Merry Belated Christmas!

I'm sorry that I have been MIA for so long. I will admit, time has gotten away from me. I screwed up on my drawing for the portrait swap...and then just have not had to the time to fix or restart it. Before I knew it, it was Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas....I feel like all three holidays came in about as many days too. I don't know where all the time went.

I will post my messed up drawing in another post. I will also be fixing or restarting the portrait in the next day or two. I'll post that as well. But for now, I wanted to show you all what I have been busy with. Here are my invitations, made completely from scratch. The design came from this blog. Sensitive information blurred or blacked out for privacy purposes.


I have also been working on a couple of other DIY projects. I am making my own Ringbearer Pillow, Flowergirl Basket, Guest Book, and Garters. Normally, I wouldn't do all of that. But there is a reason. I really wanted to get married in my grandmother's wedding dress. It was a beautiful wedding gown.


Unfortunately, it wasn't properly preserved, so when my grandmother brought it back from New York for me, it was literally shredded and yellowed. All I had was the bodice, and a relatively small piece of the skirt. (I really should have taken a picture of that before I started working with it). But I thought if I can't wear the dress, maybe I can use it for something else...and incorporate it into my wedding somehow. And that thought evolved into the Ringbearer pillow, Flowergirl basket, Guestbook, and Garters! My mom whitened the dress, but for some reason, a piece of cording or elastic that ran all through the lace did not whiten. The lace whitened beautifully, but the the cord or elastic design stayed yellow. So it dawned on me to dye it purple...to match my wedding color. So I did just that. All of the lace parts of the dress dyed beautifully. The rest of it, I ironed slighlty...I still wanted a it to be a little bit wrinkly because I liked the way it looked. And so far, I have completed the Ringbearer Pillow.

The white fabric, the lace (which I dyed purple) and the purple button in the middle (also dyed) are all parts of my grandmother's wedding dress. I showed it to her a couple of days ago and she was thrilled that I was able to do something with her dress, and that I could get as much out of it as I did. She really didn't think it would be good for anything. But I successfully recycled it, and made it into something my family can continue to cherish for years to come.

So now on my "to-do" list, I still have to complete all the other things listed. But there's time for that...so I will be going back to my portrait for the portrait swap and will post that very soon. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Oh, by the way, I did rush to get my Christmas Card drawn just in time to mail them out a few days before Christmas!

Portrait Swap & Art Contest

The Portaiture Forum on Wetcanvas is having their 6th Annual Portrait Swap. I have always missed the deadline for signing up because I spend most of my time in the Colored Pencil Forum, and only check in on the Portraiture Forum once in a while. So last year, after missing the deadline yet again, I put a reminder in Google Calendar to email me weekly during the month of October, to remind me to check the forum for the Portrait Swap thread. I FINALLY got to sign up! Yesterday I found out that my parter is Claire Beadon Carnell. While you're checking out her website, check out her blog as well. I am so excited because Claire is a very talented artist, and I know that she will do an awesome job on my portrait.

I can't wait to exchange photos and get started! I had my co-worker take some photos of me yesterday so that I could choose one for the swap. I hope to get some time to look at them tonight and choose one to send to her before I go to the gym.

I've only participated in one portrait swap before. The Colored Pencil Forum had a "Guess Who?" Portrait Exchange in December of 2005. That one was done a little bit differently. We were not paired up together painting our partner's portrait. Instead it was kept secret who got who, and in the end when they were all posted up in the thread by a non-participating artist, we all had to guess who the artist was, and who the subject was. That was a lot of fun, and I was thrilled to find out that the artist who drew my portrait was Nicole Caulfield. Back in February this year, I went to a workshop taught by Nicole. She is one of my favorite colored pencil artists. Here is the portrait that Nicole drew of me.

And here is the portrait that I drew of another artist in the exchange. His name was Ed Gilmore, but I never saw him in the forum again after the exchange. I think I've improved a bit since 2005! lol

After the portrait swap is done, the artists mail their portraits to their respective partners. It's so much fun, and a great way to get to know fellow artists that you follow on the forum. Not to mention, not only do you get a piece of original artwork, but you also spread your artwork out to other states or sometimes even other countries that it may not necessarily go to otherwise.

So look forward to seeing my finished portrait in the coming weeks. I have to check on the dates again to find out what the deadline is.

In other news, I had intended to enter Zebrog into the Artist's Magazine All-Media Art Competition, but the deadline was November 2nd and I missed it. But I just got an email this morning that the deadline was extended to December 1st! So I might just have a chance to enter afterall! I just have to get my butt in gear and finish that drawing!

Halloween!

