Thinking outside of the Box

Once upon a time in cross village michigan there was a studio called the Rug Works. Located directly across from the historic Legg's Inn restaurant they designed and completed beautiful rugs using looms, with locally grown wool. The yarn was hand dyed. I was able to take a class where I made a rug pillow. The business closed shortly after this endeavor. I was able to buy a piece of shelving from this nostalgic place. I wasn't sure what I would do with the wood shelves, and kept it stored in a garage for two years.

 The shelving has it's imperfections. It has some boards that are slightly crooked. It has some scratches and some oblong compartments. It couldn't be more perfect to me. My entire life has been right angles, straight lines, solid colors, and doing the "right thing". This is much more organic and lends itself to many surprises. I plan to place all those items that are inspirational to me.  
One of my favorite quotes is "I believe that inspiration comes to all of us; we don't always realize it."I hope that I can fill this organic, not perfect, but ever so eclectic shelving unit with things of inspiration and wonder......

Leaf #8

So I got to thinking.....if I can have a butterfly leaf, why not a dragonfly leaf! This little dragon fly was die cut from fabric paper. It was adorned with a small circle. I believe this is used around a circular bead as an accent in jewelry making. A small bell was attached to his tail.

Leaf #7

As I was making leaves for my tree, I thought to myself, why do all leaves have to be leaves? I have some great die cuts of all different shapes and sizes. So I decided to add butterfly leaves. This has to be one of my favorites. The fabric paper was made using muslin with old patterns. Shimmer mist in the color of pink was used. The butterfly die cut was used with my sizzix die cut. The butterfly was embellished with rhinestones. Simple but so much fun.

Trillium in Northern Michigan

Last week the trillium were out in Northern Michigan. They are such a beautiful flower. They spread very rapidly throughout the fields and I even have two small areas where they are growing in my own back yard. I had entered planned on entering a fabric book contest and one of the pages was my interpretation of the trillium. Although this book never got sent in, it sits on my buffet in my dining area. It is a constant reminder of all the things about Northern Michigan that I love......

Leaf #6

I managed to get to some leaves.....with a spring flair. Back in april I had loaded some images of fabric paper. The next few leaves have been made out that very paper. I used my....drum roll please.....Tim Holtz Vagabond die cutting machine. After cutting out the leaf shape, I embellished with various items. This leaf has some of the Tim Holtz tissue tape. I then added small butterflies in adorning purple. I then used my Tulip embellisher to add some bling bling with the green rhinestones. This leaf is so much fun to look at when I get in my car to leave for work, it makes me smile every time.....

Leaves in the tree......

I was able to get the owl and the leaves in the tree today. Hopefully by next week, the tree will look a lot less bare!

Transplanting the tree

Back in January my new challenge was going to be to make leaves for my tree that was previously in my studio in the basement of my house. I sold my house. I moved into a great apartment, but it does not have as much space. The tree sat in my garage since the move. It has been stepped on and run over by my car. Today it is so perfect out, I decided to transplant it. In the spirit of thinking outside of the box, I have moved the tree to the garage wall. I will see it every day getting in and out of my car. It is a little weathered, and beat up, but still my tree. It was so much fun to watch my neighbor driving by, actually stop to watch what I was doing. I am sure I am labeled the "odd woman on the corner." That is just fine by me. So now on May 13 I am challenging myself to get 52 leaves made by December 31. I hope to make 6 animals to go in the tree. Remember the owl.....he will have his debut tomorrow! Happy spring everyone. May you find you happiness in a tree, flower or other beautiful part of nature.