Ugly Art ReDO Part 1

When we moved into our new home I kinda went willy nilly with my art choices trying to get stuff on the walls and make it feel homey. Now as I look around I am like "what was I thinking?"

Lately I have been brainstorming about how to reuse some of this "ugly art."



I love the look of the big ole' chalk boards I see in the Pottery Barn and Ballard catalogs. And I really like the idea of having a message center where my crazy funny boys can write silly fun stuff to each other, and where I can scrawl ( with my less than stellar handwriting) random quotes, shopping lists, weekly menu, to do stuff. You get the idea.






So I thought maybe just maybe I could redo my ugly art with a can of chalkboard paint and a couple of cans of spray paint. I did two coats of chalk board paint, it dried really fast and didn't smell up the house at all. This stuff is really neat!




The project went well last night. I actually made a killer pan of Lasagna in between coats of chalkboard paint and spray painting the frames. I love multitasking.


I will post pictures of the finished message center later on today. It's snowy and blustery here today. A perfect day for some decorating projects!


<

Thrifting
I wish I knew more about pottery, both these pieces are marked. After a little research I think the green one may be Brush McCoy. The pink one I could not find anything about on the internet. It's marked USA has a number and the initials TP. It's shaped like an egg and has three feet. I think it may have had a lid originally, maybe? Pink and green together is just to perfect together to pass up. Both had a coating of grime that easily cleaned off with a magic eraser. Magic Erasers rock! I paid $4.99 for the green one and $2.99 for the pink. The candle stick is wood and matched the pink and green theme so in the basket it went, it was $1.50.


Aren't the little cherry cocktail napkins the cutest?!? My heart skipped a beat when I saw these. Red and turquoise by far my favorite color combo and the black stitching is adorable. Is it sick I get more excited about a set of vintage cocktail napkins then I do about diamond jewelry?



I see these crochet pieces of lace all the time at thrift stores. I'm not usually to drawn to them but I thought these rectangle ones were cute and would look good framed over a piece of scrapbook paper. I bought 2 at .99 each. I had the frame and scrapbook paper at home, it took me all of 2 minutes to put together. Easy, cheap and cute. That's me!

This is my dining room. Have we ever eaten in here? No. Unless you consider walking through the dining room with a mouth full of Cheerios on your way to put in another load of laundry, "eating in the dining room." I use the space mostly for playing with decorating ideas. I call it the "Lab".


I almost painted it red last month. Thank goodness I was to chicken to actually do it. The paint cans and brushes sat on the table mocking me and calling out to me "do it already will ya!!" for at least 3 weeks. I finally had enough and put them away and decided a nice tone of Latte would be better.

Yesterday, I did a display for the buffet that has been painted umpteen times. It didn't turn out as Springish (is that a word?) as I wanted. But I tend to collect things that are a little on the rustic dark side. My favorite color is red, I can't wear it so use it a lot in my house. I probably need a red intervention. Maybe.

We are off for some fun and relaxation. Have a wonderful Holiday week everyone!

I've been on a card kick. And making these little paper yo-yo's as I call them. Is majorly addicting. You take 3 sizes of circles, curl the edges add a button with some matching thread and you have a cute little flower embellishment. I think a little inking would be cute on them too.

We got a little break from the heat this morning, so I decided to open all of the windows and doors and do a little baking. I whipped up Cherry Chip Scones from my new Taste of Home Cookbook. I love this cookbook! Having never made scones before I think they turned out pretty good, and the house smells divine.

Cherry Chip Scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons cold butter

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk divided

1 1/3 cups dried cherries

2/3 cup vanilla or white chips

1) In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2) Combine yogurt and 1/4 cup milk; stir into crumb mixture just until moistened. Knead in cherries and chips.

3)on a greased baking sheet, pat the dough into a 9 inch circle. cut into 8 wedges separate wedges. Brush with the remaining milk.

4) Bake at 400* for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

This card makes me happy. I had so much fun creating the little hand stitched flowers, the day just melted away. I love when that happens. I love getting in the creative zone only to realize there are kids to be fed and messes to clean 3 hours later.

Gosh it's been a zoo around here the last few weeks. The kids are out of school. Do I need to say more? :) I took some time today to make this little book. I have so many silly, weird, old, bad, and odd pictures of the boys I thought it would be fun to try to put them in a mini album. It's a 6x12 book made from manila file folders, I got the idea from Two Peas Creating Garden. I also made my own printed transparencies with stazon ink because I didn't have and of the cool Hambly Studios ones shown on the tutorial, a girls gotta make due right? The Scenic Route paper is from my June Scraperrie kit. The boys loved the finished book and we all sat around laughing and sharing stories from when they were little. Gotta Love It.

