Paint & Scrapbooking

Since the garden walk on Sunday inspiring me to paint, and my want to combine it with scrapbooking I did a bit of both today, now it’s more of a coloring book style, nothing free hand painting. But still painting with a brush and fun at that.

This is some older paper by Rusty Pickle company (sadly out of business) called Pop Star, I have a bunch of this line, and it’s literally black and white, doodly kind of scrapbook paper. NOW it is regular paper, so if you water color on it, you can’t get too wet, or it’s, well a mess.

AND since I had my two assistants with me…

Mia chose to take some of her unfinished art work, up into the cat tower and work. While her brother, Alex chose to meow like a cat for 20 minutes.

I did have my other two assistants, Jordan who is not pictured was busy catching Bob, the fly who is trapped in the basement art room, and catching Bob meant sitting on my work, nothing says water coloring like cat hair.

AND there is this princess Chloe, who was ALL in my business.

Reasons enough why I chose to work on a easier piece…

I had a cute picture of my mom with her Mother’s Day arbor that we got her, and though this BIG flower would be cute to go with. This is after I added the water color crayons.

 

Yes they are amazing and they are by the company Stampin’ Up! I demonstrated for them for 6 years and LOVE their product. (there are also water color pencils out there, same idea, but the crayons to me are softer, and easier to work with)

 

They are that simple. Color your picture, and it doesn’t have to be ALL colored in, you can kinda sketch it. The water coloring part will blend it.

I use an Aqua Painter (again by Stampin’ Up!) but you can buy them at retail stores. Simple, fill with water, squeeze and water come through the brush. Just eliminates the cup of water. (see small children and cats above if you question my reasons)

 

Once ALL is blended, you get a much softer look. I did the dark pink first,wiped of excess color onto my hand (yes I do this out of habit. It’s the way I’ve been doing it since I was a kid) then switch to a different color, be cautious when doing lighter colors by darker, they may run together. But it’s water color so a bit of mess is good.

AND there you have it. A quick scrapbook page, that took me about 35 minutes to create!

JCat McGack

A Garden walk of creativity

The Annual Minooka Garden walk was yesterday, I go each year with my mom. Just the two of us. It’s fantastic to walk among some one else’s garden. To get to see what they create and labor over. To chat with gardeners, to really get a feel for how they love their yards.

So the first house has this in the front yard. My heart is happy already.

Then I see that they have these empty stations set up all over the yard, under pine trees and then tables with women painting in the garden! I chat with them for a few minutes, finding out that on Thursday nights at the local library they have open night. It’s free, you can sketch, paint, and do what every creative art you are in the mood for. Now I love to go and scrapbook but as of this year I am pretty set on cropping at home. I have a HUGE space for it. And cropping is a bit involved when it comes to the packing process (I have to take EVERYTHING!)

But painting and drawing? Simple. Sketch pad, paints, pencils, WAY less supplies. I could do this. AND make new friends? For free? Down the street? THEN they asked me to join them… right now! And paint!

So I did. OMG it was so much fun. We chatted and painted, I stayed for 40 minutes, and my wonderful mom, stood and watched. Thanks mom. She knew how much that meant to me.

 

I did what I do best, and that was a tree. I picked ONE color, and with watercolors the amount of water you use changes the darkness of the paint. It was fantastic. And this was just house #1 of seven!!

 Oh AND they had a canvas under a tree, and it was for anyone who came through to paint on. They wanted it to be the Garden Walk painting. So mom and I added a little ourselves.

The next house was just whimsical, and random, SO my way of gardening.

Lots of shade, lots of art too. She had paintings

from a local artist, plates hanging on the fence and half in her dirt. She had shown me her label maker, and her tags, she labels EVERY plant in her yard.

And old wooden play set is now a bird/squirrel feeder, she had a pond. BUT not for fish, for birds. Very shallow and clean.

 

Then there is this house… this is a combination of my mother and I. Both cute, a dash of country, but again the random whimsy look I love.

I mean WHO nails ALL these signs to their house?! I was in love!

And the details! Look at these mini lanterns! LOVED it!

 

And below check out the sink! How cute is that? NOW I know not every yard could pull that off, there a close line between cute as hell and hillbilly heaven

 

Oh and there are these all over this yard! They were glass bottles tied to stakes, with a note in each, usually about where the flowers came from, or what they mean to the family. This one was sweet. And they had a HUGE section of beautiful daisies.

So this shot did exactly the opposite of what I wanted, (Still getting the hang of my dad’s SLR) and I wanted to get the cupcake. It had a violet on top, and I ate it. (most flowers are edible) the cupcake too was amazing, and the home owners daughter was starting a baking company, and who better to try it out on?

