It's October

Finally the season that gives us a reason to live in this desert.....nice and cool with 80F (26C) during the day, and probably 60F (15C) overnight.
I have been really really busy, mostly with work.  The kids have been home on fall break.  We live in a school district with year around school, so frequent breaks are common. 
Also my dad moved here from Nebraska, so he is with us for some time.  Lots of little changes to my normal routines.
Here are some pictures from a little outing we did a couple of weeks ago to Canyon Lake, east of town by the Superstition Mountains.

Tags

Colette Copeland is the master of tag art.  And today Maggie and I are trying to make some of our own.  I used stamps, Maggie.....she is the real artist here, she drew hers.

Solder, instead of resin

I've had a busy week at work on a early morning shift.  I haven't worked a morning shift in many years, so it's a bit of an adjustment to my daily routine.  It's not a permanent change, so I am trying not to get too used to it.

Here is something I did last week on my day off.  I drew and colored some zentangle designs.  I tried to keep a desert-in-bloom theme.  I would have liked to work with some resin, but I haven't had the time to devote to it to learn or mess with it.  Therefore I solder.  I used glass gems again, that are used usually for floral decorations.  They are great in that they distort the image somewhat, making it larger than it is.  The hard part for me has been that I've had to use two glass gems to sandwich my images in between so I can copper tape them together, then solder them.  This makes them a bit bulky.  But guess what, I found out that you can buy copper sheets.  This may work better, as I can tape my image on to the sheet, then leave extra edge to wrap/tape around the gem. 

Phoenix Symphony envelopes

About a year ago on my way out of the library I noticed a stack of books labeled 'FREE'.  Who doesn't like free stuff?!  It happened that these free books were mostly music sheets, road maps, and a few crafting magazines from the 70's.  What a treasure for me!!  I dropped a few bucks in their donation box, and got a whole stack of this free stuff.
I forgot about them until I 'moved' my craft room a few weeks ago.  I am making envelopes now with the music sheets I got.  Quite excited!!

Art journaling 2

A little change of pace for me this week as I've been working an early morning shift.  It seems that's gonna be the routine for the next month at my work. I am teaching a class, and it's scheduled for a really early morning start 630am.  I don't mind it at all, but I am noticing that by 8pm I am soo tired and ready for bed.  Quite a difference from working the night shift for the past several years.
In the mean time, to relax, and fill in some creative space, I have been practicing some more art journaling.  And enjoying it quite a bit.

Art Journaling

I took a workshop today, on art journaling.  I've been psyching myself up to fill in a blank page.  It's hard, because I overthink it.  But today I decided that thinking is not necessary, doing is a lot more productive.  Here are the results.

Craft room

It looks like by the end of the month my dad may be moving to Arizona.  And so we cleared out the room in which I've been crafting preparing it for him. 
To the back of our home the previous owners have built an Arizona room.  They had enclosed a part of the e patio to be a room.  Over the years we turned it into a movie room, and now it's my new craft room.  Complete with movie chairs that I bought long time ago from an antique store. 
It still needs some work and organization, but here it is:  Welcome to my new craft room.


And off course a corner for my little daughter, so she can craft with me.

Feeling like Halloween

Using some Halloween themed stamps.  And you know...the usual, fabric, lace, shrinky dink plastic....
 

Zen-tags

I've been practicing zentanagle/zendoodles whenever I need to relax or focus my mind.  Yesterday I got a zentangle book at Joann's and made some zentangle tags.  I used spray inks as sort of watercolors.  I really wished watercolor was a technique that came naturally to me, but it is not.  And although I don't know what I am doing most of the time, it's the practice that refines any skill.  So I hope in time to be better.

Stitching small

Stitching can be quite relaxing.  In between work, I do a stitch or two on small things, like this old lace fabric.  I must have been thinking and longing for Europe.

Friday is craftday

I seem to get most crafty work done on Friday.  My day off, so it makes sense.  Last week I ran out of glass that I need for soldering, so I tried those large glass stones that you can find in floral section at the craft store.  I loved the results because they are so beautifully imperfect, and they distort whatever image you put underneath it.  It's almost like resin, which I've been a bit uncomfortable to mess with at the moment.

I made this Eiffel tour charm first, but realized because of the oval shape, my clamp wasn't holding it well while soldering.  It was a hazard, and I stopped to go get a better clamp.

