The Daily ATC Challenge: Day 6

Today’s theme is: RAIN DROPS

Today is supposed to be the last nice day for a while. We’ll be back to blustery days well below freezing in under 24 hours. Since today is a gorgeous open-the-windows sort of a day, all that snow and ice will invariably melt as it hits creating a very slippery ice layer underneath the later snow. Our theme is those melted drops of water just as the wintery precipitation starts.

pencils on sketch paper

watercolor on 140lb cold press watercolor paper

I used the negative painting techniques demonstrated in this video by MyPetiteCakes on YouTube. I need more practice, but it was lovely to get to try out the technique I found a couple days ago while perusing videos about watercolor! I will definitely be doing both watercolor and acrylic galaxies sometime soon too. Those look like such fun!

Fair Projects for 2015

It’s getting to be the time of year when you’ve got to start thinking about what projects you’re going to be making for your county and state fairs. Ideally you’d start too as working right up to the deadline is never fun, though it seems to happen more often than I’d like!

So far, most of my projects are rather bland looking, but I promise there are colorful projects coming too!

Here we have a lace baby sweater which will ultimately be part of a three-piece set, a knit lace doily, and a crochet lace bag all in progress.

I’ve also been working on filling the first of three bobbin lace pillows I’m making for myself. I really enjoy the bobbin lace beginners kit I got for Christmas, but the failings of a beginner ‘pillow’ are more than apparent. I done some research on the best and longest lasting bobbin lace pillows and how they’re made. Then, I presented this information to my physical therapist and we worked out a stand set up to prevent any undue stress on my body. Now I’m building that stand and pillow set up! This is the first pillow in progress.

Kaia seemed rather displeased with my pillow stuffing as a few bits of straw landed on her in her bed!

The pillows are filled with natural straw cut into 4″ or shorter pieces. Cutting the straw is a painful and dull process, and stuffing the pillows is painful and slow going as a result, but when they’re done, I’m going to have fantastic traditional bobbin lace pillows, a standard 24″ cookie pillow and a more rectangular pillow with a roller in the back for making yardage. The pillow above is the roller that will go into the rectangular pillow. The exterior is a natural canvas material sewn into a tube with drawstrings on either end. Inside, there is a dowel running the length and I have two discs cut from 1/4″ plywood. One disc is already in place at the bottom of the pillow and the other will go in just before cinching up the other drawstring. The dowel sticks out a few inches on either side which is how it will connect to the support pillow.

The last big WIP keeping me busy lately is a paper craft project. Some friends asked me to make a 4′ tall LEGO minifig as a decoration for a Boy Scout party in March. After that party, the gigantic LEGO man will be a county and state fair entry for me before finally being sold to the highest bidder to fund some new LEGO sets for me! The main framework of the minifig is cardboard sheeting from Costco. Some of guy pal’s friends from work taught me how to use anti-fatigue mat foam to create the complex curves and gave me some foam to use for the project. Atop the cardboard and foam frame is paper maché. This will create a surface I can sand to a perfect finish. With the glossy paint a LEGO minifig has, any imperfections in the body will show. That’s why I’m doing the paper maché coating. There will likely be some spackle to help fill any gaps prior to sanding as well. Here’s the first two pieces being coated in paper maché, the head (which is upside down in this photo) and one of the arms. They’re the most curvy pieces and thus require the most paper maché to get perfectly smooth.

Paper Class Trash To Treasure Fair Project

My local county fair has all kinds of fun classes for creative competition each year. Last year I only entered knit and crochet pieces. This year I’m trying to branch out. One of the areas I figured I could excel in is the “trash to treasure” department. There are classes based on materials, plastic, wood, paper, fabric, metal, and combination. I’m working on a fancy metal piece, but it’s not ready to photograph yet. Hint: It is something fantastic for the 1:24 scale castle dollhouse I’m working on with friends who also each have a castle kit. I need to figure out one more piece first. Thank goodness for E600 glue though!

My paper class item is coming along faster. I started with cereal boxes. I used most of a cheerios box and a few snippets of oatmeal box to make my treasure.

I used the pattern from here and made a few modifications to substitute in Cheerios box for mat board…which I shockingly enough don’t seem to have in my crafting lair. So far I’m quite pleased with the result.

I just couldn’t resist getting a shot of my table with a little mug rug my mom has upstairs either! This table is going to be so darn cute. I hope to use it in the 1:12 scale yarn shop that I’ll get around to building someday after I’m done with building my life size house.

Time to decide on a faux finish of some sort and get this table finished. I’m thinking I’ll coat it in gesso tonight, sand it tomorrow, and then figure out paint. Surely something in my acrylic paints stash will take this table from looking a little too ‘green’ living recycled everything and make it a bit more shabby chic yarn shop sit and knit corner like! The most surprising thing about the little table is actually how much it feels like it is made of real wood. The glue soaked into the paperboard cheerios box layers incredibly well and made essentially a dollhouse sized plywood. I used plain old Elmer’s Glue-All, but that hardens up so nicely that it really does feel like I made a wooden table! All-in-all, I’m so pleased with it that I plan on designing miniature versions of several of my actual furniture pieces to make in miniature out of Cheerios boxes. I think I’m going to start with the coffee table my grandmother passed down to me. I love that table and my dollhouse just isn’t ever going to be complete without one.