Thank Heaven for microwave pancakes! If I was adventurous I would dress up my pancake like this one here.

It worked

Yeah, the placemats came out great! I learned to go slowly always make a pattern and use lots of pin. All things I should have been doing but thought I could do without. That'll teach me!

And if you've every wondered what might happen if you turn your back on a 2 year old with paint, here you go.........

I'm just going to put this out there

Well... I have been trying to learn how to sew. I have yet to classify any project a success! I am hoping that will change today. I received the above fabric from the etsy shop of BeeBee Mod. I am also using an idea from the BeeBee Mod blog to make some placemats. I am hoping by putting this out there it will give me the confidence to make a great placemat. Let's hope I don't fail miserably!

Tons of Games

I just finished up an etsy order for a customer and I thought I would go ahead and post. It's 2:00am and I know I should be in bed , I think I had a bit to much caffeine this evening. I was looking for something fun to post and found this website Orisinal they offer many beautiful games to play. They have really lovely animation and I thought I would share. I am not familiar with this company but they have some super sweet totes. Enjoy the games, I only had a chance to play a couple, there was a cute crab one I didn't get to yet. My older daughter can play these tomorrow while I take a nap!

Poll

Please take part in my new poll that is going on to the right of the page. I am trying to decide what I want that sweet little ring from www.KathrynRiechert.etsy.com to say. I don't always wear my wedding rings because I am working with pretty messy materials, so this would be an alternative. I want it to be something fun, I've been married for 10 years now and want it to reflect that. If you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them.

More Bookplates

Here are some more super fun bookplates from my home library. You can find lots to choose from here. I have sooooo many children books, and I think I will outfit the favorites with these great bookplates!

Art Dictionary

Lets say you have a question about the Da Da movement, want to use trompe l'oeil in your next art piece or or wonder what a deltiologist is, then art lex is the place for you. It's a really useful website with art definition and terms, pretty much anything about visual culture. You can find examples of artwork and other related links to reference as well. The only bummer is that I can't seems to link to each definition. I can cut and paste so here we go ...

Da Da movement- An early twentieth century art movement which ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms. The movement was formed to prove the bankruptcy of existing style of artistic expression rather than to promote a particular style itself. It was born as a consequence of the collapse during World War I of social and moral values which had developed to that time. Dada artists produced works which were nihilistic or reflected a cynical attitude toward social values, and, at the same time, irrational — absurd and playful, emotive and intuitive, and often cryptic.

Trompe l'oeil A French term literally meaning "trick the eye." Sometimes called illusionism, it's a style of painting which gives the appearance of three-dimensional, or photographic realism. It flourished from the Renaissance onward.



Deltiology is the collecting of picture postcards. A deltiologist is a collector of them. Short of framing them, a preferred means of storing and displaying postcards is in polypropylene sheet protectors.

Who knew there was a term for someone who collects postcards! I wonder if there is a name for those of you who love your fabric! I'll look into that.

Bookplates, Bookmarks and more

I am working on a new project and in doing research found these downladable bookplates. There are several styles to choose from Northwest Native American and Celtic. I want to make my own soon but I thought these would be fun for the kiddos. More ideas for the book lover are found at the HP website.

Excerpt

Here is an excerpt from the creative box set I discussed yesterday, Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watt......

Stretching Your Vision

Today is my Birthday. My Usual Routine used to involve riding my bike along the coast, watching the surfers maneuver around the seals in the early-morning hours. Now, my once permanent, flip-flop tan line has faded into my gray existence in the Midwest. I haven't seen a pedicure in over a year and can't think of one thing to be happy about.
In staying true to the whole using-what-you-have theme, I tried to come up with something that would heal my lonesome, birthday heart.
I decided to do a "compare and contrast" page in my journal. Using photographs from both my old and new worlds, I would seek comparisons-alikes and not-alikes. It has stretched the way I look at a cornfield or the eternal line across the horizon.
In the thick of winter , what can you draw from barren? What can you draw from wide-open spaces drenched in gray, as opposed to blue skies and ocean sprays?
By stretching my vision, I could suddenly see common lines in the wide-open ocean glass and the never ending richness of the soil.
The noise of a telephone pole vs. the piercing simplicity of an icicle. Diversity vs. simplicity.
Go out on your bicycle and play this game. Look for common form, lines, similar colors and textures that contrast. Force yourself to change the way you look at a regular horizontal line or the height of a telephone pole. It's all very black and white.

Journal Help

I have been eager to make an altered book for some time, now that I have a place to work I hope to do so very soon. In anticipation I purchased a creative card set, Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts. It contains a small notebook and 50 cards with prompts and observations that help start the journaling process. I have a hard time keeping one journal, I am more of a napkin, back of envelope, scrap piece of paper kind of girl. The idea of taking a existing book and changing it's original meaning through art is a fun one and I think these cards will help me do just that. You can visit the authors website at http://www.randifeuerhelm.com/. Oh, and if you have a minute check out How About Orange blog for a super cool idea.

Tools that help

I can remember my first attempt at painting a portrait in my first college painting course. I was struggling to get the proportion right using my photograph as a reference. I walked out of class when I saw another student walking out of a small room to the side of the class. Inside this guy was using a projector to transfer his photograph onto the canvas . What? I've been killing myself trying to get this face "right" and all along I could have projected it. How come NO one told me. It was so simple I walked to the supply room gave the girl my student i.d. and *boom *easy peasy. There are so many great tools and tricks to help with art making but people make you work to find them . Using a projector is one really helpful tool. Using a grid to help draw from photograph is another great tool. I love any tool that gets people to further their own art. Photographs are wonderful resources for art making the cool thing about drawing or painting the subject is that new and wonderful things come from your new choice of media.

One artist who uses the grid to paint from photographs is Chuck Close. There is great gallery on his website where you can zoom into his painting and prints to see how he uses the grid. Here is one I really find interesting.

Flashback

When I was little my parents had this cube photoframe with a carved wooden top and it was filled with family photos. I loved playing with it. I saw a this photo cube on Paper Forest and had a serious flashback. You can find the template at tabblo. You could really play with this and create some fun photos. Maybe a diffrent expression on each side, I think I may make one with my daughters art work on the sides. The options are endless. I may play with it and show examples later.