Dispatch From LA

Quirky Handpainted Labels Are Here!

i've been busy busy busy all weekend getting these babies ready.  they're an instant download so that took additional brain power to figure out.  oh boy!  

all the nitty gritty details down below...

$9

The Details:

• Instant Download
• 15 page high resolution PDF
• 8 red & 8 blue labels 
• 4 sizes {64 total}
• 7 plain sheets + 2 extra sheets with words
• 5 pages {of the 15} of photo pdf with inspiration & suggestions for use
• Transparent PSD files included separately so you can add your own words in PS or Elements, use in digital layouts, or to decorate your blog. (this requires an extra bit of know-how on your part)
• link to download expires 1 week from date of purchase or after 5 attempts whichever comes first

hope you have as much fun using as i had making!!!!!!

xo

almost ready

horse blinders on.  blocking everything out except the sound my scissors are making cutting out each label.  if i had a staff of elves i would sell them cut already.   alas, i do not.

but cutting is fun.  {not lying}

oh...the tape is there because i ♥ all the reds together.  i'll stick labels down with my tombow adhesive.

and there will be png files of the plain labels so you can add any old words you want!

or use in digital layouts, or on blogs, or WHEREVER!

almost ready to put them out into the world.  almost.

thanks for the encouraging comments & emails.  makes me feel warm and jumbly inside.

back to work!

getting shaggy

yard work anyone?  my front yard is getting shaggy!

i attached my tunnel vision goggles to my head bright and early and got crackin' on building my label empire.  the path was fraught with distractions.

emails!  phone calls!  cats! 

doesn't mama moss look spiffy and up for anything in her new mother's day shirt?  2 birthdays and 1 mother's day within the same week.  it was a trifecta of celebration in kansas this weekend.  wish i could've been there.  i imagine sometimes living in the same town as my sisters.  wish they'd hurry up and move here.  then they could mow my lawn!  and make me dinner!  i am the youngest child!  i have needs that must be met!

alas and alack i stayed at moss cottage under the big shady umbrella out back and put tape in my old ledger. 

don't feel too sorry for me though.  it was fun!

i marveled at how the old pages were held together with 90 year old tape.  tiny tears patched up.  i did the same thing.

with brighter tape.

i hope someone patches me up with bright tape when i get old.

also, because it seemed quite necessary and important, and also because i was curious, i painted on some of the pages.  they held up just fine.

this is going to be my Fast Fool Around book.  as in do whatever i want and try stuff out.  today i tried out some watercolor brush pens on a few of the pages {not seen here}.  a few splishy splashies and i was done.  super fast.  versus my Slow Fool Around book.  which is my regular visual journal.  FFA & SFA.

it's sunday!  i have 2 hours left to fool around on my ipad, make a fruit smoothie, and watch t.v.  OH BOY!

p.s.  this post has over 10 exclamation marks in it!  sorry!

sparkly

 i'm here at moss cottage on a grey cool wednesday.  

with my twinkly lights on in my art room.

 just moving little piles of paper around on my table top.  

and thinking that aqua and orange and red and blue sure are pretty

that's all.

on the eve of my departure

last night i crocheted around one of my larger stones.  oh boy!

HERE is where I found the original pattern.   THIS is Margaret's blog, the woman who originated the idea.  Others might have crocheted stones before her, but I think she's the one who really made the idea captivating to me and countless others flung across the globe.

I found THIS pattern yesterday.  Which I used for the first 3 or 4 rows then I went off on my own.  Eventually popping the big stone inside its little crochet sweater and stitching it in all snug and tidy.

Now I have to go pack.

My chariot is heading out into the bright morning and onto the open road first thing.  Miles and miles of gray ribbon of road unwinding.  And me master and commander of the very first day of my shiny new 10 day vacation.  That is a thought I like thinking about.  A lot.

Eventually I will land at my enchanting destination.

And there will be photo stories and ramblings and more crocheted stones and some sketchbook pages and walkabouts.

