Random Acts of Frivolity

Happy Aboriginal Day!

2010-06-21T21:48:00.000-05:00

It's a good day to be Indigenous...

NDN Kars - Keith Secola

2010-06-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

Make your own stamp

2010-02-08T01:54:00.002-06:00

so love this song

my new theme song with video!

2010-01-30T12:17:00.004-06:00

Library by Cursor Miner.

"It's a lot better than watching TV."

"Librarians are often sexy!"

Lush extravaganza

2010-01-21T21:34:00.003-06:00

So thanks to Lizard (gift card at Christmas/Yule), I went wild at Lush. Got a wonderful package of goodies on their new 9 Products for $25 promotion. See here: http://www.lush.ca/shop/hskt/

I figured its a good way for a newbie like me to try out their stuff. I've bought soap and bath bombs before but not all the wild creams and other things.

Thankfully the very helpful sales person gave me a little sheet to tell me how to use all these products. She did explain as we were going along chosing the items, but there is no way I would remember how to use all 9 of them!

I also got some Karma soap and the Honey Trap Lip Balm.

Oh boy, am I going to smell good!

Captured Faeries/Faery Jars

2009-12-17T09:51:00.012-06:00

I saw these done in a few different ways around the internet & decided to give them a go at my daughter's 10th birthday party with a handful of 10 year old girls. It was a blast & I was able to use things I had on hand, or purchased at the dollar store & Value Village (a second hand thrift store.) I made one to test it out first & was quite confident the girls would be able to create some great work, & they did! I've been thinking that this could easily be adapted into an angel jar, maybe even with a holiday theme...

List of supplies:

~rose bowl or canning jar (even better with a rusty lid!) I got mine at Value Village for 69cents-$199 each.
~card stock
~small scrap of patterned paper
~a quick & clear drying, thick, white craft glue
~glue stick
~artist pigment powders or glitter craft paint
~butterfly rubber stamp & black ink or image of butterfly/drawn butterfly wings
(markers/crayons/paints whatever you have on hand to colour stamped image if using)
~image of a person from a magazine that is of an appropriate size to fit in your jar
(children & babies make nice faeries, little boys make good wood nymphs, fashion magazines have pics of women in some great faery type dresses etc.)
~moss or fake grass
~pine cones, acorns, twigs, bark, pebbles or other tidbits from nature
~scrap of sheer fabric or tulle
~assorted ribbons & fibers
~various trinkets, charms, beads, & found or repurposed objects to embellish
~glitter, sequins of assorted shapes, mini metallic confetti, etc
~small fake flowers
~rub on words & butterflies
~med sized artist's paintbrush with a longish handle & water for rinsing
~scissors
~gold or silver paint pen

Instructions:

If stamping your faery wings, do so with black ink on white card stock & set aside to dry. Trim your magazine image to within about a half of an inch & use the glue stick liberally to adhere it to card stock. Set aside to dry.

Squirt an ample amount of white craft glue into bottom of your jar, pop in moss or grass & use handle end of paintbrush to poke it all down til it's smooshed into the glue well. Tilt jar & squirt a nice amount of white glue onto the back of the inside of the jar & then spread it around with the paintbrush. Sprinkle pinches of glitter/confetti into the glue. Now put about a tablespoon of white glue on the back of the outside of the jar & smear in pigment powder with paintbrush or fingers. Work it in well covering the back of the jar & bringing it around to the front a bit at the bottom. Use a bit of water sprinkled on with your paintbrush to thin & spread the glue, adding a bit more if needed. (Alternatively, paint the back of the jar as stated but with craft glitter paint, or glitter mixed into craft clear topcoat or clear drying white glue.) Set Jar aside to dry.

Trim around the magazine image & colour your stamped butterfly, if using. Trim rubber stamped butterfly image/butterfly image, cutting it in half & trimming the body off so you are left with 2 wings. Use scrap of patterned paper to cut out a crown of the right size to fit your faery & embellish with glitter or mini rhinestones/sequins & ribbon. Adhere crown & wings to faery using a small amount of white glue.You may want to add glitter or sequin stars etc to your faery. Set aside to dry. Make a tag about 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches. You can age the look of the tag by rubbing the edges with an ink pad, or even crinkling it & then flattening it out. Add a saying to one side & if it's a gift, the 'to & from' can go on the other. I like this saying for faery jars: Believe in faeries because we believe in you! You may want to use a gold &/or silver paint pen to draw some swirls & dots in the front edges of the pigment powder/glitter paint on the outside of the jar.

