Follow Your Dreams

For the past three days I have been complaining about the cold, rainy weather and wished that it would stop raining. This morning I am reminded of the quote, "Be careful what you wish for you just may get it." It finally stopped raining but the now rain has turned to snow and the snow is covering the ground once again. Oh well, C'est la vie!

I did take advantage of this miserable weather to work on a journal project. I love journaling because it allows me the freedom to experiment with my art. Lately I have been working with mixed-media in an effort to branch out from traditional painting. I decided to use my journal to explore mixed-media. Rather than using a traditional art journal, I am using my Medici Lion journal for my art work. This journal was originally intended for writers not artists and contains lined paper. the only draw back of using paper intended for writing is that the pages will tend to curl if the page gets wet. However the journal is refillable and both Barnes and Noble and Amazon sell sketch books that will fit the leather cover.

I often find journaling difficult. When I stare at the blank pages and wonder where to begin I often think of the quote by Vincent Van Gogh: "Just dash something down if you see a blank canvas staring at you with a certain imbecility. You do not know how paralyzing it is, that staring of a blank canvas which says to the painter: you don't know anything." I painted the pages with a thin coat of light blue acrylic paint and let it dry. Now I had blank blue pages staring at me. I wanted use following your dreams as the theme.

Follow Your Dreams journal entry.

Close up of page.

 

I had read in Sommerset Studio magazine about using modeling paste and stencils as a way of adding texture to art work and decided to incorporate it into my page. I layed the stencil on the pages and covered it with a thin layer of modeling paste. I used a palette (painting) knife to work the modeling paste into the open areas of the stencil and then smoothed the modeling paste across the top of the stencil, scraping off the excess. Think of icing a cake, the process is similar. Remove the stencil and let the modeling  paste dry overnight. Wash the stencil with soap and water immediately, other wise the modeling paste will dry on the stencil making it difficult to remove.

This was a fun project once I got started.  This project would also work well on canvas.

Directions for Follow Your Dreams:

Scraps of colorful scrapbook paper-for balloons
Golden Modeling Paste
Pieces of hemp or string-for balloons and black card stock
Scraps of brown card stock- for balloon basket
Light blue and white acrylic paint
Huey's Masks Circle Mask
Hero Arts French Verse stamp
Brown ink pad
Tim Hotlz's Distress Ink- Shaded Lilac
Small craft sponge
Color Box cats eye ink pads-blue, purple, green and orange
Eiffel Tower die cut
Gold beads
Faber Castell green gelato
Smooch apple green
Painting knife

1.  Paint journal pages with a light coating of light blue acrylic paint. Set aside to dry.

2.  Arrange the Circle mask on the page and apply modeling paste. Work the modeling paste into the open areas of the mask and then smooth the paste over the mask until a thin layer of paste covers the mask. Lift the mask straight up. Repeat on the next page. Wash the mask immediately with soap and water. Let the pages dry overnight.

3.  Randomly stamp the two pages using the cats eye ink pads. Stamp over the raised circles created by the modeling paste.

4.  Apply the brown ink to the French Verse stamp and randomly stamp around the edges of both pages. Lay the Eiffel Tower die cut on the left side of the right page and cover with black water color, thinned to a watery consistency. Work the water color into the open areas of the die cut. While the Eiffel Tower dries, cut balloons out of the scrapbook paper. Cut one large and two small balloons. Cut one large and two small balloon baskets out of the brown card stock. Glue two small pieces of hemp to each balloon and glue the other end to the baskets.

5.  Apply small amounts of white paint to a small craft sponge. Randomly apply the paint to the top of the pages to form clouds. Arrange the balloons on the pages. One large and small balloon on the left page and one small balloon to the right of the Eiffel Tower (on the right page). Glue the balloons in place.

6.  Load a small paintbrush with water and paint across the top of the green Gelato to pick up the green paint on the brush. Paint the green Gelato under the base of the Eiffel Tower. When the paint dries add grass accents with the Smooch paint.

7.  Randomly apply the lilac distress ink to the clouds to give them depth.

8.  Type Follow Your Dreams in Microsoft Word, using the font of your choice, at approximately 36pts. Print the verse on parchment paper and cut out. Mat the verse with black card stock. Glue the verse to the bottom of the left page, below the balloons.

Owl Thank You Card

Owls are my favorite birds and I often use them in my projects. I couldn't resist using this cute little guy as the theme for my thank you card.  I chose a pink and green color scheme for the owl and then centered the rest of the card around those colors. Although this is a thank you card this design could be used for other occasions by simply changing the greeting on the tag.

