The official round of thing-a-day is done. Thank you all for your incredible work and see you next year!
I got a little creative in my CAD (computer-aided drafting) program I use for school and decided to make something fun. In case your curious it was made with Autodesk Inventor.
I sliced my hand making the day 6 bookmarks so I figured I would give it a day or two before I made things from clay. So, back to jewelery assembly. I scrounged in my Cupboard of Wonders and found a box of beads from a swap two years ago.
The blue kaleidoscope patterned beads are by a Dutch artist, Muriel (last name escaping me) and the ‘faux’ wood tube beads are by Bob Wiley, an artist with several articles and an appearance on the Carol Duvall Show.
Oh and my daughters says: I also made monster cookies today.
today i wanted to wish everyone a happy chinese new year!
the rat is somewhat similar to a bunny that i designed awhile ago… i’m hoping to be able to learn illustrator this month so that i can reproduce both of these and other designs…
i’d hoped to be able to email my family and friends with my message, and although it is technically still chinese new year right now, most of them won’t see it till tomorrow…
Meant to spend 30 minutes starting a scarf…the night got away from me, and now I’m halfway done!
Today I worked more on the green egg that I started dying yesterday. The first part of the design (the green leaves with brown stems) was inspired by my jade plant. But it was looking too Christmas-y, so I outlined the leaves in gray, and added pink and blue to the background. (I’m using an electric kistka tool to heat and apply the wax, and aniline dyes to color the eggs.) I also used goo-gone to erase part of the wax design that I wasn’t happy with.
The final result was nice, but somewhat mottled in color. When I removed the wax from the outside of the egg, some of the dye started coming off as well, creating this uneven look. This doesn’t usually happen. I think I didn’t allow the egg to dry enough between dying and waxing. Hopefully I can be more patient with my next egg!
Well, again, I wrote a few letters. I was sorely behind on my pen pal writings, but thanks to Thing-A-Day I caught up. Yay! I also planned my Europe trip out, which I guess is more research then creativity, but I think that should count too! And just so there’s a picture on my post here’s my bunnies.
Well today I made yet another bookmark. This one out of ribbon (similar to the one I made the other day) Another simple, easy project.
This one is thinner but it’s more sturdy. And both ribbons (the blue one and the white with splotches) were almost gone so this seems to be the perfect project to use with leftover ribbon from other projects!
Anyway, this is really simple and if you can sew a straight line you can do this! I just sew the two ribbons together. Then fold the bottom to create the point. And then fold down the top and tack both ends down!
This one will be slipped into a letter I’m going to send someone and hopefully she will like it as much as I do! LOL
Happy Chinese New Year! 2008 is the year of the rat.
What’s in store all the rats this year? (yes, I’m a rat as well)
According to the site I was looking at today ” A time of hard work and
renewal in many ways” that marks a good year to begin
a new job, get married, launch a product, or make a fresh
start”. Nice!
the days go by and i don’t have so much time to make stuff. i think she looks vaguely russian…
I made a grocery tote today for my mom. It has a built-in pouch that the tote goes into, so you can easily keep it in your purse. But since I made the tote out of denim, it doesn’t fit into the pouch very well. I’m still really happy with how it turned out. I put some fray-check on the edges, and it’s still drying, but when it’s dry I’ll update the post with the finshed tote (just wanted to get my thing in today yet).
This took me about 2 hours, which is over the limit, but I had to get it done tonight, so I’m counting it! 
I got the pattern from Burdastyle, free and awesome!
Be sure to come back for the finished piece!
I drew my Nohohon-zoku (a bobbing-head toy I got in Japan) with some Pentel “Aquash” watercolor crayons. Fun technique, still getting used to it!
I am helping my brother(in-law) come up with a way of presenting a short written piece to somebody so that it is more substantial than your average note. Because of the sad nature of this keepsake, just handing over a sheet of printer paper isn’t exactly appropriate. Here is the mock-up of what came to mind.
Day 7
What I made tonight was the monoliths. I got the idea from http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/35 They said it would only take 20 min. But I took much longer than that. This was the first time that I did dry brushing. So I learned alot and it shows. Also showing is some of the pink foam under the paint and the cds I used as the base. The figure on the left I painted some time ago. The one on the right came that way in a box.
Don’t you just hate drow.
When my husband and I were out on one of our first dates to the 99 Restaurant almost 5 years ago now, this little stressball was left behind in the booth we sat in. We took him home with the permission of the waitress and he has sat on top of the TV keeping us company ever since. When I was decorating for Christmas this year, I decided that he needed a hat. Below is the hat I made for Smiley at Christmastime:
It was then suggested that I make Smiley a new hat for every season or holiday. For today’s Thing-A-Day, I went ahead and made Smiley a little Valentine’s Day beret… and shot a picture of him again. He’s quite a model, don’t you think?
Time Spent: about 25 minutes or so.
My partner and I watched the Dixie Chicks’ documentary Shut Up and Sing tonight during the time that I would have been busily creating. Priorities. Sometimes you have to just swim around in someone else’s creative output.
I do worry that I cede my space too readily, and too often. An occupational hazard for parents everywhere, I think.
