Under The Red Roof

Etsy Shop Update & some other things

I've been painting some canvases lately but don't have anything I feel like showing at this point. Just playing around and trying to make myself stay at it rather than tossing it to the side. It seems the more I paint and rework the better it gets so I will persist. Meanwhile I did snap a few journal shots. I often like the drawings better before they are colored so I've included a few of those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I've been doing in my journals lately is drawing, doodling and coloring on a pad of thin (90lb) watercolor paper then using that as collage fodder for my journals. It's a fun thing to do.

Here are some fun little paint chips cards I made a while back. Paint chips are one my favorite things to craft with. It's amazing what all you can do with those little suckers!

 

For these I just used the little square that was already cut out of the paint chip as a window for wallpaper scraps. The one on the right with the frame doodle is done with copics. You do need to be careful not to go over the black ink when coloring these as it will smear.

 

This little technique works nicely on most paint chips. It's called Chalk Resist. You stamp with Versa Mark ink, let it dry a bit then use a cotton ball dobbed on a Colorbox Chalk ink pad and rub over the surface. When it has the intensity of color you like polish it with a cotton cloth. I think you can also use regular dye ink pads for this too.

 

More with the frames and copic markers. I was really into drawing this frame for a while! It's a pattern from one of my wallpapers. I often draw patterns from my various wallpapers.

I've had some people asking about flocked papers so I've added some sets to my etsy shop. One particularly for 4th of July crafting:)

 

You can go to my shop to check out the others. I just sort of did colors that have been popular in the past. Let me know if there is a color you want that I don't have listed. I've also brought back my Prescription Transfer Kit so let me know if you have any questions about that. You can check my Flickr set of samples. These Transfer Cases are so cool and display nicely. It's basically another kind of journal or mini-album. The description on the listing explains them in detail.

Fun with Handmade Cards

Every year I say I'm not going to do it but I always end up inflicting my love of making things on my son's teacher. I know for myself and most of those who read this blog it's inconceivable that someone might not particularly like our brand of cool. Some of Jackson's previous teachers have genuinely loved the offbeat things I've made and some, while they appreciate the sentiment, really don't get the outcome. Anyway, I don't seem to be able to stop myself so onward I go:)

This year for some odd reason I got totally in the mood to do handmade cards. I think it's just the desire to work quickly with old paper in a sort of ephemeral way. Not worrying about longevity or anything except the unique joy of receiving something totally unexpected. I think for the world outside of those of us who make things it's especially unexpected to receive something handmade. So, I figure teachers are constantly sending thank you notes and I thought it would be nice to provide Jackson's teacher with a handful of something out of the ordinary. I also had fun creating a way to present the cards. I altered an existing box with hand drawn doodles and a bit of neutral wallpaper. I'm pleased (at the moment) with how it turned out. I say "at the moment" because I find I already don't love some of the cards I made. There were a few I really loved when I first turned them out and now they are so-so. Good enough but not great. Isn't that weird? I do that all the time. I also go in and out of loving some things I've made. I might love it at first, then not care much for it a few months later, but might come back to it in a year or two and appreciate it once again. I've learned not to destroy things too quickly. I give it a couple of years and if I'm embarrassed by it after that amount of time I get rid of it. I have, however, learned the value in seeing the evolution of skills and ideas over time so I do give ample consideration to something before destroying it. Alright, I'm rambling now and talking about things which have no relation to handmade cards!

Here is the altered box and some of the cards. Beyond this I've been journaling exclusively. I'll snap some photos soon to share here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Post in 2 Days. Wow.

Well, I photographed the journal cover after painting it and boy does it look different. I like it, but I really liked the way it looked before. That sort of minimal look of pen and ink with some collage mixed in. I'm going to do another page with a plan of black ink and collage only.

I used watercolors and some prismacolor pencils. The flower still looks a bit white in the picture, but it's actually titanium buff. Here's a photo of the bottom of the page which shows my hand carved stamp.

 

I've been carving stamps all afternoon. I should have taken pictures, but I guess that will give me something to blog about next time.

I watched an excellent documentary the other day about Valentino Garavani. It streams through Netflix so you can watch it through your Wii or on the computer if you have Netflix that is. I guess it's not for everyone, but I was engrossed. I think if you are interested in the fashion industry it would be for you. I am in awe of Haute Couture. All of Valentino's couture is stitched by hand. They bought ONE sewing machine years ago and no one ever used it! Amazing isn't it? Runway shows are so inspiring and I always love when the designer walks out behind the models at the end of the show. Makes me want to be a designer SO MUCH. Makes me understand how my dad would always proclaim he should have been a conductor while doing his air conductor routine. I wanna walk that runway and wave to my fans!

Are there any Project Runway watchers out there?? I was completely thrilled Seth Aaron won. I love his aesthetic and he has such a sweet spirit. I'm sad it's over and we have to wait for the next season. I hope they stay on the two season per year clip. Oh! and can you believe Seth Aaron had designed something like 24 looks for the finale???? Good gracious talk about prolific. No one has ever done anything like that in PR history. I found it sorta shocking especially considering he took Tim's advice and pretty much reworked his entire collection so it would differ from what he was doing in the show's challenges. That guy's got a future. This season's designers were really all pretty amazing.

Okay, it's off to bed for me. I still have four more of the half price flocked packs if you're interested. Thanks for all the encouragement you gave me to keep the blogging steady. I'm gonna give it a good try:)