Surf's UP!

Hello Peoples!! Are you ready for another week ahead?!  Today is going to be a real quick post as we are in the full swing of school now (and I have to work this am!!).  Thought I'd share a couple of projects that I worked on last week for the Home and School.

This year, the Home and School has decided to have a "Luau" or tropical theme for all the events and activities that are sponsored by the H&S.  I was asked to make the birthday cards for all the teachers and staff members of our little school that would be from the H&S members.  This is what I came up with:

This is a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card base of Gina K's pure luxury card stock. I used a scrap piece of paper to make a mask for my water line and sponged SU's Baja Breeze and Pacific Point for the water.  I then flipped the mask and randomly sponged some distress ink in Tumbled Glass for the sky, deliberately leaving some white areas as my "clouds".   I hand drew the surfboard template and traced it onto more pure luxury card stock and colored with copics.  I then stamped the red boards with element from SU's Delight in Life (retired) and Extreme elements using craft white ink.  The white board was stamped with the swirl from Delight in Life.  I then stamped the initials of the school using Papertrey's Trajan Monogram Edition.  I then used a THICK layer of glossy accents on each board to give it that waxed shine (this would be why the picture is slightly out of focus.  I could NOT for the life of me, get a decent picture that didn't have a glare on it!!).

The sand is pieces of torn Creamy Caramel (why did SU get rid of all their brown?!!) that had some direct to paper swipes with my Creamy Caramel ink pad.  I then used SU's Itty Bitty Backgrounds with Chocolate Chip ink to add the grains.  The surfboards were cut out and adhered in between the sand layers, leaving the tops of the boards slightly curved.  Squiggled the "sea gulls" and called 'er done!!

The next project is another paper project, just on a larger scale.  There is a 4'x6' bulletin board across from the school office that has been used as the teacher's "wish tree" in the past. It was sorely needing an update and this is what I came up with using only the paper rolls that the teacher's use to cover their bulletin boards:

Everything was hand drawn and cut out.  I used various inks (sorry, just grabbed a bunch and have NO idea which ones were actually used!) to add the shading to the water, sand, tree and leaves.  I still need to make the "coconuts" that the teachers will write their wishes on.  One thing that was difficult with this, is that I had to be careful not to get over three layers of paper per the fire department codes.  Shhhhh, I may have 4 in the sand area....but only in one spot!!

I'm off!!  Thanks for dropping by again today!!  I'll be back in a day or so with the cards that I'm designing for the new families "Welcome to our School"!!  Till then......make some time for creativity in your day!!

Happy Trails....

Hey Peoples!!  Believe it or not, I've been creating for HOURS over the last couple of days. AND today I finally came to the end of the trail!!

Every year our little private school has Grandparent's Day the last day of school just prior to spring break. Grandparents or Special "grandparents" are invited to come to the "Pit" and enjoy presentations from
K-6th graders, an art display of work from all the students and a light lunch.  They are then welcome  to go to their grandchildren's classrooms and see the work they do there.  The Home and School committee usually picks a theme and all festivities are planned accordingly.  This year the theme is Happy Trails.  Somehow I got held at gunpoint (ok, ok....I made a deal with the President of H&S.  If she accepted
 the presidency (which I declined faster than a branding iron), I'd help with the planning and decorating for Grandparent's Day.  In all honesty, I got off with the better deal).

Sooooo, the travels begin in the Pit area (this is the central meeting area for the school) which is approximately 9 x 30 ft.  First you start with some bright orange paper

 Then you add some bright red paint and some spotches of purple paint

Then add a few pieces of black paper over the top for a silhouette

And you got yourself a cowboy at the end of the trail.  (I believe you can click on any of the pictures for a larger view)

As simple as this looks like it should have been to do, it took me 6-7 hours of working time (that does not include set up for the painting or cleaning up).  Lucky for me, the second grade teacher is very artistic and helped me get the projector positioned correctly to kinda trace the cowboy onto the paper.  She then helped me make the horse look like a horse vs a cow (it would seem that after I drew out the original cowboy on his horse and took him down to trace around without all the lines, I CUT the wrong scribbles and made my horse shorter, squatty and basically a cow. By that time I was tired, sore from all up/down off the scaffold and HUNGRY.  I could not for the LIFE OF ME get things to line up correctly with all the separate sheets of paper.  So a HUGE thank you to Mrs. S!!!! She rode in and saved the day!!)

