Last Hurrah

I told Paul if he gave his 'hobby' I would give up mine. He gave up his on Oct 15th. So, it appears I will not be crafting for a while. These are the project I completed before I decided to take him seriously.
The 1st is color pencil workshop held Oct 19th.  I wanted to learn how to make crystal look like crystal.

The second picture are samples of what the Rocky Mtn Hi chapter did at our in our Oct meeting (Oct 21th). Only one of these masks is mine. See if you can guess which one. There were about 20 mask done, but not everyone was willing to share. These are not the best or the worst. These are the ones I was able to photograph.

The last picture is the Shrinky Dink I did with the group on (Oct 22). We crafted a bunch of (abt 50)Shrinky Dink sheets into tree ornament with a wilderness theme. Elissa donated a tree, I donated red bulbs and Maryiln is working on adding glittered pine cones that Sheila donated. We plan on giving it to the folks at Gander Mountain on the 18th of November. I hope to get a picture of everyone else's ornament at that time. Some of them are so clever.

I still can't get the Shrinky Dink to work properly. This one was all curled up and touching it's self in several places, I threw it away. Linda pulled it out of the trash and 'fixed' it. Shrinky Dink is the most frustrating material EVER.

I did not go cold turkey the minute Paul denounced his hobby. The third week of October appears to be my last hurrah.It is probably just as well, I don't see a lot of improvement and it was pretty expensive. Still, it was fun while it lasted.  Drats! Now what am I going to blog about?

Fall is in the Air

I love this time of year. I am so happy that the hot air of summer is almost finished.  It seems when the tempature drops I have more energy.  I have been so busy. Of course, it helps that we have another craft day planned for the 7th and I have been busy trying to think of fun and exciting things to keep my guests occupied. I hope they like what I have planned.

Multi Purpose coasters

Batiked Christmas card.

Still to be announce shrinky dink ornament.

We will not be doing this project, but this is my lastest watercoloring project. It is painted on textured gessoed yupo paper. I kinda of like it. Maybe I am finally developing a style.

August Workshop

The Chapter had a batik workshop at Judy Patti's Studio in August. Here are my paintings. If we have a family workshop at my house in October, we can either make place mats or a batik painting. Think about it.

art show pieces

Here are the two pieces I entered in the art show.

Art show Centerpiece

Here is the centerpiece I made for each table.

Art show Luncheon

Here are some of the place mats made by the Rocky Mtn Hi Chapter of the Society of Decorative Painters for their September Art Show Luncheon.

Autumn Leaves

I have been busy painting, but it has been the same project. The board of directors for the Rocky Mtn Hi Chapter of SDP has decided to paint place mats for all of our guest at our the September Art Show, and foolishly they put me in charge. Here is the design we will be painting for our monthly meeting on Monday. I hope the meeting goes well. It took me forever to come up with this design, and as hard as this was, I am not sure I will ever be able to paint the poor farm.

To Key or not to to Key

I have been trying to think of new ways to use the alcohol inks. I suppose this could be construed to a bit of sibling rivalry.  I really liked what Judy did with the napkin rings. Anyway, my idea was  bookmarks.  I think they turned out kinda cute.  

Sunday night I color a half of sheet of shrinky dink.  I was going to make a key chain, but the shape kind of lends its self to another bookmark.

Current Projects

Here is the painting we just finished in class.  Can't say its my favorite. But practice makes perfect. So, hopefully the more I practice the better I will get.

I found what I think is a pretty good fern that I plan on working on next.  I tried working on the poor farm, but, alas, my ambition exceeds my ability.

Speaking of upcoming projects. I am going to try today to make a couple of alcohol ink bookmarks. 

Collage Prep Work

I have been doing the prep work for our up coming workshop. Two of the pieces turned out pretty good and two not so good.  I have email the person whose piece does not look so good and she has picked out another piece. .

  The other piece was mind and I have also picked another piece. I am posting the results for all pieces so you can see the difference.  It turns out collage work done by the beginner needs a lot of color. 

Sheila will not be able to join us for the workshop. So, we started the project she picked last Sunday.  It is not done, but it is looking pretty good!

Makin' it work

Before the shinky dink workshop, I took a class from Annie Martinez, who is a be a pretty well known artist in the Denver area. I was not pleased with the results, but now I have a work around.  Here are a couple of post card I bought from the artist, so you have an idea of what mind were suppose to look like.

