It's All About Fake Food

Hello Readers!

Over the past four days there's been an athon of the FOOD variety going on over at AFA.  I slept all of Sunday away and got very little done to show. I was busy on Friday and Saturday though! 

We started off with a tiny slice of white bread made from fleece and felt. I don't recommend making slices of bread this small. I made Lil A a felt sandwich awhile back that had life size bread slices.  The fried eggs are felt with some fiber filling stuffed beneath the yolk. Each of them has a button magnet sewn inside of it.

I can't call this post little fake food cause this cherry is actually a bit larger than any real cherry I've ever seen. Felt, filled with fiber filling. There's a button magnet sewn into the upper portion of the cherry, giving it a wonky stance when stuck to metal. 

Next up we have a pancake and a cute little donut. The syrup and butter pat on the pancake are glued on, the rest is sewn. 

I made the light brown doughnut first. I had to cut the dark brown one open to insert the magnet cause I forgot to stick it in before I finished sewing.

Then I dragged out the fingernail polish and made some strawberries out of cardstock. They have button magnets on the back side.

Still Life With Oranges

ATC

markers on cardstock

Green Pear

ATC

markers on cardstock

Corn on the Cob

ATC

markers on cardstock

colorful ocean fish

ATC

markers on cardstock

That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831

Monsters, A Few Drawings and Some Mug Rugs

Hello Readers!

Monsters are back on the radar as you will see later in this post. 

I drew some ATCs and couple of bookmarks and I've been busy sewing mug rugs.

Enjoy!

Gray Cat 

ATC

markers on cardstock

Pink Flower

ATC

markers on cardstock

the yellow wall

ATC

markers on cardstock

WIP

bookmark 

markers on register tape paper

WIP

bookmark

markers on register tape paper

Magnets

The ones with the light colored backgrounds are unfinished. The others have that same background but with some Modge Podge Dimensional Magic on top to seal all those little doodads in the bottle caps. I ran out of DM in the middle of it all. These still need a magnet glued to the backsides and I need to make a trip to buy some more DM.

Mug Rug

approx 4 inches

Felt, gold filigree ribbon and velvet. Sewn with embroidery thread and regular thread.

Mug Rug

Purple fish

Components are mostly felt save for the orange stripes which are cotton seam binding. Threads are all embroidery.

Mug Rug 

Paisley Starfish

felt, blue netting velvet paisley.  threads are regular sewing thread, metallic embroidery thread and crochet cotton thread

I cut out these monsters. Ma took them home and sewed their bodies with the sewing machine. I do not get along with sewing machines, as I have discussed before, and Ma volunteered to sew monster bodies for me. 

This yellow flower print material used to be a woman's shirt. It's a bit heavier than T-shirt material, but on those lines. I got three monsters out of the shirt with plenty left for smaller projects.

This one is about 7 inches tall. His horns are fleece and his eyes are felt. Nubby yarn for hair.

This one is also about 7 inches tall. Felt for his horns, felt and that same blue fleece from the previous monster for his eyes. Hair is crochet cotton thread. I like that all of my monsters are different from one another. This one almost doesn't even have a body. He's all arms and legs! 

This guy is about 10 inches tall with felt for his horns and eyes, nubby yarn for his hair.

I showed you all this unfinished blue plaid monster a few posts back. He's now sporting some really long orange sweater material horns and felt eyes. His hair is nubby yarn. He's about 7 inches tall as well.

I disassembled  a leopard print coat last night so you'll be seeing some leopard print monsters before long. The inside of the coat is some sort of quilted cotton-like stuff that I'll use for the innards of mug rugs and pot holders. I have tons of material to make monsters out of, just need to cut some bodies so Ma can sew them and I need to go buy some polyfiberfil to stuff them with. I'm down to less than half a bag of the stuff.

I started another light bulb orb. I'll finish it this evening so I can clean off the kitchen table and get started on my yearly fish picture.

This is just a reminder of what the finished orbs look like. I've had a few requests for these things. I'm not sure just how many I can make with the light bulbs that are left. I'm thinking maybe two more. The one I finish next will be spray painted a dark metallic green, I think. We'll see what the muse wants to do when the time comes! The muse dictates what happens creatively. I've no control over it!

Speaking of that fish picture....

