The Creative Bug

Like I was talking about in my last post, I came across two things I'd done lately but hadn't posted. Since I took the pictures in the middle of the night they are terrible...but hey. I can't be perfect all the time. ;)



This is a small box I bought unfinished. I got it at Hobby Lobby for $2.00! The knob from the middle drawer was knocked off - but it was still with the box. I painted that also - I just haven't attached it yet. It's hard to tell, the box is navy blue and I doodled dotted swirls with teal paint around the sides and back. The top rim has more doodles in teal, yellow, pink, purple and silver, with the inside of the top decoupaged with torn denim-colored paper.

The top portion of the box is a little dotted floral border; the top drawer is purple with flowers painted on the right side; the middle drawer is pink with coordinating dots; the bottom drawer is yellow with a different dotted pattern; and the bottom support of the box is squiggled and dotted with the same paints. The knobs are painted teal with different designs on them. This will be a great little storage box for my desk - perfect for ephemera, loose beads and odds-&-ends.



This is a picture I painted on foam core board. It actually goes lengthwise - imagine it flipped 1/4 turn counter-clockwise. I couldn't edit it that way because it cut the top of the painting off. I call it "Dreamy"...it's an abstract woman. (Again, imagine it!) I had a lot of fun painting this - it only took me a few minutes and I used liquid acrylics. Once it was dry I took a black Sharpie and doodled swirls, flowers, dots and various geometric patterns all over it. It's finished with glossy acrylic medium. It's really fun in person - I wish the picture captured the shine and details better.

Sleepless Nights

Unlike the Diva-in-Training...

Unlike "Baby Sissy"...

Unlike Sweet Pea & Princess...

I cannot sleep.

It's frustrating not being able to sleep. Especially when you were busy the previous day and know you have to be busy the next day.

I don't sleep well. It's a fact. I haven't slept well in about 11 years and 8 months. The last time I slept well was before I was injured at work. Ever since then, to varying degrees, the pain has either kept me from going to sleep or - more often - wakes me up in the middle of the night. I've tried various prescription medications in an attempt to override the pain and knock me out. The problem is taking medication like that - although it allows me to finally sleep - throws me into a deep sleep. I don't wake up for the kids. I can't wake up in the morning. I feel groggy all the next day. It is because of these problems with the medication that I've opted not to take any sleep aides. There is a trade-off - not taking the medication means the pain keeps me awake. I go through these cycles - trying to sleep, finally dropping off for an hour or two, waking up because of my back and legs, trying to get the pain to go away. This continues until my body finally conks out. It doesn't matter where I am or what I'm doing - when my body has finally had enough, it simply shuts down. I've been known to fall asleep in the middle of conversations, movies, while at the park with the childebeasts. Embarrassing!

The up side to all of this? I've learned I need to do something when I'm awake. Laying in bed only allows me to focus on the pain, making the pain seem even worse. Trying to get my mind off of it by involving myself in different activities seems to help. It's a catch-22. I can't do anything physical because of the pain - but I can't lay still either. So I've taken to spending these long nights, when everyone else in the country is sleeping, to work on my creativity. Playing with art is the only thing I can lose myself in. Which is why I'm posting this.

I had worked on these two projects a little while ago - but hadn't posted them. I hadn't realized that until I was looking at the painting I did - at 1:45 in the morning - trying to decide where to hang it in my developing studio. I'm going to post both projects in the next post...I just wanted to give a little background into why I'm posting things in the middle of the night!

A Little Progress

As promised, I took a few pictures of my never-to-be-finished studio. Believe it or not, I've actually accomplished A LOT. Unfortunately, several of the pictures I took are stuck on my camera. They didn't transfer to the memory card - and the childebeasts lost the cable I need to connect the camera to the computer. Never fear, I still have a few very sorry pictures to show you.

Even though there's a bunch of junk in the pictures, this is the armoire that houses my ribbon collection. Yes, I have that much ribbon. On top is the mail sorter that keeps my card stock safe and away from childebeasts. My overflowing paint caddy is on the floor - it's for liquid acrylics. (I think I need 3 more and I'll have places for the paints...but I don't have room for the caddies!)

