Creative Dawn

Here it is the last of my daily posting.  Nothing fancy today just a simple drawing to sum up this year.  My life has changed a lot since last August.  John Lennon wrote a wonderful song with this line, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."  It is so true, you never know what will happen when you wake up in the morning, each day is a new adventure. I will continue to create and post but it will be nice to be able to focus on larger projects and spend more time on them.  In this past year, my style and interests have grown so much and I am very proud of this accomplishment.  Please continue to check back with me!  

Way last October I got two little houses at the Goodwill.  The first one was painted like a haunted house for Halloween and this one was going to be a gingerbread house for Christmas.  Well, it just didn't look right even after painting it a few different ways.  It was set aside until an idea struck which was in the past few days, just as my blog is winding down.  I decided to paint it in fun colors and just randomly make designs.  It is what my style is really all about, crazy patterns adorn mostly everything and color is the key.  This house is a DVD holder but we own too many to fit in here.  There is a shelf inside so it could be used for many things, I'll think about it and figure it out later.  One more day to meet my goal!  It is such an accomplishment for me to have been able to do this blog.  As mentioned a few times before, the blog will continue I just won't be posting daily.  Still not sure what to do tomorrow, but thats OK, there have been many days like that.

Earlier today I decided that butterflies would be my drawing for the day.  After a small shopping trip on my lunch break, I knew that it was meant to be.  There was a calendar for next year filled with pictures of gorgeous butterflies and it was only a dollar.  This was my inspiration!  Once I got home, the doodling started.  For whatever reason making the wings mismatched seemed like a good idea.  The results were definitely to my liking.  Being an artist always gets interesting responses from people.  The most common thing that is asked is can you draw me something.  Well, at work tonight I was chatting with one of the other employees and she loves peacocks so she asked me to draw one for her to hang in her room.  That is a request that is possible!  So not in the next few days but in the future you can look for that drawing.  It could be a really fun thing to draw especially with my style.  The designs on the feathers will be something that I could totally immerse myself into.  Ye

I don't even remember how long ago this was purchased or from where, but it has been collecting dust for quite a while.  When this blog was first started I dug it out to paint, but the inspiration never came.  A few days ago an idea FINALLY came to me.  Instead of painting the outside of this wooden briefcase, why not paint the inside.  It is all wood and the interior isn't as glossy so it would take to painting very well.  This design is one that just popped into my head, it is very random but I like it.  There is no need to attach a hanger to this because the handle will be perfect.  

The best job ever and the coolest friends that I ever had were when I worked at a restaurant called the Heartthrob Cafe.  It was in downtown St Paul, Minnesota and was so fun!  Today we had a get together to catch up and reminisce.  This is one of the many good things about facebook, finding people that you wished you never lost contact with.  So, today my post is the buttons that I made for this event.  We had 'flair' that was a lot more fun and cool than a restaurant chain that I will not name here.  We danced and sang birthday songs.  The girls wore poodle skirts and we did all of this while wearing in line skates.  We were a crazy family and honestly this was one of the best times in my life.  Ahhh...memories. In the time spent there somehow the button machine came into my possession.  In honor of our gathering, of course I had to make pins.  Here are also two murals that I painted at the restaurant.  Let me tell you they were tricky!  The murals are on glass and when

I love to look at fashion magazines and briefly attended FIDM in Los Angeles to study design.  One of my absolute favorite shows is Project Runway, I may have mentioned this in some past post.  Every season I am inspired by the designers and would love to be on a show like that but, I sew like crap!  OK not that bad but my sewing ability would get me eliminated right away.  My talent more so lies in the designing part not the execution.  This is a drawing that I did last night, gowns are my favorite to sketch.   Here is also a cool display that was created by me at work.  This is entirely draped and pinned on the mannequins and my boss really liked it so that is a good thing.  Actually, the latest addition to my responsibilities at work has been the displays.  No one else likes to do it which is great for me! 

I couldn't wait to post for today!  This is my super cool new painted lamp.  As stated yesterday, it was a Goodwill find and cost 1.49.  I almost bought a few more but there isn't enough room in my home for more lamps.  A few ideas were bouncing around in my head but this was the final result.  The design that I wanted to do was a leopard print and you can see a bit of that in the finished piece but it also looks like a floral pattern.  No matter what it is still awesome!  Lamps are so fun to paint, you have a lot of area to cover and the possibilities are endless. My husband isn't really a fan of this one but the decoration of the house is my area not his so as long as I like it that is all that matters!

