New Doll in Progress

Oh my, we're well into April, and San Antonio (ODACA Day / UFDC Convention) in July is coming right up. While I've been loving the art journaling adventure, I think it's time to knuckle down and get some dolls made!

I've been trying to think of a new design that will be appealing, travel well without special packing, sell well, and won't take days and days to make. This is prototype number 1, which will be about 13 inches tall. I'm thinking I need to elongate her thighs and lower legs, however, so the final doll will be a bit taller.

 

I'm such a fan of Izannah Walker and other antique cloth dolls, that I hope to get that style of doll in the end. I haven't decided whether I'll paint her footwear or make cloth shoes.

 

If I can think of a way to make a stand, this design may work for my Hoffman doll as well.

Life Book 2014 April Lessons

Life Book 2014 March Lessons

Work has been crazy (preparing for the big switch to an electronic medical record - seems like that's all I'm doing lately). Today I finally finished my Week 10 lesson (March 26) - and now I'm 3 1/2 lessons behind. I miss making art!

This week's lesson was taught by Tamara Laporte and Gracie Howle from Willowing. Here's my page, though I may still add flowers/butterflies at some point.

http://www.tworzysko.blogspot.co.uk/


I've had Lesley Riley's TAP, but haven't used it yet. This lesson will be a great introduction to the product. Hope it hasn't outdated!

Reality Check

Here's a very short video shared at the Life Book site, that hits it on the head. Now to figure out where I am in the process...

Valentine Project with the Grandkids

I decided I needed to create a Valentine project to make with the grandkids this year. I frequently have sleepless nights (insomnia sucks!), and used the awake time to imagine a child-appropriate project.

This is what I came up with:

My prep-work was minimal. I cut heart shapes from chipboard and painted them with gesso so they'd take the red paint better and maintain a brighter color.

 

I bought a jigsaw puzzle several years ago (cheap at a second hand store) for the purpose of crafting. If I were to do this again, I'd paint the puzzle pieces with gesso, too. I didn't, and it took several coats of craft-grade acrylic paint to get decent coverage (which taxed the attention span of the kids).

 

 

They enjoyed painting their hearts red.

 

 

 

Fingers are great for applying tacky glue, but only for those who don't mind messy fingers. Ivan had no qualms, but Fiona wasn't a fan and delegated the glue application - then she had no problem placing the puzzle pieces on the heart.

 

Chocolates sound nice...hint, hint

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. Today I hope to work on a project with the grandkids. We'll see how it goes.

Life Book 2013 Video Flip-through!

Today I filmed a flip-through of my Life Book 2013 art journal. Twice. Not as easy as it looks. I backed the video with some music, as I'm sure you don't want to hear me coughing and sniffling.

I wish it was higher resolution when I click full screen. Oh, well. It's my first attempt.

Life Book 2014 February Lessons

I'm excited to have finished my last lesson of Life Book 2013! All pages are now backed, and as soon as I finish decorating the cover I'm going to make a flip-through video.

Meanwhile, I'm behind a few of the 2014 lessons while I've caught up with 2013. Now I can move on.

This lesson taught by Tam Laporte uses Dylusions Spray Inks. HERE is Tam's post and art journal page from this lesson.
This is my second attempt at this page today. Grandson Ivan told me (as I got out of the shower) that he'd painted my circle. This lesson was about negative space, and that "circle" was an area that was to be left unpainted. I think he understands now that his art is his and my art is mine. The boy has access to the best art supplies when I babysit and we often work on art projects, so maybe he misunderstood the boundaries. As a result, I changed my word for this page.

 

Here's the second part of the lesson. I struggled with the looseness of the spray inks. I'm such a control freak!

 

  

Jane Davenport taught this week's lesson ~ a pop-up page. What fun!
Here's the cover:

 Here's a mermaid for the inside:

 Wind and waves:

And all the parts popping up:

Another new teacher! Alena Hennessy.
This lesson employed intuitive painting, and I've come to the conclusion that I have NO intuition when it comes to painting. Not my favorite, but a worthwhile lesson.

This week's lesson is an interview with Claudine Hellmuth.
Here's her Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/claudinehellmuth

See my Life Book 2013 pages HERE

or Life Book 2014 HERE  -

or just click on the appropriate label in the left sidebar (scroll down).

Busy. Again. Still?

I'm getting ready to head to work in a bit, but wanted to get a post in since it's been awhile. Work and babysitting has kept me busy, and I've been stealing moments to work on some journal pages from Life Book 2013 (the last few lessons) and Life Book 2014. I've started working the first layers on three separate pages to make the best use of my time. By the way, you can still sign up for Life Book 2014 HERE. I've been having a blast, and recommend it to anyone.

I haven't done any sewing lately, but have been feeling the urges to make a doll. Actually, I NEED to make quite a few dolls to take to San Antonio this summer for ODACA Day and the UFDC Conference. The big obstacle to that is time, as per usual. I hope to make my reservations this weekend. I've never been to San Antonio, so I'm excited.

 

And there's the annual Hoffman Challenge doll to create as well, due about the time we'll be doing the San Antonio thing. I've got the fabric (big pattern, but pretty). I just need to come up with a design...

Life Book 2014 January Lessons

It's here! Life Book 2014 begins. I'm very excited to see what this year's teacher line-up has to offer. I'm still finishing some of the last lessons of 2013, but really don't want to fall behind in 2014. My goal is to do at least one of the 2013 lessons AND a 2014 lesson per week in order to catch up and keep up.

Today, my grandson and I worked on Week 1's Warm-Up lesson. Here's his work-in-progress. We viewed the lesson on my laptop while we worked, step-by-step. We each picked a split complementary color scheme. He chose his main color and helped find the watercolor crayons that matched the main and complementary colors. As we were using "real artist supplies" (expensive), he took great care to use them carefully. He loved using the brayer to apply gesso and bubble wrap stamping.

 

Here's his finished page. He drew the hearts, I cut them out and glued them where he wanted. We're both very pleased with the outcome.

 And here's my finished page. We used slightly different colors (so we wouldn't have to share colors), but they look very similar here.

 

The second part of the lesson was to create a Guardian and choose a word for the year. I used the same color scheme. I'm happy with it, but always feel like I muck it up with the handwriting.

 

   

This lesson is by Micki Wilde, a new teacher for me!

I'm quite far behind, but life has just been way too busy.

 

  

Looks like a fun lesson by Carla Sonheim!

 

 

Love Kelly Hoernig! I may or may not be done with this page. Time will tell.

 

  

Ooh, a new teacher! Marieke Blokland is this week's instructor. I'm calling my page "Cupcake Love."

 

 

See my Life Book 2013 pages HERE

or Life Book 2014 HERE  -

or just click on the appropriate label in the left sidebar (scroll down).