Directions for Owl Thank you Card:

Cricut Noah's ABC's cartridge
White, cream, light sage green, light pink, olive green, black, kraft paper, tree patterned (La Bella Little Buds) card stock
Self adhesive pink pearls
Small googly eyes
Small self adhesive white pearls
Pink and white dotted ribbon
Darice Border embossing folders-vines and flowers
Spare Parts flowers
Martha Stewart rose leaf paper punch
Small corner rounder paper punch
Cuttlebug Spots and Dots embossing folder
Zots and foam dots


1.  Fold an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of card stock in half to make a half fold card.

2.  Place the Darice Border embossing folder along the upper edge of the card and emboss. Place the embossing folder along the lower edge of the card and emboss.

3.  Using the Noah's ABC's cartridge cut the owl at 2 3/4 inches out of black card stock. Press the shift and owl keys to cut the owl's body out of the pink card stock.  Press the layer and owl keys to cut the owl's face out of cream card stock and then the layer, shift and owl keys to cut the top of the owl's head and wings out of the sage green card stock. Assemble the owl.

4.  Cut a piece of kraft paper colored card stock approximately 1/2 inch larger, on all sides, than the owl. Emboss the card stock using the Spots and Dots embossing folder. Use the corner rounder punch to round the ends of the kraft paper. Attach foam dots to the back of the owl and center the owl on the kraft paper.

5.  Cut the tree patterned card stock approximately 3/4 inch (on all sides) larger than the embossed kraft paper. Attach foam dots to the back of the kraft paper, center on the patterned card stock and press into place.

6.  Cut a backing of sage green card stock approximately 1/4 inch larger, on all sides, than the tree patterned card stock. Apply Zots to the back of the patterned card stock and attach to the green mat that you just cut.

7.  Cut two small pieces of ribbon and glue on piece of ribbon diagonally over the top left and lower right hand corners of the mat. Tie a small bow and glue it to the ribbon in the lower right corner. Stick a pink pearl in each corner of the kraft paper. Stick four small pearls to the front of the owl. Glue googly eyes over the owl's eyes.

8.  Punch two leaves out of the olive green card stock using the rose leaf paper punch. Glue a pink flower to the center of the top embossed border. Glue the leaves under the edge of the flower.

9.  Print thank you on a sheet of cream card stock and cut out in an oval shape. Cut a small tag out of a scrap of the kraft paper and punch a hole in the top end of the tag. Glue the cream oval to the kraft paper tag. Thread a pieces of string or ribbon through the tag and attach the tag to the top of the card using a foam dot.

Marco Island, A Week In Paradise

Snow, snow, snow! It seems like it snows almost every other day and like everyone else, I'm so tired of this weather. Fortunately our friends invited us to spend some time with them on Marco Island, Florida to escape the winter weather. My husband and I bundled up in our wool sweaters and coats and headed for the airport, hopped on a plane and left the winter behind. Marco Island was warm (82 degrees) and beautiful. Every where I went I was inspired by the beauty of the island- sunsets, beach and the animals. I ended up taking over 200 photos, some of which I intend to turn into paintings. I decided to share some of my favorite photos.

The marina is inhabited by a flock of Pelicans. While my husband and his friend were cleaning the fish they caught I decided to take some pictures of the marina. I was amazed that this Pelican let me get close to him to take this picture. I was only 6 inches away when I snapped the picture. This guy is the bird in the front on the bottom picture.

The marina was also home to a beautiful Snowy Egret. He was a little more shy than the Pelicans so I had to zoom in to snap this photo.

While walking on the beach, I was able to get fairly close to this group of Royal Terns.

The sunsets on the beach were so beautiful.

Our week in paradise has ended and we flew back to freezing weather and snow (of course) but as I look at these pictures I feel optimistic that I can endure these last few weeks of winter.

Watercolor Ballet Dancer

Degas is one of my favorite impressionist artists. I love his paintings of Ballet Dancers. I was really happy to find of book of Degas Drawings of Dancers on Amazon. The book contains 41 pages of Degas' drawings-some are sketches or preparatory studies and some are finished drawings. Like many artists, I like to copy the works of the Masters in order to improve my drawing skills so this book was just what I was looking for. After helping my husband clear our driveway after the last snow bombardment (3 ft. this time)I shoveled a path to our mailbox so our mail carrier would have no trouble delivering my books. The book arrived on Saturday and by Saturday evening I had chosen my drawing-"Battements" on the Toes at the Barre. Since I usually draw animals the initial blocking in was a little awkward. I had no prior experience in drawing a person but found that once I got past the initial blocking in, the actual drawing got a lot easier.

