Documented Life Project- Week 11

Week 11 challenge of the Documented Life Project was to “Draw, photograph or collage a bird onto your page.”

Jan:
While pondering what I wanted to do with my bird challenge, I noticed the front cover of a map/brochure of New York City. The image of the island with the names of all the various parts of the city looked like an upside down bird. I cut it out (and then remembered to take a picture.)Map Brochure frontI decided to incorporate the map inside onto my page as well.MapI cut a piece of a gelli print I had made previously to fit over Central Park. The brochure was filled with various advertisements for shows and I used parts of those images to finish making my NYC bird. The bird needed a little more color so I colored over it lightly with colored pencils. I haven’t seen a bird like this flying around the city yet, but I will keep my eyes open!DLP-Week-11-J

Melinda:
Since this week has been crazy busy for me, I just found a bird I liked on Pinterest and drew it with pencils.bird inspiration I was looking for a bird quote or something but did not like any I saw. So I decided to look for a quote I liked by an author instead.DLP-Week-11-M

Sometimes simple is the best way to approach a challenge. Don’t feel overwhelmed if you don’t have time for an elaborate page.

Learning to Knit

KnittingOne of my favorite verses from the Psalms says:

For you formed my inward parts; 
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

~(Ps 139:13-14)

Since I was waiting for the birth of my new grandchild, it seemed like a good time to let my daughter teach me how to knit. She taught herself to knit about five years ago and has made many beautiful things for her daughter and Melinda’s kids. She also inspired Melinda to learn to knit.

As I shared last month in my posts about arm knitting and finger knitting, learning to knit was a skill I wanted to stretch myself to acquire this year. I have crocheted since I was a young girl and tried to teach myself to knit a long time ago. It just did not click for me. Since then I’ve had a mental block that says, “I can’t knit” and have not tried. 

I decided to start with a simple project- a cotton dishcloth. It is small and not overwhelming. (And I really like using the cotton crocheted dishcloths I’ve made.)  I made many mistakes and quickly learned how to “reverse stitch”. I don’t know if that’s what they call it in knitting, but that’s that phrase we adopted when the girls were learning to sew and had to take out their stitches to correct a mistake. Believe me, I know how to “reverse stitch” in knitting now! I also dropped many stitches and added stitches and even got things turned around adding several rows to one half of my project. (That’s what happens when you get interrupted and come back to it later and don’t know enough yet to figure out where to start again.)

My daughter is a wonderful teacher and very patiently figured out what I was doing wrong each time and either fixed it or showed me how to fix it. I am able to teach myself how to do many things, but when it comes to knitting, I think it is much easier to have a teacher. That way when something is not looking right but you have no clue why, you can take it to the teacher and say HELP!

My first dishcloth did not turn out pretty (but hey, it’s a dishcloth for scrubbing dirty dishes, so it’s ok!) I learned that knitting consisted of two stitches- knit and purl. The designs happen depending on which stitch you make and in what combinations.First Knitting AttemptI began feeling more confident and picked out a pattern (Divided Boxes) from one of her books to try another dishcloth. This one was fun and I had to pay close attention to the pattern as I stitched. I still had to do a lot of “reverse stitching”.Divided Boxes Knit PatternThe next dishcloth went much more smoothly. My confidence grew as I attempted the Seed Stitch Zig Zag pattern.Seed Stitch ZigZag Knit PatternThen I got really bold and tried the Semi-Woven Lattice pattern. I am happy to say, I did not have to ask for help on this one. I was able to figure out when I goofed and quickly fix it.Semi Woven Lattice Knit PatternI plan to have my daughter teach me how to do some of the patterns that include holes and twists next. I believe the mental block is gone. Now I can say, “I knit!”

If you desire to learn to knit the internet is loaded with instructional videos, tutorials and patterns. However, I suggest you find a friend or relative who knits and is willing to show you how. Or sign up for a class to get you started initially. That way you can get feedback on your work right away. Then once you get the momentum going, you can use the internet to help you grow your skills.

If you are interested in the history of knitting, check out this blog. They also offer online classes.