I love Halloween! When they announced a costume contest at work this year, I jumped right on it. I've had it in my head for the past several months that I wanted to be a dead bride for Halloween this year. Seems only appropriate since I'm getting married in less than 4 months. lol. Wow...how time flies! I looked online for months to find a dress and even looked into the possibility of making my own dress. But I couldn't find anything I liked. I was about ready to just order an adult Corpse Bride costume from Halloween Express online, but I was really feeling like that would not be an appropriate costume for work. When they announced the contest at work, I clocked out for lunch and grabbed a co-worker and dragged her to thrift stores in the area looking for a dress that would work. The third store we stopped at was Goodwill, and there was this beautiful wedding dress on a manniquin right in the front of the store...it was exactly what I was looking for. I tried it on and it fit like a glove. It was $49.99, but how could I turn it down?? When we got to the register, my co-worker asked for a discount, and they gave me the dress for $34!! It was like it was meant to be! So I spent the rest of the week planning the details....I bought fake french manicured nails on sale for $3 at CVS, and I used nail clippers to make them jagged and cracked. I used an old dirty gold and cubic zirconia ring that I had for my engagement ring. I bought a small bouquet of carnations and just let them die, then I wrapped them in pearls for my dead bouquet. A few toy roaches and rats....a little fake blood...and my costume won me first place in the contest!

I don't think I can top that next year. But we'll see. lol.

Now that Halloween is over...it's time to concentrate on Christmas. I will be designing and drawing my annual Christmas card very soon. I will post when that is finished. I also have a few more 5x7 portraits that I want to draw and I do have my paper now...so I'll try to work that in as well. I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween!

Tweeking Complete

I know I haven't been good about keeping up with the blog, but I've just got so much going on lately, I haven't found time to draw anything. I finally got around to tweeking the portrait of my brother. The problem was that I had drawn his eyes tilted, but the rest of his face straight. So I corrected the bottom portion of his face, and he is complete.

I do plan to do some more work on the zebrog soon. There is a contest I want to enter that into and the deadline is November 2. I will probably try to finish it over the weekend that my fiance goes out of town.

I also have a few more pictures selected to do portraits from, just waiting on an order of paper from Dick Blick to arrive and I'll get started on those.

Portrait of My Brother

Ok, this one needs a little tweeking, but I just wanted to hurry up and post something to show that I am still working! This is another 5x7 portrait, this time on Uart 600. There is something off, that I can't quite put my finger on. I want to say it's the eyes, but when I measured everything using the line technique from Ann Kullberg's book "Colored Pencil Secrets for Success", the eyes lined up correctly with the reference photo. As did everything else. But something IS off. I have a feeling it might have to do with the tilt of the head. In the reference photo, his head is tilted, which is what makes his eyes appear lopsided...but in my drawing, I don't think I quite have the tilt. Over the weekend, when I'm not so tired and have more motivation, I plan to put it into Photoshop and overlay it on top of the reference photo and decrease the opacity to see if I can see where I'm off.

On another subject, my friend that I threw the baby shower for had her baby on September 4th at 6:02pm. She is a beautiful and healthy baby girl. I will definitely be drawing her in the near future. Oh, I just realized darnit, I was holding her at 6:02pm, and I didn't even say Happy Birthday. :( Oh well, she was sleeping anyway. I have to order more Uart paper so that I can start my drawings of her.

I am finding that I prefer the Uart paper. I like the texture...it takes alot of pencil. But, I am still learning. Colors don't exactly turn out like you expect them to on this paper, they turn out a little bit darker. But you can easily correct things by either going over them with another pencil, or by lifting the pigment with sticky tack. The only thing I don't like is the color. I'm finding that I don't like the look of portraits on the tan color of the paper, so I need to add a background color to make the portrait stand out. Eh...maybe I will go back to the Fabriano Tiziano occasionally, just for the colors.

I do want to try a portrait on Ampersand Pastelbord. I know that Nicole Caulfield doesn't like portraits on the pastelbord...but others seem to do fine with it. Might as well give it a try. I do like the pastelbord so far, as I'm working on the Zebrog. Speaking of which, my model for that drawing needs to go out to potty. I will continue to try not to let so much time go by between posts! Goodnight :)

Back in the Groove Soon, I Promise!

I know I haven't posted for almost a whole month, but things got really busy for me for a while. I got overwhelmed and very stressed over the baby shower, which turned out to be a success, despite the flaws. lol. I was rushing around til the very last minute, I had a "to-do" list I was following, and then guests started showing up early, the guest of honor showed up 45 minutes early, and I stopped looking at my list, got thrown off and forgot to do a lot of things. Sugar cookies didn't get made, the paper I had printed for people to sign didn't get put out, windows didn't get cleaned, the towels didn't come out of the dryer and get hung in the bathroom, and nobody thought to tell me that they had nothing to dry their hands on. I almost forgot about the favor bags, and 2 people had already left before I realized it. But luckily there was someone there that was able to take them to the guests that had left.