I'd be totally lying if I said I wasn't giddy. 

because i am.

floating

saturday afternoon.  playing with paper and roses.  small arrangements.  

reading.  piddling. taking pictures.  waiting for rain.

no talking.  no being talked to.

finished state of wonder.  looking for something GOOD.  any suggestions?

 

happy saturday! {on friday}

This is the former home of a shaggy geranium.  He got moved into the garden and whaddayaknow in moved a succulent jewel box! 

I keep walking over and staring down at all that glittering voluptuousness.  X-rated isn't it?  Cover the kittens eyes!

A friend popped over to Moss Cottage this week and among the treasure she deposited in my arms was this old handmade box from her pop's workshop.   

I do love myself a nice grungy old box with a story.  Also.  Um.  In theory a lot of washi tape could fit in here.

But, I'm using it on my art table to hold paper scraps.  I lined it with some heavy duty wallpaper and glued on various other paper provisions.

Before I actually use it though I think I'll keep staring at it for awhile.  

When I'm not staring at my kindle screen wholly absorbed in this page turner:

Just curious...what are you reading at this exact moment in time?  

Happy Sunday

My new spring Keens.  As cute on the outside as the inside.  I'm patiently waiting for Keens to find me like a needle in a haystack out here in the blogosphere, realize I'm their biggest fan, and subsequently decide to sponser my next trip abroad.  Which is occuring in August.  Which will be fabulous. Which I can't tell you about yet.  But soon.

In the meantime I'll just be out here on the back patio morning, noon, and night.  (back here now writing this post!) By the end of the day there are a dozen or so glasses to herd inside.  And other stacks of stuff.  See that slatted table?  found!  On a walk.  It belonged to a nice young Matt Damon look-a-like who was on his way to Tanzania.  Now it lives on my back patio and it's 459 times better than the old rickety wooden thing that didn't nearly have enough room for all my stacks. 

My extra cute Spanish friend Maria José, came over earlier this week with a bottle of 2007 Castillo Rioja Spanish wine.  I went to Fresh & Easy and picked up 3 more bottles this morning.  If you live near a F&E and you like red wine I highly recommend.  highly.

Flowers continue opening and closing over here at Moss Cottage.  My America's Sweetheart Epi bloomed on Friday and is still open!  She's the first of the season to bloom, but she's shy.  This blossom faces away from the patio.  It's okay.  Her back side is every bit as gorgeous as her front.  (btw My Nikon is in the shop so I've been using my little Fuji point & shoot lately.)

Now for some good old fashioned plant porn... Check out those big lusty Eden buds  She's such a show-off!

~

A little blurb about this lacy digital frame I made today.  You can see the original card it came from in THIS post.  Leslie from A Creative Mint uses the sweetest lacy digital frames from time to time.  I've been wanting to make something similar so when I was in Paris and spotted that card at a flea market I instantly thought:  digital frame!

If you have a hankering to make a digital frame from a found treasure, this is my method using Photoshop CS.  For further questions on the process I defer to google where the answer to everything in the known universe lies.

• scan
• correct color
• select the center and fill with white
• use the magic eraser on the middle part to create a transparent center
• drop your photo on top of frame
• in the layer's palette drag that photo underneath the frame layer 
• voila!

I'm leaving lanternville!  Getting back on the road tomorrow, off to somewhere new.  Maybe I'll make some little clay horses.  Knit some tiny saddles.  Stitch up a cowboy outfit.  Run around outside.  Then climb on my steed and take off for parts unknown.

We'll see.

lantern schmantern

I was just about to take the Paris Journal exit when I looked up.  Billowy fluttery doodley scrappy sewn paper lanterns.  Swaying in the breeze.  Drifts of light moving through the paper.  Tiny dots of starlight.  Mmmmm that's nice.  I want to go to there.

And just like that...I did.  I'm still there.  Lanternville.

