My Art: A Star Book

I had a request from Linda @ a La Carte to share my art. After all, I mentioned it under my introduction. I have to admit that I haven't been very crafty in the past year or so, but I do have some older stuffs that I don't mind sharing.

The main things I like to make are greeting cards, so there are plenty of scans of those. I also alter Altoid tins and dominoes. I don't seem to have many pictures of those, though. But, what I am sharing today is a star book. 

A star book is a book made up of  "arms" and, once put together, looks like a star. This happens to be a seven-arm star. Any number of arms can be used to make the book. Hopefully, you'll see what I mean.

Back when my mom was part of a book club, they would have a book exchange at the end of the year. My mom had seen my star books, and she decided that she would like to give one of those along with her regular book. So, she commissioned the book, and I would come up with a cohesive idea. I think I made a total of four or five books, each becoming successively more difficult, but I believe I've kept this one.

When making this book, I used printed and plain papers, paint, ink pads, stamps, embossing powders, German scrap (the gold butterfly and bird), beads and other embellishments.

When I first made the book, I scanned in the front and back and each two-page spread, so I will show those first. Then, I will show how the book looks closed, as much as it CAN be closed. Finally, I will show how the book gets its name of being a star book. There are plenty of pictures, so be prepared!

Here is the front:

Front

 These are the two-page spreads:

Pages 1 and 2

Pages 3 and 4

Pages 5 and 6

Pages 7 and 8

Pages 9 and 10

Pages 11 and 12

Pages 13 and 14

Reverse side of the "Q"

Back

Held up to see the closure

From above

To see the star affect

 As you can see, in order to put the book together each two-page spread is attached to the blue paper, which is slightly longer. Then, that component was attached to yellow paper, unless a side was attached to the front or the back of the book. It's a bit complicated and quite difficult to juggle all of the pieces when assembling the entire book. I was pleased with the outcome.

Please note: My photography was hit or miss back then. It's better now, but certainly not one of my fortes. Scanning dimensional items doesn't work well, either, but you get the idea.

Thank you for stopping by to see my art. I'll have to put more on my blog, like when I can't think of anything else to publish!

I think I just might be in the mood to make a new book. We'll see. 

Showing off at:
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #308 
Share Your Cup #286  
Vintage Charm Party #126 
Talk of the Town #116 
Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 225 
Handmade Monday #69 


From paper to a book in the shape of a star...and everything in between...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #6

Office supplies are always welcome at my house.

Labels, tabs, "stamp licker" and digital screen care kit.

The labels will come in handy for a garage sale. The strip tabbing and the "stamp licker", for lack of a better description, will be for my art. And, who knows when one of our digital screens will need repair. 

Hallmark photo holder.

I thought I might be able to sell this online, but the market is saturated. 

Stack of small gelatin molds.

I have a small collection of these type of molds. I want to make a valance for the kitchen, so I'll have to figure how to make that happen.

Last three photos found at the Ocean Isle Beach Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Fish earrings.

Fish earrings. Free. Yep...spend enough time talking to some folks, and they'll let you have something. We admired a couch in that store. These are for Katie who is a fish girl. (Fun fact about Katie: That's what she went to college for, but by the time she got to her PhD, she was studying reverse osmosis. Now, she teaches biology at a local community college.) Found at 2nd Chance Decor.

Katie book.

Sometimes, taking the time to drive to the thrift store and get out of the car gets you a book. One. Book. Thank goodness the duds are far and few between. We had a great time looking around, but we didn't find anything we needed to bring home. Found at Three Sister in Southport.

Mostly Katie's books.

Dresser box, probably for hankies.

I love these dainty flowers on this satiny dresser box. This is in stark contrast to the olive green, orange and white paisley dresser box I found earlier, for sure!!!! See it here.

Picture frame.

Tarot cards.

Perhaps I can use the Tarot cards in my art.

Wood-burning kit.

This is definitely for my art...like I need another KIND of art kit to play with!!!

These were found in my friendly neighborhood Family Thrift - a thrift store that benefits the people in my own area.

Thanks for visiting today. Sign up for future posts, if you'd like to. 

Showing off at these parties:

Share Your Cup #285 
Talk of the Town #115 
Vintage Charm Party #125  

From a dresser box to a wood-burning kit ... and everything in between ...

Fonda's Fabulous Funday Finds #5

When Katie and I go to Southport (NC), we make a day of it and visit as much as we can before our day is done. Downtown Southport probably has about 4 thrift/vintage/antique stores. One is a mall with a second floor. Southport has plenty more places, but what I am talking about is close to the water. Southport was where Safe Haven was filmed. Nicholas Sparks wrote the book. Maybe you are familiar with it.

Anyway, here's what we found at the Dosher Hospital thrift store:

Dosher Hospital Thrift Store

The big round thing is a cat toy. 

Ribbon

 Since I sew, these two bolts of ribbon might come in handy.

Add caption

I thought this was the cutest game. The dogs are so sweet. It's a German game, I think. I guess it's played like dominoes.

Envelopes

These are textured silver envelopes. I make cards, so these will be useful.

The next items are from the Northrup Mall:

Northrup Mall

We only purchased these five items, but it was fun to see what was in the other booths.

Trading Stamps

These are old trading stamps given out at the A&P. I'll use them in my art.

Fat Quarters

We could have brought more fabric home, but we have plenty!!!

Metal Collapsible Ruler

This folding metal ruler will become a piece of decor. What is it that makes me love them?

This is the only thing we found at the Timeless Treasures:

Needle Punch

I have dreams of making a rug, and this needle punch will help me accomplish that.

It's fun seeing, finding and purchasing different stuff.

