Art Challenge!

MadRetz and I like encourage and inspire each other to do more art, so we dream up art challenges. Our most recent challenge was to create a mixed media piece using the quote: "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly."

Here's my piece : .)

Now, I challenge the Nudge-Nudge contingent to create a mixed media piece using this quote and post it here!!!

Have fun with it!!! Good Luck!!! : .)

The Dragon*Con hat

This is my hat for Dragon*Con, the big sci-fi/fantasy convention I'm going to with my DH and friends over Labor Day weekend. A big part of the whole experience is costuming. I'm not so much going to participate as to watch, but I thought I would at least like to have something interesting to wear while I'm there. The area I'm most interested in down there is the Youth Literature tracts, so after long consideration of various characters I decided to go as "Tiffany Aching" from Terry Pratchet's Discworld series The Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky

Here is what I patterned my hat after


Here is my hat with our messy "little" room behind it.


And here is what it looked like wearing it in the dusty mirror.


The little guy on the top kind of swings around while you walk.
I made the hat by copying the characters from the book cover, then creating backs for them so they'd work in 3 demensions and then had them laminated for sturdiness and sewed them on to the old witch's hat (which btw, I think I wore for halloween when I was 12 and my mother kept and used as decoration on our porch for years) with gold thread.

It will pale in comparison to most costumes down there, but if nothing else I hope it becomes a conversation piece.

A new card. I have been trying to master the art of the pop up. This is the first card that I have managed that actually comes up and creates negative space behind it without any help from me. I do need to use different glue though.
Here is the front of the birthday card:


And here is the card when opened.

Modigliani Box

A gift for my friend Lorali.



















A cardboard gift box painted with acrylic. 3 pieces of mat board covered with handmade paper to make the exterior. Modigliani sticker from Dover Publishing, surrounded by multi-sized beads affixed with Diamond Glaze.

Nudging Towards Productivity

Hi All- I'm Emily. Way back when this started I was all excited to begin a First Year Scrapbook for my son. So I thought I would be using this to post my ideas, layouts etc. I didn't. Clearly.

But! I AM doing it. My Boy is turning 3 (!) this August and I AM DOING THIS NOW. As proof of my real effort, I have 250 photos. They are stacked neatly beginning with "Before you were born" and divided monthly through his first birthday. I have also noted in each month any events that need special attention. First solid food, first bath, etc.





So, you see? I'm doing it! Yea for me! Keep your fingers crossed for me that I won't lose steam.

Phin's Tags

Phin came over tonight and while we watched Ghost Whisperer and the Food Network, she went wild creating tags out of my scraps and punches! It was cool watching her make these mini masterpieces out of my stash. They're so very cute and I never expected that she'd gave them to me! I, on the other hand, sat on the couch like a blob after our late afternoon tea.

Bears!

After numerous sitings of bears in our area recently and one really funny news story : http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?Cat=HOMEPAGE&ID=57095 (copy and paste I can't figure out how to make it a link) regarding them I made this illustration.. I call it "Bear with us in East Tennessee"



No reason for drawing it really, just for the heck of it. I'm on a roll recently. Thank you nudge nudge, for nudging me to do stuff :)

In Honor of Father's Day

A new illustration. I call it "Waiting Up For Daddy"

My new blog

So, this may or may not count under the Nudge-Nudge submission policy...but I am so tickled that I actually did this by myself, I just had to post it here.

I spent the weekend modifying my blog so that it is more personal. The biggest trick; I downloaded Photoshop's 30 day trial so that I could modify the artwork that I got from istockphoto.com. I also learned that Blogger hosts its own photos, so if you ever need HTML for a photo, you can just create a post with that photo uploaded into it. Then go to the 'Edit Html' page and grab the code. You don't even need to post the photo to keep the code.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Birthday invite

This is a picture (on my cell phone, sans flash...but holding a flash light to at least get some light on the subject) of the invitation that I made last year for my 30th birthday. The base is light pink, the squares are a dark cream color. The text was printed on a B/W laser printer and then cut out. There are actually two thin lines bordering each square, not just one thick line. There is a striped piece of velum over the bottom third of the invite. The ribbon is brown.

There are two ways to tie a bow...on this card, I wrapped a longer section of ribbon around the card and secured it with double stick tape. Then I cut a smaller piece of ribbon and tied it around the longer piece on the card and cut the ends.