It's nice.  The air is glittering.  There's sunshine.  And loose threads.  And Tom Waits is singing a Barbra Streisand song.

It's Sunday, day 9 of my vacation.  I feel a little bit giddy.

Zing Zap {!}

Still sewing paper.  Making pinwheels.  Putting them near the window.  Watching how the light filters through the paper.

Thomas Campbell has got my machine whirring, thread flying, boomerangs of ideas overflowing.  Zing! Zap! Zang!

Happy mess making Saturday from a windy chilly cloud pile of a day to wherever in the wide world you happen to be. {!}

Where I Get Out My Sewn Paper Crack Pipe And Take A Big Hit

So I went HERE and saw one of my favorite crafty gangster's sewn valentines and then I found HIM and basically I got all excited and decided I needed some to do some of this:

and then I did this:

and this:

which led to this:

and in between all that I went to my visual journal and did this:

and this:

Vacation induced narcotic bliss.  It's good.  You want some.  You want some NOW.

Oh and if you plunk down 330 pennies you could check out THIS.     Because  there's some pretty cool stuff inside including boats made out of milk cartons that you could make with the little punks in your life.  Plus lots of blog layout ideas.  Online magazines are so full of those.

An Elf

A big serving of cold and grey in the City of Angels today.   Too much sunshine causes my smooth thoughts to become jagged.  Rain is in the forecast for next week!  It's 56 degrees outside!  Not enough cool weather to smooth out my thoughts yet.  Bear with me.  An elf sent me some Christmas fabric.  So I made a toaster cover!

 

Look at me!  Look at me NOW!  Stop sewing paper together and making toaster covers and pet me.  Or I will do something bad.

 

But first let me go lay down.  On top of your projects.

I think.  I think I sent every last one of you pre-registered boys and girls your registration link.  I started some last night and finished the rest this morning.  Um... I think I got all of you.  But maybe I didn't.  If a few of you slipped by I apologize.  Zip me out an email and I'll take care of you.   Enclose the original message you sent when you pre-registered, that will help cut down on any search and rescue I might have to do.

Regular registration has begun for REMAINS OF THE DAY .  If you pre-registered use the link I sent you, don't use the BUY  NOW button.   Don't forget to put your name in the hat over HERE .  Not on this post.  On the REMAINS OF THE DAY post.  If you already dropped in your name last week you're set!  I'm drawing each Tuesday in December from the same pool of names.  Make sense?

Off to toss another log in the fire and curl up with a hot toddy and a book!

Where I Learn Of Chipboard Mini-Albums

I stapled some sheets of paper inside of a security envelope last week.  

"LOOK!"  I blurted out.  "We can make these!"

Picture 25 craft monkeys in unison shouting "WHEN?"

Picture me saying,  "As soon as you bring in an envelope!"  

The next day the envelopes started rolling in.  Some kids didn't have any, other kids brought extra.   By that I mean one kid brought in an entire crumpled box in his backpack.  In case you don't know or have forgotten, kids like things that are little and cute (like them).  They took to the envelope book slash visual journal like ducks to water.  Quack quack.  Bringing in their own envelopes to use, tracing and measuring all of their very own pages makes them feel more ownership towards their books.  Plus I'm too lazy to prep all of them. 

On another day recently, we made these torn paper collages.  I'm in love with all of them, but this might be my favorite.  A sense of the divine combined with a sense of the absurd.  A craft monkey after my own heart.

At the scrapbook store in Berkeley I found this luggage-tag-esque chipboard mini-album.  

For under 3 bucks I couldn't resist.  I sprayed some of the "pages" with glimmer mist and covered the rest with a combination of journal page copies, ledger paper & scrapbook paper. 

It's turning into a Cat Posse mini-album for Mama Moss.  This one by Maya Road.  Raise your hand if you knew that scrapbook stores carry A LOT of chipboard products?

And stickers.  And chipboard stickers.  