Gelli Print Inspiration

We are having fun experimenting with gelli plate printing. If you haven’t tried it yet, check out some of our other posts to find out more. Today we are sharing some more of our prints to inspire you.

Homemade Gelli Plate
First Day Gelli Printing {Part 1}
First Day Gelli Printing {Part 2}
First Day Gelli Printing {Part 3}
First Day Gelli Printing {Part 4}
More Gelli Prints
Kids Can Gelli Print Too

Gelli-Print-2Gelli-Print-5Gelli-Print-10Gelli-Print-3

 

Documented Life Project- Week 10

Week 10 of the Documented Life Project’s challenge was: “Make a list of the things that make you YOU.”

By the way, if you think it’s too late to join in on the challenges, it’s not. There are currently almost 6,000 people participating from around the world and the number is growing weekly.  Once you decide to participate and join the Facebook group, you will be inspired by all the lovely work and creativity. The group is also an encouraging, caring group of people. As we’ve said before, you don’t have to do a planner or a journal if you don’t want to. You can just use the challenges to spur your creativity like we are.

Melinda:

As I thought about what I would do for my page, I decided I wanted to use magazines to collage my page because I haven’t done anything like that on any of my pages yet. I came across this page, and it was PERFECT for this challenge!Magazine inspirationI started by making a list in my sketchbook of the things that I consider to be ME. I used a paper that I had made using the gelli printing for the background. Then using my magazine cutouts, I made my list of what makes me ME using various colored pens and some alphabet stamps. I added on the left side some of the things that are not who I am but things I love and are a still a part of what makes me ME.Week-10-DLP-M

Jan:
What makes me ME? Those kind of questions are always hard for me to answer. Do I get all deep and psychological about what makes me tick? Do I focus on the things I do? The things I like? The various roles I have? I really did not know where to go with this challenge. I was sorting through some prints I had done on the gelli plate and one jumped out at me. It looks like little worlds and I decided to make it “My Galaxy”. All of the spirals in the print under the black layer tie all of my little world’s together. circles spirals stencil maskSo this is my interpretation of the challenge for week 10.Week-10-DLP-J

Easy to Make Stencil Masks for Gelli Printing

I knew the first day I tried gelli printing that I was hooked. In that first day of experimenting I cut out paper circles to use for a stencil mask. It worked great but I wanted to figure out something I could use that would not fall apart after a couple of uses. I decided to try cutting up a plastic page protector. I drew my circles on paper and stuck the paper inside the page protector. Then I cut through all three layers (paper and both sides of plastic page protector.) That gave me 2 plastic circles and one paper circle in one cut. stencil mask plastic page protectorThen I thought why stop with circles? I cut out diamonds, squares, triangles, ovals, squiggly lines, flowers, chevrons, and swirls. While cutting the flowers and swirls, I decided cutting through three layers was not going to work as easy. So I traced the design onto the page protector with a dry erase marker and cut them individually. I put them into small plastic bags for storage. As you can tell from the picture, some of them have paint on them. I decided to let the paint dry on the stencils rather than wash them off for now just to make it easier to see the pieces when I place them on the gelli plate. We’ll see how that works next time I use them! storage for stencil masks

When I watch some of the demos on making gelli prints, I see many stencils that I would like to purchase. Since that is not in the budget right now, these stencil masks are my answer. I do like using the stencil masks because it gives more flexibility in positioning the shapes than I would get with a regular stencil. The stencil masks can also be flipped over and pressed onto other paper to remove some of the paint on the stencil for even more design possibilities.stencil leftover paint

I think I had the most fun playing with the spiral stencil masks.

spiral maskspiral stencil mask

On this one I printed layers of spirals and then circles for the last layer.circles spirals stencil maskThis print uses the diamond shaped stencil masks on top of a layer of chevron mask.diamond stencil maskTriangle shaped stencil masks make a pinwheel effect on this print.triangle stencil maskI like the effect of a couple of layers using square masking stencils on this print.square stencil maskOne layer of flower stencil masks on top of several layers of background prints make a fun print.flower stenci maskI printed a flower using ovals and a circle stencil mask and then later used chevron stencil masks on this print.chevron oval stencil maskThese chevrons were printed on top of multiple layers of ghost prints.chevron stencil maskOn this last print I used some squiggly line stencil masks that really looked more like worms than waves along with some other texture tools. Then I used the tear drop shaped stencil masks to look like raindrops in my “ocean”. I like the way it turned out. tear drop stencil maskThe fun thing about using the gelli plate is you never know for sure what you will end up with. And if you don’t like the way it is progressing, you can do another layer which may completely change the look to something you do like.

