Early Walk w Cassie Girl, then morning Pinterest experiment (including bloodshed)

Woke early this Sunday morning. I like how quite it is Sunday mornings, so Cassie and I set out for adventure. Just some bunnies, and the melodies of feathered friends. Home again, home again, jigity jig. We shared a breakfast of eggs over easy & homemade oatmeal muffin. As I scanned Pinterest on my phone, I noticed a diy for these cute sakura flowers,

http://www.omiyageblogs.ca/2011/03/diy-sakura-kirigami.html?m=1

so I decided to give them a try. Of course - PAPER CUT! After a lot of cursing and a Mickey band-aid the experimentation continued. I don't have any Japanese or origami paper and my drawing paper proved to be too thick, so I tried wrapping paper - didn't come out too bad. I may have to purchase some appropriate paper and do some more :)

Now what next? Any suggestions Cassie?

Christmas Tree Ornaments

I made ornaments to include with Christmas gifts this year. 

The dragonfly ornaments were created with a stamp I carved from stamping rubber, then stamped card stock and embellished with paints, pens and metallic ink for the borders. I carved the stars/snowflakes from a pencil tip eraser.  I added eyelets, jump rings and swirl hooks. The backs I hand wrote Christmas greetings.  They measure 2.5 inches square.

After drawing a sketch of a partridge, I carved the image into stamping rubber and stamped bristol board with permanent stamping ink, and painted them with watercolor. Cut the paintings into pear shapes and added the ribbon. I glued patterned scrapping paper to the back and added a Christmas greeting. They measure 7 in high.

Dragonfly ornaments

I've finally finished the last of the Christmas pet portraits. I'll post them all after Christmas. Resting this afternoon, then will tackle my own Christmas.

A couple weeks ago I did a little experimenting with rubber stamp carving making little ornaments. I carved a dragonfly in stamping rubber with lino carving tools and used it as a basis for my ornaments, stamping cardstock or heavy watercolor paper, then paint the cards individually.  The little stars/snowflakes I carved into an eraser on the end of a pencil with an exacto knife. I had to get permenant stamping ink because the regular ink kept smudging when I tried to paint them. I used metallic ink to border them. Then I added eyelets, ribbon and fancy swirl hooks. Each are 2 1/2 inches square. These are personal gifts, so I script Christmas messages on the back.  I may make a version of these next year to sell at shows. 

Let me know what you think.

Creativity - What do we get from our families?

I think I get my creativity from my father. He was extremely creative in anything he built. That creativity must've come from his mother - my grandmother whom my sister & I referred to as Nannie :)
Nannie taught me about cooking & sewing & gardening & making up games and how to play cards & how to make snap dragons to talk & how to shoot watermelon seeds between your fingers & collect fall leaves. The time we spent at her house is filled with loving memories. She was very creative & fun & kind & generous & we loved her for it. She was a wonderful soul.

Butterfly Experiment

Trying some mixed media today - watercolor, ink & colored pencil. Not sure how I feel about it yet. May need more practice to be able to bring the different mediums together the way I like it. Any thoughts?

5x7 using reference photo I took of Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in my garden

Dragonflies hold your place until you come back

I had created some bubble paint background for bookmarks a while ago. I used one to make a bookmark for my mother for her birthday. I thought dragonflies would be appropriate since the bubble background kinda looks like water. I didn't want the background to show through the watercolor, so I sketched them with ink and painted them on watercolor paper, then cut them out and attached them to the background. I found the watercolor paper to be almost too thick to cut out such small intricate shapes. I may have to use thinner paper next time. I attached the bookmark to card stock and inserted it into a plastic sleeve to protect it.

Dragonfly Collage bookmark for Mom

What is Creativity? 1

I'm on a creative journey - what does creativity mean? How is perceived by different people? How is it encouraged or discouraged in the work place? How is it viewed by those close to you? Is creativity different in different genres? Every once in a while I'll post an article about creativity I find interesting. Tell me what you think.

article: What Does Creativity Mean to You?

I'm missing the little birds

Painted this little ATC tonight in watercolor 3.5 in x 2.5 in. Even though I've been working mainly in pastel in the past few years, I'm getting a yearning for some watercolor - gotta practice though, its a tricky medium to control. It's almost like trying to train a cat to do tricks. I'm going to try to do a few bird pictures, I kinda miss my birdfeeders, which we had to take down do to the appearance of bears in the area. Hopefully I'll have more to share in the next few days.

Nobody tells this to beginners

 Something every creative should read  :)

 http://www.mcwade.com/DesignTalk/2011/04/nobody-tells-this-to-beginners/