Sunday Sketch 11/30/14

Some Cupcake Tags

My daughter's birthday was a few weeks ago and I printed a (smaller) copy of my Cupcake Drawing and made some little tags to tie onto the goodie bags for her sweet friends that came to her party. I make most of my tags on 3" x 3" pieces of 1/4" masonite so they are super durable and will last a long time.

Art Journal Page 11/25/14 - A Comforting Little Place

I am having so much fun making these little neighborhoods. I live in the desert which may explain my obsession with big, green trees...since we don't have them.

I've been working on a Christmas neighborhood too. But I think that will have to wait until our December First Friday Art Class to be revealed. I'm almost sure this will be our project for December. I think the girls will have fun making some cute little neighborhoods of their own.

Sunday Sketch 11/23/14

Another Little Hedgehog

This little guy is off to my nephew for his birthday. It's the Year of the Hedgehog. This is the 3rd one and I have 3 more to go (1 niece and 2 nephews). :)

Yarn: unidentified scratchy wool (body), Red Heart Comfort Solids (face), Sugar n' Cream (nose)
Needles: US 2, US 4
Pattern: Little Oddment Hedgehog from Little Cotton Rabbits (I love this pattern!!)

Art Journal Page 11/19/14 - Neighborhood

I've had these little houses in my head for a few weeks. This page was so fun! I made several houses and trees using scrap scrapbook paper. And I'm sure I'll be making LOTS more because this was pure fun from beginning to end. This is a great use for scrap paper!

I made the houses free standing so I could move them around and decide where I wanted to put them, as opposed to building them directly onto the paper. It was a little tricky glueing all the tiny pieces on, but worth being able to move them around and see which arrangement I liked best.

Here they are laid out on the page, but not glued down yet:

Before gluing them down, I did a light watercolor wash on the whole page and added some clouds.

There's just something so sweet about a grouping of little houses isn't there?

Sunday Sketch 11/16/14

Paper Piecing Fall Branches - a Tutorial

This is a fun paper piecing project for Fall and is simple enough that young children can have great success. It's a great exercise in design, contrast, and balance. My inspiration for this project came from THIS LOVELY QUILT.

Here are the step by step instructions:

(It was quite fun making the tiny replica of my original piece to go on the instruction page)

There are so many things you can do with this project and it's elegance comes from the simplicity of the design. The finished piece would make a lovely Fall card, would look beautiful in a simple frame, or would make a pretty cover to an art journal or notebook.

First Friday Art Class November 2014 - Fall Leaves

We took a little bit longer break than usual this year and are just now starting up our First Friday classes (this month on the second Friday). But we are back in session and ready to go.

Our theme today was FALL LEAVES. All of our projects had to do with leaves and trees and Fall.

I always like to start out with the simplest project and then move onto the more complicated. These Cut Out Leaves are very simple and fun to make. It's like cutting out snowflakes, only much simpler because you only have one fold. I first saw them HERE on the Choi to the World blog and I knew it would be a perfect first project for our November class.

I had so much fun making samples for class, I ended up with quite a few leaves! I found that regular printer paper, scrapbook paper and book pages work very well and cardstock is just too thick. We talked about design and the elegance that can be found in simplicity and delicacy.

The girls got right down to business and each made several leaves. We had 7 girls today and there were moments where they were all concentrating so much, there were actual moments of silence. Crazy! :)

Our next project was Puzzle Trees. (Inspiration for this project came from HERE and HERE). This is where we get a little more complicated. This project has a huge wow factor as you're doing it and the finished product. Win-win!

Here are the step by step instructions and my sample is at the top of this post:

For this project we worked together while the girls got the hang of it. It takes a minute for your brain to "get" that the negative space you create with your cuts become the positive space of the tree trunk and branches. This led to a nice discussion about positive and negative space. It was really fun to watch the girls begin to place their pieces on the black background and have the tree emerge. There were lots of 'ahh's' and 'cool's'.

Here are the sweet, beautiful girls with their finished, beautiful trees:

I did have another project on deck but we didn't get to it. We were going to do some paper piecing and do these Fall Branches. I've put the instructions HERE.

Next month I'm sure our theme will be Christmas or snowmen or angels or all of the above. See you in December!!

Sunday Sketch - November 9, 2014

IF - Paper

Much as I love working on canvas and wood, I always come back to paper. I love drawing on, painting on, and doing piece work with paper. Love it!

I have an artist friend that despises working on lined paper. It drives her crazy. Not me. Doesn't bother me at all.

Illustration Friday - the theme the week is paper.

Cuteness

Several years ago I did a pear painting for my sister that looked like this...

Recently my 8 year old niece did a Self Portrait and look what she included in the background...

 ...my pear! I love it!!!

110514 Face

Papermate Flair Pen, Prisma Markers, Prisma Colored Pencils, paint on paper

Art Journal Page 11/05/14 - 5 Girls

I've been wondering what to do with this square page for quite a while.

For a long time it looked like this--an unfinished page sharing space with my Bunny Girl.

Today I got out my Envelope of Faces and just started playing around with faces from this batch of faces.

And voila...this is what I got.

I like that the lettering is on a deep purple background which accentuates the purple stripe in the facing page's hair. Not planned, just a happy coincidence. I love when stuff like that happens!

Art Journal Page 11/05/14 - Autumn Girl

I love Fall! We are finally starting to feel like fall here in New Mexico. It was actually sort of chilly today. FINALLY!!! I had a lot of fun creating this page full of Fall elements and colors. The little scrap of text says "armfuls of autumn colors".  (Do you love the extents I will go to to avoid drawing hands?!?) :)

Here's the progression this little gal took from line ink drawing to finished face:

Here is her full page spread with my fancy Tea Girl. I like that both these ladies prefer oversized headwear.

Hope you're enjoying the beginning of Fall as much as I am. Now I'm off to enjoy some YUMMY Butternut Squash Soup for lunch.