ATC Swap

March

This month's ATC Swap had to have a flower or flowers and the theme was "Spring"

Here I made made a banner using black cardstock.  I took a toothpick, wrapped wire around it,  and glued the two together on the ATC, giving the appearance that it is hanging.  I punched out the flowers adding rhinestones to the center.  Added some words, and there you have it.

I took the "Spring Thing" literally and added a spring to one of the flowers, making it a little more dimensional.

Next month's theme?  It has to have a flold.

Art on 30th

8 Objects 8 Ways

A few weeks back I took an art class with Jane LaFazio called "8 Objects 8 Ways" in San Diego, CA.  The class was held at the studio Art on 30th.  This class was so much fun and I learned a lot in the process.

#1 was to draw an object using just a pencil.  You can see my poor attempt at drawing a sea shell.  I chose this because I thought it would be the easiest, but it turned out it was the hardest.

#2 were the berries.  We drew it in pencil first and then went over it with a water soluble pencil. Then we went back in with a waterbrush and lightly shaded. I thought those little berries turned out really cute

#3 was the pear.  Drew in pencil first, went over it with permanent ink and then watercolored the object.  I think I could have done better.

#4 we used pencil only and then watercolor.  I think this was my best one one.  It looks realistic to me.

#5 was the object in the lower right hand corner.  Using a pen only, I did a contour drawing of some sort of a succulent.  I don't know what kind it is.

#6 was drawing an image on a book page with ink and then watercoloring it in.  Once it was dray, we glued it onto our mixed media paper.

#7 is the lower middle section.  We did a light wash of color and then drew in another object once the watercolor was was dry.  We were suppose to then add additional color to our drawing, but I ran out of time.

#8 was drawing with a tombow maker, which is water soluble, then go over the drawing with a water brush lightly coloring and shading it in.

And there you have it!

Objects 8 Ways

Alcohol Inks

Playing Around with Alcohol

This past weekend, I took a class at Piecemaker's Country Store in Costa Mesa, CA with Danna Phelan.

We were given a couple of piece of Yupo paper to practice on before we got started on our tiles.  Then we were set free to play and create to our hearts content.  These are regular tiles that you get at Home Depot.

Here are the first four tiles I created.   The flowers in the lower right hand corner was the first tile I made.  To me they look like little baby cabbages.  Next was the landscape in the upper right hand corner.  The forest in the lower left hand corner was next and last, but not least, the fuchsia flower in the upper left hand corner.

You have to understand, Alcohol Inks do not like to be controlled.  Creating with them is a hit and miss. They like to flow and go where "they" want, but with a little bit of coaxing, you can manage them into submission.

Here are some additional tiles we got to experiment and play with.  The two outer tiles were about 2" X 2" and smaller tiles were about 1" X 1".  The one on the right is a mini landscape the small 1" X 1" tile on the left is a mini, mini landscape.  I had fun experimenting and seeing how small I could go.  Pretty small I would say.

If you have never played around with Alcohol Inks, you are surely missing out.

Paper Flowers

Beautiful!

A couple of weeks ago, I took a class at Hobby Lobby on how to make paper flowers.

The one on the left measures about 18" across and the one on the right measures about 14" across.  

The instructor who taught, made the class so much fun and the flowers were not hard to make.

A few weeks back I posted a paper quilt using my painted papers.  

I used some of the those papers to make this flower.

This flower was made with the supplies the instructor had for us.  The class included everything to make the white flowers; templates, paper, and even glue sticks.  I brought my painted papers to use for the other flower.  

Wouldn't these flowers be so much fun to make for a DIY wedding or prom?  

How about a backdrop for photos?  So many possibilities for these flowers.  

How do you think you would use these flowers?

Calendars 2017

March

Did you know that March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian Calendars?

Did you know the name of March comes from the Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar?

Did you know it was named for Mars, the Roman god of War?

Did you know that it is the second month to have a length of 31 days?

Did you know that on the 20th or 21st (depending) marks the beginning of Spring?

Did you know March's birthstones are the "aquamarine and bloodstone?"

Did you know the birth flower is the daffodil?

Did you know the signs for the month of March are Pisces (until March 20)?

Did you know March is Women's History Month?

Did you know March is National Celery, Frozen Food and National Reading Awareness Month?

Did you know March 1st is National Peanut Butter Day and National Pig Day?

Did you know March 2nd is National Banana Creme Pie Day?

Did you know March 9th is National Crabmeat Day, National Meatball Day and in the United Kingdom it is No Smoking day?

Did you know March 11th is Johnny Appleseed Day? 

Did you know March 17th is St. Patrick's Day?  Of course you did.

Did you know March 20th is Extraterrestrial Abduction Day?

Did you know March 26th is Pretzel Sunday in Luxembourg?

Did you know March 30th is National Doctors' Day?

Did you know that March is my Birth Month?  Well it is.