If you could only seen where I started...but thankfully I can't find those pictures. (I admit I haven't looked real hard!) But believe me - this IS an improvement. A large one. I've had the pegboard hanging for awhile now - but nothing was on it. I added a bunch of stuff (that still needs to be organized) so at least it's off the floor & I won't keep tripping on it. I also got the shelves hung that I made for my rubber stamps. The problem now? I don't think I made nearly enough - so I don't really know what to do with the rest of my stamps. Most of them are mounted, which takes up a lot of space. We'll see what happens when I get further along.

(The rod hanging in front of the shelves used to hold a photo montage I had hanging - now it will hold paper that's drying and finished artwork.)
I made the stamp shelves out of foam core board and a glue gun. Once the foam core was cut down and adhered to another piece of foam core to form the shelves, I decoupaged torn paper to a piece of poster board. Once dry, I doodled in black Sharpie and then cut the poster board into strips. I stuck the strips to the fronts of the shelves - this covered the ugly foam core board cuts and keeps the rubber stamps from accidentally falling off.

As for the pegboard, I went a little doodle crazy on one (with help from the childebeasts) and just painted the other.

I still have so much work to do - you can see the sloppiness in the pictures. I didn't take pictures of the floor on purpose. I painted 4 shelves that I still need to hang - and I think that will take care of a lot of my storage problems. I've still got a long way to go - so if anyone is free...

The Studio that Wouldn't

I must be losing my mind. Ok...I admit it. It's been gone a long time now!

I am still working on my studio. Is this ever going to be a reality? It seems like every time I get more done, more work pops out of no where and demands attention. What's up with that? I swear my walls and floor boards are growing cat hair - there is no WAY this much hair comes from two cats. I've never had a long-haired cat before so maybe this is just par for the course? You'd think I own 1200 cats with the amount of kitty hairs I've found. It kind of grosses me out.

I had hung my peg board a couple of months ago and have finally gotten into finding enough supplies that I can hang them. I also hung the shelves I made for my stamps and have begun filling those. I realized a problem, tho. I made 5 shelves - 3 that hang length-wise and 2 that are width-wise. I thought for sure that would be enough to contain my rubber stamp obsession. HA! I still have 2 humongous under-the-bed containers FULL of stamps. Where did I accumulate all these? Where am I going to put them all? Does one person really need all these? I suppose the answer is yes - especially if you're the Queen. ;)

I'd get the camera and take pictures of my progress if I wasn't so tired. I'll try to get to that in the next day or two.

I've gotten my partner for the Funky Art Journal Swap - but I haven't even started on my journal yet. I'm still flipping through Collage Unleashed to see what, exactly, I want to do. It looks like a great way to get my feet wet and begin creating again. I feel like that part has been dormant for far too long!

Thank goodness spring break is over as of tomorrow and the kids will be returning to school. I'm so done with all the fighting and arguing. It will be wonderful to have quiet next week!

Royal Necessities

NECESSITIES FOR CREATING ROYAL ART

• A Sense of HUMOR!
• BLING - Every Shape, Size, Color, Cut...Anything Sparkly!
• Brushes
• Diamond Glaze
• Elmer's Glue-All
• Fibers/Ribbon & Fabric
  
• Gel Medium
• Gesso
• Ink - Permanent Ink Pads, Pigment Ink Pads, Re-Inkers, "Liquid" Ink Like Watercolor Ink
• Joint Compound
• Markers
• Metal Findings
• Paints - Acrylics, Gouache, Oils, Watercolors
• Paper Plates & Cups
• Paper, Paper, Paper - Plain, Colored, Designed, Mulberry, Heavy, Light, Handmade
• Pencils, Charcoal, Etc
• Pens - Permanent, Gel, Calligraphy, Paint Pens, Thin, Thick, Bullet Tip
• Stamps - The Postage Kind & The Rubber Kind
• Sticks - Craft Sticks Large & Small, Skewers, Outside Sticks, Paint Stirrers
• Wax - Melted Crayons, Beeswax, Candles & Paraffin