23 Monday Apr 2012
She’s turning four soon. Today I made the first ballerina that will twirl from the banner for her birthday party. The directions were in the 2011 November/December issue of Marie Claire Idees magazine, my favorite craft magazine, even though I can’t read French.
Paper ballerina - made from card stock, a piece of honeycomb bell and pink glitter.
22 Sunday Apr 2012
That’s what she said when she first walked through the door.
“Grandma, can we do messy crafts? Please? We can do messy crafts!” she said as she showed me her new tunic. The outfit was cute but she liked it best because she was allowed to do messy crafts with it.
“Like what?” I asked her. I had no idea what a “messy craft” was.
“Painting!” she said with a huge smile.
I really didn’t have time or energy to get out paints. We had only painted together once or twice.
“Here, I will show you my new pencils!” I told her.
“NO,” she moaned. “Messy crafts! Painting. Can we paint? We have to paint!”
“Here,” I said as I got out my Stabilo Aquarellable pencils. She showed no interest until I quickly added “First you draw with them and then you paint them with water!”
“Yes!” she said with excitement.
She didn’t understand the concept at first but with my instruction, she carefully scribbled a little splotch of red next to blue with the pencils. She scribbled yellow next to blue, red next to yellow, green next to red. When the paper was covered with little bits of scribbled yellow, blue, green, red and orange, we got out the paintbrush. When the brush first touched the blue scratch marks and burst into a wash of color, she looked up at me with absolute wonder and delight.
We turned to the next page and I drew flowers for her to color, which she carefully painted with the damp brush.
I will remember this delightful rainy Sunday with its color-splashed joy.
Mixing colors on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
21 Saturday Apr 2012
In February 2006, we planted 15 rose bushes from David Austin Roses. I used to keep a blog about the gardening adventure. Alas, a couple years ago someone mistakenly covered the rose bushes with pine straw instead of mulch when I was out of town and the acid that winter killed over half. I was devastated and quit keeping the blog. But some of the roses made it through and are now doing wonderfully!
The first roses - Miss Alice and Golden Celebration planted in barrels, not yet bloomed New Dawn climbing up around the kitchen window.
The pale pink colored Miss Alice is in a large barrel, as is Golden Celebration. The beautiful New Dawn, covered with buds, has yet to bloom. The New Dawn rose is planted down in the ground at the base of the stairs. It grew all the way up the deck stairs and across my kitchen window and is reaching for the back door, over 40 feet long in all. When the roses bloom, I will be able to open the kitchen window and smell roses while doing the dishes. :) Is that cool or what.
Golden Celebration Roses and New Dawn buds outside my kitchen window on the second floor.
If you’re interested, you can read some of my old gardening blog at The Rose Adventure. I no longer keep it up and some day it might disappear. For now, I’m rather fond of the memory of those years.
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Tags
calligraphy, craft, map, maps, mixed media, printing, tissue paper, tutorial
I am making my first piece of mixed media art and wanted to use printed tissue paper in the background. I took quite a gamble using my new printer because any time you play around with something like this, it’s possible to void the warranty. Despite that risk, I did it anyway.
The design I used was from a class I took by Jeanne Oliver. She’s an amazing teacher and if you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, do it! When I get my piece done from her class I will post a photo of it.
I ironed a sheet of tissue paper to a sheet of freezer paper, with the shiny plastic side of freezer paper against the tissue paper.
The paper was loaded as usual and printed with settings for a regular sheet of paper.
The printer didn’t jam, even while printing over the wrinkles.
Tissue paper ironed to a piece of freezer paper prints beautifully with the ink jet printer.
Tissue paper is carefully peeled off the freezer paper after printing.
The same piece of freezer paper can be used three or four times. I made the mistake the first time of thoroughly ironing the tissue to the freezer paper. It was impossible to remove the tissue after printing without tearing. I had to use the iron to melt the plastic holding the tissue to the freezer wrap.
If the tissue sticks too much, the tissue side is held carefully against the hot iron edge to melt the plastic that adheres the two pieces together. Tissue and freezer paper are peeled apart.
The first tissue print was a bit lighter than I wanted. I removed most of the background color of the file and increased the contrast in photoshop.
The sheet printed with isolated text layer in photoshop printed crisp and dark.
These maps printed on tissue paper are from scans taken from a 1935 World Atlas.
My favorite of all - my sister Donna's beautiful calligraphy of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
I’m using a Canon Pixma MX882 printer. The printed tissue paper stood up well when placed on a surface brushed with matte medium and then brushed over with more matte medium.
14 Saturday Apr 2012
Normally I don’t eat much of the Easter candy. One reason is it belongs to the boys. What kind of mother would I be if I took candy from my children’s baskets?
