Giveaway and more

Judi over at Approachable Art is hosting a giveaway for a gel printing plate.
"Gelli Arts, makers of those new and very cool gel printing plates, has generously donated one 6" x 6" Gel Printing Plate (a 20.00 value) to one of my readers and all you have to do to win it is comment on this blog post and tell me about the monoprinting loveliness you want to try with your new Gel Plate!" Go here for more information: http://approachable-art.blogspot.com/2011/10/gelli-arts-giveaway.html
Judi's blog is full of wonderful art and information and I would recommend reading it to anyone interested in the arts.

I have been working on my monoprints more and I'm ready to start stitching them when I have some free time. I used a gelatin plate to make my monoprints, but I would love to use one of these plates made by Gelli Arts.  
Here are pictures of a few of my monoprints that I haven't shown yet.

I also started crocheting a basic pair of fingerless gloves that I can wear while I'm sewing and painting.  It is getting cold here and my art spaces are always cold in the winter.  






Happy weekend and enjoy Halloween if you celebrate it.
Janelle

Autumn Fun

My kids and their cousin picked their pumpkins yesterday and carved them.  They had a lot of fun playing outside on this gorgeous fall day.

 
My oldest had her uncle take some senior pictures for the yearbook and graduation announcements.

Today I am making some art for my sewing room.  This week at the whimsical workspace class we are decorating our space.  Those pictures will come later.
Have a wonderful day,
Janelle

Studio Work

I have been working on my wet studio and my sewing room through Whimsical Workspaces.

whimsical-workspace

I wanted to share some of the progress that I have been making.

My inspiration area in my sewing room before organizing.

My inspiration area after organizing.

My sewing books before organizing.

My fabric cupboard before organizing.

My books and fabrics after organizing.

My ribbon jar before organizing.

My ribbons after they are separated by color.

My jars after sorting everything.

My desk in my wet studio area before cleaning.

My desk after cleaning.

My paints, dyes, and tools after organizing.

 I have only been sorting and organizing using things that I already had.  I haven't bought anything new.

This is the stack of art/quilting reading that I have been doing lately. 

Happy Creating,

Janelle

Crayon Cakes

I have been too busy with a cranky toddler to blog much, but I wanted to show off my crayon cakes.  I used directions from Traci Bautista's collage book to make these.  I haven't had time to use these to make any art, but hopefully I will soon.  Now my kids don't have any small bits in their crayon box.  I also made some collage papers using some fabric dye that I had mixed up.  That was a lot of fun too.  I will have to get pictures of some papers to show off to everyone. 

Have a great week.
Janelle

Mono-prints, and sketchbook work

I have still been working on my studio spaces through Whimsical Workspaces which can be found here: http://willowing.ning.com/group/whimsical-workspace  It has been good to get cleaned up and organized.

I have also been making some art.  I am still working on my fabric mono-prints, more cuffs, another background and my owl that I showed earlier this month.

First the background.  I layered gesso on a piece of water color fabric thickly and then doodled into it.  When that was dry I painted some water colors over it letting some of them drip.  I will be adding more to this piece soon.  Hopefully it will turn out to be something nice.

Next are the mono-prints that I am working on.  I am adding color the the white spaces.  Some of them I like better than others, but after adding more paint and stitching I hope that they look better.

Here is the little owl that I have been working on in my sketchbook.  I added paint and some words to this page.  I am not completely happy with the way he turned out, but I know that practicing will improve my skills, so I keep trying.  At least the process is fun even though I wish that my skills were up to what I want them at.  

I have been reading a couple of books that have me itching to try some new techniques.  The first one is: Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art by Diane Maurer-Mathison.  The second one is Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista.  They both have a lot of great information and I want to try some of the techniques that I am reading about.  If only there were more hours in the day.

Happy Creating!
Janelle

Autumn Inspiration

Here are some pictures of the Autumn color around my part of the world.

I love all the color that Michigan has in the Autumn.  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  

Janelle

Cards, Monoprints, and sketchbook work

I have been pretty busy this week.  I am participating in a free on-line class called Whimsical Workspaces by Rhomany.  You can find the Link here http://willowing.ning.com/group/whimsical-workspace I have been working on organizing all of the spots in my sewing room and wet studio space that still need help.  I have also been working on a few small projects that I wanted to share.

I have been making some blank greeting cards using my hand-dyed fabrics and bits of lace.  I am just experimenting with different techniques and looks so that I can figure out which one I want to concentrate on making a bunch of.  Here are the ones I have made so far.

I have also been working on some monoprints on fabric with fabric paints and fabric markers.  My daughter and I made a whole stack of these one night and I have been slowly adding more color with fabric markers to finish them since then.  I don't have very many finished yet, but I wanted to share the few that are done.

I hope to add stitching and make a quilt out of these some day.  I will trim off the blank bits and use them for something else.
I have also been painting a little in my sketch books, mostly using Derwent Inktense Pencils.

This one is just a background.  I haven't decided yet what I want to add to it.

I loosely traced an owl onto tea bag paper and glued it to the background that I had painted.  I like the aged look of the tea bag paper.  I am adding more to this page, so I will post it when it is done.   

Have a great weekend and have fun making your own art.

Janelle