knitting and felting

I've been going crazy knitting and felting lately. These are my latest creations. I've already sold the blue one, but if you are interested in one like the blue one I can make another. The pink is verigated pinks and a beige colorway crochted into a floral and then felted and hand embroidered and beaded by me. They have pin backs so that you can attach them anywhere you'd attach a pin. I've got more in the works and will post them here and to my etsy shop as soon as I get them finished. Let me know if there is a color you'd like to see, and I'll do what I can to search it out for you. :)

More Art Cards for SAC

I've been doing rather well with the challenge. I am however 210 cards lacking. Thankfully I have13 days to make that 210. Geez that's a lot of cards in 13 days. I hope to make a huge dent tomorrow. I'll be spending most of the day in art mode. I've got a few swaps to complete and some personal swaps. Then I'll be all caught up and can play at other things. My card goal for tomorrow is 25 cards. If I can do 25 cards or more, I'll be over the total card count I need to do daily to make my 300 mark by the end of october. So here is a picture of the 85 I have made thus far. These pictures don't count the 6 or 7 I completed tonight. This image above has my faux postage cards I did for a group swap I am in. I did two different ones. The star image in the center, and the little space man at the top. These cards are all original colored images. I had to make 9 of each. You can also see another of my kokeshi images. I'm thinking tomorrow I'll work on an alphabet set, and perhaps some fabric cards. It all depends on what I get done in the morning. I'm hoping to get my images done for an eyes swap. I have a few already, but need to do more. I also need to complete all my mother earth cards. I haven't completed mine yet as I wanted to do some research on differnt cultural ideals on "mother earth". Hopefully I can get some of that completed tomorrow as well.

A friend of mine (Rose..**waving**) has told me that I should enter a competition for a rubber stamping company. They are running a contest where you get the chance to win Designer for a stamp set for the company. I'm feeling a little leary about it, but might do it as it's just a bit uncomfortable and I'm beginning to find that when I feel that discomfort I need to jump in with both feet and break that comfort zone. I'm still not sure yet however.

My beginnings for SAC

I am participating in an art by the card event through Sharpie Scouts. I'm having a great time already.It's based loosely on the Art by the Inch challenge as we were all lamenting the fact that the site hasn't been updated in awhile and we thought we'd do our own little challenge. We decided to cut from the square inch idea and go with art by the trading card. We have different levels...and silly me picked the highest (i like a good challenge) I took the 300 card challenge. I need to make 300 atcs by the end of October. So far I'm not doing too badly sticking to my quota. I'll be trying to make extras tonight to give me a bit of a buffer incase I run into a glitch in scheduling time to do art. :) So here are ones I completed last night.
the birds are based on a theme week I am doing with a new art friend. We've decided to help inspire each other to art and the theme we agreed on for this week is birds. So I've been thinking birds lately. The kokeshi doll is just one of those things that pops up while you're randomly looking for things and then gets stuck in your head. I've got a few worked up that I haven't colored yet. I might be trying a fabric version soon or perhaps even a amigurumi version. This is an image of all 15 cards I did last night.

An image of Vincent Van Gogh as a child. I did this a few years ago for a Vincent swap.

crochet projects.

I've been mad for hats lately. Not to wear, but to crochet. I attempted a cloche. It's ok, but not at all what I expected. It's up for a home if anyone would like it. It's got the cute little crocheted "ribbon" detailing at the brim. It was a pattern I found, but when I tried the pattern , using gage measurements and everything, when I got almost through the whole hat I realized that it was going to be about the size of a doll's head. Not what I was looking for. So I frogged it and made my own attempt at the idea of a cloche. It didn't turn out too bad for my first attempt.


Then I attempted a different kind of hat. Now that I had an idea of the basic structure that a hat should have, I tried a skull cap of sorts. I made it much more girly than a general skull cap, giving it an open mesh feel and adding the little scalloped edge to the bottom. Then I added the pink flower. A tad much too girly for me.
I also did a little baby cap. Kind of pill box hat shapped. It's in country blue though and everyone I know has baby girls. Perhaps I should just add a few tiny pink flowers and give it to my niece. Hmmm maybe that's what I'll do. So....who wants a hat?

KLIMT and Me

I've been working on self portraits this week and this one really grabbed me. Granted it doesn't look like me much, but i had fun doing it. I love Gustav Klimt. Especially his really detailed works. I patterned this after Judith 1. I love that picture.

Now I'm having a hard time parting with this one. I've made plenty for the portrait swap, ones that look more like me and less stylized. I'll probably hold onto this one for awhile.

I'm off today to spend time with my friend Lois. She and I have been having a great time getting together for art dates. We go to each others houses and sit and talk the day away and art. It's so much fun.

I'm thinking of taking more time to do Sharpie versions of Masterpieces. I had such a great time with that challenge for the Sharpie Scouts. I cannot wait to get my book! I'm so excited. Our fearless leader put a little full color zine out with submissions from the group. It looks really cool, but I can't wait to get my hands on it and pour through it! here are a few of the ones I did for the masterpiece swap.

