Happy House Tutorial

Hello friends :)
Happy New Year, lol! I can't believe that I haven't blogged in 6 months. Life has been busy I guess, right?!

I recently had a lot of fun in the studio making little paper houses. I posted several photos on my Facebook page. The response has been great and I've had several requests for a tutorial, so I wanted to share that with you all.

Here it is...

Step 1: I took some mop up paper I had saved. It was basically a piece of paper I had taped down to my work space to protect it from paint, sprays, etc.

Step 2: I cut out some basic house shapes, no measuring! Just wing it, more fun indeed.

Step 3: I cut some windows and doors out of a contrasting color. This helps them to sort of pop forward from the house itself and adds some interest. Glue these down with a glue stick.

Step 4: I used a water soluble journaling pen (Pilot G-2 07) to outline the house, roof, windows and door.

Step 5: I took a water brush and brushed lightly over the lines I drew. This gave a darker definition and helps pop those doors and windows!! :)

Step 6: I added doodles, dots and little design elements to unify colors and shapes. I also added some words and hearts. Don't forget to draw a door knob!

Below are some pics of various houses I have made. Hope this has helped fuel your creative juices. Have fun making these, but be warned they are very addictive! :)

Little Junk Journal

I really enjoy making journals out of various items. I wanted to show you all this little junk journal I made earlier this year. I have been working in it slowly to fill it up with goodies. It has turned into one of my very favorites.

It measures 4x6 inches.  The covers are made of recycled cereal box cardboard. The pages are made of random pieces of recycled paper, envelopes, scraps, newspaper, receipts, junk mail, book text, etc.

Thanks for stopping in! :)

Inchie Update

Well, I finished my November challenge to create 30 inchies!!

Here they are all together...

I have had so much fun with these, that I decided to add 20 more before Christmas! Here are the next 5.

Right now I am keeping them in this little Altoid tin. It's quite satisfying somehow to open it up each day and place

another inchie on top of all the others. It gives me joy!

I have to say that I am pretty addicted to making these tiny treasures. It is a really fun challenge and I just might continue

beyond the 50, who knows! ;)

Diane's Tag Tutorial

Hey all!  Can you believe it is December already?  Wow!  Time is flying!!  I received some requests for a tutorial on some tags I made recently, so here it is.

The basic visual supply "list" of items I used.

First, I cut some 3" wide strips from a manilla file folder. I left the fun shapes/curves at the top because they are random and fun. Next I sprayed some Dylusions inks through some stencils and let those dry. Then I put a light wash over that to blend the hard edges where the stencils were. Next I grabbed my crayons and started scribbling and drawing shapes, etc.

I grabbed some acrylic and began adding paint in various places, also adding some bits of paper and stamped images.

I trimmed them in half for tag size.

At this point I work with the composition of each: adding more paint, crayons, gel sticks, doodling, or whatever strikes my fancy to balance them out.

I decided that instead of trimming corners and adding holes for the standard tag design I would try something different. I painted an index card with black acrylic, sketched out some borders and shapes and cut them out.  I doodled them up a bit, then glued or stapled them on to make them look a little more finished. The last step was to ink the edges.  

I love how they look with this one simple step! :)

Here are the finished tags...

One last photo of some others I had done with the same process.

This was actually kinda fun putting up this little "How To".

Hope it helps someone. Blessings! :)

Does anyone else save clothing tags??

I am always saving things. I'm really not a hoarder, I promise! I just see the potential in ordinary bits of my life and like to re-create them into something fun. I have been saving clothing tags here and there for at least 6 months now. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them but knew I wanted to re-purpose them somehow. Then one day, I thought I would try doodling on one. The result was better than I expected. It was quick and easy, and super fun!! I could see the potential in these. They would work great for gift tags, little bits of encouragement to send to a friend in the mail, or even a Christmas ornament. Here are some examples...

I am so used to throwing the tags away after I cut them from the new clothes. I really had to train myself to remember to save them, lol! Old habits die hard right?!

I also want to try altering some tags with paint. Got some ideas for that too. 

Oh, and here is an update on my inchie challenge. Below are #s 6-14. Time got away from me a bit, meant to share these earlier. It is kinda fun to see so many together though. :)

Okey doke, that's all she wrote....

My November Challenge

For the month of November I am challenging myself to do 30 inchies. Inchies are little bits of art that measure 1" x 1" so they are pretty tiny. I am trying to do one each day but I have to admit, sometimes I might do more than one. That way if for some reason I can't get to it, I won't get behind.
Here are the first 5...

So far I am using up bits of old art projects for these.  Most are made out of recycled cardboard. I cut them all up before I started so they would be ready to complete. I keep them in this little paperclip box, which by the very nature of it being small and kinda cute, just makes me happy! :) I am keeping the finished ones in an Altoid tin for now. I am pondering how I will display these when I am done.  Love to get a shout out of ideas.

The paperclip box is just crying out to be altered! Don't you think??

Toodles......

I love restaurant coasters!

So my latest passion seems to be doodling mandala type designs on restaurant coasters. I have done three of these in the last week or so and could keep going. Too fun!!! Whenever we go out to eat and they bring the coasters for our drinks, I always snag them from my family. Yes, they know I want them for art stuff. They love me so they happily surrender them to me, haha!!

Here are a few pics of the progression.

I know I will get questions about which black pen I am using. I recently purchased a wonderful journaling pen from

Scarlet lime. It's my new favorite black pen and the one I have been using on almost all my doodling lately. 

Thank you Christy Tomlinson. 

So the next time you go out to eat and the waiter brings you a round little canvas, stash it in your purse! By the way, I don't recommend using these for drinks after they're doodled, lol!!