Slowly... Slowly....

Slowly things are getting back to usual. It's been a while- I've missed you and I really want to apologize to all of you for my absence the last couple of weeks. We've been out of town since December 17th and just returned home yesterday. In that time so many things happened, expected and unexpected. Mostly all good. I did get the flu though and have yet to figure out how that happened since I thought I'd been so vigilant this year.

Unexpected things will happen I guess. So slowly the house is getting cleaned up and ready for living again. I actually cooked three meals today. We tripped over to the co op and have food in the house again. It feels so good to be home. Being with family was wonderful but really to quote Dorothy "there's no place like home". Although coming home to another 5 inches or so of snow that had to be shoveled before we could actually get the car in the garage made the homecoming a little less sweet.

So here I am again, and slowly, slowly I've been storing up things to share with you. Beautiful things like the frost and snow pictures I've been taking. Discoveries and connections I made over the holiday. Ideas I can't wait to try out. I'm realizing that a bit of a holiday from the everyday is an amazing way to not only get those creative juices flowing but making the anticipation of creating exciting again. I can't wait to play with my art supplies, to write blog posts, and to make wire art again. But I've determined to take it slowly.... I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Merry Almost Christmas!!! How Will You Celebrate?

You know sometimes I take for granted how lucky I am. I get to manage my own time for the most part, I get to chat with friends from all over without feeling like I shouldn't be, I get to wear pj's most of the day if I want. But this morning I realized yet another blessing. A friend of mine told me that they don't celebrate Christmas at their place of employment. They celebrate other religious holidays or they celebrate mythical holidays but they don't celebrate Christmas. They do get time off for Christmas or "the winter holidays" to celebrate with family and friends as they choose to, I guess that's all that matters. Still, it seems rather "grinchish" to me. No secret santa's, no decking the halls...

Here in my little world of my home we do an advent calender everyday as a count down to Christmas, we decorate, we make gingerbread houses, and presents and make secret plans to find just the right thing for daddy. It's not as much this year as in previous years because I'm on a no sugar diet so we've nixed the Christmas cookie baking and fudge making here at home. Honestly I don't do as many things as I want to do, and I tend to get too focused on getting the next thing on my holiday to do list checked off. Like "look at Christmas lights- check. Decorate tree- check. Talk about meaning of Christmas-check. Play Christmas music-check. Get holiday photo taken- check". Did you catch how easily the true meaning of Christmas gets bundled up with everything else? This year we're going to have a Christmas morning Birthday Party for Jesus. It's something I think of doing every year but gets a little lost. One year we did do a pan of caramel rolls and put birthday candles in it. Guess what happens to wax candles stuck into hot caramel rolls fresh out of the oven? Fortunately the wax cools fairly quickly and you can pick it right off the top of the rolls. This year I'm committed though.

All because when I was volunteering in Jasper's class last week I heard the teacher ask the kids what they thought Jesus wanted for his birthday. One kid said "toys!" and the teacher gently said "I don't know if Jesus really plays with toys up in heaven." Another said "a birthday party!" To which my son chimed in and said his family was going to have a birthday party for Jesus at his Grandpa and Grandma's this year. And just like that he unknowingly committed me to it. There is no way I'm going to let this opportunity slide- especially knowing that he's looking forward to it. The next little answer I heard though completely made me break down as one little girl raised her hand and said "Me!". They all got it then- Jesus wants them for a birthday present and they all jumped on the bandwagon. I'm crying now as I remember it. How sweet it was to hear a class of Kindergarteners all offer themselves to Jesus for his birthday.

So this year, I plan to be joyful- and grateful. For not only can I celebrate Christmas the way I want, but I can enjoy seeing my son turn away from the stocking and towards the star. Such a wonderful wonderful gift.

But I'd like to know: How do you celebrate Christmas? Is there a special tradition that your family has, or is there a new one you're planning on adding this year? I'd love to hear!
-

Christmas Gift Wrap on the Cheap

So I am sometimes impressed with myself. In a "wow- that turned out waaay cooler than I thought" sort of way. My Christmas gift wrapping this year is one of those things so I thought I'd share. I had some leftover fabric, some leftover brown paper, and some odds and ends that go with gift wrapping like pieces of tissue paper, and tape and all. I also had some brown paper bags I had bought for my Christmas sales that I had added a little bird cut out to. That looked cute, the fabric I had matched, so I went with it.

