Summer of Color

This week the challenge is baseball nut which is vanilla ice cream with ribbons of black raspberry and studded with cashews.  I had some fun with these colors.

My first piece is a sketch that I colored with Prismacolors.  It is from a Lifebook lesson on how to draw whimsical animals.  Here is my puppy.

The next piece is a watercolor painting that I did in my journal.  I used pearlescent watercolors so she has a lot of shimmer.  

 The last piece is a small quilt that is different than my other two.  I used strips in the colors and twisted and sewed them down.  The ends are left free to flutter in the breeze.

Now I am off to finish preparing for my daughter's open house in four days.  After that I will be back to creating.  Have a good week.

Janelle  

Summer of Color

I have finally finished my art for the mint chocolate chip week.  I had fun working with greens and browns this week.
My first piece for this week was a sketch that was colored with Prismacolor pencils.  She is a woodland elf.

The next piece that I made was an acrylic painting done in my journal.  I had to do a wooded landscape for my elf.

The last piece I made was another little quilt.  This was just another abstract piece.  I'm liking these little quilts.  They are pretty quick to make and have a lot of texture.  

I haven't had the time that I want right now to look and comment on all the great art that everyone is creating.  My oldest child graduated from high school this year and I'm in the middle of cleaning and preparing for a big party for her.  I have one more week till the party and then I will have more time to check out everyone's blogs.  For now have a great week and keep creating wonderful art.

Janelle  

Summer of Color

This is the first page of my journal for this summer's challenge.

This week on summer of color ice cream inspirations the color was rainbow sherbet- including bold oranges, pinks, yellows, and a hint of white.  I came up with three different projects for this color.

The first one was in combination with a Lifebook lesson where we made blob art animals.  I used the sherbet colors to make my blobs.  This was a fun way to come up with some fun funky animals.

On the back I glued some scrap book paper just to make it look nice.  It folds into a little accordion book.

 The second project that I did was an abstract painting.  I painted this in a new watercolor Moleskine journal.  

The last project that I made was a small quilt.  I hand dye cotton fabric in the summer so I have a stash of colors already and I added some extra pinks for this week.  These are the fabrics that I used for this small quilt.

This quilt is 7 1/2" by 7 1/2" finished. 

 I layered different sizes of circles on my muslin background and laid a sheer white polyester over top of the whole piece and then free motion stitched it all down.  Next I layered five circles of fabric of the same size down and stitched around the outside.  I did this four times.  Then I cut away portions of the circles so that all the layers could be seen.  Then I stitched a spiral around the circles. I finished the edges using a pillowcase technique.   I wet the quilt down and rubbed the edges of the circles to get it to fray a bit for the last step. 

Here is a close up of one of the circles.  My stitching isn't the neatest, but this was a good way for me to get back to quilting for the summer.  I have been spending most of my time painting this last year, but I want to keep on making art quilts too. 

Now I'm gathering ideas for the next challenge which is mint chocolate chip.  There is still plenty of time to join this fun challenge so check it out at Summer of Color.

Have a great week,

Janelle

Lifebook

I made a butterfly for my Lifebook lesson this week.  I love butterflies, so this lesson was fun to do.

I am also working on some blob art pieces that aren't quite done yet.  The outdoors is taking more of my attention too.  I have been picking strawberries and helping my sister's garden this week.  I need to spruce up my gardens and lawn soon too, because my daughter's open house for graduation is getting closer.

I have also been dyeing fabric this week in preparation for the summer of color challenge.  This week the colors are rainbow sherbet, with oranges, yellows, pinks, and a touch of white.
Here are the fabrics that I am using.

I will hopefully have this project done by Monday, so I can share with everyone.

Have a great weekend

Janelle

Color of Summer Two

I am participating in Summer of Color 2 this year hosted by the lovely Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle.  Go here to find all about the wonderful community and this summer's challenge: Summer of Color 2.
This weeks color is Rainbow Sherbet with bold oranges, pinks, yellows, and a hint of white.  I am already thinking about what I want to do for this week.  I can tell you that I have some plans to dye fabric in various shades of pinks to round out this weeks colors in my stash.  I also have a watercolor Moleskine notebook that I got for Christmas that has been dying to be filled. Come back soon to see what I have come up with for this week.  Please join in on the fun yourself too, because it is a great way to start of the summer.
Janelle

BOD and a T-shirt design

I had some time to do a bit of art and get some pictures taken.  I worked in my BOD yesterday.  Effy Wild shared a video on Monday that was very inspirational, so I had to try my hand at something similar.  This was about creating depth in art by using a lot of layers.  Here is the link to see what Effy is up to: http://bookofdays.org
Here is my layers page.  I haven't written anything on the side page yet, but I will do some journaling here.

