Guerrilla Art Los Angeles

It's time for another Guerrilla Art adventure.  I'm joining Marfi Bradford of Incipient Wings in her Guerrilla Friday, Random Acts of Kindness.  I'll have to tell you though, I think it's more exciting for me to leave a present behind than it is for the random stranger who finds it.  It sure gets my adrenaline running and heart pounding as I don't want to get caught leaving it behind.  It's a very simple plan, you make something crafty, find a spot to leave it at and hope that it brightens someone's day.

I recently made this box/book out of an old book (you can see a tutorial here). 

and I made these greeting cards to go inside:

The cards say:

-Happy Freaking Birthday!

-Happy Birthday....from one glamorous babe to another

-Live For Today, Plan For Tomorrow.....Party Tonight

-When Life Hands You Lemons.....grab the tequila and salt

-Wine does not make you fat, it makes you lean....lean against tables, chairs and smelly men 

-Forget about the past, you can't change it, forget about the future, you can't predict it.......forget about the present, I didn't get you one

Given the title: Living La Vida Loca "living a crazy life" by Omar Goesh and Shudan O. Betta, I wanted to find the perfect place to leave it at.  It would have to be a place where there's a lot of CraZy people. I thought about leaving it at a night club, but naaah, that's not crazy enough.  Then I thought about leaving it at my neighbor's front door, but, I remembered they actually read my blog.  Then I found this.......

After all, this is where people end up when they live a "vida loca" but I wasn't in the mood for flaming hot pizza.
Just then I had a bright idea, leave it at City Hall !!!

      
The City Hall building is one of my favorites to look at.  It has been featured in many films; War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible, Escape from L.A., to name a few.  It was completed in 1928 and just recently retrofitted to withstand an 8.0 earthquake.  It is located on First and Main Street in downtown Los Angeles.  An observation level is open to the public on the 27th floor (the area way at the top with the long columns).

Here are views from the observation leve:
this is what the columns look like from up close:

 You can see Disney Hall from up here too, it's the building with the wavy architect:

 Here's the Police Headquarters:

 and the courtyard (where I'll leave my little gift, see the fountain down below?)

some more pictures from the observation level:

Here's the Rotunda, inside City Hall:

And finally, the fountain, where I'm leaving my Guerrilla Art, see it there :

A close-up

Happy Friday everyone, hope you have a CRAZY weekend!

Miniature Book Pendant Tutorial

I'm publishing this tutorial once again because I've had such a great response from bloggers.  I've added several samples towards the bottom of this post too.
 
This is a very easy tutorial, don't get turned off by all the steps below, trust me, it's actually quite easy.
 

 Is that not the cutest little book pendant?

I saw these pendants for sale at the library gift shop and, of course, I had to make my own.  Besides, they were selling them for $30 dollars!!!..... I KNOW!!!.... Luckily, they are very easy to make and will cost an average of  a dollar or two provided that you have most of the supplies on hand.
 
Here's what you'll need:
Scrapbook card stock,  regular white copy paper 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch, ribbon, gold leaf pen, glue and some paper glaze (or embossing powder), an eyelet and eyelet setter.

some jewelry finding and jump rings and a cord:

Create the pages that go inside the book:
First, fold your white copy paper in half, turn 90 degrees then fold again and turn 90 degrees, do this a total of four times and you'll end up with a 2 3/4 inch by 2 1/8 inch folded paper.....sorry lots of measurements.  Cut the corner with scissors to measure a piece that's 1 inch by 3/4 inch.  See picture below, it shows the corner that was cut (also shows the measurements of the pieces):

Next, cut all the folds all the way around:

You will end up with 16 little pages that are 1inch by 3/4 inch:

Gather your pages and place them inside a clip.  Drop some hot glue gun on a mat and dip your pages in to coat the back side with the hot glue (binding):
This will allow your pages to stick together like a book

Next, take your gold leaf pen and run it all around your pages:

Next, cut a cover sheet out of scrapbook card stock paper by using your pages to measure the area you need.  Run your gold leaf pen all around your cover sheet:

Fold your cover sheet in half.  Add some glue over your pages and spread, do top and bottom and place them inside your cover sheet:
essentially you are gluing the first page to your front cover and the last page to your back cover.

Close your book and allow glue to dry.
At this point, add Paper Glaze to the front and back covers and let it dry over night so that it will  give it a nice thick shine and protect it from the elements.  If you don't want to use the Paper Glaze, you can emboss the front and back instead.  To see an embossing tutorial, go here.

Punch a hole on the back page to add your eyelet.  With your eyelet setter (I'm using a Crop-A-Dile) set your eyelet on your back cover sheet:

It will look like this:

Add some jewelry finding and run a cord through to hand your pendant from.  My cord is made of leather and it's 9 inches long, just long enough to fit comfortably around my neck. 
Here's what it looks like opened:

To add a clasp to your necklace go here.
 
Here are other versions of this miniature book:

Thanks for coming by.  Hope you have an awesome week!

Embossing Powder Technique Tutorial

This is an Embossing Powder Technique tutorial.  It's my preferred method for making embellishments for my scrapbook pages, cards, and many other paper crafts. 

Here are the products you will need:

There are specialty Embossing Stamp Pads that will work, also VersaMark Stamp pad or any Pigment Ink Pad, like the one in blue from Color Box.  You can find all these stamp pads and embossing powders at Joann's Fabrics and Crafts or any other craft store.

You will also need embossing powders like the ones in the picture below, they come in a variety of colors, and a craft heat tool:

The first step is to stamp your image using your stamp pad, which ever one you decide to use.
I used VersaMark and since it's clear, you can't really see it on the paper:

Next, pour embossing powder on top of your stamped image, I used silver powder:

Shake it off back in the bottle, a little goes a long way:

Once you tap off the excess, it will look like this:

Next, heat set it using your heat tool.  This will melt the wax particles in your Embossing Powder:

And finally, it will look like this:

You can use embossing powder to coat images and make them glossy.  Just cover the whole image with a clear embossing pad, like VersaMark, next pour clear embossing powder on top and heat set: see the difference:
Before:

After:

You can also coat with a heavier Embossing Enamel called UTEE to give it a very thick coat.  This is what I use on my miniature book pendants to protect them from the elements: using the same technique as the Embossing Powders

this is the before UTEE

and the after, bear with me, I tried to find a picture that would show the thickness and the shine, it may not be the prettiest but it shows the technique better:

Thanks for coming by.  I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, come back soon.