Lady October

Wow, Fall got here so fast this year I barely had time to really prepare for it.  Here in Germany, we have beautiful Falls.  I'm really enjoying all the colors this year, and the kids have taken to bringing me home the extra special leaves that they've discovered outside.  Unfortunately, they were really sad to discover that the leaves tend to dry up after a few days, so I've been scanning some of their best leaves so that they can keep them forever.  This in turn inspired my latest drawing for the month of October.



This month I'm trying two new things.  1. I tried out a new computer program to color my sketches.  2.  I'm trying to post a bit more about my sketching process which is actually a bit scary for me.

I'm very happy with this drawing.  I did have a hard time deciding between the colorings of the background, so I've included my two favorites in this posts so you can compare the differences.



This drawing was done by hand, then scanned and colored on the computer.  I tried to do it with my new program "sketch book pro", but I still need more practice with it and went back to using photoshop.  I do have to say that I love the pencil feature on Sketch book pro.  It is almost like using a real pencil.




Background two is a cooler tone than my first pick.  I like how subtle it is, and it is my second favorite of all the different backgrounds I tried out.




I wish that I could say that I'm one of those people who can just sketch out awesome images without even trying, but my preliminary ideas are often really rough.  I just want to get the idea out, and then I work on refining my ideas and doing another few drawings before I have a final image that is ready to color.  This sketch was done at an indoor play area while my kids were bouncing in the background.  I don't usually share my rough sketches, but I'm really proud of how much better I'm getting at drawing figures and objects without having to have a reference.



I love coloring my sketches by hand with paint or pencils, but I'm also loving being able to color them on the computer because there is more freedom with trying out different ideas without having to redraw the whole image and start over if you're not happy with a color.  In this drawing, I tried several ideas for the the Lady's undershirt before I finally chose these stripes.  I knew that the stripes were right because they made me smile the moment I drew them.



I also toyed with a few ideas for the dress fabric pattern before I drew out the final design.  I love the little bugs and beasts that are hidden in the pattern.  The frog might be my favorite part of her gown.

Surprisingly, I didn't struggle with the color for the cat.  I always knew that she had a grey cat :)

This drawing was a real pleasure to work on because I was so very inspired by the season.  Where do you find your inspiration?  In the seasons, daily life, in your day dreams, or somewhere else? :)

Halloween Bunco Party 2013

Once a month, my girlfriends all get together and have a Bunco party at someone's home.  Bunco is a fun and easy dice game (go ahead, Google it, I know you want to :).  We play, we eat, we drink, and we talk. It's all very informal and fun.

This month, I had the pleasure of hosting Bunco at my home.  October is an important month to be the Bunco hostess because we always dress up and have a costume contest.  While normal hosting involves buying enough wine and making sure the pretty towels are hung in guest bathroom, Halloween Bunco involves a bit more thought and prep.  I really wanted to do some fun and spooky Halloween decorating without going overboard on cost and prep time. So, just for fun, I want to share some of my Halloween party decorating and Bunco ideas with everyone.

Click on the image to download all six cards.

The first thing I made for the party was the Bunco score cards.  I drew out a spiderweb border, thought of some spooky sayings for the mini buncos, and played with some creepy fonts until I had a Halloween worthy Bunco score card.  I made six slightly different versions of this score card which you can download here for use at your own Halloween Bunco Party. Make sure to download the original for the best quality, and please feel free to leave me a comment if you use these for your Bunco gathering.

Before you read any further, I want to say that I didn't go all out and do a full haunt.  This is the easy, accessible version of a Halloween party.  I did some art, some funny accents, and some themed food just to get everyone in the mood.  Second, I was running behind during set-up so you're getting party aftermath pictures (sorry).



Anyone who knows me, knows that I love doing art for my parties.  When my daughter had her puppy birthday, we covered some of the art around the house with puppy themed designs.  So, this time, I made a series of three paintings to help get the room in the Halloween spirit.

The original idea was to take black poster board and make white chalkboard styled paintings.  Of course, that only works if the store has black poster board.

That's okay, because some of my best ideas come from having to think outside the box in search of a plan B. Plan B ended up being totally cooler than plan A anyways.  Any idea that starts with "pour half cup of wet paint onto canvas" has got to be good :)

As some of you may have guessed, these are finger paintings.  I didn't really plan anything in advance.  I didn't draw it out on the canvas or make practice sketches.  I knew that I wanted to do a skull, a witch, and a spider, and I had an idea of how I wanted them to look, but time was short and I just poured a handful of paynes grey onto the canvas, added a few handfuls of water, smeared it everywhere, and then used my fingers to wipe off the paint.  My kids, and my guests loved  the paintings so I was pleased.