 Here is what mind ended up look like.

  

The paintings you do in a workshop usually do not turn out, but this is ridiculous! Anyway, turns out an owl is not a good choice for collage work, but this looks like it may turn out to be a pretty good collage

Light a candle, cast a shadow

We did smoke paintings about a month ago and I forgot to post the results. Paintings were made on Mat board and core boards. Light a candle and use the smoke to create a charcol finish on the board.

  Then paint around the smoke with paint colors that enhance the image made with the smoke. I believe I used paynes gray, and yellow orche.  There may be some antwerp blue and quin gold.

The 1st painting is over worked, and the second is not done. Where you see just gray needs to be made into a shape. I would like to make a couple of big rocks. Yes, I am scared I will over work.

You say decoupage, I say collage, my instructor says mosiac

I guess my instructor has had enough of 'collaging' 5 days a week, three times a day.  Last night she had us do a very quick watercolor painting.  I think it turned out pretty good, but I do miss working with torn pieces of paper.  I can hardly weight until the18th!  I bought painting boards last night and I will have the patterns drawn on the boards to give everyone a head start.  If you have any old magazines we could use please bring
them. Here is the painting we did last night
 

Cute huh?

Shrinky Dinks

The Rocky Mountain Hi Chapter of the Society of  Decorative Painters Sponsored a workshop yesterday.  We made these cute little shrinky dink butterfly necklaces. Maybe if we have time on the 18th we can make a shrinky dink keychain.

Birthday Greetings

I made birthday cards for Terrie, June and Paula and gave them to them over the weekend.  I think they are kinda cute, on the other hand, I am probably be giving folks 'gifts' they  don't really want.Can't decide if I am being brave or conceited.

Snifing Glue, but not Inhaling

Right now we are building collages out of torn pieces of paper in my watercolor class. I thought it would be a lot like decoupaging, and maybe it is, but it had been a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. Did you know there is a National Society of Collage Painters and the have a chapter in Colorado. If the decorative painters can have a society, why not have one of Collage painters?

Anyway, here is my 1st attempt. Note how muddy it is. I learned it is best not to use to many diferent patterns.

Here is my second. Much cleaner. It is not finished. I still have to finish the duck face and the duck reflection.

Here is my third. I took one of the eagles from last month (eagle #4) and just started layering torn paper.  I should have done more planning.

 Besides working with glue, I have also been working on these darn lions since July.

This is a painting done by Judy Patti, my watercolor teacher. I plan on using it and the pictures Judy sent me of the poor farm for inspiration for what will hopefully be my masterpiece rendering of the painting I have been planning to for Mom for the last couple of years.

Reading Update

I just finished reading The Judgement of Paris, by Ross King.  Learned so much about the impressionistic artist at the turn of the century.  While the book was short.  Twenty-five percent of it was footnotes. It covered a lot of ground. I will have to digest, and then go back and read again, but right now I need something light and fluffy. Perhaps a nice dog tale.

Snow Bunnies

While my painting endeavors do require a lot of attention, occasionally I will do something besides think about painting.

Here I am with my sister and niece doing lunch at Norstoms.

And here I am enjoying watching my dog making snow bunnies. People make angles, puppies make bunnies.

Plantronics CS540 with HLHL10

I am so excited about my new at work 'toy.'  It's a wireless headset with a phone receiver lifter. Its one of those things you don't realize you need it until you have it and then you don't kow how you lived without it.

You wear the headset then when the phone rings you push a button in front of your ear, that lifts up the receiver on you phone and press dough you are one the phone.  You can be up to 350 feet away from you phone, so mad dashing when the phone rings. 

I especially love it for the many web ex meetings I am now expected to attend. There is nothing more tiring than holding the phone to your ear with you neck for hours on end. Technology, who knew!

 As you can see you do have to contend with a few wires. I am going to try and hide behind art work, perhaps the six inch tile I stamped.

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic

Sheila and I took a color pencil class with Paula Leopald over the weekend. Repetitive motion is so relaxing. Here are my results. I think Sheila was pleased with her results too, because she has her's framed and hanging on the wall.

Coffee Musings

What is the proper way to make coffee you ask? Why, you add hot water and use it as a painting medium.  Here are a couple of paintings I made using freeze dry coffee as a medium last December.