Merry

I've come down with a cold, so just now posting Wednesday's and Thursday's circles. (I didn't make any on Friday and probably won't today. I hope to feel better and get back to work tomorrow.)

Christmas is Coming

Monday's circle started with doodle painting and evolved into this holiday themed treasure. Now I'm inspired to make my daily circles focus on Christmas for the next few weeks.

Funny, the name of that deep pink paint is "Christmas Rose." I guess the paint knew before I did what the topic would be!

Ode to a Postcard

The theme is Black and White and Read (Red) All Over. They are late being sent, but while I was decorating the cards, I deviated a bit and made a circle to commemorate them. I may forget to take a photo of the cards, so this way I have at least a bit of a record!

I thought of the old joke - and started making paper fabric including some of the main answers to that joke. Once I started to assemble the cards, I realized I didn't have enough, so had to redirect and use the fabric for an accent. Then, added just one more (and the most delicious) answer: a hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top!

Black Friday?

Mine was pretty colorful! I don't generally hit those ultra-early sales, unless there is something significantly discournted that I plan to buy anyway. I did venture out around 9 am and hit some of my favorite craft and thrift stores. I managed to buy a few presents and stocking stuffers, but embarrassingly, most of the goodies were just for me!
One of my most extravagant purchases was a set of richly toned embossing powders. I wanted to add a few colors to my meager stash, but they didn't have a big selection and each 1 0z. jar was over $3. With my 40% off coupon, the set of 16 half-ounce vials was only $17.99. Sure, it cost a bit more, but the colors... Oh! the colors! Very deep, rich colors! More my style than the few pastels on the shelf. I put back some of my other splurges so I wouldn't overindulge too much.

You can see some of the rich colors on yesterday's circle. I took the embossing pad and pressed just the corner, embossed and then repeated a little distance away. It had lots of texture, but when I covered it all with a thick coat of clear, they softened and blended. I still like it, but I think next time I will use the diamond glaze and retain some of that texture.

I hope your "Black Friday" had some colors just for you!

Family Circle

Today I used a different type of tool... my granddaughter!

Kady chose some heart stickers and a few colors of permanent markers to use on the gesso covered chipboard. I added a metallic swash and colored the edges purple. Kady was fascinated with the diamond glaze. Nothing beats creating with family!

Giving Thanks

#12

I spent the morning and early afternoon with my older daughter and my two granddaughters. We engaged in a great family tradition - eating donuts while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 4 year old was thrilled with all the balloon characters. The baby just wanted to be held and fed. I know my other daughter and my mom were visiting the extended family down in California. (I"ll be seeing them for Christmas.) I am so thankful for my family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

#10

"M-I-C... See ya real soon..." I just wanted something easy, so started with scrapbooking paper and finally used that ultra-sticky red tape I had to adhere the micro-beads.

#11

This circle will not end up on my walls like most will. This one is a gift. The recipient may see this blog, so I want it to remain a secret until they have unwrapped it for themselves. Then, the "normal" image of the circle will be posted.

Inked Foil Tape

Aluminum tape (from the hardware store) over shaped bits of tape and then covered with alcohol inks. A bit of dry brushed metallic blue and some spots of embossing powder. All covered with diamond glaze. Colorful, huh?

Number 8

Wow. This one is more interesting blown up from the scan than in its real 1 inch size. Some of the same embossing powder and metallic paints. Added some micro-beads in glue in the middle. Added the heart because it needed something. I'm not sure that was "it," but that's how it goes with experimenting.

Craters?

Friday's experiment was to use something other than the tacky embossing pad or pen to adhere those embossing powder crystals. I grabbed the closest thing, some craft glue intended to secure "jewels" to fabric.

To backtrack a bit, I began with the idea of making a paisley-type design with micro-beads and glitter embedded into the embossing powder. I drew a rough paisley shape with the embossing pen directly onto the chipboard. I was to lazy to prime with gesso and the result was that the pen mostly absorbed into the cardboard, leaving little to grab the powder. I was left with a few clear puddles that also partly absorbed into and discolored the cardboard. A mess.

