Houses

**************January 17 update

Thank to everyone for the wonderful comments on these pages!! The color scheme is a result of a very limited color pallet--my "mini studio" only has 12 bottles of paint, and the only primary is yellow! I used magenta, violet and purple for my houses, and the magenta and yellow created some orange--

It's been a long time since I've had color theory and design classes, but i have discovered that a 4-color analogous color scheme is quite dynamic because it also includes a complimentary color scheme--try it out with yellow, orange, red and violet (which is what mine is with the magenta representing the red) or maybe green, blue, violet and red....

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And two pages for the GPP Street Team Crusade 36:

http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/

Do Something Creative Everyday

So the new year is under way, and my goal of doing something creative everyday is in full swing! On today, the 11th, i successfully have 11 simple collages! they certainly aren't great works of art, but the keep the creativity flowing for all of my other projects! Here are a few pages--see a theme emerging??

The Making of a Mol

When your 15-year-old calls you up and says "I have to make a stuffed mole for school" this is what happens:



First: you are a bit confused for a while wondering why a sophomore in high school has to make a stuffed mole...and even moreso when she says it is for chemistry...Turns out she is making a Mol rather than a mole--but it looks like a mole--but is supposed to represent a mol of some element--so it is really a Mol mole....do you follow?



After looking through all the elements on the periodic table, she chose to do an arsenic Mol mole(being the goth-ish and morbid teen that she is).

Emma did not have the pattern provided by the teacher, so it's a good thing mom knows how to make such things---after discussing what the teacher's Mol mole and pattern looked like, and several sketches later, we had a pattern to test on blue fabric.

A few minor adjustments to the original pattern and voila! an Arsenic Mol mole is born--complete with poison warning on his back! (I wanted to stitch a tiny piece of old lace to his paw, but emma said no--she's no fun!).

the joys of the season

Ah. Autumn. My most favorite season of all! Fall means....pumpkin patches(no, we don't have fall in March in Chicago...)....

and corn mazes (both of which were extremely muddy...the hayride trip to the pumpkin patch turned into a rescue mission--a second haywagon lost it's tire in foot-deep mud....needless to say, we never even ventured off our wagon into the patch...)....

and of course, the making of Halloween costumes...new witch's attire for me this year!!

it's been a while...

So now that I found some really, really cool backgrounds and updated the look of my blog...I feel inspired to actually start posting again--but of course, you know how I am, so we will see what happens.....

Two days in a row!

Now let us return to the cool, crisp days of autumn--and my October Bead Journal Project. I worked virtually every day on the bead-encrusted border, and completed that part somewhere around Oct 25th. The remaining fiber art part of the project is, however, as yet incomplete--still, I wanted to share the beading with you.


The Sabbat that falls in October is of course none other than Samhain (pronounced SOW-in)--or Halloween. Prior to starting this project, I had been looking through back issues Somerset Studio to get holiday card inspiration. I stumbled across an article where all of the projects were done with a yellow, orange, red and indigo pallet and the colors just jumped out at me! I knew I wanted to use this color scheme in something--then, as I was discussing ideas with myself in my journal, the "AH HA!" moment hit!

This months technique is bead embroidery/encrusting--I absolutely adore the texture in this technique and while it is very time consuming, i would definately do it again!! For additional detail photos, check out my picturetrail.

Well, it certainly has been quite a long time since my last post. I was so excited that it was the beginning of my most favorite month of the year--i do love October--mine and my daughter's birthdays are in October--i love the fall colors--and of course, Halloween.



Unfortunately, in the middle of this October, I became a victim of the collapsing economy and I lost my job. Everything in my life seems rather unstable these days, so I am grateful for the ability to create. Art is an outlet and it is therapeutic.

The cover of the current issue of Cloth Paper Scissors caught my eye the minute I pulled it from my mailbox--it held a picture of the most adorable, sparkly snowmen made from re purposed bottles--I knew I had to make some of my own!

If you know me, then you know I hoard all sorts of things that I anticipate being included in some fantastic project--sometimes I have an idea of what I will do with the treasures, other times I simply must save them, knowing that their purpose will reveal itself to me eventually.

A variety of spice jars, the tins from tealight candles, funny little metal things i can't describe and all sorts of artsy odds and ends came together in a swirl of frost and snow (ok, maybe it was glitter) to remake themselves as thirteen "Snowpeeps" :)

Through a newsletter from a local stamp and scrapbook store, I discovered that one of my favorite artists, Tim Holtz, was doing "12 Tags of Christmas" on his blog. I adore all of his techniques and while I don't have ALL of his products, I simply couldn't resist trying my hand at this tag!!

So, Happy Mid-December, and I will try not to stay away so long ;)