A Big Thanks To Deb Jennings!

 

Deb Jennings, a sweet lady I met on Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover forum, sent me a box of crayons yesterday morning.  Eva and I wasted no time in sorting, busting, and melting those babies into the beautiful shapes you see here.  Thank you so much, Deb! :)  As soon as my Etsy shop opens, you'll receive 20% off any purchase up to $50. :)  

Now, using a Hershey's kiss to give perspective in size is really silly...

...how long do you think it will last?

Week 10: I've got this thing about sunflowers (part 2)

 The sunflowers are cut from soda cans, and nailed on a 3-foot-high piece of scrap wood. The leaves and vines are made from credit card junk-mail advertisements that I smeared with green acrylic paint, let dry, and die-cut into shapes. (My way of letting the credit-card companies finance my work: they give me free paper.) The vase, arch, and red background are hand painted. I found the beautiful vintage children's illustrations at various websites, which I will credit as soon as I get the right computer. (I work on 3 different computers, and I really need to remedy that!)

 Some detail...

Boys will be boys...

Yes, that little climbing boy has a *knife* in his belt!  My mom warning system went off like crazy.

"Those butterflies were speaking to me!"

The centers are recycled tealight holders.  

 

 

 

I'm going to call it done for now.  This is the first time I've ever worked on a surface this large, so I finally understand how visual artists can work on a project for so long, and never consider it done.  I've spent two weeks on this project, and loved *almost* every minute of it. ;) 

Week 10: I've got this thing about sunflowers (part 1)

I've always had this thing about sunflowers....

"Oh, I'm as happy as a big sunflower that nods and bends in the breezes..."

That's Pa Ingall's "Trouble Song" from the "Little House on the Prairie" series of books. It stuck in my mind for the last 2 1/2 decades, and I'm sure that sunflowers became the flower to lighten any mood as a result. So, when I found a bunch of silk sunflowers that had been damaged, I just couldn't leave them to be landfill fodder.  Those flowers were made to lighten people's day. 

I cut away the damaged parts, and made them into flower pens.  

Now, I don't know if anyone reading this is ever uncertain about the value of their artistic endeavors, but I constantly am.  While I was making these, I kept thinking, "Good gracious, what's the point of making these? A million people have made them before me--am I wasting my time?" 

Then my oldest daughter saw what I was doing, and put everything in perspective...

"I love flower pens!"

"This one is MINE!"

"I want to keep it FOREVER!"

And she's written me three "I lov mi Momy" notes with it since.  

Yeah, I love making stuff.  Making stuff with THEM is the best part.

A Provision Story.

God cares about THIS??!?!?!?

My friend Kate Connel has the best story of God's provision I'd ever heard.  She'd always lived with roomates, and once found herself not only without a roomate, but without several key things that roomates usually provided--like an apple peeler/corer. There were actually about a dozen things that she needed, but this one cooking utensil is what she'd missed.

 You may not think that an apple peeler/corer is essential to life, but you would if you'd tasted Kate's apple dumplings.

 At first, she thought, "Well, I'll just go get a Target credit card, and get the things I need."  God stopped her in her tracks, and said to her heart, "You could ask me.  I love you more than Target does."

So, for the first time in her life, she prayed about a huge list of specific things that she needed for her kitchen and household, and put the list on her fridge. 

God started moving.  Without knowing anything about her prayer, friends would start calling her, "Hey, Kate, I don't need this blender anymore, would you like it?  Hey Kate, do you need a food processor?  I have a ton of extra coffee cups, come over and take a whole box!"  Stuff started showing up, getting "thrown out," randomly gifted to her, and God was showing her in a practical way that He loved her more than Target ever could. 

But something was still missing.

A couple of weeks after she'd started this prayer journey, we were having dinner with a friend and her parents, and Kate started telling us about all this stuff God had just given her in response to prayer.  The friend's mother asked, "What else do you need?"  Well, an apple peeler/corer is the last thing on my list."