I also carved a Christmas candy stamp (like the one's I showed you how to make here before). Then I stamped my white tissue paper with the stamp and used it on my brown paper too. The brown paper is cheap- I got a huge roll of it in the painting section of the hardware store for less than $10. The fabric, you can buy at a quilt shop, it's Moda so not super cheap but you wouldn't have to buy lots. Really all of it I had on hand (yup more evidence of my Moda obsession). I love how you can take the same idea/materials and extend it to your mailers, your larger boxed presents, your smaller gifts, etc. They make my gifts all match and I think give all my gifts this year a really distinctive look that's very very me. :)

The tags were easy and fun to do so I thought I'd throw together a quick little how-to for you, I hope it sparks some handmade fun in your day too.

Brown Paper Christmas Tags How-To
Tools and Materials
Brown paper (you can use grocery bags) cut into tag shapes
Torn bits of vintage paper (from an old book or sheet music looks nice)
Scrap pieces of fabric cut into a strip roughly the same length as your tags
A glue stick
Scissors
Crop-a-dile with eyelet


Step One: Using your glue stick, layer your torn pieces of paper and your fabric piece on top of the brown paper tag and adhere. If you want you can use a marker or pen to doodle around the edge of your tag first.
Step Two: Use your crop- a- dile to punch a hole at the end of your tag and then add an eyelet using the crimping feature on the crop-a-dile.
Step Three: Cut another small bit of the brown paper and add to top of your layers, then write your "to: ?" info for all to see.
Step Four: Cut a thin strip of your fabric and use to tie your tag to your gift. Super easy and super cute!

I'm off to do more packing and shipping and shopping and wrapping but wanted to wish you a Happy Merry Almost Christmas! Hope your day goes well too!

The Holiday Photo Experience

Feeling under the weather today but still wanted to do a little show and tell so I've a couple of pics to post. Yesterday my son and I went to get our pictures taken at a photo studio. My mom had asked for a studio portrait of my son and with a coupon there was no reason to say no. So Jasper and I headed over to the photo studio after school. He looked so cute with his little Christmas outfit on. And he did everything the photographer told him to. If she said put your chin up, he aimed it for the ceiling. If she said lay on your tummy he went all commando flat on the ground. She said to peek over the edge of the chair and you could see his eyebrows and that's it. I kept asking him what was going on. I had anticipated this easy afternoon, after all he's almost 6. But, no. I have no idea what got into him. Maybe it was that she was pretty. Maybe it's that he had too much sugar. I asked him why he was being so silly and he said it was "what made him special." THAT reply through shivers down my spine. If he thought that behavior was "him" then I'm afraid I, and a whole boatload of teachers through the years, are really going to regret that "specialness." So after much cajoling, bribing, and lecturing, we got the session done. The photo's are great and he looks like an angel in all but one. There is one where he has all the mischievousness of his age showing in his stance, his eyes, and his look. It does show his "specialness" and I do have to admit- that's the picture I like the best.

Then last night we worked a bit more on decorating the tree. A friend recommended the hipstamatic app for the iphone so I splurged on the $1.99 and played around some with that while we were decorating. I really do enjoy taking photo's with my phone. Our camera died a couple of weeks ago though, and the camera phone just doesn't do as nice a job with my etsy photo's so I've put a new camera at the very top of my "please, santa" list this year. It's actually the only thing there so I'm hoping I've been good enough. :)

What have you asked for this Christmas? I could use a few more ideas.... :)

Making a Pattern with Your Day

This morning I alternated between coffee, clean house, play with photo's, and do laundry. I was keeping it up pretty well too. Kind of like to get my 5 yr old to eat a little of everything on his plate we'll suggest he do a pattern. First, veggie, then bun, then entree, then applesauce, then veggie... you get the idea. So in the hopes of motivating myself this morning I tried the same. The problem I have as a random-minded person is that I'll start with coffee, think of wiping of the counter, go to the closet to get a towel, remember I have towels in the laundry, go downstairs, and get distracted by the dirt on the steps, vacuum that up, notice that my coffee is cold, go to the refridgerator for some almond milk for the coffee, get the phone, notice again that the counter needs cleaning off... you get the idea. Usually I get a fair amount of work done this way, but it's never quite the list I had when I started, and I'm tired at the end of it, and don't feel like I've accomplished much.

