DIY Lamp from books

I saw a craft ideo on pinterest that immediately made me think of my brother.  It's a Stacked-Books Table Lamp.  The whole thing probably cost about $30.  It did take a little work - we screwed up our first effort and had to start fresh, but was fun and Brennan and I got to work together on it.  Most importantly, I like to give Adam really personal gifts and I felt like I found something he'd get a kick out of.

You can follow the link above for detailed instructions, but here we are working on it.

We took a stack of classic hardcover novels plus a couple of our favorite books (I snuck a Nancy Drew in there and I think Brennan added Wizard of Oz.)

 Brennan had to clamp the books down and drill a hole through them.

 We bought a lamp kit at Lowe's and stuck the pipe through the books.  Brennan had to try several drill bits and screws before he found the right fit.  He screwed each book into the one below.

 I cut out some pages in the bottom book so the chord would have somewhere to go.

 Yup, I contributed!

 And, as Theo would say, Ta Da!  A new lamp for Adam's desk!

Painting on Book

For my brother's birthday, I thought it would be fun to have Theo paint him a picture.  But I wanted it to be special and since Adam is an avid reader and book Blogger (see http://roofbeamreader.net/), I decided Theo would use pages of books as his canvas. 

First we put mod podge down on an old, unfinished painting of mine.

Then we laid pages from a couple of books/comics down. 

Pat! Pat! Pat it down!

We let it sit for a couple minutes to dry.  I'm pretty impatient so it didn't sit long before we brought out the paint..

And then Theo went to town finger painting. 

Happy 29th Birthday Adam!

Bloom True with Flora Bowley art course

I am so excited about the Bloom True with Flora Bowley online art course I’m taking.  It begins today, runs five weeks, and is all about painting from the heart, using intuition, and letting go of expectations. 

Lately I've lost the energy to create and inspiration seems to run in the opposite direction.   Every painting I attempt fails.  I redirected that need to work with my hands into other venues like scrapbooking, baking, or doing crafts with Theo, but I miss painting.   I think that taking care of Theo, who is the most wonderful little boy and is a source of a lot of happiness for Brennan and me, brought a lot of unwanted attention and judgment on our family.  I don’t like being the center of attention, conflict and confrontation makes me really uncomfortable, and by taking in Theo we put ourselves right in the middle of a very complicated and sad situation.  The drama within the family, the pressure to please everyone in a situation where it isn’t possible, the questions, the financial cost, it became too much.  To enjoy painting I need to be in the moment, trusting myself, focused…I just haven’t been able to do that with everything else going on.

This course will help me get back in the groove of painting.  Playing with paints, colors, textures, getting messy, exploring the mind, body, spirit connection is going to be so much fun!   I will post pictures of my progress through the course and I encourage anyone who has put their own creativity on the backburner to find a way to jump back in.  We’re worth it!

Different kind of crafting!

I've been working on a couple of random paintings but they're coming along slowly.  The next ones I plan on finishing will be for the joint book/painting giveaway mentioned in the previous post.  While I read Dracula and Dante's Inferno, I have to keep those creative juices flowing!  So for my dad's birthday present, I made some scrapbook pages and had them laminated for him to use as placemats.  Here are the images!

Finally I will be involved in another online event! It is next month and it's pretty exciting.  I am joining Adam of Roof Beam Reader and Allie of A Literary Odyssey in a Group Read and Paint Me a Book Giveaway!

Adam and I have discussed a “Paint Me a Book” giveaway where he would offer readers of his blog prizes of books and I would create a painting inspired by that book to also go to the winner.  This has kept getting pushed off, mainly by my indecision about whether books that I feel I could create a good painting from would also be attractive as prizes to his blog readers.  We’ve also been delayed because there has been so much going on in my life that painting has slipped to the back burner (along with another of my favorite pastimes: reading).  But when I saw the books Allie chose for October Group Reads, Dante’s Inferno and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I became really excited.  Here is my motivation to read two books that have been on my list for a long time and I think there are some really fun painting possibilities.  

Instructions can be found on Adam’s blog, but to sum up, Adam will be offering up two October / Halloween-themed books (not the Group Read books) to go along with the paintings – so two winners (participants in the Group Read) will end up winning one book + one painting.  If you want to sign-up for the Group Read and thereby have a chance at winning one of two books + original paintings, head to THIS POST and claim your spot.  Hope to see you there!