A quickly sketched girl in orange pencil - drawn after watching a Jane Davenport video - Jane is pretty amazing!!
Linking to Sunday Sketches,
Creative Every Day, and
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Folk Art Girl. . .
"Caroline Blushed"
She is blushing because she just got a well-deserved compliment on her stitching skills. Doesn't she strike you as the type that would spend her free time working on cross-stitch or perhaps a sampler?
Linking to Paint Party Friday,
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Citrus Sugar
Have you ever used infused sugar? I had heard of it but never thought to make it myself until I ran across this post last week and just had to give it a try.
Used the trusty Microplane to zest the fruit. The skin that got microplaned from the back of my thumb did NOT make it into my sugar. . .
Look at the lovely fragrant piles of zest! My kitchen smelled splendid!
Once it dried overnight and was diced up a bit the zest easily fit into two tiny bowls.
I put 2 Tablespoons of zest per one cup of sugar. BTW - If you, like me, think that it would be so cute to cover the top of your jar lids with chalkboard paint (first prime with metal primer and then add 5 thin coats of paint) - it is seriously not worth the trouble. Managed to scrape off part of the paint despite all my precautions - aarrgghh!! The sugar should be ready to use in about two weeks.
Linking to Creative Every Day
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Watercolored Poppy
This page is a hybrid - a combination of art that has been created by hand and then scanned into the computer and manipulated to change its appearance.
The scan seems to have darkened the poppy - it is more vibrant in real life.
Sketched with pencil and then ink (wait until your pen is completely dry before erasing your preliminary pencil lines!!! - I learned that the hard way!). Various watercolors of red were added. Some splashes of India ink and a few white highlights finish up this flower.
After scanning into the computer I added the black outline and the great quote from Eleanor Roosevelt.
Linking to Paint Party Friday,
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Her hidden showgirl. . .
she was flaunting her hidden showgirl
This girl is an ATC that had been hanging out in the cabinet for a while now - how rude of me to have completely forgotten about her! Tossed her on the counter on top of a page that had some ink sketched leaves and a pencil girl - turned out that I thought the leaves looked better on the ATC girl
so I cut them out and made a showgirl! This gal might not be as colorful or flashy as most showgirls but I still think she would stand out in a crowd!
Linking to Art Journal Every Day,
Sunday, September 8, 2013
The return to knitting: A cautionary tale
It had been at least 25 years since I had knitted. Not that I was ever any amazing knitter, mind you, but still I had made my share of scarves back in the day (and 3/4 of a sweater). Nowadays the very best dishcloths are knitted or crocheted from cotton yarn and my mom has stocked my kitchen with a variety of them (Love them all - THANKS MOM!!) It was time for me to try my hand at making some as gifts so I dove in last Friday night with gusto - knitted 7 straight hours that day followed by 3 hours the following morning. The knitting groove came right back to me - I was on fire - it all seemed like a great idea until later that afternoon. . .
I was in agony - chronic pain from my shoulders through down to my fingertips. Normally, I can handle pain (I gave birth naturally to our second son. Quote from my MIL - "You didn't cuss - not even once!!") but this was different. I got a massage from one of those guys in a chair in the middle of the mall in hopes that it would help my pain and it worked!! He made my neck and back hurt as much if not more than my arms!! The evening involved painkillers, Bengay applied down the length of the inside of my arms and eventually the cold wrap on both arms from wrists to elbows leaving me with mummy arms! BTW - Did I mention that it was our anniversary weekend and I spoiled our "alone time" by breaking myself??!!
Public Service Announcement - If I can keep even one knitter from suffering these same injuries and depriving their husband of an enjoyable kidfree weekend than the sharing of my tale of woe will be worth it. . . Sunday I limited myself to 30 minute stretches of knitting followed by 30 minutes of rest. I am now fully recovered but itching to start knitting again - I will try to use some balance this time around. . . LOL!!
Linking to Creative Every Day
Did you know that Interweave has announced a blog contest?? It was serendipitous that I had posted about my return to knitting but you should seriously think about posting about your knitting project on your blog! You could win up to $200 worth of merchandise from their amazing online store. If I were to win I'd indulge in some fabulous mixed-media goodies including: Inktense Pencils, Inktense Blocks and classes like Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's All About Faces and Jane Davenport's The Whimsical Face. Drawing girls makes me happy and Interweave has gobs of merchandise to facilitate that love!
If you enter leave me a comment - I'd love to see your project!
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Illustration Friday - LUSH
A disheveled appearance belied her joy at the copious production of mica from her previously defunct mine.
I've had this collection of mica flakes for a while now but kept forgetting to use them. Previously, I planned on using it for her hair but then decided what could be more LUSH than a fully functioning mica mine? (YUP - my idea of lush is different than most peoples', LOL)
Linking to Art Journal Every Day,
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