Trying for Whimsy

I used the Canson acrylic paper again for this piece.  I was trying to do a whimsical face but every time I try for that look, it comes out looking too realistic to be whimsical.  Anyone else know what I’m talking about?  I used raw seinna and gold on the background.  I’m too lazy to go downstairs to see what other colors I used….I know I used cobalt blue and green gold.  I drew the lines with a black Stablio marking pencil.  Yikes, I didn’t realize that the neck area is so dark!  I can see that it needs more dimension…the whole thing needs “something.” 🙂

 

Here’s the same photo in grey tones, I actually think I like this one better, it isn’t as stark as the color one:

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my US readers!

Let’s give Thanks!

 

Christmas Jars & Orbs in the Dark

If you are looking for a cute decorating idea for Christmas or any time, then look no further than Tif’s blog over at dottie angel.  She is all about using what you have around the house.  She even pledged  “to buy only handcrafted or secondhand goods for my house and my own closet,”  for one year. She started that time period last year in September.  You’ll have to visit her blog to see how she did that.  Back to the cute and thrifty idea for Christmas…Tif calls them “gleeful jam  jars.”  You start with any kind of jar…I got permission to post two of her photos here:

Click on this link to find out about Tif and   ”the ramblings of dottie angel ”  and other photos of how she made these jars:  http://dottieangel.blogspot.com/

 

I also finished another piece, very dark, done on a piece of old calendar from the 1970’s.  I don’t remember all the paint colors I used.  But I used  Reinkers in shades of lettuce and stream.

Journal-#27

Finally, something new to post.  I finished another page in my experimental journal…I’m almost finished with it, so, I need to start thinking about another journal.  This one was an old craft book from the 70’s.  I usually start by putting gesso on the pages…that’s what I did on this spread.  I used Caran d’Ache crayons….acrylic inks, India inks and acrylic paint.  I also used some collage pieces cut from a vintage shorthand instruction book.  The quote says:   “Yesterday we were, and today we are!”-Kahlil Gibran. 

Here are some of the embroidery pieces I have finished in the last two weeks.   The bird, I found over at the floss box dot com.  The fish is a pattern from Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching...The duck is an Aunt Martha’s transfer.  The others are my sketches. Then I used a blue ink Sulky iron-on transfer pen to trace over the sketches and then ironed the designs on the fabric.  I found the pen on Ebay.

Dark Secrets

I used Canson acrylic paper for this.  It comes in a pad (110 lb. weight)  and has a canvas like texture.  I will be working with it again as another alternative to watercolor paper.  The background is a mixture of acrylic paints, green ink and some  Adroindack reinkers.  After I got the background like I wanted it, I let it dry thoroughly and then glued on the collage pieces.  They were from a page of my favorite collage papers…the painted phone book pages.  I had some black ink doodling and Caran d’ache crayons on it but I didn’t like that so I wiped it all off.  I’m not really happy with the way it turned out but I didn’t know what else to try.  I’m still stitching away on my embroidery projects….I have the sampler finished and I’ve been working on some smaller pieces.  I hope to eventually turn all my pieces into a quilt…inspired by Pam Garrison…check out her blog… the link is over on the right.

More Fall Color in Arkansas from in my yard…