Finally playing in my art journal again!

Sheesh! I can't believe it's been 6 months since I last played in my art journal ... I would've guessed maybe only 2 or 3. I think part of it is that I get bogged down with too many ideas to journal about and I can't decide which one to focus on, so in the end, I do nothing. On the other hand, sometimes I know what I want to journal about, but I don't have a prepared page that reflects that, so I get frustrated and do nothing. I've realized that I like having painted backgrounds ready, but if I started collaging elements on them, they get in the way. So from now on I'm going to just paint a few pages ahead, and will wait on adding collage elements until I get to that particular page ... maybe ...

Recently I started journaling again, not quite every day, but almost. I took an online art journaling workshop a few weeks ago that got me back on track. For the class, we used a Moleskin (my first ever!) and I have really enjoyed working in it, though the pages are a little smaller than I like. Now that the class is done, I'm working toward finishing up my first journal before continuing in the Moleskin. I've only got 2 or 3 more spreads to go. Once it's finished, then I'll continuing work in the Moleskin ... or maybe I'll back and forth between it and a new journal I made myself using Kira's easy-peasy journal instructions (love it!) ... I haven't decided yet.

Anyways, these are my most recent pages.

My take on Matisse

It took me much longer than I'd hoped, but I finally finished my pages for the next round of the swap. This lady's theme was Matisse and she wanted us to come up with artwork inspired by his work or in his style. I chose to do my pages based on his later style of cutting large shapes out of colored paper. I embellished with embroidered stitches and some beading on the tree. Whew! Finally!!

Now I can work on the last round, my mom's. Her theme is the Seasons, and I believe I get to do summer. I've got one little bit of an idea for one page, so need to flesh it out and come up with a second page idea, too ... here we go again ...

Art with a "flourish"

Finally got the next set of pages done on the round robin I'm working on. This artist's theme is "flourish" ... I immediately knew what I wanted to do on the first page, but it was much harder to come up with an idea for a second page. But it's done and already sent on to my mom ... can't wait to see how she interprets the theme!For the left page, I used the technique I learned from Laura Wasilowski a couple years back ... I even used the scraps I had leftover from that class to make the flowers on this piece. For the right page, I fussy cut some designs from a fat quarter I had in my stash, and paired them with some fuzzy ribbon I got off the free table at quilt guild a couple of weeks ago. I embellished both pages with some embroidery, too. Glad they're finally done!

Now onto the next set ... the theme is "Matisse" ... this should be interesting ....

Happy Crocheted Valentine's Day!

With my latest obsession for all things crocheted, I just had to crochet a little something for my girls for Valentine's Day! I whipped up these little bags last night based on a pic I saw on Crochetville a couple weeks ago. (Wouldn't you know it? While searching for the link to that pic, I find that there's a free pattern ... could've saved myself some time ... {{sigh}} ...) They didn't turn out at all like I'd pictured (I've got to learn how to do an oval base), but I am pleased with the finished projects nonetheless.
Yes, those are new toothbrushes ... we are fanatics about brushing around here ever since my younger daughter had to have tooth work done just a month before her second birthday. And, no, it wasn't because of lots of candy ... we didn't give our kids anything sugary for the first two years. The dentist said she has very aggressive saliva ... I'd never heard of that before, but it has sure changed our brushing habits! Anyways, they now get new toothbrushes for just about every holiday ... great excuse, huh? LOL! But don't worry, we're not heartless ... there are some cute M&M containers in the bags and some heart-shaped brownies in the fridge ...

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Altered Art Book Page Thingy

I'm not exactly sure what to call this ... a group of ladies, including my mom, are doing a round robin where we prepare blank pages for each other to decorate according to our chosen themes. Should be fun!

I chose the theme "Opposites Attract" ... I want each of the other 3 ladies to make 2 pages that each represent 2 opposites. I started the ball rolling with the opposites of chaos and order:
I can't wait to see what the others do with their 2 pages! I sent these to my mom a couple of weeks ago and she's already done with her pages and has sent it on to the next lady. So exciting! When we get our respective pages back, we plan to put them together into some sort of accordian book that stands up ... not sure yet just how I'll do that, but I'm not going to worry about it until I need to LOL!

For now, I just need to concentrate on the theme of the pages I'm working on now ... "flourish". I've got a few ideas brewing, so just need to sit down and start actually doing something about it!