When it comes to the scrapbook world, I'm on the clueless side, but after my stint in Berkeley this past weekend I must conclude that there seems to be plenty of fun little projects into which I may be unashamedly sinking my teeth.  Heretofore I had only bought chipboard to use in spraypainting projects  ( which make fabulous masks by the way!)

I don't think another chipboard mini-album for the classroom is out of the question.  Let me finish this one up first.

Next up:  Mary Ann buys a giant chipboard apple necklace & earring set and a festive holiday sweater with chipboard reindeer appliqued down the front.

Classroom Crafty

 

This week in the classroom we made fabric wrapped pencil cans with some of that sumptuous fabric donated to us by Jeanne from Pindler & Pindler.  The kiddos had tons of fun rifling through the stash looking for just the perfect piece.  The majority of these fabric samples retail for well over $100 buckeroos/yard.  Some are over $200.  Of course the kids don't care about any of that.  They just think it's pretty and soft.  Most of them are bringing in 2 cans - one for them to keep on their desks and one to give to their moms.  Sweet.

Los Angeles' Winter Bank Account

More fresh deposits of rain into Los Angeles' winter bank account.  Perfect.  Today a yellow & blue day to balance out the grey.  Not that I need any balance.  Balance is for sissies.  I prefer careening back and forth from one extreme to the other.

Take garlands for example.  When does enough turn into too much?  Never, that's when.  I gathered together the supplies.  Things were bought, borrowed, and stitched.

There's more sewing to do and fabric & lace circles to cut out. My wrists are cold.  Here, let me put on my newly knit wrist warmers courtesy of my sister.  I send her pictures of things and she knits them for me.  Lucky me!

Garlands on left purchased on etsy.  (lace circles HERE, crepe paper HERE) Garlands on right stitched by moi once I realized I needed 20 yards, not 2.  It takes a lot of yards of garland to drape an entire cottage you know.

Garland Schmarland

While storm clouds gathered overhead & cold air swept in from the north,
I convened a family meeting on the fur blankets in front of the roaring fire place in my  mind.  Duties were assigned, warm milk was lapped, plans made.

There was much staring into water pooling on the  patio furniture.  Some members of the cat posse chased other, smaller members.  Wrestling and tumbling ensued.  Cupcake liners were flattened.  Crepe paper cut into circles.  Garlands assembled.  Some of the liners were carried off and shredded by sharp teeth into confetti.  I ignored these shenanigans.

Winter deserves her own party and decorations after all.  And there are more squalls and water spouts stirring just off shore.  More hail will fall.  It may snow.  Schools may close.  Every possibility is in place for winter to unspool right here in the city of angels.  I am eager to play my role of trapped cottage dweller.  Very eager.

I think a string of twinkling lights will be a handsome addition to my garland.  Twinkling lights have starring roles in winter dramas.
To get your own cupcake liner garland started you'll find directions HERE.  Cupcake liners in more varieties than you can imagine HERE. 

Snowflake Ornaments

 You could make some snowflake ornaments.  You could make them right now.  You'll get lost in a paper circle maze and never find your way out.  But you'll enjoy it.  I did.  I used some old scrapbook paper, double-sided is best.  They could even be sprayed with super sticky canned glue and glitter dusted.  The young punks and I made them in the classroom today with construction paper and glue sticks.  Oy.  Use the double-sided tape.  You'll thank me later.

The rain-soaked garden is springing to life!  Heretofore brown things are  turning green and blooming.  Dormant succulents are flexing their muscles and stretching out of their planters.

As I type this hail is pounding down on my aluminum awning and causing the cat posse to panic!  Flinging open the front door and yelling YA HOO! probably isn't helping.  Ice is blanketing the walkway.  We're having ourselves some real winter weather and I am drunk with glee!

On a sour note, I am ready to take off my shoes and throw them straight at the morons over at typepad who seem to enjoy mucking things up and then patting themselves on the back and declaring themselves clever.  The comments are out of whack.  Most aren't making it to my email.  Forgive me if I haven't responded to you.  

