Project List

A quick card made with Paper Wishes supplies to use up stuff!

I'm taking the new On-line Card Class, Stretch Your Stamps. It starts on Monday. So guess what I did today? Yup, went through my old rubber stamps to see what I had that would fit my supplies list. I re-discovered some well loved stamps but mostly I looked at some and said, "I wonder why I kept that one?" But no more to be weeded out until after the class. After all, they may be just the stamp I need for a new idea!

I haven't done much in the Art Journal lately. That's probably because I took another on-line class at Joggles.com. It was an altered journal with instructor Sarah Whitmore. This expanded a few horizons for me as I was strictly using paper and ink in my altered books and papercrafts. I was able to learn a bit more about more "artsy" vehicles like gesso, matte medium, heavy body acrylics, and fluid acrylics. My project really didn't turn out fantastic but I viewed the whole experience as a learning experiment. I wasn't expecting dramatic, beautiful results. But it was nice to play with new toys and keep them on the radar for future projects.

And speaking of future projects, I'm going to list a few here that I want to get to work on as I clear my "calender". See, I do a lot of crafty things for my letterboxing hobby, and I need to get that project list cleared before I can really start the other things. Naturally, my budget is going to limit my projects as well but since I have so many supplies already, I think Time will be my bigger enemy.
So once I get the new LetterPost LTC edition out and my "Black Hole" Postal completed. I may have time to work on some of these projects that have been on my back burner since February!

1. The Ocean Book: Secrets of the Sea?
     I wrote about this as my Great Idea...but things haven't worked out well. I did use the Harry Potter book to carve out but my idea to be able to flip the chunks of pages just wasn't working. The book had no flexibility. So it would have worked either as a solid carved out book, or as a more art journal type book (which is the way I usually envision my altered books). I just trashed the book and the idea at the time and moved on. BUT I still have all this Sea/Ocean/Nautical related stuff. AND I still have my LARGE book to work in. SO, I will put this on my list as a "Just try to get it done" project...don't go all and try new stuff...just start it and like it and finish it.

2. Steampunk Travelers and Jewelry
     I'm heading to a Letterbox gathering in October and the theme is Steampunk, which I ADORE! I love the vintage yet futuristic look of it. It's going to be a big event and we have to come in costume. I have the costume pretty well picked out. I can just add a few accessories and be ready to roll. I'd like to see if I can find a pair of boots and a hat. I really want to make a few jewelry pieces that would top off the look. I found this cool metal link belt at a flea market and plan to dress that up. I'd like to do a pendant or two as well, one of which would sport a rubber stamp of an Evil Eye.
     But this gathering also requires a new carving of a Traveler to represent your Steampunk identity. Once I nail down an image, I think it will be quick work to carve it. But it's deciding on the image that is taking so long. I keep flip-flopping on what it should be. I like the idea of a Viking Ship dirigible but don't know if it fits well enough into my costume as I'm going as a gypsy fortune-teller. And that lends itself to all kinds of fun images like crystal balls, tarot cards, and evil eyes. So I'm still thinking...

3. Tag Books of Poe: Short stories, Poe(m)s
     Always been a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe. I altered a book of his collected short stories and poems as my very first altered book project. I like it and think it turned out pretty cool for what I could do at the time. Now I want to do a Tag Book. Take those manila shipping tags and use them to represent a short story or poem. A quote from the work would go on the back. I already have a bunch of sketches and ideas written down for the poems and a couple for the stories. It's just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

4. Recipe Book
     I have been wanting to do this FOREVER! I need to collect all my favorite recipes, tried and untried, family ones and modern ones, and put them all under one "roof". They need a permanent home. Right now, I have recipes floating around from magazines, little books of recipes with one or two that I really like, and recipes from larger collections that aren't readily at my fingertips when I'm trying to think of what I could make for dinner this week.  I would like to do a digital scrapbook of some of them; the Family recipes. That way, I can have multiple copies made and share them with my siblings. Then, the rest could go into some form of binder that I can just open and flip through...all the recipes would be what I like with ingredients that are readily available. And it could be expanded simply by adding a new page protector.
     The first step of this process is gathering up the recipes that are, at this moment, mocking me from three different spots in my room and a couple downstairs. I need to gather the recipes and type them into Word so that I can easily access them for a digital version.

5. the LetterPost: Autumn; Mystery
     Depending on the timing, this will move up my priority list sooner rather than later as my deadline for this issue is August 24. I have to come up with a solvable mystery for this issue. A mind bender that people can figure out through hints and clues provided throughout the Zine. I've done this kind of thing before but it's very detailed oriented. If one of the details doesn't make sense, the mystery may not be solvable. But once I come up with a scenario, the details should work themselves out. Those then, turn into clues. The time-consuming part will be making those clues not so straight-forward.

6. Make more Cards!!!
     I'm going to put this on my list so that I have something that will get done! I make greeting cards to just keep busy when I'm stuck. I don't expect them to be great works but I do try to make them pretty and mailable. This is my guarantee that I'll get something done on this list!

Wy
"A ship in port is safe but that's not what ships are built for." ---Grace Murray Hopper