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.