Octopi or Octopusses

As is most often the case recently, I was looking for something particular and came across something else that caused me to take that fork in the road to somewhere I wasn't intending on going.  I was trying to find a project, or rather the ingredients for a project that I had stowed away when the family came for our family picnic last month.  It should be noted that it doesn't take much to veer off that path when going through my art supplies.  In this case, I happened upon my bag of notebooks and journals - those in various stages of completion, including a few specialty ones that had not yet been started.  It was one of these journals that took me down that "rabbit hole".  In it I found a watercolor I had done back in 2017 for the Scribble Picnic prompt "Octopus".

I thought that this would be nice framed and hung in my "bathroom gallery" at the condo, but, I decided that this octopus needed it's mate and funny how it's mate's given first name also has 8 letters.

I knew the original was done with watercolors but I don't remember which set I used and thought that it might be easier to match the colors with my watercolor pencils than to try to duplicate mixing up that purple.  I actually think I like the second one better as I think that it shows a lot more dimension whereas the original looks a little flat.  

Having both now, it was time to frame them.  The only trouble with that is that this finished size is not a normal frame size.  We took a ride to the ChristmasTree Shop to look for a frame/frames to match those that I've used before.  I decided to put them both in a larger frame but I need to matte them so that means a trip to Michael's or Hobby Lobby for a suitable sheet of paper to use for matting.

Of course, while there at the CTS I took some time to browse around when I noticed this:

This gentleman decided to create his own "husband waiting area".  He looks familiar.

It was on a quick trip to the Dollar Tree that I came across poster board in a blue that I thought would match the background of the octopusses.  It took a little measuring and cutting but I do like the way it came out.  That's my shadow darkening the bottom.  And we're just going to have to live with the rippling - that's what happens when you add water to paper that's not deemed for watercolors.

Folded Booklet Challenge

I was invited to join a Facebook art group for ICAD back at the beginning of June which I was able to share my cards to.  The group has decided to remain intact going forward but not just for index cards, though some are carrying through to 100 cards with a prompt list they created.

So what has this got to do with this post?  Well, someone posted a little folded booklet that they created using a sheet of paper that they had worked on, which was then folded, cut, and turned into a little booklet.  I thought that it was a neat idea and some of the members decided to take it as a challenge to make one of our own to share.

I took a sheet of watercolor paper and that was the first thing that I added to it - watercolors.  I used a variety of blues and greens.  Not too visible here.  Then I doodled on it with paint pens and gel markers randomly.

The paper was folded in half and into quarters both ways.  Then I cut slits 3/4 of the way alternating direction.

When folded it compresses to being this size.

While I still had it folded I turned the pages and lightly made a register mark so I would know where the bottom of each segment was because I was going to add writing to it and wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to write upside-down.  This was a good plan, if only I had remembered to check the last 4 segments.  I was able to save it by cutting that strip of segments completely off and gluing it down in the right direction.  I added some creativity quotes that I had been collecting in a journal to each page.

When I was done writing out the quotes (and fixing my directional mistake) I used a strip of scrapbook paper to make a "cover" for the booklet by gluing it to the top and bottom.  I thought I was going to get away without having to glue all the pages together and just the ones that were on the side folds, but as you can see below, this wouldn't work to keep the book together in order to read the pages easily.  Luckily there was enough room for me to sneak some liquid glue in between the backs of the pages to solidify it.  

I added a butterfly sticker to the front and glued a length of rick rack around it completely so it could be kept closed.

This came out better than I expected.  

Family Days

Here are my two little love's that were here with their parents two weekends ago.  They are growing so fast.  They're at halfsies in age - 6 and 3 and they get along well together.  Mainly because the older one is very tolerant of the little guy who is still working on his sharing skills but doing a good job for a 3-year-old.

They both had fun showing off their splashing skills jumping into the pool which luckily has been warm and in the 80's the last couple of weeks as opposed to last summer when we could barely get it into the low 70's.

Papa was able to hook up the wagon to the tractor and give them a little bit of a ride around the yard.

A collection of feathers they found exploring the yard.  

And we were able to get a picture of them with their great-grandmother, my mother before she left although the little one was a bit skeptical.  They haven't seen her since before the pandemic and she was unfamiliar to them, but she was happy to be here to get to see them. 

The little guy and his parents slept over and we were able to chase some balloons the next morning.  We, the adults, quickly got dressed and scooped him up still in his pj's to try to find out which diretion they were going.  Having him barefoot and in pj's meant he had to be held and turned out to be more manageable.  We were lucky to find a place to park in a local ball park to stop and see a lot of them go overhead.  He enjoyed it to a point.  

He found my little fairy garden on the plant shelf and did some rearranging.  Little boys have a way of making things work for them, like using a flamingo as a shovel, and burying little piggies face down in the dirt, and picking up every figure to ask me what it was.  But he was gentle with the plants though they are pretty scraggly to begin with.  

