Adventures in Drawing with Stewart
The day has finally come! My oldest son Stewart finally wanted me to help teach him some drawing techniques. He said he specifically wanted to learn about pencil shading. I excitedly pulled out something simple...a plastic bowl and rambled on about perspective, angels, shadow direction. Pulling out all my drawing pencils and describing about H and B. After being very patient with me, apparently that's not what he wanted LOL. He wanted some help with making his current characters that he draws better.
I had to throw my hands up and say I couldn't really help with that. That his drawings and art are all his own. The only way to make them better in his eyes is to keep practicing and what his characters evolve into something he wants. He then said he would really like to learn how to draw a face. So, we decided to sketch out a face together. I showed him how to draw lines through the middle of the face to show where the eyes, nose, mouth go. His face was quite lovely! Not too bad for a 10 year old!
Eventually, Stewart being Stewart evolved his lovely face into something quite different lol.
Meet Ms. MustacheDoubleChinHairyLegTalonToeHorn
While trying to show him a quick rendering of a face, mine slowly evolved into Dave. My mono toned, bland friend here :).
Stewart and I had a great laugh imagining what Dave would say in a mono toned voice lol. We also had a great time trying to come up with a name for Ms. MustacheDoubleChinHairyLegTalonToeHorn.
I'm so glad Stewart is finally wanting to draw more. He's a great writer, so the two working together should make for some interesting tales!
A Gift of Relaxation
As some of you know I have been busy getting my craft on! I am trying to save a bit of money and come up with some Christmas gifts that people actually want and will use. One of my gifts I am making for the women of the family is the Gift of Relaxation. What do women do to relax? Well, if you are anything like me, you take a very, very long bath away from kids, noise and anything else that makes you want to rip out your hair sometimes ha ha.
This idea, I'm sure has been done before. But, I think my family will like it anyway. I'm taking vintage looking bottles and turning them into containers for bath salts.
It's so easy to make and really inexpensive. I bought a wide-variety of vintage looking bottles from Hobby Lobby. I'm sure you can grab some at most craft stores. They were having a 50% off sale on their glass ware, so I got these bottles at around $4.00 each. Cheap right?
The label you see on there is actually mine. I was in Paris in September and was going through a flea market and stumbled into this stand that has some amazing French vintage labels, ribbons, lace...basically things that make you drool and want it all! Alas digital scrapbook designing doesn't make you rich ha ha. So, I had to settle for a few packs of labels. Of course, not everyone can just pack it up to Paris for some vintage labels! But, The Graphics Fairy has tons to choose from and print out for free! She's so generous!
I adhered the label with some Mod Podge and sprayed it with some spray adhesive just to protect the label from accidental splashes. Now, the hard part was finding bath salts that weren't $20 a bottle. I just happened to be at Target and I found some Espom salt. They have some wonderful new scents for $4.00/bag. The bag is large enough for 4 bottles. I also found at Target these little pumice bars with rope for $2.00 each. I wasn't going to add that, but when I saw, then I thought "how perfect"! I just wrapped the rope around the bottle for easy access. Added a little ribbon around the top for some added loveliness and finished!
This kind of gift you can find for $20 or more and only cost me $7.00 to make. I do hope they love their Gift of Relaxation...it smells so good and each one is unique.
A Monster for my Little Monster
I know this isn't about digital scrapbooking, sorry about that :). I have recently taken up crafting as well. This is going to be another project/business in the making. So, this is my first test run on a current craft project I have recently completed.
What got me on the craft side of business suddenly? My youngest son had been having some nightmares. So many so that he was having a hard time going to sleep and getting into bed. I wanted a way to help him sleep at nights. I pulled out some felt I had, since I didn't have a sewing machine nor fabric at the time, and handmade him a little monster with some buttons and a little embroidery. He was kind of pathetic if you ask me. An awfully skinny monsters, although not sure if monsters are fat or skinny.
I made him as cute as I could. I gave him to my little Anderson and told him that this monster was a sleep monster. His only purpose is to keep the bad dreams away when he's asleep. Anderson hugged him and immediately took a liking to him. Let me tell you. He sleeps with that thing every night and has not had a nightmare since. But, he makes sure he always has that monster with him at night and at nap time. He even took it to Show and Tell at school lol. I was so relieved I could help my little guy. But at the same time, it's made of felt and it's not holding up too well to the wear and tear of little boys sleeping.
Again, I was at the hobby store and I came across this book called Sewn Toy Tales by Melly & Me. They had the most adorable little hand sewn plushy animals and they aren't that hard to make either. I ended up purchasing a sewing machine and I seriously need to just stop buying fabric. I can't. I'm am in full-throttle addiction for fabric! So, to make a long story longer, they have instructions for making a monster and an alien. I wanted to recreate this sleep monster for Anderson. Something more durable and even cuter. I recreated the alien they had in the book because Anderson LOVES aliens. But, alas, he is still too taken in by his little worn and torn monster lol.
I thought he turned out kind of cute! Arms are a little crooked though ha ha. Practice makes perfect! But, this gave me a string of ideas! I am now going to create my own series of monsters with my own designs and help other children who have nightmares.
Promise, my next post won't be nearly as long, but maybe a few more pictures...
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