It was an awesome relaxing day off.  A bit of laundry was a nesseccity but after that it was veg out time.  My husband and I took a wonderful walk at the little park and lake by our home and afterwards we sat outside for a while.  Because it was such a beautiful afternoon I brought my painting stuff outside as well.  Two projects got finished today which was great.  The hard part was deciding which one to post today.  In the end the tray won.  Both tomorrows and todays items were purchased at the Goodwill.  That is truly one of my favorite places to shop.  You never know what you will find! OK, so this tray had a nice sunflower design on it.  I debated whether or not to just keep it as is but in the end my creative juices started to flow and this is the idea that came of it.  Just a side note, last night I was dreaming colors and patterns, my head is full of designs so hopefully the last week of the 365 days will be a awesome. This is going on my wall and will not be used as a tra

Tomorrow I get to sleep in and relax, YEAH!  It is a well earned day off after the business of this past weekend.  My plan is to get up late, watch some guilty pleasure TV, paint and maybe make dinner if the mood strikes me.  Oh, and weather permitting have few beers outside.  What bliss! For today I sewed up this little felt creation.  The flowers are black felt and the beads are brown.  This to me is a great color combination although I know a few people that would disagree with me.  But if you have been paying any sort of attention to this blog you will know that my style is a mix of colors.  Besides, there are no rules in art.  This contradicts what my high school art teacher said, but the teacher was wrong! Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.   ---Mary Lou Cook

I always remember this chair in my Grandpa's apartment.  When he originally had it, it was upholstered in yellow vinyl.  It became mine after he past away many years ago.  The vinyl had seen better days but I still really liked the chair and wanted to recover it.  The fabric had to be just right and it took a while to find the perfect design.  This awesome art design was THE one, the only problem was the price.  Luckily it wasn't a popular pattern and it eventually got marked down to a price that was affordable.  It was easy to redo, a little sewing and a lot of tacks.  Now it is more of a decorative chair but it always brings back happy childhood memories when I look at it.  

Yeah!  I am finally home!  It was a good buy busy few days and now I can relax a bit.  An ice cold frosty beer sounds so good right now.  But first, the blog.  It has been a while since there has been a frame post so here is another idea.  In my recent trip to the dollar store I found this frame for you guessed it, a dollar, but when it came time to checkout, it rang up .25, what a deal.  Now, the story on the beans, originally they were purchased for a bingo game for my class reunion.  The bingo was too much work but I still had the leftover pinto beans.  Solution, the beans have a nice pattern and they matched the frame so they got hot glued on it for a very unique look.  This is a smaller frame and the picture areas are very little so it may end up just as is but when you have such an interesting frame who needs pictures.

Wow!  What a day!  Worked over 10 hours, came home and my husband made dinner, yeah!  Then had to bake cupcakes for my stepson's grad party tomorrow and make a card and work on a few other things.  I am sooo tired now.  Tomorrow, I work at 6 am then come home pack up the truck and head to the party 45 minutes away.  What that means is a soon as we get home, it is bed time for me.  Right now my eyelids are getting heavy.  So, here are the pictures for today.  A card to go with the gift made yesterday and many cupcakes. Sleep tight y'all!

This is NOT an original idea but it is the first time that I have ever made one of these very popular blankets.  If it were not for the fact that at my work this particular fleece was marked down to practically nothing I may not have ever made a tied blanket.  They are not bad, just not an interest of mine.  As luck would have it, I was in the right place at the right time.  This fleece was marked down to $1.00 a yard and my stepson loves the Minnesota Timberwolves so it was perfect.  I spent less than $6.00 and got him something that he will enjoy and that is a tough thing to do for a teenage boy!  It took me a few hours to cut and tie both a pillow and blanket.  In my stockpile of stuff  there was an extra pillow form so it all worked out great for me.  It was very easy to do, this is something that anyone could do.  Now fleece in general it can be expensive so if you are going to make a blanket like this, watch for the sales and mark downs to get the best bargains.  Remember, this

There is a benefit for a of mine this weekend and he loves hard rock music.  I have been trying to think of what to make that would work with his favorite genre but my style isn't really conducive to that.  This is what I came up with.  These cards would also work for Halloween.  My idea was to give this along with the skull pillow from a few posts ago but am not sure right now.  The cards are very unique and hopefully someone would appreciate them.  It can be difficult to come up with an idea when the persons interest isn't a specialty of yours.  We'll see what happens and I will post what my final decision was in a few days.

