Arts and Crafts and things, Oh My!

So, the girls in my family have always been crafty. I was probably 18 or 19 when I stepped into my first craft shop, and I was hooked. Mostly I did decoupage, but soon I expanded to needle work, and sewing and there was that one instance when I knocked the ends off a tomato box and built my mom a shelf for Christmas. Looking back, I'm  pretty sure it didn't hold much.

Not having to work allowed me more time to spend with my baby sister. She is officially a craft-a-holic. She introduced me to Altered Books. For the life of me I couldn't understand why someone would want to alter a perfectly good book by tearing pages out and pasting stuff in there. But, little  by little, I was hooked, once again.

Kelly and I would watch videos every morning while we had coffee. So I thought, okay, I might try this. I had tried painting but between not having a consistent place to work, and a bad case of the trembles, I let that go by the wayside and paid more attention to this altered book stuff. The one that set that aforementioned hook had a huge tree on the front, done in Steam Punk style. Unfortunately I could only find it in video format. But it's worth the watch.

And please, check out his other work on his YouTube channel. 

So, altered books turned into Junk Journals. Talk about creative license. And then we found a Junk Journal Challenge and it was game on! We had a month to create and finish a journal using nothing but what we had in our stash. That limited me somewhat because I hadn't been involved long enough to make a stash but I had started picking up things here and there. And, Kelly had been putting aside some stuff for me. There were three mini challenges relating to the junk journal through the month, but I finished. Still have a few empty pages in the back but I'm told I met the initial requirements, so I'm good. 

This is not only my first Junk Journal, it's my first video. Note to self, next time dress prior to doing the video. Steve was my camera man. 

Now, we have an April challenge which we are also working on, as well as an Altered Book I'm working on for a Christmas gift. 

A Junk Journal is built from scratch right down to the cover. Paper is folded and sewn into the spine. 

An Altered Book already has a cover and pages, but the crafter decorates it with bits and pieces of...well...junk. 

Enter Pour Painting. Yes, pour painting. Lots of different techniques with some amazing outcomes. I've done about 5. Three will probably be repoured because they are horrid first attempts. I have two I'll probably keep. I fought my way back into my sunny corner, have a table and chairs and still trying to arrange it so I have plenty of room. I have a drying rack for the paintings coming in this week. 

These are the two I'm keeping...so far. Though I did notice some cracking in the paint on the ceramic tile. I may have to get a different kind of white paint. 

I work on my Junk Journals and Altered Books in the living room on the coffee table. I have a nice set up in  there though I could use more light.

May not sound like a lot, but it keeps me more active than I have been, and I'm excited. I can spend hours sitting in the living room crafting tags and pockets and what not for a Junk Journal. I spend less time pouring because I don't yet have a good space to store my paintings while they dry.That will change shortly. I think I've found peace.