EDiM 23 Summer Joy

Fresh peaches

Fresh peaches with mango in a smoothie. Yummy!

EDiM - 20 Favourite Drink

Long Americano

I'm sure there will be more than one or two sketches today with coffee being the favourite drink. Long Americano. Best drink ever. Yes, my coffee cup has a knitted sweater. With ribbing.  Every well dressed coffee cup needs a sweater.

Starbucks has this thing where you buy one of their reusable plastic cups for $1.00 and every time you use it, they take $.10 off. Considering I got this cup in January, I think I'm ahead.

Sketched on iPad in Sketchclub, tabletop done in Artrage.

A Quilt

A Quilt

Sketched and completely done on my iPad using Sketchclub app. The idea was to re-create the effects of a quilt in progress. Most of the time was trying to duplicate the look of frayed fabric. The fabric texture was a template on Sketchclub, put on as an overlay.

The Sketchclub App was just recently updated.  I think this is the best update so far. LOVE this app!

Play Date Cafe Challenge

Dance!

I recently came across The Play Date Cafe. Each week a challenge is posted and you create something using the criteria set out. This week's challenge are the colours maroon, poppy, and soft jade.

I really had a lot of fun with this challenge. This was all done on my iPad, using the Sketchclub app for the colouring and textures. The idea for this was the phrase "Dance as if no one is watching". This was running through my head all day long today.

EDiM #15 - Draw your favourite pencil.

Favourite pencil

This is just plastic mechanical pencil but I like it that it's thick and small. I'm really enjoying these EDiM drawings. They're simple quick sketches - anything that gets me drawing and doing something is a good thing.

EDiM #14 - A Figurine

Santa

EDiM #14 - a figurine. This is a sketch of a wooden Santa I carved many years ago. I was intrigued by a wood carving show on PBS and wanted to try carving. I sent away for the video - Wood carving with Rick Butz, and taught myself how to carve. Although I made a few things, this Santa was always my favourite.

Sketch done in Artrage app on my iPad.

A Pillow

EDiM #13

Every Day in May. Draw a pillow. This was done on my iPad, using the Sketchclub app.  I like the idea of doing simple sketches - nothing compicted.

Sunflower

Sunflower

Not really following the May questions today. I wanted to work on this sunflower that I've had sitting in my saved files in Sketchclub for a while now. The photo reference used was a picture I took of a giant sunflower in our yard last summer.  To be honest, the photo is so much better. I know what's wrong with the sketch but don't have the expertise to fix it. The petals are flat and have no depth. I think this will come with more practice. Lol! Never let the lack of talent stop me before. 😄

Lost Time

Lost Time

 I can't even keep up with a simple couple of lines for the 5 year journal. I decided to use the daily questions as a prompt to do a digital art journal page. The deal I made with myself is that if I skipped a day or two, I'm not going to sweat it. Just doing something will be enough. This one was for May 10/13 - Today I lost __. I felt I lost time by not doing what I felt like doing, which was to work on my sketches and not worry about what people may think. It makes me happy when I'm working on something - anything. An hour on the train is my time and I will not worry about people looking at me funny.

Not the woman you see...

Ok, I'm still loving my iPad for sketching and everything. It's been fun and challenging trying to create digital journal pages on my iPad.

A test of sharpies on a ceramic mug.

There's been a lot of talk of using a regular sharpie marker to decorate a mug, baked in the oven for 350 deg for 30 mins. Some say it worked great for them and others say it doesn't work at all. Of course, I had to try it for myself.

DIYopolis has a great list of tips to try for this sharpie thing.

Edited October 18/14 - the link for DYIoplolis doesn't seem to exist anymore.

1. Cheap ceramic mug - yep.
2. Clean well - yep.
3. Wipe area with rubbing alcohol - yep.
4. Write or draw design and let dry for 24 hours - yep.
5. Bake for 425 deg for 30 mins -yep.

As a test, I used a red regular Sharpie and used oil paint Sharpies for the black and purple. I wanted to see how they compared.

Just painted, before baking. 