Cut out tulle/fabric of a size to cover the top of your jar & hang over approximately 4 inches. The size you need varies on the type of jar & whether there is a lid to cover the fabric or if the fabric needs to be tied with ribbon/fibers. Just place the fabric over the jar & eyeball it. If you are adding rub on words & butterflies, put them on your jar now. Place a thick bead of glue along the bottom edge of your faery & slide it into place in the jar, pushing it into the moss/grass & propping it up with the paintbrush handle for a moment to dry a bit if needed. Decide what bits of nature & embellishments need to go into the jar to round out your faery's environment. Put a dab of glue on the bottom of each of the embellishments, one at a time, drop into the jar & use the handle end of the paintbrush to scootch them into place & press them down for a moment.

Cut a length of ribbon to tie around your jar with extra to dangle. Put fabric over jar & place lid over or tie with ribbon. Wrap lots of different fibers & ribbons around the lid or jar, & dangle the tag, charms, beads, trinkets etc at different lengths. Gather the knots to the same spot to the side & glue a large sequin, charm, or button over them. Tuck a couple of small fake flowers behind the knots. Finis!

Feel free to adapt to what you have on hand, can salvage from your kid's craft stuff, repurposed items from the dollar & thrift store & even items found on the ground! Grab a group of girls (boys can always make wood sprites, tree nymphs, forest trolls, or even little devils heehee!) If doing this with children, plan ahead & do some prep work (like gathering assorted images of people from magazines, stamping out your butterflies on card stock, cutting out the tags, making sure you have multiples of tools needed, etc) This would be a great activity to use items gathered on a nature walk, or it could even be adapted to goddess jars & done as a more spiritual activity with your adult girlfriends. Let your imagination go with this one, it's hard to mess up LOL

Happy Creating
Jackie

Random Soundtrack

2009-12-14T21:42:00.002-06:00

Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Miss O!

2009-12-08T04:43:00.005-06:00

Hi, I am Miss O of the WWW, one of the loverly 4 women that are bringing this blog to the interwebs. I used to be on my own blog: Scrappy Jackie, but will not post there any more so as to contribute here & have more posts, by more people, for your viewing pleasure. I hope to post more regularly in the coming months as I enter into Artbeat's artist in residence program. Please be patient with me, I sometimes struggle with the follow through ;)

Happy Creating
Miss O/Jackie/Jack/Jacks/Jax ;)

Who does she think she is?

2009-11-30T22:41:00.001-06:00

Stability, Part two

2009-11-25T19:39:00.002-06:00

I was surprised by the feeling of fear I felt when contemplating being my own source of stability. I have always thought of myself as being self-sufficient in this regard. I previously believed that what I needed was to admit my need of others, to recognize that I should allow myself to lean on others from time to time.

I have begun to think that perhaps I need to look into this deeper. One path of exploration is system of the chakras. To me, intuitively, this need for stability is centered in my third chakra - or the solar plexus. It's a feeling of "having a back-bone" and being able to stand tall. So I found this video that deals with that chakra. I find the video rather distracting, so close your eyes and listen.

Stability

2009-11-23T06:40:00.003-06:00

Was thinking the other day about stability, and how it is something that I feel I need in my life right now in a big way.

My thoughts were running along these lines:
The root of the word is stable and it comes from a Latin word which means 'to stand'. (I had to look this up). To me this means something to do with standing on my own two feet, so to speak. And that I should not have to rely on others in my life to provide stability. That I should be able to find that stability within myself.

AND at that thought, I had a strange visceral feeling of panic or clenching in my gut.

I filed that thought and feeling away to deal with later, because it wasn't something I could deal with just then. So now, I've had some time to process this without that feeling of panic looming quite so close.

I am going to be spending some time relearning how to ground and center myself and I will be searching for practices- spiritual practices - that can help me do this.

Stand with me?

A song about the shoulds

2009-11-21T20:59:00.001-06:00

Lizard's Evil Minions

2009-11-20T12:01:00.001-06:00

Because everyone needs somebody to do the dirty work ;)

Lost generation

2009-11-16T19:30:00.003-06:00

This is a very cool video that I saw at the New Professionals Network conference last week.

Soundtrack to the Bollywood movie in my head

2009-11-15T18:58:00.001-06:00

cherry

2009-11-10T06:48:00.000-06:00

Ha! I popped our blog's cherry! Neener neener!

Um, Ok, now what?

I'll have to think about this, I can plainly see.