Wednesday, January 30, 2013


My rooster is finally finished and I am quite happy with it. I went in and added colored pencil. I was particularly happy with the pale blue that matched the sky and helped to hide some of the areas that the colors bled a bit to much. I added bead work to the cloud, the tail, the wing and I also found a perfectly colored stone heart. I believe it is a jasper. 
 I am quite into instant gratification, so doing the bead work was excruciating. Especially since I almost finished the first feather only to find out I didn't have enough beads to finish it and had to rip it out. I almost gave up right then. But every night I dutifully sat myself down to work on it. Phew! 
 The next piece in my mind would be a Mucha. I have a bunch of framed Mucha pieces in my bedroom and I think they would make stunning art quilts. Maybe I will wait awhyle  before I even go there because my original bright idea included bead work. Hehehe. Then again maybe it would look great without beads on it.  I think I will just play in my journal tonight.

Friday, January 25, 2013

I recently signed up for a class called Thread Art by Lola Jenkins on Craftsy. I made the class project of the Girl With The Pearl Earring. What a great experience it was. I had no idea it would be so easy to do free motion stitching. I watched all the lessons and then began my project. Working with colored pencils is something I am familiar with from my card making. It is my preferred method of coloring.  If you are heavy handed with colored pencils like I am, you should place a paper towel under your working hand. I ended up dragging the green from my hat over my finished face and had to try and lift the color off with an eraser. 
This project was allot easier than I thought it would be. It was allot of fun and the things I learned can be used in other projects. She just has a slight olive complection now. LOL. 
The background was supposed to look like a curtain. I started with the squiggly lines and then changed to a swag like design. The background isn't exactly what I would have chosen, but I think the lady turned out very well and I am so pleased with her and she stands out well enough that I can ignore the background. The edging is some leftover material from my purse that I made a few months back. I didn't even realize that I was using the same colors. 

The rooster is my next project. I used Dyna Flow to color him. When using Dyna Flow, I found that it spread much more than expected, so unless you like that look, be careful. 
This piece is not finished yet. I need to decide if I want to use pencils or Shiva paint sticks on it. 
This is my second piece and I decided to remove the cover from my feed dogs as when there was any thread build up it would cause problems. I found it was much easier to manuver this way since the free motion foot for my machine doesn't lay as low as the regular foot, making it a much more pleasant experience. 
I also found that I would be going along pretty well and then my mind would wander off for even a second causing me to have to stop and rethink about where I wanted the thread to go. This was particularly a problem with my pebble area. I was doing nice loopy figure 8's and all of a sudden I found myself going in strait linesI am still working on this piece and will post a picture when finished. I have added some colored pencils so far and started to add some beadwork.


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Halloween get together

This is the comunity room in our building. I live in an apartment for over 50 and disabled. Shopping carts are available to help get your groceries to your apartment. There is a tv and piano available to use. There is also a full kitchen. We just had a Thanksgiving diner down there. Thanksgiving diner is put on by a local group. It was very full this year. If I remember correctly Christmas dinner is pot luck. Carole got a picture of me trying to get my camera to work. That is about par for the course. LOL



What have I been up to this year

I made this Halloween shrine I got from Retro Cafe Art Give-me-a-Sign-Shrine-Kit I also used a free printout from their site of Halloween pictures.

This is the Halloween wreath I made from a slide projector real.

I made this necklace in a class offered at Mrs. O'leary's Mercantile. My favorite place to go for rubberstamps and classes and mixed media goodies. The picture is lenticular, meaning when you tilt it a vampire appears.

This necklace and bracelet are from another class I took at Mrs. O'Leary's.


This is another class from Mrs. O'Leary's using a thimble I had from Fireside Flour. I also added a silk cocoon that I had died, a bead that I made, and a vintage earing.

I made this from tooling aluminum. The backround is done with molds. 




I made myself a new sketch book and this is the cover. I found this great paper. Very Mucha-esk and added a pewter flourish and watch gears including a spring that makes a pretty spiral.

Here is a large jar of silk cocoons that I have painted and died.

I love this Fancy-Flaming-Heart-Milagro-Shrine I got from Retro Cafe' Art. I made earings too but haven't been able to get the backings to stay on, so this is the bigger on that will be a pin or pendant. 

I got this great little guy at a yard sale. I put some hen and chicks in there and I am not sure what the other plant is other than it has fat juicy leaves.

A pin made from molded polymer clay.

A repurposed Cricut cartridge box covered in Verday Patina, which is a paint with metal flakes in it. Then it is sprayed whyle wet and the metal turns and gets a beautiful patina.
I also sewed myself a new purse from a pattern by Studio Kat   Carolina CarryAll Pattern . The rosette on the bag is made from some torn silk and a strip of leftover fabric. I love this fabric so much, I went back to the store to get more but it was all gone. Sigh.
Lets see if I can be more proactive with my blog this coming year. No promises. My camera is not behaving very well. The lense won't always open.