Sunday, August 24, 2014

Portland

I don't frequently do things that are out of my comfort zone.  So I thought it was time to do something like that.  I enjoy travel.  Road trips are high on my list of things I like to do.  And I work for an airline, but I don't travel by air too often.  Part of it is that once I get to another city by air I don't like trying to figure my way around and the possibility of getting lost.  It's out of my comfort zone.  
When we travel by air, I let my husband do all the figuring out once we are at our destination.  I've never been to a city by myself, with no wheels.  And that is exactly what I did last Friday.  
I flew to Portland.
By myself!!


I sort of had an idea in mind of what I was going to do, so even though I went by myself, I had a plan.  I heard of this very cool mixed media art store and I though I'd visit it.  It's called Collage.

On my way to it, off course I got lost.  I took the bus in the opposite direction.  I took me few stations to realize, but I kept calm, got off the bus and turned around.

I also stumbled upon this inviting yarn shop.  They had nice woolen yarn, so thick, I am not sure what size needles you'd have to use to knit or crochet something.  And also one skein of it was $80.  It looked very cozy.

These flowers were growing wild on the side of the road.


And these flamingos looked great in someone's yard.

I never thought of strawberries growing in a pot.  But what a great idea.  I wonder if they'd grow in Arizona.  If I'd be able to keep them alive.

This pet bicycle caught my interested.  I've never seen anything like this in Arizona.

I ate lunch here.

A yummy grilled cheese sandwich, with lavender flavored goat cheese.

And I am not sure what this was.  A community kid clothes donation??

A community book/library cabinet, covered with stickers.

As I rode the bus, I saw a big park and I got off to enjoy it.  It had a "reading room" with a couple of library book shelves with books and magazines to read.

I crafted in the park.


I bought some hankies, and made a curtain when I came back home.

And something I saw at one of the stores, inspired me to fill in the bezel of this hat pin with some embroidery.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Recycled journals and blackbird stamp

I got softer material to carve, and gave blackbird another try.  Not too bad!

And I cut up some paper bags, and made some journals.  I really like the pre-printed art on the paper bags.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Carving my own stamps

I inquired at a local art store about teaching a class.  I noticed they don't offer an ATC class, but do sell a variety of blank ATCs.  One rule though is that  in your class you cannot use materials not sold at the store.
I use a lot of stamps in my work, because I struggle with drawing.  And they do not sell stamps, but they do sell stamp making materials.  
And here I am giving my hand a try at carving my own stamps.  I used a linocut first, we had an old one sitting around the house.  I cut it down to smaller sizes, and made my first two stamps.
The linocut doesn't take stamp ink, but I did have screenprinting ink laying around.

I present you, blackbird.

.

And these flowers were inspired by my stitched cards.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Dots

I dotted almost everything I made this week.  The process reminds me of handstitching.  I think that's why I like it so much, and used it so much.
Dot, dot, stitch, stitch.