Figuring it was too late to prime, that's when I grabbed the glue and filled in my rough paisley shape. I sprinkled embossing powder into the glue and decided to see what would happen if I used my heat gun to melt the powder and dry the glue all at the same time. Would it just seal over or would it be like the old candles we made by pouring the wax over bits of ice? (You DO remember doing that, right? If not, just wait and that "retro" craft will make a comeback and you can try it!)

The glue and powder fizzled and bubbled! I loved it! Then, I painted with some russet and gold metallic paints and speed-dried with the heat gun. All the embossing powder under the paint bubbled and blistered. Cool! I played with adding more powder and more paint and more heat. Here is the result. All finished with diamond glaze for that glossy finish I'm going for in this group of work.

PS: Please note that all my circles look way better in person than scanned or photographed. I can't seem to get the right angle to show the colors and gloss without too much reflection.

Snow

Well, it isn't quite cold enough outside to snow, yet, but Thursday's circle hints at the weather to come.


Circle is base coated with gesso, then a rubber stamped a snowflake and embossed with ultra thick clear embossing powder. An embossing pen was used to write the word "snow" and it was also embossed. The entire piece was painted with (what else) metallic blue paint. After drying, I rubbed briskly to remove the paint from the embossed areas and reveal the images. Finished with a nice coat of diamond glaze.

Circles

It's been hard to "do" art lately with my materials and supplies spread throughout the house. The studio is now painted and the major furniture pieces are built. I'm still adding a few shelves to the closet and need to re-attach the peg boards, but things are starting to be functional. Yippee!!

I wanted something artsy on the walls. I thought of all manner of border possiblities (from fabric swatches to tissue paper to ceramic tile and more), but when my eyes fell on the chipboard circles at Craft Warehouse the bells and whistles went off. I will be creating groupings of various sized circles in several places in the room. So, just about daily I am decorating circles using various techniques. Each is finished with a high gloss coat of Diamond Glaze or ultra thick clear embossing powder. I may use polyurethane and/or resin in the future, too. (I was interested to note that there are glossy little design circles given on Facebook called Flair. That is kind of what will be on my walls.)

The circles are various sizes, so if I only have a little time I can choose a smaller circle! The fun part is that I get to play with a variety of materials and mediums. I have so far used paper packing tape, acrylic paints (some metallic, of course), ink, glitter, mica powder and fabric. Yesterday's is my favorite so far, that is why it begins this blog! (3" chipboard circle, fabric, rubber stamping, metallic paint, metallic marker)

My Latest Art

This year I have to teach US History. Me and History, friends? Not really. So, teaching it again (I muddled through two years ago) stands as a challenge to my days. The four boys in my class are nearly non-readers, so there is no "read chapter 5 tonight, we'll have a quiz tomorrow" kind of lessons. Everything must be basic and clear in class.

After struggling through a month and getting nowhere, I had to rethink my entire approach to teaching this class. I looked at the state required standards for history. I looked through the textbook I was given. I knew I couldn't teach the entire book, so tried to decide the important concepts.

About this time I finally found an old suitcase to alter, though it was a bit larger than I had wanted. Right there in the Goodwill checkout line it hit me! I would use my altered suitcase and create a Kidspace style model inside to represent our topic. It would be hands-on and visual for my students and I would also have fun!

Our first topic is immigration. Here is the grand tour...

All those old books and magazines I've collected donated the outside photos. Those who know me will quickly notice the paint - metallics: russet and gold. The maps and other pictures inside were culled from weeks of internet research. (I found the best historic map site! (David Rumsey Map Collection)

I introduced the suitcase yesterday and let them explore. I told them nothing except everything inside goes together; they had to guess what it was all about. They were not to discuss their guesses with each other. When they had an idea, they came to my "booth" and described what they thought. I gave a prize to the one who guessed the closest.

Today, they began identifying the 6 maps and answering questions about the cities and countries represented. Tomorrow we begin working on family trees and I introduce them to Ancestry.com. They will see my tree and start to learn about one of the 4 immigrants we are studying - my great-great-grandfather.

We'll see in a month if my scheme actually works. At least I'm having a good time!

Not a Heart...

...but made with love!


My older granddaughter, Kady, wanted to be Wall-E for Halloween, but that's obviously not a popular choice this year as costumes are hard to come by. The one I found wasn't very good and cost $50!