Trixie & Mallie

Mallie, commenter #63 &  Trixie, commenter #89 are the winners of the scrap packs of ledger paper, vintage wallpaper, stencil scraps, and various other odds and ends.   (Trixie the message I sent you bounced back)  Email me with your addresses and I'll mail these out manana!

I'm genuinely sorry if the random number generator didn't spit out your numbers.   I never win anything either so I know how you might feel.  Thanks for all of the dear comments.  They were fun to read and I appreciate all of your kind sentiments.  Really and truly.  I'll do another giveaway in January.

Aren't these folded paper stacks gorgeous?  You can find out how to make them HERE.  Super simple and so fabulous I think.  I'm making them with my band of monkeys in the classroom.  You need a catalogue that's stapled, but I also used junk mail that I cut, folded in half, and stapled.  Any paper would work.
Tonight I'm going to make MORE with vintage ledger paper.  I prefer the densely packed ones more than the looser ones.  I'm stacking mine up like layer cakes all around the house.

All you need is a glue stick.  I'm digging the sculptural quality. 
Buck inspected each one and found them not worthy of his attention.  What does he know?

10:07 p.m.

The Ornament Express is plowing full steam ahead. So far my hands down favorite to make are the big sea anemone balls. (When I make these at home I probably won't use yellow school yarn.) The recycled paper fold-out star is a close second. Grab some grocery flyers, tape, needle, and thread and you're in business. Here are the links:
SEA ANEMONE BALLS
We used thick book pages I had torn out of my History of Japanese Art book that became my visual journal last year. You could use scrapbook paper too, or any cardstock weight paper. The possibilities are endless.
Recycled Paper Fold-Out Star
I made the one shown above in under 10 minutes and hung it in my window. Very cool.

How cool is this SNOWFLAKE CHANDELIER?

Loads of paper decorations over here at HOW ABOUT ORANGE

Like these 3-D SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENTS

When I got home this bag of goodies was waiting for me. Thanks Randi! I promise not to open a single solitary thing until Christmas Day. Not even the extra dark bag of chocolate at the bottom. In fact I'm not even looking at those. I don't even know they're in there.

Modular Mathematic Dodekaeder

It's a cold winter's evening in Los Angeles. Rain is pouring down all around Moss Cottage. I'm a little giddy what with the rain and the Snowdrift Martini I'm sipping. See that great big birdie up there in my journal? I found him HERE at Martha Stewart. Painted fabric silhouettes - it's a cool little project you might have some fun with.

I drove to work in the rain.

And when I drove home it was still raining. It's good to see the garden getting drenched with WET.

It's such a delicious feeling to hunker down up here in winter wonderland. The cat posse has folded themselves up into very tight round fur packages. They are scattered here and there. One of them just took a lick of my Snowdrift martini before I could bat him away. I could have sworn he winked at me.

Mostly I sit and stare at the lights and decorations. Later I'll lace up my snow boots and pretend I'm getting ready to hop on the snowmobile and get to the maple sugaring.

I found THIS tutorial for 5 Point Stars last year. I made them out of scrapbook paper. They're hanging everywhere.

If you start making them just know that you will be powerless to stop. They store easily with the other decorations by folding them up and securing with a paperclip. Tomorrow I'm making them with the kiddos. They always ask before we begin a project: "Is this gonna be hard?" I always say, "For most 2nd graders yes, for you, NO." The stars really are fairly easy.
THIS Modular Mathematic Dodekaeder looks less so.

Today we made THESE. I think they are BEAUTIFUL.

More gorgeous photos that Suzanne took in Italy. Most of these are from the Valentino show at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome. The glass eyeballs are from the doll hospital. The big strapping fellow on the top left is delivering my present from Santa.

Try this now. You won't be sorry. Have 2 then try making the Modular Mathematic Dodekaeder. That's what I'm getting ready to do.