Painted Journal Project

Hello Friends!

I'm back from my glorious honeymoon and have access again to my crafty supplies!  Yea!  While Mark and I are waiting for the details of our house to come together, we're staying with my mom.  I have taken over the back room and turned it into my sewing-craft-and-psychic-bidness room.  Frankly, it's a mess right now.  Or at least it looks like one to the untrained eye :)

The other day I was really craving something to paint, so I started digging around in my mom's garage.  I found a journal I'd gotten years and years ago but never used and decided to give it a face-lift.  Here's the before:

It's just not my style.  First, I coated it with blobs of color...

Doesn't look like much at this point, I grant you.  By the way, I found this tray in our cabinet years ago and started using it to mix all my colors on.  I LOVE it!  It has plenty of space, it's super easy to clean, and it's bright and colorful.  The old spaghetti jar is filled with water for my brushes.  Makes me feel more like a real painter to use things like old spaghetti jars :)  Then I decided to write positive messages all over the cover.  I used quotes from my Spirit Guides, Rumi, and other positive quotes from my My Magical Journey newsletters.

Kitty Cosmo decided to drop by and say hello...

Doesn't she look like a sweet little kitty there?  Secretly, I think she might be a little bi-polar.  One minute she'll be sweet as pie, looking like a little sophisticated lady, and the next she gets possessed by demons and has to be tip-toed around.  It also makes sense because she has one green eye and one blue eye, half black fur and half white fur.  She practically screams bi-polar kitty.  Not that there's anything wrong with that (as long as you keep your fingers out of reach), it's just her unique personality.  One time (at band camp) I was telling a lady about how traumatic it was when I first moved in and Cosmo was attacking me all the time.  You know what this lady did?  She laughed!  Can you believe it?!  I couldn't believe it.  Although I just realized I laugh my way through weddings and funerals and any other event that I'm not supposed to laugh at.  But I digress...

After writing all over it, I decided it needed some splatter paint!

Splatter painting is super easy and a lot of fun. Add a small amount of water to your acrylic paint, wet your brush, saturate your brush in the paint, and fling or tap your brush over the surface you're painting.  (I know I said fling, but you still hold onto the brush the entire time).  At this point I realized I'm heading toward the grunge look, and I suddenly get the idea that I can finish this and give it to my sister-in-love, Elle, who appreciates the bold, energetic, grunge style.  I decided to add brightly colored vines, leaves, and roses as a nod toward Romeo & Juliet, which for some reason had popped into my head at this point.  I was thinking of the rose vines leading up toward the balcony.

My roses changed into hearts (easy to paint), and I added her name and some dots in metallic bronze paint.  You may wonder why I went though the trouble of writing all over it if I was just going to cover it with splatter paint.  I feel that the energy of the quotes will come through the journal, whether or not she can actually read them.  There are short phrases that still show through, though.  I found out that Elle in Greek means shining light, and there's a quote at the very top that didn't get fully covered up that says, "You are a bright, shining light in the world."  Which, of course, is true for all of us.  

I am pretty excited that this is a personalized, unique, and totally free Christmas present.  I wonder if I can be uber creative this year and make gifts for everyone that they will enjoy and be totally free.  Hmm...what a fun challenge that could be.

By the way, I realize these pics are slightly blurry, even though I sharpened them on picnik.  My camera has been funky blurry for several weeks now and I couldn't figure out why.  Just before I looked it up online, I turned my camera around and saw a huge fingerprint right over the lens!  Hello obvious!  Hopefully you won't have to strain your eyes in the future.  

Love,

Melanie Jade  

Halloween in Granbury

Hello Friends!

Back from our wonderful wedding and honeymoon, and now we're...still going with the flow.  My sewing machine is still in storage, so the crafts in my head (I'm skipping Christmas and moving right onto Valentine's Day) are staying in my head for now. However, I do have some photos to share with you from our recent visit to Granbury, TX.  I had never been there before, but they have a super cute historic downtown.  Come window shopping with me!

This was the cutest, most colorful store.  They had brightly colored Christmas trees (hot pink, sky blue, etc.) that were so wild and happy.  Unfortunately, none of my photos turned out well : (

I love "The Witch Is In".  My mom said I could get this and put it outside our home if I was in a bad mood.  Ha.  Ha.  Very funny.  :-b

I LOVE this little witch.  There were several different ones, and they have the most animated faces.

As we were leaving, all the shop owners came outside in their costumes and had a trick-or-treating party for the children.  It was so cute!  I really loved that all the shops decorated outside with natural materials.  Most of them had hay bales, pumpkins, and cornstalks, along with colorful fabric and cloth Halloween characters.  

And check out this cool sign:

I would hang this on my wall if I had it.  Maybe I'll make something like this when we get our home.  Love the 20s look.

I was also inspired by some of the cute crafts in the stores, many of which were made by local artists, like this little tack board (or whatever you call it).  Just a cork board covered with burlap and painted.  Cute.  I would make a more colorful version, but it's still a cute and easy idea.

I'm pretty sure the same artist made these painted burlap pillows

The burlap was a little rough for my taste, but I like the idea of painting on fabric because I love to paint.  There's also something peaceful and elegant about the monochromatic silhouettes of the birds and letters.  They remind me of another pillow I saw recently in the Pottery Barn catalog...

I was so inspired by this pillow.  I love the typewriter print and the happy message.  I could think of lots of different words to copy the same idea with, and then I'd have a super happy couch.  Actually, I loved all sorts of things from the Pottery Barn holiday catalog.  I could just picture decorating our future house.  If you're wondering whether I would go on a shopping spree at Pottery Barn if we had our house now, I'd say that just isn't my style.  I would find what I like and then figure out how to make it myself : - )  I used to drive my mom nuts in stores because she would pick out something pretty, and I'd say, "I could make that."  

Thank you for coming along with me on my tour of Granbury!  I hope you had a happy Halloween!

Love,

Melanie Jade