And Yet Another She Art Canvas

I've been busy busy on my canvas projects. I am so loving this workshop. Christy Tomlinson is a great teacher and she talks to us like we are in her living room, just one on one and we've known each other for years. She is truly a wonderful person.


So here's my latest. This is the last canvas in the first week. Yeehaw, I finished my first week.

I thought she had a zen kind of look. That wasn't intentional, just how it came out. Maybe I was feeling rather relaxed.

I tried a few new things with this girl. Using a lace doily for a collar and as an edging on her pant leg and the bottom of the dress. I also tried my hand at doodling. And lastly, I shared my craft table with my oldest DD. She made her own girl and is already working on a second. She really seems to enjoy it and I'm enjoying being creative with her.

This is KC's, (my daughter), first attempt and I think she did a wonderful job. She seems to be way less inhibited than me about how things go on. She is just trying everything. She is so brave.

I especially like her use of color and her free hand painting. She painted the little flower in her girl's hair, (that would just scare me to death at this point).  She also put her She Art phrase on at an angle. I think it looks so free and daring. Pretty much just like my little girl.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Another She Art Girl

I am enjoying the heck out of my She Art Workshop. I love being messy and learning new techniques. Right now we are ending week three and this distracted scrapper is just about to finish week one. Par for the course with me. Something always seems to be behind.


This is my second canvas. My oldest DD suggested that I give her as a gift to my sister because angel just reminded her of her aunt, (funny how her mother doesn't remind her of an angel). I think she meant the colors of the canvas and the design of the angel are just an Aunt Reba kind of thing.

 



I tried some new things with this canvas. First, I added some three dimensional embellishments. At first I was a little unsure about doing this but I really like how the little butterfly adds interest to the angel's skirt. I also completely altered this canvas. Of course it's altered but it started out with a printed napkin as the background. I thought the look was too overwhelming so I added pieces of a dollie to the mat and I love the result. I think the dollies add their own little 3-D affect.

Lastly, I made the angel wings out of a leaf from a Prima collection, (at least I think it was a Prima). I cut it in two and tucked one under each side. I think it made pretty realistic looking wings.

I've got one more to post tomorrow and then I'm moving onto week two.

Happy Creating

Susan

She Art Workshop

Finally I've gotten around to finishing my first girl canvas. Again life has been so busy that crafting was back burnered for a few days. I'm so glad I carved out some crafting time because I am LOVING this workshop. Christi's videos are inspiring and her instructions and patterns walk me through like the projects in a manner that I can understand. My distractible nature appreciates how she breaks up the projects into several short videos. If I have to stop after the first or second I don't feel like I'm leaving something undone.

Here's my first girl.

I do wish my lighting was better because the orange and yellow on this canvas are just popping off. I played this one a little safe by following Christi's example pretty closely. My next one maybe I'll be a little more daring.

PS Here's a little more info from Christi's blog about her next offering of this class.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Spring Wreath

The last couple of weeks have been so busy and productive. I've not been distracted at all, but not getting much done in the way of crafting either. I have a spring cleaning bug and my house is being decluttered and cleaned floor to ceiling and wall to wall. When I took a few minutes to sit and craft for a while, I was shocked to see that it's been two weeks since I posted. 

I thought I would share this wreath that I made last October. Wish I had a picture of it without the spring decor but I can share one later in the year when I switch out the theme. So far this wreath has served as a fall and Christmas decoration and now it makes my front door bright with spring colors. I’ve been changing out the embellishments on the wreath seasonally with themed wired garland I pick up at Michaels.  

The original design came from an older post at Tater Tots and Jello. I altered the plan a little by using a 12" straw wreath and wrapping it in muslin. All the flowers are cut from pages of a dictionary using three different sized flower dies. After running the dies and paper through the Cuttlebug, (I used about 200 pages from a pocket dictionary), I spritzed them with water and then lightly sprayed on some Glimmer Mist and then crumpled them up. Next I opened them and let them lay flat to dry, (the thin paper dried really fast). Once dry, I began hot gluing the flowers to the wreath alternating between the sizes. This was all done very randomly with no real plan or design. The original blog post suggested wrapping the flowers around the eraser end of a pencil before putting on the hot glue. This made the whole project a breeze. I just wrapped, glued, and stuck the flower down. Once it was stuck to the wreath I just pulled out the pencil and went on to the next flower. I was so pleased with how it looked. Even undecorated it was beautiful.

Learn from my mistake though. Put some type of hanger on the back before starting to glue on the flowers. I made a loop from a piece of florist wire that I wrapped around the wreath after I put on the flowers. It would have been much easier to do this before instead of later. Another tip, don't use this as an outdoor wreath. It probably won't hold up to the weather. I hang mine on the inside of my front door. I'm thinking of making a smaller one to hang above my foyer table.

Don't be turned off by the number of flowers I glued or the spritzing and drying. All together I think it took me only a couple of hours to make this wreath and I spent only a few dollars. I used a dictionary I bought on the dollar table at the local bookstore, the straw wreath was just a couple of dollars from Michaels and I got the muslin from my friend Cheryl, over at Cheryl's Window. She's a sewer and had some leftover from a project. (Friends are great resources for small quantities of a product that you might not have on hand. Just remember to pay it forward or back in kind).

Happy Creating.

Susan