In hindsight, I should have tested with a regular black sharpie too. The red was nice and bright before baking but faded to an orange colour after.

After baking

This is the mug after cooling in the oven and washed by hand with a dishcloth and dish soap. Scrubing wasn't vigorous - just washed as a normal coffee mug would be. The black and purple paint markers held up well to the baking. The red faded but seems to be ok.  Next test will be the dishwasher. 

This is the mug after the dishwasher. It seems to have worked...with the exception of the red fading, the regular sharpie stayed on. The purple is the same - looks different as the dishwasher photo was taken inside.

DYI Smash Journal

Despite great intentions, I've come to the realization that I'm not much of a journal keeper. So when I first heard about Smash journals, I was intrigued. Supposedly they're really easy to use - just fill up the journal with your stuff. That's it.

I'm a sucker for any kind of gimmicky, bandwagon type craft. The probem with the Smash journals was that they sold out super quick. And they were $40.00. So, out of sight, out of mind,  life goes on unrecorded. 😃

A year goes by and I start hearing about Smash journals again. This time, people are making their own. I'm still intrigued. A few weeks ago, I see them for the first time in person and was really not impressed. Not liking the colour choices either and all the extra stuff they want you to buy. The only thing I liked about it was the pen - it was a pen with a glue stick on the other end.

I came home and found an old organizer cover I had forgotten about. Put a couple of sheets of card stock in the printer and using the graphs found at Polar Graph, I printed several nice patterned sheets. I liked the idea of using a ring binder rather than a wire bound book so I can move the sheets around and insert things if I wanted them.

Total cost for the paper - $.68 for 17 sheets of card stock. I was able to cut three out of each sheet giving me 51 small sheets to start with. Total time including punching holes, printing the lines, rounding the pages came to just under an hour. As for the glue stick pen, I always carry a pen and glue stick in my bag anyway.

If I never use this, no big deal. The worse that could happen is that I'll have a notebook that I liked and didn't spend $40 on it. That makes me happy.

Happy Easter

My first video on YouTube.

Fresh bagels

Found this recipe for easy Easy Bread Machine Bagels and they were really easy. They look like real bagels and tastes like real bagels!

Good thing I snap this picture...a few of them have already been consumed. We call this "testing".  We have to make sure they're ok, you know.

Googled to find out the best way to store fresh bagels and the general feeling is to store them at room temperature in a ziplock bag. Putting them in the fridge would make them go stale faster.

Pinterest

This is bad...very bad...I'm on Pinterest. This brings time-killing to a whole new level. Happy Spring!

Click your heels three times...

New shoes always makes me happy.

A bit of this...

Sometimes being creative can be a small thing. You don't need to break out the heavy duty art supplies to have a bit of creativity  in your day. Sometimes it can be as simple as bending paper clips into heart shapes.  Or manipulating a photo taken on your iPad. Sometimes that's enough to keep you going.

Thankful for...
1. Lately, it's been hard to feel thankful for things when work is going from worse to hell bound. I know  that there are people with a lot less than me and I shouldn't complain. Work is trying to kill me. My boss just resigned.  I'm glad for her - she got out. Sad for me.  On the other hand, I have to think of the positive of this situation. Not sure what that is yet, but I have to keep looking for that positive.

2. I'm thankful for my fibre friends. It's been a long time since I've seen them but I'm thankful for them.

3.  Two years to go! There is an end in sight!

...apparently, not long. I'm behind on my 5- year journal.

Hello 2013 and Happy Chinese New Year!

Sun Neen Fie Lok! It's the Year of the Snake.

When it's been months since your last blog update, you really don't know where to start. This can cause more blog apathy as you find it daunting to put everything that's happened in that timespan into a few short paragraphs. I think the best thing to do is to not bother and move on.

I started a 5 year Journal last month.  Each date is divided into 5 sections. The idea is to write a few lines each day on the same date every year. It'll be cool to see your thoughts on that date over five years. I found a set of questions you can answer each day.

Lets see how long I can keep this going. 

A Pear

Yup, it's a pear. Drawn on my iPad. Looks kinda like s butt.