a regular basis. Usually the photos that I shared were just snap shots of whatever was happening or how things really looked in that moment. It was a fun way to share a piece of my life with others and a fun thing to look back on and remember. 

This morning I had a few things on my kitchen counter that got me thinking about how grateful I was for different people and things in my life. So this inspired me to take a quick photo of these things. 

So this photo was actually set up just a bit, but in reality these things were just hanging out on my counter! The wonderful tomatoes are from my mom's garden. They are super yummy and one of my daughter's favorites! The thing is my mom loves tomatoes to! One thing that I really love about my mom though is the fact that she is so giving! Funny how something so simple can bring up so many memories and make me think about those things. 

The oils and diffuser here are also another thing that I'm very grateful for. I spent a lot of time looking into these and trying decide if these were something for me and my family. I finally decided to give them a try this past September.  They are something we use daily in our house and has become a great help with so many things and something else I've been very grateful for! One of my favorites is the orange oil. I love mixing it with other oils or just using it by itself! Today it found it's way into my diffuser.

The last thing on the counter is the sweet little jar of homemade jam. It's amazing the memories and thoughts that one little jar like this can bring to me. Four years ago our oldest daughter passed away at the age of 16 and it was and has been a very difficult thing for our family. At that time we had a friend that checked on us on a regular basis. In the beginning I think he was here once a week. Just to let us know that he cared and was thinking of us. A lot of the times he would bring us jam that his wife had made. It quickly became a favorite for our family. Sometimes I had to hide it in the fridge to make it last. As time has gone by this dear friend has continued to stop by and say hi and drop off treats for our family. Our family always enjoys the treats, but really we appreciate the thoughtfulness and the support of this wonderful couple! They have shared many hugs and tears with us over the years. Yesterday my daughter answered the door to this sweet treat again with a hug. I'm so grateful for the friendship and the love that they have showed and continue to show our family.

So as I look at this photo of just a few simple things on my counter I'm amazed at the simple things in life that bring such happiness and joy. So today I'm holding onto those wonderful things! I'm grateful and my heart is full! 

More of The 100 Day Project

Follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pintrest

Just wanted to pop in and share some more of my mini art pieces that I've been doing for The 100 Day Project that I started. I actually fell behind this past week due to being sick. I still have a few finished ones to share with you.

 

I decided to go ahead and make some mini houses here. I have loved the shape and meaning of houses/homes for a long time so these are always so much fun to do. 

In this next little set I went with another house and then a fun little flag shape. I think a few of the flags would be so cute strung together for a journal page or something. 

 

This is the last one I have to share this week. When I was looking for words in my pages these two just jumped out at me. I love the word hope!

Now that I'm feeling better I'm anxious to get back into my studio and create again. I've really enjoyed the creative time I've taken to do these. 

I also wanted to let you know about another challenge that is coming up in June. It's ICAD (Index Card A Day). This will be the third year that I'm following along with this challenge. It's always so fun and helps me to grow and learn more about my process and I'm always inspired by the other artists that share their cards.

If you are interested in playing along you can find out more information over at the Daisy Yellow blog. There is also a fun Facebook group set up for everyone to share their work and be inspired. 

I'm still so excited about a few other new things I've been doing this year. I can't wait to share them with you! Hoping you have a great week!

The 100 Day Project

Oh it's been too long again since I've posted. I keeping making a goal for myself to be better about my blogging and for some reason it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of my list! Yikes. Going to give it another go!

I've been working on a lot of new fun things over the past several months and want to start sharing those on my blog. 

The most recent is a creative challenge that I found. It's called "The 100 Day Project" It started on April 6th and has been such a fun process. It came along at just the right time. I had gotten caught up in the everyday life and just stuff. I set my personal creating time aside and just left it. I guess I tend to go through spurts like that. I find though that if I can get in some personal creating on a regular basis I'm much happier and better off. 

So for the challenge I decided to create "mini art". I've really missed those little pieces that I was creating. I usually try to keep them to no bigger then 2 x 3 inches. I create them in several different shapes and sizes under those dimensions. I thought it would be fun to get back to my mini pieces again. Right now we are on day 19 of the project and I've completed 24 pieces so far. Since these are so small there are days that I create more then one. I'm okay with that, because there are days when I don't make it to my mini's at all.  I thought I would share with you the ones I've created this past week. 

 

These 3 are #'s 19-21. They are 2 inch circles created with acrylics, water color, pen, and words. 

