More Hospital Art

I was really tired today, but restless, and I figured my Art Lady might return from her day off tomorrow and ask me if I'd done anything so that I could at least "have something" -- so I did these:

I felt like playing with pastels, and this image of (kinda) me holding up my hands before the bright light of the Holy Spirit was stuck in my head -- so I went with that. It kinda reminds me of the painting that I did last year -- "This Life was Meant to Shine." Totally different significance, though very similar concept of imagery.  

As you can see, I was multi-tasking. Great set-up, don't you think? Home office/art studio -- all on a hospital bed table! 

I still felt like playing, and wanted to draw a tree for some reason -- but wasn't sure how to go about making one that, well, I would like. I looked for some images online to inspire me and decided to go with some basic birch trees. I liked the idea of them standing bright in the pitch black night. The caption is "Brightness in the black of night" -- sorry for the lousy photography! 

Are there any images that speak to you in some way these days?

Top to Tote

So -- I was gifted this top that was kinda fun but really didn't fit or suit me as a top. Sew -- ;) I sewed  across the bottom, knotted the sleeves . . .

. . . used those hanger-string-thingys on the top to create a bit of shape . . .

. . . and made myself a new little tote bag:

Not bad for 10 minutes work, eh?!?!?

While I was doing that, DD9 and DS4 wanted to paint rocks -- so that's what they did :)

And DD13 was industrious in the kitchen making this yummy-looking baked brie with strawberry jam and dijon mustard:

Have you found any new uses for old clothes -- or rocks? :)

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More Name Art

We've been busy making gifts these days! Here are some wall name plaques that DH and DD8 made for some special girls:

They simply painted a piece of wood, glued on some letters (cut with the Cricut) and decorative pieces of paper, some bling, added some eyes for ribbon to hang, and voila!

 I can't show you what I've been making, but I'm having so much fun!

Have you made any simple, homemade gifts lately? Do share -- we're always looking for great ideas!

Playing with Picassa 3

I've always wondered how people create lovely collages of photos for their blogs. Now I know!
Picassa 3 is very cool! (And it's FREE!)
(Next time I'll do it with some pictures I haven't already posted! Sorry for the repeat!)

Have you discovered any new creative tools lately?

A Creative Day

I didn't set out for it to be so, but today turned into a rather creative day . . .

It started with DD8 catching a good picture of our golden doodle, Caspian. I recently rearranged our Learning Lab and moved a rarely used armchair in there for a comfortable reading spot. He seems to think it was put there for his lounging pleasure. He's not generally allowed on the furniture -- but how can you shoo such a comfortable cutie off?

With the littles, I've been using a wonderful curriculum called Five In A Row (no, this is not a review or a solicited plug!), and this week we're reading . . .

In the story, the main character (historical figure/artist, Charlie M. Russell) makes little animals out of beeswax. So, since I'm a bit of a hoarder at heart, I thought I'd pull out my stash of beeswax bits . . .

And we tried our hand at making our own animals (after I warmed the wax a bit in the microwave -- a luxury Mr. Russell didn't have. I know working it would have helped develop their finger muscles, but they were a little discouraged by the hardness of the wax):

Here we have DD8's snake, my piggy,  and DS3's -- ummm -- turtle:

It was tricky work, so we really got a good appreciation of Mr. Russell's art. But our hands smelled nice afterwards! (I love the smell of beeswax.) As I've mentioned before, the finished product isn't always what's important -- but enjoying the process is, and this was kinda fun.

Later, DS11 asked if he could make cookies. I'm thrilled that he's taking an interest in food preparation (he made supper TWICE this week!), so I gave him the good-to-go-ahead.

Do you notice anything unusual about that picture????

Our newly acquired kitty, Nikita, decided she needed to supervise the endeavours.

I'm not big on kitties in the kitchen (as in climbing on counters and such), but I did get a kick out of this.

Anyway, here is the proud boy with his almost-made cookies:

And here is the yummy finished product:

I love it when creativity is spontaneous!

Have you had any spontaneous creativity lately? How about letting it happen today?!