… um…
… licking my lips …
… never mind that question.
Anyway, I never touch the peeps. But this year we found a new peep – Chocolate Mousse dipped in Dark Chocolate.
Oh my, what a surprise! It tastes exactly like a cup of delicious hot chocolate, complete with melty little marshmallows floating on top! We only bought a couple not knowing if they would be any good. Seriously, I could eat a whole package of these.
Tonight’s dessert is – the last Chocolate Mousse Peep.
Delicious Chocolate Mousse Peep
11 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted in art, drawing, Inspirational
Tags
art, drawing, hands, inspirational, paper, rock paper scissors, scissors
I’m taking an art course online, Make Something Beautiful, taught by Teresa Sheeley and Kayla Johnson. I was a little nervous about it because we will be drawing people, you know the real live ones. I’ve never drawn living tissue in my life! So last night, I finally attempted the assignment of drawing my hand. I could barely sleep from excitement last night. I’ve never tried drawing anything so detailed. And living!
Rock, Paper, Scissors - Simple drawings of my left hand - click photo to see a larger image
I’ve often told people they have hidden talents. It never occurred to me that I might have one. Really, I’m in my mid 50’s. How hidden can something be at my age? ;) You never know until you try. And the only reason I’ve never tried is I expected to fail. Decades of expecting to fail at drawing. Until last night and then I found out I didn’t fail. So decades were wasted.
My last thought last night was this:
If God makes you a songbird, SING.
If God makes you an artist, MAKE THINGS.
Whatever gifts you have inside, find them and use them. They won’t go away, they are waiting for you. Even for decades.
08 Sunday Apr 2012
Tags
crafts, decorated eggs, Easter, Easter eggs, Easter eggs with words, eggs, funny, humor, words
The egg decorating kit looked spiffy, with pretty colors and cute rub-on decals of chicks, eggs and bunnies. But the decals didn’t stick at all. Not happy there. But we don’t give up easy so we rummaged around in my little box of scrapbook stickers and found a couple old sheets of rub-on decals from Valentine’s Day years ago. We had to think like an egg in order to figure out which words might work on an egg. Quite the stretch. Here are our eggs, which we put all in one basket.
Easter Eggs 2012, decorated with rub-on decals - click to see a larger image.
My personal favorites?
“Most embarrassing moment” on a cracked egg.
Also the egg with “And so the story goes…” Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The egg of course.
Easter Eggs 2012 with words - decorated with rub-on word decals. And so the story goes...
07 Saturday Apr 2012
Posted in crafts, Easter, flowers, home decor, miniature
Tags
decorated eggs, Easter, Easter eggs, egg, egg tree, flowers, miniature
Last year I finally had time to make an Easter Egg tree and I’m happy to display it again this year. I’ve been wanting to make one for many years. I have a couple precious decorated eggs left from the tree of my childhood and some day I will restore the eggs and call that tree my Heritage Tree. For now, this Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree will adorn my dining room table.
The tree was from Pottery Barn. The eggs are plastic, cut into little baskets with a craft knife. I made all the hanging plants from bits and pieces of full size artificial plants. The hundreds of tiny leaves were cut out individually with manicure scissors. Crystal beads were glued strategically from the tips of petals and leaves to look like they were freshly washed with a light spring rain. It took several weeks to make these eggs, working on them when I could during evenings last year.
Easter Egg Tree - click photo to see a larger image.
These little hanging plants are made from bits and pieces cut from artificial plants and flowers tucked into plastic eggs. Click on photos to see a larger image.
Egg Tree - The Purple Egg.
Egg Tree - The Spring Green Egg
Egg Tree - The Little Blue Birds Egg
Egg Tree - The Yellow Green Moss Egg
Egg Tree - The Blue Forget-me-not Egg
Egg Tree - The Orange Marigold Egg
Egg Tree - The White Lily-of-the-Valley Egg
Egg Tree - The Pink Peony Egg
Egg Tree - The Yellow Daisy Egg
Egg Tree - The Miniature Pink Rose Egg
06 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
I just love Amy Atlas‘s design style! Her party tables are a feast of deliciousness, both to eat and to look at. I’m looking forward to her new book, Sweet Designs, debuting soon. Her recent Scavenger hunt was a lot of fun and I discovered new websites along the way. Now I just need some excuses to host a party!
Amy Atlas - Sweet Designs
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Today was the first time I ever made eye contact with a cupcake. @_@ These little bunnies sure were sweet with my afternoon tea. The tea was Calendula, by Teaposy. I prefer a sweeter tea with sweets but the jasmine tones complimented the buttery, unsweetened coconut-dusted cupcakes very well.
Mini bunny cupcakes with Teaposy Calendula tea.
All Sparkled Up 