This is an idea that I had and it turned out pretty much the way it was in my head.  It is simple with just a black outlined profile and lots of dots surrounding it.  It is all acrylic paints on white canvas.  Something that I have noticed is that drawing or painting profiles is preference of mine.  All of the projects that are in this blog of faces are profiles.  It probably has something to do with the simple lines of the side of the face.  If you draw someone head on the design takes on different qualities.  This was a very enjoyable thing to paint, hope you like it!

Guess where this was purchased from!  You are correct it was the Goodwill.  It was an Easter decoration on a wooden board.  It measures about 8 x 24, so it worked out well for a design like this.  For a week it sat on my todo pile until this idea for some styalized flowers came to me.  It is like a really modern still life vase painting.  This is one of those things that I couldn't stop adding details to.  Some dots, some squiggles, and a few more vines, the more I painted the more interesting it became. 

Here are two bookmarks that I drew tonight.  I have been enjoying mixing different colored papers lately.  It gives the artwork a little more interest.  Colors and shapes two of my favorite things!  Since they are just paper I may laminate them for more stability.  It would be awful if they got ruined too quickly.  The tassels are handmade as well.  They are made of embroidery floss and took all of five minutes each to make.  

At work recently we started to receive Halloween and fall items and it has inspired me to start making some stuff for this time of year.  The pictures for this pillow are not that good, it looks better if you actually could see it.  I cut out a skull and cross bones from black felt and then stitched it to black felt with red variegated embroidery floss.  The border is a combination of red and orange felt.  Hopefully you get the idea from the pictures. Oh yeah, last night was my class reunion and the games went over very well.  I was so excited that people enjoyed them!  It was a great event and we all had a great time catching up.  We reminisced about the past and created a few new memories!

Let's see, purse, check, phone, check, keys...WTF!  Where are my keys!  My husband makes fun of me all the time because I lose my keys.  They are usually at the bottom of my purse underneath everything or I walk past them sitting on a table and don't even notice.  I cannot be the only one this happens too!  Solution buy a hook at the Goodwill for .25 and paint it with my initial so that my keys have a place to 'hang out' everyday.  OK, in theory this is good, now to test it an see if it works.  You all know how it is.  It's like trying to be organized but things still end up cluttered about and messy.  BTW, I have two updates, one, the post about a week ago, the fall felt decoration, was inspired by Better Homes and Garden Holiday Craft magazine.  The second is that tonight is my class reunion, so I will update you on the success (hopefully) of my games. Have a great Saturday!

Here is yet again a Goodwill find.  He was a less than a dollar and I think he was used to display collectible spoons.  I just thought it was different and fun to paint.  The first thing that I thought of was polka dots for a design.  It just seemed to be a good fit.  The finished fish is actually upside down, but it looked better to me that way.  Since it is made to display something, I got the idea to make some charms or other items to adorn the slots.  Whatever is made to hang on the fish with definitely be another blog post. Just a side note, lately I feel like my inspiration is lagging a bit.  Maybe it's the beautiful weather, it is just too nice to stay inside especially when we haven't a lot of good summer days this year.  It also could be work and coming home too tired to create.  Just because there will no longer be the pressure to do a daily post, my best inspiration will most likely be starting in September.  That how it goes! Have a great weekend!

This weekend is my class reunion.  I am in charge of games and prizes, boy did they pick the right person!  When I told my husband that my blog post today was going to be about the games, he said why.  Well, in response to him, I informed him that not all creativity is always about what you make, you can be creative in many ways.  He still didn't agree but it's my blog not his!  BTW, this picture is of a pillow that I made before graduation that has all of the names of my classmates cross stitched on it and then it was signed by everyone.  It is a great keepsake. What to do for a reunion...bingo was an early thought but making all of the cards seemed like a bit much.  Before the games begin, (LOL) let me tell you that in my graduating class there were 44 people and about 200 total student at the high school.  We pretty much knew everyone so there will also be people from other classes attending.  Everyone always thinks it is weird to have so few people but it was great. O

I think that jewelry and headbands are fun for me to make because at work I wear a uniform and in this is a small way to add personality to it.  This is a wide cloth headband that I covered in orange, pink, yellow and white felt and then added a bead trim in white, yellow and pink.  It's simple, it's fun and a great little project to work on while watching the movie Secretariat.  A very good movie too!  What a wonderfully relaxing easy evening.

