Visit to Evergreen Brick Works

You know how I realllly don't like the cold so this past weekend had the perfect, warm fall weather when we went took a visit to Evergreen Brick Works. I just love the feeling of being in touch with nature again when we visit there. 

One of the play areas for children had these outdoor bongo drums that was so fun to hear as the kids tapped them to their mood. I had never seen anything like it before and would LOVE to have some of those in my future dream garden :) There was also a sand play area surrounded by tree stumps (I have always wanted tree stumps used as seats) as well as a little walkway tunnel created from plants (kind of reminds me of a secret garden).

 

In their children's garden, there was so much going on-a camp fire, teepees, a yurt, walking on rocks, climbing up hills, and an exploration of colour.

It was wonderful being outdoors 

as we sipped away at a warm smoked turkey, bacon, split pea soup against the sounds of the farmer's market and young families enjoying their day off.

Dress Inspired Card

I had a long overdue thank you card to make for a dress that was given to my daughter last month. 

I've finally made the card. I'm quite happy with how cute it looks :)

I miss cardmaking, creating, and cutting paper. I need to get back into the creative groove of things but lately I've been busy with either yoga, getting enough sleep, thinking about the summer months ahead (which includes moving to a trailer for the summer), and organizing my basement into an art studio of some sort.

That's it for now. Until next time!

Christmas in July...err, August!

I've been meaning to participate in Isha's Challenge over at Do More for Less where we're making a project based on packaging as well as using a masking/distressing technique. I have so much packaging saved for this challenge but it looks like I only have time for the one card for now.

This was packaging from way back in Christmas but I guess we just never finished these crackers -_-

And this is what I created!

 Inside the card...

 The trees are made from DIY washi tape and the tree stumps are actual washi tape. I'm also happy to say that I used my only winter sentiment stamp hoarded from 2 years ago (came free with my only copy of the Paper Crafts magazine).

I'm also finally participating in the challenge over at Friday Mashup (Christmas in July). I've been following this blog for awhile now and I really like it. There's two topics or techniques but also an option to mash it up the two topics together-brilliant!

Happy August Everyone! :)

Creative Inspiration: Quilling

When I saw this image, I was in awe. <3

Maybe one day I can quill like this. heheh...rightt...

The image is from a talented quiller, Leesandra Diaz at The Sweet Spot. Her blog offers a glimpse of her work that she sells from Etsy. She has also made two fabulous tutorials (one recent one) on quilling-a great place to start and I'm hoping to try out some of the techniques she's shown :)

In the meantime, it is so, so hot here in Toronto and without AC, I am melttinnggg these days x_x.

Raine Moments: Drawing with Music

This month's new theme at my daughter's Kindermusik class is "Splash." Her teacher had switched to the ABC Music & Me program where there is a new theme every month. Although I liked the old program that had 16 weeks for a bigger theme and a slower pace, I'm starting to like the new theme change every month.

There are songs about bathtime, bubbles, underwater, fishes, and more. I really like this month's theme. I especially like the slow, peaceful song where we pretended to be bubbles floating around...it is so graceful-like a ballet dance. Another song called, "What's Above the Sea" talks about a little fish asking his/her father what's above the sea. Each time they go above to see something different and return back underwater. When I played this song for my daughter a few days ago, I had her drawing along with the narrative song. This is what she came up with (I drew the clouds and one of the whales).

It was so fun watching my daughter create a picture about a song she learned just a week ago. Later, she was able to retell the picture to her dad which is a great for language development. Whenever I make art, I always like to put on music in the background-it just adds to the whole relaxing feeling of art making. When I did my practice teaching a few years ago, my host teacher showed me a "hand over hand" method of having a student put his/her hand over another student's hand while he/she drew with the music and then they switched. It was really an amazing sight. It was about being there at the moment and enjoying the lines created on the page...art making is really about the process-something I've got to keep in mind when I create.

