My Crafty Page

*01/24/13*

As a note of interest; I am not proficient in the world of html yet. So when I post on these individual pages it runs as one long  post. I just seperate the posts and make sure and try and date them. So if you were brought here from Pinterest or another link, scroll down and you will most likey find the link that brought you to this page. Apologies for the inconvenience. I am still new to this and very TECHNO CHALLENGED!!! I will get the hang of this soon, I PROMISE!!! Until then thank you for your patience. If you have any questions about a paticular post please feel free to email me or leave a comment. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!!!
KIMMIE



12/14/12
I have been neglectful of this area of my blog. I have been steady working at my sketching skills. No I have not mastered them. I have gotten pretty good at doodling, and doing some mixed media art journaling. I follow a few blogs that I not only enjoy reading, but am learning a great deal from. My 2 favorites are jennibellie.blogspot.co.uk She is not only a very talented artist, but she makes a lot of great projects using recycled material. I recommend checking her out.  My other is donnadowney.typepad.com Donna has great "Inspiration Wednesday" videos on her blog. Not only does she walk you step by step through her art journal process, she even lists the material she uses for that particular tutorial. Which for someone like me is very crucial. Though I have learned a great deal over the last few months, there is still so much I still need to learn.

My Mini Books

Handmade paper beads

Made from construction & Tissue paper

Flower Button Rings

For The Sketchbook Project This is a stencil and Derwent Inktense Blocks, with paper flowers

Bookmarks for a swap

Bookmark for a swap

Bookmark for a swap, the Circle is raised

For The Sketchbook challange, I used Staedler Watercolor Crayons

for The Sketchbook Challenge, It is a mixed media, collage, stencil, acrylics, and Indian Ink

My Peacock Doodle

Various doodles

Done with Derwent Inktense pencils

I am actually fortunate, Donna Downey's studio is only 8 miles from my house. I love going to her studio to browse and shop. Donna even will even allow her customers to try out products in the studio if you aren't sure how to  use a product or want to try it before buying it. When I go to her studio, I can spend hours browsing. I am still working on setting up a blog on my Art Journal journey. Hopefully I will have that ready to go after the 1st of the year. Here are some pics of what I have learned and done so in the past few months. I plan to start doing tutorials on my projects, but am not equipped to do that yet. I am currently making Smash Books and Art Journals from recycled cereal boxes. I will post pics along the way. I hope you like these pics. Would LOVE LOVE some feedback. It will help me improve and learn.
God Bless,
Kimmie






7/27/12
Well my 12 yr old is now getting into the crafting spirit. She not only watches me craft, she has been perusing the pages of Pinterest. Now the crafts I am about to post she came up  with on her own. So I thought being the loving and AWESOME mom that I am that I'd not only share her crafts with you all, but I am going to put them up on Pinterest as well.
Yesterday I had gone to AC Moore, which I would like to add gives us homeschool moms an extra 15% each item you buy. All I had to do was show them my official letter from my state and WALLAH...15% off each individual item. Even items that were already on sale. I digress, so my daughter Bridget, aka Gidget, came up to me and asked would I buy her a few items so she could make some items to eventually try to sell. (She is trying to earn money for her trip to Oireachtas(ore-rock-tus) in November. Oireachtas is Irish Dances regional competition to try to qualify for World's. It's a big deal to qualify, and it is also an expensive trip. So Gidget wants to earn some money making crafts to try and help with her trip. She makes me SOOO PROUD!!!
So she came to me with a wooden tray($4.00), 2 wooden clip boards,($1.19/ea) and 3 wooden clothespins on steroids($1.00/ea). We had the acrylic paints at home, along with the scrapbook paper and Mod Podge. We did buy some ribbon from the $1 bin, and the decorative wooden dragonflies($1.19). 
When we got home she went straight to work. She painted each piece with an acrylic craft paint,(the .50 cent ones from Walmart) used coordinating scrapbook paper from my scrap bag, with the exception of the tray, that needed a new sheet cut to fit. She then Mod Podged them added on the embellishments, and she was done. Took her a few hours to complete all 6 pieces. I couldn't have been more proud of her. Now mom needs to help her sell them to try to earn some money for her Oireachtas fund. I want one of the clothespins though. These can be used to display photos, cards, recipes while you're cooking, or add a small magnet to the back and put it on your refrigerator. The possibilities are many. Well without further ado, the pics of Gidget's finished products.

