I really enjoyed crocheting this pattern so plan to use it again for my 5yo dd's afghan. I'm going to use the same yarn in these colors, and do the stripes a bit differently ... the dark pink and the black are very dark, so I'm going to mix up the sizes of the stripes this time ... very excited! And my 5yo is, too!
Edited: Yay, Molly! Her second guess "Do You Hear What I Hear" is correct. I used many of the elements found in the song ... the night wind, the lamb and the star, the shepherd boy and the song above the trees, the king in his castle and the child shivering in the cold. How'd I do? Can you see the song in the collage now?
I started this giant granny square afghan back in April, using JoAnn's Sensations Rainbow Boucle yarn. It's worked with 2 strands, one each of orange and green. The green is a variegated yarn ranging from lime green to a deep sage, which resulted in a nice variation in the rounds.
you? When I got to the end of the orange (for some reason, either the orange was shorted a bit, or the green had more), the afghan was not as big as I wanted (would've been a great baby blanket, though). So I went back to JoAnn's to get another orange and kept going ... then when I got further and finished the green skein, it still wasn't big enough. But could I find another skein of the green? Nope! I checked the JoAnn's down the street, several other JoAnn's in surrounding towns (only when I was in the area ... I'm not that nuts ... well, maybe just a little ...), but no more of the green to be found. So for months it's been sitting in a tote bag, unfinished. (Yes, I know I could've bought it online, but I did not want to pay shipping that would cost more than the skein itself ... though I was thinking it would come to that soon.)
This page has a paint scraped background, Pitt pens for border and journaling, Sharpie paint pen for white title and doodling, and collaged elements that include a catalog image, a tea bag packet and a torn napkin. It fits with Blissfully_Art_Journaling's prompt #10, time. Well, it's time for me to get moving ....
Now that I've set my gauge, I can pull it out and get started. This yarn is so soft, I love it! Can't wait to see the colors ripple along ....
The next page is just some random thoughts.
And the final page is the side opposite the blackberry page ... just some journaling about how this journal is almost finished and about the backgrounds I've been working on for my next journal. I've got over 30 backgrounds prepped and ready to go! Yay, me!
In addition to these, I've done about a dozen more pages, including a handful using the crayon/colored pencil technique like I did on this page. Maybe tomorrow I'll post a pic of these more recent backgrounds. I've got eight more pages to do and all the cardstock I bought will be ready for journaling ... just need to decide whether to go have it bound first, or wait until the pages are totally finished.
Let me know if you try this and find any other pens that work on this type of background. Have fun!
archives (specifically this one) that I wanted to try, but wasn't sure about whether it could be written over. So I left her a comment asking her and she said she hasn't done it in awhile, but thinks she remembers being able to at least use a Pitt brush pen on it ... she's going to try it and get back to me, but in the meantime, I just had to try it anyway LOL! I'll worry about writing on it later ....
around the woman ... we'll get to that later). Then I took a peacock blue Prismacolor pencil and colored over the crayon ... you can see the difference it makes in the second picture. Ooh, pretty!! Then I went back over it with another Prismacolor pencil (chartreuse this time), which didn't change it too much, but gave it a little something ... not sure how to describe it ... highlights? It was a very subtle change. Now I'm wondering what would happen if I chose a totally different color for the third layer ... well, there's always next time.
out. You can see the final product in the third picture ... what do you think? I love the pencil strokes ... you could get really creative and color it this way and that for different effects. My 9yo really likes this one, says it looks like hair LOL!
The girls on the right were already on this page and I thought they'd like sitting near the tree. After gluing down the strips, I was staring at the images, when the thought came "dream a little dream with me". That got me thinking about my dream of being a full-time artist, so that's where the journaling went. We shall see if this dream comes true!
book and chose to get 10 sheets of another nice cardstock (roughly 90# I think) to play with. I bought the 11x17 size because I was originally planning to fold them and bind them into a journal, but on the way home I started thinking again (dangerous, I know!) I usually work in 2-page spreads, but I want to challenge myself to work with single pages and not worry about whether the facing pages "go together". So I decided to cut them in half and journal on the single pages (I plan to have them bound after they are done). So after dinner, I cut them up and got ready to play with my 40 new pages!
ted doing the paint scraping technique ... just doing page after page until it was time to get the kids to bed (they had fun helping me pick out color combos to try for the next one, and the next one ....) All told, I did 11 pages this way. Then this morning, I took several more page and played with my watercolor crayons, and I also did the backside of several of the paint scraped ones. Fun, fun, fun!!
This background was actually my least favorite of the 6 I did ... I picked it because I figured if what I imagined didn't work right, I wouldn't ruin one of the better ones. But now that I've done something with it, I love it! Just goes to show that you can't judge it until it's really done. Now I really can't wait to play with the other 5 backgrounds!