You can make your own gelli plate by reading about how I made mine. Let your creative juices flow.

Snowy Inspiration

Mom and I will be busy this March, so we will be posting mostly inspirational type pictures, quotes, websites etc. to hopeful give you inspiration for whatever creativity you choose to pursue this month.

snow with scrolled porch supportsWe got another hit of snow this weekend. Love the beautiful bright whiteness of the snow and the curly spirals on the porch.

Documented Life Project- Week 9

The challenge for week 9 of the Documented Life Project was to “Collage something you recycled.”

Jan:
I just recently sorted through some cards and decided to keep one to use the picture on something else. When I saw the challenge for this week, I knew I would recycle parts of that card. I also was digging through the trash in the office looking for a canceled stamp to use on another project and came across some sheets of music. My husband had been working on writing harmonies on the computer and these were printouts that didn’t make the cut. I knew these would work great with the card for my recycled collage challenge.

I cut the lines of music into strips and glued them randomly on my page. Next I painted over the strips with watercolors. Then I scraped some gesso in a few places and then painted some swaths of purple acrylic on top of that.Music stripsI cut apart the card and glued the pieces on top of the music background. DLP-Week-9-JThe quote by Max Lucado is hard to read where it is printed in black. It says,

“There are things only you can do, and you are alive to do them. In the great orchestra we call life, you have an instrument and a song, and you owe it to God to  play them both sublimely.”Quote closeup

Melinda:

I  saw what this weeks challenge was on that Saturday, but I had no inspiration right away. I was still behind a week and didn’t know when I would get to it. As I was crocheting the other day, I was trying to use up my scrap yarn balls. Even after trying to use up all my scraps, inevitably there is always a pile of smaller scraps that are too tiny to do anything with. I decided that would be my recycle material to use for my page this week. I still wasn’t sure what to do, but as I stared at it while sitting down to work, I kept thinking the scrap pile looked like a brain. Those “This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs” posters kept running through my head. Since drugs and I don’t have anything to do with each other, I decided it would be my brain on crocheting.

I drew the first brain, and then I dipped the yarn in watered down mod podge and placed it on the paper in a brain shape.

DLP-Week-9-MWhich brain is yours?

 

Another Stitched Postcard

Mom did the Great Stitched Postcard Swap in 2013, but at the time, I was pretty busy and wasn’t able to participate. I wanted to though because I am fascinated by stitching on paper. So, when the new postcard swap started, I signed up quick! Hopefully, you saw our last post about this and signed up for yourself.

I had no idea what I was going to do for my postcard. I had absolutely no inspiration for it yet. I knew I needed to get it done soon so that I wouldn’t miss the deadline for sending it. I was at mom’s the other day, and even though there are plenty of projects I could work on, I knew I had to figure this one out.

I sat down with my phone to browse Pinterest hoping something would spark an idea. Mom also suggested looking at the flickr page from past postcard swaps. That wasn’t getting me anywhere. Through a sort of strange round about way, a quote from the Help inspired me to do a pocket of some kind. My daughter, Miss Tickles, loves pockets! Just about every outfit she wears, at some point, she usually asks if it has a pocket. I think I will pick out some of her favorites and add pockets to the ones that don’t have them.

I sketched out my idea on a piece of paper and decided which element would be made from each material. I used paper for the “sweater” and real buttons. I then added a pocket made from fabric and sewed a kerchief out of fabric to fit inside the pocket.

Front Postcard PocketI looked up quotes about Pockets and came across this one. . .

Pocket messageI thought that would fit great with the theme of “Create” because you don’t have to have a lot of “stuff” to be creative. All you have to do is have ideas in your head and passion in your heart, and you can create anything!

