Nov.9-13

I have been busy as a mom and have failed at giving myself time to complete any projects. I worked on delegating house hold chores to my children and husband because I am not able to work full time, clean our house every night, and give myself a little me time---which is needed for my sanity. Here is an example of the chart I created. I made it on Excel and then put it under glass so that we can physically mark off the chores.

Here is a list of projects I have on-going:

1. I started a fairy painting

2. I have to decorate my door at school for book fair week. I have decided on a Divergent themed door and have been photoshop-ing the faction logos to print off.

3. I have signed up for a christmas ornament  class with Megan K. Suarez and have started sketching a few ideas for a few gift ornaments.

4. I am reading and experimenting with my resin jewelry again. I downloaded a book about including flowers and creating spheres. I ordered a pair of sphere molds from a chick in Poland and am waiting for them to arrive!

5. Next week my sewing group is meeting to sew "Little Dresses for Africa"

Pictures of all of these coming soon : )

Finished Halloween canvas and a few ATCs

I finished the Halloween Canvas.  The first picture is the canvas, followed by a closer look at the individual chunky pages before they were added together.

While I was waiting for the canvas to dry  I finished up on a few ATC (artist trading cards) I started a month ago.

Post for Nov. 4, 5, 6, 7

I am a huge fan, and student of Megan K. Suarez.  She is a great teacher and I learn a lot when I am able to take one of her workshops.  She had a Halloween workshop this last month, but I was not able to take it. I have been oohing and awing everyones little chunky pages and decided to make something to add to my Halloween decor for next year. I am going to make some chunky pages and collage them onto a canvas with some other papers and trinkets.
I started this project on the 4th when I created the first chunky page.

So then on the 5th, I did all of the line drawings and shading for the remaining chunky pages. 

I plan on painting them tonight and tomorrow night. I will finish up with the canvas this weekend and post a picture of the finished product.

Post for Nov. 2nd and 3rd

Whew-- we had a busy weekend. Saturday was Child1's(15) last home game. Then after the game Child2(10) had a sleep over with a million boys (really 7-- but it felt like a million). My creative endeavor for Saturday, Nov. 2 was a faux ice cream cake.  I followed this recipe for my chocolate cake, and then this recipe for the faux ice cream part of the cake.  It turned out really good. I like that the middle is not real ice cream because it did not melt all over the place. However, I would not call it an ice cream cake because it does not REALLY taste like ice cream- so it confused the kids.

So after the kids left on Sunday, and i  caught up on some R&R, I got a text form my friend asking me if I could make a resin bangle. I ran upstairs (to my "studio"), found all the necessary supplies, and began pouring resin. I poured a bangle with sprinkle inclusions and I stole a fly from Child1 and imbedded it in a cabochon mold. Child1 makes amazing tiny flies- and I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate one in my jewelry.  They have to sit for 24-48 hours and then I will pop them out of the mold and see how they did.

November is Art Every Day Month! | Creative Every Day

November is Art Every Day Month! | Creative Every Day

Sew... What next?....

I have really not been good about blogging. I guess because no one reads it. But I have a "need" to post things I do, and share my creations. BUT DO I ANNOY people with my posts on Facebook? Probably. SO I was contemplating how to satisfy my urge to share without bombarding my facebook-- and blogging cam to mind. I do not want to start ANOTHER blog for artwork, so I decided "Hey. Art is "What (is) next" in my life right now. I will still be posting about my sewing- because I am about to go nuts with things for christmas, but I want all of my creativity to MERGE into one place.  With all that said... I am joining the challenge over at http://creativeeveryday.com/ for this month. It is a challenge to do something creative everyday. Art, sew, whatever strikes my fancy! Perfect way to work on my art journal, create ideas for christmas, and practice my face drawing technique with the 2 classes I am taking from Jan Davenport and Kat McBride. I also want to finish another big eyed girl painting from Megan K. Suarez.  LOTS TO DO!!!

Straight Border Tutorial

Here are the instructions for the straight version of the square for my "bee block".

I started by cutting all my fabric into 3" strips (the width of the edges is 2.5 but this gives me a little wiggle room). Then I sort them by color.

Next I start cutting different widths (from 3" to 1") and putting them in a row. I sew them together using a 1/4" seam and iron them in the same direction after each one. I found it helpful to check one edge on the cutting mat periodically to make sure I was not too far off from straight. You want this row to be about 14" wide. Once you have the width you need trim up the row and make it 2.5" wide. Lay the row on the center square, making sure you have at least 2.5" on both sides.

Sew together using a 1/4" seam STARTING and STOPPING 1/4" from both ends. Do not iron.
Do this for all other sides.
To Miter the corners:
fold the square in half and line up the edges. I used the 45 degree angle on my cutting board and lined up the fold along it. Draw a line on the edges that are overlapping. Sew along the line. Trim.

Iron so that the seam goes towards the center. YOUR DONE.