JUST A BRIEF NOTE...

I received my journal in yesterday's mail but sadly did not start it yet. I had quite a busy day today! I may have purchased my journal "too small." I write in a journal frequently, not daily, but often. I've been doing it for years so this new challenge will be different for me. I have lots of journals but they all have lines so I ordered one on Etsy without lines.

Have you started yours? Have fun with it, that's what its all about, right?

(The design is from a Dover sample.)

LET'S DO SOMETHING...A NEW CHALLENGE

I read blogs of others and read about what they did that day and usually there is something they did that is artful or crafty. And then there is me. I go along and don't do anything artsy or craftsy for days at a time and start to feel out of balance.  We haven't had a challenge for awhile. I remember we did have one after Christmas and another in February, I think. So it's time. 

My challenge to you is to get a journal with blank pages and a coil binding and doodle in it. Write down what ideas come to you. Cut pictures from magazines with colors you like, or flowers you like or pieces of artwork that inspire you. Glue them into the journal. Or use your markers and sketch something. Draw. Paint. Write. Fold. Do a little something in the journal every day, even if it is to write that you didn't have time to do something creative. And why. Or if your muse was silent, write that down.

Choose a journal in a size that won't sabotage you immediately, i.e., 11"x14" might be a little much for a "first timer" in art journaling. Or whatever it might be called. I think a 5"x7" might work for me this first time out. Set a time or a place to do it. Same time every day? Or fit it in where you can? Its up to you...

The size, the time of day, the medium, etc., are all up to you. You can share your work with us, or not! Share with us once in awhile, though. I'll give you a few days to get the journal or make one.

By May 19th lets each try to post a photo in our Yahoo groups of at least one page of the journal. Sinclair, can you make us an album for "Journal Pages, May 2010," please?  Thanks! 

Ready, Set, GO!!

 

SPRING LEAVES AND RUBBINGS

I had been wanting to do some leaf rubbings for awhile but had to wait for spring! Here are the steps to doing the rubbings.

• Select several leaves to use. They should be veined and have a lot of detail.
• Select the paper to use. I used tracing vellum which came in tablet form.
• You will need a paperweight and colored pencils or crayons.
• Place the leaves under the vellum in any design that you would like.
• Put the paperweight on the vellum where it will help keep the paper and leaves in place. I might suggest to tape the paper to the counter or tabletop to hold it in place. It tends to slip even with the paperweight and my other hand holding the paper down.
• I used colored art pencils. Use the side of the pencil tip to do the broader parts and the tip to do the narrower parts. Gently rub the pencil across the leaf. You will get the feel for it. I had an eraser handy, too, to erase the color that went "out of the lines." As I did more, I got the hang of it.
• Do not use the same leaf more than once. I did. I made a mess and some of the rubbings don't look as good as the others.
• This was my first attempt, done on 8-1/2" x 11" vellum.
• I used a red Japanese maple and a mauve colored pencil.
• I tried a house plant leaf, an Angel Wing Begonia, it didn't work. It has too much moisture in the leaf.
• I don't care for the rubbing of the leaf with a crayon. There isn't enough definition of the leaf veins. I also prefer to use the darker colored art pencils.

What to do with the final product?

• make a greeting card or a note card
• frame it and hang it on the wall
• make a calendar using different leaf rubbings for each month

I clearly need more practice before I do anything with the rubbings.

I don't know what the other leaves are. One was on a flowering plant which showed up in our flower bed voluntarily. The other was just a leafy plant which also just happened to show up.

Have fun making your rubbings and be sure to let me know how they turned out.

Handmade Marketplace Sites

I have shared this post on my personal blog, but also thought it would be a good fit here. Though Hoarders Unite originated as an Etsy Street Team, I do not feel that we are in any way limited only to Etsy. I want to encourage members of the team to sell wherever they choose (or not to sell at all) and know that they can still be a part of this group.

I thought I would create a post that will list all the handmade shopping sites I know about. As I find more, I will add them to this post, and share a permalink in the sidebar. So, here goes...