The mother went into her closet, and pulled out the monstrous contraption pictured above.  Not only a peeler/corer, but a peeler/corer/slicer, which was actually better than Kate had even wanted, and said, "We never use it.  You can have it." 

I got to watch her happy explosion into laughter and tears, as she knew that God cared about all the little things in her life.  The LITTLE things!  She later said, "If God cares this much about my desserts, how much do you think he cares about my heart?" 

I got another little taste of this over the past couple of weeks. 

I tend to forget that God has miraculously provided amazing things exactly when I need them (like, oh, a CAR!) and start working on my own strength when I need something.  I'd recently made a list of all the things I needed for crafting, and boy, it was expensive.  A die-cutting machine.  A bunch of dies. Sewing machine parts.  A binding machine.  Better storage.  A ton of better-quality paper for making journals.  Wow....when I added all those things up together, it came to well over $1000.

Now, I'd recently noticed a sad trend in my own heart---I tend to be a better consumer than I am a producer.  I can spend all my money on craft supplies, and let them sit for months before I use them.  I didn't know how I could justify sinking any more money into this.  Plus, we're putting every spare cent into paying off a big fat credit card and huge student loans.  I didn't know how I could justify a THOUSAND dollars our of our family budget for crafting.  I mean, what does God care about crafting?

(Are you chuckling?  I hope you're chuckling.)

I had put a link at the top of my browser for Kickstarter, because I'd heard that it's a good source for funding any type of creative enterprise.  I thought, "Maybe I could get some start-up cash from there!" 

Then God reminded me of the apple peeler/corer/slicer , and how Kate never asked for the "slicer" part.  He reminded me that He loved me, and that I hadn't even asked Him for what I needed.  I COULD ask Him.  I could even ask Him to bless the work of my hands.  He loves me.  It's okay.

The first thing that happened is a mother-load of high-quality paper started showing up in thrift stores.  Yeah, I bought all of it for under ten bucks.  It came out of my blow money. 

Then, my sweet husband found a paper-sorter which normally retails for about $340.  For ten bucks at OSU surplus.  He bought it for me out of his blow money, which got him love-points and kisses that his blow money couldn't get him.  Hahahahah. :)

Yes, my studio was really this messy.  I hope you're inspired, Geetha!

Die cutter machines, which retail for about a hundred dollars, started showing up all over Craigslist for $15.  Apparently a newer model had come out, so people were getting rid of their old ones.  And the old dies, which were normally $20 bucks apiece, started going for under $5.  This was a HUGE blessing, because using the little scrapbooking punches over and over and over again had hurt my hands so badly that the pain actually kept me up one night. 

Again, blow-money-funded, no burden on my family's budget, throwing money at the debt snowball, and doing a Happy Snoopy Dance. 

It turned out the sewing machine part was only $15 bucks retail.  What was I worried about?

The thing I kept worrying about was the binding machine.  It took so long to bind a journal by hand, and the paper waste was really bothering me.  I put more paper in scrap piles on the floor than I put into the journal.  If I could just punch and bind that sucker, it would be faster and cheaper---but I couldn't seem to find people just tossing out their several-hundred-dollar binding machines. 

Until last week. :)

I really thought this was my "peeler/corer/slicer"  moment.  It was staged almost exactly like Kate's was. I told my friend (who's also my daughter's babysitter), "I'm looking for this weird thing."  My friend says, "Seriously? We have one collecting dust.  We've never used it.  You can have it."  I jumped around, cried, laughed, hugged my friend, hugged the pastor's wife, and just couldn't believe it.

And God still had more plans for me!

I never even prayed for this.   I asked God for "help with storage and sorting all my junk," but never, ever EVER dreamed that He would give me something like this.  It's a five-unit cabinet set, with dozens of drawers, and made entirely of poplar wood.  I paid $370 to buy it and have it delivered from Columbus.  The seller had gotten it for free (he's in construction) and had to get rid of it when he moved. 

