Crafts and Cars

It was a short week, thank goodness because I don't know if I could have handled it being a "long" week.  I think it's just 'spring fever' for me personally.  I get a few days of sunshine, then the next thing you know I'm all giddy with excitement only to crash because, well I have to work so that I can later play.  Viscous cycle I'm telling ya!

My husband decided he needed to drink healthier drinks and bought a case of flavored water at Costco a few weeks back.  Later he offers me the 'left overs' which are actually the flavors he didn't care for much.  Orange Mango then the other was this:

Black Raspberry.  OMG!  I love it but it has to be super ice cold.

I have started drinking these now.  I'm terrible about not drinking water.  I just have issues with tap water and tend to just not grab bottled water.  Although, in the summers I usually have a bottle or two a day.  I'm surprised I don't experience more kidney stones than I do because of it.  These are really pretty good and come of several flavors.  Grab one for a dollar at Walmart next time and chill it down, then chug!  Refreshing! I promise.

Saturday we got up and ran into Olympia to pick up a storage unit for more of my art supplies.  It's kind of scary, stuff is now officially spilling over into my bedroom. Yikes!  I'm accused of being a hoarder but I keep telling him, "I have a use for everything!"  and he tells me, "yes, honey, that's what a hoarder is going to say."  He loves me though and knows it all makes me happy.

I made a quick dash to the thrift store a few days ago on my lunch break and grabbed up 4 different clear glass 'jars'.  I had a plan but wasn't sure which was going to work best.  I wanted to cover it in modeling paste tinted blue, to simulate water and then embed a pre-created mermaid.  The more I thought about it the more I realized I'd loose the mermaid in the paste.  So, instead of modeling paste I tinted the glass jar with Adirondack alcohol inks, then applied some mudd-puddles sand (something from The Great American Scrapbook convention years ago) to the base along with some shells using E6000 glue.  Once these were all dry the moment of truth, appalling the mermaid, I carefully applied a layer of E6000 to the back side of my beauty and placed her on, pressing every so gently.  She's pretty thin and I didn't want to break her, although one of her arms suffered injury but the E6000 fixed that right back good as new.  I then gave the whole then a few coats of Valspar Clear Sealer.  I know for a fact the alcohol inks will disappear once water hits it without some kind of sealant.  I'm hoping this works best, it did on my test dummy.

This pretty lady is on her way to Texas for very special Mom's birthday.

Sunday we got pretty bright and early.  Enjoyed the morning java then headed into town to check out the Annual Forest Festival Car Show-Off.  We had a really great time oohing and aahing over all the beauties.  I can never pick a favorite.  I snapped just a couple of pictures though.

Every time I see a bike at one of these shows I think of my nephew TJ and just wish he was around to share it.  Here you go TJ enjoy!

I worked a little in my Living Canvas Art Journal.  I don't know what it is with this workshop but for some reason I'm just not getting motivated to create.  It's really strange for me because Christy Tomlinson usually picks me right up and inspires the flow of art.  I may just be reading too much into it all and need to let it go.  Here's what I did this weekend.

The butterflies are made from the Crayola air dry clay and Martha Stewart molds.  I then covered them with Perfect Pearls and smudge of black Faber-Castell PITT artist pen to help define the fine lines/texture and a little smudge of white acrylic paint to help them 'pop' off the page some.

Well, that's been my weekend.  I sure hope you all had some fun hopefully in the sun.  If not, there's always next week-end.  Until next time, be safe out there and stay cool if you can.

Hugs of love.









What a time...

So I had this idea, create a blog and share 'klips' of my world.  Started out strong then sort of fizzled.  I'm not trying to rejuvenate the plan.  I problem, TIME, suddenly it seems I don't have enough time to all the things I want to do in any given day.

The only way I can think to carve out more time is to no longer work outside the home.  Problem with that, it feeds the things I enjoy doing.  grrrr.  Well, I'll just have to figure a few things out and just carve out my time each day and make the most of it.

Let's see what 'klips' from Kim would you be interested in:

Would it be, me stepping out and using something for other than it's exact intended purpose.

Then there are the up coming endless scrapbook layouts.

 

Of course there is the art journal, this is some work in the first one.

And now I've started a new online workshop so that means a new art journal.

We did a little treasure hunting this weekend in Port Orchard.  Does that interest you?

This weekend I also experimented with some modeling paste and self made stencils.

Now, the trick is going to be how I put it all together.  It occurred to me this evening to apply one of these lovely mermaids to a container for my Mom, I think she'd appreciate it. 

I guess the point of this post, is to post.  Quite a while back an English Professor told us when blocked just write eventually it will happen.  So, write I will.

Hugs of love.



I'm back

Oh wow!  I knew I hadn't been on the blog for quite awhile just didn't realize it has been since October.  I kept meaning to come back and share but it just never seemed to happen.  Life seems to have settled down a little for me, so I think now's the time.

In addition to a life settling, I am starting a new workshop called Your Living Canvas, check it out:  http://christytomlinson.typepad.com/christytomlinson/my-living-canvas-workshop.html .  

Part of the class is journaling to learn more about yourself (that's my take on it) then the next part is creativity.  I have to be honest though I haven't even begun the pre-work.  It's not that's hard, other it requires reflection, I just haven't sat down and done it.  I had promised myself today is the day, that was days ago.  Well, hopefully soon.  The good news, I have all year to work through the workshop!

I also became involved with a group of nice folks on facebook (thanks again Jeff) which is encouraging me to get back to my treasure hunting creativity.  I realized a few weeks ago, the weather plays a big role in my treasure hunting, in that up here there just really aren't any garage or rummage sales to venture out to once the rains start again in September/October.  Seriously, who wants to run around outside in the chilly wetness of the world?! 

Now with that all said, I haven't just been sitting on my tush eating bonbons.  I've been doing the job thing, kind of have to do that.  Courtesy of the hubs I had a terrific Christmas vacation with my lovely daughter, grandson, sister in law and niece at Disney World.  Then I worked some more doing some art to find some joy, shared that with a young lady who discovered Hobby Lobby for the first time and I've worked some more.

I've been posting a lot of the creative stuff on facebook to share with friends and family.  I'll pull a few over here over time to share and to give a little background on a few things I have in the works now.

Let's start with this one.

This glass bottle is a $1 find at the Goodwill.  I then covered it with modeling paste and applied some faces.  The faces I molded myself with Fimo air dry clay with a store bought mold.  Let it out to dry over night.

My next step was to paint the entire project.  I used burnt umber as my base coat then applied a few highlights with a couple of other browns to give some depth.

I then highlighted the faces with some jewel tone green perfect pearls.

Those who see this think at first it looks like milk chocolate, then the next impression is tree bark.  Tree bark was what I was going for.  I'm thinking on the next project I'll need to vary the brown a bit more to give it more texture.  It's a puzzle but fun.

The next project I'm planning is very similar to this one, only not with the faces and I haven't decided on the background texture yet.  It'll be something for Mom, if it turns out.

Well, its about that time, I need to start getting ready, we are going to a concert tonight, gonna go see Van Halen woo-hoo!

hugs of love.