Latest Obsession- Sketch Books

*Obsession- the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc. *

That definition is from dictionary.com. I thought I should probably look it up as I use the word a lot. And, I suppose, it fits each time I use it. 

Anyway, our current obsession is sketching/drawing. Not sure what the difference is, but we love to draw. As much as I hate buying new paper when we have lots of paper that we could recycle, I find having a sketch book makes the act of drawing easier. Each piece of paper is the same weight, it takes markers, pencils, erasers, and many other mediums well, and its spiral bound so all my attempts and art stay in one place. 

I say "our" current obsession, because Emma was always stealing my last sketch book and running off with it. So, we now each have our own. Technically, I have 3, but no one's really counting.

It turns out she loves her sketch book as much as I love mine. Here is a collection of photos from both of our sketch books. If you would like to see everything we've sketched so far, feel free to pop over to our flicker site. 

Here are a few of my favorites from Emma's sketch book (Strathmore Mixed Media 5.5" x 8.5" 90lb- gotta love buy one get one sales!)

*Emma took all the photos of her sketch book art*

Drawing of one of her model horses

Draw from a photo on the web

Drawn from her mind

Drawn from her mind

Most of my drawings are sketched while looking at pictures in Emma's picture books. My sketch book (Canson XL Mixed Media 9" x 12", 98lb). 

From "The First Dog" by Jan Brett.

Various road signs we saw on our trip to Texas

Two scenes from the book, "There's Something in My Attic," by Mercer Mayer

(This is my favorite)

I intend to add color to my pictures, but I will probably wait till I get home so I can scan the drawings first. That way if I screw them up, I can try again :0)

There are lots more photos from our sketch books over at our flicker site. My worst drawing was when I attempted to draw Medusa. Pretty pitiful. If you want, you can check it out here. 

Happy Creating! 

Latest Obsession- Felted Mini Horses

I have been enjoying making these lovely little ponies. I am finally getting the hang of making them, so a tutorial will be coming soon.

Anyway, here are the little equines that I have made so far. They are for sale, so if your interested, send me an e-mail at kaotickrafter@hotmail.com.

*all names are courtesy of my 7 year old daughter*

All mini horses are about 1/4 of a hand high (if your not a giant dork like me, that's 1" measured to the back, about 2" from hoof to ear tip) and about 2 1/4" long. Some of the horses are made from recycled wool sweaters, others are made from a mix of wool/rayon felt. When possible, I stuff these little guys (and girls) with wool roving. Others are stuffed with poly-fill. I hope to find a source of local wool roving, but until then, I'll be using the poly-fill.

Witchcraft 

Coco Swirl

Carrot Swirl

Mints

The Roundup (photo by Emma)

I can also custom make them in just about any color, so let me know if you want one (or an entire herd!). To see the color selection I am working with, check this out. 

Have a great day!

Latest Obsession- Paper People

I bought this book on a whim (after looking through about 15 other paper craft/art journal books). I am so glad I did!

This book has great instructions for how to draw people. She explains the normal proportions (the average human is 7 heads tall), then explains how she does it. 

Here are my attempts at drawing people in poses (left) and with some implied movement (right).

I gave the eyes and mouths a try, but I really didn't enjoy that part at all. 

So fancy pants (and skirts, and dresses).

My first finished girlie!! I love her. I really need to come up with a name for her... 

My mother in law loved my little lady so much that she wanted one! Except she wanted her "little" lady to be around 36"-40" tall! 

Here she is just about done. 

A little closer up. 

Here she is on the wall in my MIL's house. 

And just a bit closer. She needs some shoes (and a bit of lipo suction on her calves), but we are pretty happy with how she turned out. 

If you have any ideas for what to name my little lady, I would love to hear your suggestions! 

Off to create a super cute army! Actually, I do think I would like to try to make a few boys at some point, but not necessarily military. Maybe one riding a bicycle, or playing paintball...

Tutorial- My version of an Art Journal

(Wow, 2 posts in 2 days!)

Ok, so if you are not aware of my latest obsession, you may want to read up a bit here.

So, now it is my job to get you hooked as well :)

Here we go!

Materials Needed:

-Corrugated cardboard

-Ruler

-Rotary cutter (or scissors)

-Cutting mat (if using rotary cutter)

-Book rings (or ribbon will work as well, just a little more of a pain to add pages)

-Paper (printer paper, tracing paper, wrapping paper, newspaper, scrapbook paper, brown paper bags, packaging paper, graph paper, maps... I think you get the idea)

-Hole Punch (not shown- adjustable 3 hole punch or a single punch. You may be able to get a fixed 3 hole punch to work)

-Other fun and random items to to put into your journal. (envelopes, cards, pictures, fabric, dried flowers, beads, trinkets, whatever!)

-Writing implements.

-Glue, tape, stapler, staples.

Oh, and  box. I like to find a shoe box (or a papa johns chicken strips box in this case) to hold all the items that I think I might want to add to my journal. I usually try to keep at least a glue stick in there also.