I know some of you are like this too, and I want to encourage you to do a pattern this holiday season. In between the have-to's of the season, throw in some want to's. You know the things that energize you and refresh you. Like knitting, or watching Christmas movies, or taking a walk in the snow, or lying on the couch flipping through a few magazines. I also try to make the chores I have to do a little more "me". I have to wrap gifts- ok so let's have some fun at it and get out the mixed media supplies to make tags. You have to bring a hostess gift to some occasions, why not stitch up a quickie little wine bag or make a few ornaments?

I know it's easy to say and hard to do but I know that if I force myself to think of a chore as a creative opportunity it's less of a drain on me. I also try to do the pattern thing during the day and I have to say I do feel like I accomplish a lot more during the day if I've sprinkled in a few want-to's. After all, the laundry will be never ending, the counters will always need wiping, the fridge forever needs cleaning, but on the days I've added in a little time to do a scrapbook page, or played with some photo's, or created something, I feel better about what I've accomplished. I bet you will too. :)

Wrapping Up Some Works in Progress

Whoo- Hoo! Am I ever glad to be back here with you all. I had a busy weekend, with my second/last craft show of the season on Saturday. It was a great little show, only 15 vendors at this super cool coffee shop/studio space near where I live. I really enjoy being able to interact a bit more with people and to talk about my work with them. One thing that has become HUGELY clear is that I do a lot better at selling my book than I do my artwork in this kind of face to face venue. I think it's because if I sense someone's interested in knowing how to do wire work, then I get all animated and excited and can't wait to answer any questions they have about the medium. I do love wire. And I do have a wee bit of a fabric obsession, so it really feels natural and exciting to share my love of these through the book, and I think people sense that.

At the sale I was able to use my downtime pretty productively and finished a cuff and a couple of more stars for the garland. So now I can give you an idea of what it would look like hanging in front of a window. I also got started on a scarf I'm knitting for my son. It's beautiful painted looking yarn that made up wonderfully. I have that blocking right now. Now on to some cleaning and then we're going to do some decorating. I really haven't done much around the house yet, and my 5-yr.old just LOVES decorating so we're going to make that a priority this week.

How about you? Have you started/finished any creative projects lately? Have you been able to use those artistic abilities in your home yet? I'd love to know where you are all at and what you've been up to- so please, SHARE!!!

Mixed Media and Wire Christmas Star Tutorial

Welcome to Back to 'Tis the Season week here at Art as Usual! I've had a fabulous week getting inspired for the holidays. Here on the blog we've looked into the Peppermint Candy trend of decorating, the Winter Woodland trend, and today we're going to be dipping into the Handmade Christmas Trend. I've got two parts to the tutorial that will accompany this post so I'm going to post one part and then finish up the project and post the rest of it. It's going to be really cute though.

I'm guessing that because you're reading this that you too LOVE creating. You love the experience as well as the product you have when finished. It's really the combination of those two parts that make handmade so special. The contentment, love, and soul that goes into each piece is really something unusual in the Dollar Store businesses of today. Whereas so much of the world seems to be accumulating more and more of cheap imports, or mass-produced products, we who make things by hand are growing more and more appreciative of both our own, and others' handmade works. I love to see this happen. Now, the world being what it is, I do still purchase many of my supplies from big box craft stores and am grateful to have such easy access to them. But I LOVE the handmade art that comes of these excursions. So I'm not opposed to buying things from these stores. I just think there's something special about something that was made by a hand that was creating and not just producing as it worked.

In decorating this could mean many things. It could mean a tree that's filled with ornaments made by all members of the family. It could mean handmade stationary or gift tags, it could even mean that some of those presents under the tree were knit by hand. But however, handmade manifests itself, it always brings personality, love, care, cheer, time, uniqueness, and consideration to what you make.This year, for the first time ever, I get to put one of my own handmade angel sculpture's at the top of our tree. I can't tell you how excited I am by that.

