Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery:
See how to make a card and card album themed for a rock and roll mom to be that uses cute die cuts in a cool way.

The Artful Crafter
“Panadieres for Zambia” is a neat story and one small example of crafters helping crafters – all around the world. As Eileen likes to say, “Crafters are just the nicest people.”

The Impatient Crafter
Madge shares a technique in this post about embossing on slick surfaces!

About Family Crafts
What are your cleaning tips for crafting with kids? Please take a moment to share your tips and then browse through tips shared by others.

Aileen’s Musings
Hard as it was, Aileen has narrowed down the playing field and needs your help again to choose from her favorite sayings that have been posted for her blog giveway! Stop by and pick your favorite.

Cathie Filian
If you are wondering what to eat, craft and play on the 4th of July then head over to Cathie’s blog for ideas.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside you can watch the latest Look, Learn & Create video that includes tips on drawing, two techniques and projects for cutting photos up, a bit of fabric eye candy, and a free paper stencil and project from the new book The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils 2 and if you leave answers to the day’s questions you are entered to win free books!

Crafty Princess Diaries
Tammy uses her jewelry making skills to create some beautiful and functional stitch markers.

CraftyPod
Sister Diane reviews an intriguing new book: Micro Macrame, by Annika DeGroot

Cross Stitch at About.com
Work at Your Own Pace - An encounter with a critter in the yard has Connie thinking about Cross Stitch (imagine that!) and speed.

Naughty Secretary Club
Arty Masterpieces are overrated, it’s all about the Glittery Crafterpieces! Take a peek at the handmade art around my house and try your hand at making a fun glittery deer picture!

I love Brandi Strickland’s work, especially the provocative combination of photography and collage that she comes up with!  Brandi only graduated from art school a few years ago, but she has managed to catch the eye of many reviewers.  Brandi says that she enjoys exploring the connection between nature and technology, and I must say I enjoy her explorations too!

Besides her etsy shop (linked above), you can also find her work on her own website, Brandi Strickland.

Images: Brandi Strickland

I’m not usually drawn to urban scenes.  I live so far out in the ‘burbs that it’s really sort of sub-suburban.  But Karen Stiehl Osborn’s Urban Landscape series just takes my breath away.

There’s a lot more to like on Karen’s site too.   I love here fabric “fragments”, her Autumn Traces series, and the series called Conversations with Myself.   Karen is one of the partners involved with the wonderful Collage Mania auctions.

Images: Karen Steihl Osborn

Elizabeth St Hilaire Nelson makes paper, paints it, rips it up…and then she creates fabulous collages with the tiny pieces which she mixes with found paper pieces!  My friend Shirley in Oz wrote to me about her and shared the link, and I’m so glad she did.

Besides creating these wonderful collages, Elizabeth keeps a blog, has a time lapse video of one of her collages in progress, and has also found time to compile several books featuring her finished work.

Elizabeth writes:

My technique has evolved and changed as a result of experimentation with hand-painted, hand-made, and found papers, maps, magazines, Scrabble tiles and memorabilia. I draw inspiration from potential collage materials that I come across in my day-to-day; chopstick wrappers, tea-bag tags and the kids’ homework included!

I heard about an interesting idea the other day…a Page-a-Day Collage. These loose pages were compiled into a book.  Or you could get a scrapbook, photo album, memory journal, etc. and create your pages right in them.

Image: sxc.hu

Those collages were composed of mixed media materials.  However, you could use anything you wanted…paper, fabric, embellishments, mixed media.

These could be memory pages, vacation pages, travel, daily journal type, food and/or gardening, or simply miscellaneous designs.  You could try out new techniques and new materials.

If one page a day is too much, simply do this once a week, or whenever you have time.  It also would be a fun project to do with children.

This idea has inspired me. I think I’d better try using a notebook or scrapbook because if I have loose pages scattered around, they’ll stay scattered and I’ll lose them.

I’ll start with paper at first, simply because it’s readily available.  If I put off until I find the “perfect” materials, I’ll never get started.  My busy life will simply take over.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have you ever tried anything like this?

Imprinting a painted surface with lots of different materials is a fun and easy way to let liquids do their thing. As the paper dries, the materials touching your paper surface allow more pigment to pool in certain spots, leaving you with ghostly impressions of those items.

You can’t control the results perfectly, and that’s part of the charm of this technique. Spend a bit of time making background papers, and you’ll have hours worth of pieces to draw from when your next project strikes!

Materials & Tools:
Watercolor paper
Textured materials
Acrylics, cups, sponges
A place the papers can sit undisturbed while they dry

Step by step instructions

Art and creativity have always been a presence in Jennifer Star’s life. The very foundation of her creativity and artistic expression is based on a spiritual relationship with the earth and universe, and a desire to share this with others.   She has found that healing of the body/mind/ spirit occurs every time she fills herself up with ‘creative food for the soul.’

Bookmaking has been creative food for Star’s soul for as long as she can remember. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that she was introduced to the technical side of bookmaking. From there her structural ability blossomed and she began dabbling in many forms of bindings, altered books, and artist books. Her deep love is in making blank journals - some with highly decorated covers, others left plain so that the owner can decorate it themselves. The following phrase, found on one of Star’s personal collage journals, expresses her sentiment about handmade books: “Something so precious is worth
protecting.”

Creating collages about spring provides enjoyment for youngsters and adults.  These can be very simple or they might be detailed, made with a great deal of thought.

Image: sxc.hu

• Cut out pictures of birds and flowers from magazines and catalogs.  Arrange them haphazardly or planned to tell a story, on poster board.  This is fun to do with youngsters in school or at home.  Perhaps they can write a poem about spring to accompany.
• Find around you in the yard, the woods (our yard is part of the surrounding woodland), or along a back road natural objects that remind you of spring and new life.  You might arrange them on a board with colored objects and even painted surfaces.
• Go through your photo stash, either a collection in a box or those saved on your computer.  Cut out various spring shapes and objects, then paste in a scrapbook or poster board.
• Use a shadow box and arrange spring items within it.  You’ll have a three dimensional effect.
• Think about a particular family tradition that takes place in spring…a trip, a walk through the woods, a hike up a mountain, the first picnic of the season.  Arrange pictures and objects reminiscent of these on a background of cloth, cardboard or wood.

What are your favorite materials for creating collages?

Here are some more artsy links to keep you creating this week:

Annual Woven Narrow Scarf Challenge from Tottie Talks Crafts.

Making Monoprint Background Papers from Layers Upon Layers.

Pin or Bias Tape Weaving Patterns from The Artful Blogger.

Round Robin Time Again for the Fiber Divas from Quilting & Patchwork.

Sew your own tutus from Tangled Thread.

And I’ve shared the Collage a Day prompts.

Heather
Photo used with permission from Pixelperfectdigital

Today is Friday and that means it’s Freaky Friday. If you need to know more about this journal writing challenge please read the First Freaky Friday entry.

With all the prompts about collage I felt another for Freaky Friday might be good. Here are some suggestions. You could reread your journal looking for Freaky Friday prompts you have previously responded to and make a collage about them. Or respond to any of them using collage only. You could create a collage journal entry with no words at all. You could decide what FRIDAY means as an acrostic and find an image for each letter. Those are just some ideas I made up just now.

I hope you enjoy this journal writing challenge. The purpose of the Freaky Friday challenges is to see your life from a different perspective. Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Photo is my own