February’s Square Project

Perhaps you remember, January’s Square Project?  I am adding a section of paper collaged squares and circles each month to complete a challenge I made for myself.

Well, I had to add a little stitching to January’s section with my sewing machine, not sure that it helps but it was super fun to stitch on paper:

February’s section is less busy… phew! 😉

I used two methods I learned from Carla Sonheim’s 365 class, the scraping paint technique and text collage.  I like to take her instructions as a starting point and then take them a step further to make them my own.

Below are my notes in my art journal (please excuse the chicken scratch and word misspellings):

My completed section for February:

I think it looks so pretty, how about you?

What I liked about February’s experiments:

I haven’t had much time to pursue creating fabrics with my designs… life has been busy.  I still want to do this but looks like it will be later in the year.

I am excited to see what ideas will inspire me for March.

Cheers! 🙂

Swedish Tracing Paper

I was dying tissue paper yesterday for an online class I’m taking… I will share more about the class in another post.  I was using colored India ink to create this one on tissue paper:

I decided to try this experiment using Swedish Tracing Paper.  I previously purchased a roll from Amazon for $16.07 for another online class last year.  It feels a lot like interfacing and is sewable…

I had a piece that I previously had sewed on so I experimented by spritzing it with water and adding India inks then folding it to create a pattern:

I just love the richness of this!!

It was so saturated with inks that I grabbed some sheets of deli paper to see what ink it would soak up.  And I was excited to see that it transferred the color and the stitching to the deli paper:

And I got two additional prints on deli paper:

 

I wonder what would happen if I sewed a pattern with the thread?

More experimenting ahead!!

Cheers! 🙂

Hot And Cold

My sister-in-law made us these beautiful potholders that arrived in the mail yesterday… just because! ❤️  A wonderful surprise. 🙂

 

I just love the colors and patterns and stitching… I’m not sure I can use them for hot foods as they are too pretty!

And speaking of cold… we woke-up to 8 inches of new snow yesterday morning! 😮

I guess winter isn’t done with us in the Pacific Northwest.  Time to make a homemade pot of hot soup on a cold day!

Cheers! 🙂

Sea Art

I drew this Sea Urchin shell over my handwriting in the post I recently showed you here:  Your Handwriting As Art – Part 1  I used pencil, white gel pen, watercolor pencils and a black Micron pen:

This art sparked an idea to create these hearts:

I sewed them together with thread on my sewing machine.

I plan to write a short note on the back and give it to a friend.

What sparks your creativity?

Cheers! 🙂

And The Materials Are…

I wanted to show you the collage materials that went into making my weird bird from yesterday:

Did you guess ALL 10 materials?  Well, if not, let me help you out!

1.  I started my bird collage with a word from this children’s dictionary for my bird’s body.  It started me thinking about a sewing theme.

2.  I altered pages from this old sewing book with acrylics before using it as part of the bird’s tail and nest materials.

3.  I color copied a doodle I did previously and cut it up for my bird’s hat.

4.  I used my gelli-printed deli papers for my bird’s head, wing and nest materials.

5.  A paint sample card for the bird’s eye but I didn’t like the yellow color so I turned it over and used the other side with the bar code!

6.  An old button was perfect for the top of the hat.

7.  A sequin for the eye.

8.  Old sheet music that I gelli-printed for the base of the nest.

9.  Swedish Tracing Paper that I had gelli-printed a feather stencil – this tracing paper feels more like a fabric.  It is a super fun material to collage with BTW!  I think I purchased it on Amazon.  It comes in a large roll.  I used it under the bird’s body for the nest.

10.  Tissue from an old dress pattern was used over the sheet music for the nest – a fun element of surprise. 😉

I usually use a glue stick to glue everything down and outline my bird with pencil to give it a little dimension.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the FUN I put into this BEST Dressed Bird!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Sew It Seams…

Some days I’m “drawn” to words in the dictionary to create a weird bird.  I often have no idea what I’m going to create and for me this is really fun!  😉

Sew it seams was the case for the Dressmaker bird:

If a bird could design a dress, do you think they would use the feather stitch?

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

 

 

Relax!

It was “rewarding” to complete a page in my Alphabet Journal this week…

But then I “realized” that there was something missing! 😮

“R” you wondering WHAT that is?!

Well, while I was preparing for my weekend “retreat” at the lake, I discovered a “remarkable” feather…. so I got out my bird feather book:

And in my “research” I discovered the identity of the “Rare” bird from Wednesday:

I hope this gives you a smile today!  🙂

Relax and enjoy your weekend…

Cheers Friends!

“R” Is For Rest And…

I have been taking a little blogging break to rest and recover from a recent car accident where I was rear-ended.

I needed this time to heal my body and recover from the trauma.  Although I’m still not fully recovered, I am starting to feel better so I returned to work today.

Yesterday, I realized that it would be fun to complete a page in my Alphabet Journal that I started in 2016… Why not create a page of “R‘s” that I add to each day this week?

Really, I could do this!  So here is my beginning in a 11×14 inch journal:

I drew the flowers on a separate  piece of lightweight paper in pencil.  I darkened the lines with color pencil.  I stitched over the flowers using “Sewable Swedish Tracing Paper” that I purchased on Amazon for one of my online classes and previously painted in watercolor.

The flower stems were cut from purchased handmade paper that I also painted with watercolor.  I attached the flowers and stems with dark green thread on my sewing machine and then glued the paper to my journal:

I finished my piece by adding details with color pencil.

It was fun to experiment and I look forward to seeing where tomorrow’s reflection will take me.  I hope you join me!

Cheers! 🙂

It’s A New Day

Remember the art tote bag that I showed you last week?  Well, I figured out how to patch the holes!  I also added color to the bag!  (You all know how much I like color!)

Isn’t it totally wild?!  🙂  I printed it with Golden Fluid acrylic paints on my Gelli plate yesterday.  I covered the holes with circles I cut from deli-printed gelli prints:

I used a stencil to cut out the colored circles and ironed on a fusible web stabilizer to the papers.  I then sewed the papers over the holes on the bag.  It was a bit tricky to sew so my lines aren’t too straight.  I may finish the edges with hand stitching – I haven’t decided yet.

On the other side of my bag, I sewed 3 colored circles:

I like the colors on this side best!  I used stencils and Spirograph circles to make my patterns with my gelli plate.

I think my art tote bag looks so much better now.   I’d love to know what you think!

Happy Creating!  🙂

A New Variety

I decided to try drawing with thread today:

It is a pear stitched with variegated thread on black felt using my sewing machine.

As I started stitching it, I got the idea to try stitching deli-printed gelli prints over the felt.  The above pear is actually the back side of my experiment:

Since I was using black as my background, I used yellow colored paper for my shadow.  It looks rather Halloweenie, don’t you think?!

This whole experiment started from my sketchbook this morning:

As part of my assignment for week 2 with Cat Bennett for “Sketchbooks: Making Art A Practice.”   I loved how the lines looked for the blind contour.  I only looked at the pear and not my paper while I drew it.  This gave me the idea of stitching with thread.

I hope you aren’t tired of pears yet!  I found a list of 10 varieties in the USA online:  Green Anjou, Red Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Bartlett, Red Bartlett, Concorde, Seckel, Forelle and Starkrimson.  Some I had never heard of!

Happy Experimenting!  🙂