Folded Trees

My friend and co-crafting teacher, Cheryl, gave me a lovely card with the folded Christmas tree.

I really liked it!  And I thought it would be a great way to use up scraps of paper (which are always overtaking my craft room; I think they multiply like tribbles).  Or, even gently-used gift wrap left over from opening presents on Christmas could be used.

So I rescued some gold gift wrap and played with the folds, and was able to reproduce it.

Cheryl's original is the green checkered one of the left; my version is the one with the recycled gift wrap on the right.

And of course, I wanted to try it with more layers on a oblong version.

Thanks Cheryl, I loved your card and it was great inspiration!

Treat boxes

I couldn't resist making these fun treat boxes as little favors for the Christmas table.  They are made with the Stampin' Up! Curvy Keepsakes box die, then decorated, mostly with punches.

I made penguins, Santas, and snowmen.  I think my favorite are the penguins, especially his feet.  They are filled with M&Ms.

Of course, instead of making these, I should have been cleaning.  Whoops.

Rainbow Poinsettia

Today I did a watercolor wash in various colors.  Then, I very lightly pencil-sketched a poinsettia shape.  Lastly, I went around with deeper watercolor colors to outline it and add value.  Hope you like it!

Papercast ornaments on my Christmas tree

This year, I decorated my tree mostly in red, white and gold -- the better to show off my paper cast ornaments.

In the course of my stamping all the greeting cards that I make, I end up with lots of scraps of high quality white card stock.  I save those, and after about two years I have enough scraps to "pulverize" (in a blender, with lots of water), back to paper pulp.  The pulp is then used in molds to create lovely molded paper ornaments.  I get my molds from House on the Hill (Elmhurst, IL -- they sell reproduction woodcut molds, primarily for speciality cookie baking and marzipan), and Arnold Grummer (his are clay, made expressly for paper pulp).

Here's a few closeups of the ornaments.    I love the pure white and incredible texture.  If I have a chance I'll try to get clearer shots.

We also made the paper casts up at the People's Resource Center art class last Thursday.

My Art Final for Drawing 1 Class

Our art final for my Drawing 1 class at COD was to do a series of at least 5 drawings, related to a common theme, and then convert it to a GIF file.

I chose the theme of Nature.  I used Faber Castell Pitt markers on Fabriano cold press 90# drawing paper.  All of the plants that I chose to draw are special in some way, either as a remembrance for a special person or they are special to me.  For example, the daffodils are in remembrance of my brother Rob, whose birthday was in March.  And the forsythia branches are for Mom, she loved her forsythia in front of the living room bay windows in Clarion.  Here is the GIF:

Out of this series of 8, my favorites were the sunflower and the pine bough.  All that zentangling earlier this year sure paid off for these drawings.  I don't know what grade I got yet; they'll be critiqued next Wednesday.  I was quite happy with them!