Altered Book - September 2010 Challenge

Amazing -- I'm finished the Altered Books September challenge before the end of the month! The challenge was to use the theme "School Days" and incorporate a pocket with something interesting in it.

As I rummaged for inspiration and materials to incorporate, I found myself drawn to medieval images and colours schemes. I won't go into detail about all my selections -- I'll show you the spread first, then tell you about the significant features . . .

The images are just ones that tickled my fancy from an old art calendar. The sonnet is a copy of one I studied in high school and university, so it has a bunch of my notes written on it. The required pocket is in the bottom right corner, secured by ribbons through pierced holes (oh, and one staple because the first hole tore!)

In the pocket is a special holographic/hologram bookmark . . . But first, the "boring" side:

On the other side, we have children reading a medieval story together:

But turn the bookmark slightly, and suddenly they're IN the story!

Cool, eh? Here's a glimpse of both holograms at the same time:

How fun is that? I knew I'd hung onto those school agenda covers (for YEARS!) for a reason!

While I'm here, I thought I would show you another version of our tree art that DD8 did today with a couple of her friends. We did it "right" this time and used acrylic paint for the leaves. It turned out so much better than the paint dabbers!

Have you done anything creative today?

"Epic" Lunch Bag

Well, it's that time of year again, and this time around, DD13 finds herself needing a lunch bag. She and her dad were grocery shopping one day and purchased a bag of basmati rice -- a new love of hers, especially if it is accompanied by Indian food. They noted that the burlap rice bag could be transformed into an awesome lunch bag. Well, a tote bag is exactly what I envisioned when I saw the rice bag, too! So I asked if I might have the honours of creating the bag. I couldn't find any specific online tutorials, so today, I set to work just winging it  . . .

DD13 chose the fabric on the left because it reminded her of her MSN theme, and there was red to go with the red in the bag -- oh, and my observation -- pink to go with the colour in her hair ; -) So, we started with these:

I basically followed the same steps as I did for my journal tote bag, except that I wanted the lining to be wipeable. I considered using an old tablecloth for the lining, but the selection in our home was limited to ones that have already been recycled as art tablecloths, and are therefore covered in paint. But then I had the rather brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of using self-sticking vinyl to protect the fabric on the inside of the bag! So, I took this, which I always have on hand from the dollar store:

. . . and just lay my piece of lining fabric face-down on it, then trimmed the excess vinyl:

Voila! I had vinyl covered fabric!

At this point, I was on a roll, so I decided I'd make a little pocket for the inside of the bag. I didn't want to pin it and make holes in the plastic, so I used some easy-to-see, decorative tape to keep it in place while I sewed (I didn't worry about finished edges on this pocket, since it had the vinyl to keep it neat, and it wouldn't be very visible anyway):

Pretty nifty, eh?

At this point, I should have sewed on the velcro that I wanted to use so the bag could be secured shut. However, I was so thrilled by how everything was working out that I forgot, and had to do it AFTER I had already sewed the lining together :{ It meant I had to crinkle the plastic a bit more than I would have liked, but it still worked : -)

The biggest challenge was attaching the lining to the rice bag -- the edges of the burlap were quite bulky, and I was afraid that when it was all atached there'd be all kinds of ugly bumps and gathers because of the way the two parts were NOT fitting together. However, it actually worked out pretty well! You'll notice that I added a pocket to the outside, just for fun, with some beads that I thought gave it a bit more of an Indian feel. What do you think?

This is the other side, where I secured the two original handles just as little dangly do-dads:

And here's a (blurry) peek inside the finished bag:

DD13 gave it the thumbs up and said it was an "EPIC lunchbag" : -)

While I was making her lunch bag, she was busy being creative herself. She didn't like the plain white dividers I gave her, so she took some scrapbooking paper and turned these:

Into these:

Pretty spiffy, don't you think? And the dear girl is putting the art tab first because that's her favourite subject! Ha! I love it!

Have you done anything creative in preparation of the new school year? Share about it in a comment!

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