Bookmarks in Watercolors

 

 I am an avid reader. This last year I must have set a new record for myself--14 new books!! I found several new authors I like, while stepping out from cozy mysteries into some fantasies. I just finished 2 books last month by Evie Woods, The Lost Bookshop and The Storyteller. Her newest book, The Mysterious Bakery of Rue de Paris, is waiting for me at the local library.

I've been trying to keep my reading down to one book at a time, but I have to admit to temporarily "losing" a book for a while, and starting a new one until I find it. So, bookmarks are important to me. I love printed books--I spend enough time in front of a screen as it is. And because of this, I have blended two past times into one by water coloring bookmarks!

Above are three of my newest bookmarks. The first is a beach scene with baby turtles crawling out to sea. A trip to Hawaii last year (and the photos I took) inspired e to paint these. The second was again inspired by my Hawaiian trip. I had sketched a scene from a lagoon we snorkeled at while my daughter borrowed my mask. It came in handy while I was thinking about the next water color to paint.

The last is a theme I've painted often, one with greenery, water and a moon. I decided to highlight the sunshine with a white Sakura pen to give it more depth, as it was a very small canvas.  Of course, what's a bookmark without a frivolous amount of ribbon sticking out the top of your book?

Something Old, Something New

 

When I was growing up, my Gramma and Mom were always crafting. Gram because she was a frugal German, and my mom because she was a Girl Scout leader for several years. One of their earlier projects was a kitchen shadow box. It was filled with botanicals, uncooked beans and whatever else they could fit into the small cubbies. The beans (Pinto, Navy, Split peas, etc.) were coated in Mod Podge, an up & coming craft supply that quickly became a household name. Sealed behind glass, their boxes  made lovely, homemade decorations for the kitchen. In fact, after Gram passed, I inherited her shadowbox...

...which gave me the inspiration to create a new" shadow basket". Using a shallow basket (maybe it's the top to another container?), I gave it new life by adhering bright, blue tissue paper as a background (with Mod Podge, of course).  I then arranged flower blossoms and petals and blossoms and adhered them into my "garden."

To make it more earthy, I stuffed green moss, into the empty pockets between the flowers. To tweak the scene, I used a small piece of a succulent in the corner, and then added a butterfly to finish off my basket shadow box. It's now hanging on my own kitchen wall. I'd like to give a shout out to my Gram and my mom for passing down their crafting genes. Gram also had the greenest thumb in the county, and Mom wrote poetry as  well as crafting projects for family, Girl Scouts and in her later years, craft fairs. Love you both, miss you with all my heart...

Challenges I am Entering:

Dragonfly Dreams - Butterflies

We Love 2 Create - Anything Craft, Card making & Scrapbooking Mixed Media

Beautiful Blossoms - Anything Florals Goes with Optional Mood Board #29

Morgan's Art World - Anything Goes

The Crafting Challenge - Anything Goes

The Four Seasons - Summer season

A Little Bovine Humor

 

I love a good pun, especially when I create a card. The inside continues the punny theme, as  it reads: "Celebrate 'til the  cows come home".

I colored the cow with a very pale blue, adding yellow for the flower. The DP is all one piece (!), To embellish, I added some black adhesive jewels and part of a black paper border I had left over. Do you like to make square cards? I have a box full of square envies so finding one is no problem. Mailing it, however, takes2 stamps if you don't have any forever stamps left. I don't, so I guess this card will be hand-delivered.

CHALLENGES I AM ENTERING:

THE ITSY BITSY HALLOWEEN SPIDER

 

My Halloween project today features a couple of small wooden signs, wall decor if you like. I found a bag of five thin pieces of wooden boards about 6 inches long, 2.5 inches tall and about a 1/4 inch thick. I used Tim Holtz's Alcohol ink (Rusty Hinge) to stain 2 pieces of wood before adhering felt spider web borders horizontally onto them. From each I added a thin ribbon and attached a black plastic spider.

I used Viner Hand ITC Regular font in Photoshop to make the plaque with the poem. Since I had a bag of these wooden boards, and enough felt border for two, I doubled my project.  When I was finished, If you can't quite read  rhyme, here it is:

The Itsy Bitsy spider was hanging on a thread

When a bird swooped down, she thought she was dead.

The bird missed the spider and sadly flew away

and the Halloween spider lived to spook another day.

Hope you like my newest Halloween project. The Halloween & Other Occasions Challenge Blog accepts all types of projects, as long as its theme is Halloween, Birthday r the monthly occasion. See you there!

 

Happy Friday!

 

Hello, crafters! Today I'm highlighting my second faux stained glass piece of artwork. I placed it on a piece of white paper so it would show up better. I drew this seascape for a coloring book I'm working on and thought it would make nice window decor.

I used my Posca paint markers (I'm so glad I made the decision to by these). Outlining my drawing first, I then used glass paint and glitter glue to fill in the colors. This my second stained glass work I've created. I'm planning on drawing my dog, Honeycomb, and then paint it onto glass and frame it for my daughter. She's the mommy; I'm the grandma. My daughter's birthday is July 4th.

when she was little, I used to tell her that the town had a parade and fireworks to celebrate her birthday. We had a red VW bug at the time and I made big magnetic black circle and placed them on our car for the day. So we drove around in a ladybug car on her birthday. Sometimes pedestrians would wave at us as we drove past. Ah, to be young again!

Always Trying Something New

 

It's another Faux stained glass artwork kind of day. I took out another glass pane that I had taken out of unused frames this year. I took one of my own coloring book drawings I've been working on and placed it under the glass. Then I took out my Posca paint markers and used the black to copy my drawing onto the glass.

Once dry, I carefully colored in the scene I drew. I love the look of my mushrooms. I plan on adhering a length of chain around the glass so that I an hang it in my window. It's pictured on a sheet of white paper so you can see the colors better (no sun today).'

My local library held a craft swap last week. I donated a box of craft supplies and received a "golden ticket", an early admission to look over and pick up any supplies I may like, at no cost. Later this month,  you'll see another new craft I'm trying out. In the meantime, I have one more "stained glass" art piece to show you later this week.

Until then, happy crafting!

One for the Guys Today

 

I used a playing card from a box of assorted, mismatched mini cards I've collected through the years. This one is of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.  I decorated the card to be given to any gender with its browns and blues. I used a punch on a paint chip for the card face, as well as punching my birthday greeting with a circular punch.

The inside reads, "How many fingers are you?" I think that sentiment is hilarious. It could be a card from a child, or a card to a a child, or to someone who has a good sense of humor. I like making funny or punny cards. Anything to give the recipient a smile or a chuckle. How about you?