The Curious Nest

The Curious Nest

A new favorite place of inspiration. Looking for found objects? French antiques, religious medals, sheet music, and bobbles? How about local artists? The Curious Nest has it all--and very fun owners too.

I recommend a road trip to check them out:

The Curious Nest

2916 NE 55th St

Seattle, WA 98105

I picked up a few medals to use on my memory candles...and a few postcards...pictures in another post.

old journal page

One of my happy collage journal pages from quite some time ago...love the word stamp: listen, breathe, dream, balance, harmony, poise, grace.....and Pray, courage are both great too...junk mail isn't always junk--well--the offer may be junk, but some of the images are great!

Flipping through an old journal and seeing this made me want to start a collage-journal again right now. Hmmm...maybe I will. Any number of themes would work...or just serendipity--free-to-collage--everyday would be the way to go. Must consider this...otherwise I really need to recycle some stuff. Well, okay I probably need to do both.

Creating in Small Spaces

It has been many months since my dresser and its drawers --along with the rest of my creative nook-- went into a smallish storage unit in anticipation of the sale of our house. Yes, the house did sell, thankfully. In the meantime, a wonderful round dining room table (carefully covered with a waterproof tablecloth) has been my space for creative and soulful play. Oh yes, I have a box or so of stamps, tapes, misc. papers, index cards, Sharpies, pens, beads and more. 


The other day I came across a small black photo album under a zip lock of supplies. I sat and looked through some of my Artists Trading Cards. "Giddy," seen above, is made with a piece of blouse fabric found in my mother's abundant fabric stash years ago when cleaning out her sewing room. Most of my ATC's have been made using old playing card's or index cards. I usually paint or ink the background--sometimes to completely cover the numbers and suite of the card--other times a heart, spade, 3 or Queen comes in handy in the design. Once the background is dry it's just a matter of mood, colors, stamps, papers, beads, and a theme if you want to make a series or just challenge yourself. There are plenty of good resources on making ATC's. Two of my favorites are:

by Bernie Berlin

 Suzanne Simanaitis

Artists Trading Cards (ACT's) are one of the perfect small space project--not only because of their small size but because they inspire endless possibilities. A little of this, a little of that...and they become addictive. Working on one card can lead to 20 other ideas! For anyone who likes to play with collage, create visual surprises from whimsical to serious, this is great creative fun. 


Related articles

• ATC's - A Novel Idea! (dianezone.wordpress.com)
• Mixed Media Art & Creative Art Journaling (5) (creativeaddictionblog.com)

Cita Solv meets National Geographic

I was just looking through the fun How-To videos on the Stampington & Company website and found this simply technique for making some incredible collage and project papers using Cirta Solv. and one of my all time favorite magazines for photographs--National Geographic.   Clearly people have been having all kinds of fun doing this--and I plan to.  I figured if I hadn't seen this there are bound to be others too. 


Have you done this? If so, please share tips or warnings by commenting. Thanks!

Hello Creative Peeps

Hello again, yes, it is me. I've been absent from here for too long--and have no idea who, if anyone might still stop in to see if anything is alive here in The Dresser Drawer. In short, life has been hard these last many months, and while I have been journaling, reading, knitting, writing letters and posti, playing with some collage, poetry, stamps and taking pictures, what I haven't been doing is blogging about it. Well, that is not quite true. I have still been blogging on my hope blog partners4hope. 

Wilbur, the-marvelous-white-cat-in-residence, is as fuzzy as ever and equally amusing & personable (yes, that is an orange  peanut butter M&M he is balancing on his head.) Wilbur helps me keep my sanity. His zen-like presence is very calming--most of the time.

This is, again or still, a time of contemplation and discerning for me. I will share more soon. 

Check the right hand column and you will see my montage of art and creativity books from my Goodreads page. I am currently perusing more than a few books on creativity, crafting and business. If you are interested in finding a copy of any of these--or other books, you can click the Powell's Books graphic and search their site for new or used copies. If you haven't ever been to Powell's in Portland--I highly recommend a trip there.(And, yes, it is true they buy books too, in person and online. There are easy to follow directions. 

Into my New Cubbyhole

Well, at last I have almost accomplished one of my odd ideas. I have always wanted to have (or perhaps it is a returning...) a very small, cubbyhole like space in which to write. To write my way out of eventually.

