Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Inspiration Stone







Last year, my girlfriend and I took a course on time management and making time to realize your dreams.  Part of the process that day was to make a collage, from magazine clippings, that illustrated all the aspects of your life that were important to you or that you wanted to focus on.  This is my collage, that sits on my desk, and that provides a much needed focus on the days that I feel uninspired.



Last week, I had a very uninspiring(or so I thought) trip to a discount electronics outlet.  Helana was at volleyball games but she needed supplies for what seemed to me to be a very complicated science project.  I had a list, sort of, of components I needed to pick up from rows and rows, and boxes and boxes, of bits and pieces.  Just as I was checking out, I spied these glass stones.  They turned out to be recycled parts of magnifying glasses and they were selling them for a few dollars each!  Hmmm....




I thought it would be neat to continue that idea of encouragement in a paper weight sort of way.  A portable little stone to act as decoration ... and inspiration.

1 - I used a compass to make a circle to fit the bottom of the flat side of the stone.
2 - I went through old magazines and cut out inspiring images and words.
3 - I arranged the larger background first then added my words.
4 - I put on modgepodge onto the bottom of my stone and the top of my collage.
5 - I added the collage face up and pressed it into the bottom, pushing out air pockets.
6 - after a few hours it dries and the collage is revealed in a beautiful magnification.







After a couple of inspiration collages I decided to make a simple one with a monogram.  From left going clockwise - I started with my supplies (scissors, magazine clippings, paper scraps, compass, modgepodge and the magnifying glass pieces). I cut out a background from thicker paper so I needed to cut a slit in it so that it would fit the curve from the bottom of this particular glass piece (I found the other glass pieces were more flat on one side and did not need a slit cut for a curve).  I used a paper doily cut in pie shapes to fit the base of my collage.  After gluing all the elements you must wait for your collage to dry.  It looks very milky and, at first, I was afraid they might not work out.  But they did.




bottom of stones                                                 dried stones revealed


Matching felt was cut for the bottom of the stones.






Now when I need to corral all those papers (including volleyball schedules and electronic supplies!) ... I can still try to stay inspired!




9 comments:

  1. This is absolutely fantastic! You should sell these! Especially the monogram ones! They would make perfect wedding favours! xx

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    1. Thanks so much Jewel. I never thought about them as wedding favours but I did think they would be cute as maybe a teacher gift. Thank you so much for your support!

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  2. I love them! As you can customize them, you can create infinite designs. Your stones are lovely. I have just found your blog, and I like it a lot!

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  3. This is so lovely! I love it that you used your inspiration collage (another great idea, BTW) for one if the stones. I'm already thinking of ways I could turn these little guys out as gifts!

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  4. Thanks Lauren :) they would be nice with a collage of images as well - like john derian's work. Maybe some of your photos :)

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    Replies
    1. What a sweet idea! That hadn't occurred to me! Now those I could really give as gifts!

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  5. This is perfect Tracey! What a fab idea, you are so creative, such an out of the box thinker. This is wonderful.

    Have a great weekend,
    love
    Maaike

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  6. Thanks Maaike - hope you had a good weekend too :)

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