Coffee Cartel book pages

My pages for the Coffee Cartel book. I worked for hours staining and layering more staining and even more layers of staining to get the pages a lovely coffee color. I was almost sad when it came time to decorate the pages. It seemed almost a sin to ruin the beautiful markings left by the coffee. I decided that instead of covereing up the coffee stains, I'd use them to my advantage and create from the shapes left by the stains. We play this game in my family, something my parents started when I was small to keep us busy while we waited in restaurants. Someone will make a scribble on a sheet of paper, then the next person will take that scribble and make something of it. That is essentially what I did here, used the "images" i saw in the coffee stains and created something out of them. So the front of my pages are the "Coffee Stain Scribble Game" and the back has my psyeudo hot sleeve with my contact info , the chemical breakdown of caffeine, a small Coffee Love and a small quote.

My newest success.

LOOOK! I MADE A TOTE!

Now I'm not a seamstress by any means. This is a basic simplistic tote. I am feeling quite pleased with myself however. I can sew, but it's usually the basics, you know, patch a hole here, sew a button on there. Nothing spectacular. I've been just itching to try my hand at more serious sewing. I remember in home-ec we had to sew a pair of jams. Hmm I could be dating myself here by mentioning jams. But that, other than the random stitch em up here and there was about the extent of my sewing skills. Sure I can use a sewing machine, but that means nothing unless you actually MAKE something. So the last time JoAnn fabrics had a sale on patterns I decided it was time I break into the world of sewing.

This first attempt at following a pattern since I was about 15, was a little harder than I thought. It's not like riding a bicycle where once you get used to the balancing again you're good to go. I had a few minor mess ups, but over all it turned out pretty good. It took me about two hours to actually finish it all up and get it together. That includes a mistake while cutting, three mistakes while stitching together, having to revamp the pattern slightly to make it work since I screwed up the cutting yet again, and figuring out which was the best way to actually stitch the corners with a single side/bottom piece. I love the all over pattern. The lightest blue of the fabric pattern is like a cornflower blue and it darkens right through to navy blue. I did the lining with navy blue and the thread I used is just slightly off color as to show some of the stitching. I succeeded in getting a nice tuck in each of the corners. Pretty impressive, they all actually almost match exactly.I'll probably give this very first one to my sister. She likes purses, and I'm hoping she'll test run this one. It's approximately 10 x 12 and should be rather study and hold together well. I'll most likely be perusing the fabric sections of the local fabric haunts to look for more good fabrics and interfacings to play with. This interfacing was a little too thin and floppy and didn't get enough of a rigidity to the bag. I'll be looking for a more rigid interfacing, and one that is double sided. I didn't use double fusible interfacing. It only fused on one side (which actually worked to my advantage because I misread the instructions the first three times I read them. Not very good instructions mind you...but what can I expect from a 4 dollar pattern.

LOOK OUT I'M ON A SEWING STREAK!

I've been playing a bit with digital manipulation lately. This was done for a challenge in the digital group I'm in. It's a blue themed challenge and all our art had to be blue in hue. I had a really great time taking this picture of my nephew and making it into this piece of art.

I've been wildly crazy about henna patterns lately. This is a 7x5 card that I've been working intricate patterns on. It's still a work in progress but I had to share. I'm loving the way it's turning out already and plan to do a series of ATCs based on henna designs. I love the look of actual henna on the body. The burnt umber color just appeals to me and there is something so powerful and drawing to me. I've been hoping to find a local henna artist so that I could get a good henna tattoo done. Heck, I would like to learn to do henna tattoos. They're so beautiful . I love reading about henna and the history and importance in the cultures it appears in.

Some Current Projects

Well it's been a very busy month for me. Life has been taking over. Here are a few things to brighten up my long over due blog. This is Ima Karot. He's my fourth try at amigurumi. It's hard to see in this picture but he has the cutest little carrot nose and I just love his blank, big eyed expressionless face. He looks so cute and scrumptious. Well ok, since he's filled with stuffing I doubt he'd be very scrumptious. I've been doing a lot of knitting and crochet. Many prayer shawls and baby/kid afghans for relatives. It's been keeping me busy when I have nothing better to do while watching tv at night. Ima is available on my ETSY shop listed in the side bar ~~~~>OVER THERE :)



Also at my ETSY shop is TONIO BUTTONS! I love Tonio, he's the cuttest little ragamuffin doggie you've ever seen. Once you set eyes on him you just want to take him home with you. The button is just a head shot. If you like him you can also head over to my cafepress store and see what else he's on. A lot of the things in my cafe press shop have him full body, not just a head shot. So if you like him check him out. These buttons are 2.5 inches large! :)

Things have been very BUSY

here at the Viridian Muse. So busy in fact that I haven't had time to update in AGES! For that I am sorry. I have been working on many new projects and hope to be able to post pictures/blog about them in the next day or so. SO many projects...SO LITTLE TIME! Just wanted to pop in and say I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, nor have I forgotten my little corner of blogger! PHOTOS AND INFO COMING SOOOOOOOOON!