This past weekend we were at the condo with GS1.  We picked him up early on Friday because he doesn't have summer camp on Fridays and got busy.  After dropping off his "suitcase", we went over to the miniature golf center for his first mini golf experience.  

It was very hot and 18 holes is a lot for a first time.  We showed him how to putt but after a while he told us that he could do it "his way".  

It was nice to find a place inside the cave to sit and cool off for a few minutes.  Lucky for us that there wasn't a group following us so we could take our time.  

At the end there was a photo opportunity with the resident shark for our "Shark Week" lover and his papa.

After lunch and some time in the pool there was fishing at the dock.  Papa showed him how to bait the hook with the bait fish and he was not squeamish at all.

There were 3 fish caught that day - one kept.  The next day we went over earlier in the day and between the three of us caught 8.  Everytime HWNSNBP or I hooked one we had him reel them in.  I think we kept 5 of them altogether.  There was a lot of chatter around us as we were the only ones catching anything.  People asked what we were using for bait, etc.  We fish for snappers - small blue fish - with spearing as bait and pencil bobbers on the line.  Most of the other people at the dock use lures and weights and fish the bottom with success at times.  We don't always catch fish when we're there but thankfully we were lucky to have two good days while GS1 was with us making it a better experience for him.

While I was looking for a picture of some cow rays on my computer to show him, we stumbled across this project that he wanted to try.  Luckily we had a green bottle in the recycling and some of the craft supplies in a box that I had brought from home.  We did have to make a quick trip to the Dollar Tree for some googly eyes and pompoms (and a few more fun things were added to the basket while there).  We had the glow sticks, but of course bought more.  And once we saw the metallic pipe cleaners we knew that those would be a good substitute for the pastel ones that I had brought.  He cut the wings out of a paper plate without even making a pattern first which I loved.  We used a hot glue gun to stick everything to the bottle.  I held the gun and squeezed and he placed the pieces in place.  There was only one little mishap, but there were no blisters.  

BTW - He got his black eye at his gym class a couple of days before our visit.  

We were all a bit tired from all the outside activities of the two days and he wound up taking himself upstairs for a little nap before his mom and dad came to go in the pool with us late Saturday afternoon.  It was a wonderful visit all around and we hope to get to do it again soon.  

ICAD 2022 - Weeks 8 & 9

I had to play a little catch up for the last week.  Trying to fit time in this last week while we were getting ready for the kids to come for the weekend was a bit fruitless.  I haven't taken the group picture yet either, but thought I should get this post in the books.

50/61 - Detour

I used a tangle called Tootles by Jennifer Hohensteiner as this tangle is detouring off the page and saying "tootles".

51/61 - Space

Another tangled card with the tangle names Starawn by Judy Murphy.  Microns and watercolor pencils.

52/61 - Together

Yes, these two weeks are tangle-heavy.  This card uses Hart-Ellie, Huggins, and 'Nzeppel.  Done with Microns and watercolor pencils again.

53/61 - Dusk or Dawn

This is a mixture of actual watercolors and watercolor pencils.  Based on a photo from the internet.

54/61 - Wander

Another tangle yet again.  Wanderline by Tomas Padros.  In this case drawn as one continuous line with the rectangles only colored in with paint pens.

55/61 - Snowflake - kind of a cheat card as this was a doodled smaller index card from my stash that I thought could pass for a summer snowflake so I just glued it to the 4 x 6.

56/61 - Forest

Not a true tangle - just a bunch of triangular trees drawn with a Micron and colored with colored pencil and Stabilo markers.

57/61 - Luminous

I used silver and gold gel pens on this mandala hoping it would look luminous.

58/61 - Ultramarine

I had a picture in my head that I was going for and this is almost there, but not quite right.  Still, I kind of like the way it came out.  I used Shuttle Art gel crayons on this activated with a waterbrush.

59/61 - Briolette

This is one of those prompts that needed a little investigating as I wasn't quite sure what "briolette" was.  It is a triangular faceted cut of a jewel.  You can barely see that by keeping the base of the triangles the same size and varying their height gives a slightly curved diagonal line which would show up more clearly on a three-dimensional stone rather than on paper. Done in metallic marker and gel pen.

60/61 - Happiness

Happiness is watching the butterflies visit the zinnias in the yard at this time of year.  Done in watercolors and noting that watercolors do not perform as well on index card paper as they would on watercolor paper, thus the hatchy-patch butterfly which was supposed to be a swallowtail.  Still, I'm pleased with the leaves and flowers and the way they came out.

61/61 - Prism 

Off prompt unless you want to consider this a scattered butterfly rainbow caused by a prism.  Just drawn with a Micron and colored with watercolor pencils.

Now I have to catch up posting all of these cards on Instagram.  I'll be back with the collection pictures in a day or so.