Inspired by Collage

Over the past couple of weeks I have found myself drawn more and more to collage. My Pinterest board is full of them. There is just something magical about cutting up a magazine, a scrap of paper, junk mail or other items and putting them together in a way that expresses yourself. Adding paint and other mediums to the work transforms the page and changes the way the viewer sees. Here are a few of my current favourites:

This collage, Black Eyed Sue, by Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson is so full of energy and color, I love it. She also has a DVD, Collage: An Overview of the Creative Process. I really want to order a copy to find out how she creates her work.

This portrait collage, “T.I.”, by Ian Wright is so visually compelling that I find it hard to look away.

Donna Downey is an incredible mixed media artist. She produced this work during a four-hour drive using stack of old magazines, a pair of scissors and a glue stick.

She has totally inspired me to give it a whirl. Time to get my own dusty pile of magazines, clear off my work table and cut and paste. The whole process  reminds  me a bit of my favourite grade in school, kindergarten.

My Newest Art Discovery…

Oh boy! I discovered Jill Connor on Pinterest and absolutely love her work. Check out a few of her amazing tissue paper collages:

Don’t you just love these? The colours, the images, the whimsical artistry. What can I say, I am a fan.

It inspired me to try a few with my kids. We grabbed some Bristol board, a stack of tissue paper, and a bottle of Mod Podge.

And that is how we spent a rainy Sunday afternoon. Fun. Even with all the tissue paper bits that have travelled everywhere. And the Mod Podge that spilled…

Now its my turn, I want to give it a shot. Her art really is that good. Check out her website: http://artbyjillconnor.com

What do you think?

Making a Fall Wreath: My First Attempt

I finally did it! After admiring all the fall wreaths on I took the plunge and  made my own. If you are as addicted to Pinterest as I am, you know how easy it is to spend all of your time just collecting all the creative pins without actually making any of your own. It was time to try it.

Because it was my first attempt I didn’t want it to cost a lot of money – just in case I had to dump into the garbage if it didn’t work. When I went to Michael’s to look at the wreath forms I couldn’t believe they were charging between $12 and $20 for them. I had noticed a more budget-friendly idea on Pinterest using pipe insulation from Home Depot as a cheaper alternative and gave it a try.

• Source:http://www.thepennyparlor.com/2010/09/coffee-filter-wreath.htm lTanya on Pinterest

It totally worked! I learned the hard way with my first attempt to ensure that you securely duct tape the ends together or your form may start pulling apart.

Other than budget concerns I didn’t want my wreath to look too fussy and old-fashioned. I really wanted it to have a contemporary feel. I am happy with the way it turned out but have now been bitten by the wreath bug and want to try so many other ideas…

Here is how I did it:

I used:

• Foam pipe insulation from Home Depot or any hardware store. They come in different sized diameters, I would suggest the thickest one you can find. I wish I had bought a thicker one as the form would be more in proportion, mine is a little on the skinny side.
• Yarn for wrapping around the wreath form. I show a tiny ball in my picture but you need quite a bit to wrap the entire wreath.
• Sharp scissors for cutting the pipe insulation and felt.
• Glue gun for the flowers and other embellishments you want to add.
• Fabri Tac as an alternative glue for some of the felt flowers.
• A mug or your favourite TV and the radio tuned to CBC…

The most time-consuming part was wrapping the yarn around the form. Take your time and make it tight and neat, all your effort really pays off in the end. I made smaller balls of yarn to make it easier to wrap around my form. An idea I had for my next one is to leave the pipe insulation straight to make it easier to wrap and then just at the end duct tape the ends together. This will save all the passing the yarn around the circle. It’s worth a try…

When I had it wrapped up I grabbed another cup of tea and set about making my felt flowers and used the glue gun to attach them to the wreath. So easy. I finished the whole thing in just over an hour.

Whew! This was so easy I can’t wait to make another one.

