Category Archives: Art Projects

With me feeling better more and more each day, my thoughts have turned to the impending living arrangements.

I have ideas. But I’m not going to be OCD about this! (Remember, self, remember!).

The best part is (Wyatt) that my plans are all REALLY inexpensive. No new furniture to buy except MAYBE a used little artists desk off KSL (it must be used because if I’m getting one, I’m going to paint it). I’m only painting two of the three rooms (In Olivia’s room I’m leaving the walls white but plan to do scrolley viney floral accents in a pearly white). Everything else will be hand made with inexpensive supplies, most of which I already have. Aren’t you so proud of me Wyatt?

So here’s my initial sketches. I drew out my ideas, then each kid drew over it with their ideas

Olivia’s is the most detailed because it is the most concrete in my mind. It’s the room I plan to start with, so I’ve been thinking about it the most.

Ideas for Olivia’s room:

• colors: Lemon and Pink lemonade with watermelon as the accent color
• Glass stars to be hung on the walls and windows.
• Sheer curtains encrusted with sparkles (get out my bedazzler!)
• Pearlescent wall accents
• floating shelves
• tissue paper star puffs
• artists desk? (if there’s room)
• wall frames with childrens art/childhood collages
• goldfish hanging in a bowl
• giant paper star

The Boy’s Room (Calvin and Everett)

I haven’t exactly worked out the details of this room yet, they are still taking shape in my mind, but here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

• Colors: Pale Blue, Red & White
• Keys on the walls/key mobile/chandelier
• Picture collages with classic children’s art and pictures of my kiddos
• Shadow Boxes with their baby things

And last, but certainly not least is the baby’s room:

• Colors: A warm cream and pale, dusty pink.
• Curtains crusted with sparkles, tied with giant daisy tieback.
• Pink tissue paper puffs
• Recover the chair
• Baby crib net (already have one of these – made it when I was expecting Olivia!)
• Maybe make some bedding – if I can find some fabric that I LOVE
• Stripes on the walls above the shelves in pink/pink (really close, maybe one or two shades off from each other), the rest of the room cream.
• fairy dolls (converted barbies I think)
• Frog Prince piggy bank (where to find one of these?)

I want the baby’s room to be rather simple. It’s a small room with a lot of furniture in it, so I want to keep it low key.

And there you have it – my ideas . . . so far.

I have a little confession. Wyatt- stop reading now, because you will be annoyed by this.

I mean it.

Stop.

You’re still reading.

I know you are.

Stop it. Because now you will want to talk about it, and I don’t want to talk about it.

And first you will laugh.

And then you will be annoyed.

I’m giving you fair warning.

Well, I warned you.

My confession is this:

I started another blog.

Really? I mean really?

Yep. It’s what I do. Starting a blog for me is like spending an afternoon playing the Wii for someone else. I do it to turn my brain off. It’s fun.

It’s called: The Home Made Holiday.

It’s a place for me to chronicle all the art projects I do at Christmas time.

You know me, Wyatt, you know how I am.

(And I know how you are. That’s how I know you’re still reading this).

Anyway, anyone else who’s reading, check it out:

http://thehomemadeholiday.com

PLEASE ENTER THE WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE! IT WILL BE FUN – IF ONLY I COULD FIND SOME PEOPLE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE!

Wyatt, don’t go there. You already did, didn’t you?

I don’t want to talk about it.

Dear Olivia,

Hi sweet baby girl. You’re no longer a baby. Sigh. That thought makes my heart a little heavy. It’s been a great five years so far! And a wonderful year four with lots of steps from babyhood and toddlerhood into full fledged childhood.

I only hope I took enough pictures.

Really, I hope I took enough.

Sweet girly, I love you so much: the forts you build, the dress up shoes that are way too big, the way you help with everything.

I love you baby sunshine.

I only hope I took enough pictures.

Wyatt and I hit Barnes and Noble (a staple for our date nights, I know, living on the edge!).

And I came across a magazine that had the most beautiful photo collages. Sigh. It filled my arms with adrenaline, and stuck a perma grin on my face as I came to know that such things existed. I resolved to try my hand at it.

Today I finally had a half a second – and it took a little bit longer. But oops.

Here it is. I started without any idea of how it would turn out. I think it turned out a little eery. I am not one to immortalize dead children in art. Creepy.

So I titled it “Anticipation”

as in – before.

Like maybe Olivia was so excited and anticipated all the things earth life would be for her.

I saw these sweet little quilled snowflakes in a magazine, and I thought: “I could make that.”

And so I did.

I was my project for girls weekend/conference weekend. I am only a  little disappointed that I was only able to make 13 (plus two that are a little different). I had hoped to make fifty But they are beautiful, and will grace my archway at Christmas time.

She grew up among the children of the stars . . .

This is my art project for the summer: glass stars.

I cut them out of sheets of various glass that I’ve bought.

Then I piece them together.

Foil, flux, solder, add a wire hook, wa-la! Stars to hang from my windows and trees.

They are very -ahem- organic? eclectic? Okay, so I’m not a perfectionist, and it shows.

But I like them.

They will add magic to our summer.

