Time to Make a 2010 Visual Calendar

Here it's the last day of the year and I'm making my 2010 Art Journal Calendar. It's become a habit to keep these visual calendars. 2010 makes my fifth year to keep one. Last year, I posted HERE my top ten reasons to keep a visual calendar and demonstrated HERE how I make them.

For the cover and back, I scanned and cropped my ArtFiberFest fabric journal cover and resized it to fit an 8½ x 5½ format.

The inside covers are sewn 'Mary Ann Moss-style' with photos and decorative paper.

To make it easy, I purchased two monthly calendar refills, trimmed off the notebook holes on the edges, and glued each month-half to an 8½ x 11 inch piece of card stock. I cut these in half and voila- the calendar pages are created.
Here's what the month of January looks like in the bound Art Journal Calendar.

On the backs of the calendar pages, I glued my artwork or photos to go with each season.
Between March and April are a photo of the snow drops on Vashon Island and my Mt Hood landscape.
Between August and September are a photo of the dahlias at Justy's Flowers & Produce and one of my dahlia sketches.
Enjoy making your own visual calendar for 2010 and Happy New Year!!!!

"Remains of the Day" Shabby Journal Cover

A couple art friends signed up for Mary Ann Moss's "Remains of the Day" shabby journal online class. I wanted to join in the fun and joined the class last week. For our first assignment, we made the journal cover with a paper template, scraps of fabric and lots of machine stitching. The tie wraps around to keep it all together.

My fabric selections include some from France and Japan. I love the French toile. My overseas vacations usually include a trip to a few local fabric stores.

Here is the cover laid out with both front and back.

I made the tie with duopioni silk and sewed on strips of Japanese fabrics that I used to make my sewing machine cover last year. I highly recommend Mary Ann's online classes. She demos with lots of videos, offers PDF files for each lesson, lots of resources and you receive all with a great sense of humor and fun.

Merry Christmas

We sketched today at Martha's home, enjoyed her Christmas decorations and ate holiday goodies. It was fun to sketch her tree ornaments in an inchie format. After drawing snow flakes, a butterfly and spiral with a white crayon, I added watercolor. The resist creates a dreamy look. Hope you're enjoying the holidays with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

Back to Sketching at Monticello Antiques

I'm finally back to sketching weekly. I've missed my sketching buddies, our chats over coffee and drawing whatever catches our fancy. Today with holiday music in the air, it felt right to sketch Santa. Monticello Antique Market Place presents their Christmas Show during December. The booths are filled with all kinds of Christmas decorations past and present.

This little cabin makes me think of cozy winter nights by the fire out of the cold.

Hope you're able to keep warm and enjoy the holiday season.

Making Artful Gift Tags

Artful gift tags make a package special. My friend Cynthia wrapped her gift with a variety of tags that she made. The one below is painted on watercolor paper and hand lettered.

An image of the Virgin de Guadalupe is stamped into paper clay and painted with gold to highlight the folds of her gown. Each tag shows a lot of attention and creativity in making it.

At our Portland Art Collective Show, someone commented that I should sell my gift tags. Here's a little tutorial on how I make them. First, cut or use a pre-cut tag and paint it with acrylic paint.

Tear apart a paper napkin. Don't stop at the first layer of white, the second layer needs to come off, too. Now there's a thin layer of tissue to use for the tag.

Glue the tag

Place the glued-side of the tag to the wrong-side of the tissue paper.

Trim off the tissue paper around the edge of the tag.

Follow the same process for the back side of the tag.

Color the edges front & back. I used a Marvy Brush in aubergine for this tag. A Krylon gold leaf pen works well, too.

Punch a hole in the top and tie a ribbon through it and voila- an artful gift tag is created.

Enjoy making tags for your gifts this holiday season.

Last Day to See Open Doors Art Show

Stop by and say hello. It's the last day of our Portland Art Collective Art Show and Sale. It's a great chance to meet the members and see their artwork. Show information is located in the side bar.

Kimono Fabric Bead Necklaces Ready for Show

The kimono fabric bead necklaces are ready for the Portland Art Collective "Open Doors" Show this coming Friday and Saturday. I enjoyed making tags for them. It feels good to finish a project.

Here's a photo of several necklaces lined up and below is a close up view.

I hope you can come to the show. It's in the gymnasium of the Multnomah Arts Center. Multnomah Village celebrates their Holiday Gala December 4th & 5th with carriage rides, a tree lighting, caroling and other events. Check HERE for more information. It's great fun for the whole family

Sweets? Sushi? No, Kimono Fabric Beads

The sewing needle flew yesterday as I added seed beads to my kimono fabric beads.

Here the kimono fabric beads are unadorned.

The seed beads add sparkle and interest. Today, I'm crocheting chains with Japanese fibers from Habu Textiles to assemble the necklaces. I like the nubby texture of their yarns.

Lucky Dress Form Find at Monticello Antiques

It's amazing when you put your radar out there to find something, it appears when least expected. I've been looking for a dress form to display my handmade jewelry at our Portland Art Collective 'Open Doors' Show. The perfect dress form found me today. I don't know how old it is but I love all the wing nuts and metal inner workings. It rests on a four claw-footed metal stand that can be floor or table height.

Here's the outer label. Thanks to our sketch date at Monticello Antiques, the discovery is made.

Art Retreat on Guemes Island

Last weekend, a group from Seattle and Vancouver, BC invited me to their art retreat on Guemes Island, north of Anacortes, Washington. It's always fun to create with like-minded friends, share ideas, art and a wonderful time together. Thank you Gwen for inviting me! Now I have a new group of art friends and created these journal pages at the retreat.

I wanted to experiment with clear gesso. It covers acrylic paint and water soluble Portfolio oil pastels really well. The clear gesso tooth allows you to add other layers of paint, writing, etc.

I used a stencil for the cityscape, added collage city scenes, covered it all with clear gesso and painted the clouds and moonlit sky on top.

Here's a group photo

all of us creating up a storm

The Red Farmhouse where we stayed

This is a wonderful place for an art retreat with plenty of room for six to nine people, a fully equiped kitchen and two long tables for work space. It's a close walk to the beach.

Sitka Center for Art Workshop with Rebecca Wild

Rebecca Wild, a Portland calligrapher, offered a workshop this week entitled "Conversations with Nature: Art & Text". The Sitka Center for Art & Ecology sponsored the class and this weekend is their 2009 art exhibit & sale at the World Forestry Center. It's a wonderful show with a nature theme. Rebecca's artwork will be shown, too. The first piece above was created with hand cut stencils and acrylic paint.

John Muir wrote the quote- "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop like autumn leaves."

For second piece, we used a tape resist with graphite and pastels. I added another John Muir quote, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal & give strength to body & soul."

More Wire Crocheted & Beaded Necklaces

My crochet hook is flying and making more necklaces for our Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show next month. I really like this three strand beauty.

Be sure to mark your calendars for December 4th & 5th. Detailed information on the show is located on the sidebar. Hope to see you there.

Imaginary Animals with Carla Sonheim at Art & Soul

The beginning of the month, I took Carla Sonheim's 'Imaginary Creatures' workshop.

We used watercolors to make abstract designs and looked for imaginary creatures in the painting- like looking for images in clouds.

Once we found our creatures, we gave them substance and depth with more watercolor washes, gesso and charcoal.

What amazed me is the variety of individual interpretations and artistic styles workshop members created. It's inspiring to see how the creative mind works in so many different ways.

Carla's writing a book to be released July 2010 entitled "Drawing Lab for mixed Media Artists: 52 creative exercises to make drawing fun".