As I went looking for the Chinese New Year scene I had in my mind from one of Amy Tan's books...I came across this in The Bonesetter's Daughter and smiled:

"Back at the flat, Ruth put the groceries away, set the orchid on the

dining room table, and went into the Cubbyhole. She like to think

that limited space inspired limitless imagination."

If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it...I plan on rereading it myself here shortly. I won't spoil what/where the Cubbyhole is in this book. My Cubbyhole is in part of the slightly over deep closet in my Nook--the room filled with all my clutter for making things...and the dresser drawers full of ephemera for collage...hence the blog name. Good things come from these old mismatched dresser drawers. Words, letters, photos, scrapbook paper, Scrabble tiles, things long ago made from Fimo....and more.

For now, my back is tired and it is time to head to bed and get lost in my current very long read, A Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Perhaps tomorrow I will have things straightened around enough to take a picture. For now goodnight patient blog, goodnight.

one last week of January

As of Friday night at 6:03pm we had heat! The only one in the family unhappy with this is--yes you guessed it, the cat who had to give up living with the standing heater, come out of the bedroom and resume living in the rest of the house. I can tell you for myself it was hard to leave the next morning knowing I would be gone all day...I just wanted to enjoy the house coming to life again...and curl up one the couch in the living room and read a book. Alas, I had an event to go to.

I can see from right here at my desk that the lilac tree has amazing buds showing already. I can also see that little flakes of snow are skirting here and there through the air. It is brittle cold out, but already buds are showing and bulbs are sending up shoots--I saw those by the front door. These signs of new growth make me itch to get outside--to see the yard come alive again, the white dogwood tree burst into bloom. I have learned I must be attentive to see it--this bursting forth can happen in an instant and then I find myself thinking, "when did all this happen?"

Well, too soon for me to be outside--with heat restored I can return more easily to my work up in the Nook. I can get back to some creative collage, some cards I've wanted to make and yes, to cleaning out the closet and reorganizing. But mostly to some regular moments set aside for creativity. Journals in need of some attention...additions here and there...scraps of paper, my beloved found ephemera and little photos....there is one last week of January to finish creating my 101 Things in 1001 Days list too!

my newest toy and helpmate

So in the process of trying to downsize...I made the leap to a tiny photo printer. Most of what I do is in the 'tiny' realm for pictures in comparison to most people. For cards, journaling, collage and the like I like small to tiny.....postcards are as big as I go--and that is to keep family without the Internet happy. So I used some Christmas money and bought a HP Photosmart A636 and it is amazing what this little package can do! I am just in the toying stages still--because of all of life's other little interruptions but needless to say-it is fun! This little printer is smaller than a small watermelon and has a handle to take along...now that I really love.

undoing and redoing

I spent about 2 hours yesterday moving a desk from the corner to the adjoining wall...a total of maybe 4 feet. I could not believe the amount of 'stuff' it meant touching, picking up, finding an alternative space for.... ah, the stuff of my life...

• all the little pieces of paper--saved for journaling and cards
• small thumbnail pictures--saved for the same reason
• leftover tea pouches--for taping into journals for pockets
• etc... of which there is plenty and provides plenty of creative possibilities

This is part of what I want to get back to this year...hmmm.

But first I must excavate and reconnect with the room.

It matters that we speak out--or write it down

I came across Sabrina Ward Harrison's The True and the Quetions: a journal (again) the other morning and flipped it over to find this great quote:

"I journal to understand my life as I'm living it. I use my journals

as a place to to put the things that spill out over the edges of my life: photo negatives,scraps of paper, poems I have heard and loved, my sorrow and epiphanies, the true and the questions. My journals have become guideposts for my life."

One of my favorite this about the journaling for me is that it is a usually a messy process. Bits and pieces of all kinds of things make up our lives, and I regularly pick up bits and pieces of life to stick in my journal. Maybe it is the color, the texture, the angle, the raggedness, who knows--but all of it helps visually portray LIFE at the moment for me.

Why do you suppose it matters that we do this?

About Journaling

I am wondering if the journaling people of the blog world find that blogging replaces/cuts way back on physical journaling? I am one of those people who have several journals going at the same time. I like the physcial and tangible aspects of playing with paper, scraps, pictures, junk and the writing. I don't like to get away from it, but we all only have so much time right? I admit to carrying my main journal around--talking to it and getting to the writing in it on many a day, but I also find that I am a whole lot healthier when I do (fairly regularly) write.