June Art Class: Door Knobs

At our tables we were greeted with a special treat: a popcorn-filled jar that served as a wedding table favor from a group member's daughter's wedding.

First of all, we presented our artist trading cards (ATC cards). The ATC cards were to be representative of the wreaths we drew in our previous class. I used stamps and Sharpie markers to make my ATCs. 

Here are some lovely cards I received from members of the group.

I only snapped a few photos of the circle journals this time. Guess I was too busy with other things. These pages were made with paper napkins.

These are pages in the theme of Zentangle, as explained in my previous post here.

Then our monthly activity was to work with vintage door knobs. Door knob art is a very popular project right now. Here are some examples our instructor, Cindy, brought with her to inspire us.

Here is a nice assortment of old door knobs for us to use in our creations.

We brought embellishments; here are some pieces I brought which included old photos.

I transformed my doorknob into a picture holder. Cindy helped me color and twist the wire.

I had no idea that we could color wire.

We used alcohol ink and a blotter. Hmm...I learn something new every time.

 At the end of class, we compiled our door knobs creations for a group shot.

Another fun class! Thanks for reading!

What is Gamsol?

I'm a bit behind on posting what we've been doing in my monthly art class. We created this framed layered flower in our March art class. 

Plants for the Planet

Once again my local library presented an interesting class, this one in honor of Earth Day. It was called "Plants for the Planet." The library provided all of the materials to make this recycled vase with a Sweet William plant inside.

Leathercraft Bracelet Class

My local library offers many kinds of classes each month. I attended an Excel class in January and some craft classes too. The craft classes are free and include all of the materials needed. Isn't that amazing? The classes are normally very simple but I always learn something new. This month I attended the "Make Your Own Leathercraft Bracelets" class. I had never worked with leather before and probably never would if it hadn't been for the generosity of my library.

February Art Class - Tissue Paper Transfer

I'm really late in publishing this post, but later is better than never, right?! I think I procrastinated in creating this blog post because it is very detailed and it took me awhile to organize my thoughts. If you can hang in there with me, I think you will learn some neat things...I sure did!

In our February art class, we created a little book with a sliding cover, and decorated an egg and peat pot with printed tissue paper. The technique we used was called tissue paper transfer.

Completed Circle Journal

Last year I shared with you the circle journal I was working on each month with my friends in my Not Your Ordinary Art Class. Each month we created a page in each other's journal based on the theme each member chose for her journal.

My journal, which has the theme "Green," is now complete.  I wanted to share it with you to possibly offer some ideas in case you would like to do this with your own group. 

The printed and cut cover images of Irish kids came from The Graphics Fairy blog. I've made gift tags, die cuts and greeting cards with these cuties before.

Sewing Ashleigh's Wedding Dress

When Ashleigh asked me to sew her wedding dress, I experienced a mix of emotions. First of all, I felt honored that she trusted in me so much that I could do the job. Secondly, fearful in that I could potentially make her look bad on her wedding day. And lastly, overwhelmed imagining the steps it would take to make her dream a reality. 

The Bridal Shop

The first thing we did was to visit a bridal shop. We wanted the experience of her trying on bridal gowns to see if the style she liked looked good on her. (I also wanted to make sure that she wanted me to sew the dress - wouldn't it be easier to purchase one?) She immediately gravitated to this dress. This is what she wanted, a simple A line dress. Well, it looked simple enough, right?! No frilly lace to work around. "Why can't we purchase this one?" I asked. She said that she wanted the skirt to be another color, like beige or blush. "No store will have what I want," she said. "So you need to sew it for me." Well, ok then.

October Art Class

My October art class was kind of a blur because it took place just a few days before our daughter's wedding. Each month I share with you our artist trading cards, our circle journals and our monthly project.

I didn't get my artist trading cards completed to share this time, but these lovely trading cards were generously given to me.

May Art Class

This month our instructor taught us about Prima art products. We applied metal objects, lace, sewing pattern pieces, gesso, texture paste and paint to a small canvas. When I saw the model piece, I immediately thought "wedding"! This is how mine turned out! I love how the sewing pattern piece created a nice textured background.

Baby Shower Decor: Banners, Toppers & Confetti

I was recently asked to make decorations for two baby showers. The interesting thing was that their themes were quite similar. One had an Alice in Wonderland theme, and the other theme was a children's storybook. The three items I made for each party were a banner, cupcake toppers and confetti for the table.

For the Alice in Wonderland banner, I cut pieces from a children's book

photos from this baby shower compliments of Ashleigh Antle

March Art Class at Palette & Paper

This month we met at one of my very favorite inspirational creative spaces called Palette & Paper. We worked with colored pencils this time. But before we did that, we visited for awhile and then partook in our monthly Artist Trading Cards (ATC) swap.

