Give Me A Toothache & I Will Give You ART!

Last week I had the 1st part of my laser surgery at the dentist and it went pretty well. But this weekend while I was cleaning my teeth I exposed a root and it really HURTS! Yesterday I went back to the dentist to see if he could help and he did his stuff but it was still hurting. So I stopped off at the library and bought myself a couple of used books ($1-$2 each) to play with.

You see, I have been wanting to make myself a "pretty" book to keep my weekly Bible studies in and I figured today was as good as any to get started on it. I have always been one of those people that likes to be creative (if I can) when I am hurting. It kinda takes my mind off of it and usually I feel much better when I am through. Today I thought I'd show yo what I did with my used library book. . .

 

 The cover has one of my favorite verses - it was a memory verse of mine in Sunday school when I was about 10 years old. It is Psalm 119:11 "I have treasured your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You". I figured this was a great verse for this type of book!

 This is what my book looked like when I started - it was a hardbound cookbook

 I took all of the pages out

 I did my "magic" and added a 3-ring binder mechanism.

 Then I added all of my notes from my studies and my church bulletins (I keep them all in sleeve protectors)

 From start to finish I had my "pretty" book done in 4 hours. Not bad I'd say! And the cost was so minimal too. The used book was $2 and I spent $3 on some nuts & bolts the rest of the supplies just came from my stash.

 This is the back of the book - pretty plain and simple.

 and this is the spine - I added a cross and some charms and even a rusty washer I did some metal stamping on.

 I bought those charms with Jesus on them a couple of years ago while on a shopping trip with my friends Judie and Ann. I didn't know what I was going to do with them when I bought them but they were PERFECT for this project! The cross was left over from a rosary I bought at Goodwill for the beads. I needed the beads for a class but I kept the cross.

 The white binder you see here is what I used to keep my Bible study in and I carried to church with me each week. It is one of the little binders (8.5x5.5) and is really old and beat up (I found it in the garage). It just seemed silly for me to carry such a beat up old binder when God has given me the ability to make books and make art. I can't wait to carry it to church this Sunday!

This book was my inspiration book. It is an Art Journal that I made as a class sample (this class will be taught in Jan - I know some of you have already signed up for it)

 It started off as a used library book (The DaVinci Code) too!

 I'm not gonna show you everything in the art journal but here is the opening page. . .

 and another page. . .

 I guess the creative bug is running wild in our house this week. . .

 Look at these crazy beaded spiders my Mom made on Monday. She has joined a seniors group and is taking all kinds of fun classes (yoga, a book club, line dancing) and now a beading class! This is amazing if you know my Mom - she doesn't usually join "groups" and doesn't believe she is creative at all!

But look at that smile on her face - she is really happy with her spiders!!!

 

Well, I guess I need to get busy I have one more Halloween costume to get made for my Monkey. And sitting here is NOT getting that done!

I hope you all have a GREAT DAY - try creating something for yourself this week - it'll put a smile on your face!

Till we meet again. . .