Step 1.
-Decide what size you want your journal to be. I typically like 5.5 inches by 5.5 inches. Having it a square makes it a bit easier to get the pages lined up.

However, for this black and white journal I went with what I had for white paper which ended up being 4 inches by 6 inches.

-Cut 2 pieces of cardboard slightly larger on 3 sides then your paper.
-Cut a lot of random paper to to the size you would like. You do not need to get them perfect.

Step 2.
-Set up your adjustable 3 hole punch so that 2 of the punches are where you would like your rings or ribbons. I suppose you could also have 3 holes. Or 4 for that matter. How ever many you want :)
-Punch holes on one side of all of your paper and the cardboard. *Make sure that the paper is pushed all the way to the back of the hole punch (or you will get partially punched holes). It may make it easier if you make a mark on the hole punch so you know where to like all you paper up so that the holes line up nicely.

Or not, it is up to you :) the beauty of the book rings or ribbon is that as long as the holes mostly line up, you should be good to go.

Step 3.
-Here is where the fun comes in. Take your cardboard and poke a pencil under the top layer of paper.

Peal it off slowly until your get the look you are going for. Do one side of each piece of cardboard.

Step 4
Sew things to other things :) This is of course an optional step, but I really like this part, so I expect that all of my covers will have some sewing on them.  Not super happy with the back cover but I can fix it as I go.

-If you plan to add anything that will hang off or add any odd bulk, wait until your are about finished with your journal. Or add it now and take out the pages you want to work as you go :)

Step 4.
-Ok this part is pretty fun too. Put everything together. Play with the lay out. Then do what you will with it :) Draw, paint, collage, staple and have a blast!

Don't mind the green ring. I just ordered more silver, but I had to make do :)

Here are a few examples of what I have done with my journal so far.

Bits of left over thread from the covers.

Envelope holding a sticker to be added.

Stamped paint chip weaving. 

Months of the year. Just 'cause. 

We really love horses :)

If you have any questions, or need something clarified, please leave me a message or send me an e-mail. I am happy to help!

I would love to see what you make. If you write a blog post about it, leave me a comment with the link and I will stop by and check it out!

Happy Crafting!


p.s. I plan to add photos of my pages as I add to the journal. Thanks for stopping by!

Latest Obsession

Ok, so I had a blast at my first vending event. Thank you very much to everyone out at Prairieland Herb for making my first event awesome and stress free!

Lets hope my first class goes as smoothly :)

Ok, so onto my latest obsession.

Art Journals!

Well, I guess mine would qualify more as junk or scrap journals for a few reasons. 

1. I can't draw. I am working on it, but really, there are very few things that I can draw well enough that someone else would be able to recognize it easily. 

2. I am addicted to adding stuff to it. Basically, if I could figure out how to  punch 2 holes in the kitchen sink, I would probably try to add that too :)

I have been wanting to make an art journal for a while. The ones that I keep seeing over at craftster.org look so cool, and I love the idea of being able to recycle. Go figure. I am not sure when I first started coveting one, but it has been a while. 

Added to that, I have been researching other ways to make journals and such and I ran across this cool woven journal cover. Once I found that, I was stuck (believe me, my arm was really being twisted) reading through The Creative Place. For hours. I loved all the journals I found there and wanted to make them all. 

Through that site (I think), I found this cool technique for making covers. 

And the straw that broke the camels back was this awesome art journal made by Phizzychick. I finally felt ready. 

I guess in the true sense, an art journal is suppose to be a visual journal. You can still write in it, but a lot of it is drawings, paintings, etc. 

I can't really do either of those, and I kinda fell off the journalling bandwagon. I didn't let that stop me. I figure the only way I will learn to draw and paint is if I try, try, try again! Until I get better at it, I plan to just keep adding cool things to my journal :)

Inchie Tree and Random stuff.

Emma's Mud Gloves and Mud Socks

The green and purple paper is newspaper that I painted with acrylic paint. A lot of the inchies (1"x1" pieces or art) that I received in swaps are in here. 

Envelope received in a swap.

Dictionary page sent through the printer.

Panda card.

Zantangles. Thinking of a B&W theme.

ATC received in a swap

Handmade paper and a note

The beginnings of Emma's art work section.

Emma holding her pigtails while sleeping. 

Bowling in Tucson :)

Awesome inchies!

Close up of the awesome inchies. 

Happy mistake- Pen holder.

I can draw flowers. Apparently.

More Zentangles

Stitched owl on denim.

Emma's early art. 

Doodles

More flowers.

Collage with a few inchies.

Teddy Graham

More flowers

More flowers!!

Needle Felted Flower

Handmade paper. 

More of Emma's art.

Emma's very first drawing of a person.

Winking cowgirl or equestrienne. 

Chicken wire and wool yarn thingy. 

Doodle.

Tree doodle.

First attempt at bead drawing. 

Flowers with added backround.

Boarder work-in-progress.

Cool shoe tag I found on the ground. 

 I used note cards, envelopes, plastic packages, overhead projector paper, ribbon, etc. I plan to have a step-by-step how to up by Friday. 

I hope you are inspired!