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

Renaissance Festival

I am finally done sewing for the Renaissance Festival.  My family and a few friends went last Saturday so I thought that I would share some pictures.  I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted because it was much cooler than we hoped for and we were more bundled up than usual.

I made this top and skirt, which looked lovely with the leather vest.

I made this tunic top for my oldest boy this year.  Next year I will have to make other pieces to fit him.

I made this knight garb many years ago for my oldest daughter.  I modified it a little so it would fit.

 Here is my daughter and some of her friends.  I made the purple dress and the royal blue and gold dress.

Here are a few sights from around the festival.  We always enjoy our day walking around seeing shows, shopping, and enjoying a small piece of the past. 

Autumn

I have been excited about the Lifebook course on Willowing & Friends.  It is a yearlong art class with a lot of great teachers.  Here is where you can find out more information. http://wildprecious.com/blog/2011/09/26/lifebook-news-and-fantabulous-giveaway/
and http://willowing.ning.com/page/life-book
Check it out if you get the chance.


Here is a picture of the leaves just starting to turn color a bit.  The Autumn is usually gorgeous around here and it is just getting started.  I will try to get more pictures up as the color ramps up.

I made a composition book cover for my daughter out of an old pair of jeans and some muslin.  I am still working on the indoor picture taking, but I thought that I would show everyone anyway.  I still have to perfect my light box and lamp set up.  My camera also wants to use the flash indoors all the time.  I haven't figured out how to turn it off yet.

I made the cover using instructions from Lyric Kinard. The tutorial can be found here. http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/2011/03/tutorial-sketchbook-slipcover.html

Have a great day everyone.

Janelle

Etsy

I am considering opening an Etsy shop in the near future.  Right now I am doing some research trying to find out everything that I need to do before I am ready to open a shop.  It all seems to be a bit overwhelming.  If anyone can give me some hints or reassurances I would appreciate it.  I am trying to figure out if this is the right thing for me.

Another Wednesday

I have been spending most of my time in the sewing room still.  I hope to be done with some projects soon and get some more pictures up.
Here is another cuff that I completed.  This one has super soft leather for the backing.  I love this color pallet.

I also joined Whimsical Workspaces on Willowing.  It is a free workshop to help you get your studio or other space cleaned up and organized in a way that is meaningful to you.  I have spent a lot of time recently getting my sewing room and studio space cleaned up, but I can always use help to do a better job so I joined anyway.

I wanted to share pictures from my garden.  My hydrangea doesn't ever bloom well, but it is still pretty anyway.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for visiting.

Janelle

Wordless Wednesday

Early September Doings

I have been working on a lot of different projects the past couple of weeks.  Only a couple are completely finished and ready to show however.  I will post more when I get the others finished.
I have made a couple of fabric cuffs, which turned out to be a lot of fun.  I have plans for some more, I just haven't had time to complete them.

I also did a bunch of gelatin mono-prints, but I am still working on those (adding more color).
I am in the process of sewing a couple of dresses for our Renaissance Fest.  I have been working on these the most because they need to be ready to wear soon.
I also experimented with Derwent Inktense pencils by coloring in a sketch that I had made previously.  They were easy to work with and added beautiful color.  

 I hope you enjoy my pictures.  I hope to post more soon as I get more projects done.

Fall Doings

School is starting tomorrow, so all the older people in my house will be gone.  I will find out if my two little people will happily play and let mom work in peace.  I am hoping that I will get to be creative at least during nap time everyday.

In the next couple of weeks I am planning on sewing dresses for the Michigan Renaissance Festival.  My family makes this a fall outing every year.  It is more fun if you are dressed up.  We don't do authentic outfits, but we are inspired by the times in our costuming.  

 My daughter and some friends last year at the Ren Fest. 

My daughter and I cut up a stack of old unwearable jeans last night.  We want to make journal covers, cuffs, and purses out of the denim.  When I get any of these projects completed I will post pictures.  Now I am off for the last minute school shopping that needs to be completed.   

Studio Space

I have spent three days cleaning and organizing my studio space.  I needed to have a nice space to get messy in and now I finally have that.  I have all my messy art stuff, dye equipment and scrap-booking supplies in my basement.  (I am lucky that it has windows all along one side and gets a lot of light.)  I have my sewing room upstairs right next to my kitchen.  I was tired of having everything crammed into one small area, except my dyeing supplies which have always been downstairs.  Now I just have to finish organizing my sewing area and I will be ready to create some more art.  I have to have my all my art making supplies in the house somewhere.  With two little boys at home I can't really go anywhere else to be creative.  I am feeling a little more energized just to have my area organized, so I can find things when want them without having to dig around.

Sister Quilt

Here is my latest project.  This is a small art quilt that I made for my sister.

This is my first attempt using a whimsical style of art.

Weekend Fun

This weekend was my son's fourth birthday.  My family went camping near Interlochen MI, where my girls were attending band camp.  We saw their performance and went to Sleeping Bear Dunes to see the sights.

My son is really into superheros, so I made him a superhero belt for his birthday.

Now he has loops and pockets to hold all his little goodies.

                 Here are some pictures from around Sleeping Bear Dunes, which is along Lake Michigan.

                                           The water below, 400 feet down, is Lake Michigan.

                                           Here is one picture of the band during their performance.