In the midst of shower planning, things got a little bit chaotic when I tried to get my wedding save the dates made at the same time. The house looked like a tornado had gone through it, which didn't make it any easier to have it clean before the shower. The Save the Dates were a lot of work to put together. They will be in the mail hopefully before the end of this week.

During the party, I have to admit, I have never felt so relieved. It was like a huge weight was suddenly lifted off my shoulders, and I am so glad to have it all behind me. Now I can just focus on my wedding plans, and relax for a little bit.

As promised, I was working on a lot of creative things for the baby shower, and now that it's over, I can post pictures. So here they are (in no particular order):

The concert marquee banner

Raffle Prize: Dinner and a Double Feature (basket with pasta, sauce, parmesan cheese, a dvd, microwave popcorn, 2 taper candles and candle holders.

The practice cake I made 3 weeks before the party, just to see if I liked the recipe, and if I could work with fondant, which is something I had never done before.

The favor bags. I made the Hello Kitty sticker for the bag. The CD is a sampler disc of Rockabye Baby! Lullaby renditions of rock songs, which was used for one of the games as well. The baby foot cookie cutter was because instead of finger sandwiches, we had baby foot sandwiches (I had cut the bread up with the cookie cutter). The Hello Kitty print out is a t-shirt transfer. The other Hello Kitty in the back there is a "Boo-Boo Hello Kitty", my take off of the "Boo-Boo Bunny". And a little rockstar rubber duckie. Also, attached to the bag is a Hello Kitty Fender guitar pick, attached with a mini clothespin, which ties in because we played a game called Don't Drop the Baby, where the guests each had to hold the "baby" which was a Hello Kitty stuffed animal, hold a cell phone to their ear, and hang as many clothes on a clothesline as they could in 30 seconds.

The diaper cake I made for the Mommy to Be, served as a centerpeice for the refreshments table

The cake

The raffle tickets that you got if you brought a pack of diapers with you. They were also available to buy if you wanted, $1 per ticket, or 10 tickets for $5.

The box for the cake, so the Mommy to Be could take the rest of the cake home with her

Cake pops. These were included in the favor bags as well. Found how to make these on Bakerella. These take a little practice to get just right.

The invitation

And I think that's about it. Well I made the clothes for the Hello Kitty stuffed animal we used in Don't Drop the Baby. But I forgot to take a picture of the Hello Kitty stuffed Animal.

Now that the shower is over, I can get back to my drawing. I think I'm going to take the rest of this week off to relax, and then over the weekend, I will pick my colored pencils back up and get to work!

Another Update on Zebrog

I added in some grass and a little more shading on her body. It's slow going, that's for sure. Pastelbord can take so many layers, and it eats your pencils up so much. But I'm really enjoying working on this one, and I am very happy with how it's turning out. I said that in the last post, didn't I?

I've also been do so much other creative stuff. I wish I could share it all here, but I can't do that until after my friend's baby shower. BUT, I can show you the chocolate I made at the Norman Love class that I took Wednesday night.

Isn't it pretty??? All nice and shiney. And it tastes soooo good. They are filled with Grand Marnier Ganache. They gave us the recipe for the ganache, and a website where we can buy chocolate making supplies. We also got a certificate for completing the class.

The class was a lot of fun. I was glad that my mom found out they were having the classes, because considering my fiance proposed with Norman Love chocolates, I was very interested in taking the class. The chocolates are so delicious. It's technically easy...you paint the mold, fill the mold, you dump it, let the shells set, fill it with your filling, let it set, then ladle chocolate over the whole mold and scrape off the excess, so you have a bottom. Pretty easy. But, MESSY. The instructor did everything so fast and perfect, and clean. lol. But we all got chocolate all over our hands, our molds were dripping with chocolate. Our chocolates were not nearly as perfect as the instructors'. It definately takes practice. We learned that if there is any imperfection in a piece of chocolate, that chocolate cannot be sold, it becomes a sample. I'd venture to guess that A LOT of "samples" were made that night. lol. But we got to take home everything we made, which was really cool. Because if you think about the price of Norman Love chocolate, I'd guess that we probably got to take home about $40 to $50 worth of chocolate. Not including the few pieces we got to sample there. So the class was worth it, in my opinion. He has several different classes you can take, so we want to take another one. But because the class is so expensive, it won't be anytime soon. You can check out his class schedule on his website. They're local classes, I'm not sure if he holds classes in other areas or not. But I suppose you could always call and find out!