Crocheted stockings

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was already looking ahead to Christmas 2008, at least as far as new Christmas stockings for the whole family. Well, I'm happy to say that I got further than just looking ahead and actually made them! I used this pattern (note: you might have to sign up for free in order to see it). I made a few minor adjustments, such as making it longer from top to heel, working the toe differently to avoid having to sew more seams than necessary, and doing only six rows for the cuff (I used a thicker eyelash yarn so six was plenty!). What do you think?



I'm very pleased with how they came out ... now I can't wait until next Christmas so I can try them out LOL!

My first thread crochet project

I've been having fun lately exploring the Crochetville website (if you love to crochet or want to learn how, check it out ... it's a great place to meet others and exchange patterns and ideas). One area is for show-and-tell, with various categories such as home decor, accessories, babies and thread crochet. Browsing the thread crochet category reminded me of my first (and only) thread crochet project ... a filet crochet design that I made for my mom so long ago that I can't remember when (late '80s or early '90s, I think). When I visited my mom last year (she's in Florida), I took pics of it hanging in the guest room and they've been sitting on my computer ever since. Seeing all the pretty projects at Crochetville made me want to share my own thread crochet project, so here it is:I really enjoyed making it, watching the pattern emerge as I hooked ... maybe someday I'll try another thread crochet project ....

Final Christmas gift post ... I promise LOL!

Finally, the last of the Christmas gifts have been given and opened so I can now share the remaining projects ... I thought there was only one last homemade gift, but I forgot two others. The first one was an apron I made for my sil in red and cream:She has her kitchen decorated with red apples, so I thought this would fit right in! I got the pattern out of The Apron Book. It was a very simple pattern and I love the way it fits. I also made one for myself and one for my stepmom, both using a Christmas cardinal fabric:









And the final present is something I totally made up ... I call it a "Trump Holder":My grandparents play a lot of Pinochle and I try to squeeze in a game or two with them once or twice a month. Sometimes in the middle of a hand, we're asking each other "What's trump now?" LOL! So I came up with this little gadget to remind us. I hope it gets lots of use!

What I gave for Christmas

Now that most of the Christmas presents have been opened, I can show you all but one thing I made (my side of the family is getting together New Year's Day for our Christmas celebration, so there's one gift I can't share just yet).

For my mom, I made a ripple afghan just like the ones I made for Emily and Abby, only bigger:











Then I made ripple scarves (just five rows of a ripple afghan pattern ... quick and easy!) for my mil (blue and pastels), sil (orange and green) and niece (black and pink):







For my other sil, who lives in Florida so has no need for a scarf, I made some nesting bowls:










I had so much fun making and giving these gifts! Now I'm thinking about some stuff for next Christmas, starting with new Christmas stockings for all 4 of us. I need to start on them now because I know what a bad procrastinator I am ... if I don't start now, I'll find myself this time next year saying I wish I'd made those stockings LOL! So I thought I'd try to make them now and then I can put them away with the Christmas decorations and not have to think about it anymore ... we'll see how that goes ....

My girls' painted ornaments for 2007

I'm lousy when it comes to painting pretty pictures ... I can slather paint all over a page and make a cool background, but to make an actual picture, no way LOL! But my mil is an amazing artist ... she paints designs on ornaments and they sell like hotcakes. And, lucky for us, she started a tradition ... as soon as my girls were old enough to hold a paintbrush (and do more than just stick it in their mouth, of course LOL!), she had them paint an ornament every year at Christmas. And this year was no different ... yesterday, they painted these masterpieces:

The brown bear angel was done by my 9 1/2 yo dd Emily, and the pink bear angel was done by my 5 3/4 yo dd Abby. Aren't they fabulous?! And they are done completely by them with no help from grandma at all ... really! The girls tell her what they want to paint, and then she paints one with them ... she does a step on her ornament, then the girls copy her on their own. It's neat to see the improvement from year to year. Maybe after the holidays I'll take pics of their past years' ornaments as I take them off the tree and post them ... they really are amazing!

A sneak peek under the Christmas tree

I've been spending my free time working on various Christmas gifts, mostly crochet, but also a sewing project or two. While I can't post any pics of the completed gifts yet (definitely don't want to spoil the surprise LOL!), here are pics of some of the things I've been playing with:




















I'll post pics of the completed projects as soon as I can. In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Crocheting at the speed of light (well, almost!)

