30 Day Art Challenge 2024: Day 20: "Sign"

 Let's have fun with this one:

One of my favorite YouTube quilters is a gentleman named Mark Darrell, aka "The Quilting Marine."  Mark took up quilting to help deal with PTSD.  He says that while quilting is not a substitute for therapy, it is a way to pour his energy into something constructive when dark thoughts crowd in.  I learned about him from a couple of interviews he did for Missouri Star Quilt Company and Just Get It Done Quilts.

I am inspired by his style because he freely admits that he doesn't necessarily follow all the rules of quilting, yet he still produces colorful intricate quilts.  His attitude is essentially "If you don't like how I do things, my channel is not for you.  Move on."  He posts when he can, doesn't chase the mysterious YouTube algorithm, and is very down-to-earth. He signs off his videos with the phrase, "Remember, it's only fabric and it's only thread."  I like that; it removes the pressure of perfection and make the quilting process a fun learning experience.

I painted a pizza pan with the best representation of camouflage I could muster and created the vinyl cutout on my Cricut.

I hope to have the opportunity to meet the Quilting Marine someday.  If not, I hope this project at least honors his quilting philosophy.

30 Day Art Challenge 2024: Day 19: "Music"

The prompt for today is:

 Here's what I came up with.

I know that this isn't a new idea, but I'd not tried it before.  This is a 12x12 canvas coated in black acrylic paint.  I printed the sheet music on some parchment colored paper and used Mod-Podge to glue it to the canvas.  Then I painted the holly and cardinal beneath.  This was fun and I may try it again in the future when I can slow down and take my time.

30 Day Art Challenge 2024 - Day 18: "Food"

 The word of the day is...

When I pulled this word my first thought was to make an art project with food somehow.  I thought of various things:  painting with Kool-Aid (think watercolor), finger painting with pudding, making Christmas ornaments with wrapped hard candy or plastic fruit.  None of those sparked any inspiration, plus I didn't want ants.  So, I thought "why not paint a picture of food?"  It's been several years since I've painted a still life of food, so why not?

Painting guide and instructional video from Paint With Lovejoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7KabNzVQhw

30 Day Art Challenge 2024 - Day 17: "Pinterest"

What's the word for today?

Ah, Pinterest. The land of FOMO, uh-oh, and Honey Bunches of No.  In all honesty, my "Create" board (divided into MANY sections) has more projects than I'll ever complete.  On occasion, I do go through and pare down my boards.  I'll take away (or move) completed projects or those that no longer pique my interest.  The problem, however, is that in a fit of "Ooh, that's pretty," or "I can make that," I add more pins that I remove.

Today, I scratched the slimline card form off my list of pins (one of them anyway).  Unlike the standard A2 cards that are 4.25 x 5.50 inches when folded, slimline cards are cut and folded to fit in a standard #10 (what we commonly call a business-sized) envelope.  I made cards that were both horizontal and vertical orientation.  I also found a free SVG file so that I can use my Cricut to cut envelopes to match.

I had a fun time with these and plan to make many, many more.

30 Day Art Challenge 2024 - Day 16: "Fabric"

Today, we play with...

As many of you know, I've been focusing on quilting for the past year.  As with other crafts I make, quilting produces a lot of leftover scraps in various sizes.  Normally, I attempt to cut up the scraps as I go so that I don't get overwhelmed.  However, that doesn't always happen and I quickly end up with a basket, bag, or box full of fabric pieces. 

I've spent the last few weeks cutting my scraps into 9.5 inch, 5 inch, and 3.5 inch squares.  Some have been sewn into quilts.

Some are in the planning stages for other quilts.  I also wanted to find some small projects to make with scraps that don't take as long as a quilt.  Then I remembered a video that Diana sent me.  I really appreciated how simple the process looked, so I whipped up a few to see if they were that easy.

For me, there was a slight learning curve, but they were pretty easy once I got the hang of it.

30 Day Art Challenge 2024 - Day 15: "Pencils"

 Today's word is...

Yes, I know I used pencils yesterday, but these words really are pulled at random each day.  I decided to do a small practice piece in my sketchbook.  So fun.

30 Day Art Challenge 2024 - Day 14: "Paper"

Today, I'm playing with...

I recently spent the day with a couple of ladies in our church who are expert card makers.  One of them gave me her old manual embossing/die cutting machine.  After purchasing a few accessories and learning the easiest way to take the warp out of the cutting plate, I was ready to play.

Out of the five I made, the two on top were my favorites.  The card on the left uses a couple of the oval die cuts, my new stamps (that I need practice with), and some colored pencils.  The card on the right uses the circle embossing folder and my circle punches.  Just the few inexpensive tools have got my brain on overload with ideas.

So what did I learn?

• Depending on the type of cutting/embossing plate, you can flatten out a warped one with a cookie sheet and boiling water.  
• In tooling around with colored pencils, I learned that a colorless blender pencil will blend all types of colored pencils.  I've been learning to work with Prismacolor pencils, but I have a lot of Crayola and Rose Art pencils that I don't want to go to waste.
• The best cardstock paper is solid core.  I had no idea there was a difference.  I thought it was all the same, but some paper has a white core no matter what color it is.  Solid core is, as the name suggests, the same color all the way through even when cut.  Now, anyone who receives the cards isn't going to care about what kind of paper I used, but solid core paper will make my cards look more crisp.

On my other blog, I mentioned that one of my goals for the year is to send a box of cards to Cards for Kindness.  I'm up to 40 cards.  I want to make at least 10 more before sending them off.  I'll keep you posted.