rubber stamping, collage, mixed media & altered art

This coming April, we’ll have been in our house 2 years and since we moved in, I have been searching for the most economical way to work with the space in my office to be as efficient as possible and to not be overwhelmed by clutter all of the time. While I would love to Elfa out the the whole place, that’s just not affordable. Even the kitchen cabinets and stuff I checked out at home improvement stores just wasn’t in our budget. The most affordable thing I found to use in the studio, which is also really heavy duty and durable, as well as pretty flexible, are the cool chrome shelving units we found at Sam’s. We had used them in the kitchen when we had no pantry and then they were moved down to the studio when we updated the kitchen.

In the past month or so, I came up with a new layout. I felt kind of bad because Tim and I spent Independence Day weekend moving stuff around and I was going to make him work again, but of course, he just wants to make me happy. How awesome is he? Anyway, the difference between this office move and the last is that I am really organizing all of my stuff. Not just shoving stuff around, but going through every drawer, box and bin to see what I really have. I have found all kinds of amazing things I’ve forgotten about. And oh man, you would not believe the paper stash!!

So here’s how it went:

Day 1: Tim and I assessed the plan and decided in what order everything was going to move and what we had to do to make that happen. You see, the idea of moving everything out and starting from scratch is way too much for me, so we decided to move things a bit at a time…a desk here, a file cabinet there, stacking things and shoving things out of the way for each phase of the move. I put away as much loose stuff as I could and began shoving everything out of the way.  We moved the desks and set up one of the shelving units to hold all of the electronic equipment. We also moved Tim’s computer downstairs so we could free up space in the family room.

The morning of Day 2, I took these photos:

day 2 - everything shoved to one side of the room	Day 2 - closeup of shoved stuff

Day 2: Tim and I kept moving things and we built the new shelving unit so it would be two 3-shelf units. We also broke apart one of the units that was already in the room and lined them all up along the wall underneath the built-in bookshelves. We also moved my craft table and the big table into the center of the room. I thought it would be cool to set up the little craft table over by the window so I can use that for sewing. My original plan is to make the worktable free of anything other than what I’m actually working on. I also emptied all of the iris carts (except for 2) and now I am the proud owner of many bankers boxes with orange sticky notes on them that say “sort”.

Day 3: I was really tired and only spent an hour or two arranging things and doing light sorting.

Day 4: Today, I spent all day again and got everything off the floor, into boxes for later sorting or placed in their final (or semi-final) homes. I can see where a few things are going to get moved, but not until I’m completely done sorting and know what I have. So now I’m making lists of the stuff I need to sort (rubber stamps, magazines, the closet, the boxes that say “sort”…) and I’m planning on tackling one item a week until it’s all done. I’m really excited!

Final - office side	Final - center of room — worktables
Final - studio side of room - taken from window end	Final - view of room from window end

So that’s what I did on my “break”. I’m really pooped, but very satisfied with my progress.

Plans for 2009 include:

• Finishing UFOs — I found two shelves’ worth during the reorg!
• Learning to play
• Working on my heart’s desire stuff and
• Figuring out who I am as an artist and where I want to go with it.

I’m not going to join swaps willy nilly and I’m not committing to anything that doesn’t help me in some way toward my goals.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Today wasn’t a superbly creative day, other than dealing the usual work challenges. The closest I got to art was photographing the last two days of journaling and pulling together supplies for the next three days of workshops with Kelly Kilmer. Kelly is one of my favorite instructors and I have been chomping at the bit for this weekend to hurry up and get here! I will have no problem meeting my personal challenge of art every day for the next three days, which is why I’m going so easy on myself today.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Now I know you are going to find this shocking, but today didn’t go as well as I had hoped in the creativity department. Better than most work days, however.

There’s a client of mine, a scrapbooking store in Plymouth, Indiana, that needed a rush post card mailing to be done today. It took a while to get it all to come together, due to a number of circumstances completely beyond my control and I am about 85% pleased with the job I did. I don’t get to do print work for my clients very often, so I find it to be a nice change of pace. I had to be very creative today, believe me!

And when that was completed, another client asked for a rush job on a business card layout, so I got to do it all over again!

Now I’m going to go sit on the sofa and doodle (which I didn’t actually get to last night after all) while my awesome husband makes dinner.