Handmade Marketplaces:

1. 1000 Markets
2. AnticGift (based in Turkey)
   
3. Artfire
4. Dawanda (based in Germany)
5. Etsy
6. Folksy (based in the UK...thanks GirlIndustries for this info!)
   
7. Just For Keeps
   
8. MadeIt (based in Australia)
9. WinkElf
10. Zibbet
    

Sites showcasing and indexing handmade items:

1. CanaMade (featuring items made in Canada)
   
2. Down the Handmade Path (featuring primitive folk arts and crafts)
   
3. Handmade Product Marketplace (blog)
   
4. Poppytalk Handmade (a monthly "street market" curated by Poppytalk)
5. Try Handmade

Hybrid Sites:

1. Bonanzle (handmade and commercial items)
   

NO MORE ETSY SHOPS

Hello fellow Hoarders. I have closed my two Etsy shops. Shocking...even to myself. I have an illness including chronic pain and cannot keep up with all the demands on the time when I am able to do things. Ever since we moved here three years ago, the house has been untidy. Piles of craft supplies, piles of things to sell, boxes here there and everywhere. Quite frankly, I'm tired of it. Tired of the house being untidy due to my projects and my inventory. The house is too small to store all of the above mentioned in proper closets or drawers. So, the decision, which I did not make lightly, was to get rid of the clutter, i.e., by closing the shops.

While I enjoyed every bit of having a shop, well 2 shops, online, I once again have reinvented myself and my priorities. It could also possibly have to do with the recent familial events which required me to be away from home for three weeks, one week at a time. I need to be feeling as good as I can to help my family when needed and not worry about closing and opening my shops so much. That's not good for business...

Another by product of this new outlook is that I will no longer a Hoarder be... I am being ruthless. Really ruthless. The charity shops will be loving me! I think I will spread it out and not give all to one particular shop. Help everyone instead of just one.

Therefore, I may no longer be a card toting member of Hoarders Unite but, I'm staying a member because :

• Rome wasn't built in a day
• I like you guys and want to stay in touch
• I'm still going to buy on Etsy
• And I might have withdrawals as I destash and need support, LOL!!

I must now apologize for this post being "all about me." 

~Nancy~

Regarding Blogs and Removal of Same

I just deleted one of my blogs yesterday after printing it out. I remembered that Sandi made a post about not being able to delete her blog so thought I would post how to do it. One thing I have noticed is that we cannot block and delete or block and copy and I had been wanting to save the blog posts on a particular blog I have because it is "my book." So, wanting to preserve it, I hadn't deleted it yet.

Yesterday I signed on to the particular blog and printed the pages out, but it was a cumbersome job and wasteful because it printed out my posts but also every chapter that was printed printed out the heading and the sidebars, too. I think I should have gone to "edit blog posts" and printed from that. Maybe I would have printed only the post itself and not the extraneous stuff.

Then, after I printed all of it, still in the layout portion of that particular blog, i.e., the one I want to delete, I chose "settings." On the settings page there is a line at the top that asks "export" "import" and "delete." I chose delete and voila! My blog is now gone.

I hope this helps anyone who wants to delete their BLOGSPOT blog.

CHALLENGE OF A DIFFERENT KIND?

I am still working on my "destash" and "downsizing" goals. Maybe I will be forever! But I've decided that there is one thing that can help me achieve my goals sooner. I can say "No, thank you," when someone asks if I want a bunch of craft supplies! I don't do that, never have done that, have always been happy to accept whatever was given to me.  Most recently I was given lots and lots and lots of wooden craft items. Included were thread spools, flat hearts, round balls in different sizes, big spools, little spools, and who knows what all. I just took them and put them in the workroom. They are still there, in a box on the floor, and on the window sill in jars. They will soon become the property of my youngest sister who has a whole barn for her hoards and stashes!

I don't use wood that much. I have used it in the past, and maybe someday I will again, but there is no sense for me to keep all these pieces that I may  never use. I have priorities in what I like to use in my arts and crafts and the wooden things are way down on the list. So they will be given away. And I will think twice before accepting miscellaneous items in the future. My challenge...

Will it work for you?