'WOYWW 12-4-13 - GIVEAWAY, The Mess, Spray Mini-Move and Eye Candy!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes


Howdy and Welcome,

Here's the mess...The table really was tidy a few days ago - didn't take a photo then. This was the state of things on my craft studio table after I had attended 2 back-to-back weekend retreats. And had moved on to play on another project. Now 'the mess' goblins attacked again...

 The MESS

EYE CANDY

When I went to upload 'the mess' pix, I found pix I had taken a while back and forgotten about. Months ago, I spent a few hours embellishing some acrylic tags by painting them with Copic markers and alcohol ink. Don't they look luscious? I call them eye candy. That was a really fun and easy project!

 Eye Candy Tags

 

 Eye Candy Tags

 

 

SPRAY MINI-MOVE

 

Hubby and I are in the process of moving portions of my craft studio to our basement - more space and shelf units down there. Yes, it is a long walk when inspiration hits, but the studio is just too crowded. I had to do some re-organizing. Spray painting in the basement made sense to me because this is where I will be closer to the water faucets.

 

He gave me an old table he had used for BBQing - it was just storing some old supplies. Below is the BEFORE photo of the sprays in my studio corner cabinet (under my owl collection and Granny White's bust). Next are the AFTER photos of the sprays in the basement plus the giant spray box my hubby had made for me.

 

This spray box was on the front porch. So now all the supplies I need for spray painting are consolidated into one area. The papers inside the box are ready and waiting to be spray painted... Yes, the basement IS ugly, but I don't care as long as I can spread out and work comfortably.

 

 Before Spray Mini-Move

 

 After Spray Mini-Move

 

Giant  Spray Box and

repurposed table

 

GIVEAWAY

If you are a scrapbooker or do art journals or altered books, visit my Blogoversary Giveaway. Fun prizes for one lucky winner. Ends in December!

Want to see more artists work tables? Click here for Julia's WOYWW!

Thanks for stopping by - please leave a comment and come back soon!

Peace,
LuLu

'WOYWW - 28 Aug 2013 - Tidy, Tinkering and Tips!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

I've been enjoying the summer weather here in Chicago, but now I'm hoping to post more regularly. This week for WOYWW, I thought I'd give you a peek at my desk when it was tidy. This was just before my hubby and I went on vacation/holiday to visit his relatives in NY state last week. 

I was tinkering around - because I needed to reorganize some of my supplies -  and cobbled together some storage containers for my Stickles, Distress Stickles refills, Studio medium and more. I did not want to pay moola for a solution.

STORAGE TIP
So the trick I used was to take the caps off of my spray ink/Glimmer Mist/Dylusions bottles, turn the caps upside down and glue them into some plastic trays from my stash.

FROM FAILURE TO SUCCESS
My 1st attempt, was not 100% successful...I had glued (E6000) the caps too close together so when I inserted the upside down bottles they didn't quite fit. No worries - I popped out most of the caps and spaced them a wee bit further apart.


These trays now sit on my work table in shelves within arms reach - they were too far away before I discovered this solution.

These pix show my second attempt - success!

 The black tray shows a few empty caps, just begging for new supplies!

 

 

 The clear bead box stores some Lumiere metallic fabric paints.

 

 

 

YOUR TURN

How do you store your Stickles and small bottles? Do you use a store bought solution? Or do you like to cobble together solutions from your stash and stuff found around the house?

 

Thanks for stopping by - I'd love for you to comment on this post, or any of my other posts. And please become a Follower if you aren't already - goodies for Followers coming this Autumn!

 

 

For a peak at other fun workspaces, click here for WOYWW!

 

Peace,

LuLu

'WOYWW - 06/13/2012 - TUTORIAL: Steampunk Art Journal / Smash Book / Scrapbook!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes


Howdy and Welcome,

For WOYWW this week, thought I'd show you the book I'm presenting to Daddy on Sunday Father's Day. This week is also his 80th birthday! Daddy goes scrapbooking with me once a month at Aunt Alma's house. She's 95 years old!

