Sketchbook

While I was out sick yesterday I decided to pick up a book and start drawing. It was the first time using my new handmade journal. The thick, fiberous, handmade paper is really awesome but it's so soft that it won't take much erasing to wear a hole in it. I made a few sketches with colored pencil. It was really nice and relaxing to take some time to just draw.

Here are a few of the doodles I made yesterday.

I'm not sure if the meditative drawing session helped but I'm feeling much better today :)

This last drawing is my favorite-- I love drawing cartoony portraits of my sweetie (any boy with a mole is obviousy supposed to be him). If I get some spare time I'll probably turn my drawings into watercolor paintings!



Giveaway Winner

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my first blog giveaway!

The winner is

MJD's Mommy

Congrats! I will be shipping your prints to you this week.

Watercolor Prints - GIVEAWAY

Win a set of woodland art prints!

I recently made some prints of three of my watercolor paintings. Each of the paintings has a woodland animal theme and a quirky saying to go with it. The paintings were a lot of fun to make and I am really happy with how the prints came out. Each print measures 4x6 and was printed using archival inks on archival photo paper.

I am hosting my first blog giveaway to draw some attention to my etsy shop. You have a chance to win the whole set of prints!

You're Foxy

Partners in Crime

Oh Deer!



HOW TO ENTER:

Just go check out my etsy shop and leave a comment on this post telling me what your fave item is.

On February 10th, one lucky commenter will be win this set of prints. I'll be shipping them out just in time for Valentine's Day!

Bloglovin :)

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Busy Busy Break

Today is the last day before I have to go back to work and while I'm not looking forward to waking up early I am looking forward to seeing my students. Winter break has been two weeks of projects for me!

As an early birthday present, my mom helped me track down a "new" sewing machine on craig's list this December. We found a really nice lady who fixes up old metal machines and sells them. I ended up falling in love with a vintage Singer 337 (from 1965). We only paid $30 for it and it works really nicely.

The little owl and the flowers were cut out of a kleenex box. The beautiful artwork that was on the tissue box is by Cori Dantini.

Here are a couple of the things that I have created with the machine so far:

I made my mom a funky monkey out of a pair of old socks as a thank you for the machine.

I made this turtle for my sweetie. He keeps trying teasing our dog with it and I'm sure that we will find it in pieces one of these days.

I used some fabric scraps to make this cute little zippered pouch for my friend Lauren. I based it off of a tutorial from Noodlehead.

This is my first attempt at quilting! This post helped me firgure out how to do a chevron pattern using square pieces. The fabric i used is actually reporpused bedsheets. (Also note the handmade pillow with a bird that matches the chair I reupholstered in my previous post). I just turned 25 and Colin says I'm already acting like a granny, but I think he's ok with it ;).

I've also been updating my shop.

This little owl needs a good home. He was lots of fun to stitch :)

I also created some printable valentines. Only $3 in my shop.

I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day and thinking about lessons to do with my students for the rest of the school year.

Reupholstering is F-U-N

A week or so ago I saw some really lovely upholstered headboards on Pinterest. There are some DIYs for them out there but the voice of reason (my boyfriend) steered me away from starting such a huge and ambitious project in our tiny apartment.

I was still obsessing over the idea of upholstering something pretty, so I went thrifting on my way home from work one day. I found myself driving home with this pretty blah 6-dollar chair. Pretty scratched up, not a nice color, and it looks like it was originally upholstered with a piece of plastic table cloth or something.

Even Lars was disapproving at first. The one important criteria chair is that the seat is screwed on --not nailed or glued-- which allows you to remove the seat and reupholster. If you have everything together you can knock one chair out in less than 15 minutes.

All you need for this project is:
-upholstery fabric cut to size
-needle nose pliers
-screwdriver (probably a Phillips head, depends on the screws)
-staple gun
-foam if you need to replace the seat foam

The reupholstering part only took a few short steps:
*Unscrew seat from chair
*Use pliers to remove stapes and take off original upholstery
*Replace foam if desired (I did this because the foam under there looked really old and needed replacing)
*Lay the fabric wrong side up on the floor and then place foam and seat on top of them
*Wrap and staple in place
*Screw seat back onto chair

One thing I was unsure about was how to tuck the corners on my squarish seat. This awesome photo tutorial from craftaholics anonymous really helped

I kept my seat off to slap on a few coats of black semi gloss paint before putting it back together. Here's the final product.

I'm pretty pleased with it and now I want to reupholster some more furniture. It's a little bit of work for a huge pay off-- instantly prettier furniture!

Art Vs. Art 2011

I decided to participate in the Art Vs. Art painting contest this year! We had four hours to paint any subject.

Now the photos have been uploaded on their site artvsart.net where the public can vote for their three faves. At the end of the voting period is the main event where paintings are pitted against each other in a death match! The paintings that don't get auctioned off to an audience member will be destroyed. Their fate is decided by "the wheel of death"-- an over sized spinner with different methods of destruction. The last painting standing earns the painter a prize of $4000.

It's all in good fun. I'm not banking on winning or even having my painting sold, but I wish I could see it get destroyed. There is a lot of talent here in Indy and it was a blast getting to see everyone paint.

Here is a photo of the painting I made in the four hours I was given. I'm really loving woodland creatures right now and of course tea parties :)

Let me know what you think or take some time to vote on your favorites :)

I've been so busy in my classroom I haven't had much time to work on my own projects lately, so it felt good to paint for myself.  More projects to come soon! Share yours with me too.