Learning to doodle. That's right....I said learning.

I have been looking on-line for mixed media and altered art projects to ewwww and ahhhhh over and I saw a lot of journal books. The journals that I saw were wonderful and the people that create them are quite artistic.  As I was mesmerized by the projects that I saw, I was also intimidated.  I could NEVER do that, I have zero artistic ability.  Seriously, you don't want me as your partner in Pictionary!  I have a hard time drawing stick figures.

Then yesterday I bought this wonderful book, "Journal Bliss" by Violette.  It says to quiet your inner critic and begin by "PRACTICING" doodling by making faces, drawing borders, drawing from nature and creating flourishes.  I thought, you either new how to draw or you didn't and I knew that I didn't!  So this made me think, what the hech, I might as well try it.  I don't have to show it to anyone and if it is an epic fail, well at least I tried. The first thing I did was get a piece of paper and a pencil.  Then I sat down all excited and ready to draw...something, but what?  I was at a total loss.  I don't doodle. I had no idea where to start.  So I Googled it.  That's right, I Googled "doodling", to see what people doodle.  I am always amazed at what you can find on the internet.  I finally saw some ideas and put pencil to paper and below are the first attempts that I made.

 I know ..... not real impressive, but I was excited.  I was at least doodling!  I made two attempts at drawing a squirrel from a tutorial that I found.  You can see from the drawing below that I did not do very well with either attempt.  I did get frustrated with myself and the inner critic was screaming, "see I told you that you couldn't draw".  So I set my pencil and paper aside and decided that was enough for a first try.  Geesh, just thinking of silly things to draw and let my juices flow took it out of me.

This is my second effort at doodling.  Again, it isn't anything impressive and my son and all my nieces and nephews that have super powers when it comes to art, would scoff at me.  But for someone who couldn't even think of WHAT to doodle, much less doodle it, I am very happy.  My next move will be to add some color to the mix.  I think I now have the confidence to try some journaling. This is going to be fun.

I did this Silk Ribbon Embroidery for a friend of mine.  She mentioned that it would be cute to have a hankie embroidered on one side and have it sit in a tea cup.   So I found an old hankie and this is how it turned out.

 

 This is a close up of the corner that I worked up.,

This is what it looks like sitting in the tea cup.   I probably should have taken the picture against a color background.  The white background sort of washes it out and you don't get the full affect of the idea.

Very First Crazy Quilt Project

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This is the very first crazy quilt project that I completed.  A friend showed me a crazy quilt that her sister made for her.  It was beautiful!  The embroidery and other embellishments amazed me.  I had never heard of crazy quilting before I saw her quilt.  I made a passing comment that I would like to try it sometime and then out came all my scrap material from all the homecoming and prom dresses that I made for my daughters. Between the two of us we pieced together a square, using what i know now as the "antique method".  Once I was done I made it into a pillow.

 This is a close up of the upper left side of the pillow.

 This is a close up of the upper right side of the pillow.

 

The bottom right side.  The pillow creased and you can't really see the very bottom corner.

 

 

The bottom left with a little spider web and spider.

I used this project to try out as many embroidery stitches that I could find.  I started searching the internet an discovered Silk Ribbon Embroidery and Brazilian embroidery and I had to try my hand at that.

Valentine's Day Altered Art

These are my littleValentine Darlings!

Getting Ready For Christmas.

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes!

 Kittens And Snowman.

 Santa's Lil Helper.

Surprise In A Stocking.

Happy Thanksgiving

Look whose bringing home Christmas dinner?

Dressed to go to Grandma's for dinner.

And here is our Turkey bird all dressed and ready to eat!

Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving!

 Isn't she adorable.  If you double click on the image it will show a larger image and you can see the detail of the eyes.  They sparkle

 I love the face on this little boy.  He loves his pet owl.

 Zombies one and all....even the baby doll in the little cart.

Look what Kitty found.

A hunting we will go.  And bring home Thanksgiving dinner.  Yum.