Little Celebrations and Party Birds

We did have our Cheese Doodles last Sunday on Cheese Doodle Day.  HWNSNBP had the orange fingers to show for it.  I used my finger chopsticks on my helping.  He picked up a snack pack of Oreo's at the local convenience store so I could have them with milk on Monday to celebrate Oreo Day.  We don't get the big bag anymore because it's too much of a temptation to keep eating them.  

Monday was also Fun Facts About Names Day and I remembered that I had shared the story of my name with someone recently - the brother of my school colleague that I had visited.  I forget how exactly we got to the point of discussing how my name was chosen but I did tell them that I always thought that my parents had some romantic notion of going to the Lorraine region of France.  But that illusion was shattered when my mother told me that Lorraine was the name of a carpet store in the town that my father hailed from and they used to pass it on the way back to her house when they were dating.  I guess that's a little romantic without the France part. 

Tuesday was Plant Power Day and you can see the hellebores outside the dining room window powering through the dusting of snow that we received.  (We still haven't had any significant accumulation this winter.)  HWNSNBP waited until this melted to plant two of the new hellebores that we picked up at Trader Joe's last week.  They were reasonably priced and in full bloom but they needed to be in the ground and so far they've handled the temperature changes well.  We like these because the deer don't bother them.

Thursday was Meatball Day so we decided to get a meatball parmigiana sandwich to split for lunch.

I got tagged for jury duty again - this time for District Court in Trenton.  I was tagged for county last year and did not have to report on the days I was assigned.  I got this notification in December and, to be honest, disregarded it.  So they caught up with me and in the letter I received this time said that if I didn't fill out the form (either the paper or on line) I could be legally required to report to fill it out in person at the office in Trenton.  Not wanting to do that, I contacted my cardiologist to see if he would fill out the form to excuse me - this based on the medications that I take and what they're for and the office manager said they would.  So back and forth with the form and e-mails to Trenton made for some busy work this week.  Last I heard, they are processing my request.  This is the 6th time I've been called upon and I know some people who have never been called - go figure.

Friday was HWNSNBP's birthday and also the International Day of Awesomeness (which I didn't tell him about - he already knows how awesome he is).  We were busy running around during the day and met with some friends for an early dinner.  He just wanted us to pick up a couple of slices of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory for dessert when we got home.  That was a nice treat.  I'll show his card in a couple of days.  I'm not quite liking something about it right now and need to fix it before I take a picture.

Some new plants we picked up at The Great Swamp Nursery

Yesterday was Worship of the Tools Day.  I didn't do any worshipping but I was thankful for the new battery-operated glue gun I got for Christmas so I could fix the new wreath rail I made for the back door without having to take it down.  I guess I hadn't glued the tube-ribbon shamrocks well enough and noticed that they popped apart.  I'm finding that the glue doesn't set as fast as my previous glue gun, so I have to hold things in place longer.  Thank goodness for fingernails.

I painted these birds the other day and despite the fact that I watched the video twice (and took notes) I can only use the excuse that I started them late at night and did them completely wrong.  You start with a heart shape for the body and they're supposed to be upside-down.  Then you add the head and the tail.  And the legs.  Totally done wrong, but I think I salvaged them all right.  I was going to use them for Art and Found Day today but didn't feel like mounting and packaging them up and it's supposed to rain heavily tomorrow and they would be exposed to that.  So I'll save them for ............

They're done on 4x6" watercolor paper and are called Party Birds because they are far from realistic and just having fun.

An Inky Experiment

A fellow ICADian Suzanne Hershey Ford recently posted a little art experiment that I thought I would like to try.  She took flower blossoms and made them into an ink/watercolor by boiling them.  I found some instructions on-line that said you could just pour boiling water on them and let them sit for a while which appealed to me more so I looked around for some blossoms.  

The redbuds were blooming in the yard and were fast approaching the "browning" stage but I managed to collect about a half cup of them.  I spooned boiling water over them and let them sit for a couple of hours but they did not give up any detectible color.

All or most of the daffodils in the yard are done, and we do have other flowers planted but they're much too young to give up enough of their blossoms for this experiment.  Then I looked around inside.  HWNSNBP had "found" a forgotten potted amaryllis bulb in the basement about a week or so ago that was sending up it's flower spike.  It did bloom late last week, but the blossoms were beginning to fade so I picked off the two nearly shriveled ones and tried the boiling water again.

I also noticed that one of my orchid plants had suddenly dropped all of it's blooms and they still had some color in them so why not try these also.

As you can see from the photos above, the amaryllis gave up some good color but the orchids not so much.  There was just the faintest hint of color from them.

So I got out some watercolor paper and started playing around.  I wet the paper and dripped the color on it first and let that dry.  Then I loaded the brush with the liquid and layered some circles on, letting it dry between layers.

On this one I just used the paintbrush pressed lightly onto the paper to make flower petals.  In between the flowers I used the orchid ink in dots to see what it would look like dry.  

When these were dry I took out a sepia and burgundy micron pens and outlined the circles and the flowers.  I also added some white gel pen to the circles and the centers of the flowers.  I used colored pencils to turn those orchid ink dots into flower centers by giving them their own petals pushing them to a lower layer.  