This next set are #'s 22-24. I have a mixture here, but nothing over 2 inches big. This is the first tag shape I've done. These are done with the same materials and I've also added in some collage pieces as well. 

I've shared all the other mini pieces on my Instagram and my Facebook page. I hope you will join the challenge and follow along with me! I look forward to my creative time and miss it when I can't fit it in. Something else I'm working on! Can't wait to see what you create for this challenge! I hope you will join and share!

Color Inspiration

Sorry I missed you last week! I think I realized probably on Wed. that I hadn't done my weekly color post. Ooops! So I'm back and finding some inspiration in so many colors right now. 

As I was looking through my stash of saved photos on Pinterest this one just stood out to me. Maybe because it's just bright and cheery! I'm loving the pop of yellow. Funny thing because when I was younger my least favorite color was yellow. That has since changed! I love yellow now! It just adds that little something that makes me happy! 

So I did some reading about the color yellow and I found this "Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy." Lots of fun information on the color yellow here and here.

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Probably my favorite way to add yellow in my house is with lemons. I love the idea of slicing some fresh lemons and adding them to water with some simple flowers. If you need something quick and easy though just add some lemons to one of your favorite bowls and set it out. 

What color do you like to pair up with yellow? I found some fun combinations that will hopefully inspire you. 

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Simple and soft use of yellow and green here.

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How about the bright and cheery combination of yellow with navy? I'm also loving the patterns on the straws here. What fun colors to create a party around!

 

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While I was looking I found that yellow was used a lot with aqua or turquoise. It must still be a pretty popular color combo! Along with this picture is a fun article on how to mix patterns and colors. Check it out. 

So this week I'm keeping my eyes open for different uses of yellow! I hope you follow along with me on Facebook or Instagram! I will tag my photos with #weeklycolor for you to follow along. I would love to see your yellow inspiration!

Red, Pink, and Yellow

So for my goal of trying to get back into blogging again this year I've set up myself a schedule. I'm hoping that it will help me to stay on track and post on a regular basis. 

So I thought to start our week out on Mondays we will do Color Inspiration. In the past on Instagram I've shared some and they are always a huge hit. So I thought it would be fun to carry on over here with bit of a twist.

 

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So with Valentines coming up this weekend I thought I would go with Pink and Red. I thought it was a fun pop adding the yellow!  As I did some searching for things in these color schemes I was amazed and inspired by all that there is out there! There are so many ways we can incorporate these colors into our homes, artwork, or whatever you are working on!

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I love this photo not only for the color inspiration, but for the fun and whimsical idea with the strings and frames! See inspiration is everywhere! This could be a super cute way to add some fun and texture to a kids room!

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Loving the pop of red in this one! Even if the table was too much for you the pillows are darling and could be changed out with the season. The soft yellow walls are warm and welcoming! Do you have anywhere you could add a pop of red?

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I love the use of color in this artwork. So if you enjoy art journaling or scrapbooking can you think of ways to include these 3 colors? Or maybe try a different media or technique inspired by this piece?

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So for the last one I loved this quote I found! This is truth in our house! Those pink and red ones are always the favorite!

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook I will be adding new photos this week that are inspired by this color combo! I would love to see what you have! Tag them with #weeklycolor. In the meantime I hope you are able to find inspiration in all the wonderful places around you! Keep your eyes open for those Pink, Red, and Yellow combos!

 

 

Custom orders

We love doing custom orders!

Just wanted to pop in and share a few custom orders that I've just finished up this week. 

These cute chalkboard tags are on their way to their new home! In our Etsy shop we sale these with wire hangers and a piece of ribbon. Our customer wanted to hang them with just ribbon. So we made her a custom order!

She shared with me what she is going to use them for. She said she has a wall with photos of places she's traveled and visited. She wants to hang these with the photos and label the locations of her travels. How fun is that?! I love hearing the ideas and ways others are using our items!

 

 

These cute white magnets we usually offer in a set of four. For a recent custom order we did 14 magnets all individually packaged. They are going to be used for party favors at a babyshower. I love that idea! Who wouldn't want to go home with something like this?!

 

 

This is a quick shot of my desk of part of the process of these darling little packages. I love how they turned out. I'm hoping they all love them as much as I do!

 

 

Here they are in their own little package with some vintage music paper and topped off with sweet little butterflies. I think they would look darling all nesteled in a cute little basket or container.

 

 

So many fun and different ways to package these up to match any event or party! If you are in need of a custom order let us know! 

Next week I will show you how to make these sweet little tag toppers in case you want to try it on your own!