'Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Tiny Crash!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and welcome,

Last week when I was doing a massive rubber stamping session, there was a wee little bit of a crash when I was pounding the stamps. Oops!

That black thing on it's side is a spinner/carousel from the office supply store (Staples). Of sourse, all the paper clips and other supplies were scatterd across my workstation. But it only took me about 20 minutes to recover, regroup and re-organize. Hallelujah!

Here is my workstation al nice and tidy again - at least, TIDY for me!

What about you? Have you had a little - or big - accident in your studio? Your comments and new followers are always encouraged.

Thanks for stopping by - and please come back again.

Peace,
LuLu

WOYWW - 01/26/11 "Cut 'em, Stick 'em, Bind 'em, Test 'em, Rock 'em!"

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

I've been super busy - cutting, gluing, assembling, testing and experimenting. In addition to going to physical therapy for my sprained ankle - which is not healing as fast as would be expected. Darn it!

I also re-organized my workstation - again. Trying to get non-essentials off the table - it was getting too cluttered again...and my workspace was shrinking...Here's what is on my workstation for WOYWW.

1) Cutting and gluing fancy patterned scrap booking card stock and recycled cardboard. Sizes are 2.5" x 3", 4" x 4", 6" x 6" and more . The glued pieces of card stock and cardboard will be used as pages for some of my art journals. They will be very sturdy substrates with patterns in the bottom layer. I'm using a lot of glue sticks and do this step while watching a DVD movie!

2) Assembling fancy patterned scrap booking card stock pages interleaved with vellum pages and patterned transparencies. These pages are 3" x 6" and are almost ready for punching and binding. I really enjoy how the vellum and transparencies obscure the patterned card stock - just a tad... 


3) Testing how wax paper, deli paper and freezer paper behave when heated with a craft iron. Wondering if they will act as an adhesive when melted. Guess what? They don't really. Only the freezer paper adhered permanently when it was ironed to another piece of freezer paper. The wax paper and deli paper adhered temporarily.


4) Experimenting with my binding machine (ZUTTER Bind It All) to practice punching holes and attaching wire for my art journals. I've had a cute little Bind IT All machine for 2 years - and just now am learning how to use it! There was an instructional DVD in the box (I bought it used from a scrap booking buddy - thanks, Marisa!) It was pretty easy, I practiced on scraps first. The punching was foolproof. The first journal I bound had squished wires instead of circular. Operator error! After I tweaked the machine for the proper size of wire, the binding worked great on the next journal. It was nice and circular. Then I punched and bound a couple more before hitting the hay last night. #4 is displaying a length of wire that I cut to bind the pages assembled in #2 above.

5) Rocking - almost! My invitiation to the GRAMMY AWARDS in Los Angeles, California just arrived a few days ago! Wish I could afford to go next month. Almost made it to the GRAMMY AWARDS show in New York City at radio City Music Hall several years ago. It would be so exciting to go next month. Wouldn't it be fantastic to see all those musicians singing and dancing live onstage?! Maybe I'll get to go in 2012...

6) Cutting - finally bought a pair of T.H. Tonic scissors! They work great. I  used them to cut the binding wires, instead of wire cutters. Bought the scissors with my 40% off discount coupon at Michaels!

Well that's what's on my workstation for now for now. Click here to take a peak at other artists' digs.

Would love for you to be a Follower if you're not already. And comments are encouraged. What do you think of this post - or any of my other posts? Did you see the post about the Altered Book I made for my hubby's Christmas gift? Check it out - there's a link to photobucket.com with lots of photos of this Altered Book.

Thanks for stopping by - hope you can come back soon.

Peace,
LuLu

'...till the sun grows cold...' Altered Book!

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes


Howdy and welcome,

'...till the sun grows cold...'

 

Ingredients: Altered book from recycled calendar/photo album, gessos, acrylic paints, glazes, ink, image transfers, markers, gel pens, glaze pens, colored pencils, tissue tapes, ribbons, acrylic tags, rub ons, stickers, vellum sentiments, embossed aluminum tape

For this past Christmas, I gave my hubby an altered book I worked on starting on Sep 30, 2010 and finished on Christmas Eve. The title, '...till the sun grows cold...', comes from a line in one of the poems (not mine) I added to this book.

Altered Book Covers



This is my 1st time using photobucket.com albums. I'll post more pages from this altered book later as I load them to photobucket.com. Meanwhile, click below above to see the covers.

I'd love your comments about this post - and I encourage you to become a Follower, if you're not already.

Thanks for stopping by - please come back again soon.

Peace,

LuLu

P.S. The book I altered is called 'MyBook Adaptable Planner' by Per Annum. These planners come in 2 sizes. Mine is the smallest version ($20), 4"x6" and I used my 3"x5" photos in it. (I have my FILM processed offsite and have them add the white border  so I don't need to do any matting, unless I want to add more. Although I also use digi camers, for the majority of my photography I use my Canon Sure Shot film camera. Works fine for pmy purposes.)

'LIT - List It Tuesday 1/11 - Nouveau Words!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and welcome,

For LIT List IT Tuesday, I have seven new words to add to my vocabularly. Most are from watching a tv special over the holidays.

'Nouveau Words' -
Ingredients: Pigment marker on wallpaper sample,
scanned and tweaked digitally in Adobe PSE and Microsoft DIE

I love words. I love reading even dictionaries and thesauri. I love word games. I love languages. It's always neat to me when I find new words to add to my vocabulary. Imperium, diaspora, mestisos, presbyters, essene, eschatological, esprit d'escalier.

What about you? Do you enjoy reading? Do you enjoy the sound of the English language? or hearing  the sound of other languages? Sometimes I even speak French in my dreams!

I'd love to see your comments about this post - or any of my other posts.

Thanks for visiting. Followers are encouraged!

More LIT lists are here if you wanna take a gander.

Peace,
LuLu

'WOYWW - Makin' a mess!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

For WOYWW this week, my workspace has some altered books that I'm prepping to be travel journals.

"Makin' a Mess" -
vintage kids books, gessos, wax paper, deli paper, rubbermaid containers

Left book is an old hardcover Golden kids book. Right book is a softcover kids book. Over the past few months, both books have been slathered with multiple layers of gesso (tinted, clear and white). This was after pages were removed and alternate pages adhered together for more support. Page corners are decorated with my 'homemade' embossed aluminum tape. Just finished another gesso layer and they're going to dry overnight.

Some of the rubbermaid containers were a failed idea. A while back I mixed several colors of tinted gesso. The few that I covered with plastic wrap  before putting on the lid all dried out. Oh, well - you live and learn. At least they didn't all dry out!

Have you tried your hand at altering old books yet? How do you prep your books? Do you spend a long time in the 'PREP' phase like I do?! I'd love to see some of your 'prepped' works in progress.

Please comment about this post - or any of my other posts. Here's a peek at more artist spaces at the WOYWW blog hop.

Thanks for visiting and please stop by again soon.

Peace,
LuLu

LIT - These Are A Few of My Favorite Fun Things!

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,
This week for List It Tuesday here are some fun things I LUV to do!

'Fun Things' -
gel pens, glaze pen, on scrapbooking journal spot

What are some of the fun things that you luv to do? Would love to see your comments on this - or any of my posts.

Here are more lists if you want to sneak a peek.


Peace,
LuLu

LuLu's Published Poetry - Fall 2010!

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy, welcome and Happy New Year!

As promised last year, here is the 'BAC Street Journal' where another of my poems was published in Fall 2010!

As always, I'd love to see your comments about this post - or any of my posts.
Hope your holidays were good!

Peace,
LuLu