The next test of these would be to see how long the ink lasts when exposed to sunlight.  I think I'm going to test adding Micro Glaze over these to make them into oversized postcards.  We shall see over time.  In the meantime, I'll probably be keeping my eye out for more colorful petals to experiment with.  

Happy Valentine's Day

I really fell in love with this heart-filled tree stamp from Unity when I saw it on sale.  It reminded me of a papercut that I had seen years ago in a classroom that I was subbing in.  This card is for HWNSNBP, but the stamp also came with sentiments that would be appropriate for weddings also, so it will do double-duty I'm sure.

These punch penguins where for the grandsons.  There's a fuzzy ring around each of those dots on the background paper which I think they'll like.  (Ooops, I think I forgot to add the feet - oh well, maybe they won't notice.)

This is another stamp that I fell in love with from The Rabbit Hole and when I saw it on sale bundled with the die I couldn't resist.  I didn't set out to make a bunch of these but wound up doing just that when my order from another company didn't get here in time.

Along with those Valentine cards went some flowers in the form of these painted canvases (4x6 and 4x4's).  This was another project from Amanda Evanston's Insider's Studio.  I've planted flowers and I've painted flowers but this is the first time I've made flowers by smushing paint.  I got stuck on blue vases for them all trying to use up the paint that I had on my palette.  I kept the first one for myself and the rest were either hand-delivered or mailed.

You'll see some more projects with these and smaller sized canvasses in the near future.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sketchbook Play

 

These are totally pictured in the opposite date they were created, but thanks to this "updated" blogger platform I have no patience to mess around with them since it doesn't matter for this particular share.

All are done with a combination of watercolor pencils, micron pens, and gouache paint.  Mostly abstracts.  

The Christmas Elf Strikes Again....

Each year I try to do a little something for the staff members at school and this being my last Christmas there I hoped to make it a little more special.  

I purchased some inexpensive wood slices and painted them with hearts and snowmen.

On the back I put the year, PEACE, and my initials.

Surprisingly the painting went rather quickly - I'd almost forgotten how much I loved doing this.  When they were all painted I added some red ribbon hangers.  The day before school let out I stayed a little late and placed one in each mailbox for them to find in the morning.  They were a hit.

Playing With Colors

Just playing around with some art supplies and color.  

Sunset Inspiration

Last Thursday we left right after work for the condo.  Friday would be my last Friday off for the summer and I wanted to get the full day in away from home. We weren't there long when the sun began to set. There were clouds so I had a feeling that it would be a good one.  

I took a bunch of pictures, but it was the one above that inspired me.  This is the mess that I had going on the table on Saturday morning. I had my travel art supply bag with me and picked out the Peerless watercolor sheets, an aquapainter, and an ATC-sized canvas.  (The closest AC Moore has become an outlet store so everything in the store is 20-50% off on a daily basis, so I no longer need coupons, and I don't have to wait for things to go on sale if I want to try something like these little canvasses.)

You can see the size of the canvas as compared to a quarter. 

I found that working on canvas with watercolors is a little tricky especially if you're impatient like me and don't wait for the colors to dry.  But I was persistent and finished it.  Back at home I gave it quite a few light coats of a sealer to protect it, but I'm still afraid that that was not enough.  Now that I think of it, I wonder if I should have sprayed the back since it's a porous surface?  Anyone with experience with watercolors be sure to let me know any tips or tricks for sealing please.  

I know that I have a little easel here somewhere that I plan to use on my desk at work to display this. I think I'm going to get that photo printed out too.  

Tomorrow the teachers return to school.  Next Tuesday the students return.  The last few weeks have been extremely busy.  I'm working with a new partner in the office who hasn't worked in a school office before and I know her head is spinning.  I have a few last minute things to do in the morning and I'm praying that there won't be anymore students coming in to register (hoping I don't jinx myself with that sentiment!)  We've also got a new system that we're working with called Genesis.  I'm still feeling my way around with the applications and reports, so it will be a lot of trial and error the next week or so.  

If anyone was wondering, I put aside my daily tangles for the second half of July and all of August. There was just too much other stuff to have to fit into the day, but I will vow to get it going again tomorrow - September 1st.  And who knows, if I get into a good groove I might be able to fill up those previous blank days too!

Good bye August!  

Pre-Christmas Paint Party With the Girls

When we did our first painting in October we liked so much we decided to give it another try. Looking around the room there were many wonderful paintings hanging, and on one specific wall were the paintings that were going to be offered for the next couple of months.  We all liked this one. Here are the stages of my painting.

Starting at the top with the teal color, stroking it downward.

Adding a little white to the brush and blending it downward to almost all white.  Then to add the branches.

 Branches were added in brown and then added a little black to fatten them up.

And I missed a picture of the step to add the needles - they were added to the branches in the teal color again with a little black and then we added white to highlight them.  

Pine cones were painted with a mixture of black and brown in a "pizza slice" shape.  Then we went back and added some white highlights on the tips of the pine cone petals.

And then, of course, the snow was added to the branches, the pine cones and softly falling dotted snowflakes.

And here are the artists with their finished product. 

We were all pleased with the outcome and plan to do another painting soon.  It was a fun evening that started with dinner together and time catching up before the extra-busyness of the holidays!