Hello Dolly and Lifebook

I finally finished my paint over collage Lifebook page.  I did put so much paint on that the collage doesn't show very much anymore, but I will do better next time.  

I finally have pictures of one of the outfits that I altered for Hello Dolly.  Most of the work I have done has been handwork so it took me awhile to finish this one.  We chose dresses for this musical out of the ones that were available and then altered them to get the look.  This is no where close to authentic, but when everybody is on stage they will all look great together.

The first two pictures are what I started with. 

 These pictures show the alterations that I made.

This is a small bustle. 

Janelle

Random Art

I wanted to do a quick post to show some of what I have been up to lately.  I have been working on quite a few projects and actually have finished some of them.  I am spending the rest of the week sewing, since I have so much to finish for the musical.  I hope to catch up on everyone's posts soon.

This is the box we made for my son's valentine party.

This is a card that I made for my honey.

I love having the pop-out heart in the middle.

This is a pillow that I made for my littlest boy.  He wanted a pillow all his own and regular pillows are a bit too big still. 

This is the painting that I made after reading about how Daniele Valois' post about using styrfoam in art.  you can see her art here: 

http://creatinglearningflying.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-completed-styrofoam-heart-fun.html

The rest of the pictures are all pages form my Book of Days Journal.

Place-mats

I made some place-mats.  They are quilted and then I added some marks with silver paint.  I zig-zaged all the edges, but other then that they are all left rough and unbound.  I like the frayed look.  All the dyed fabrics were hand dyed by me.  I still have a nice stash of hand dyed fabrics that I am using in my work.  If we get a nice amount of snow this winter I want to make some more snow dyed fabric to work with.  I love the mottled look that comes from this method.

Here are the four place-mats that I finished.

These two pictures refuse to turn the correct way for me.

Enjoy,
Janelle

Book of Days

I have been working a lot in my Book of Days this week and I thought that I would share my pictures.

 This page still needs some journaling after I figure out all that I want to say.

I wanted to preserve some of Rowen's young memories on this page.

This was a page about my recent faith practice. 

This was my first attempt at using napkins, now I need to figure out what to do with this spread.  The colors are reminding me of spring, so I might go in that direction.

I have two dresses to alter and play with for Hello Dolly now, so I will try to get some pictures of that work soon.

Have a great weekend.

Janelle

Class work

I have one project done for my Lifebook class and two more partially complete.
I continue to work in my Book of Days- adding pages as I feel the need.
Here is a quick glimpse of my finished work.

This piece is a black and white printout that I colored with water-soluble wax pastel crayons.  It was fun to do, but it felt a little strange to be coloring my on face. 

 This book spread is a self affirmation page.  It is always good to remind yourself that you have worth and are more than a sum of your home and family.

I also continue to be involved in costuming for Hello Dolly, but I don't have any interesting pictures to show from that yet. 

Have a good week,

Janelle

Dyeing Fabric

I hope that you all are not sick of my fabric dyeing experiments and pictures yet, because I have some more.

I painted this one with dye instead of squirting it on. 

Snow dyed cheesecloth.

 I was told by a family friend that if I did some dyeing in browns she would bye a scarf from me, so I made some hand dyed cotton scarfs.  They are just plain right now, but I have plans to do some printing on a few of them to jazz them up a bit.  I am thinking of adding some gold and darker browns and who knows what else.  I have a whole collection of mark making tools to make some interesting layered designs.  Surface design is one of my favorite things to do on fabric and on paper.  Back to the scarfs and the experiment.  I used the same dye batches on both of these two pieces.  The one on the left was dyed using a regular low water dye method and the one on the right was snow dyed.  The colors on the snow dyed piece came out much softer and more subdued (because of the extreme cold I think), but with more gentle patterning.  The regular method produces more intense color and great patterning too, but has a different look.  If I dye during the summer with warmer temperatures the colors are even more intense than when I dye in the winter in a cold basement.  I like both of these looks for different reasons.  

The rest is just eye candy so enjoy.   

Thanks for looking,
Janelle

Painting, drawing, and book altering

I have been working on a few projects the past week and I'm finally ready to share them.
The first is a doodle that I painted a face over for the doodles unleashed class.

Blue Can Be Happy Too

The face was difficult for me.  I had to rework it a bit so I could be happy with her.  It was a lot of fun even though I'm new to making faces and it got a bit frustrating every now and then. I like the painting quite a bit now.  I'm sure that I will continue to improve as I practice.

The next thing is my latest drawing for Lifebook.  This one isn't done yet.  I need to add folds to the clothing, and more shading, along with some words.  This project was a bit scary since I did hatching and cross hatching with a pen.  No going back and erasing when I don't like it.  I will continue to practice more people and shading, so that I will eventually improve- I hope.  Here they are still a work in progress.

The last project that I am working on all the time is my book of days.  I have a couple of pages complete and some backgrounds started on this Monday.

Pretty soon I will be starting to sew for the high school musical that my daughter is in.  It is Hello Dolly this year.  I am seeing a lot of ruffles and lace in my future.  After seeing all the dresses that we have to work with yesterday I am getting pretty excited about altering them and dolling up a bunch of girls.  The Victorian era clothing is fun to play with even though I don't want to wear it every day.

Have a good week,

Janelle