a jar of jars

 i had SO much fun drawing and painting my little micro-jars,

but once i cut the page apart, i had a nice pile of micro-goodness... 

and all those illustrations were going to be hard to keep track of!

just like my chair collection, they needed a home.

so i grabbed two pieces of vellum and drew a jar on the top sheet…..

and then i sewed a tag on the front, 

along with some "lid lines" at the top.

then i clipped the two sheets together to keep them from moving around,

and sewed them together around the side and bottom edges.

once it was sewn, i trimmed the edges and filled my jar 

with all of those sweet little micro-jars!

these are my absolute favorite kind of projects…..

super easy, super functional, and super cute!

{supplies:  vellum paper, micron, scrapbook paper, 

colored pencils, pigment ink pad, 6B pencil, sewing machine}

inspiration monday

when i was a kid in school, i took home economics instead

of art classes, and i discovered waaaay back then

that i truly love to sew.

and even though i started out sewing clothes for my barbies and my troll dolls,

my favorite thing to do now is create fun things for our home. 

so when i found this free tutorial over at craftsy,  my fingers 

started itching to get stitching again!

this sweet little bucket bag was super easy to put together…..

and there's lots of special pockets on the outside  

to hold lots of special and important stuff.

 so now, my journals and all those other things that inspire me

 are never too far away! 

{click here for a free craftsy bucket bag tutorial….

signing up for an account using an e-mail address is required,

but this class is free!}

{bucket bag fabric:  mill creek/crosby blackout and mustard polka dot }

inspiration monday

i recently found a super fun video by joanne fink where she shows how to create her gorgeous  decorated letters in her own "zenspiration" style!  i really love the way she adds doodles and doodads in all those wonderful little blank spaces........and then i started wondering how could i go about putting my own spin on it?  so instead of drawing my letter on paper like joanne does, i drew an "L" on a piece of heavyweight muslin fabric using a micron.

 then i took it to my sewing maching and filled in some of those empty spaces using 

different colors of thread.

when i was done making a mess with the sewing machine (i'm a total newbie when it comes to free-motion stitching!),  i realized i had covered up most of my black lines.....

so i touched it up with some more micron.  

and, well, it's not exactly "zenspiration"......but it's definitely "elvie"!  :))


you can watch joanne's video here......
have fun inventing new ways to decorate your initials!

fabric play

i've been itchin' to do some stitchin', so i've cleared off my work table to make room for my sewing supplies. i love working with paper, but recently my creative path has been veering towards the softer side of art......so i'm going to spend a couple of days playing and experimenting with some fabrics, threads, ribbons, maybe a few beads.....and dryer sheets....

i hope your creative path is leading you to some fun places today!

switching gears

sometimes when i'm trying to learn a new technique......like drawing hair, for example.....and it's not going too well, i like to switch gears.

totally.

so, today i'm trading in my journal and graphite for my sewing machine and these fun mary engelbreit fabrics.

it's time for a little fabric play!

bird coptic

i just finished my latest coptic book structure.  this one has the most beautiful collaged-look decorative paper...and i really love the bird that's featured center stage.  and i got so involved in sewing the book together, that i completely forgot to add some other papers around each signature inside (of course, i noticed this omission after i was finished sewing the book together!).  so, still wanting to add a little interest to the text pages, i decided to take my scraps,  paper punches, needle, and thread, and sew some bits and pieces here and there throughout the book.  i'm loving the end result...and it seems to have satisfied (for today) this crazy obsession i have for sewing on paper!

click on each image for better view