These are just a few of the stars that I’ve made. I have enough glass to probably make a kajillion. I’m thinking of selling them (at least to recoup the cost of the glass). What do you think?

I made two pillowcase dresses for Olivia for the summer. One is pink eyelet, and the other is white. The pink one was my first, so naturally it took me a bit longer. I made it quite differently from the white one: I used elastic across the top to gather the material, and then used the ribbon sewed to the dress to create ties. I also lined it with a separate white muslin. The white one uses the ribbon through a casing as a sort of tie across the shoulders, and it is lined with it’s own fabric (45″ folded a little less than in half). Very simple. The pink one took me a while longer because it was my first one, and I lined it (so I basically made two). The white one took me about 45 minutes though. Sweet.

And look how cute she looks!

This is the little book I made for Wyatt for Valentines Day.

Love the boy.

So, when I was in high school, I made what I called “Kerr Lanterns” (I pronounced it CARE lanterns) using my mom’s Kerr canning jars.

This year I thought I would make some Kerr lanterns to decorate my yard and house. But I saw someone do a similar thing (minus the painting them) with baby jars. Genius, I thought. With smaller containers, you can put them more places. So I sent out a post a couple months ago requesting baby jars. Last Friday I found a box of them on my doorstep. My cousin Erin sent me via Aunt Linda (THANK YOU!) no less than 56 baby jars. Fabulous.

Beth scrubbed them the other day, and then we set about painting them.

At first we had grand ideas of using actual glass paint.

It was mo’ expensive and warned to cause birth defects.

So we settled for my trusty old tray of Prang Watercolors (which I’ve had since my sophomore year of college by the way).

We girls set to painting (Cal took a nap). Olivia used every color of the rainbow because “I like every color in the rainbow.”

Beth set about in intricate designs and motifs – picnic blankets with ants, sunflowers, and horses.

As for me – well, I know how easily I get bored, so I set out with simple geometric patterns: polka dots, random squares, and stripes (and I did do an American flag).

We twisted on some wire to hang the votives.

I made Beth put in hooks into the ceiling of my porch (because I know I’m not strong enough for that!)

We strung up some twine.

And finally, we used ribbon to attach each jar.

This is only about 1/5 of the jars we have. I’m going to do some more and put them in my tree and even more on my porch (Beth, I need you to come back and put more hooks in).

Aren’t they loverly?

Yes, the paint will wash off the first time they get hit with sprinklers or rain water. Any suggestions?

I have an idea for an art project, and I need everyone’s help. If you have or know of anyone who has, baby jars – you know, the little glass jars baby food comes in, please save them for me. I will come get them from you. I just need a BUNCH! Thanks, Andrea

And when I finish my art project, of course you will be able to see the results here

There’s a scene in the Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks, where Angela Lansbury’s character receives a broom in the mail (she plays a witch apprentice). She eagerly opens the package, then holds the straw broom lovingly up to her cheek, and with a dreamy look says: “My first broom.”

That’s how I feel when I think about my first rug.

My grandparents have owned a cabin at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon forever. And when I was a little girl, I remember there were giant braided rugs – their reds and greens and browns kept my feet warm as they lay over the sanguine asbestos tiles. My grandmother passed away just after my 9th birthday. My grandfather remarried just six weeks later. His new bride set to updating and redecorating the cabin almost right away. The rugs were thrown out, the tiles covered up by a durable nondescript carpet. 

Somewhere in my young mind I determined that my grandmother had made those rugs by hand. And while I love my grandpa’s new wife, I wished my grandmother had lived long enough to teach me this art form.

Years went by. I determined someday I would learn how to make hand braided rugs, just like my grandma. With the advent of the internet, I did online research into the art. I found a woman back east who hand made rugs. I emailed her asking for instructions. She pointed me to a couple of good books. Still years more passed by. I had bookmarked her site and checked in every six months or so. Eventually she made her own “how to” video (apparently I wasn’t the only one asking her for help). I added it to my list of things to get “someday.”

Then last year I determined it was “time.” I added it to my Christmas list. Wyatt had already gotten me something way out of budget (my mac); but passed the word on to his mother, who gave it to “us” for Christmas. 

I promised her my first rug would be for her.

And yesterday I finished it (yes it was late for Christmas, and yes, it did take me a whole year to make just one rug). 

My mother helped me with the rug, lent me her sewing machine, and sat and watched as I stripped and coiled the wool. As I told her my memories of the rugs at the cabin, and my motivations for learning this art form, my mother laughed. “Your grandma didn’t make those rugs! They were bought from a catalog somewhere!” 

It’s funny the things you get stuck in your head, and hold dogmatically as truths when reality is something quite different.

My rug was hand braided and hand laced.
The only sewing was done to sew the
wool strips together for the braiding

I chose to do a yellow rug for Lois’s kitchen.
She chose the specific colors of yellow.
At first I wasn’t so sure, but I think it turned out pretty.

A neighbor girl gave Olivia some darling hair clips last summer. They were so cute, I wanted to get more for Christmas. At the mall they were $2.00 per clip! Online I found them for about $1.00/clip, but then you had to pay for shipping. Finally I decided I would make them myself.