I've been working on components for the fish picture for the last two nights and have quite a few different little baubles in the works. Most of them need more work done before I can say they are ready to be used. Once I get the canvas painted, the rocks adhered (still need to make and paint the rocks) and the fishes made for this one, I'll let you in on it! 

It must be done by the middle of August so I better get busy on it!

Next post you'll see another drawing and hopefully four Green Chunky pages as well. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831

ATCs and a Few Little Books

Hello Readers!

I dragged out the paint chips and the white paint pen and some markers to come up with these six ATCs.

Green Flower

ATC

paint pen on green paint chip backed by cardstock

Green Zen

ATC

paint pen on paint chip backed by cardstock

Lemon Zen

ATC

Paint pen and black marker on paint chip backed by cardstock

Pink Flowers

ATC

Paint pen and markers on paint chip backed by cardstock

(markers don't show up well in the photo but there is green and pink marker on there)

Purple Flower Zen

ATC

paint pen and marker on paint chip backed by cardstock

Red Eyes Zen

ATC

paint pen and marker on paint chip backed by cardstock

I got a new box of 64 crayons the other day at the dollar store. I emptied them into another box to make it easier to choose which crayon I'd like to use at any given moment. I saved the little boxes that held the crayons in the bigger box and turned them into cases for tiny books.

All pictures on these little books and cases came from an Art in America magazine.

Blue Tree Book

2.5x2 inches

white copy paper pages

sewn in coptic stitch

Elvis book and case

2.5x2 inches 

white copy paper pages

sewn in coptic stitch

Frieda book and case

2.5x2 inches

white copy paper pages

sewn in coptic stitch

Frieda is the only one of these little books that fit snugly in their case. The other two don't have enough signatures to fill up the case but they still work.

And the muse is still fascinated with owls for some reason!

Owl Book

6.5x7 inches

covers are from a plastic placemat. I painted the owl on old wall paper with acrylics and glued it to the placemat after cutting the covers for this book. It has white copy paper pages....8 signatures of 5 sheets paper each, sewn in coptic stitch with orange crochet cotton thread. 

You see that center-finding ruler in the picture above? I've been using that ruler since 1999. It is one of the most useful tools I've shoveled out money for! I don't so much use the center-finding capabilities of it so much anymore but it's a nice sturdy aluminum ruler and I use it a lot when cutting straight lines with my xacto knife.

There's an ATHON going on over at AFA all this week and one of the challenges for the athon was to use magazine paper on an ATC. My muse screamed, "Let's make some owls!" So we did!

Spotted Owl

ATC

magazine cutouts, white paint pen, black marker and fingernail polish on cardstock.

Blue Wing Owl

ATC

magazine cutouts, black marker, white paint pen and fingernail polish on cardstock.

Green Belly Owl

ATC

magazine cutouts, white paint pen, black marker and fingernail polish on cardstock.

Green Eyes Owl

ATC

magazine cutouts, white paint pen, black marker and fingernail polish on cardstock.

Ma told me she would sew monster bodies on her sewing machine for me if I'd cut the bodies out.

I forgot about a seam allowance for them as I sew right along the edge when I sew them by hand. These two have some hilariously skinny legs! I love how skinny their legs are actually! The plaid one is made out of a shirt I used to wear all the time! I don't know why I thought it needed to be done away with but it made a really cute monster and there is plenty more to make more monsters!

The other one is made from some slinky material that was once a skirt. Ma told me she doesn't want to sew that 'crap' ever again! So this is the ONLY monster that will ever be made from this material cause I am not going to sew it by hand. That just ain't happening!

These guys are both about 10 inches tall. The orange one being a bit taller than the plaid one. Eyes are felt, as are the horns and they have nubby yarn for hair.

Beings there is an athon going on this week, there will be more things made throughout the week to show you all. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831

Book, Orbs, Frogs and Flowers

Hello Readers!

It's been four days since a post. I've been busy today painting the covers to another book and cutting the page block for it. You'll see it soon. I've no clue what is going to be on the covers. All I've done is give the boards (a former parcheezee game) three coats of white paint to cover up the graphics.

I also painted an owl in acrylics on wallpaper. It will end up as the cover to a book. Though not the book I just told you I was in the process of making. It isn't the right size.

There are two more fabric flowers assembled. 