I couldn't have bought the drawer pulls alone for $370, not to mention all the careful workmanship that went into these.  I never dreamed that something like this existed, but God knew, and God had a plan. THIS was my slicer moment.  I cried a lot. 

If God cares this much about my crafts, how much do you think He cares about my kids?  Or my marriage? Or my dreams?  Or about my friends? Or about all those things I've been praying about? 

Do you ask God for what you need?  Or do you just go get a Mastercard and hope for the best?  Do you ask God for what you need, or do you think if you just work a little harder it will all work out?  I've had a spiritual awakening, and I found out that God is smarter than me.  God is more creative than me.  God is more frugal than me.  And God loves me.  He really does know best.  Ask, and it will be given to you.

Week 9. Whew!

Ok, lots going on.  To keep this from getting too long, I'm going to give as much of the story as I can in pictures. :)

I found these jello molds at a thrift store, for about 1.50 for all of them. Score!

Eva and I then used them to make these crayons.  Silicone jello molds seem to be oven safe, for now, lol!

 I got invited to *pray about* going on a craft mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua.  I have no idea if I can go.  However, since finding out about it, I've been almost *obsessed* with finding artistic uses for trash.  Green Crafting was already fun for me--now it feels like a lifestyle.

I worked on making my own dyes.  This is from grapes from my fridge, and roses from Valentine's day.

I took soda cans,old tea light holders, and acrylic craft paint, cut and smooshed them together....

....then covered credit card ads with paint (using the fake credit cards they sent me to apply the paint, lol!)...

 ...then painted a piece of scrap wood with gesso, some totally random colors of craft paint, and....

...this is the work in progress.  I didn't like the background I'd done at first, so I'm re-doing it.  I'll post more pics as I finish it.  Don't ever try to paint around sharp aluminum flowers that have been nailed onto plywood.  I'm just saying. :)

I've also made a ton of recycled scrapbooking embellishments, from household cardboard boxes. (Think cereal, crackers, snacks, spaghetti---all those perfectly good pieces of cardstock that we throw away!)  I covered some with vintage papers, and used my trusty Sizzix machine to cut them out.  Loving it!

I also made a few inchies with some scraps of ledger paper from another project.

I love it when God answers prayers.  I have a thrifting friend, and we watch thrift stores for each other's shopping lists.  She was going to spend a whole day in Columbus, perusing about a dozen thrift stores, so I said, "If you HAPPEN to MAYBE come across a binding machine, I've been looking for one.  It would really cut down on my paper waste."

She gave me a look like, "Are you kidding?"

I thought, Dang, I know it's rare, but I've found weirder things at thrift stores.  Like furniture that perfectly matched mine, or the exact unused toy my kid wanted, etc. Why is she giving me that look?

"Dotty," she said, "We have one that's been sitting in storage for years.  It's collecting dust.  We've never used it."

Sometimes, I think God giggles when He provides for us, you know?

The pastor's wife was there, and she went into the storage closet, dragged something out, and said, "Is this it? I've never even opened it.  Dang it's heavy!"

"Lol!" says God. 

 The first thing I did was make some recycled notebooks (from paper bags and cracker boxes) for the girls.  I had no idea how much they would love it!

"This is my Supergirl Superpower Super-secret book."

"Look Mommy, I wrote my name!" (not really, but she was trying. I'd told her that her name was on the cover.)

God kept right on giggling through this past weekend.  I'd never even PRAYED for one of those super-cool storage units that a lot of paper-crafters use.  Like this one.  It has plastic drawers and pouches and fold-down tables and keeps your stuff all organized and cool.  The cheapest one I could find was a thousand dollars.  The cheapest one I could find that would fit in the space I had was almost $1700.  No need to even pray for that, right?  It wouldn't happen.

Then I found these.

