A Drunken Bird and a Few Monsters

Hello Readers!

I've been making monsters. Here's the proof.

This guy is made from a velvet skirt. I love it that he's all sparkly! He's not really soft as a velvet monster should be because of all the sparklies, but he's awfully cute anyway if you ask me! He's about nine inches tall or so....not counting his fleece horns. His eyes are felt and his mouth is bulky pink yarn sewn on with embroidery thread.

Ugly Beige Monster

I think this monster is very ugly to look at. He has very little personality. He's soft as she can be though cause he's made from an old cashmere sweater. His eyes are felt and fleece and his horns are fleece as well.

Brown Fish Stuffie

Fish is about a foot long. He's entirely from felt and gray crochet cotton thread. 

I was beginning to think this fella would ever get done. I sewed the fish itself together way back in March, might of been February! I stuffed and added the rest since the last post.

Drunken Bird Magnet

I warned you all there'd be a drunken bird! 

Maybe not what you were expecting? Well, this bird looks like he's had way too much imbibing for one day! I do love his shoes though! If  you're gonna go lay one on, make sure you do wear your snazzy shoes! 

Bird is made from recycled chipboard, copper wire, plastic shoe beads, markers and a bit of glue stick. Bird is about three inches tall not counting his legs and shoes. 

I was on a magnet making kick over a period of a couple days. For some reason I didn't even take a picture of the third magnet I made. Will do that before the next  post though.

I Spy Magnet

My daughter in law, Lou said this magnet was like an I Spy picture so that's why it has this name. It is just a bunch of little stuff stacked in a white plastic jar lid and three magnets slapped on the backside. It's quite heavy cause dummy me just had to put all those little silver disks all over the bottom of the inside of the lid. It's about 3.5 inches across. It ain't no little magnet! There's a bit of this, a bit of that in there. I tried to stay with a theme of  'gaming' but it kinda went off track with the hearts. Though there are games of the heart...even if they aren't a good thing. It's all chance in the end. Every single thing we do comes down to chance in one sense or another. 

I'll probably make more of these kinds of magnets with all kinds of little junk glued in.  It was a fun exercise. I'm not certain where I got this jar lid. There were two of them in the basket on the kitchen counter where all 'art related' things end up from the kitchen. I think my sister may have sent these two lids over cause I can't for the life of me think of anything I've used up that came in a jar big enough to have that large of a lid!

Lace Heart Monster

Everyone whose seen this monster says that heart looks like her mouth. I didn't intend it to but whatever they see is what they see. She's made from that same old cashmere sweater as the other beige monster. And she's not much prettier than he is either! She is just as soft as her brother but she's not near as lovable as he is cause of her scratchy lacy appendages. Her arms and legs are lace, her eyes fleece and silk and her horns silk. Those horns were a BEAR to sew! 

With each monster conceived, new ideas are born. Adjustments made from one to the next and learning in the process becomes the norm. Practice makes perfect. I'm still striving for perfection. Probably always will be! 

One Eyed Striped Sweater Monster

I love this guy! He's got personality! He's made from an old man's sweater and felt. He's pretty good sized....over a foot from toes to horn tips. He's big and squishy and he just reminds me of a good friend!

Three Eyed Red Fleece Monster

He's made from an old red fleece shirt I used to wear. His horns, eyes and mouth are all felt. 

He's quite lovable too!

I'm working on a little book this evening. Have other things in the works as well but nothing is coming together in any great hurry these days! 

Remember.....

Be good to one another. It matters!

Peace

831

art

Blue Dragon

ATC

Fleece Snake Stuffie

3.5x2.5 inch watercolor journal

strawberry cupcake

mini journal

1.5x2 inches

9 watercolor paper pages

4x6 inch Green Collage Notebook

Pages are various colored plain writing paper. It has 5 signatures, 5 sheets each.

