Tag: simple

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

One of the things that keeps me from this blog is always some kind of decision. What should I talk about? What will anyone be interested in reading? How much should I show? Maybe a peek, a tutorial, a personal look at something? This goes on for long enough, and enough decisions are made on everything else, that I never get into the blog at all. Anybody else have this problem?
Addiemenose1
Then there’s always the “to do” list. Finish designing the stuff on my desk, prep for this weekend’s show, run errands, get change at the bank, order supplies, fill out your calendar, re-arrange your desk, mail out your orders, check social media, schedule social media, delete 900 e-mails, try to put out a newsletter, do tomorrow’s to do list, etc, etc, etc…
Then there’s the family “to do” list…collect all the laundry, call the Doctor, cook breakfast, go grocery shopping, wash the dog, advise child #1, clean the bathroom, wash the car, take a shower, drop the kids at sports, call your Mother, sweep the floor, wash the other dog…ad nauseum..
Gigantic bears at Costco
Gigantic bears at Costco
…you get the picture. More decisions. On everything.
But do you see “write on the blog” anywhere? Blog doesn’t show up, does it?
Not first…or in the middle…or at the end. Too many decisions and I can’t decide where to put it.
Sooo….time to make one more decision…what the hell am I finally doing here? Well…I guess I decided it was long enough. That I needed to try this again.
For how long and how often? No clue and I don’t know.
What will I bring my self to write about? Well…art…creativity…daily life stuff…basically I will be winging it and post things that tickle my fancy dependent on what day it is.
So about those decisions…I think I just made one.
To quit.
Until next time,
Susan
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Arc Planner: What Is It?

So I would bet by now that you’ve seen some edition of the Arc Planner System from Staples around the interwebs…no?

I’m here today to give you a peek inside my own and how I got into it.

So I was wandering around Staples looking for nothing in particular when I happened upon this Arc planner system. I looked it over for quite awhile while my daughter shopped elsewhere and decided to try one notebook. Just to see if I liked it.

I comes with blank lined sheets. (you can see two Arc planners in this picture because one leads to two leads to three…you get the idea)

Plain Arc Pages

They are hooked together with these multiple discs. Normally they come with small discs which I knew immediately wouldn’t be enough so I bought some larger ones from the Martha Stewart collection that also has a few disc based items.

Large Discs

I also prettied up the edges of the pages with colorful washi tape.

Washi Tape Galore

 I also made a can of goodies that I knew I would want to use with the planner. Things like colored pens, large and small post-it notes, graph paper post its, mechanical pencil with eraser. (yeah, I know. I’m getting obsessive) And it’s portable so I can take it from room to room as I jot down thoughts and ideas.

Can O'Goodies

Then, because enough is never enough, I designed some pages for the Arc planner as well as made some downloads from the internet work for it too. This meant that I take trip number two to Staples and buy the punch plus additional inserts. Now I knew what I would do with it I could better accessorize it…ha!

Triple Pic of Supplies

Yes…there are page dividers, pages with pockets, some of the post its are heavier paper and make great tabs.

I designed my own calendar.

My Calendar Design

That’s right…just use the punch to put holes in the side and it fits right in! This is on legal paper so I just folded it over so it wouldn’t stick out.

I also used Passion Planner weekly calendars. (if you haven’t seen a Passion Planner you really need to) You can only see the beginning of the weekly version here on the left side. The right side is a sheet I designed so I could have all my Etsy product notes available. Now I can photograph, jot down measurements, prices, and whatever else I need to know when I’m putting items into my shop. All on one page.

Passion Planner page 1

Passion Planner Plus

 Here’s the other side. You can see with the Arc planner punch I did both sides of the Etsy sheet. That way if I’m not finished, but the weekday has changed or I printed another copy of it on the reverse, I just flip it to continue. No fuss, no muss! No more ugly rings to wrench open…and how many times have you had a ring binder close on your finger? Ouch! Never again.

And here is the illustrious Arc planner punch!! Yes…that’s a plastic page cover and it will punch for you! Any kind of paper you want can be customized for this system.

Arc Planner Punch

 So there you have it! Now I have the book shown here, a custom recipe book you can see on January 7 over at the Cre8ive Klatch blog, my daughter will be here posting about her Arc planner on Thursday January 8, and there are some great posts by fellow artists and friends.