Happy Mothers Day! My boys treated me to a pancake breakfast on the patio. A snowman with bacon arms with a mickey mouse on the side. They even cleaned the kitchen!! The poem is from my youngest, my favorite gift of the day besides the extra hugs and kisses.

Lucky Me!!! Check out these cuties from Melissa! These felty little handstitched darlings just make me super happy and they are MINE! Thank you to the uber talented Felt Mistress Melissa! That's her new official name in my book.

Well, I finally got this layout put together. This is a picture of my Aunt (my moms oldest sister) when she was little. I just love the curls and watering can.

"A Road Less Traveled" Zing Boom Kit for May. The green and aqua screen print that came with this kit is really cool. I love this kit club because some of the materials you get (like a bit of 1970's brown and gold wallpaper and a vintage Three Horses beer coaster) are a little outside the box. It's challenging and I find myself working with some more difficult subject matter. Which is cheap therapy!

What $3.75 will buy you at the annual P.T.A garage sale. Or why you never should let your 10 and 14 year olds go alone, even if it's only around the corner.

More Amy Butler PP

Is this not the prettiest paper? It's Amy Butler from K and Company To. Die. For. This layout has been sitting on my work table for two days. I've been moving things around on it every time I walk by. I even found the perfect green vintage ribbon in my box to go with it. Seriously you can not make this paper look bad. I've wrinkled it, ripped it, and slopped some robins egg blue paint on it by accident and it's still gorgeous. I guess I should straighten it out, add the finishing touches and glue it down soon. Maybe tomorrow.

I worked on a few things today. First, I did this layout about my oldest who is now a hysterically funny, handsome 14 year old. I found this picture in my box and it reminded me how I always dressed him in head to toe Gymboree outfits, with all the crazy patterns and colors. Gosh that was fun. I miss those days. Now I have to pick up his laundry with a pitch fork off his bedroom floor. MAN! My kids grew up way to fast.

I did the title on the layout with my new toy the Cricut. Awesome machine and I have been enjoying the heck out of it.

I also worked on a few more altered felt notebooks to send out to the girls at Two Peas. The RAK list there sure has been fun.

My blog was tagged yesterday by one of my most favorite bloggers and creative goddess extraordinaire. http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/ If you haven't been to her blog you should go check her out, she is amazing. So now is the part I go find and tag. This should be fun!

I scraplifted this little beauty from artsyfartsychic on Two Peas in a Bucket. I saw her's in the 2 Peas gallery (which is a fabulous resource for endless inspiration) and I just fell head over heals in love with it! I ran right out to Michael's and stocked up on the notebooks, then I made a few to send out to my buddies on the 2Peas RAK list, and one for myself of course!

Yep, I messed up the journaling on this layout. Am I changing it? Nope. You know why? Because I have spent years NOT journaling because I can't spell worth beans, my handwriting is horrible, and my 3rd grade teacher told me I would never be a writer. It's sad that I don't have little snippets of my life written down for my kids. Plain sad. So I'm going to really work on that. Anyways, isn't this paper the best?!? It's Basic Grey Scarlett Letter, I'm loving it! Very fun to work with. One of my art group friends sent me the vintage milk cap and I think it looks super cute on this page. Thank you Kelli!

I altered the background paper with ink and paint then added Basic Grey papers for a different Fall layout.

Scrapbooking is my first paper love. I've been collecting paper and supplies for a over decade. I admit I am lured by the bright colors, pristine pages and sentimental idea of it all. The picture perfect pages with smiling faces and clean shirts. However being the mom of 3 boys has made my idea of beauty a little different than most. I love a little scuff of dirt on things, the grunge of life. My car is never without crumbs and dried mud, I find dirty socks under the couch and finger prints on the walls. I guess that is why I feel better when I rub a little brush of paint over my scrapbook pages, a little ink in the crevices. American Crafts paper and 7 gypsies tag.

deco pages for yahoo deco group

I just love Traci Bautista's new book Collage Unleashed. I bought it a few weeks ago and have been pouring over page after colorful page each day, trying to decide which technique to do first. I did a little doodling, dry brushing, stamping in my journal today playing with colors.

Take two. I think I like this one better than the first.