The background is watercolor crayon smeared with a wet wipe, the doodling is a silver gel pen and the images are from magazines (with a few used for packing tape transfers), except the lower right corner, which is the front of a gorgeous notecard that someone sent me ages ago. The journaling is done with Pitt pens, with the 2 quotes coming from EllynAnne Geisel's The Apron Book. I absolutely adore this book! I've read through it twice and have even made 2 aprons using one of the patterns in the book (no, I haven't posted pics yet ... one of them is going to be a Christmas gift and I don't want to spoil the surprise ... but don't worry, I will post pics as soon as I can).
Background is acrylic paint left over from when I was making this project, then some chocolate wrappers and magazine pics glued down ... the words are packing tape transfers.
So this morning, I read through the pattern a couple of times, then did it the opposite way. Why? Because the pattern on these towels is directional. If you hold the towel up to yourself, the print is upside down at the top and right side up at the bottom. I wanted the bib of the apron to have the print going right side up, so I had to be creative. I just used the basic concept of the pattern but cut the bib towel instead of the skirt towel ... and then I used the leftover half of the bib towel to make a pocket. I really like how it turned out! I still want to try making the pattern the right way someday, so will look for a towel that doesn't have a directional problem (still thinking about that red "salt and pepper" one I saw at Target ... better get over there before they're gone LOL!)
Happy birthday, Maggie! Hope you like it!
easy one ... a dishtowel that I bought at Target last week. Simply lop off the top two corners, stitch on some bias binding and voila! A cute little apron ... love it! Now, of course, if you know me at all, you know I didn't just "lop off" those corners willy nilly ... I measured first LOL! But it really only took a few minutes to hold it up to me and decide how wide I wanted the top to be (8") and then where the waist should be (even with the bottom of the stem of the center flower). Then I was able to quickly lop off those corners, add the bias tape and have an apron ready to wear ... I didn't check the clock when I started, but I don't think it took me more than 45 minutes tops (and it wouldn't have taken me nearly as long as that if I hadn't had such trouble with the thread ... changed the needle 3 or 4 times before the thread finally stopped breaking!)
even commented on that post that I really wanted to try this and would definitely try it soon. And, what do you know? I actually did! That same day, in fact LOL! While my girls were outside playing 
Thursday afternoon, I realized this was as good a time as any to just do it. So I did. I did 6 spreads in my art journal (wax paper is my friend!) and learned a few things along the way. First, it really does only take a swipe or two before the colors can become muddy, especially if you're using complementary colors, so be sure to keep
a paper towel or wet wipe handy to keep the credit card clean. Second, I found I really love working in layers ... for the third layout I did, I tried a layer with 3 or 4 shades of one color, then let it dry for about 30 seconds or so before doing another layer with 2 or 3 shades of another color. Doing it this way is especially nice wh
en working with those complementary colors because you can avoid the mud problem. And, third, I really like adding a final layer of white or light gray when it's getting to dark. All in all, this was a fun project that I will definitely be doing mor
e often! I really like that you get the look of texture, but the layers are so smooth that it'll be nice to write on. Go on, try it!!
lopped over on itself. When I tried to pull it back up, it tore off and this is what I ended up with. Of course, if you use a sturdy paper or cardstock, this probably won't happen to you, but I was doing this in my art journal, which is a composition notebook with flimsy paper. At first I was so upset because I was really happy with how the colors turned out, but the more I look at it, the more I realize that I kind of like it with the back cover showing like that. I'm thinking of painting that back cover and then gluing this page down to it, and then journaling about the end of this journal and the beginning of a new one ... though I think I'll wait until I'm closer to really being done with the journal. I still have quite a few pages to fill.
Today was such a great day! My girls and I went to a favorite thrift store with my mil and sil ... always fun! It's on the other side of town and kind of awkward to get to so we don't do it often, but when we do go, we always find something good. When my sil called yesterday and asked if we wanted to go, my first thought was "aprons"! Yes, I'm on an apron kick now. (Actually, I've always had a love of aprons, and it's been a little desire of mine to have a bunch of different ones to wear for different jobs and occasions. There's just something about wearing a cute little apron or a let's get cooking apron that puts one in a good mood ... know what I mean?)
As you can see, I didn't get all my errands done LOL! Will have to finish up today. Btw, I did NOT eat at Wendy's just so that the logo would match my spread ... it just happened ... I wrote that right on the logo, too LOL!
Thanks, Dawn, for the fun prompts!
I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn't decide how to get it on the page ... it wasn't until I thought of writing in white instead of black that I realized I could get it all on the page by writing over the top of the "MOM" and "WIFE". Love the layered look! The background is acrylic paint, the words "MOM" and "WIFE" were made by tracing alphabet puzzle pieces (thanks, kiddos!) and then coloring in with a Sharpie, and the definitions around the edges were cut from a fabulous old dictionary (it's huge!) that I got at a garage sale for a buck. A Sharpier poster paint pen was used for the journaling.
Then over the weekend I did the cover. Love how it turned out!
The background and 24/7 are acrylic paints (I created a stencil for the numbers and dabbed the paint on with my finger ... love the texture that made), the 365 in the corner is a dymo label, and all the lettering is rub-ons, except WORK, which is wooden letters painted black. When I was done with all that, it felt like it still needed something. I ended up splattering the whole thing with diluted white acrylic and just that little thing really finished it off.
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