I also made these day of the dead pens for my guests to use for keeping score and for favors that they could take home with them.

This project was also very paint reliant.  I painted plain mini skulls to be day of the dead sugar skulls, covered the pens in black ribbon, and then added some fake flowers around the head to cover the joined areas.

My last really crafty project for the party was making these black dripped glasses.  What's better than sangria served out of a cauldron with eye balls floating in your beverage; getting to drink the sangria out of a spooky black dripped plastic champagne flute.

My other decorative accents were pretty easy to do.  Sometimes simple is more effective.  People got a real kick out of my party crashing witch, and she was made using paper towel rolls, a pair of my socks and shoes, and plastic bags for stuffing.

The mini graveyard was easy and cheap, and it looked great surrounded by all the food.

Madam Leota was also easy and fun.  I just cut out a picture of her from a downloadable Halloween party invitation, put the picture in a glass globe, and put a flashing colored pumpkin light behind the cutout.  The effect was great for the price and she made a wonderful accent to the grape tray :)

And lastly, I had to put something funny in the bathroom.

I hope that some of these ideas or printables can help you haunt your house or party.  I have a few more Halloween and October themed crafts in the works that I I'll hopefully also post soon.

I'd also love to know what everyone else is doing for Halloween.  What's your favorite tradition?

Extra Special Fabric in Guthrie OK

During my visit to the United States this summer I got to go to several really fun quilt shops.  I have come to believe that quilters enjoy shopping for fabric almost as much as they like sewing.  I know that I personally make it a point to go to at least one (if not more) quilt shops in the areas that we are visiting whenever possible.  I love getting to meet local quilters to swap stories, techniques, and ideas.

One of the amazing shops that I visited during our vacation was in Guthrie Oklahoma.  My husband and I were there overnight to belatedly celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We stayed at a little B&B, enjoyed some dinner theater down in OK city, and then visited Guthrie before we started back to go rescue the Grandparents from the babies.  



 Because my husband was in a generous anniversary mood, I got to go visit the Extra Special fabric shop around the corner from our B&B in historic down town Guthrie.  It's nestled along side of several antique stores, thrift shops, cafes, and home decor stores.

Extra Special Fabric was amazingly fun and really lives up to its name.  I love going to shops that really reflect the area and Extra Special Fabric specializes in western and southwest themed fabrics.  They had everything you could possibly think of related to western fabric ranging from allover bluebonnet florals, to bandanna prints, and lots of cowboy and western novelty prints too.



The ladies in the shop were great and made me feel like an old friend come for a visit and not an out of town tourist buying a few fat quarters.



Speaking of, here is one side of their fat quarter station.  I love fat quarters and bought several western and patriotic FQs for my stash.  I also visited the sale table right behind this, and am still kicking myself for not buying a few yards of the arrow fabric that was on sale for a future quilt back.

I loved that they had lots of samples up on the walls of their aprons and quilt kits.  You could buy a ready made apron or get the fabric and make one yourself.  I love shops that have items that non-sewers can purchase.  This way, when I take friends (or husbands) who don't ooh and aah over fabric bolts with me, they can feel involved and have a good time too.



Here's a lovely little Texas wall quilt sample.  Very patriotic and cute.



And, the most important chair in the whole shop.  The husband chair.  Side table, fan, and magazines.  Very smart ladies :) I'm sure many a husband has relaxed in this chair so his lovely wife can fabric shop.



This was one of the most exciting parts of the shop for me.  The SCRAP BIN! I love scraps, I hoard them, and I love finding shops that sell them at reasonable rates.  Let's just say the the halfway empty state of this basket is due to me buying around two one-gallon bags stuffed to near overload with scraps. 



I had a wonderful time talking and shopping at Extra Special Fabrics and can honestly say that if you are in the area, this shop is a must visit.  Thank you ladies for being kind and patient with all my photo taking and question.  See you next time :) 


Who else has found special fabric shops while on holiday?

  

Fall Flowers Wreath & tutorial

Hello to everybody out there who follows my blog or just stumbled onto this post.  Wow, it's been a long while since I made a new post!  I actually took an extended vacation back to the states with my children for the summer.  It was a great time, and I have SO much stuff to share with you all from my visit.  I wish I could have blogged during my trip, but no computer made it kinda hard.