To make an actual bow (like the one on my previous post), I cut a length of ribbon and make a loop with my left hand, holding the loop with my forefinger and thumb and 'pressing' the loop so that it 'folds over' my thumb, towards my wrist. Then I make another loop with my right hand and pass that loop over the back of the one in my left hand and under and around to make a bow...after I adjust it, I trim the ends and then attach it to my project with double stick tape.

Ok...so I think for my 31st birthday, I am asking for a digital camera :)

--girl

Wedding Card

Ok...so, this really doesn't show up well...I don't have a digital camera so I had to use my phone and...well...it really doesn't do this one ounce of justice.

The card itself is a creamy, blue. The ribbon is chocolate brown. I rubbed the edges of the card and both parts of the piece in the middle (the base is the same blue, the other piece is cream colored) with brown ink from an ink pad. The stamp I used on the middle piece is from Stampin' Up. The card is 5" x 5".

I also made a cream envelope and lined it with the blue paper. This may just be incentive enough for me to get a real digital camera...or at least ask for one for my birthday.

Yeah...so that's it. My little piece of craftiness.

Thanks for letting me share.

--girl

Footstool

Made this last week for my girlfriend's daughter's first b'day. 

Charlie Insured

After reading Claudine Hellmuth's book, I've been inspired to do more art on canvas.

I covered a 5"x7" canvas board w/ masking tape to give texture then covered w/ acrylic paints. Stamped a couple of images then added the collage elements.

I got the Charlie Chaplin image from doctormacro - a site that has hi-resolution images taken from movies. I think I read somewhere on his site that as long as you use the images for personal use only, do as you please. I did a couple of Audrey Hepburn pieces on canvas and got the images from there. I got the text at the bottom from grandformat - another site that has hi-res downloads from old textbooks and magazines from France. 

Interpretation

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I suspect that art can be described in the same manner. Above you see my first hand-knitted sock. Not necessarily art in the pure sense of the term, but it was a chance to create. Artists often "name" their pieces, I christen this creation "Apple".

Baby Girl's Art Work

I just had to share these. Baby Girl made them in Preschool all by herself...as she loves to remind me. She cut them out, glued them together, and colored them for me. I love them both!

The red one is a "hula girl" inspired by a tatto on her great-grandfather's arm. The other she made about a month later. It's a house for the hula girl to live in...naturally. She's so proud of them, I couldn't help but show them off. I have to say, I was impressed by the detail a 4 year old put into them.

Found a link to this cool site at Kim's blog. I'd love to fix a titlebar for this blog with this but can't do html.

SMILES Shoes

I'm almost embarassed to put these here, but they're getting thrown out...finally. You can see how the rubber is separating from the canvas. I did them about twenty years ago, and actually wore them to school, much to my daughter's dismay.

I was painting canvas shoes like crazy then. I painted some for her with piano keys and puff paint of all things, and some with sparkles and glitter. Those she liked. Then I decided I wanted some, too. I liked them so much I kept them. Now I'm thinking I could probably cut out the designs and keep them in my scrapbook, and get rid of the rest of the shoe. Or, I may make myself another pair just like these...nah, I never do things the same way twice! 

Bunny!

It hasn't really become anything yet. For now it is just an illustration. One day I will give it a purpose for existance. For now it is just because I was in the mood to draw and color a bunny.

Another B-Day Card

Simple b-day card for Erik. Stampin' Up and Hanko Stamps, Basic Grey paper, red, orange & yellow markers.

Something Sparkly from the Farm

Blogger hate me. I've been trying this all day and it will not work...getting a tad frustrated here!

This is the jewelry I made to wear to Inkling's wedding. Mama bought me a fabulous outfit but I needed something sparkly to go with it. I looked, but wasn't impressed with my choices at Wal-Mart (where else do Farm Wives shop?) so I headed to their craft dept. After $8.63 in supplies, this is what I came up with. And I have extras left over to play with.

The colors are a little off in the photo, but you get the idea. They're not as deep in real life, more rosy pink, less earth toned. I like the earrings, but think they may be a bit much so I'll probably save them for a time I'm not wearing the necklace.

I'd forgotten how much I love beads until I started this. I probably restrung the necklace 4 or 5 times before I was satisfied. That's what's great about beads, they're so easy to change. I think I may make some stuff for Baby Girl and the other 2 flower girls to wear after the wedding. The real trick will be saving them until Easter... you didn't really think I'd make it until May did you?