Some Embroidered Fairy Embellishment...

My girls are very into fairies this summer. No matter where we go, or what we do, somehow, the talk of fairies, and fairy magic end up in our conversations. We talk about if the fairies are at Grandma and Papa's camper, if the butterflies at the property are really fairies fluttering around, if the fairies help the green beans in the garden to grow...

With all of this talk about fairies, I couldn't help but to get into the fairy mood myself. I took a picture of the girls in June at a Fairy Festival we had attended that turned out very cute. The timing was just right and they look like a couple of fairies themselves getting ready to get into trouble. (The thing about photography and children is a good picture happens when you are in the right place at the right time - there is no special trick to it!)...

Here are my mischievous fairies trying to look like they are behaving! I printed the photo on a piece of white cotton muslin. Once the ink was set I soaked the whole thing in some left over coffee. I then embroidered the flowers and the border. I think next I 'm going to collage it to a canvas board. I'll post pictures of the completed collage soon...

My Color Wheel, inspiration project one...

I had the first lesson this week in Alisa Burke's online Color class. It has been very interesting. I have never really thought about color before, at least not in terms of primary/secondary/complimentary, and I certainly never gave any thought to tint, or shade. I love it! I've been walking around all week looking at everything differently. Our inspiration for the week was to make a color wheel. Since I have embroidery floss in every color imaginable I decided to embroider my color wheel. I used water color pencils to fill in my flower petals and then embroidered the outline with the floss to match. Now I have this cute little portable color wheel to take with me where ever I go!

A Hot Air Balloon Festival and an Online Class...

We got to see hot air balloons up close and personal last weekend...

What is it about a big blue sky and a brilliantly colored hot air balloon that is so amazing to look at?

We had absolutely perfect weather last weekend to watch the hot air balloons that were taking of from the campground where my parents' camper is permanently parked. It was a little warm but the sky was clear, and blue, and the balloons were incredible! This was the closest I had ever been to them- they are MASSIVE when you are this close...

The people who were setting up, and filling the balloons with hot air really had to work hard! When the burners went off to fill the balloon, three or four people had to hold the basket down so it wouldn't float away (although the balloons themselves were tethered to the ground until take off). The girls had a blast - I was thankful though that neither of them wanted to go for a ride! They had fun just watching all of the excitement from the ground...

Speaking of excitement, I have decided to take an online class from Alisa Burke on color. The class is called "Color Your World", you can sign up at http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/ . I also bought a Moleskine journal a couple of weeks back. I have always kept a written journal, but lately have been trying out a little bit of art journaling. It's a bit odd for me, I have all of these ideas in my head all day long at work, yet when I get home and open up that journal, I just stair at the blank pages. I plan on using the journal for my color class - this way, I will have some assignments and some inspiration to get me started! I have always created things for as long as I can remember, but I have always made "things": gifts for people, something that is useful, or has a purpose. It has only been within the last year, that I have really thought about creating just for the sole purpose of creation and expression. Sometimes (and I know this is just mommy-guilt) I feel like if I am creating just to play and create, I should be doing something more constructive. I know this is a ridiculous thought so I'm hoping this class and the art journal will help me break that destructive thought process! Have a wonderful week!

Catching Up on Some Embroidery...

One thing that I consistently hear again and again when it comes to creating every day is to break projects down into smaller projects. That is what I did over the Fourth of July weekend. We had a busy weekend of activities, so I made a conscious effort to make sure I squeezed in some creative time. I gathered up several "in progress" small embroidery projects and worked on them throughout the weekend...

This dragonfly is stitched on a Shout Color Catcher. For those of you unfamiliar with these, they look a lot like dryer sheets but you put them in the washing machine and they absorb any color from clothes like red shirts or new jeans. This one came out a great worn denim color - I had washed a load of blacks and jeans. Color Catchers also take food coloring beautifully. I finished this while sitting around the campsite last Saturday night.

This is some embroidery of a set of pears. They are embroidered on a painted dryer sheet than cut out and sewed to a piece of coffee stained muslin. I let the edges of the muslin fray and then stamped them with a little bit of color to complement the pears. I am in the process of making a paper cloth bag, the pears will eventually be attached to the bag...

This is a partially completed embroidered hydrangea, also on a painted dryer sheet. I have also added some beads for embellishments. I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do with it when it is complete. Over the winter, I had been experimenting with dying some quilt batting (there was a tutorial in the winter '10 issue, I believe, of Quilting Arts magazine, by Judy Coats Perez- easy and fun), and some muslin. l. I would like to try to do something using the hydrangea, the batting and the mulin, but I'm just not quite sure what, suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I get a lot of my color inspiration from the art work my girls complete. Without even giving it a thought, they can paint something and the colors are just beautiful...

There is no real process to their creativity, they don't think about what colors would look best grouped together etc, they just create with pure abandonment...

Think of how wonderful and beautiful the whole world would be if we all colored like we were five again! I hope everyone has a wonderfully colorful week (and cool for those of us still feeling the affects of a major heat wave).