So I was freaking excited on the front porch and even MORE excited when I started to notice the name of the home owner. OMG it’s THE preschool everyone talks about.

Sure enough, there is THIS one preschool that is RAVED about, by everyone in town. And you have to know some one to get her info, she is not on the internet, or in the phone book. AND there is a two year waiting list. SO MAYBE I could check it out because NOW I have her info! Wee!

Right so, there was so much to see, the yard, the play area, ALL of it was amazing, AND they let you go through the house to leave! Very cool.

And THIS was just house #3… well house #4 was a repeat from last year, and well it was about 95 in the shade, so we skipped it, then houses #5-#7 were cute, but nothing like the first three houses.

SO much fun, SO inspired, hoping for all this rain to make my garden happy, then make my dirt soft, and Wednesday it should cool down and I can go out and garden! Till then it’s house work and hoping for some art room time! Happy creating!

JCat McGack

Dreams of art.

How ironic is it that this was a Mary Englebright calendar tear off page, for the weekend of my Mom’s birthday a few years ago.

The one person who taught me since I was big enough to hold a crayon, that art is fun. She would sew, and I would sit next to her with my Sesame Street magazines, cutting out pictures of my favorite characters with my safety scissors.

I spent my life so far creating. Anything I can try I do.

My youth was crafts, popsicle sticks, glue, markers, paper, and fabric.

I took drawing classes when ever I could. And once in High School my first priority was to schedule art classes. All 4 years, with Mrs. Henize. Not always liking the lessons, still life drawing was horrible (I still have those duck drawings though) but I took the lessons, and worked with them.

I have collages, from magazines. The watercolors, metal embossing, painting, cartooning, clay, paper mache, and our weekly drawing assignments.

After high school, not sure why I didn’t take art at the Junior College I attended… but art still lived on. My mom and I had found rubber stamping when I was about 12. When I was 23 we found a company called Stampin’ Up! and for 6 years I was a independent demonstrator for them. (hosting classes on how to stamp and create cards, and scrapbook pages)

I just left Stampin’ Up! 6 months ago. And it was a great thing in my life, but now I’m enjoying the freedom of creating more for myself. Ugly Sock Monsters are a new thing. Sewing is becoming a good habit and I know my mother is elated (that it only took 32 years to get me really into sewing. Now if only my bobbin agreed with me, I would do it more often!)

Our little ‘Gack and Gigi’s’ booth, is a dabble in the fact that we have space. To first off clean out our houses, but create and possible sell a few things.

I would like to create, and have an Etsy store filled with all the fun things I make.

The big dream?

To have a store. “JCat McGack’s” where I sell scrapbook supplies, fabric, tools and supplies for all art kinds. That is the first floor. THEN the second loft floor, is for tables. BIG tables. That people can ‘rent’ by the hour, to create right there.

I would have sewing machines, die cut machines, a kiln. ALL for them to create with.  The second floor would also have a back porch for sitting. To just read, drink coffee, or visit with friends.

I would have a kids area. (I’ve learned I am good with kids and art work, I have patience there with them)

Well it’s a dream. One I hope to see come true, but that magical thing called money that doesn’t exist, is what stops me… a girl can dream right?

JCat.

A new adventure is ours!

So we have officially opened a booth…

Now it’s NOT a craft booth, or an art booth. It’s a start.

A start on my Mom and I working together. To see how we do. How dedicated we are, and just how we work together.

(and yes I tried to picture fuse them together on Windows 7 ‘The cloud’ but it just wasn’t working)

So you ask what DO we sell?

Stuff.

Stuff from our house, stuff we buy cheap and can resell a bit higher

I consider it a permanent garage sale, a way to move the items in our house, be old or newer, toys or knick knacks.

I would LIKE to start making my UgLy SoCk MoNsTeRs, and putting a few in here. But for now this is what we’ve got.

Here we have what we like to call the ‘featured rack’ which is right now our Spring/Easter/Gardening display.

After one week we had to bring in more we were selling like crazy! (mostly the little Easter chachkey stuff)

It’s fun. My mom and I are really getting into rearranging the displays every week to keep it fresh, and updated.

Staging stuff is SO up our alley! So far in 6 days I made 18 dollars! Hooray!

Oh and the best part is, it’s at an old Mill house, where there are 60 booths for rent. We are on the second floor, second booth on the left.

So if your in Wilmington, IL be sure to check us out…

Milltown Market • 508 N.Kankakee • (815)476-0386 • Wilmington, Ill.

or check out their site at http://www.milltownmall.com/ (be warned they have music on their site!)