I used my husband's old comics.  He's got a lot, so he let me use them.  So these are getting soldered soon.

On a side note, last night I made a promise to my little girl that I will crochet a blanket for her.  She has a little one that I made when she was a baby.  She told me it doesn't cover her.  And it really doesn't.  I will be crocheting a while.  I finished one square, and have no idea how many more I need.  She's picked 10 colors from my stash and we started with purple.

The princess that lives in my house

My daughter asked for a princess crown for her birthday which was a few weeks ago.  I bought it a week later when I got paid, and for the first week after that, she wore this crown everywhere.  She was so cute, so my husband took some photos of her with a 4x5 large format camera.
Here is a cyanotype of one of those photos.  This little girl...melts me.

Soldering, it's been a while

Early day today, got up at 5am, worked a little overtime at my job, then took the kids to school and came home to a quiet house.  Wasn't sure what to make next.  I needed a change of pace, something I haven't done in some time.  So I soldered. 
First I cleaned up the table of fabric scraps and whatever else was laying around and set up shop for soldering.

Then I realized I didn't have enough cut glass, so I went to the workshop in the back yard to cut some glass.  Until a bee scared me.  Ironically I had already pre-cut and stamped some paper that had bees on it. 

I also ran out of glass too, so I did what I could with what I had on hand.  Soldered until I had to get the kids from school.
And here are the results.

An opportunity to share some good news (and show off).  The next issue of GreenCraft (due in November) and the next issue of SEW Somerset (due in December) will have some of my work in. Yes, very very very HAPPY!
And here are a few pictures of what I created in the workshop I took on book binding.

Desert tags

Remember when I took a zentangle class, and came home to spend the day drawing and coloring zentangle designs on shrinky dink?  Well I have a few zen-shrinkies left from those days and got tired of making rings.  There were quite a few desert inspired zen-shrinkies, and after playing with them I ended up with these tag-like things.  I am not sure exactly what they are, but I've been wearing one all day as a necklace.   

This week at a glance

This week has gone by very fast for me.  Last Saturday my husband had an art opening at the gallery in our own city, Vision Gallery.  On the same day, in the morning, I helped a friend with tending her booth at Art Unraveled.  My friend has the coolest supplies for mixed media artists.  Even the famous Michael DeMeng stopped by and got several doll heads from her.  Speaking of Michael DeMeng, I do belong to his Facebook page, Art Abandonment, and I really haven't abandoned anything in a while.  I think it's time to do that.
Yesterday, I went to the gym with my husband, and the 40 min workout felt really good.  I am sore now, but that's perfect.  It's a good reminder for me that I can now take care of my physical fitness, while the kids are at school in the morning.
And last, but not least, this coming Saturday I signed up for another workshop.  This time it's a book binding class.  I am getting well versed in many crafts.

And here are my favorite two photos of the week:
1. My daughter (her Highness) with her dad (my husband).
2. The sweetest boy I know (my son) and me.
 

Dancers and Queens

My husband gave me a few packages of ATCs (artist trading cards), so I decided to see what I can do with them this morning.
I started with a set of stamps I got from Stampington, Le Bon Genre. I was also influenced by an article by Colette Copland in the latest issue of SEW Somerset where she made beautiful dresses out of paper ephemera.
The stamps I used are body parts: heads, hands and legs.  But because I don't have the feel and sense to make a proportionate body, I decided to use a heart shape for the torso part.  And then I used fabric for the dress.

But ATCs are fairly small, so I quickly moved to a bigger format, 6x6.  Here are a few more in the 6x6 size.
 

Tooth fairy

A bit of a busy week, along with a visit from my dad.  On Sunday, we had a birthday party for my daughter who is now 5. And on Tuesday the tooth fairy visited my son.  A week of milestones, naturally, for a family of young kids.  This was our first-ever visit from the tooth fairy.  My son, who is 6, is already questioning her existence, because he didn't see her come by.  He asked if perhaps she may be a ghost.  And then went on to ask me what she does with all the teeth she collects.
Kids...they never fail to surprise me, delight me, catch me off guard.
 
And since the tooth fairy tradition is really not something I grew up with, it's new to me, as much as it's new to them, I used a match box for the tooth-money exchange to take place.