Two wall units, three base units.  Only one base unit is pictured here, standing up on it's end. 

All five units, all wood, delivered from an hour away, for $370.

God giggles.

I'm also working on a week's worth of skits for this summer's VBS. I'm having a real blast with that one. I seriously doubt I'll be able to direct them, but I'd like to.

Did I mention that the laundry is piling up?

:)

Week 8: Part "Greencraft," Part "Create With Me."

A coffee can, a corn can, and the bucket that my neighbor gave me tomatoes in last year. :)

I'd been using these old containers for my art supplies for about a year.  I just decided to dress them up a bit. I'd thought about sending them into "GreenCraft" magazine (and I still might) when something interesting happened:



"This is *my* "Kelly Rae Roberts" heart. Mommy can't have it. Daddy can't have it. My sister can't have it..."



My two-year-old seriously thinks that the best time of the day is when she gets to cut paper with Mommy.  Scissors are new and fascinating. Mommy's studio is old and fascinating. Paper is freaking awesome.  The problem is when she gets ahold of the *wrong* paper:



This paper was okay to cut.

I wasn't sure how, but last week the little monkey got ahold of the WRONG paper!  It was lying in carefully cut shreds next to my smiling sweetie, who said, "I made a heart!"  I smiled back and said, "Oh, that's a nice heart, honey!"  But what I was thinking INSIDE was: "Oh no! Not my Misty-Mawn-Sommerset-Studio-Insert-Birdsong-Themed-paper-that-I-was-saving-for-something-special!" 

I put it in a collage background and wept a little bit. ;-)

The next time it happened, I found out how: the little sweetie figured out how to use a stool to get to Mommy's paper stash, while Mommy was switching out the laundry. 

See? There's a lesson here: don't mix art and laundry.

That time, I was finishing my "GreenCraft" cans up, and quickly figured how to use two-year-old, reclaimed shredded paper that was close to my heart:

Lovingly made with the little one's paper pieces.

This is the very first craft we made "together."  Sort of together.  Hopefully there will be more. :)

More updates to come tomorrow.

Just had that "moment."

I just sent off some tags and ephemera, and had that "moment."  I love that "moment."   I remember when I first read a novel and realized I could write just as well.  I remember when I first heard a song that sounded just like one I'd written.  (that has happened over and over again, lol! I love it even more when my husband calls me and says, "This song on the radio is just like one you wrote 5 years ago!")

 Today, that moment happened when I realized I'd made some crafts that I would actually have paid money for.  It felt good. :) It banishes the enemy's lies that say, "You're not good enough, and this is not worth your time.  This is useless, and you'll never gain anything from it." 

I had another moment today with the oldest princess. 

I was wrestling her tights over her toes, and she said, "It must be a hard job being a mommy." 
I laughed out loud and said, "Yes, but I like it better than any other job I've had."
"Really?" She looked up at me with shocked eyes. "Even better than working at the ring store?"
"Yes, DEFINITELY better than working at the ring store.  Better than singing.  Better than being an artist."
"Wow!" she said. "Daddy, Mommy likes being Mommy better than being an ARTIST!"

Yes, I do, baby.  I really do. 

At one time, I truly regretted turning away from the singer-songwriter lifestyle. It broke my heart that I couldn't do everything I loved to do, and that suddenly there was nothing I could do well.  Everything about motherhood, from the housekeeping to the cooking, the organizing to the sanitizing, was foreign to me.  Prior to motherhood, I made up for my organizational failures by being loving at home and being a people-person at work.  However, when babies came, I did everything wrong, and every day there was something I should have done differently. (Heh, and when I voiced this feeling, people told me it was "wrong" to feel that way, lol! So even my emotions were wrong!  I couldn't even "feel" the right way!)  For too many years of my life, I felt like a constant failure. 