 Brittany has found that one of the perks of having a mother who is an artist is that she never has to buy art work unless she wants a particular piece. Having just moved into a new apartment she has been asking for paintings and prints to decorate her walls. She knows that I am only to happy to oblige and that I usually have finished works laying around my studio that I can frame and send off to her. This painting reminds me of Brittany when she studied ballet so this one is destined to be sent to her.

Preparatory sketch.

Under painting in progress.

For this painting I used Masters Touch watercolors (available at Hobby Lobby) and Canson watercolor paper. I've tried other brands of watercolor paper including Strathmore but Canson is my favorite. I like the tooth of the paper, it tends to hold the color a little better than the other papers that I have tried. The Dancer's arms and legs were done with a preliminary wash of flesh; the dress is a wash of rose and white to make a light pink; the bow is rose plus the light pink mixture and the shoes are light pink mix and flesh to make a ballet pink. The dress is painted with a wash of light pink and blended out from the edges to the middle by loading a clean brush with water, then picking up the paint along the edges with the brush and painting toward the center.

Family Recipe Book

It's been so cold the past few days that I couldn't bring myself to venture out in the 7 degree weather. I decided to stay in and work on a recipe book for Brittany. The book is a collection of her favorite dishes that she grew up eating. I did a similar book for Michelle as a shower gift. Michelle's book was a commercially available spiral bound book to which the recipes could be added.


This time I decided to make the book completely my own from cover to cover. To do this I needed to invest in a punch and bind system. There are several systems available on the market. I ended up buying GBC's Pro Click system. I really like the Pro Click punch but the system does have it's pros and cons. The punch is light weight, stores easily, is easy to operate and punches smoothly and neatly. The cons: it punches only one sheet of heavy paper or card stock at a time (it jams with 2 pieces of heavy paper), it punches 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper (the oversize is about 1/4 inch more), and the Pro Click spines must be closed individually by hand. This system is good for craft use, binding a couple of books at one time but it's too tedious and time consuming to do more than that. For this project I also used the Purple Cows laminating machine to make the front and back covers for the book. This machine does both hot and cold laminating, accommodates several sizes of laminating pouches and will accept laminating pouches made by other manufacturers (not just Purple Cow).

This is a good way to preserve family recipes for the next generation. Both Michelle and Brittany really liked receiving a cookbook with their favorite recipes rather than a commercial cookbook.

Laminating the book cover.

Punching the pages.

Front cover has been laminated and punched.

Open Pro Click spine ready to bind pages.

Snapping spine closed.

Using Pro Click tool to close spine.

Finished book. Clip Art from Micro Soft Office.

Inside pages of finished book.




 

Directions for Recipe Book:

Laminating machine (optional)
Heavy white card stock (2 sheets)- for book cover
White paper-28 lb.-for printing book pages on two sides
Pro Click Punch (available at Office Depot)
Pro Click Spines
Laminating pouches- for front and back cover
Clip art


1.   Type the book title and add clip art using Micro Soft Word. Print the cover on heavy card stock.

2.   Put the front cover in a laminating pouch and run through the laminating machine. While the laminated page is still warm, trim the bottom of the page so that it fits in the Pro Click punch. Place the edge of the laminated cover against the back of the punch and move the roller slowly to punch the page. Moving the roller too quickly sometimes causes the page to slip and the punches to be off the page. Repeat the process with the back cover.

3.  Type your family's favorite recipes into Micro Soft word. Add clip art and word art to add impact to the recipe pages. Print the recipes on the heavy white paper, using the two sided option on your printer. Type recipes section dividers like the Sweet Treats (picture above) and print on one side only. Punch the recipe pages and the section dividers with the Pro Click. The Pro Click will punch 2 sheets of 28 lb. paper without jamming but sometimes the bottom sheet of paper shifts during the punching, causing the punches to be off (requiring me to reprint the page). In the end it was faster to punch one sheet at a time than to go back and re-print mis-punched sheets. Arrange the book in it's finished order.

4.  Open the Pro Click Spine and lay it flat on your work surface. Place the front cover face down on the left spines and the back cover on the right spines. Divide the book in half. Place the first half (front cover to the middle) on the left spine and the second half (middle to back cover) on the right spine. Once the pages a aligned on the spine, start closing each individual ring on the spine by hand. Once all of the rings are closed use the Pro Click Tool to make sure the spine is securely closed.