This is mid way through my page.

Here it is finished.  This was taken with indoor lighting.

Here it is with outside lighting.

I also worked on a sketch of my four year old son using a graphite transfer method.  I am going to put this sketch in my journal soon.

This is the original photo that I used.

This is a shirt that I ombre dyed and then used stencils and spray paint to add a design.

That is what I have been up to lately.  Have a good weekend.

Janelle

Lifebook

This weekend I took some time to do a  bit of art and take a break for me. I worked on some Lifebook lessons that I hadn't gotten to yet.  I finished one page and worked on another one.

This one has a lot of cutouts.  It was a lot of fun to work on. 

This lady still needs color added over the gray.

I have some other pieces in progress that I will share soon.  

I'm joining summer of color again this year, which starts really soon.  I'm looking forward to challenging myself and creating some new pieces. 

I enjoyed seeing my daughter graduate from high school this weekend also.  Now I just have to get through her open house and I can relax for the rest of the summer. 

Her new dress for graduation.

After graduation with her paternal grandparents.

I am really proud of her and excited to see what new adventures she will find.

Have a great week.

Janelle

Graduation

Today my oldest graduates from high school.  I have had a busy week of celebrating her accomplishments.  I have been busy preparing for her open house that is later in June as well.  I haven't had very much time for creative endeavors.  I hope that in a few weeks I will have more time for art and doing the things that I love.  For now I'm happy to celebrate my beautiful girl.   

Have a great weekend.
Janelle

Faces and Doodles

I have not had as much time for art as I would like lately, but I have managed to work on a few things.  I have been busy with preparing for my daughter's graduation from high school and my other daughter's birthday today.  My lovely Katrina is 17 today.  We are having a family party for her today and a party with her friends this weekend.  I have also been busy with all the end of the year school events.  My children have been making me proud of them at their concerts and award ceremonies.
Now back to art.  I haven't gotten very many faces done, but I do have one to share.  My son asked me to draw more boys, so I have been trying to do that.  I don't feel very confident doing boy faces yet, so I used a graphite transfer method to do this first one.  

I added this sketch to my journal.

I also did a spread in my book showcasing my girls. I am going to miss my oldest next year while she is away at college, so I have been trying to get more pictures of her.  Putting pictures of my children in my journal comes very naturally to me since I want to celebrate their lives along with mine and my husband's.

The last thing that I have worked on this week is practice for one of my Lifebook lessons.  This is from a mini lesson on lettering and doodling by the talented artist Jodi Ohl. When I have more time I might do a big piece like this, but for now this is in a small watercolor journal. 

I added watercolors to it after all the doodling and lettering was done. 

Have a great creative week,

Janelle

Faces

I have been working on more faces for May in my spare time.

This is my last element girl- Fire.

Here are all my girls glued into my journal.

This is the first canvas that I have ever painted.  It was a lot of fun, but I still need a lot of practice to get where I want to be. 

Background

Face sketch

Complete painting ant least for now.  

Side of the gallery wrapped canvas

Have a great week and keep leading a creative life,

Janelle

Calendar

I did part of a lesson for my Lifebook class.  This lesson spans the month of May, so it isn't supposed to be finished yet.  Here is my calendar so far:

I also drew another quick face yesterday.  This one is part of a series of four. 

Have a good day,
Janelle

BOD pages

I have been working in my new volume for Book of Days.  It is a larger size so I can do larger drawings.  For the month of May I am trying to draw 29 faces and put them in my journal.  It is a busy month with my oldest graduating from high school, but I will do my best.  Also my littlest boy turns 2 on Sunday and my second girl turns 17 later this month.  I'm going to be working on graduation, prom, birthdays, school music programs and all kinds of other family stuff.  Drawing and painting is fun and relaxing for me, even if I'm not very good yet, so I try to keep it up.  Here are the pages that I have in my volume two and some of my faces.

The ATC on this page was given to me by one of my friends in the Book Of Days group.  My word for the year is  Faith, so I designed a spread that highlights some images form my faith.

My first face for the month of May.  

                                               

These are element girls.  I have done the first two now, earth and water.   After I get them all done I will add them to my book.

My sister and I made felted wool and alpaca balls yesterday for the dryer.  They are made with natural, undyed wool.  They are supposed to absorb water form the wet clothes and release it gradually as the clothes dry thereby keeping the static in check.  You can also add a drop or two of essential oils for fragrance if you desire.  Next time I do laundry will try them out and see if they really work or not. 

 Have a great weekend.

Janelle