Lori Leissner of Leissnerart shows you her intro book planner here and her creative idea for tracking her health here.

Cindy Jones Lantier tells about how she was hooked into the system here.

You might be next to catch the Arc planner bug!!

Until next time,

Susan

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Sisal Christmas Trees DIY

Inspired by another artist I decided to make some of those little sisal Christmas trees this year. Of course you can buy bags of sisal trees but I needed to make them from scratch. (of course)

So I headed off to Home Depot for some ingredients:

Project Ingredients

Based on my inspiration tutorial, which you can find here: DIY Bottle Brush Trees, these are all the necessary things.

  1. sisal natural rope

  2. heavy duty scissors (I went with serrated blades)

  3. 18 gauge wire

  4. vise

  5. drill

I added safety glasses and a cup hook to this list. Also the above picture shows my household drill that doesn’t have an adjustable chuck (the thing that holds the bit) so I needed to upgrade into this…

Bigger Drill

It has three movable parts where the bit is held so I could do this with the cup hook…

sisaltree1cuphook

 I stuck that in there for twirling of the wire necessary to make the tree. But let’s back up a little and start with the sisal. First you want to cut some lengths of the rope to work with. I cut 6 inch pieces, about 20 to start, then untwirled all the fibers. You will have to untwirl two times. The first will take apart the rope. The second will take apart the fibers and look the picture below. At least this is what you are shooting for.

sisaltree1untwirled

Looks like my hair! Keep doing this until you have a nice full pile. Mine were about 6 undone strands of rope each but you can really do more or less depending on your aesthetic.

Next you will need to cut the wire.

Cutting Wire

I started with 12 inch pieces which then are folded in half.

sisaltree1wirebend

Now take your pile of fibers and fit them in between one of the folded wires. Take a second wire and place it over the fibers in the opposite direction. Slip these to each side of your fiber pile and it should look like this.

sisaltree1lineupwire

Trust me…at this point you’ve made a big mess and you’re wondering if this is even going to work. But be patient because it’s slowly coming together.

Get your scissors and we are going to cut diagonally in between the wires like so…

sisaltree1cut

Then go back to each side and make some more diagonal cuts so you have basic tree shapes.

sisaltree1cutotherside

Here’s where that cup hook and larger drill come into play. Placing the bottom of the wires, the open end, into your vise screw it down hard so they will stay put.

Wires in Vise

Then take your drill with the cup hook and place the hook like so in the folded portion of the wire…

Cup Hook Twirling

Pulling up slightly with the drill start to allow the wire to twirl. The hook will probably catch a bit more wire here than you would like but keep twirling with the drill moving slowly until you get the hang of it. The wire will be very twisted when it’s done but not so twisted that it breaks or twirls over on itself. This took me a few tries before I felt comfortable. AND WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES! You don’t want things spinning through the air to hit you in the eyes!

So here is the pay off…

After Drilling

A messy tree like thing…but wait! Take your scissors or, I used a needle tool, and brush out the fibers. I found it best to work in one direction. Then using your scissors trim into a tree shape. Keep trimming…and trimming….and trimming and a tree will appear!

sisaltree4trimwide

 

Many Sisal Trees

Miraculous! All of a sudden you really have a mini sisal Christmas trees….but they’re beige. And now the real fun begins!

Don’t hate me but I’m not going to show you until tomorrow!

See you back here then!

Susan

 

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Gr8full

Gr8full…for a whole bunch of things.

 

My daughter and i did a little experiment this past weekend. Gratitude and what it means to us. We barely scratched the surface of how we truly feel about the subject. We did manage to make a couple of signs proclaiming our feelings through the laughter.

 

Gr8full Duo Hysterical

My husband was attempting to take our picture but we weren’t being very helpful.

Gr8full Duo Serious
Serious…he said make a serious face! I guess that’s it…not sure.

 

Gr8full Duo Goofy

We got goofy…or just plain kooky looking.

Gr8full Duo

We truly are gr8full for each other. Even when we don’t get along or disagree…we still laugh most of the time.

We are part of the #gr8fullcre8ive project found at the Cre8ive Klatch blog and also on their Instagram account @cre8iveklatch.

Come join us or find cre8ive and positive conversation in our Facebook group.

Until next time,

Susan

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