A Little Knitting

...for Barbie.  :)

A Little Project of Celebration

For a few days my grab this

when I sit down project was

this four page entry in my

sketchbook.  It was kind of
to practise illuminating
capital letters and really
to remind myself that
there is so much to
celebrate in my faith
in Jesus Christ.

Doodling Digitally

I know I'm not an accomplished artist.
I refuse to be frustrated
(most of the time)
so, I doodle.

Today's doodle is digital.
I started with a photograph.
Using Gimp, I made it gray(s)
then I broke down the grays
by "posterizing" it.

I tried adding some color with bucket fill.

There is an option called "make seamless"
in Gimp.  I liked this image.

The purpose of a "seamless" image is
to make a multi copy without obvious
dividing lines.
I like this one, too.

Then I went back to dumping color into
the image.
Ta daaaa!  (ahem)
Well, it was fun.  :)

Oh, here is the original
photo.  Too enigmatic?
It's crumpled tissue.  :)

and a Doodled Door

I lost my hearts

to some tulip doodles. :)

This is the adhesive backed paper found
at Goodwill (it was a large roll)
and Sharpies bought on sale at Target.

Another Window Doodle!

This time, I drew a simpler pattern.
I wanted to see if Sharpies would
let the color through.

It worked!
The black part is still Jot marker from Dollar Tree.
I wonder if there is truly clear
adhesive backed vinyl out there... :)

Window Doodle

You may have noticed,
I like to try making things,
whether I know what I'm doing, or not.

If you would like to try this, I will tell you
how I did it.

I got a roll of "clear" adhesive backed
vinyl from Dollar Tree.
I already had some permanent markers.

Now, I would suggest
you skip my next two steps.

First, I colored the wrong side.
Second, I discovered when I started to
peel the backing paper that my image
was colored on the backing paper.

Third, I colored the right side.
I used Bic Mark Its
and a Jot black marker.

I know the Bic Mark Its are translucent.

I wonder how Sharpies would work... :)

Wall Doodle

Doodling Plus Digital

Sometimes I get in the mood to doodle
 and experiment with the doodle.
Now, I could print out multiple copies
and color them by hand.
That is fun, sometimes.
Then, there's this other thing I do.

After photographing my doodle
and cleaning it up, using Gimp...

I start playing with the colors.

If I save in the right places,
trying different options is easy and quite fun.

A little pink

and a little black

and a little gray make something fun.

Orange and white or

orange and black?

How about some purple?

Add some black...

some more black...

maybe more...

Well,
  something in the yellow family might work.

OK, start with red

and black

(all black?)

I'll back up to one of those earlier ones
because if I tried to use a white bucket fill
my lines might turn white, too.

Let's go yellow for bold contrast.

As long as we have two primary colors,
why not try the third?

Hmmm... I kind of like this,
but let's see what it looks like with

more of a gold. :)

I see the colors don't always come
through the way I thought I made them.

Oh, well.  I've had fun and I can think
 of more color combinations to try. 

More Glue and Glass

I found this tissue paper
at Dollar Tree.

I love it.

I thought, perhaps,
my niece, Eva Girl,
would enjoy it.
Her attitude about celebrating
snow, to offset the
dread of a long Winter,
is quite inspiring.

So, I pulled out some glue,
spread it around with a
wet paintbrush,
and added torn (or was it cut?)
scraps of tissue.

It still looked "papery."
I thought I had read that
using Aleene's tacky glue
as a glaze might work.
Since my opened bottle
was thickening up,
I gave it a shot.

I loved how it came out.

I had already done this little
candle holder with plastic glitter
from Joann.
The glitter only cost a dollar.
It was not easy to work with
due to static electricity, and
glazing over it
to keep the glitter from "shedding"
took away the snowball look
I liked.

I liked the end result, though.

I think Eva Girl did, too. :)

Notes:

I had to dry the tissue covered jar thoroughly before adding my tacky glaze.

The finished "snowball" was not glazed.

Oh, Boy! JOY!

OK, so it didn't end up the way I
thought it would.

OK, so it would have been
a lot less work to do it "right."

It cost me nothing but what
I already had.

It says what I wanted it to say.

I had a roll of contact paper.

I bought it at Goodwill for $1.

I had some permanent markers.

I bought them at Wal-Mart for
around $13.

They were both well used,
before I started this.

What I really thought of
was a lush, three letter
motto that reminded
us of the Reason
for the season.

This will do...
...for now...

and it peels off easily. :)

God bless you with Joy
beyond the merriment.

Gluing What I Have, Plus a Little

With the lights on:

I got out the good old Elmer's School
Glue, again.  I stopped at Dollar Tree
for a pack of tissue paper.  I may have
some tissue paper, but this was cute...
oh, dear.

I did have the footed bowl, though.
That was a thrift store find.
I don't remember how long ago
or what I paid for it...

By candlelight:

The candy striped votive holders
are empty Ball jars from my cellar.
The tissue was cut almost to size
for the jars.
For the bowl it was torn into small
pieces.

I spread glue over the glass with a
wet paintbrush.

The patchy paper was put on,
a piece at a time, overlapping.
To save cutting, I lined straight
edges up with the rim of the bowl.

For the jars I "painted" the
whole thing with glue and water.
Lining up the straight edge
with the rim of the jar, I
pressed the top into place.
The taper of the jar made for
wrinkles in the tissue.
I didn't mind, I just kind of
glued them over.

I also brushed gluey water
over the top of the paper.
This can tear the wet tissue,
so, it was an adventure.

Eat Violets!
(et voila)

I popped some tealights from my
supply and a over-half-burned
pillar candle from Christmas past
into my little vessels and lit them.

Total out of pocket cost: $1
AND I still have most of the tissue. :)

More Recycled Cone Trees

We only buy a newspaper
once in a while.
This is one of those free
papers from the supermarket.
Does everybody have those?

I got very technical about drawing
circles on my paper.

They got cut out

then cut in half

and in half, again.
I was very technical about
bisecting my circles, too!
I folded them in half.

A little (or a lot) of glue.

and a little fiddling to get the sides
glued together just right (not)

and I soon had a small forest!
If I hadn't been so lazy,
I could have made different sizes. :)