Week 6 of Make Do Mondays

The sixth week of Make Do Mondays, making art from scraps. I actually snagged this focal point item from the floor.  My daughter is quite the artist but also quite messy! It was a cheap crappy foam heart sticker.  She had markered all over it and it was stuck to the carpet. I salvaged it while vacuuming.  I'm very surprised I didn't toss it!  I had this gold candy wrapper in my scrap box and covered the heart with it.  Then used my staz on ink to stamp the sentiment and flower design.  Popped it on some old book pages scraps, added some lace.  Now I have this nice ATC which is available for swap or trade.

Creative Courage and Dream Big 2012...I'm signed up, are you?

It's well into the new year, a time of resolutions, new beginnings and new plans.  Many people are offering e-courses and workshops that start this month.  I've done a couple in the past and I'm at that crossroads right now where I NEED direction, motivation, courage and education!  I splurged on 2 classes/workshops and may possibly be signing up for one more.  It's time to see if I can make this work, or time to give up and call it a hobby for my spare time only.  The classes I chose were...
Stephanie Levy's ecourse Creative Courage and Traci Bautista's Dream Big 2012.  I'm confident they were are both a good investment!  I can't wait to get started!  There is still time to sign yourself up and I'd love to see you in the "classrooms" :)

Thrive

My first artwork with my One Little Word

One Little Word for 2012

Tonight is New Year's Eve, I sit at home with the loves of my life, my children.  We watched movies, had cupcakes and ice cream, played wii, made shrinky dinks.  It was simple and fun.  I also made a list.  40 before 40.   Forty things I want to accomplish before I turn 40 (at the end of 2012).  Finding 40 obtainable things was quite challenging.  I'm not ready to publish my list, but parts shall surface in time.  I also chose my One Little Word for 2012, the word I will focus on.  THRIVE is my word.
thrive   [thrahyv] 

orthriv·en  [thriv-uhn]  Show IPA, thriv·ing.

1.

to prosper; be fortunate or successful.

2.

to grow or develop vigorously; flourish: The children thrived inthe country.

Words that were considered but not chosen were...

Flourish (close! but too over the top)

Succeed (too materialistic)

Success

Triumph (Too victorious)

I am facing a lot of changes in 2012, none will be easy.  When I picture Thrive in my head I picture lush gardens, beauty, nature, health, green, survival.  Success to me is not money and power, that's not what I am driven by. Success to me is the pursuit of contentment, happiness, and peace.   The words in the above definition I am influenced by are the grow and develop vigorously.  I need to hit the ground running, failing is not an option.  Thrive is my new life goal.  

I will be working thrive into my artwork and my daily life and plan to share that with you here.  I want my art to thrive as much as my life.  Live what you Love.  I want my children to thrive.  I want my economic situation to thrive, not in terms of acquiring goods or filling a bank account, but in terms of survival.  Making ends meet.  


I started a Pinterest Board to fill with inspirations if you'd like to follow along.

Happy New Year!
Linking to My Heart Art

Ink Blot Art

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year.  I can finally reveal my latest art endeavor... Ink blot art!  Inspired by the Rorschach psychological test.  As you know, I strive to make all my gifts, all year long.  I got stuck when it came to my brother.  He is a psychologist (or maybe a psychiatrist?  I don't know, he's a shrink).  I didn't know what in the world I could make that he would appreciate or at least be able to use.  I started searching Etsy and saw ink blot tshirts.  I thought that's the way I would go. Then I decided to try some ink blot art myself!  I decided maybe he could use some original art work for his office at home or work.  Here is a sample of what I came up with.

These are all 5x7 original pieces and are now listed in my Etsy Shop.  I also made some in 8x10 size and will be listing those in the next few days.  I had a lot of fun with this gift and I'm now addicted to creating them.  I love the surprise, you just don't know what kind of image you're going to end up with.  It's open to the imagination :)  What do you see in these?

Make Do Mondays & a winner!

First off Random.org and I generated a winner of the Sugar Scrub. It's going to Art by Wendy! Thank you for playing along and I hope you enjoy!

I got behind on my Make Do Mondays.  This is where I open the scrapbox and make art from my trash.  Here is this week's object of making do...

The background started out as a scrap of paper I was cleaning my brush off on.  I loved the texture it produced so I kept it!  This little angel button (handmade, but not by me) looked like a gnome to me.  So I made her a little garden scene.  This card is up for swap or trade!
I may not be back before Christmas so I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Child's Art

I'm a big fan of child artists. It's the purest form of art.  Unrefined, and most importantly undefined.  Innocent and pure.  My daughter is very much into art.  She is also very entrepreneurial, a good combination!  She wanted to do a craft show with me, so we came up with this idea.  I bought her watercolor paper and had her paint a bunch of Christmas cards.  She made about 40 of them, but I only let her take the very bestest ones.  Meaning they couldn't have smudges and paint blotches all over them.  They had to be her best work and not sloppy.  Other than that, I don't dare criticize her work!  We packaged them up with envelopes and set out to sell some cards at my last show.  She sold about half a dozen or so, and some were even to people besides grandma ;) Lots of people made very positive comments about them and the idea.  I like to think of it as a learning experience for her.  She was very happy with the profit! :)  Here are a couple of the ones we brought back home. We are using these leftovers and the ones with imperfections as our family Christmas cards this year.