Delving into some unfamiliar territory with this mixed media piece. Water colors, charcoal, and LuminArte' on foam core. I was inspired by http://www.rachelkoepke.com/index.html recent project on HGTV That's Clever. A link to the directions and materials here: http://http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_painting/article/0,1789,HGTV_3282_4487989,00.html

Playing around with altering photos. Using sandpaper block, Lyra watercolor crayons, colored pencils and walnut ink. The image is from http://melanisage.com

Art Squared Skeletons, for a swap at Embellished Circus yahoo group. I altered a photo I took last summer and layered with a stamp image from http://melaniesage.com then mounted it on hand painted collage paper and chip board.

~LOVE~

To keep one scared flame
Through life unchilled,unmoved,
To love in wintry age, the same
As first in youth we loved,
To feel that we adore
Even to fond excess
That through the heart would break with more,
It could not live with less.
-Thomas Moore.

Shades of cinnamon deco page. Cinnamon increases your metabolism, and boy do I need that after the holidays. We don't even celebrate Christmas around here and I still manage fluff up quite substantially. Altered and distressed paper layered with script stamps in chestnut brown. Aged further with antique paper ink applied with a baby wipe. Sanded then embossed with copper embossing powder. Her eyes say it all, don't they?

Grungy little deco page. Black and White can be so crisp and perfect looking I just had to mix things up a bit. Altered paper and aging techniques. My Grandpa, the silly man that he is, always gave us kids a hard time when we would hurt ourselves playing. Trying to toughen us up, I guess, he would suggest we rub some dirt into our boo boo to make it feel better. This page reminded me of that.

soothe~
you come into my darkness
just to sleep all day
we end up laughing through the pain
satisfying this
exceptional ache
below my
breast
bone
with your perilous disease
you
losing yourself in this hunger that i bring
resilient shells of fire
high off our own desire
blank
true
one more day
soothe

panic~
the panic is still today...i poured it into you today
i took from you...one moment...and the rest of your life at the same time
it smelled like the darkest part of your soul
watery and musk
it felt hard and metallic
beyond these walls
beyond this world
the defect unseen but deep and open
waiting
for the next panic

this space~
i started young
this closing in
closing down
making my world smaller so i could cope
taking things away
editing my life
words
people
friendship
time
the evil
the cause
for my despair
fear
i'm left now with few
reminders
of the things i was running from
reality so small it makes me squeamish to be in it
entangled and abandoned
in this space

news~
sullen news
i want it all so quickly it stings
when it hits
ignites fury
when it sinks in
i should have let you tell me slowly
over days
but no
i wanted all of it
every last bit
until i could not breath
or move
until i pounded my fists on your chest
my black tears dirtying your shirt
begging you to take it back
the words
the wretched news
you sat there having emptied your soul
core now dark and faded
feeling like you had just executed
me
in your white bed
where the stains are now
the ones you can't conceal or sanitize
can't reject
so you enshroud yourself in them
and want me to follow
i will

depleted~
your sallow skin says it all
it speaks of your desire
your unsoundness and greed
i swallow it down
delighted to have any part of you at all
satisfied to have tasted anything real from your barren soul
left wanting more
depleted

terror~

the terror chases me
heavy footed and grim
it hits me often
in waves
and floods
i ignore the pain in my chest
the urge to scream
i hold back the deep sense of loss
for i know it is but a
tiny drop
compared to the torment you can inflict

blame me~

blame me for falling apart
for being sad and sold
blame me for not paying attention
for looking the other way
for passing you in the darkness
blame me for hurting
for stripping away the years
and hiding from the truth
the beauty
faith
for not asking questions
and playing the victim
egging you on
blame me for letting the rain fall through my hands
for the way your heart aches
the nights you feel alone
the nights you are alone
blame me

dream~
i should learn to let go
the quiet
vivid chaos of the last time i saw you
my heart smashed and bleeding into the filth
the obscenity you passed onto me with out even knowing
the indecency you spread to others with your glance
it stills me...on days i should move
on days i should be myself
perpetually i pull from somewhere the memories of
sanguine moments
hateful screams
punishment brutal to my soul
in the hours i should be breathing in the moist ever ready softness of life
i
still dream those occasions
even awake
it breaks me

caged~
caged
within decaying senses
my mind bleeds
raw knees
sore teeth
you taunt me
words like venom
lashing me with their jagged edges
blasting off the smattering of self
left
in this rancid shell of devotion
before you
my keeper

blue~
The sky was ever blue. So were you. Nothing would soothe it, this desire to cease. This yearning to die.
You smelled of it. It dripped from every pore of your putrid exploited body. It ran onto every thing you touched. Everything you clung to.
I loved your self hatred because it was all I knew of you. But it hurt to the very core to worship the martyrdom. To see it eat at your soul and exploit you time and time again. It has never left me.
You were ever blue.