Going handmade doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing either. Just adding a touch here or there makes such a difference and each year you can add one or two more things depending on your time. This year, I'm adding a star garland that I've had in mind for a while. I'm excited to share it with you because it's the first time I've ventured into the realm of printing my mixed media collages onto fabric. I hope you take a look, give it a try, and really enjoy your holiday surroundings this year. Let them inspire you. Make sure you LOVE your holiday space and that they really celebrate the Christmas Spirit. Enjoy!

Mixed Media Fabric and Wire Star Garland
Tools and Materials:
16-gauge and 19-gauge steel wire
Wire cutters
Pliers
Vintage/vintage looking papers
mark making supplies (stamps, pencils, china markers, inktense pencils, caran d'ache)
Distress ink with ink applicator (optional)
Adhesive
One plain piece of 8 1/2" x 11" copy paper and several same sized sheets photo fabric (canvas)
Scanner/ Printer combo
ScissorsNeedle and embroidery floss to stitch fabric to wire

Make the Wire Stars

Step One: Create a bend in your 16-gauge steel wire. Then, 4-5" from that bend create another bend and continue on until you've a star shape.

Step Two: Once you've formed your star shape, overlap the beginning of your star by about an inch.

Step Three: Using your 19-gauge steel wire wrap the overlapped wires together.







Making Mixed Media Fabric

Step One: Gather some collage supplies, vintage papers, some old music sheets, pages torn out of old books, anything you'd like to play with. On your sheet of blank paper start to layer your collage materials in a way you like. Adhere in place.

 Step Two: Use your mark making supplies to doodle, and draw on your composition. Have fun! Then use the ink applicator and distress ink to go back over some of your drawing (totally optional I just like to work stuff forward and back on my page).

Step Three: Scan your collage into your computer and print onto photo fabric (or you can use the freezer paper method). Peel paper backing off of fabric and you're ready to stitch!






Creating the Wire and Fabric Stars

Step One: Position your wire on the fabric as desired, then cut wide around this area.

Step Two: With your embroidery floss and needle, begin to stitch the wire star to the fabric. Do one side and when you reach the second half of the star slightly pull the fabric taut as you stitch.

Step Three: With your scissors, trim the excess fabric around your star leaving a 1/4- 1/2" allowance around the stitching.



Making the Garland:
 To make the garland I just cut a length of cotton canvas into a 1 1/2" w. and to the length you want. Make sure you cut it long enough that you'll have a little extra length so it can drape. Thread a needle with 4-5 in. of embroidery floss. Pierce the fabric right below the wire at the top of the star. Pull half your floss through, take off the needle, and tie your ends together. This creates a loop to hang your star by. Thread your strip of canvas through the loops of each star and position stars as desired. You may also want to add a few strips of contrasting fabric here between the stars as shown below. You can also add other shapes, like the wire snowflakes from a previous tutorial. They look adorable with the stars. :) Above all- Happy Creating! -Jen

A Decorating Emergency

I'm a little late getting this post done today. My excuse? There was a decorating emergency I had to attend to. Really. I was working in the library at my son's school on Tuesday and happened to see a couple of the administrative staff decorating the school for Christmas. They were wrapping a railing in the entry with artificial garlands and lights and didn't look like they were all that sure of themselves. I watched for a bit and then when I couldn't stand it any more I had a brilliant idea. SO I walked over, said I used to be a professional florist and could I help? That I was "doing a series of blog posts this week about decorating for Christmas and thought I could do some decorating for them and use it as a post?" I don't think they heard anything past the "professional floral designer part". They looked so relieved. They had been given several boxes of artificial wreaths, garlands, swags, as well as a couple of boxes of Christmas ribbon by a parent the year before and had no idea how to use them. Super cool!

The "before's"

So God had not only provided me with an opportunity to use my floral design skills, but he had given them the supplies and the designer to put it all together. I love how God surprises us like that sometimes. So yesterday and today I had the happy pleasure of decorating my son's school for Christmas.  The ribbon they had was primarily bright shiny red so that was the basis for our color scheme. I picked up the 101 piece set of shatter proof ornaments at Home Depot and wired them to anything I could. I did wreaths for two entries, a garland over the gym doors, tweaked a couple of large display cases and the Christmas tree, put swags at the bottom of the stairs, and did four wreaths to attach to the garland they wrapped around the stair railing.