Inspiration for Fall Wreath Projects

The wind is blowing, the rain is falling and signs of autumn are everywhere…except for my front door. I am inspired to try my hand at a fall wreath and wanted to share a few of my favourite finds. Just browsing through Pinterest is enough to get your craft mojo firing. Take a look at a few I think are amazing:

• Source: etsy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

I love, love, love the two tone flowers on the organic wreath form, don’t you? Lovely. Now for a bit of leaf inspiration:

• Source: etsy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

The grey yarn is so simple behind the colourful leaves and it looks so simple to do.

Here is another along the same lines…

• Source: abigailshamburger.blogspot.com via Tanya on Pinterest

OK, I am officially inspired. Time to get busy, stay tuned…

Pinterest and a Few Fall Craft Projects

I would like to introduce you to my newest obsession:

OK, I have to come clean and really admit to the amount of time I spent onPinterest this summer. Ummm, it was a lot. Hours, maybe days…who knows? I am head-over-heels in love.

According to the Pinterest about page:

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

It is just like an inspiration board that so many self-help books and therapists urge people to create. Except that now you don’t have to hunt through magazines for images to tear out and glue on a piece of bristol board.

When you sign up for an account  @ http://pinterest.com  you install a widget on your browser’s tool board that lets you ‘pin’ all of the interesting things that you find when out surfing. Instead of bookmarking a site or subscribing to a blog you pin a visual picture of what you are interested in.

I use it as a catalogue of inspiration. Here are a few ideas that I love for fall.

• Source: makeandtakes.com via Tanya on Pinterest
• I just love how simple and fun this project looks. A great one for the kiddo’s to help with.

• Source: marthastewart.com via Tanya on Pinterest
• I  actually made this project for an Oktoberfest party we had this weekend. Easy and elegant.

• Source: thesparklestudio.blogspot.com via Tanya on Pinteres

• I love the dramatic effect of the glitter on the black background. It looks easy – although I have learned the hard way that not everything that looks easy actually is! Worth a try anyways.

Sign up and start creating your own pinboards on whatever is important to you. Be careful though, it is totally addicting.

Felt Flower Gift Topper

It is time to kick off my new blog, Life’s a Craft Project! I am so excited to have a place to share my passion for crafts and creativity.

Let’s get right to it…

I have found a benefit to spending countless hours on Pinterest, it inspires you to get your creative on! I found this felt on sale at Michael’s and thought it would help me get going on my first craft tutorial.

This post was completely inspired by a post from Stacie @ http://befickle.blogspot.com 

She created these flowers for a Mother’s Day brooch. Her tutorial is awesome and you should really check out her blog, so many great crafty ideas.

Over the next few weeks I am challenging myself to try a bunch of flower tutorials and will document my efforts/disasters here! Stay tuned…

OK, let’s get started. You will need:

• one piece of felt
• a sharp pair of scissors
• a black pen to trace the circles on the felt
• a cup, empty container or card cut into about a 4.5 cm circle (or 3 inches)
• a glue gun and glue sticks
• a pretty button to finish it off! (Sorry the button didn’t make it into the picture, I am still learning!)

I used an empty apple sauce container and traced 6 circles onto the felt for the petals.

I flipped over the container and traced around the bottom to get the base for my felt flower. The circle is just slightly smaller that the petals, but don’t sweat it, the base could just be the same size as the petals.

Time to get cutting…

This is what I ended up with:

The next step is to fold the circle in half…

Then fold one corner of your petal over by about a third.

And then fold the other side of your petal over to make an S shape. Use your glue gun at the tip of the petal and put a few glue dots from your glue gun in the folds to hold the petal together.

Next, glue each petal to the base making sure to place them right next to each other.

After you glue all of the petals to the base, fluff up the petals a bit to get something that looks like this:

Now you can pick out a pretty button to glue in the middle and you are done! Easy peasy right? And cute too

You could follow Stacie’s tutorial and turn this into a brooch, or glue on a hair clip or follow me and make a present topper.

Isn’t this so much better than a ribbon? 10 minutes, about .50 cents and there you go. Let me know what you think…happy crafting!