This is what ended up being my post today although originally my plan was for something else.  This seems to be happening a lot lately but that is what being creative is all about.  One idea leads to another and you come up with an unexpected result.  It's like art experimentation, one idea can lead to many many more. This is a great frame that I got at the Goodwill for a few dollars.  It didn't even need to be painted or decorated.  

The other day at work I was checking out either Crafts magazine or the Better Homes and Garden Holiday Project issue, I'm not sure which one.  This will be verified by tomorrow so that the proper credit is given.  Anyways, there were a few felt ideas and one was a pine cone type of decoration made of blue and white felt.  This got me thinking and inspired me to come up with my own version.  Fall is fast approaching and since this idea came about I figured why not!  The shape was achieved by stuffing some fiberfill in an a knee high nylon that had a run in it.  The next step was to cut petal shape pieces of felt and sew them to it.  Since felt is a favorite material of mine there were plenty of scraps to use. It turned out well but now I need to figure out how to display it or if there should be a few more.  If there was more they could be tied together with others in varying sizes and possibly in solid colors instead of mixed.  We'll see! Late breaking idea!  This may wor

I decided early in the day that today's post would be cards with a new design.  My stockpile has been getting low lately.  Initially the idea was to do a flip flop drawing but it ended up being fish.  First a simple stencil was drawn out and then each one was given a unique pattern.  They turned out cute!  This is a great design because it can be used for men, women or kids and the butterflies and shoes are more feminine.

It was a lovely sunny day and part of it was spent with my husbands family in their annual golf outing.  There are prizes for best drives, shortest putts and for the best score but it is more is just a fun excuse to get together with everyone.  I'm not good enough to end up with high scores but I did get an awesome sunburn.  So, as I was getting ready this morning and looking in my closest it came to my attention that my summer wardrobe is lacking a bit of style.  It consists of t-shirts, shorts and skirts.  The reason this is an issue is that after golf we all went to a restaurant to eat and I was considering changing into a non sweaty shirt that was slightly dressy.  It didn't happen but because of that this idea came about. Using scrap fabric I cut small strips with my pinking shears and then gathered them into small flowers.  They were then sewn to a t-shirt for a bit more pizazz.  The contrast of the orange tone fabric against the turquoise shirt it great.  Now I have

At work today on my break I was looking through a few magazines for inspiration.  There were a few ideas that I thought would be cool to try.  Well, they didn't work!  So after attempting to make other stuff with paper this is what finally came out of the experiment.  It is a cut out design that is a cross between a lion design and a sun design.  Honestly it is OK to me, not my best effort but in everything there is trial and error.  Sometimes you get a mess and sometimes a success.

In the past I have mentioned living in Minnesota, this means I am a Viking fan.  Laugh, criticize whatever, they are my team good or bad.  The upcoming season could get interesting and the addition of McNabb to the team is a positive thing in my humble opinion.  Win or lose I still cheer and am glad that most parts of my family agree.  This may seem odd but I also am the commissioner of a fantasy football league, don't know if that was mentioned in the past.  Weird huh?  Creative and artsy but a football fan.  So onto this post which is Vikings inspired.  Yesterday was the first part of this set of bag game boards.  Here is part two.  Now I have to call my cousin and let him know they are done.  He is stoked!  That is what he wrote on FB about it.  Hopefully he is not so excited that he comes knocking at my door in the wee hours of the morning. Go Vikes!  It will be a memorable year!

About a week ago my husbands cousin posted pictures of a set of bag boards that he made on his FB page.  He is a die hard Minnesota Vikings fan so one was purple the other was gold.  I commented that I could paint them for him, he was really excited.  This past Monday evening they were dropped off at my home.  There is still one more to paint but the gold one is finished.  Part of the purple one is done.  Can't wait for him to see the finished product.