They were SO sweet  and appreciative, it really humbled me. I think sometimes that my skills and talents aren't that big of deal in the grand scheme of things. I'm not a teacher or pastor, or doctor. I make pretty things- that's what I do. But God made pretty things too and he saw value in that. So I should too. It was a great reminder. :)

I'll snap a few better pics tomorrow but thought I should clue you all in on what I'd been up to. Tomorrow I'll also have a fabulous tutorial. A Christmas Star garland that I think you'll really like. So see you back here tomorrow!!!

Winter Woodland Chandelier How To

Welcome to Day Three of our 'Tis the Season week of posts celebrating the holiday season with lots and lots of decorating ideas. We kicked off the week with a trend report of several holiday trends and today we're playing around with the Winter Woodland trend. Forests, and all they hold from animals to mushrooms, even just wood grains have been hot for the last year or so. Incorporating these elements into your holiday decorating is fun and SUPER easy to do. And if you're lucky enough to have access, many of the supplies can be found out of doors. Usually when I want to create something from natural materials I'll go outside and grab the stuff from the yard. But with a thick coat of white snow covering everything outside I looked inside for things on hand (birch branches) and then picked up a few things from the craft store too. The colors of this trend can vary, but again, white, red, and green seem to dominate. But instead of taking the shape of peppermint candies, the colors come in the form of berry sprigs, the silvery white of birch branches, the rich browns of pine cones, and the deep green of evergreens.

Today's how-to is just an example of how I might decorate with natural elements. I'm demonstrating how to decorate your chandelier, but knowing that many of you might not have a chandelier quite like mine, I want to assure you that you can take these same elements and create a vignette with them, or centerpiece for your table. These natural elements added to your wreath really make a beautiful and striking outdoor design as well. SO, take a look and then give it a try!

How To Give your Chandelier A Winter Woodland Make-Over for the Holidays

Tools and Materials:
4 birch branches about 15"long
Several smaller birch sticks
1 stem of artificial red berries
A handful of pinecones (varied sizes)
Bird's nest
Mixed Evergreens (I just took apart the door swag from yesterday's vignette)
Raffia or string
Scissors
Something to cut your evergreens into pieces
Wire cutter

Step One: Insert your birch branches one at a time into the arms of your chandelier. One on each side and intersecting with each other to form a square.

Step Two: Using a ratchet pruner or other tool, cut your evergreens apart in lengths that will fit your chandelier. Lay on top of the birch branches.Then add your small birch branches on top of these and if you can angle them so they kind of stick out (either on top or at the sides) that gives your design some extra depth.I like how these really give the design a wild, natural look.

Step Three:Using your wire cutter, cut your artificial berry branch into 2 or 3 pieces. Insert a larger piece of the berry branch up through the bottom center of the design.You should be able to stick it in at an angle and let it rest on the birch branches. If you need to you can use a twist tie and wire the branch to your chandelier. Take your smaller pieces of berry branch and insert into top of the arrangement .

Step Four: Place your bird nest into the center of your display, if possible.Then, using your raffia or string, wrap around your pine cone's bottom, between layers of pine cone.Tie as tight as possible and repeat with 2-4 more pine cones.

Step Five: Tie your pine cone strings to the chandelier's center and allow to hang at different lengths. If you like you can use an extra long piece of raffia and tie it to the pine cone about 5-6 inches from end. This allows extra raffia to dangle with your pine
cone which looks pretty. :)


Don't forget to join us tomorrow for more ideas to help put you into the holiday groove. Yay! I'd love to know more about what you're doing to decorate this holiday season, what you've liked best of the different ideas so far, and if you have any questions about the how-to or tutorials. So Please Leave a Comment!

Candy Cane Tutorial and a Holiday Vignette

It's Day Two of the week's festivities here at Art as Usual! And as promised, I have not one- but two tutorials to share. So depending upon my time constraints this might be a two post day.:) Today we're going to focus on the Peppermint Candy Trend. If you missed yesterday's post where I introduced this and other trends of the season, you can read about them here.The color scheme for this trend is, as you might have guessed, red and white/cream. So the items I've chosen to create a vignette with are red, white, with a bit of cream thrown in. My vignettes are bits of counter or shelf around my house that I can create a grouping of seasonal items on. I like them to be just out of the way, but still visible by the high traffic areas. This way I still get to enjoy them without having to move them around too much. And, unlike a table centerpiece, they never get bumped and can stay as they are all season long. To create this vignette, I thought I'd try pairing this trend with an old frame I had lying around and some old glassware. So we're tossing in a bit of vintage as well. It's a richly layered look that is still really fun and whimsical.