The high school has asked that this be left up as the junior class would like to use it for a special announcement.  I believe it might be for the upcoming junior/senior banquet, which I heard rumors that it will be a western theme. I don't know for sure.  So, the work will be appreciated by more than one group.  Which is nice when you spend hours creating something that will eventually end up in the trash can (the harsh reality of doing this type of art work!! LOL!)

Papercrafting on a LARGE scale, hehe.  And "pawdner's, I'm done.  Stick a fork in me and turn me over"

'Till next time!

Going to the Circus

What does this mess have to do with paper crafting?

Our school's fall fair is this coming weekend. The last couple of years the "planning" committee has picked a theme. This years theme: Under the Big Top (or something like that...too tired to go look! ) Each class has a booth or activity that they use to raise $$ for their classroom. Now in all honesty, I feel that this is a HUGE hassle and it usually doesn't make much $$ (more likely, COSTS $$) but supposedly it is fun (can you tell that I'm just worn out?!!). The booths are about 38 inches high (for the table top....doesn't count the "frame" and 8 ft long. Somehow, I managed to open my mouth and say that I would help decorate the 3rd grade booth (we will be gone for the fair....how do I get myself in these messes?!! ANYWOOOS!!! This small portion of mess was used to create this:

This was terribly hard to get a decent photograph of. These guys are on a cardboard panel (that's paper, right?! hehe) that is 8 feet long and 46 inches high. They are to be the front of the booth that will have a circus theme valance and "tent" drapes off each side (like they are coming out of the backstage for the show). I had to draw and paint this with the cardboard leaning against the storage cupboards in our garage. I probably....no...I SPENT waaaaay too much time on this as it will just be thrown away. But somehow, I have forgotten how to just throw on color vs adding all this shading and details (like....the wasted "metallic paint for the motorcycle, that IRL barley shows shine!! grrrrr!!! or the added pom-poms to the hat or the Pretties Kit flower on the blue top hat!) I still need to cut out the green hat and attach it with a paint stick and lots of tape!! I'm hoping that one of the mom's will take a picture of the completed booth so that I can share the "CLOSING" act at a later date. But it is FINALLY done. That is all I care about at this point!!

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On a personal note: We leave tomorrow afternoon for our bike trip down the coast of California. Now, I am really not in shape for this but was looking forward to it. Until yesterday. It would seem that in my over scheduling of myself this past week that I have worn out my poor ol' body to the point of waking up with the start of a lovely cold. I don't know how that is going to affect me on riding on average 60 miles a day for the next 5 days. Luckily, I can always drive the sag vehicle....but that doesn't sound like much fun either. Oh well!! Such is my life!!

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On another note: Can someone tell me how to do a prepost in blogger? I have some more projects to share (I told you I had over scheduled myself!!) and could spread them out over the week we are gone. Or, I can just post one again tomorrow and the rest will just have to wait until I get back (sadly, you all are used to the lack of posts!!)

I'm off to cut off the head of the clown!! BWHWHAAAA (personally, I find clowns kinda creepy!) Thanks for dropping by and I'll be back!!

Thanks for dropping by today!

Journey to Jerusalem

This weekend our church put on a "Broadway-style" musical titled "Alone at the Alter". The musical starts with Abraham and Issac at the alter that Abraham was suppose to sacrafice his son on. It then moves to the highlights of Jesus' last days.

I was asked to direct the painting of the backdrop. The set was built last Sunday afternoon. We began the painting on Monday. It was completed on Wednesday. There is NO WAY that I could have completed this project on my own. There were many volunteers who were willing to listen to my "suggestions" (or bossing as it probably was!) as to how to paint the details. So I will take the responsibility of the mistakes too!! (and I will point the BIG one that I made that DH noticed right away in the first draft of pics that did NOT get fixed due to lack of time). When looking at these picture, keep in mind that I have a cheapo-point and shoot digital camera. And that I am the worst at editing my photos in my whateverprogram that I have. BUT!! I wanted to give you an idea of the set.

This is a 3D creation. It is actually framed and covered with huge sheets of cardboard. Here is the overall view (I think you can click on the picture to enlarge...no guarentees!)