Wow! Can't believe I got this second ripple done even faster than the last one! This one took me only 13 days ... no wonder my fingers and wrists are tired LOL! But it was worth it. Abby loves it! I finished it last night after the girls were in bed and while dh and I watched a movie ... she woke up this morning with it tucked in around her. Fun!

I think I got this done so fast because I was enjoying watching the stripe pattern emerge. Can you see how the pink sections alternate between skinny and fat stripes? That's because when I worked up a sample to see whether I wanted to do 1 light pink row on each side of the dark pink or 2, I liked how the sample looked with both. That's what I love about the ripple ... it's an easy pattern that you can do so much with just by varying the colors and/or the number of rows done between color changes.

Now I want to make a bigger one for myself. The yarn is on sale again this week (Hobby Lobby, 99 cents ... love it!), so I took some time to play around with color combos so I could figure out how much I need and get it at that price. I'm thinking of using these colors. I was able to get what I need of the dark blue, green and purple, but they didn't have any of the light blue ... even got dh to stop at another Hobby Lobby on the way home from work Wednesday, but they didn't have any either. Shucks! Not sure what I'm going to do now ... might have to wait until it goes on sale again and hope they have it then. I think it goes on sale every 2 or 3 months, so we shall see. Or maybe I will try a different color combination ... I'll have to think about that for a bit. In the meantime, I'll just have to work on something else ... don't you just hate that?! LOL! But I'm sure I can find something in my studio to work on ....

Finished a crochet project in record time!

Yay! A finished project!! It took me only 4 weeks to go from this to this:




Love it! And as you can see here, my 9yo dd loves it, too!





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!

A Christmas song collage

My church's upcoming art gallery is "Favorite Christmas Songs" ... each artist will depict a Christmas song in whatever art medium they choose, and the viewers can try to guess what song each piece of art represents. I finished my piece today ... a multi-media collage on canvas board. Can you guess what song it is?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?

Finished an old crochet project

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.

Now, it didn't take me all this time to work on it ... no, really! What happened is that I had only bought one skein of each (they're big skeins with 853 yards each) ... I figured that'd be enough, wouldn't 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.)

But, finally, a skein was found! My good friend and crochet-buddy, Dana, had also been keeping an eye out for the elusive skein whenever she visited a JoAnn's and she found one for me a couple weeks ago at a JoAnn's near her mom's house. So, it's finally finished ... yay! I call it my Tigerlily afghan, because the colors make me think of them. Sorry I can't get a really good picture of it ... there's no good place to lay it out where I can get a decent angle on it. It's roughly 55" square. But you can see that my youngest is happy with it LOL! I'm going to have to finish the ripple afghan soon (yes, I was able to get a replacement hook) so that my girls each have one to curl up in ... don't want no fightin'!!

It's time to get moving

My latest journal page: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 ....

Oh, no! My poor crochet hook!!

I've been working on my newest project ... and loving it to pieces, literally! Last night I was going to town on it while the kids were at Awana, and my darn crochet hook snapped in half, yikes! I still had about 20 minutes before the kids were done, so I limped along with my little 2 inch hook and got through almost a whole row's worth. Not easy LOL! So a trip to Hobby Lobby is in my near future. This crochet hook was part of a set of 5 hooks, so I'm hoping they also sell them individually ... I do NOT want to have to buy a whole set if I can help it (but, just in case, I've got this week's coupon printed out and ready to go). In the meantime, here's how far I've gotten:

Uh oh, a new crochet project ...

Yup, started another project ... I know I shouldn't, but I just couldn't resist! I bought some yummy yarn in a variety of colors when it was on sale at Hobby Lobby a few months back, but had yet to pick a project for them. After seeing all kinds of ripple afghans all over the net, I just had to start one ... Hanna's yummy pics were the last straw LOL! I've got 11 different colorways of this yarn (hey, it was an awesome deal!) and, after much deliberation, I settled on an orange and blue combo. Here's a pic of the four yarns I'm going to use, as well as my gauge sample: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 ....

Tonight's art journal pages

Tonight, while waiting to pick up my girls from Awana, I journaled. The first page is about a visit to the Shedd Aquarium back in August (I actually did the background a couple days after we visited, but never got around to jotting down the details). This is also my answer to Blissfully_Art_Journaling's theme #1, favorite animal.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.