Ouija Street

Finally I can show something off! Weee!

A while ago I bought a Ouija board for about $1. Sweet deal! I knew it would make something cool... but what? Long story short, I was on round three of the Chunky House Swap on craftster.org and inspiration struck! I'll make a whole Ouija village! And so 13 lovely little cottages were born from one abandoned Ouija board.





Ouija boards are funny things. Some people are totally freaked out by them, others think they are total bunk and in between there are all manner of opinions.

When making the houses I wondered if chopping it up sucked all the mystique and power from it. Does breaking it up destroy it? Perhaps what I was really doing was making comfortable homes for spirits to visit. Or maybe they are just bits of cardboard, shaped into houses, and decorated with whimsy.

Whatever the case I really sort of love them and hope they all end up with nice families :)

See more Ouija Street photos here...
Shop for a Ouija Street home at my etsy shop...

My Favourite Arty Tools

Since I still can't really show anything off at the mo I thought that it may be interesting to share some of my favourite, most useful, artsy/crafty tools.


I suppose the most useful thing of all is my fingers/hand. I know it's rather obvious but I just use my hands so much.

While my right hand may do most of the painting my left hand acts as my trusty pallet. You can always tell when I've been painting because my left hand and arm are covered in paint. I never did like using a proper pallet. For some reason I find that I can leave just the right amount of paint on my brush when I use my arm, my paint is the perfect consistency, and my pallet is never out of reach.

My fingers smudge glue into place. I am so damned impatient when it comes to glue. It kills me to wait for the stuff to dry and there have been many times when I have looked up to find that something has slid out of place because of my impatience. I have found that if I put a tiny dab where I need it and then use my finger to make a smooth thin layer, things are dry in no time at all!

My fingers also smudge paint and pencil. Sometimes there is no tool as precise as your finger. It will go exactly where you want it to and apply as much pressure as you demand. Sometimes that extra brush or tool just gets in the way.

For smudging, picking, measuring, deciphering angles, scratching, holding and drawing my hands and fingers really are my greatest artist tools.

My Day Job

I still can't share my latest crafty ventures but I'm really happy with what I did at work this week so I'll share that instead.

Our paper did a sort of tribute to Kurt Cobain this week, the 15 anniversary of his death. Christ, has it really been 15 years!?! Anywho, here's my tribute to the grungy rocker...



Kurt is cut out of different photos and assembled and scanned. The background, same deal, paper cut, assembled and scanned. I'm pretty chuffed with him :)

Bargain Hunting

I've been working on a number of things but all of them for swaps so I can't show anything off at the mo'. What I can show you is my most favourite recent purchase...

I picked up this well loved record album for 50 cents at a local "Re-use Centre".



The cover looks a bit beaten but it's actually in really good condition.




I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it yet. I do love all the hand written titles and notes throughout as well as the hole left for reading the album titles. It's a really wonderful object.

Another recent buy was this player piano roll. I spent a whopping $5 on this. That's a pretty penny as far as my spending habits go.



What I was most interested in was the box, which has been worn down in the most lovely way, and the title "Mother" which I'm certain I can work with. I'm pretty sure that I can use the player paper for something crafty... though I would feel the worst pang of guilt for cutting

Anatomical Lighthouses

This isn't witchy or crafty but it's kinda funny so I'm posting it :)

We went to visit my family in Ottawa last week for March break. My uncle was on a business trip when we arrived but came home on the second night we were there. My uncle calls to my son "Hey, look, I've brought you a souvenir." and hands my kiddo a box of gummy lighthouse candies.



I open the box to dole out some sweet goodness and discover that the candies don't exactly look like lighthouses. They are kind of a lighthousey shape, but they are soft and bending over to the side slightly. There also isn't a lot of detail to distract from the fact that they are shaped, very similarly, to a certain body part.



I can't begin to tell you how awkward I felt handing these out to the wee kiddies. The grown ladies had a pretty good giggle about them though.

hunk-o-plastic to colourful shrine in just 2 years

I bought this gaudy mess a couple of years ago. I had big plans. I was going to make it gorgeous. I cleaned it up. Then it sat on a shelf for two years waiting to made into something.

A few weeks ago a challenge was put forward to make a shrine on the Misc. Topics board on craftster.org Aha! The perfect push to transform that plastic hunk. And so after a few late nights I'd like to show off my Stash Bustin' Family Shrine.



I really love it. It's got old and new bits. Photos from the 'death/funeral' cards of long dead relatives. Little bits of goodness and colour :)

One down... four luchadors to go.

I've finally finished (kind of) D's wrestling painting! Woo hoo Rey Mysterio! It's 12" square. I've also got 4 smaller luchadors on the go but they still need a little lovin'



I missed the birthday deadline but that's alright because I'm going to put together a 'swap' package for him. He's terribly jealous of the packages that arrive for his dad and I so I'll make a box of wrestling goodness for him. If I can finish it next week it'll be a great diversion for the long car ride up to Ottawa.

In other news, D had a great birthday. How 6 little children can make so much noise I'll never know. It was a long day and the kids were troopers. The clocks moved ahead, birthday party madness and then a hockey game... that's a lot to ask of a group of 5/6 year olds.



Oh, and BTW those pom poms WERE blue! It was just the crappy lighting in my house that made them look purple. Woo hoo!