Revisiting embossing

I would love to make a post everyday but things just get too busy. This month will be especially busy with report cards for my 100 students @__@. Since I haven't even started, my goal for this week is to have at least 20 students' report cards drafted *fingers crossed*


Anyway, I made time yesterday to try making a card based on this inspiration card. I really like the black background accented with the embossed design and the brightly coloured letters that stand out from that background.

And this is what I came up with...

I haven't done any embossing since last year when I first bought the kit for it so this was my chance to revisit it :) Too bad my embossing ink stamp had dried so I used a regular ink pad instead. Also, since I don't have any background stamps, I repeated a variety of stamps to create the background. Finally I did a little quilling for my bright colours. I actually had a happy birthday sentiment initially but I decided against it 'cuz sometimes less is more. :)

Challenge:


CASE study Challenge #89 (Agnieszka Malyszek Muse)

Raine Moments: Paintlounge

I must really like Paintlounge because we went back for the third time yesterday. The first two times I've gone, I've painted this and this. Today my husband and I decided to take our little girl there for the first time. I've been telling her so much about the place and it's only fair to bring her there for the experience :). I was also very curious of what she'll end up painting.

Since there was a paint bar, we let our little girl choose what colours she would like on her palette. (While the paints are acrylic, we knew that our young daughter wouldn't put it in her mouth and we had really close supervision of her too.) Then we let her choose the tools to use. She began with the paintbrush as seen here.

Later, she moved on to use about 20 other tools (a variety of stamps, sponges, fly swatter, mats, ball) to make her mark making on the canvas. I would say her painting was an experimentation of tools rather than a representational painting of something in real life as my husband and I asked many times to tell use about her painting and she didn't say anything about it.

What I really enjoyed about the experience was seeing my daughter show her own creative expression. She chose her own colours, she kept going back for her own tools, and she told us when she was done painting. As much as my husband and I liked how the initial painting looked and wanted to take the painting before my daughter added more to it, we didn't, of course.

I believe that art is where one creatively express themselves and it doesn't matter what the product ends up looking. It's all about the process, the journey that makes me love art so much. I think this is why my art tends to stray far, far away from a reproduction or copy of anything...if I wanted to paint an exact copy of a picture, why wouldn't I just go get a photo printed from the nearest photo centre? :) Copying a picture is good practice for technique but does nothing for the creative soul. It's what's different from the original that makes something one of a kind and human.

Fun with mediums

I felt like making another card tonight. I played around with some of the things I got from my shopping spree fiasco at the art store the other day.

In this card, I played with acrylic inks for the background-I really like this medium and the effect it gives me. It's kinda like painting (which I love!) and I think it's kinda like the alcohol inks that card makers use too. I will have to make a future post about what my husband came up with from the acrylic inks (it's abstract awesomeness:) I also got a set of 24 Copic Markers to try out (soo pricey @__@) but it's an investment into my creative expression :)...I used it for the flowers on this card. I also revisited using perfect pearls to add a little extra touch to it which you can see better on the second picture (the pearls should be on both flowers though).

Challenge:

Lily Pad-Virginia's View Challenge (flower photo inspiration)
Paper Players #93 (Anything goes-Tic Tac Toe)

Painting session

Today I went back to Paintlounge with a couple of friends and celebrated our birthdays together (yes, our birthdays are all around the same time). This is the painting I came up with.

Just like last time, this painting is for my daughter. It has a little Arrietty, a little of my daughter, and a little of a photo inspiration all put into it. The quote is another Dr. Suess one, "A person's a person, no matter how small."

One of a Kind Show

 

I just realized that the One of a Kind Show starts tomorrow. I had previously bought advance tickets during the winter show and I totally forgot it was this week. Looks like I'll be making a trip downtown tomorrow. I'm excited! I love anything handmade :)...it's like a tangible Etsy ^-^ I hope I can get some inspiration and possibly some photos to share. Good thing I asked my aunt for some babysitting with the intention of cleaning the house tomorrow (I guess that will have to wait).