There is still time to comment for a chance to win a handmade sugar scrub :)

Handmade Gifts & a giveaway!

As I mentioned in my last post, I make most all of the Christmas gifts I give.  I tried a new medium this year.  I decided to make sugar scrubs!  It's so easy, I'm hooked!  There are a ton of recipes online if you want to give it a whirl.

Here is the recipe I concocted
2 cups pure brown sugar (no molasses)
1 cup grapeseed oil
1/2 cup white sugar
Essential oil to desired scent.  I used sweet orange and lemon essential oils. About twice as much orange as lemon for this scent.

I mixed the sugars first. Then measured out the oil and added the essential oils to that.   Then mixed together, that's it!  Cheap and easy gifts you can make at the last minute!  Oh yeah, and they work amazingly well.  It leaves your skin feeling so soft and smooth.


What the heck! I made 28 jars of these, I'm giving one away!  Leave a comment, that's all that's required, it's the season of giving :)

Where have I been?

My poor neglected friends! I apologize for my absence.  First I hosted Thanksgiving and preparation took up most of my time that week.  Then I had a craft show this past weekend I was busy preparing for.  Good news, they both went smoothly!  The craft show was on Saturday, which we also managed to have our first "real" snow of the season.  The roads were terrible but the traffic at the show was amazing anyway! I'm so glad people ventured out to do some shopping.  I'll say it was a successful show.
After the show, I've spent today doing a massive shop update.  Listing all the new items left over from the weekend.

Just a sampling of the new items :)
Tomorrow I'm going to start working on some new key fobs using vintage supplies.  I'm ready for a new look :)
Speaking of new... I'm also branching out to a new creative field this holiday season.  I always make most of my gifts, this year I'm gonna try something new.  I'm making sugar scrubs!  There are tons of recipes online already so I won't bother putting together a tutorial.  But I will post pictures of mine.  I ordered some jars to put the scrub in and they just arrived! Time to get busy :)  I'd love to hear what you are making this year!

Happy Thanksgiving & Black Friday sale in my shop!

Wishing you all a very lovely Thanksgiving tomorrow!  I hope everyone can think of tons to be thankful for!
If you read my blog in a reader, you may not have noticed I added a widget in my sidebar for Facebook. I've made a facebook fan page for my Etsy shop!  To entice you all to come like my page I've hidden (not to hard to find) a 20% off code there!  Hope on over to my page and like me :)  Then head over to SewRubyMoon on Etsy and do some relaxing shopping, no crowds, I promise!

Coupon will work thru Nov 30th

Blissful ATC swap for November

I'm a little late posting this, my apologies to my partner Peggy.  Here is the Thankful themed ATC I received from her...

and then then one I sent her...

Just another great month in the Blissful ATC swap!
I probably won't be around much this week.  I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the family this year and then the following week I have a craft fair!  Busy, Busy...see you soon!

Gifts that Give

There's still not much going on around here this week.  I'm still trying to recover and play catch up from last weeks major cold attack.  I have been "pinning" some gift ideas on Pinterest for my holiday shopping.  I strive to give only handmade gifts for the holidays.  I think it is so much more meaningful.  Even if I don't make the gift, at least a real person put effort into the gift.  My second choice for gift giving is to buy a gift that includes a charity donation of the proceeds.  While pinning, I found a huge amount of artists that do just that!  So I can get the both options in one gift! I spent the evening creating this treasury on Etsy highlighting some great Gifts that Give.

Please help out these generous and caring artists. Click, favorite and promote this treasury for them and the more importantly, the charities they support!

I also have this Gifts that Give Pinboard on pinterest which has many more ideas than I could fit on the treasury.  It also has non-Etsy items and something for everyone on your list.  Feel free to follow this board (or just follow me and I'd love to follow you back).  Help me support the true meaning of giving from the heart this year <3

Winners of the Witches Tea Party giveaway!

I promise I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I've been MIA from a not so fun head cold :(  Anyway, I wanted to pop in here and announce the winners to the Witches Tea Party Giveaway!  I said the more comments the more hats I'd be giving away, so with 28 comments I decided 5 winners would be nice odds :) These hats are hand formed (no mold was used) from paper clay, painted, glittered (1black, 4 graphite) and embellished with a hand dyed ribbon.
Here are the 5 hats going out to new homes...

I used Random.org to generate 5 numbers for me and they are 4, 11, 6, 13 & 14.  Those corresponding comments are (images linked)...

And if this one isn't the craziest of odds!  I just won her giveaway of the jackpot of stamps! I swear it's not fixed!  It's karma in action folks, give and you will receive :)  It's only logical that I send her a thank you gift anyway, it just took random.org to make that happen.  

Thank you all who visited, played along and those who I added as followers, you are what makes blogging worth it :)

I'm contacting all winners tonight to gather your shipping info and as soon as I find 5 boxes they will be shipped out!

Make Do Mondays

Another edition of Make do Mondays coming your way.  Every week I challenge myself to make an ATC out of  scraps, found objects and junk that lands in my scrap box.  This ATC I called "Classy" do to the classical elements in the pattern on the black paper, the formality of a tassel and the rich color scheme.  Again it's not something that I would call "my style" that's the best part of the challenge!