Another canvas

This is another sharpie canvas. I love putting sharpies to canvas, although in doing so it can really RUIN you sharpies. I was just going to leave this black and white, but found that it lacked a certain "punch" that I tend to favor in my art. I decided that just a few blasts of color would do the trick and set to work. Just like it happens with shiny surfaces, I found that the ink I had put down previously was lifting to a certain degree while color some spots. I don't know what it is that does this, I've talked with others who say they've never had that problem. It unfortunately makes a dead spot on the head of the marker. I'll be working on more shiny atcs here in the next few days. I love working on it and love the effects (you can see some below) but I have to be very cautious. This canvas is on sale in my etsy store located in the links to the right.

Fab Sista finshed! ...FINALLY

I've been working on these little pins on and off for WEEEEEEEEEEEKS now. At first I couldn't get the felt to stick to itself. When that started happening, I thought "Well I can always hand sew every piece"....ugh..but the thoughts of that made me bored almost instantly. They worked out rather well in the end. When I started working on them I wasn't sure how many I was going to need. So I started 12 turned out I only needed four so now I have six extras (two were lost to appease the creative gods apparently ...small sacrifices that ended up in the great craft heaven in the sky) I think I'm going to dress them up with different dangle type earrings and maybe a cute bow or something in their hair and sell them on my etsy shop. They're really cute, don't you think?

Another mural for the Scouts

Did another mural. This one I had no problem slicing down. It looks really good even when it is cut. I've been trying to get caught up on all the swaps and deadlines I have. I just haven't felt in a big creative mood lately. I have a few digital swaps I have to finish up and get printed out, that part always makes me nervous. I can make something that looks amazingly wonderful on the computer screen and then I print it out and it's crap! Oh well I guess there's learning curves in all mediums.

I did this piece after trying out the technique for Try It Tuesday. Check it out if you're looking to learn new techniques. It's going to be a blast. This was the first technique to be featured. I missed the entry for the contest by about 15 mintues (DOH) but that's ok ..It was still fun learning something new. This was basically three washes of acrylic on canvas board. I put a great canary yellow down first. It's barely visable after the last two layers. Then I washed over the bottom layer with a turquoise blue/green color. Then lastly I put on a minight blue and spritzed with water and blotted it off. It turned out ok, but not like some of the amazing pieces I saw on the flickr group for Try It Tuesday. I did another one in oranges and red, but haven't done anything with it yet. I'm not quite sure if I'm going to sketch over it like I did with this canvas, or make it a more multi-media /collagey piece. I haven't done collage in a long time, but dread digging out the large box of stuff i have to get into it.

So Try something new and check out Try it Tuesdays....you never know, you just might win ;) http://tryittuesdays.wordpress.com/

These abstracts were done for Sharpie Scouts abstract swap. I love doing abstracts. I can do them so easily while watching tv at night. All of these are nothing but sharpie markers.

Another mural atc set that isn't.

Another piece that was to be cut into atcs...but again can't bring myself to do it. For some reason the scan came out way darker than the actual picture in some spots. and the yelllow bird isn't NEON. I just realized that my cardinal looks like he has a mohawk.

Here it is, three am and I'm still awake. I'm just now starting to feel the droop of a night of burning the midnight oil ...errrr..wait..burning the candle at both ends? Is that the right phrase I was looking for??Anyway............this is what I spent my evening on. I've been up since 7:am yesterday morning from which I had very little sleep. I think tomorrow I'll be sleeping in. I'm participating in a mural swap at the sharpies group. The Queen of hearts is a 6 atc mural (which is shown here uncut) I'm very happy with the way it turned out. I think once it is sliced apart into it's various sections, it'll still have apeal even pieced.
This piece should be cut into four pieces, though I can't quite decide what I want to do with it. I started out with the intention of putting it in for the mural swap, but since it won't fit into a 9 pocket trading card page without separating one piece from the grouping, it's kind of silly to send it in. I know that when the dear hubby is up, and I won't be running the risk of waking him up with the incredibly loud scanner, I'll be scanning it in to put into my cafepress shop. I think this would make a lovely tshirt and if I scan it right, perhaps even a small framed print. I don't know though....guess my brain is foggier than I thought. :) Well I should really think about heading to bed at some point before I hit the 24 hours awake mark. I'm starting to revert back to old sleeping patterns and that's not a good thing for me. Sure, I get some killer art done, but at the cost of my own health, it hardly seems worth it, oh plus the fact that it drives my dear man totally nuts. He's so sweet that he says he can't sleep when I'm not in bed (inset cuteness sigh from the viewers...either that or the typical gag response my sisters have) Nighty night all! I'll be posting someo f the other random cards I made tonight, soon.

Check My New Magnet Sets!

Here they are! My latest creations! I love doing marble magnets and finally decided that I'd try selling some with my art attached to the back. I have a ton that have the typical magazine clippings attached to the back. I'm hoping to get some better way to tranfer bits of art to print and get copied. I love doing hand drawn things and making them slightly differnt each time, but it's a bit time consuming. Not that I mind the time consuming part, but I'd like to be able to produce a horde to sell. I'm hoping to go craft showing this year. There's a first time for every thing I guess. We'll see what happens. :)