Watercolor and Stitch class

I loved teaching this class.  The best part was that everyone was delighted with their finished project.

The class was small due to limited space (at my kitchen table).    Each student used the same photo to start the project, but as they worked with their own choice of color and embellishment they made it their own.

This was the sample I made for the class.

This is the photo that was used, printed on regular printer paper.

 Picture was turned over and covered with graphite pencil.

The photo was placed graphite side down on watercolor paper and flowers and leaves were traced to transfer design to subtrate.  You can see that my tracing came out very light on the watercolor paper.  I did just basic outlines no detail drawing.

Here the pencil lines were darkened with black pen and details  were added where needed.

 Collage elements and a horizon line were added.

Painted the background.

Flowers and leaves were added. also some stenciling. 

 If you go back to the class sample you can see that flowers and leaves were stitched with black thread. I used a free motion foot on my sewing machine for the stitching.

Photos of the students working on their projects.

Hanging out in Marysville

June 25th through July 1st, I visited my sister, Franny.  I rode the Amtrak train to Everett where she picked me up and drove me to her home in Marysville.  We try to get together a couple of times a year and both look forward to it.  Our itinerary goes something like this:  we get up, eat breakfast, drink a few cups of coffee, check email, talk about everything, and somewhere around 11:30am, shower, get dressed, then eat lunch.  Around 12:30pm we are in the car heading out shopping.  We like to go to thrift stores, value village, goodwill, crafts and the outlet mall and sometimes we even stop at a few garage sales. 

This is Franny at one of her favorite stores that she had to show me.

This is me.  We like to get some photos taken to document our time together.

I always take photos of the interesting things I see hanging around outside her house.

This is a bottle of Rum that I purchased in AZ for my sister.  It had a cool looking cap which I took for being some special designer look.  Franny liked it too, until we tried to open it.  It wouldn't open, we fought with this cap for 5 days, nearly destroying the bottle.  Finally we decided to take it to the liquor store to see if they could remove it.  They had never seen anything like it.  It was a child proof cap and needed a special device to remove it which would cost $50 to buy.  Customers in the liquor store gave us some suggestions on how to remove the cap.  So we returned home, went out to the garage with the bottle, screwdrivers, pliers, and garden shears and proceeded to get the cap off.  You can see in the photo below that we succeeded.

I love these painted rocks we spied when we went for a walk in the neighborhood.

We met a very nice older man who told us everyone called him Grandpa, so we did too.  He had a very interesting yard with lots of woodcrafted items that he had made.  We were fascinated by the wonderful wood chains.  The neighbors around him all had windmills and we loved his birdhouses.  He used to have a business selling these woodcrafted items but now he just gives his birdhouses to friends.  We quickly became friends with him and he gave each of us a birdhouse.

At the Outlet mall we bought handbags and shoes.



We made several trips to the Goodwill.  I was looking for old vintage photo albums, didn't expect to find any and I didn't.

Isn't she beautiful?  This is Misletoe, my sisters best friend. I love her.

Making 'Paper Cloth'

Instructions for making Paper Cloth are in Kellie Perkins book "Stitch Alchemy".   I purchased the book last year, flipped through the pages and then filed it with the rest of my book collection.  Several weeks ago a very crafty friend shared with me some of the projects she had been working on.  She had several sheets of beautiful 'Paper Cloth' which she was using to make some gorgeous bookmarks and paper beads.  So, I had to get busy and make some of my own.  I have made a few sheets of  paper cloth and used part of one to cover a book, as you saw in a previous post.  I think you will love this paper cloth as much as I do. 

 

This is a photo of the bookmark my friend Midge Kullberg made.  You can also see the paper bead she has attached to the fibers. 

 

 

 

All instructions are in Kelli Perkins book. 

 

Amazon.com: Stitch Alchemy (9781596681132): Kelli Perkins: Books

Making Journals with Mary Ann Moss

I'm giving it another try.  Last night I tried to do this post and thought, I'm pretty good at this blogging.  However, I had trouble with uploading my pictures.  They uploaded to my post not just once but two times and when I tried to remove some of them I ended up deleting everything.  Frustrated, I went to bed.

These are some of the Journals I've been making in "Full Tilt Boogie", an online class by Mary Ann Moss.  I have taken several classes from Mary Ann and would highly recommend them to anyone interested in making their own journals. 

The first journal is made from the covers of an old photo album.  The signatures are a conglomeration of papers glued and taped together to fit inside the covers.  Then the signatures are sewn together and the covers are attached with quilted fabric strips and glue.

This journal is also made from the cover of a photo album.  I have included two pictures.  The first picture is before I covered the album.  The journal is covered with 'Paper Cloth' in the second photo.

This is my third journal.  I used an old book and removed the signatures. The book was the classic "Little Women".  I just fell in love with the cover.  It was very hard for me to cut up the book but I was determined and here it is. 

Starting a Blog

This is another computer challenge I decided to take on.  Part of my morning getting up ritual is reading a number of blogs from crafty individuals.  I think I am finally brave enough to start my own.  I will be using this blog to share photos, travel adventures, and whatever else is going on in my life.  I especially love working in Mixed Media, journaling, knitting and anything crafty.  My finished art projects are posted on a number of websites,  this will be a place for me to share all of it.