JCat McGack

2011

Attended my first ever Crazy Crafty Chicks night with my mom. It’s at her local library, they swap ATC (Artist Trading Cards) and then do a craft project.

January was free, and it included 13 tags (these are about 4.75” by about 2.5”) someone had bought them at a flea market, or sale and donated them.

They also provided us with a print out of this years calendar by mini months. Point is, decorate tags, slap on little calendar of the month. Add ribbon, or jump ring and wala. Your own cute mini calendar!

Thanks to the library and the use of their scrapbook supplies, got me started. Took it home and finished it today. So with out further babble, here is mine. Let me know what you think! (oh and I did NOT do a January, since this I finished the project 5 days into February)

Thought it would be cute to add a rhinestone to the dates that were important (idea stolen from my mom the Queen!)

July is fantastically full of glitter. My birthday is the 19th, purple being my favoritest color, and lime green just looks fun with it!

 

Annnnnd you don’t get December, because my scanner hates me. Hope you got a kick out of them, as much as I did making them!

JCat McGack

Shut the front door... for a tour!

Welcome to the 'art room' as we like to call it here. It's MY happy place, my getaway, my BIG purple and green room. I've been working since the first of the year to get it just so, take pictures and share it with you, so I can go and mess it up again!

I'll give you a heads up, my art consists of mostly paper crafts, so scrapbooking and card making are my favorites. But I'm getting into sewing. And my heart has always loved sketching, painting, drawing, paper mache' and well anything that involves glitter and glue! So on with the show!

SO next to the door is this. It's an old desk my dad put up on little box like crates. 1. So it's up off the floor (BTW this room is in the basement, so everything is at least 6 inches incase the ol' sump pump stops working!) AND so we could fit the mini fridge under there! 

The shelves have plastic bins. Each labeled for the kids stuff. Works great. They work with a bin, and put it away before another comes out. The old CPU cabinet (with pom pom on it) is for the kids papers, coloring books and slippers)

I call this the 'Color Station' filled with, colored pencils (see my precious Prismacolors there on the left, my art teacher, Mrs Henize taught me about them!) watercolor paint, and pencils, glitter pens... and speaking of glitter...

THIS is a shelf from Archivers (serious sale price too) I keep my glitter, stickles, Tattered Angels spray, paints, Smooch paints, more glitter, some paints, flock and pastel crayons! Seriously just the array of color is enough to get you going!

Next is the 'Cardstock table' 

This is where all my solid card stock is, either 8 /12x11 or 12x12 size, up above is my stencils and Bazzil stictch mats. Oh and the black cart with the drawers underneath is more kids stuff, stamps, paper, and play dough. The green cabinet houses ALL my ink pads, right around 100 of them. Mostly Stampin' Up! ones. And at least 20 of them are a shade of some sort of blue! 

My Cricut lives below there, snug as a bug, and the cartridges are all above the cabinet.

So we turn the corner for the BIG storage in the corner. That blue bottom drawer tips open for ALL my organized 12x12 scrapbook paper. It's in Cropper Hopper files, by type, color, or theme. (So for example I have some labeled... cat, dog, Ed, Zoo, Birthday, some are exact like P!nk concert, or Disney.)

The 12x12 paper rack is for my two favorite companies, BoBunny, and Cosmo Cricket, and some Stampin' Up! too. 

The Big Shot die cut machine (yes I have BOTH the Cricut and Big Shot and like my children I love them equally) Dies, folders, are all there too,

BELOW is a rolling tote on the right, full of BIG files for 12x12 paper. So Mia and Alex each have a HUGE one. And my Christmas and Halloween too. (yet I have Neither holiday scrapbooked at all!!) photo boxes, and another purple bin for some odds and ends.

Sewing corner!

This is where I sew. My machine is hiding under the 'Happy Bunny' maternity shirt, and sitting on the desk that my husband once sat in, in grade school. Under the desks I store patterns, instructions for my machine, and stuff I am working on. 

Turn the corner again... (yes wall to wall counters!) and we are to the original counter. From Hobo store, it's a hardware store that is SUPER discounted, and you get what they got kinda store. Anyway cabinets and counter top are from them. Awesome bar stools cut down from my creative friend Michele.

SO this is the only counter that is 'counter' height. This corner is my 'Accessories' area. ALL my buttons, brads, charms, and well... accessories for any project are here. You see the black bars with all the black shape punches on the wall (bar is from IKEA's kitchen department) the drawer is more punches, and the cabinet is currently empty. The shelf below is for my scrapbook albums, and below that is bins with 3D projects in them, and a cat nap house.