Given the time and money, I think I'd have scrounged local thrift shops and created a replica of Wall-E that would even have motorized/light-up parts. As it is, I told Kady I'd spend $10 to make her a costume. We went to PaperZone to find a cube-shaped box that would fit her properly (12 x 12 turned out to be the right size). I mixed up a yellow-gold with some gesso for the base coat and made a darker gold glaze to dry brush over spots.

I cut the wheels/treads from another box and painted shades of gray in roughly the right shapes. I also painted the gray "control" area on the front. Then made a cardboard console and applied a 4x6 mailing label I had printed from my computer (designed in Adobe Illustrator). I covered that with clear mailing tape to look like glass over the "solar" indicator. I also downloaded the correct font (Gunship ) to make the name. My trusty X-acto made the head, arm and leg openings.

A purchased Wall-E mask saved me time and I loaned her my small cooler, not only to be like Wall-E, but to put her Treats in.
The next day I went to a thrift shop and purchased some small, old shoes. I found a bargain plant at Wal-Mart and snipped off a few leaves and voila, I had Wall-E's little plant.

Shalom

The next Expressions gallery exhibit at church focuses on the names of God found in the Bible. While many of His names are meaningful to me, I chose to focus on Jehovah Shalom - The Lord is Peace.

As usual, I really had no idea what the final piece would look like, but work through the piece just doing the next step as best I can. Titled simply "Inside," it was constructed on a 24" x 22" scrap piece of masonite board. Most of the texture and heart are made from plater-laden gauze. I had fun working with this medium! Various paints and papers add colors, textures and the obvious words.

(Hmm. A heart. Metallic paints. Text. Seems I have recurring elements in my art, huh?)


Below is the description I submitted with my piece...

JEHOVAH-SHALOM. The Lord is Peace.

The world searches for peace. If we could just solve the problems that face us - war, disputes among family members, the unreasonable boss, the collapse of financial institutions, too much month left at the end of the paycheck or a rebellious child – then we would have peace. If only.

But peace does not come with diligence of will. Peace comes with a person – Our God, Our Shalom. When He resides within, there is peace within. Peace that no person, no event, no trouble can take away.

I am so thankful for that peace
---

It seems there are so many things that threaten to steal our peace. Certainly our heart is even pierced by the turmoil at times. Yet inside we can rest in His peace in the midst of the storms of life.



Peace to you, my friends.

New Grandbaby!

Little Autumn Rose is the newest addition to my family. Her mom, my older daughter, Jessica, is doing well and so is the big sister, Kady. Dad, Nathan, is thrilled, too! The morning C-section was delayed until nearly 3 pm because no one told my daughter not to eat before the surgery, but baby Autumn is worth the wait.

My Other Art

The State Fair is over and what a fair it has been! For those who don't know, I love to cook and especially love to invent new recipes. That is my "other" art - creative combinations in the kitchen. Every year I enter contests at the fair and have won quite a few ribbons. At the Oregon State Fair, entering the "daily" contests give you free admission, which was the initial reason I started entering 10 years ago.

This year I entered 7 contests - 6 for food and one Trash-to-Treasure (see Aug 27th post). Of those, I won a 3rd place ribbon for my fresh Tropical Salsa,

1st place ($200, apron, tote bag ribbons and entry into the national competition) in the Hidden Valley Ranch "Fresh Taste for the Family" contest with my Summer Confetti Slaw


and 2nd place ($50, apron and ribbon) in the Great American SPAM appetizer contest with my Sunday Brunch Shooters.

In addition to the cash, aprons and ribbons, I occasionally have extra "winnings." This year, the call came right away to demonstrate my salad live on the morning news show in Eugene, Oregon (about 65 miles to the south). I had to bring everything prepped and ready to go and be there at 5:45 am, then be back in Salem ready to work by 7:30 am. I had about 2 minutes to talk about and demonstrate my dish. Here is the link for the video and recipe: http://kezi.com/infocus It works currently, but I know eventually it will be replaced with more current news.

When I got home work that day, I had a message from the local newspaper. My recipe will be featured next Wednesday in the food section. They want a photo shoot of me making the salad and the finished salad to run with the recipe. After a few rounds of phone-tag, we have scheduled the shoot for next Monday.