So, about $10 in supplies later, Olivia has over 30 clips (and still supplies to make about 50 more!) They were a great stocking stuffer.

For the past week and a half we have been in celebration of Andi’s wedding. The nuptials took place last weekend in Yellowstone, and we’ll get to that later. But she came to Utah (from Dallas, Texas, where she and Jeff live), two weeks ago to finish all the final prep with her mom.

Since I was her Matron of Honor, I decided to throw her a little bachelorette party. But, since none of the wedding party was in town besides me and her parents, it ended up being the six of us (Jeff, Andi, Chris, Cheryl, Wyatt and me). We had a great time going to the Utah Arts Festival, showing Jeff the Salt Lake Library (which was next to the Arts Festival) and taking everyone out to dinner at the Red Iguana. It was nice to just socialize and spend time with everyone before the rest of the wedding party descended, and Andi’s guests and nerves caught up to her.

Andi also asked me to make the vow book for the celebrant to read from. I decided I wanted to make a pop-up/shadow book. It took a while to get the exact layout clear in my mind, but once it did, everything came together just fine. I know some of these pictures are out of focus, and otherwise pathetic, but you get the general idea.

As one last kinda cool side note, Andi realized the day of the reception that she didn’t have a guest book for people to sign. So she decided to use a book that I made years and years ago, when I lived on the Indian Reservation (I’ve never written about those adventures here . . . well, maybe someday). It was a basic book with hand sewn blank pages, a black paper cover with a brown paper spine, a single cottonwood leaf that had turned golden was embroidered on the cover with gold thread. (The leaf had help up shockingly well over the years) and it had a brown twine tie. Thing is . . . it was made in the very early days of my book making, and it was-rustic-in its quality and construction. But perhaps that matched the feel of the wedding in Yellowstone. I don’t know why she happened to have that book with her, but I thought it was flattering that she would use it for something!

I made this invitation for Andi’s Bachelorette Party.

I wrote the text for the vow book using Cezanne and Garamond fonts, and embellishing with raspberry red and lime green. I printed it on vellum paper, and then backed it with white card-stock to help the text stand out more.

This is one of the shadow pages – like my “Lady of Shallot” book. It’s Andi and Jeff overlooking Lower Yellowstone Falls. The actual wedding ceremony took place only a couple hundred yards from here, at Artist Point.

This is the second shadow page. It’s Andi and Jeff with the forest behind, and a summer night sky with a full moon. Though you can’t see it in the picture, Andi’s entire dress is coated with purpley moonlight glitter, and the moon and stars are outlined in silver glitter and the moon is cut out of pearly iridescent construction paper.

I took these pictures of Andi and Jeff. I was taking pictures of Andi in her dress at the home she grew up in in Summit Park. I then added the antiquing effect to create a more vintage look.

This is another pop up page, with layers of forest, and Andi and Jeff in the foreground. Again, Andi’s dress is glittered.

I made bookplates again this year for the books I gave my babies for Christmas. (I’m a book giver, it’s genetic.)

They turned out really cute. There are more than these four, but these are the ones I like best.

Our Tree Named Steve

Calvin & Hobbes

The Giant Jam Sandwich

Where the Wild Things Are

I made each of the kids a paper mache something for Christmas this year. For Calvin I knew right away that I would re-create the Lemon Galleon (check back later and I will pics of that project). For Olivia . . . at first I thought I would make a hot air balloon, but that seemed too tre passe. Instead I decided a flying fish was the way for a two year old girl to travel through the universe.

First I drew out my idea . . . I wanted the fish to be pink and silver with flecks of gold and moonlight in her wings. I also determined that an Olivia doll needed to be made in order to give the full effect . . . this wasn’t just a fish hanging from a ceiling. She was a mode of transportation!

I set out to make the fish, paper maching her and painting her a generic pink. I found a champaign gold paint that I diluted down to transparency to add a little sparkle to her eyes and lips. I also painted scales in various places. In addition to the paint, I used an irredescent pink paper as well as a goldish-green paper with purple irredescent glitter to cut out and glue down as scales.For her eyes I painted her eyelids a soft lavender color with a purple and gold eye liner. I then used fake eyelashes from the beauty department of my local grocery store to give her a little something extra. I painted her eyes blue and used dark blue jewel beads that I had on hand for her pupils.

I used a pink irredescent organza for her fins and tail. I wired her tail with floral wire to make it stand up. I also used feathers in pink, peacock green, and fuscia on her appendages. My friend Andi made a feather fish in college once, and I’ve always admired that, so I thought I’d add the feathers in honor of her genius.

For Olivia I started with a pre-made doll from the craft store (I never knew they had such things, but it cut out a lot of time in having to make her myself). All the doll was was a muslin body. I added hair using embroidery thread in a flaxen gold color. I tied them in Olivia’s typically wild pig tail fashion with some pink wax thread I had on hand. I also made her clothes just with some felt . . . her overalls and a pink shirt. I debated about putting a mouth on her, but embroidered a small one with some salmon thread. I attached her to the fish using sticky velcro. This way she can come on and off.

And there you have it, Olivia’s flying fish, her ride through the universe.