Peppermint Candy Holiday Vignette

Items used:
Old frame
Old milk glass vase
Chipped red glass pedestal bowl
2 sprigs artificial big white ball like berries
1 sprig artificial red berries
6 shatter proof ornaments plus candy cane (Martha Stewart at Home Depot)
"Noel" stitched wire wall art (my shop) OR fresh greens door hanger with a bit of ribbon

First- Start with the frame and add a nail to the back if you want to hang something, like the art or door hanger from it.

Second- Add the glassware, and hang art or evergreen door hanger from frame. Position glass in front of frame as shown.

Third- Arrange the sprigs with the white balls inside the milk glass vase. ***Tip= When working with permament flower stems it's not always necessary to cut them. If you need to, then use a heavy duty wire cutter or metal shears. I've found that I can usually bend them to the length I need and there's the added plus that this helps it hold it's position in the vase, once inserted, as well.***

Fourth- Add one of your sprigs with the smaller berries to the vignette by simply laying in front of frame. I bent the end of the sprig over so it's partially covered by the frame. You could choose to simply trim to length with wire cutter here as well.

Lastly- Bend red berry branch so that it will hang over the top and right edge of the frame. Place stem behind frame or you may want to use some heavy duty packing tape and just tack the stem to the back of the frame where desired. Cut a small piece of the white berries from the 2nd sprig and tuck behind frame as well.

At right you can see the alternate version of this vignette, where I hung a small evergreen door hanger from the frame instead of using my stitched art as a focal piece. It's a fun alternative to having a wreath inside. I used a few more bits of the 2nd white berry branch I had and cut them apart. I stuck these bits into the door hanger. I also cut off the ribbon and pine cones that came on the door hanger and tied my own red grosgrain ribbon to it. Easy, quick and very very Peppermint Sweet!


Wire and Fabric Candy Cane Tutorial

Tools and Materials: 
16-gauge anondized steel wire
Piece of red and white fabric
Wire Cutter
Needle Nose Pliers
Scissors

Step One: Pull a 14" or so length of wire from your roll of wire, wiping with a cloth or towel as you pull to remove oil. Create a bend in your wire about 3" from cut end of wire. Create another bend in wire about 2" from cut end of wire to form a  "u" shape. 

Step Two: Run your hand up the wire til you're about 6" from your "u" and create a hook. This is the inside form of your candy cane. Bend wire to create a right angle. An 1" from that bend the wire up at another right angle. This establishes how wide your ornament will be.

Step Three: Follow the curve of the wire you've already bent to create outside of candy cane. Make sure you stay about 1" or so away from inside of candy cane. Come down to bottom and when you reach the bottom bend wire up.

Step Four: Next start to wrap your wire around your candy cane shape. This gives dimension to the piece. Be careful not to wrap the inside form too tightly though or you risk a making your candy cane a little too skinny in spots. When you've wrapped the form once, follow your initial wrap job all the way back to the bottom.

Step Five: Cut your wire leaving about an inch excess. Bend this cut end in for safety. You can leave your candy cane as is now or you can go on to Step Six and add fabric.

Step Six: Using your scissors, you're going to cut a strip of fabric to wrap your wire form with. To get a strip that's long enough from a shorter piece of fabric I will begin to cut my strip about 3/4" wide but stop cutting at about an inch shy of the end. Flip your fabric and begin to cut a second 3/4" strip along your first. This will create a length of fabric that is twice as long as the size of your fabric piece. For this project you only need the strip to be about 24" long. 

Step Seven: Tie one end of your strip to one end of your candy cane and begin to wrap it around and sometimes through your wire armature. If you'd like to knot it in places you can. When you get to the opposite end of your candy cane tie your strip to the end, knot and then trim excess leaving a tail about 1" long that you can then tuck up into your form. *Tip: When I wrap the wire form with the fabric strip I try to match the direction of the wire that is wrapping around the simple form. 

To hang this ornament you can either create an "S" hook of the 16-gauge wire or you can simple hang it on whatever you want it to decorate.  Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I'll be back tomorrow with more Holiday Goodness! :)