This Year's Christmas Card

I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself with it being only February and Christmas a long 10 months in the future, however, this was going to be my 2011 Christmas card and when I got into the planning I realized it just wasn't going to get done on time. So now it's 2012's Christmas card.

I planned it out as I would any of my landscape quilts, with a watercolour painting first, a plotted pattern, and the choosing of fabric. What's different about this one is that it is only 7 inches by 8.5 inches in size. So my pattern pieces are miniscule and some I couldn't even pick up with my fingers; I needed tweezers. It became apparent that I couldn't sew the fabric together as I do with my larger landscape quilts and I had to find another way of putting it together. I chose to use a product called Heat 'n Bond which can be ironed onto the back of fabric where it leaves a residue that when heated with an iron will adhere the fabric to something else. So instead of sewing the pieces together I glued them using my iron onto another piece of fabric. Once that was done, I treated it as I would a large landscape quilt and thread painted on top to enhance the design. Then I placed batting and a backing fabric and a border on it and quilted the whole thing.

To complete the card I will manipulate the photograph in my computer, possibly putting a caption on it, then print off the photo and glue it to card stock, add an envelope and I'll be ready for the Christmas 2012 mailing.

Creating a Journal

I've always been interested in books, book making, altered books. So when I read an article on how to make my own journal, I was intrigued. I started folding and tearing watercolour paper for the pages. I found some leftover cardboard to use for making the covers which I covered with material. My theme for my journal is going to be "Nederland: My visits with my dad". My dad has Alzheimer's Disease and each year I go to Holland to visit him. Each year I notice changes in him and so I thought it would be nice to document my visits, what we did, things we said to each other, places we visited. So my journal is Red, White, and Blue on the outside. I attached a button to the front cover and the back cover and strung an elastic around them to keep the book shut. When the cover was complete, I bound the pages to the inside.

Gluing leftover fabric scaps to the inside
covers of the journal

After the pages were bound into the cover.



The outside of the cover

I will add the title to the cover and perhaps some other items. You can see a string of red, white and blue beads hanging from the spine. I will start collecting photos and items that have to do with the theme and before I go on my trip, I will prepare the pages by painting them and doodling and adding some pictures, leaving spaces for notes, ideas, comments and perhaps something my dad might write in it for me. If I have the pages 75 % done, I won't have to take along my paint, brushes and such. I just have to take my markers or pencil crayons and maybe a glue stick. It will be a nice reminder for my kids about who Opa is since they will most likely not ever see him again and a little something special for me to remember him by as the Alzheimer's slowly takes him away from us.

Inspiration Found in Value Village

Some of you know that I regularly visit Value Village, Goodwill and Salvation Army Stores to pick up art supplies. Last week I was in Value Village scouting out fabric and old jewelry and I came across this fantastic tie! The design was beautiful so I bought it and brought it home. I managed to make 4 fabric cards.

To make them into cards I machine quilted them, added beads, buttons, metalic embroidery thread, fabric, ribbon, yarn and pieces from old jewelry and voila! A repurposed tie!

Landscape Quilt - Final

Well, after almost 7 months of work the Landscape Quilt is done and ready to hang. I've titled it Spring Garden and will hang it when the spring gardens begin to bloom. After having added details like branches and stems, veins in some of the leaves with thread and yarn and placed my little robins and toad and butterflies and quilted the whole thing, I was satisfied that it was done. Adding borders and a hanging sleeve to the back, it is now ready for display and will replace the winter quilt that hangs currently.

Glimpses of Spring on a Wintery Day

Usually in January and February, I have had enough of winter, this winter being the exception due to there being no snow and temperatures being warmer than seasonal (however, as I post this, it is snowing to beat the band outside....finally). But during the January/February winter blahs, I go to the photographs I took in the summer for inspiration.

My neighbour and I have a few Peony bushes and I had photographed them when they were in bloom. I love the shape and delicate nature and colour of Peonies and have always wanted to paint them. I think the flower lends itself to watercolour as a medium which is light and transparent.

Miniature Vacation Journal

I'm planning on going on a short canoe trip this summer and I wanted to be able to write my observations, sketch and put down my memories into something that wouldn't take up too much room. I made myself a miniature journal and thought I'd share it as an idea that could be used for any vacation.
The materials you need are:

watercolour paper
acrylic paint (diluted with water)
permanent fine tipped marker
glue

1) Cut a strip of watercolour paper, 4 inches wide by the length of the watercolour sheet. (4"X30")

2) Loosely sketch a scene on one side which corresponds to trip you'll be taking
     OR
    just randomly paint colour along the whole length of the paper with the diluted acrylic paint.

3) Wet the whole strip of watercolour and drop or brush paint colours onto the wet paper. The paint will spread and mingle on the paper.

If painting a scene, wet only sections at a time and paint them letting each section dry before moving on to the next section to minimize the colours bleeding into each other. Let this side dry.

4) Because this will be a double-sided journal, once the first side is dry, flip it over and wet the whole back side and repeat with colours of your choice. NOTE: Because you will be writing or sketching in this journal, make sure your colours are light, unless you will be using a silver ink pen then you can make your journal darker in colour which might also have a nice effect.

Front side of journal. Note that I have left enough open spaces for writing or futher sketching.



Back side of journal

5) When you've finished painting the back side of the journal, flip it over and wet the front side with plain water (because you've used acrylic paint, there will be no bleeding or removing of paint as with watercolour), place the whole thing, while still damp between paper towels and under heavy books to dry and flatten.

6) Once dry and flattened, fold the strip in half and then fold each flap in half again. Continue folding until you have made an accordion of your strip.

.





7) Your journal should be approximately 4" X 4". Cut or tear 2 pieces of watercolour paper to a size of 4" X 4". These will be your front and back covers.

8) Draw a design of your choice on the front of the covers and paint the design OR glue magazine pictures, photos or even fabric to them. Add embellishments like beads, shells, sequins, glitter etc. Write a title on the front cover. (I have decided that I will embellish my journal with things I collect on my canoe trip so I will be embellishing my journal when I return)

9) Glue the book covers to the front and back pages of your journal. Place a heavy book on it while the glue dries. I also included a piece of cord which I sandwiched between the cover and the first page when gluing them together so I can tie my journal closed.

Now your journal is ready to take on your trip to fill with ideas, feelings, quotes, pictures, sketches, pieces of nature, descriptions of weather, the place, the people, bits of found items, ticket stubs, candy wrappers, whatever will give you wonderful memories.









Back at Work in the Studio





Well, I have stopped procrastinating. I told you I was going to do some sketches to get the creative juices flowing again. I bought an amarylis bulb this year and if you've ever had one, you know that it changes noticibly daily. I thought it might be interesting to draw and paint it with watercolour for 4 days in a row to show how much it changes in that time. It was really fun to do and good practice. Although they are just sketches, I can use them for other projects in the future.