Hand Carved Characters: Week Three

Germaine pulled on sassy boots and left for a job interview.

Meredith Meredith’s favorite way to relax is sparring at the local mixed martial arts club.

Tiana's interests include sculpting and old computer games.

Isabelle wants to be remembered.

Pascal atones for past mistakes on Thursdays.

Noah loves to draw and sewed his own super suit.

 

Oscar plays his trumpet gleefully. 

Hand Carved Characters: Week Two

I'm keeping up with the #CarveDecember challenge.

It's been wonderful thinking up a new character each day :-)

Lots of weird and wonderful lives in my head.

And I've enjoyed bringing those characters to 'life'...

or at least to rubber.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Warmly,

Nicole

Hand Carved Characters - Week One

Clifford never knew which lead him more, his eyes or his heart.

Archie loves dancing and tea cups.

Beatrice never felt at home.

Fia's wanderlust borders on obsession.

Hand Carved Stamps

Day Three

Clifford never knew which lead him more, his eyes or his heart. 

Day Four

Archie loves dancing and tea cups.

It's #CarveDecember

CarveDecember created by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer  of Balzer Designs is easily my favorite challenge of the year.

This is my third time participating and for an added layer of excitement I decided to do all original characters that I might merge together into an art journal style picture book. 

It's scarily ambitious :-)

Here's my first two:

Jerry

Kenneth' mad scientist turned astronomer searching for a girl with galaxies in her eyes.

Mushroom Gift Toppers

These were such a blast to make. 

And so simple I did them sick in bed.

Add an eyescrew to a half ball.

Paint.

Glue to candle cup.

Varnish tops with sparkle Mod Podge

Thread with bakers twine.

See... easy :-)

Mixed Media Girl on Red

Taking another crack at this style of limited palette paintings :-)

Sad - Mixed Media Girl

Mixed-media in my little art journal :)

Guest Blogging at Paper Artsy

Please come and visit me at Paper Artsy where I'm sharing a tutorial on mark making.

Curiosity Bottle

This is the project I made for the Text Background challenge over on the Stampotique Designer's Blog

Quick Tip: If you want to adhere paper to a curved surface, mist both sides with water to relax the fibers. It makes all the difference.

Stamp Used: Hunk

Never Leave Yourself Behind

SOLD

Galaxy Dress Original Collage

I really wanted to make a galaxy dress so I made some painted papers with my Gelli plate and I think the effect really worked.

What do you think?

SOLD

Make the Whole Beautiful

“She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.”      ― Terri St. Cloud

Stamped Gelli Print Wood House

For number eleven of my Hearts and Houses challenge I was inspired by the current prompt at Paper Artsy: Mono-printing

You know this topic is dear to my heart as I'm a huge Gelli Plate enthusiast.

I only had a little tiny sliver of time so I spent it choosing two complimentary mono prints; I wanted to focal image to have neon in orange or pink and the supporting colors to be in the green/blue/teal range. Since these are some of my favorite colors it took moments to find some prints that fit the requirements.

I stamped both of the large images from Lynne Perrella Collection 034 onto the gelliprints and cut them apart to better fit the shape of the house. Then I attached the paper to a wood base. with Mod Podge. To smooth out any wrinkles and bubbles I ran over the paper with a rubber brayer.

While this is quite simple, the detailed stamp and the colorful monoprints pack a powerful design punch. 

Quilted House Trivet

For some reason I really love making hot pads. 

That's weird, right?

Maybe it's because I bake so much... or maybe it's because they're useful. 

Don't know. Just know that I enjoy making these silly things an awful lot.

So, obviously, I made a house for my Hearts and Houses challenge.

It's pretty cute, right?

And this quatrefoil on the back... swoon!

Three Leaves Art Journal Page

Watercolor, acrylic and Neocolors on in watercolor journal

:-)

Strong Heart Felt and Paper Collage

My theme for the #100DaysChallenge is Hearts and Houses so there will be a lot of hearts and a lot of houses posted here over the next three months.

I'll bundle them as needed so I don't bore you all :-)

QAYG Trivets

 I love monochromatic projects so when I saw an absolutely adorable tutorial for QAYG trivets on S.O.T.A.K Homemade I got right at it.

It was terrifically fun to take a chunk out of my scrap pile and sorting things by color is just as engaging  now as it was in preschool.

Each hot pad is about 10.5 inches square and they are padded with Insul-brite so they are heat proof.

Now that I've made a purple and green one, I can't wait to get going on gray, yellow, orange and blue.

Have you been sewing? What have you made lately.