And I made a miniature pincushion. You'll get to see a picture of it in the next post. 

Yesterday I made this book below.

Front Side.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll find the chameleon familiar. I did him in oil pastels on book page sometime back. He was the perfect size for this book cover. I was digging around on the shelf beside my desk and came across this corrugated cardboard folder. It held the owner's manual and pertinent paperwork for a Samsung Digital Camera. That camera died a long time ago. I pitched the manuals. This nice little bit of cardboard was just too good to throw out! I put a velcro dot on the flap to hold the book closed.

Back Side.

The background paper came off the kitchen table where I do all my painting. This is all waste paint. When I'm painting I wipe my brush on newspaper before rinsing it out in the rinse water. I added some paint to the edge on the front cover because the newsprint was still showing through. The paint on the newsprint makes it much stronger than newsprint paper on its own.  I put a coat of varnish on it after I glued the chameleon to the front cover.

It has 8 signatures with 5 sheets each of manila drawing paper. It is sewn in the long stitch with orange crochet cotton thread. It is 6 x 4.5 inches.

I painted the light bulb orbs. These things are about 10 inches across. They are quite weighty as well. I'm just hoping the hot glue used to hold them all together holds up! Ma wants one for sure! Will put it together for her next week. I think that 5 gallon bucket still has enough bulbs in it to make, probably 3 or 4 more of these. Let's hope I have enough hot glue sticks to make that many!

Frogs came to visit for the day!

Horned Frog

ATC

acrylics on watercolor paper.

Blue and Red Frog 

ATC

acrylics on watercolor paper

Red Striped Frog

ATC

markers on cardstock

The Dapper Frog

ATC

acrylics and glitter paint on watercolor paper

Altered Envie to mail all those frogs in for the Frog Pond Swap over at AFA.

Acrylics on white envelope.

Bookmark

Blue flowers on orange.

colored ball point pen on cardstock. 

I got this set of pens for my birthday earlier this month. I don't know how much I'll use them for drawing. It was fun to play with new toys though!

I experimented with bugs and flat advertising magnets.

I dragged out the oil pastels and some black watercolor paint to do these beetles. They were outlined with black sharpie. I let the watercolor dry and then gave them a coat of gel medium to give them a bit more 'body'. They're drawn on a blank book page. After the gel medium was good and dry I glued them to a flat magnet that originally was displayed on a vehicle door to promote Special Olympics. Nice thick magnet, unlike the advertising magnets designed to put on an appliance or such. When I got this magnet, which is about 14 x 20 inches, it was rolled up and somewhat squished. It wouldn't lay out flat at all. The police chief was going to chuck it and my eldest son saved it for me. I've had it under a row of books on the bottom shelf of the bookcase in the hallway for about three years. It lays perfectly flat now. I cut around the bugs after gluing them to the magnet. They're about 3 x 2 inches. 

Always busy with something, that's me. 

Tomorrow I won't get much done cause I have to go to Pburg for the Mother's Day Brunch at my sister's house. Should be a great time though. I gathered a boatload of pictures and downloaded them to a SD card so Ma can see them on her digital picture frame. That's what she said she wanted. 

She has 9 children. I found pictures of all of us except my oldest brother (I typed oddest :)-Shhh don't tell John). I don't have pictures of some of the grandkids and greatgrands but I can fetch them for another SD card in the future. I have actual photographs of my brother and most of the grands, just don't have digital ones and my scanner, as you all should remember is dead as a doorknob!

The computer before this one I use now...have used since 2008... died of a virus or some such (I don't rightly remember why it died) and I kept the tower all these years because of the pictures and documents on it. My cousin came over to help me figure out how to get those pictures from my computer to the SD card and he took that old tower apart to retrieve the hard drive. He took the HD home with him and retrieved ALL my pictures and text documents from it! I was OVERJOYED! None of those pictures went on Ma's SD card so I still have plenty to give her. 

That old hard drive had over 4000 pictures on it and over 700 text documents. I deleted a few of the pictures and ended up with a little over 3700 pictures in that folder. The text documents are poetry and me rambling on about all kinds of things. I really can't say just how happy it makes me to have those things back.

It's late. I need to hit the sack!

Happy Mother's Day!

Be good to one another....especially to your Mama!

Peace!

831