This is sold as a BRAG BOOK (by Fancy Pants) that I found at Archivers during their long weekend crop last week. It's designed like a combo Smash book and scrapbook - with clear plastic page protectors for photos, lined pages for journaling and 15 sections divded by thick cardstock pockets. It looked very sturdy - now I want to buy more! Update: It is sturday. I made the book SO FAST! I bought another BRAG BOOK for more vintage heritge ephemera I recently was given. I hope to have the 2nd book completed in time for our annual August 2012 family reunion. Ha! Ha!

I decided to use it as a scrapbook / art journal including photos of Daddy through the years with captions for the photos as my journaling. This book makes it super, duper fast to do scrapbooking - and I'm always on the lookout to scrapbook faster! Aren't we all?

Here are the steps I used. You're welcome to use my steps as a pseudo -  tutorial.

SUPPLIES

·        Acrylic  paint - gold

      ·        Brag book or Smash book
      ·        Bubble wrap
      ·        chain
      ·        dimensional items – your choice
      ·        fishing lure holders
      ·        Gold paints to ‘gild’ cover edges (test and experiment first)
      ·        Heat tool
      ·        Heavy gel medium
      ·        jump rings
      ·        Old hotel keycard or putty/spackle knife – 2”
      ·        Paint brush -  ¼” round
      ·        Pattern scrapbook paper/cardstock
      ·        pliers - chain nose, round nose
      ·        ribbons (7"-8")
      ·        Spray ink
      ·        Table cloth or craft mat
      ·        Tape runner (permanent)
      ·        Tim Holtz distress charms
      ·        Tim Holtz Tonic Scissors
      ·        Vinyl gloves (opt)
      ·        Water container



PSEUDO TUTORIAL

First, I removed some of the lined pages (as usual), because it was already FAT when I bought it. So I knew that adding more would make it gi-normous!

Next, while still at the weekend crop, I started adhering pattern scrapbook paper to each lined page, the inside covers, and the pocket pages. Easy peasy! Then I added ribbons to the wire binding. Also added, tabs I made to the edges of each section divider pocket.

When I returned home, I started playing with the covers. Adhered torn pattern scrapbook cardstock, gilded the edges with various gold paints, spray painted the covers with blue and green spray ink found at Archivers. Very messy, but good thing I used my 'spray box'. Great investment.

Then, for the front cover, I adhered foam letters and spray painted them with spray ink. I randomly stamped both covers with gold acrylic paint using bubble wrap  that I'd wrapped around my hand. Then I gathered a bunch of dimensional items and glued them on using generous amounts of 'heavy gel medium' (Golden). I did a layout on freezer paper to test the composition first.

Some items I adhered were washers, springs, foreign and domestic coins, dice, watch parts, vintage CTA tokens, Monopoly game tokens, bingo tokens, flattened bottle caps, keys and calculator parts.

Compostion test

After I was satisfied with the test, I started gluing down the various items. I glued items over a few days - letting the cover dry overnight. I've been adding some photos in the page protectors.

Added chains, fishing lure holders, keyring, skeleton key and Tim Holtz distress charms to the wire binding.

Also, I found Daddy's 1932 christening dress and slip with Granny's handwritten notes, which I added in an archival ziplock bag. I punched holes in the bag first using my Bind It All (BIA).Then cut a slit in each hole with Tim Holtz Tonic scissors. Luckily, the placement of the BIA holes matched the wire binding!

Front Cover

 Back Cover

The book got fat again, and I'm not even half finsihed!

 Front fan

Top fan

What do you think of the front cover? Have you ever used dimensional objects in your art work? If so, what is your favorite glue for heavy objects?

Thanks for stopping by -  and don't forget to comment. Please come back soon.

More artist studios for WOYWW are here.

Peace,
LuLu