Covers are made from recycled chipboard (food box) with magazine cutouts glued on both sides of the chipboard and then painted with green glitter paint to keep everything tight 

Sewn in coptic stitch with green crochet cotton. 

Denim Orange  Flower Dottee

Blue Spider

Green Butterfly Dotee

Pink Butterfly Dotee

Zebra Dotee

Fuzzy Red Heart Dotee

Teeny Fuzzy Red Dotee

Itty Bitty Yellow Polka Dot Dotee

Wild Orange Haired Yellow Dotee

Green Dragon

ATC

Green Parrot

ATC

Blue Eyes

ATC

Docker's Fields

ATC

Monique's Poppies

ATC

Purple Iris Bud

ATC

Janzen Pansies

ATC

Purple Polka Dots

ATC

Beginnings of a cat done in paper mache. 

That's it for today!

:)

Peace

831

A Boatload of Little Books and a Couple of Dotees

Blogger went and changed things up on me.....let's see how this all works out!

There is an ART-A-THON going on over at AFA (link's up there on the upper left) this weekend. It started yesterday and will run through Monday at midnight. 

For Thursday, into Friday I made little books. Lots of little books!

The first 5 are all the same (pretty much) with the exception of the particular stamp plastered on the front covers. I didn't even know this series of US stamps existed until someone sent me all five of these along with a boatload of other cancelled stamps as RAK a few weeks ago. They worked nicely for these little books.

The materials used are all game boards for the covers and watercolor paper for the pages.

This one is a game board from the game Carmen San Diego.

This one is a Scrabble board.

They all have 9 pages of watercolor paper.

This one is a Scrabble board.

This is the only one with a 'fancy' tie.

I'm uncertain the name of the game this one came from.

Another Carmen San Diego gameboard cover.

They are all sewn in the coptic stitch with gray crochet cotton. I got lazy (cause I'd been up all night) and only made one of the ties 'fancy'.  The ties are needed cause these books will not stay shut on their own.

I forget what the covers for this one and the next two are made from....gameboards of some sort. The text is song lyrics I typed into my word processor on the smallest size font it offers (excellent typing practice and I got my fix of music for the day as well!) and then printed out on copy paper and glued to the gameboards. This one has watercolor paper for pages.

This one has two polymer clay beads tied to the end of its ties. 

The inchie on the front cover was done back in 2009.

Pretty much the same story as the last one. The beads are stone, the inchie was done in 2010. This one has brown kraft paper pages.

Again, pretty much the same story with the exception of the thread used in binding the book. This one is sewn with regular sewing thread.  It also has brown kraft paper pages. The inchie was done in 2009.

All of these previous little books are 2 x 1.5 inches.

The three with text covers were only sewn together in the ATART. They'd been laying on my desk for months!

I started from scratch with the others.

Green Collage Writing Journal

This one is 4.5x6 inches. It has been laying on my desk even longer than the little journals had been laying here! The covers are chipboard from food packaging (or similar-been so long since I did the covers, I don't rightly remember just what I did make them out of...chipboard from something though.) I collaged the covers, inside and out, with magazine clippings all in tones of green. Then I painted over that with some green glitter paint to give it some shine, bit of character and to seal it all.  It's sewn with green crochet cotton and has 5 signatures of 6 pages each of different colored writing paper.

Strawberry Cupcake Watercolor Journal

This one has pretty much the same story as those from the beginning of the post. It has glass beads tied on its ties. The inchie was done earlier this year. It is only 2x1.5 inches and has 9 pages of watercolor paper. Sewn with gray crochet cotton. Covers started out as a checker board.

Crochet cotton makes good thread for little books.

Green and Yellow 

I drew the corner pieces for the cover a couple weeks ago. (Had no idea what I would do with them at the time.) They too have been laying on my desk taking up space! I cut the paper and covers for this book early early this morning. It has 9 pages of watercolor paper, sewn in the coptic stitch with gray crochet cotton. The covers are from the Carmen San Diego game board. (I think I've used up that entire board with this book.) The button is sewn to the cover and another sheet of watercolor paper is glued to the inside front cover to hide the knot that holds the button secure. The game board graphics show on the inside of the back cover. The tie is a length of green crochet cotton braided. This one is 2.5x3.5 inches. I traded this one and  have 2 more to make as I've traded them as well. You'll get to see them when they get made.

