Framed

I painted this landscape about five years ago as my goodbye to Utah. This is a painting of a fantastic spot in southwest Provo. The painting has been framed in a second-hand wood frame from D.I. This week I fixed up that old $2 frame. I primed it and gold-leafed it, and now I just love the frame. The painting looks so much better bordered in crackled gold.

Unfortunately, the painting is not yet on the wall, so when I set it up for a quick picture, Alli and Ruby stole the spotlight.

They too look great framed in crackled gold.

Polka-Dot Quilt

I finished a small quilt yesterday. I made it for the St. James Auction. It is all hand-stitched... with much love. Here is Alli modeling it for me...

Alli and Ruby contributed by drawing on it with a marker... luckily it washed out.

If you are interested in buying the quilt, I will invite you to the auction.

Getting Crafty

Congratulations to my friend Stephanie! Baby Eliza was born March 3rd. To celebrate her birth, I got a little crafty and made a nursing cover. The front is held open with a flexible plastic piece that keeps mom's view unobstructed while baby nurses in privacy. The nursing cover folds into the front pocket for compact storage. The magnetic clasp holds the strap on one side. I got this great fabric at JoAnn's.

Every mom and baby needs a diaper clutch to hold the essentials. This little bag holds a small wipe container and a few diapers. The fabric lining inside is glittery pink. The magnetic clasp is hidden under a felt flower. I cut the felt with my QuicKutz die-cutter.
The wipes container is embellished with fabric, felt and beads. The flowers were cut with the QuicKutz die-cutter. I used clear Gloo by K.I. Memories to adhere the fabric and beads.

A sneak peek...

I have been working on a children's book about Ruby's unending desire to be UP. So far I have about fifteen illustrations done or in progress. The text is outlined, but not polished. The illustrations are depictions or exaggerations of climbing feats Ruby has actually attempted.

Ruby is fearless and confident. She has the most darling smile with over-sized kid teeth growing in a toddler mouth, and she does this funny smile where her top, front four teeth stick out... in a very cute way. She is vivacious and bubbly and physically active. And she is always trying to get herself on higher ground... or furniture as the case may be.

The illustrations are watercolor paint, ink, and pencil on heavy watercolor paper.

This illustration is not quite complete... but you get the idea.

thinking of summer

It is insanely cold here in Chicago, and I have summer on the brain. I find myself browsing through sunny warm pictures of the fun things we did last summer and imagining myself warm and wearing sandals at the beach. (Sigh.) It was 2 degrees yesterday morning... not counting windchill. I had to put on my big ugly warm boots just to check the mail (right outside of our door).
So many of our summer pictures included our dear neighbor Elijah, Alli's best friend, that I had to do a scrapbook page celebrating their summer of fun together. I used paper from the dollar section at Target (12 sheets for $1), a Sharpie felt-tip pen, the QuicKutz Moxie Classic alphabet, and some plain cardstock from Costco.

Click on the picture for a larger, more detailed view.

I doodled and sketched on the die-cut letters and on the paper flowers to tie them together. Doodling makes a very fun, care-free, light-hearted scrapbook page. Some people are intimidated by free-hand drawing. Doodling isn't too difficult. Try this... I drew along the inside of the letters (this font works well because it is so chunky), creating a boundary for my doodling. I filled in the letters with stripes, polka dots, zig zags, etc. The lines don't have to be perfect (that is what makes them fun and innocent).

This was a temporary cure for winter chills, but a permanent preservation of sunny memories... and that warms my heart.

Fish Pinata

My daughter wanted to have a fish-princess-unicorn-themed party for her fourth birthday. (She is all about mixing and matching. Her hairstyle for the party was one French braid and one pigtail.)

Here is the pinata for the party.

It is a fish princess.

I made the body from a basic pinata (paper mache over balloon).

The pinata is covered in die-cut circles (I used the QuicKutz bagel die) to make the scales. The scales are glued on, row by row, overlapping from front to back. The fins, eyes, lips and crown are hand-cut originals. I used a bone folder to score lines on the fins for a little texture and shaping. I embellished with plastic jewels.

This was a great project to use up lots of miscellaneous paper scraps. I used patterned and solid cardstock. I even used some drawings that Alli had done.

The funny thing is, the kids at the party had never smashed a pinata before, so they were quite reluctant to hit it... until they saw the candy come out. Then it was bashed to pieces in seconds. And candy is probably still scattered throughout my living room... which is fine with my kids.