I joined a local group, led by two art therapists, called “Creating Your Heart’s Desire”, based on the book “Your Heart’s Desire: Instructions for Creating the Life You Really Want” by Sonia Choquette. This is the first week’s project, where we focused on the “stuff” we have that makes us who we are, which we can use in our journey towards our heart’s desires.

The premise of the book, from what I can tell, is that if you focus on what it is you need, you cannot help but get it. It’s similar to the premise of a favorite book of mine, “Write it Down, Make it Happen,” by Henriette Anne Klauser. This isn’t a “Gee, I really want a millions dollars” and then sitting back and waiting for it to happen to you. It’s about focusing and bringing it to yourself.

I have a set of intentions for myself in the next few years. I’ve started working on them and although they seem impossible, I know they aren’t. In thinking back on my life, I’ve always been a do-er…a person who makes things happen. Life has dealt some really sucky blows that have stalled me now and then, but I have bounced back from every one of them. I am hanging this scroll in my studio as a reminder of the gifts and strengths I possess which will get me through the stuff I’m facing.

And if you’re interested in either of these books, check them out:

I have been doing less and less art lately. Mom visited for a week and then we took her to her sister’s house in Carbondale and spent last weekend there. I’ve also been trying to catch up on work (which exploded) this past week while she was out there. Auntie and cousin and small cousin (once removed) and tiny dog brought mom back yesterday and we had an evening and morning of hilarity. They’ve all headed home and the house is fairly quiet again, but Mom’s still here for a few more days before life gets back to normal. We have a little crafty itinerary, so I’m hoping I will post something yummy here in the next few days. Later today, we’re going to The Artists’ Nook, since mom hasn’t been there yet and I’ll probably teach mom some techniques tomorrow. She’s already collected some fallen leaves from my yard, so we’ll do some prints, I think! yay!

For now, I’ll just post this collage I did the week before last as a part of Collage Play With Crowabout. Clicky to see a larger version.

And once again, the lovely, talented and inspirational Tiffini Elektra X has eloquently verbalized exactly what I’ve been thinking for ages.

Click the logo to visit her site and read more. I would like to add to this thought, however:
As much as I love comments (and I DO read them ALL!), I simply cannot reply to them all. If I did, I’d never create art (which keeps me ticking) or build websites (which is my bread and butter) or, more importantly, read your blogs! Thank you for your support and understanding.

I have a number of new posts in progress, but none of them are ready to go now. They’ll get done when they get done. *kisses*

This past weekend, I took a workshop called “Voluptuous Discards” with Lynne Perella. Lynne is an excellent teacher and takes a lot of time with all of her students. I learn a lot from her and I appreciate the attention she gives to everybody’s work. I had taken this class two years ago, so I felt a bit more confident that last time and I just went nuts and had a great time with my layers. I rarely have this kind of time to spend on one piece, so I really enjoyed the process. At the end of the class, we turned our paintings into “easy books”, with some folding and one cut. My flickr set for this class shows each “page” of the book. The book is rather large (9″x14″) so the whole thing doesn’t fit on my scanner bed, but you’ll get the idea.

I also had some fun with gift wrap this weekend. My sister Angela turned 40 and I wrapped up a bunch of little gifts for her. I also wrote her a letter describing my story behind the gifts and stamped corresponding tags for each gift. It was fun to pull out my funny, off color stamps. I’m hoping my sister will enjoy opening her gifts as much as I hope she likes the gifts themselves.

I was searching for something clever to say, other than “Hey, look at the Moshi Doll I made in Leighanna Light’s workshop a couple of weeks ago!” But I don’t have anything really thought-provoking. I’m so pleased with the way she came out, though. And, as I found last time I took a class from Leighanna, she really helped me stretch myself during the creation process. I’m still in the process of finishing the other things I made in Leighanna’s classes and I love them all.

So, the big exciting news is that Tim and I spent all of Thursday night and part of Friday moving around furniture in my studio/office and I’ve been reorganizing. I’m rethinking how I work, how I used my supplies, and I’m trying to use what I have, both for keeping organized and for creating new pieces. When I’m ready for photos, I’ll put them up. I did sort through my rubber stamps and found a bunch that I don’t use much anymore, so I thought I’d put them on my shop. Come on, you know you need them!

Second bit of exciting news: I set up a Zazzle shop! As time goes on, I’ll add some items with my artwork on them. For now, I just have some basic t-shirts with silly things that randomly came out of my mouth in the past. Check it out!