After the creativity prompt series ended - created and run by A Creative Dream, I noticed as I followed her blog, that she does many creative things....and one of them was doodling.
Yep, the same thing we all used (or still) do during classes, at work, at church....whenever we have paper and pencil, and are using ears, but not hands....I know I'm like this (not always.....but a lot of the time). I told myself that one of these days, I was going to try my hand at doing what JC does - making the doodles an artistic creation. So..the thought sat and simmered through the entire year of creativity prompts, until....
I got out one of my ATC cards and decided to see what would happen if I just started doodling. I drew a bunch of curved lines in no particular pattern, and then began filling in the spaces with lines, dots, flowers...whatever. It was kinda fun.....like making a picture that isn't an idea first!
When I was done....I liked it - but it was all so ....black and white. Duh. That's what a pen and paper look like - but then I got out my markers (another of my favorite things that I don't use enough), and added some color. Not a lot....I didn't want to fill it up with color - it was quite busy enough without that!
So now it is done! And the next thing is....what do I do with it? Frame it? Make a card out of it (like that, but I've not made many cards...hmmm), keep it, give it away...
Help me out here, readers! Give me some suggestions....(not including 'good grief, Trish, what were you thinking - I've already done that one).
Here it is in all its glory!
This was fun.....and I just may do it again....even think of a general theme....or not...
Been working away - and a happy circumstance brought back one of my favorite gifts to put on my new website! The happy circumstance was the birth of another grandchild - always a joyous event, and to mark the event, I made my Baby Keepsake for him.
It all starts with an 8 x 10" white mat - the kind you put in picture frames. Inside the mat went a baby feet print in blue on vellum. This gave it that sheen, and to me, makes it look a bit 'old fashioned' - like that for babies!
To decorate this I cut two squares of paper - a 1" scalloped edge square in a light blue like the baby feet in the background print.Over that went a slightly smaller square in a darker blue - this one embossed with the baby's first name initial - in this case "K". To give this a more 3-D appearance, I set them on some tiny glue dots that raised them off the background. The embossed initial square I accented with some Perfect Pearl pigments, thinned down and washed on just the initial.
Below that I glued one of my fine silver antique buttons to a little wooden peg that was painted in a complementary blue, and then glued the button/peg to the background.
Now came the tricky part....I wanted something to put a tiny little scroll in with the verse of Psalm 139 that inspired the Keepsake - and decided that I needed to create a pattern for some miniature booties. Took a while (thank goodness little Kai was a bit slow in coming - at least for me!) to create the pattern in the right size AND find the right yarn/fiber to make it out of - remember the 'hunt for American-made yarn?' I did succeed - and got them made in the right shade of 'Warm Blue' - kinda liked the title of the thread color! The booties each measure 1 1/8" long by 1" tall. I attached the booties to links of silver-plated chain that looked to me like twisted ribbon and then hung the pair of booties from the silver button. Just right!
The final touch was the addition of the scroll and the printed info. The scroll was rolled up (it measured 2 3/8" x 7/8 " - tiny!) around a toothpick, and tied with a bit of yarn into a tiny bow. On the scroll was:
"For You created my inmost being
You knit me together in my mother's womb"
Psalm 139:13
Slipped in at the bottom of the frame was the parchment paper with the Baby's full name, day of arrival, weight and height in a very pretty font. On the back of the mat, I glued a piece of white cardstock to finish the back, and printed and glued the entire Psalm 139 - so the parents would know where the verse on the scroll had come from.
It turned out just wonderful. The last touch was to get some cardstock easel mounts so that the entire frame could stand on its own.
Needless to say - it was a huge hit! Later this week this will go on my website www.studio214.net, but I wanted to share it with y'all here first! Here are a couple of
photos -
I also will be making a pink version for little girl babies - and, if there is interest, perhaps yellow, green and lavender - who says everything must be blue or pink?
On a related note - the quest for American made yarn/thread to make my crafts with did not succeed with this - but I could not find anything in the proper weight and fiber to use!
I fell back on an old brand I have used since forever - Royale Fashion Crochet Thread - size 3 - by JP Coates Company - made in India. I'll keep looking - and if anyone knows of an American made thread in this weight and colors - please let me know!!
Still no word on the necklace contest - am hoping that there will be word this coming week!
Meantime....more cotton and suds coming up soon!! (and that's not drinking variety suds!).
February has become the month I am playing around with paper - using it in all kinds of forms, in all kinds of ways....had some rather nice failures already - but that's ok - learning what works and what doesn't...
Today I played around with melting was in the Melting Pot - coloring it with Dollar Store crayons (that worked!), and then applying it to a card....got a lot to learn here - this was a failure. But....I learning a bit about the Melting Pot and beeswax!
Moving on....I keep going back to the perforated paper and miniature petit-point. I have all these truly cool variegated threads/floss/cotton - Watercolours by Caron - had them for years. So today, I combined that with some other things - punched paper, layering metal punching....and came up with a card I really like. Now I have to find a lovely saying for the inside to print on vellum....and I'll be set to give this to my sweetie!
Here 'tis:
The card itself is just cardstock that I cut in half - the heart-shaped doily is from the grocery store (!), I cut the dark pink square from a wonderful book of huge paint samples that my brother in law gave me...what a find they are! I then punched out the heart shape, cut the perforated paper to fit behind it...colored it with my Prismacolor markers and did my petit-point with a variegated pink/blue/gold thread. When I put the layers together, I used sticky dots to raise the heart-cut-out above the petit-point. Then I punched out some cool little hearts from metal and glued them on in random spots on the dark pink. I'm quite happy with the result! What do you think?