We are now back home in Germany and the kids and I have started school again.  This semester I'm taking a statistics class.  I'm glad I like math :) But, I do hope to get plenty of blogging done this fall in order to catch you all up on some of my projects.


If you know me at all, you know that I love to make seasonal wreaths.  Click here to see last year's Fall wreath.  This fall is no exception. I have a fabulous wreath to share with you today, and I have a tutorial on how to make the flowers and the leaves for the wreath as well.  I'm also proud to report that I only used supplies from my stash to make this wreath and the form was donated from a friend who was going to toss it in the rubbish bin.  Oh how I love being thrifty ;)



To make the Fall Flowers Wreath

Supplies:
Vine style wreath form
Felt in gold, yellow, burnt orange, and green
Hot Glue
Twigs
ribbon for hanging
scissors

This wreath is all about the fall colored flowers.  Once you make the flowers and leaves, the rest of the wreath is pretty much self explanatory.  So I'm going to focus this post on making these rolled felt flowers.  There are a lot of great felt flower tutorials out on the web, and I've pinned lots of them :)  But, I've been irritated that many of them are a bit vague on the details needed to make your felt flowers look their best.



Rolled Felt Flower Tutorial:

Rolled felt flowers are very easy to make and don't require much precision or any kinds of templates.  They are drop dead simple as long as you follow a few rules.

1. Cut a circle in any size.  The bigger the circle, the bigger the flower.  I generally start with a circle a bit smaller than a dvd disc and use that as my baseline.  Then, I can cut more flowers bigger or smaller depending on my needs.

2. Cut a spiral shape into your circle.  Just start anywhere on the circle and cut an inwards spiral.  If you cut thin spiral arms, your flower will be wide but not tall.  Thicker spiral arms make taller flowers that are not as wide.  Cut loosely without worrying about being perfect.  Avoid jagged cuts that make sharp peaks (if you get a peak, just trim it).  Variation in height makes your flowers look more realistic.

Also, don't cut off the middle part of the circle! You need to leave this attached circle in the middle of your flower.  This will be used later as the flap that seals your flower petals together and keeps them from unrolling down the line.



3.  Now take the outside spiral edge and dab a bit of hot glue about 1/2 inches away from the tip.  You don't want to put the glue right on the tip because it will leak out of the center of your flower and show.  I put it a bit too far away in this photo, but I'm sure you get the general idea.



4. Begin rolling your flower center from this tip.



5. Continue rolling your flower.   Don't roll it too tight. Loosen some turns and wobble it slightly.  You want it to have a loose relaxed feel without it falling apart.  Dab a bit of hot glue every few turns in order to keep everything together.



6.  Once you reach the center.  Put a generous glob of hot glue on the bottom of the flower.



7. Now, here's where that center flap comes back in.  Fold your center flap down over the bottom of the flower and press it in.  This will lock all your petal layers into place and seal your flower together forever.



That's it! Super easy and simple right :)  Now, if you've done it right you will have a flower that is loose and interesting.




You are also going to want to cut a few leaves for this wreath.  I like the addition of a bit of green just to break up all the warm tones from the wood and the flowers.  You can just cut regular leaves and be done with it, or you can add an easy vein to your leaves to make them a bit more interesting.

Making A felt leaf with a vein:

Adding a vein to your leaves is simple.  Make a thin line of hot glue down the center of your rough cut leaf shape. Fold the leaf along the glue line and hold it until the glue sets a bit.  Then, unfold it and while the glue is still a bit warm tug the leaf so it bends back a bit otherwise it will be too straight and stiff from the glue.



Putting it all together:

Now that your flowers and leaves are all done, you can begin to arrange them on your wreath.  There is no formula for this.  Just start by gluing one flower down and the rest will fall into place. Just relax and trust your own sense of style.



I personally decided to add a few small twigs here and there in the flower arrangement.  I covered a little more than half the wreath with the flowers.

 

I then took my larger twigs and placed them on the side of the wreath where I didn't glue any flowers.  If you can put a dab of hot glue onto the ends of your twigs before burying them into your wreath form, it will help to hold them in place.



Finally, add your ribbon so that you can hang your new wreath up and enjoy it all Fall.



I hope that you've enjoyed this tutorial and use it to make your own fall flowers wreath.  As always, I'd love to hear about any projects you've made from this tutorial.