Mini Clipboards

Clothespins

Wooden Tray

Side View of Cloth spin

My Favorite cloth spin

I hope you all enjoyed the photos. Gidget worked hard on them and is proud of herself as well. I will be posting these on my "Crafts4Kids" Pinterest Board. Please feel free to pop on over to see my boards. If anyone would like detailed instructions, or specific products used please leave a comment or email me. Hoping you all are well and having a safe and blessed summer.

God Bless,
Kimmie 







6/19/12
Well I am trying my hand at becoming a crafting goddess. Ha!! I have wonderful ideas floating about my head, but something gets lost in translation from my brain to my fingertips. I can't get past my stick figure people, or my child like finger painting. I have however started making journals. Now the user can use my journals to write their inner most thoughts, or they can smash journal. I think I'm more of a smash journal kinda girl. Now I do love art journals, but I can not draw or paint or doodle well enough to make an art journal. I have found a wonderful blog of a very talented and gifted artist who makes and sells art journals, and even has wonderful tutorials on how to make art journals if you are talented enough. The blog address is http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com. I implore anyone who loves these kind of blogs or just like checking out something new and different to check out Jenniebellie. I just love her stuff, I enjoy watching her tutorials, even though I will never be able to come close to being able to do any of it. I do however get some ideas to implement into the journals I have been making.
  I am making 2 types of journals, one I make using composition notebooks, the other is my exploding smash journal. That one is my favorite. I have made a couple for Gidget's friends, and the reaction tickles me. I love to see the joy in the face of a child when given a gift just because. So I am going to share a few pics of my exploding smash journal and remade composition notebook. I'd love to hear your opinions on what you think, advice on how to improve or make them even better. I hope you enjoy.

I need to figure out how to line the pics in rows so they don't take so much space. As well as being artistically inept, I'm techno challenged as well. One of these days I need to figure out how to work this blogging. I digress though. I hope you like the pics. 
God Bless,
Kim

April, 2012
Our homeschool is a school of the Arts. My daughter Bridget LOVES Art. She is even considering getting a degree in Art. She also would like to include her Irish Dancing into her future career. Although right now I'd like to share our love of crafting. 
We incorporate art and crafting into our curriculum through notebooking and lapbooking, but also include fun stuff like Tissue Flowers, Modge Podging, Jewelry making, handmade
paper making, and much much more. 
Today Bridget and one of her friends used left over scraps of tissue paper, Modge Podge by Plaid, and mason like jars recycled from jarred alfredo sauce and made flower vases for their tissue paper flowers.

This project took less than 30 minutes and cost less than 2.00 apiece to make. My oldest daughter Kady who is 25 and no longer lives at home was home for Sunday supper, she saw the girls vases and went rummaging for anything glass she could find so she could make one for herself. (I too felt nostolgic and wanted to Modge Podge myself. I forgot how fun this was to do.
This week we are going to be making handmade paper and braclets. Jewelry making is one of my favorite things to do and I look forward to sharing those projects.
I'd love to hear what arts & crafts others like to do. I get so inspired by the creativity of others. I feel that it allows us to see who a person is by what they love to create. I also feel strongly that being artistic is a wonderful gift from God. I do love to create pieces of jewelry or a paper flower, but my strongest gift of creativity happens when I am in the kitchen. (but that is for another topic) I digress, I hope you like the girls vases, and I look forward to sharing much much more.
God Bless!!!!!