Showing off at:
Talk of the Town #114 
Vintage Charm Party #124  
Create, Bake, grow & Gather Party #306 

From toys to tools ... and everything in between ...

Library reveal continued. Living room teaser.

The last time we visited, I showed you our dining-room-turned-library. With just the two of us, we have no need for a formal dining area, and we have more than enough books to create a library, it seemed the right thing to do.

Last week, I showed you this cat perch:

This was my grandfather's chair.

 Then, we turn the corner:

The books on the left are mine to read; the books on the right belonged to my step-father.

 From this angle, you can see the bird cage better:

I found the bird cage at a swap meet long ago. It was marked 75¢. There was a discussion, but I still ended up paying way less than $5. I found the stand at another time, and I'm not sure how much I paid for that.

 This is what I call my specimen cabinet:

In the top part behind glass are shells and rock specimens. The exposed jars are full of naturals, like seeds and pods, more shells and a turtle shell. I have collected these type of things for a very long time. Here are some close-ups:

And, on top of this hutch is this:

A picture of weeds and another bird cage.

 Then, there is a break in this wall with an opening that goes to the kitchen. After that are more pictures all the way to the fish tank.

Notice sweet Tulip under the table. There was bound to be a photo that included at least one cat!

 And, here is the table of boxes, which I also feel compelled to collect:

Sans kittie.

Well...that concludes the library reveal. But, as promised, I will tease you with a peek at something in the PINK, yes PINK, living room.

Because we have cats, we don't have mini blinds, curtains or drapery to cover our windows. Cats consider windows their own personal live TV, and as such, the windows must never be covered. Keeping that in mind, I created a valance of sorts:

One of two windows in the living room. Both are done using similar flowers and greenery. Check out the ugly shed in the back yard. Didn't think this one through!

There are still some things in the living room that belong elsewhere. We recently purchased a shelving unit for the garage where our extra decor will go. It just needs to get a little warmer so we can move things around in the garage. When we get the living room ready, we will have a full reveal.

I hope you've enjoyed what I could show you. I also hope you can return next week. 

Where I'm showing off:
 Share Your Style #160
Vintage Charm Party #123 
Create, Bake, grow & Gather Party #305 
Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 222 

From bird cages to boxes ... and everything in between ...

Finally I can reveal our library!

Katie and I have been working on our house a room at a time. For this post, I want to share the library. It's the only room that's completely done. With just the two of us, we didn't need a formal dining room, so we made that room into a library. With all the books we have, we needed to shelve them somewhere, too.

About 2 years ago, when my daughter and her crew were vacationing here with us, we went to IKEA. She had rented a long van — first to keep the family comfortable during the long trip, then to bring back the short and tall shelves we would be buying at  IKEA. Our small car would never have been able to accommodate all of what we intended to purchase and still be able to close the hatch. Katie and I had never been to IKEA before, and my daughter and her husband enjoy going there. IKEA in Charlotte, NC is about a 3.5 to 4-hour drive from our home. Some of the kids stayed behind, because they would have whined the whole time if they came. Lucky us. Video games. Need I say more?

We had a great time at IKEA, and thought about what else might be useful as we worked our way through the store. There are plenty of ideas for every single room in a house.

So...the shelving sat. And, it sat. It sat some more.

Finally, we painted the library! We did plenty of preparation, like we removed the baseboard behind where the shelves were to go and taped other baseboard so painting would be easy. Katie did the high and low painting — near the ceiling on a ladder and near the floor sometimes on her knees — because my knees are shot. I used the extension to get up high and down low with a roller. It worked out well for the both of us.

Soon after the paint was dry, we built the shelves and put them into place. I filled the shelves with books until we realized we didn't have enough shelves. All the books would fit except for our personal reading material. Sooo...

Katie petitioned some friends from school to see if anyone would be available to meet us at IKEA. We would be away at a conference near Charlotte, and rather than come home and then go out again, we wanted someone to meet us there. This time, we only needed tall shelving. Friend, Melba, with a big SUV, was game. We owe her so much. The meet-up and shopping went smoothly. We didn't get home until late, then she had a ways to drive home. We sure appreciated her help.

I rearranged books for a good long time. I think we still need more shelves, but there is no more room in the library. We need to read a bunch in order to get more space.

In the meantime, a friend of ours changed out the chandelier and we bought a rug for the space. We haven't yet had the settee reupholstered or the coffee table painted. Soon, I hope.


So, here it is. The library:

The short wall separates the dining room from the living room.

This was a fun wall to put together. Katie's books occupy the first two shelves from the left.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the elements:

Two kaleidoscopes.

Small bookcases for small books.

A blackboard eraser holds the two postcards, and a frog holds the fish card.

These items were collected for a long time. I had some of these elements in another house.

Dice ashtrays that I've had for years. They're special now that they're under glass!

There are many birds in this area. You can find some if you look.

That's a tiny original oil painting in the center top of the photo.

I knew I needed her for our library!

Love my globes. I hope to find a medium-sized one someday. There is also a working clock.

 

There are more than books to collect and display: an old View-Master, some clocks and skates.

Here are the children's books.

Now we continue to the window that looks out onto the front yard:

Some of my books are to the right of the window. The rest are in the hall to the bedrooms.

This is my grandfather's chair. It is well-padded with quilts and faces out to accommodate the kitties. There are also leaded glass art objects hanging up inside the curtain.

I'm going to stop now and show you the last wall next week. There will also be a living room teaser! So, stay tuned!

Showing off with: 
Share Your Style #159
Talk of the Town #112 
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party #304
DIY Salvaged Junk Projects 417 
Snickerdoodle Create, Bake, Make Link Party No. 221 

From books to shelves and from clocks to skates ... and everything in between ...