Back Poscard PocketJust found out who this postcard is going to. Can’t wait to get mine back!

 

 

 

Why Pa Built the Boat- Guest Post

Today, we are happy to have Jan’s husband, Tom Johnson, share a guest post. He is a wonderful husband, dad, accomplished entertainer, actor, singer, and musician, all around fix-it guy, remodeler, furniture builder, biker, and most of all–his grandkids adore him! You can find out more about the group he performs with here.

When our kids grow up and move to the ends of the earth, we have a wonderful invention now called video chat. I’m sure big businesses and other organizations utilize this tool, but I think it was really created for Grandma and me. Eighteen hundred miles is an expanse that even today doesn’t get breached often enough, so we make up for the time in-between visits with the computer and “Facetime.” (Yes, I’m a Mac guy.)

Last week we were chatting with family and having a great time. The Olympics had been a fun inspiration for Songbird (our Granddaughter in the Big Apple.) We had many chuckles watching her slide, “twizzle” and glide across the apartment floor on our monitor, especially when she stopped and fell on her “tushey” like some of the skaters did. She is so much fun!

The other day during our chat Songbird’s Mommy asked me:

“Pa, Songbird loves her ‘little people’ (Playmobil®), and she often asks me to hold out my hand so she can sit them in my palm. Is there something you can make that they can sit in, like a car or boat, for her to play with?”

I told her that I would love to, and Grandma could bring it out shortly when she comes out for the “birthing.” Oh, yeah, the family tree is expanding!

First, let me tell you what I made, and then I’ll tell you the why.

One scrap of wood, a scrap of paper, four tools, some time and a little paint and fabric and this is what Songbird’s little people get to play in!Little People Wood Sailboat

I simply drew out a boat shape on a piece of old basswood I had laying around. I could have used a 2X4 just as easily. Wood blank for carving boatUsing my band saw, I cut out the basic shape of the boat. Step two was to shape the prow of the boat with the belt sander. Step three was to drill holes in the top of the boat to take out some of the excess wood between the seats.Wood Working Tools The final stage of construction incorporated my Dremel® tool. I bought some sanding drums for another project, and they were perfect for shaping the sides to look like planking and to fashion seating for the toys. (I didn’t want the “Little People” falling off their benches, so I indented where their their little “tusheys”  would fit.)Carved Boat A little hand sanding smoothed out any rough edges and then on to the sails. A 3/16 dowel became the mast and the yardarm, and a little string glued to the ends gave Grandma something to attach the sails to.Making mast and sails

Speaking of Grandma, she added some great finishing touches to the boat by painting and rigging the sails.Paintng the boat

So here’s the finished project. One boat for Songbird’s little friends to have fun adventures on the oceans of her imagination!Sailboat-1

That’s the how, but more importantly is the why.

My daughter also said in that conversation:

“I could go online and buy something, but I don’t want just another toy for her.”

I went online and found a great Playmobil® boat with 55 pieces for $20 plus shipping. It had so much detail with all the little pieces, even a shooting cannon! But then I smiled and closed the search window.

Yes, I could buy her the boat and she would have it to play with amongst all her other toys. But then, it would be just one of her other toys.Sailboat-2

The magic that makes a toy more than just a toy, a sweater more than just a sweater, or a gift more than just a gift is the time and love you put into making it. In an era of microwave and online ordering, there is a growing number of people that are appreciating creativity over expedience. There is an old saying that our life is but a mere vapor and then it’s gone. What a wonderful thing to be able to give part of that “vapor” to a spouse, a child, a grandchild, a friend. Hone your talents and then create treasures that will transcend the generations. If you’re too busy “making money” to be able to make a memory for someone, then you are too busy.

But I’m probably preaching to the choir…Birch To Go Sailboat

So, Songbird’s little boat, aptly named “Birch To Go” for the famly business, isn’t as accessorized as the store bought boat, but then when she gives it to one of her children, probably after I’m on the Other Side singing with the angels, she can proudly say, “Pa, made that for me when I was your age!” Sailboat-3Brings me a smile just thinking about it.Sailboat-4