The Dino Paper Bag Book

The covers are two chunky pages I did eons ago! The pages are made from brown paper bags. They're a bit larger than 4x4 inches but they seem to work. I don't remember how I sewed this one together. Have only made one book this way....It's sewn in the coptic stitch, I just can't figure out how exactly I did it! This one has three paper bags as it's pages. I've embellished most of the pages with magazine clippings, some straw netting material, a little of this, a little of that....there's a little hand sewn blank pamphlet in one of the pockets. The pockets are formed from the paper bags. It's a cool little book that needs a whole lot more TLC to bring it to it's potential! I think I'll offer it up for trade. It quit talking to me!

I've a whole bag full of dotee bodies just waiting to become dotees. There will be more dotees in the next post! There must be a good 15 bodies just waiting patiently!

I worked on a couple in the last few days:

Button Beret Dotee

S/he's got a fabric covered button for a beret on top of his felt body, little rubber doodads for eyes, blue aluminum chain for danglies and a danglie hanging off his belly just to make him look sassy. That danglie was  part of a pc of costume jewelry. He's about 4 inches, not including his chains.

Red Wild Child Dotee

I love that red fuzzy fabric! It used to be a sweater! Her hair is yellow vintage hem lace, her eyes are two wooden beads. She's a lampwork bead on her tummy and her danglies are unraveled braided silk cordage. She's about 4 inches not counting her hair or her danglies.

The weekend hasn't even started so there is a good chance another post will be forthcoming quite soon!

Tomorrow I am going to be kidnapped and taken hostage for the day to attend a family reunion down in Hutch. I am not looking forward to said reunion. Not because I don't want to see these people, but because I know my old body is not going to cooperate and I get a bit antsy when my bed isn't within sight! Hutch is three hours from my bed! Wish me luck!

This is my plan for the afternoon!

Not sleeping by the toilet, but definitely sleeping! 

I really don't know how that fool Fred dog can sleep right there! You can't see it, but there's a litter box where you THINK his head is! He sleeps quite soundly in this spot though....saws lots and lots of logs right there in that spot!

I'll be sawing logs in my own bed, thank you!

You all remember to smile! Give a few hugs today too!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace, my friends!

831

Just a Test

I've had this blog for a few years now and have just discovered that if you click on the pictures, it will take you to a larger version of said picture. All this time I've been downsizing ALL the pictures I've added here cause I thought they HAD to be downsized....just discovered a way to save myself a boatload of time and give you all better pictures to look at!

If you click on the picture above, the scenery is so much nicer!

Coming up on Wilson Lake from the south on Hwy 232 in Kansas. That's the scenic route! No. Really, it IS the scenic route. There are signs along the road that designate it such. 

And it is very pretty along that 20 miles stretch of highway!

That's not Wilson Lake in that picture. That's just a farm pond. There are usually cattle around that pond. The lake proper is up around the bend a ways.

Unfortunately you aren't going to get to see the lake cause I drove right by it without taking a single picture on this trip. But here's another shot of that little farm pond.

Some trees along the highway between Lake Wilson and home. I'm thinking somewhere over by Waldo.

Sunflower field. I showed you this picture in its downsized version in the birthday bash post. This one is full size. Give it a click.

Another shot of the sunflowers.

And still another shot.

I stood up on the running board of the van to take this picture. I had to take a few shots cause I couldn't see the viewfinder on the camera from the angle I chose.

I don't have any art to show you all. Nothing's had its picture taken and I've not created any new art since the last post so no art in this post. Sorry if you're disappointed. I promise there will be more art, soon.

You all be good to one another!

Peace

831