Imagine my surprise when a coworker approached me at work today saying she had seen my name in the paper this morning! They ran a feature article about the Trash to Treasure contest in the home section of the paper today. Though I didn't win anything, my purse was pictured and described. How random was that?


It has been fun having all the attention. I'm so glad people like my stuff. Of course I am beginning to wonder where the riches are that should go with all my "fame!"

Trash to Treasure

I decided to finish off my felt purse for tomorrow's Trash-to-Treasure contest at the Oregon State Fair. If I had more time, I'd love to embellish more and more, especially decorative stitching.





The purse and handles are made of wool sweaters from the thrift store which was felted in the wash. The handles are braided strips of the two felts with funky yarns braided with them. I added a found credit card case for an outside pocket and embellished with other found objects.



I wanted a more rustic closure, so used a chunky button and hand stitched button hole. The lining is made from a thrift store shirt.




I added a few buttons from my stash on the back










I made tags and hung them with funky yarns on one handle. One is a London vacation ad made into a transparency and words all from a 1952 National Geographic magazine. There is a recycle symbol on the back of the "Bargain and/or Priceless" tag. Both these tags were made in 1.5" square slides. I also made a metal tag from a pop can - the part that says "please recycle." There are also a few old dog tags.

Quick Note

I've been busy the past few days with a visit from my stepmother. Both my daughters plus my granddaughter joined us. Friday we spent the day at the Oregon Coast and yesterday we went to Uwajimaya in Beaverton, Oregon, for their Polynesian festival. This dancer was part of a Praise and Worship group. Just beautiful! (Even in the 100 degree heat!)

Shirt 2

Kady and I painted another shirt. (Love those $1 store shirts! No worries if they don't turn out well.)

I used my tempered glass cutting board, which is reserved for crafting. I taped off a square with painters' tape and let Kady drizzle some squeezy paint into it. I then removed the tape to make more crisp edges and printed onto the shirt. The shirt was stretched lightly over a box to ensure a smooth, flat surface.

Because the paint was "globby" it smooshed over the lines, so after all was dry I added a painted frame (what did we do before painters' tape?) and added her name and date.

I'm so thrilled she likes to craft at 3. Now, as soon as my kitchen is finished (been painting and rearranging) I have to start her with cooking!

She's Back!

After 2 weeks in Burkina Faso (more on this later), my daughter is back. She is wearing the outfit the tailor made for her from fabric she had purchased. The tailor came to the house, took measurements and came back with the garments (and bags and other orders). She brought me back some wonderful fabric and also had a skirt and messenger bag made. She only spent about $45 for all that fabric and the tailoring.

She is holding the drum she bought for her sister, which was engraved with her sister's nickname, "Rain."

Good to have her home! (even though with flight delays and some lost luggage made it about 3 am when we got home!) PS: the luggage (with more goodies went to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida instead of Portland, Oregon. Go figure!

Camp Crafts

As Craft Director for NWCCD (Northwest Christian Camp for the Deaf) I try to provide crafts that stimulate artistic expression, teach new skills and can be reproduced at home for further exploration. I also aim to use up many of the materials I "inherited" with this job 3 years ago, which also supports my goal of keeping within my limited budget.

Since camp is at the beach, I've wanted to do sand candles, but didn't figure out the logistics until this year. I used bagged playground sand so we would not have to wonder about whether any dogs or cats had previously used the granules. To keep things simple and contained, we used styrofoam bowls. Tea lights were the perfect starter for the candles as they have a long wick and also provided a flat base. I had many bags of shells, so it was no problem to let the kids go to town with picking their favorites. After hardening, we dumped the sand and returned the candles to the bowls, then slipped them into zippered plastic bags for the trip home.

Following an activity for making foil patterns in Celebrate Your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam, the campers used foil covered foam core to make their designs. For the banquet, each table would represent a name of Jesus (vine, shepherd, Lord, etc.) so each camper chose a name and created their foil drawing to match. Younger campers colored with permanent markers; older campers with Lumiere metallic paints and Golden fluid acrylics.

This year we received a donation of over 100 water bottles. We had to hide the company logo (black permanent marker, then turning the foam inside out), then let the kids decorate with foam markers, Galaxy opaque/metallic markers and foam stickers. The theme was Jesus giving us Living Water, but they could decorate anything related to Christ or camp.