And some close up shots starting with the right side of the scene and then moving to the middle and left side.
Some little details that are hard to see in the photos: the "beams" sticking out of the two houses are actual small beams.
The doors have 3D handles and hinges that do not really show up from a distance (but look great up close! hehe)

And here is my BIG mistake. Now in all honesty, most people would not notice this. But there will be a few who do. Notice the shading on the window on the "rocked" house? IT'S ON THE STINKIN' WRONG SIDE!! No one to blame but yours truely for that one!! I was doing the shadowing on the right side of the stage and even mentioned to everyone that we needed to change the shading to the other side once we got past the center house. GUESS WHO DID IT WRONG?!!! Ahhhh, geesh!! I literally had nightmares about this stupid window!! But to change it would have been more of a nightmare. We had run out of the "base" color paint to put over my mistake and that left the option of me having to put some Kilz (primer) over the window to cover the dark shadowing. No big deal, except that would have meant another trip to Home Depot or the paint store and we were running out of time. So, here is our story: The person who lives in this house put their large oil lamp on that side causing the shadows to be on the "wrong" side!! BWHAHHAAAThe stones over the archway have shading too, but again, my photography skills are sorely lacking!!

Most of my "mural" paintings have been for household rooms or smaller public areas. I learned that it is REALLY hard to get little details to show up from the back of a church!! But, we are hoping to use this set again for VBS or other smaller venues and then the small details can be appreciated more (of course, I just might have to fix that window before it gets used again!!)

I want to acknowledge all of those who helped in this painting endeavor. As I said prior, there is absolutely no way I could have gotten this job done by myself. Jen and Tres Hoffer (set designers), Jennifer Gorton, Stephanie Church, Laural Haglund, Caroline Kim, Rhonda and Rob Wilson and

Collette Carr~~if I missed anyone, please know that your efforts are not forgotten, just my brain is mush!!

Seven Foot Stork Invasion

Remember the baby shower that won't go away? Well here is another little project that I did for it.

All of this was done using the large rolls of paper that every school has to cover bulletin boards. I was asked to decorate the "Pit" area of the school for the shower. To give you an idea of the size of this~the Pit is approximately 9 ft x 30 something ft. Now, it would seem that since this was a fairly simple decorating idea that it wouldn't have taken so long to do. But, of course, things never go as planned!! Originally, I thought that I would take an hour or so and put up the blue background while my oldest son was in his Lego Mindstorm class (something to do with building a robot that will perform certain "missions" during a competition). Ended up pulling staples out of the wall for probably an hour first. Grabbed a couple of 5th graders to help me by holding up the paper while I add more staples to the wall. Bless their hearts, they did try...but 5th graders cannot hold still. At ALL. Sooooo, after removing staples again and re-applying the bottom layer, I found a mom to help me (amazingly, we got the next two sheets up in about the same amount of time that it took for the first sheet! Kids~~ya gotta luv 'em!!). The clouds took another hour and half to "draw" (hahaha) and put up. They are kinda outlined. Kinda.

Drawing the storks was another matter. My wonderful husband has been gracious enough to dedicate one wall in the garage for such artistic endeavors. Seriously, that is a HUGE sacrifice for him, as the "office" (which all my stamping/craft stuff has seemed to somehow made its home) was to be "his" space. Now, all he has is his garage for all his "manly man" stuff. So, for him to give me a wall to practice faux painting techniques or to draw 7 ft storks is a biggie!! Anyway, back to the subject of drawing the storks. I am not one of those type of "artists" that can just draw "out of her head" (and I'm sure it has NOTHING to do with the fact that I don't practice!!). I find several pictures and take bits and pieces and adapt them to make up my own drawings. Fine. Except that the stork that is "taking off" didn't fit in my space (he was horizontal to begin with) so I had to adjust and draw him vertically. Which is kinda scary since I can't really tell if my lines are going to look right once he is positioned how he is really suppose to be (which, as it turned out, was no big deal since he got stapled in a more vertical position).

Painting the storks was done with my vast collection of acrylic tubes of paint (did I mention that SOMEONE forgot to check her supply from the last LARGE painting project? Yeah....let's just say it is a good thing that I don't have a problem mixing multiple shades to get my colors!!) Here's a couple of "close ups" that let you see the details a little better

There is subtle shading done with my copic marker on the storks defining the feather areas and where there would be shading normally, but my cheapie digi camera didn't pick up that important detail!!

Overall, I was very pleased with how this turned out. One of the other teacher's has asked if she can try and take the storks down to be used at her daughter and daughter-in-laws baby showers. Which is just fine with me. I'd like these things to get more use before they are thrown in the trash.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll share more projects for this shower tomorrow! (I still get giddy about how those turned out!! Geesh~~ I REALLY hope that I didn't use all my allotted creativity for the month on these!!)

Starla

P.S.....the baby bottles were a hit too. This same teacher mentioned above took the one's that no one took to be used at her showers. Which is nice. I really don't need them and kinda had a sick feeling in my stomach about them just getting tossed!!