Feeling Grateful

My Mother's Day gift to myself.  Thank you, Self!!

We didn't know until we were in the car which museum we were going to that day.  We "by chance" went to the art studio first where these kind Tibetan monks were and sculpted alongside them.  I don't know if Angelo fully understood what an amazing thing this was (which is great in it's own way), but I am so grateful that we were able to hang with these peaceful guys who laughed so easily.

After the monks left, it was on to the museum playground, which we hadn't been to yet.  I am so grateful that we have places like this so close and can fully explore each one, one trip at a time.

Walks, Flowers and Art Journaling

Dana-bo-Baynah will be 8 on Friday!!! Just love this special pup and am looking forward to toasting her with a special bottle of wine we've been saving for a great occasion like this.  My SIL bought us a bottle from Real Dogs Wine.

My furry child and I have really been enjoying our walks (and long talks) around the neighborhood.  When we first moved here, I walked her in the cemetery up the road and took a lot of interesting pictures.  In recent months, we have found a great route using the sidewalks in the blocks immediately around our house and since the first buds of Spring, I've been taking pictures of the neighbor's flowers.  So nice of them to plant right next to the sidewalk so I don't have to feel like a stalker and climb into their yards.

Some of these are printed and ready to go into art journal entries.  Although I've been art journaling in one form or another for several years, I have been on a role lately as I am thinking a lot about my upcoming Art Journaling Workshop at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  Lots of art love going on here!

If you art journal, what are your favorite prompts?

Busy Busy With Art Making!

Oh my.  Has it really been over a month since I last posted?  Well, here's some of the projects I've been working on while I wasn't posting- altered books!! Almost all the images came from other books- novels, encyclopedias, vintage knitting catalogs.  Some are my photos- ones I've collected or taken myself.

Enjoy!

Naturally Dyed Eggs

There are plenty of websites out there on how to dye eggs using natural materials.  Several I've read and none of them have I book marked.  So, I winged it.

Here's how to do it and keep it simple.  Fill 3 small to medium pots 1/2 - 3/4 full of water.  Put in frozen blueberries (about a cup) in one pot, frozen spinach (about a cup and 1/2) in another and about 2 tbs of turmeric in a third.  Add eggs.  I put in 4 per pot making a dozen colored eggs.  Let the water, eggs and dye stuff come to a boil and continue boiling about 8 or so minutes.  Then, turn off heat and let water cool (on heat source), eggs in dye stuff included.  A couple hours later, pull out eggs, rinse off, dry and ta-da, you have naturally dyed eggs.  The turmeric dyed eggs were the most impressive (most vibrant), the blueberry eggs the most surprising (more grey-blue than blue) and the spinach eggs the most subtle (a quite kind of pattern and color, but impactful none-the-less).

blueberry, spinach, tumeric

Drawing Lab Exercise 2

Ha Ha!! :) These are always interesting. 

A blind contour drawing is one that is drawn without looking at your paper in order to train your brain and hand to draw what you actually see rather than what you think you see.  It's a good exercise.

Check out my lab partners' posts too! :) 

Laura 

Kate

Kristilee

Now I'm off to tear up more books for examples for my Altered Books Workshop!!  (Because just like I so often feel the need to make a new costume for a belly dance performance, I felt like re-making all the examples for this workshop. ;) Perhaps it's time to order soft gel medium in bulk since I'm out of the jar I picked up Saturday. Busy, busy, busy! :)

Birthday Things

A birthday banner A and I made DH for his birthday.  A cut all the triangles out of scrapbook paper, put the stickers on and stapled the triangles to the ribbon.  He also used a sharpie ultra fine tipped pen to draw a border triangle around each piece.

A wooden frame A painted and put stickers on for DH's b-day.  He picked the color and everything!

A rotating tumbler A painted for DH's b-day.  He chose the heart stamp and color himself!  The pictures were chosen and cut by me in the interest of time.

A with the play town I made him for his b-day.  Oliver + S Little Things to Sew has the instructions and templates.  Instead of using foam as it suggested, I stuffed them with 90% organic cotton and 10% polyfill. I used the polyfill because I ran out of the organic cotton stuffing, but it really did give them more form, so I would consider it again.  The material is naturally dyed organic cotton, and is slightly heavier than the average quilter's cotton.  The windows are wool felt from A Child's Dream Come True, and the rich colors really made these buildings pop.  

This art satchel, made with a linen/cotton blend was made from instructions in Growing Up Sew Liberated.  Everything always takes longer than you think, but in this case, that's an understatement.  Whew!  But, I'm glad we'll have this, especially for traveling. The material is under Japanese fabrics over at Alewives Fabrics.



A birthday banner I made for A's b-day, the same way as mentioned above for DH's banner.

This is a bad picture of a really cool map.  The fabric panel, "What a World", is from Alewives fabrics.  I backed it with muslin and added ribbon loops at the top in case he wants to hang it up.  Maybe it will work more as a play mat.  We will see.  Right now, it is draped over the settee where he can check it out as he likes.  There are little people in local dress (or folk costume) in different regions as well as things that are common or known in certain places; like alpacas in South America and the Space Needle in Seattle.  Plus, the flags and time zones offer all kinds of learning opportunities.  The only thing missing is Antarctica, but we'll deal with that.  A fun intro to geography in any case! 

Haven't gotten to my weekly drawing exercise yet, but it's coming soon!

Drawing Lab Exercise 1

Drawing Cats in Bed

So, a few homeschooling Moms and I are working through the book Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists by Carla Sonheim.   Laura Gyre came up with the idea and I was keen to join.  The first "assignment" is to draw cats in bed (or on a pillow) to encourage loose, expressive lines and then the "do something further with it".  So, here are my kitties.  :)

I think the one in the bottom left corner is hilarious and looks a bit like a flying squirrel, or Roo from the Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh.  Same thing really. ;)  I didn't intend for it to look hilarious, in case you were wondering.  ;)

I liked this one enough to color it in with pencil.  He's a bit crazed and about to take a nap.  I can relate. ;)