Now, several things have come into play that helped.  For one, I realize that, if I hadn't had a family, and if I'd become that singer-songwriter, I'd be sitting in a cafe' somewhere on the road, writing deep songs about wanting a family.  Seriously.  When I'm 80 years old, no one will care about the songs I sang.  I wouldn't want them to.  I would not want someone to have attached themselves *that* deeply to something I create. When I'm 80, I would much rather have a husband who still loves me for who I am, and a bundle of children, spiritual children, and grandchildren that said, "You fed my soul, mind, and body with love and joy."  That's what I want. It took a while to realize that, and to mourn the dream that was gone.  Only when I let it go did I realize I had something so much better.

Another thing that helped is realizing that, until Jesus comes again, new days keep dawning.  There's another day to work on it.  I've never failed at anything I've put my hand to do, and God willing, I won't fail at this.  I'm never going to be Martha Stewart.  Thank God.  (I can't stand the Martha Stewart Book of Crafts anyway.) I am going to be a creative, joyous influence on my kids, and a refreshing, loving wife for my husband. 

Anyway, my 2-year-old princess insists that monsters are upstairs in her room, and I have to go scare them away.  I told her that monsters are scared of Mommy.  Mommy's going to go get rid of those monsters.  Grrrr.....

Week 6-7: Beautiful joyous craziness.

This is only the stuff from last week! I'm going to have to blog more often, just to keep up!

I sent off my very first accepted piece to Green Craft magazine on Monday! I think I floated at least an inch off the ground the entire day.

 I looked at an earlier version, and ached for more detail in the journal.  I added the cute little girl and the tags almost as an afterthought, but it just made the whole piece look  much happier and brighter.  The tags are made from recycled cereal boxes, then distressed, and the little girl was printed on recycled paper, so it was still green enough. Sort of.  ;) 

I wasn't sure if it would fit in better with their spring or autumn editions, so I flipped the cover over and....

 ...did a little more.  Again, I just felt like there wasn't enough detail in the journal, so I found this adorable little vintage girl, and made her my dream-gardener. 

We were running out the door to Columbus, and I couldn't change the lenses on my camera, so neither of the pics are as focused as I'd hoped. BUT it felt so wonderfully wonderful to have this finished, sent off, and never to worry about it again.

So I made some crayons. :)

Target had an awesome $2.50 silicone cupcake-mold during Valentine's day.  I should have bought four.  I made a couple of dozen heart-shaped, rainbow crayons from broken ones laying around the house (and a few extra boxes I picked up at Dollar General, once I got excited about it).

The girls had a blast helping me with these. The two-year-old kept saying, "I'm peeling crayons with mommy! Oh, she lets me break crayons!" (yikes!) For the next two days, every time she found a crayon, she would say, "Here, Mommy, put it in the oven!"  As soon as they got "their very own heart," as they called it, they ran around the house acting like I'd given them a gold-plated hummer. 

So simple.  Yet it gave them so much joy.

My goal has been to blog once a week.  However, I'm doing *so much crafting* that I'm losing track of blogging in the process.  That's not a bad thing!  It's just that I want the community and accountability that posting my work brings.  So, I've decided to blog at least twice a week through the rest of this challenge, because otherwise I won't  remember to!

Princess Kate Engle will get a bookmark in the mail next week. :)  

End of week 5: Too Busy &Too Awesome!

(Edited to add: Scroll down for a giveaway!)

Wow, I accidentally skipped last week's blogging, but it was because I was too busy MAKING STUFF! Hahahah! What a wonderful feeling. :)

For starters, allow me to celebrate that I've had a piece ACCEPTED TO A MAGAZINE! Yeah, wooooooohooooooooo!  I sent a query into Green Craft over a month ago, and thought I'd never hear from them again. "Oh surely," I thought, "I'm nowhere near as advanced as some of those REAL artists."  But, surprise surprise, I got a letter back from the Editor, saying, "It looks great! I love it! The deadline is March 15th, but we need to see where it will fit in." 

