More class pages

Here are some more pages from the class:

An Online Art Journaling Class

Recently I mentioned an online course I took to learn more techniques for art journaling. It's called "Love This Journal: Become an Art Journaling Diva in 21 Days". The instructor, Jessica, presents you with daily videos showing new techniques and ideas for playing in your art journal. She also includes lots of tips on how to draw things so that they are recognizable (this is a great class for people who don't think they can draw at all ... I learned so much!) I can't show all the pages we did, because many of them would reveal too much of the class, but I do have permission to show these pages (Blogger is being a little finicky today, so I will post more pages in another post). If you're interested in trying the class yourself, hurry and sign up ... the next session starts today! You won't be disappointed!Another great feature of the class is that at the end, Jessica provides a link for a Yahoo group for "graduates" where they can continue to share pages. The participants of this exclusive group also challenge each other with fun prompts. I did one recently that I will show you later. It's one of my favorite pages to date!

Currently, I'm taking Jessica's level 2 course, which students are welcome to take after level 1 if they'd like. This is the first week and I've already learned some great tricks! When I've finished the class (in about 5 weeks), I'll post some pics.

I hate bullies!

Recently a new family moved in several houses down, including two daughters. My girls were so excited ... new kids to play with! Well, they met the girls the other day ... a few minutes talking, and next thing I know, my 6 yo comes to me, crying. Turns out, these girls are calling my girls "stupid" every time they ride by on their bikes. If you're a parent, I'm sure you can imagine the anger ... no, the rage that welled up in me. When my 9 yo rode by, I stopped her and asked her take on the situation. She didn't know why they were doing it either. No tears, but I could tell it really upset her. I was so tempted to march down there and wring their little necks ... not a very Christian response, but there it is.

My girls still wanted to ride their bikes, so I told them to stay on our end of the block. But they kept riding their usual route, and so I got to actually witness them making snide remarks as my 6 yo rode by. I stepped to the middle of the sidewalk and glared at them, but I felt helpless ... what should I do? March down and yell at them? Tell my girls to stay close to home? Let them work it out amongst themselves? I want to be a good example to my girls about how to deal with others ... but in this situation, what does that look like? Well, I decided to wait and see what would happen next. And every time one of my girls was going by them, I walked to the middle of the sidewalk and watched them. The other girls obviously saw me, because they kept looking at me and then looking away, trying to pretend they didn't see me.

When it was time to go in for dinner, my girls were standing in front of their house, talking to them. A good sign? Not sure ... so instead of just calling them to come for dinner, I walked down to get them. When I got close, I asked the older girl her name, then asked her why she was calling my kids "stupid". She denied it at first, but when I told her I had heard her, she said something like, "Well, they said they wouldn't come in my house to play." Hello?! We don't know you!! My girls know they are not allowed in anyone's house when we don't know the parents very well. I don't remember everything I said, but I tried to be calm (my girls were watching me with eagle eyes after all). I told them my girls were not allowed to play at their house, but that they were welcome (with their parents' permission) to come play in our yard ... but only if they played nice. They would be sent home immediately if the name calling started again. (I must confess, I dread that first day when they show up to play ... luckily it's been rainy since then, so I haven't had to deal with it ... am I pathetic or what?)

This whole incident bugged me for the rest of the day and into the night (memories from my own childhood surfacing here). The next morning, I did this page in my journal.

Prepaid Postcard Art on Flickr

Have you seen this?! How cool, a new artform LOL! You simply take one of those pesky postcards that you find falling out of magazines (the business reply envelopes in your everyday junk mail would work, too) and turn it into a piece of artwork. Only rule is that you can't obliterate the markings on the card/envelope ... instead you try to incorporate it into the artwork. Some of the artwork is simply fabulous! I've done these 3 so far (you can also see them here). And lucky me (though not lucky for my sick dd), we went to the doctor's office the other day ... jackpot! Got almost a dozen cards to work on.

Warning: Very addicting!!

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 ....