Knitting With Mink

On a recent trip to a yarn shop in Rockville, Maryland I found the most beautiful jewel colored yarn hanging from the display rack. I was immediately drawn to the deep amethyst and removed a hank from the rack. The yarn was incredibly soft and 100% mink, rivaling cashmere. The hank had good yardage (300 meters) and was priced about the same as Merino wool. The purpose of the visit to this yarn shop was to buy wool as a gift for Brittany and possibly some sock yarn for myself, not to buy luxury yarn. The yarn was so soft and beautiful that I couldn't put it back on the rack. I knew I would later regret not buying it, especially since I have always ascribed to the French principle that "luxury in one's life is a requirement".

The yarn when knit is very soft and drapey. After knitting several swatches the yarn seemed to work best with a sturdy knit/purl combination pattern. I chose the Little Boxes pattern from The Knit Stitch Pattern Handbook by Melissa Leapman. Also the soft, drapey quality of the yarn made it a good choice for a scarf.

The yarn is a deep, rich purple. I lightened the photo to show the stitch detail.

Mink yarn is produced from the soft under coat of the Mink. The animals are brushed to obtain the fur which is then spun into yarn. When the Mink starts to shed it's under coat the animal is brushed to remove the excess fur. Sort of like brushing the family dog. Mink, unlike dogs, are not pleasant animals so I pity the poor person that has to brush them. The fact that someone was willing to brush these nasty animals to produce yarn makes me appreciate the luxury all that much more.

Directions for Mink Scarf:

The Knit Stitch Pattern Handbook-An Essential Collection of 300 Designer Stitches & Techniques by Melissa Leapman: Little Boxes pattern

Lotus Yarns Mimi-100 % Mink Yarn Color # 18;one hank (300 meters)

Size 3 Knitting Needles- I am using Knit Picks Karbonz Interchangeable needles



Cast on 41 sts (39 sts plus 2 sts) using the long tail cast on. Knit according to patterns directions. Since I am designing the scarf and have no previous experience with the yarn I don't know the final length of the scarf.

Tracery Vest

It's New Year's Day and the holidays are officially over and we have about two more months of cold, wintry weather left before Spring. Now that I am finished with all of the decorating, wrapping packages and baking for Christmas, it's the perfect time to indulge in some of the knitting projects that I had planned. For the last two weeks I have been working on the Tracery Vest from the Unofficial Harry Potter Knits magazine. Even though I am probably the only person on the planet that has never read a Harry Potter novel, I still really like the designs in the magazine. While the designs are based on characters and places in the Harry Potter books they are suitable for every day wear. The Tracery Vest is based on Gothic architecture with stained glass windows making it a perfect project for me to knit.

The vest is knit in the round and the directions and chart are clear and easy to follow. I deviated from the written directions slightly. The directions call for placing markers and increasing four stitches with the main color (black) after the markers, every other round 9 more times and incorporating the increased stitches into the pattern. The sections after the markers had more stitches between the design than the other segments. Every thing worked out fine until I started to knit the segment with the round windows, then suddenly the chart became very confusing to follow. I ripped the work back to the solid main color segment before the beginning of the lower row of windows and increased the appropriate number of stitches evenly around the needle. This didn't make a big difference in the look of the vest but made it much easier for me to follow the chart. I am posting the work so far. The vest measures 9 inches from the cast on edge and it's time to divide the stitches for the front and back and start knitting the decreases for the armholes.

Tracery Vest

After the Harry Potter Knits came out Plymouth Happy Feet yarn color #27 was difficult to find. After searching for quite a while I found it on Amazon. Several other on line retailers now carry the yarn (Jimmy Beans Wool, Annie's Catalog and Yarn Barn).

Plymouth Happy Feet like many other yarns available on the market comes in hanks rather than skeins. Most yarn stores have a yarn swift and a ball winder are happy to wind the yarn into a ball for their customers. Since I ordered the yarn on line it was shipped to me in hanks. Winding the yarn from the hank into a ball (by hand) takes about 30 minutes provided it doesn't tangle or knot, then it could take 2 hours or more depending on how badly the yarn is tangled. Until recently I used my kitchen chairs to wind the yarn. The chairs have decorative spindles that extend beyond the top of the chair. I untwist the hank of yarn and loop one end over the end of one chair spindle and do the same with the chair next to it. Then I gently push the chairs (with yarn attached) apart until the yarn is taut, cut the waste yarn holding the hank together and start winding into a ball. This year my husband gave me a yarn swift and ball winder for Christmas. I really like the fact that the swift is collapsible so it can stored away when not in use. The swift and ball winder make winding the yarn easier and quicker-about 10 minutes total.