Middle is more punches, pens, pencils, tools, devil horn headband... drawer 1. is Adhesive. Any kind of a glue, tape, glue dot, wet, dry, permant, or temporary you need. Drawer 2 is chipboard pieces in bags by type. And drawer 3. is ribbon. In bags by color. Oh and above are IKEA boxes, I coverd and labeled for more storage. Things I don't use every day.

AND the other end of the counter is my 'desk' my laptop goes here, or I sit with my creative magazines or books, sketch idea's, take notes, and sip coffee here. Drawer is my 'office drawer' with stapler, tape, chapstick (well chapstick you can find in almost every drawer!) post-its, cough drops, and iPod charger. Cabinet is for memory stuff. OMG that cabinet is a zoo! Below my feet is Stampin' Up! catalogs (since 2000)  and my empty scrapbook albums. Below that is my foam stamps and notebooks.
Oh see to the left is a wire mailbox file. I keep some fun black chipboard there, and on the key hooks is where I store my letter chipboard in the fun original containers. Also fun is the clock above. It was a wedding present from a very artsy and good friend of mine. We don't keep in touch any more, but I think of him often with my clock.

To the center of the room is my cart! I once had it in my kitchen, but it cluttered the room, so it works awesome down here! THIS is fantastic, the tall stand on the left is my 'Clip it Up' by Renee OMG, LOVE this thing. Two levels of clips. Hundreds of little clips for all your stickers, and fun things! (bought my mom one for  her last birthday!) 

Then we have my journaling tablets, and MORE stuff that didn't fit on the Clip it Up tree. Below is my photo storage (LOVE those things too. At JoAnne fabrics!) And even more photo books, two encyclopedia's and a bin with a project I'm working on. 

Let me explain the encyclopedia's. The new trend or in 'vintage' scrapbooking is the look of encyclopedia paper. So why buy it when I had a very inspiring friend give me these two books?!

Next we have 'THE table' which is a 6 foot by 3 foot table in the center of my room, my dad built it IN the room, I asked for the boards below, since I am short and need to put my feet up (since they don't touch the floor!) plus it's obviously great for storage!) Currently a work in progress with my buttons all over. 

At the end of the table is this massive file cabinet. It's a travel agent file cabinet, from my fabulous friend Piper. Both my mom and I got one. I keep my fabric in here by color.

Behind the curtain is the... washer and dryer... ewww... BUT it's like free counter space when the rest of the room is a mess! Yes I rigged that lamp on top of the dryer with that shelf thingy. It works! I didn't take a picture, but to my right in this picture is the laundry bins, and a 6 foot storage unit from IKEA, two doors. One for snacks, and one for supplies, like garbage backs, sandwich bags, floor cleaner, and plastic bags.

'The Art Office"

THIS room, or space is where it all began. It's a 5x5 square room, right below my 1/2 bath above. It was where I was going to have my little art room... HAHAHAH!!!

Either way it's now the office. I paper journal in here, sit and think, brush the cats, and store things. Above is all my Creating Keepsakes, and Scrapbook Etc. magazines. The clear boxes are all hand made greeting cards, and to the right of that is my notebook fetish!

The shelves go up to the ceiling, for more photo storage, and some odds and ends art stuff. And my drawing stuff at the very top.

The other wall is my 'Stamp Wall' these mini shelves really were intended for my little knick knacks that I didn't want around the house, but meant a lot to me. Now all my stamps are in cases here. 

The white cabinet is a box of me. Filling the 3 shelves are random photos, trinkets, and things from my life that make me happy. 

I didn't take a picture of the chair. But it was my Grandma Alice's. When she died, I played rock, paper, scissors with my cousin Kristi for it. I LUV it.

My room is full of things that are colorful, and inspiring to me. These quotes I read to get going or just remember to 'Trust your Crazy Ideas'. I keep a picture of each of my kids here...

Alex was just 2 here, sitting on my counter, playing with my stuff. I love this one.

And Mia was SO happy in this one, with her Darby doll. She was 3 here.

And what art room is complete with out some of my Chloe, and my

Jordan. Oh, they have a HUGE carpet tower, in the middle of the room, placed there in the winter because it's about 3 feet below the heat vent! They LOVE it.

So whatever your space is, be it a half a basement, a corner of a room, a closet, or just a cabinet in your kitchen, make it YOURS. Make it you. Make it special. Mine too 8 years of tweeking, moving, sorting and arranging to get it where I love it. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Ask questions if you have any on my space. If anything leave me a comment that you stopped by! Happy creating!

JCat