With our swaps, we practice what we learned from our previous class. So since last month we dabbled in stencils, die cuts and stamps, that's what we did. Here's my creation. After cutting lilies with my Cameo, I decided they would be the perfect size for my ATCs. The lilies have a green base, and a second piece (the flower I cut from white cardstock) adhered to it with glue dots. The flower was sponged with ink.

Not Your Ordinary Art Class

I have finally found an art group that meets monthly in my part of town. It is called Not Your Ordinary Art Class. I have been searching for this type of group for several years! What a great way to start the new year! The ladies are all so sweet and welcoming. The group started 15 years ago so that tells me it's a good one!

Each month I will learn a new skill, have lunch, and swap artist trading cards (ATC) with the group. ATCs are miniature pieces of art that are traded in swap groups. The only official rule is that they are 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size. Our ATCs will have a theme, usually drawing on the skill of what we learned the previous month. This month, though, we started with our "word of the year". Through the holidays, I had been searching for my word of the year when I noticed a Facebook challenge showed up in my feed that offered to help me find my word of the year. I took FB up on their offer and my word became "wisdom!"

UncommonGoods Review

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of UncommonGoods. All opinions are 100% mine. 

The online New York based store, UncommonGoods, invited me to review some of their products. The offer was to choose from their gifts for men and women collections and write a blog post about them. Since I am trying to be more health conscious, I chose this green Bike Tote from their gifts for women, and this attractive Define Fruit Infusion Bottle from their gifts for men. (I think I've mentioned before that green is my favorite color - and the olive green shade of the tote is just right!)

December Daily Journal

Have you heard of a December Daily journal? I discovered it on Pinterest awhile back. For several years now, I have wanted to experience writing in a December Daily journal during the month of December. Until this year though I had waited too late in the year and then just let the idea go. But this year, I'm going to actually do it! Hurray, it's only August and I am ready!

I made this junk journal (below) last year too close to Christmas and felt rushed to use it (I blogged about it here). So to add to the assurance of using it this year, I made some holiday colored tabs to use in it for fun. I adhered them to the pages with glue dots. (On a side note, I have great respect for glue dots as an adhesive. Recently, I was looking for an adhesive that would attach glitter cardstock to regular cardstock and I found that glue dots were the only adhesive that held them together!) 

June Happy List

Father's Day was so much fun! Ashleigh and her dog, Tangerine, came over for the afternoon.

Photo courtesy of Ashleigh Antle

Sewing Paper and Cloth Banners

How are you doing? I've made a couple of new things lately and didn't make the connection until I started writing this post that they are both banners that were made with my sewing machine. 

Actually, the first one is a garland. I've seen die cuts sewn together and have been wanting to experience making one myself. I haven't sewn paper very much with my sewing machine so I was a bit skeptical about the results of this project. I started with two different shades of pink card stock, then punched the butterfly shapes and finally stitched them together at a 3 inch interval. I was pleasantly surprised and happy with my butterfly garland! Here they are strung on an old lamp base for you to see. 

Valentine's Day Heart Challenge

My friend Becky invited Missy and me to accept a mixed media Valentine's Day challenge. We were to decorate a heart. Her inspiration came from the Artsy VaVa blog here. I wanted to use this photo of my dad and his sister for my masterpiece.

Melody of Love

I really enjoy the creative process. It takes quite a bit of time to design a project, but the satisfaction it brings cannot be measured. I'll show you how I transformed the card on the left into the card on the right. 

iPhoneography Class

This past weekend I took an iPhoneography class at Conner Prairie (an outdoor living history museum), taught by Rad A. Drew. Since I have found that I use my iPhone pretty much exclusively for taking photos for my blog, I wanted to learn how to use it more effectively. Some of the things we learned in class were: using iPhone apps such as Snapseed, Bracket Mode, AutoStitch, Impressions, Vintage Scene, Retouch and Frontview; and practicing taking photos using the panoramic setting on the camera.

The most exciting thing I learned was how to edit photos directly on my iPhone. Instead of having to download my photos to iPhoto on my Mac and then edit them in PicMonkey, I can now edit them directly on my iPhone using the app Snapseed. That will save me a step. Also, I think this will save me time as I can edit photos right away instead of having to sit down at my computer and do it later.

After an hour and a half of class, we were given time to go out onto the Conner Prairie grounds to practice taking photos using what we learned in class. Conner Prairie was a great place to take photos as you can see. Here are some I edited via Snapseed.

Greeting Cards from The Primrose Stack & More

Recently Michaels had a terrific sale on 12" x 12" paper packs so I treated myself to some. I really was low on printed papers anyway. I spent a blissful afternoon making cards with them. These papers came from the DCWV The Primrose Stack.