I'm pretty sure my feet didn't touch the floor for the rest of the week!  However, the bad news was that the journal I'd queried with had been half-destroyed by...well...life, so I had to make a new one.

Not bad. :)  The reason why it was accepted is because its made entirely from cereal boxes, paper bags, junk mail, and covered w/ vintage book scraps that I found on an antique store floor.  "Oh, we're just going to throw that away," said the manager.  "You can have it."

I made a few bookmarks from the same material, only used a cracker box for the base.

Also, this past week, I realized that I could sell some of the recycled die-cuts on Etsy, so I started building my stash.

Then, my hand hurt so bad that I said, "Dangit, I'm getting a Sizzix!" I found this one for 15 bux on Craigslist. Score. :)

Dies are going in this month's budget. :)

I then realized that some people were just selling vintage ephemera on Etsy.  I was like, "You're kidding.  You mean people actually buy that stuff in packs?  Why not rummage around an antique mall?"  I'd taken for granted how blessed I was to be surrounded by junk stores, and forgotten that not everyone has that.  Heck, not everyone gets a spine-tingling thrill from it the way I do, haha!  I've got TONS of that stuff....

...and can't wait to start wrapping it up in pretty lace and selling it.  My new goal is to have my Etsy shop, HappyScrappyStuff, open by March 15th.  :)  

Today, while I took all the studio pictures, the five-year-old had a "wood sale" on the kids' side of the studio

Everything was sorted by size, color, and function.  She tried to tell me why I should buy them all--I loved it!  But she hates the flash, so I couldn't get a decent pic down there, with her wiggling around.  Then we went "camping," and stayed in "Jesus' Forest," and she caught a whale with her fishing pole.  I only caught a minnow, though.   Sigh. [Big Contented Smile.]  She's so herself.  She's the strongest personality I've ever even heard of.

The two-year-old got ahold of my beads, and threw them.  Lots of them.  Everywhere.  I didn't take a picture of that.  I felt too silly for actually keeping that box at her eye level. :) To make up for it, here's a pic of her  finishing an ice cream sandwich.

I can't believe it, but most of the time, I really can work with the two-year-old beside me.  She's an introvert.  She wants to play quietly. Her favorite thing in the world is cutting paper and watching colors mix together. ("Yeah, honey, mine too!")  We have a routine now--every day Mommy takes her to the studio, gives her some safety scissors and some paint, and we *both* make stuff. 



I never thought the day would come when my kids would say, "Can we please go down to the basement and cut paper/glue things/paint/sew...with you?"  That day is not only here, it keeps coming back for more.

Last Saturday, my five-year-old said, "Mommy, can we sew with you in the basement?"  The two-year-old joined in with clapping and cheers, and then my Dear Husband even said, "I'll come down too."

My five year old made her "very own blanket," (a denim scrap with a real chain-stitch down the middle, which she promptly wrapped her Zhu-Zhu Pet in), my two-year-old "made hearts" by cutting up paper scraps into triangles,  and my husband developed his own font, tentatively titled "Wall-E."  (The movie has been burned into our consciousness recently.  We can't help it.)  I worked on this quilt...

...made from their jammies and old jeans.  They were excited. :)

I didn't take a picture of that time, because honestly, I felt like it was the World's Best Family Time Ever, and didn't want to say, "Hang on a sec while I get my camera, so I can update my blog." I just felt (rightly or wrongly) that it would have been an Epic Mother Fail.  But as I looked around the room, I felt like those moments were the first part of a serious Dream Come True for me---my family making stuff together, and enjoying it.  We're not addicted to the TV (overly much), we're not sitting around consuming junk food (all the time) we're able to enjoy things together.  How did we get so blessed?

I want to spread the blessing around a bit---leave a comment on this blog, and you'll be entered into a drawing for one of those bookmarks. :) Just a little thank you for joining me on my journey. :)