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.

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.

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.

 I guess I will start with the parts that you can't see very well. Unfortunately I wrote in pencil. On the left side it says: Will you fulfil your destiny.What is your purpose. Know how to be happy even when your alone. Don't expect others to beyour fulfilment. Love yourself first. Take time to play everyday. Use what you have. Share your heart through your art. The dots read Believe in yourself. Believe in love. Believe in Viki. Make love. B is for beautiful. E is for enchanting. Y is for youthful. O is colorful. U is sunny. R for real. S for spirit. Love is be loved. I for individual. K is make. I for independant. M for dream. M for memory. K for kind. The bottom says Spirit Song.
I hope you enjoyed this exercise.  http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/2011/10/crusade-no-56-im-a-believer.html