How do you get ready for Fall?

May Sketch of the Month

I know that I'm running a little behind with my sketch, but it's still May isn't it :)  

I hope that all of my American friends and followers had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.  We had a fun filled, albeit wet, family weekend in France and Belgium visiting WWI memorial sites.  It is often hard being so far away from friends and family here in Europe, but we are so fortunate to be able to visit many incredible cities and sites.

My May sketch was inspired by my sweet little daughter, the watermelon jelly that I just finished canning, and memories of eating the first watermelons of the year during our neighborhood's Memorial Day BBQ.

I have really been enjoying my exploration into this more illustrative drawing style.  I've found it very freeing and it has really helped me develop my ability to draw without a model or reference.  I'm also getting more confident with my Bamboo tablet.  This drawing was sketched by hand in pencil, and then scanned and colored on the computer with PSE.  

Now I need to sew something with a watermelon theme just to round this month out :)  Maybe a coffee cup sleeve?  Any ideas on a quick useful watermelon themed sewing project?

Watermelon Jelly recipe and labels

Lately, the weather here has just been rubbish.  Two weeks ago we had sunshine and it started warming up.  The flowers bloomed, and I got to can some fabulous Dandelion Jelly.  This week we've had to put back on the winter coats.  But, this has not deterred me from continuing my spring canning!  This week I made some incredible watermelon jelly that was to die for and designed some super cute labels for my jelly that you can download and use as well.

Watermelon is one of those unsung jelly heroes.  It's sweet and fresh and wonderful on toast, biscuits, and sandwiches.  It's also the perfect way to preserve an over-abundant watermelon crop that might otherwise go uneaten.

I've been perfecting my watermelon jelly over the last two years and have finally come up with a recipe that is by far my favorite.  Some recipes for watermelon jelly describe it as tasting like jolly rancher candies.  Personally, I don't want my jelly to taste like fake over-sugared watermelon.  To me, watermelon jelly should taste fresh and sweet.  It's one of those jellies that has to be balanced just right so the flavor of the fruit is not overpowered by the sugar.

Ingredients:

6 Cups of watermelon juice

5 cups of sugar

1/4 cup bottled or fresh lemon juice

3 Tablespoons of "Apple Cider Vinegar" 

2 bags liquid pectin (you can use powdered, but be careful it tends to clump in this jelly if you just dump it in)

• First, find a nice, ripe, wonderful watermelon.  
• Cut your watermelon into cubes and mash the cubes up into a juicy pulp.  You can use a food processor, a blender, a hand blender, or a potato masher to accomplish this.  
• Then you need to strain your juice to get rid of all the seeds and pulp.  I personally use a mesh jelly bag, but you could use cheese cloth, or a strainer.  If you cant get all the pulp out, don't stress.  There is actually not that much pulp in a watermelon, but do try to remove as many seeds as you can so people don't have to pick them out of the jelly later.  

• Put a stack of saucers in your freezer before you begin cooking so that you can test the set of your jelly later.
• Add your watermelon juice, sugar, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar to your pot and bring it to a full rolling boil that you can't stir down (about 10 minutes).  *Note:  I use apple cider vinegar to enhance the wonderful fresh flavor of the watermelon in this recipe and to add some acidity for preservation.  You could use only lemon juice or use other vinegar, but it's just not going to give you that balanced taste that I've been gushing about.  I personally use Bragg's apple cider vinegar because it is my favorite brand. 
• Add your pectin and continue cooking for 1 minute (this may vary based on the type of pectin you are using.  Check the recommended cooking times on you pectin box for best results)
• Check the set of your jelly on a cold saucer to make sure it's set the way you want.
• If it's too runny, continue cooking it for a few more minutes and check the set again.
• If it's still too runny you may need to add some more pectin.
• Ladle your hot jelly into prepared jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space and process in a water bath for 10 minutes (more or less according to your altitude).

See how beautiful and bright this jelly is!  I'd love to try it with a yellow watermelon too if I can find one this summer just to see how the color turns out.  The only thing missing is a pretty and informative label.

Luckily, I designed a really cute label that you can download and print out for your jars as well.  I used a full sheet of printable label paper and cut out each watermelon individually.  I'm sure you could also use regular paper and glue or paste them on as well.  Don't forget to write the date on your label using the blank space on the left :)

If you decide to make this jelly or use my labels, I'd love to hear from you and know how it turned out.  Happy canning!