Each year we make and sign a huge "Thank You" card for our director and speaker. This year, I decided to use up some leftover shirts instead. For our director, I chose a nice blue and wanted to paint a square for signing because I thought the stiffness of the paint would make signing easier. The shirt moved and the paint didn't cover so well, so I took advantage of that by making a more "grunge" texture background. Everyone thought I was such a great artist! I just fancied up my mistakes!

For the speaker, I wish I had time to cover this shirt with Jesus' name. He had all of us signing Jesus repeatedly as fast as we could as part of his teaching during the week. Instead, I made the name Jesus and a heart filled with the the name of Jesus. He loved it! The back of his shirt also had a grungy square filled with signatures.

Northwest Joy

Growing up in southern California, a small box of blueberries would cost $5 or more. Blueberries were precious purple morsels that appeared once every few years in a pancake or muffin. Once or twice I remember having a slice of blueberry pie.

One of the pure joys of living in the Northwest is spending a few hours each July at a local U-Pick blueberry farm. For a few dollars you can fill a large bowl (and a good portion of your belly, if you employ the old "one for the bowl, one for me" method of picking). Then comes the decadence of consuming the berries a handful at a time. Such indulgence was never allowed at the southern California prices.

Of course, one can always add to the joy with a bit of ice cream!

Mosaic - the process

In the beginning there was plywood and pine and primer. I sketched a horizon line and then rough sketched the Twin Rocks. A simple painting in color would serve to guide campers on where to place the various colored tiles. I had to cut 6" off the plywood and cut my 1 x 4 lumber to size before gluing, nailing and screwing the whole thing together.

Once assembled, the campers began placing tiles. My supervisor found some heart tiles and we let the kids write their initials in permanent ink (which held up fine... until grouting - oops!). Then each day campers and staff dropped by to add to the design. Some tiles were put in the wrong place, but I left most of those for character. Some did need to be removed and redone.


As the week went on , I added shells here and there to give some dimension, color and texture.

This curved shell made the perfect big wave. Sadly, it was broken on the last day of camp after it had been presented to the host camp as a thank you present.


Detail of the sky corner. Notice the paper rope braid. Yes, I did do that all by hand! It took over one hour of just braiding and my fingers didn't like it one bit! But the edges of the plywood needed to be finished and that was all I had available. The braid was nailed with my staple gun.It is funny that this mosaic even happened. My original goal was to use up supplies I had "inherited" when I became Craft Director 2 years ago. I hadn't been able to come up with economical crafts and decided to do the large mosaic. I have never tiled and grouted before, but somehow I had confidence it would turn out okay in the end. All those hours of watching HGTV paid off!

For me, it was an exercise in faith and letting go. Any time "problems" came up (like not having even half enough blue tiles to cover the sea and sky - greens and grays filled in), I was able to let go of my wishes and expectations and trust that God would help the process. And, if I totally messed up and it had to go in the trash, I was okay with that. I was able to realize that my identity was not solely in that project and its failure would not mean "I" was a failure. Normally, I attach much of my worth to how well I produce. This week I was free from that worry (for the most part). I am once again amazed by His love and His concern for His children, even in little things like getting a mosaic done.

Getting back...

Wow. My poor little neglected blog. This has been a busy year and seems all my energy has been required in other places, leaving little of "me" left for my art or my blogging. The "big" things are over for now, and with an empty nest looming on the horizon I think I can enjoy my blogging once again!

The most recent distraction was a week as Craft Director at Northwest Christian Camp for the Deaf. This was my 3rd year, so I knew the facilities, general schedule and many of the kids well enough to do efficient planning. It was a long week and I'm exhausted, but I am so pleased with how things went; it seems everyone had a great time with the crafts. I am especially pleased because on my limited budget I have to have crafts for about 100 campers for 4 days plus decorate the large cafeteria (tables, walls and beams) for the big banquet on the last night. This year I opted for a 3' x 8' mosaic as a thank you gift for the host camp facilities instead of the usual poster board card. (Never mind that I've never really done a mosaic and grout before!)

I'll be posting pix soon. I hope you are inspired by things the kids and I have done.