Crafting the Stress Away

One upside to the horrendous schedule my school district has imposed on me is to combat the stress I have been taking time to do more craft projects as an attempt to melt the stress away. Since I can't afford a massage every week taking some me time to be artsy is equally as relaxing, at least to me. Here are two holiday projects I have completed recently.



The beauty of both these projects is that they used items that I already had on hand as part of my hoard. The fall board was actually inspired by the blogger at That Village House.The project was meant to be when I discovered three frames that I had gotten at a garage sale this summer in my garage. I had stored them away and forgot I had them!



My "witchy" plaque used items from a project kit I had gotten a while ago. I couldn't remember what the kit made! So I just used the items from it to make this. I need to take a better picture to get the details. I used a copy of an old photo. The girl looks like something straight out of The Crucible. A old dictionary page with the definition of "witch" and "witchcraft". I made a littel broom out of a twig and threads from the frayed burlap, basic crafting papers, stickers, and chipboard letters with glitter, and burlap strips. The antique photo mat I had in my stash of estate sale finds.

My Path into Altered Books

I love art although not talented enought to draw or paint I wandered into the realm of paper crafts. I don't have the temperment for scrapbooking so I played around with collages and found myself drawn to altered books. I at first found it strange that they would appeal to me since it requires the defacing or deconstructing, rather, of books. But I guess it my love of the written word that pushes me to find a purpose for those forgotten or discarded books. I joined an altered book group and have been participating in their round robin, trading books with others and altering a page or more within their book. Here are my first two attempts.





This was my first page I attempted. I felt I left it unfinished as I felt it needed more. I am hoping another person who gets the book will feel inspired to add on to it.


This was the book that inspired my first layout. It was a book that I brought with me from Indiana. The copyright is 1935 and stamped "Public Schools, Mishawaka, Indiana" and it is in poor condition but the illustrations are beautiful.



My second attempt. This was a Grimms Fairytales book, and it was a beautiful book! It pained me too much to do too drastic a design so I kept it pretty simple. The owner also didn't want the gorgeous pictures covered up, only embellished, so I added glitter to highlight Red and the Wolf.

The Good of Goodwill

When it comes to my bargain hunting, I seem to get streaks of success. One day I will have a feeling and wake up thinking "Today is thrift store day", and I always come away with quite a haul. Apparently my sixth sense is honed to find fun bargains. Below are a sampling of the finds on my last few day of hunting. I have been putting together a craft/work. I didn't have a place to do art of to work on my graduate work. I was always forming piles in the kitchen or on the dining table. I found a desk and set of shelves and painted them and have been now looking for organizational items. I found this cute organizer at Goodwill for $3! I might paint it and distres it to match the creams of the desk and shelves or I might not. I also found two cute fleur-de-lis for $3. I am going to hang them in the dining room (I think?) but they were too cute to pass up.

Two fun vintage book. The New Junior Classics (1954) and The Public Speakers Treasure Chest (1942). I think the public speaking one could be a great altered book and the classics has some great images for altered works!

This is my favorite treasure found on this trip and I almost missed it. In the jumble of Goodwill shelves there was a small box (green one in the background) it was buried under some Christmas tins. I wasn't sure what it was and when I picked it up and opened it I nearly did a dance. Inside tucked safetly were 4! winking santa mugs. They will be so fun to decorate with at Christmas.

Cute little iron urn with grapevine and white silk roses. $2 Using it to spruce up my shelves above my desk area.

I love tins!! Especially old ones. They are not especially old but will be cute for storage or for gifts.

This is a craigslist find but a bargain all the same. A new hutch for the kitchen. I have wanted one but struggled to find one that would fit in the space in my kitchen and not be too overwhelming. This one is perfect! I can now have all my cookbooks out and and accessible!! It needs a little work so it is still a work in progress.

I found several other things including some holiday decorations, children's books and some clothes (really why buy new). I am heading off to work on my altered book for the round robin. I handed mine off and forgot to take pictures. I was especially proud of my cover so when I get it back I will post the finished project. I will post pictures of the book I am working on when I finish the page.