blog hop stops here!

Treasured Feathers

is one of the many pieces featured in

The Sketchbook Challenge book 

by Sue Bleiweiss

There is a huge blog hop going on to help Sue Celebrate her new book release.  

Each artist in the book is hosting a stop along the hop with tons of giveaway prizes.

See the list of stops at the very bottom of this post, check the dates and be sure to visit each. 

Sue's book is loaded with great sketchbook themes to get your sketchbook fun started, strategies for turning your sketchbook pages into art, photos, tutorials and much more.

Available at

Amazon

ArtPlantae Books

Barnes&Noble

Leave a comment on THIS post and be entered to win 

 from Sue Pelland Designs

 1) A Leaves Galore Grande size template

And

2)A Quilter's Chalk Line tool

 And 

3) the pattern of your choice from Sue's website

Retail value $80.00! 

I will be picking the winner

July 2, 2012 Monday.

From sketchbook page to art quilt.

In the book there is a tutorial on how to make Silk Fusion
or sometimes called Silk paper.
This technique was used to make the bird, flowers and tree come to life.

- - - - - 

Blog hop schedule:

June 26:
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss

June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White

June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison

June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk

July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard

July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent

July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan

July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout

July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt

July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins

- - - - - 

Blog hop Sponsors

Mistyfuse

ArtPlantae Today 

Gelli Arts

Joggles 

Sue Pelland Designs

ProChemical and Dye 

The Thread Studio

Blue Twig Studio

The Artist Cellar 

inside my sketchbook

Over the past year I've added more color to my sketchbook doodles.

 My sketchbook comes with me in the car if we are driving for awhile.

This is an image that was doodled in a book and then I tried it out on cloth. 

It's not finished, but it's fun taking ideas from sketchbooks and putting them onto cloth.

Since using my pillboxes as travel water color kits, it's made adding color to sketches much easier.

There is no mess and the supplies fit well into a little bag.

 I've realized my fat sketchbook is almost full of pictures, 

but only on the right side of the pages.

When the right side pages are all filled

 maybe I'll flip the book over and do the opposite pages.

 Working over on the left side is not my favorite.  

I remember as a kid I'd use my left hand to do the left side pages,

 I could try that again. . .  

We'll see, I'm in no rush.

Speaking of sketchbooks -

Help Sue Bleiweiss celebrate her new book

The Sketchbook Challenge.

There is a huge blog hop starting today with loads of great giveaways.  

Check the schedule below for the stops on the hop.

Come back here on Thursday the 28th and take a chance at winning a prize.

Blog hop schedule:

June 26:
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss

June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White

June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison

June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk

July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard

July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent

July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan

July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout

July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt

July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins


Available at
Amazon
ArtPlantae Books
Barnes&Noble

summer color and fun

Last month or so a few of us got together at Sue's and painted some canvas cloth.

We had no real plan or purpose for the fabric, it was just fun to do.

It matched my spray painted patio furniture, 

so I cut mine up and made pillows.

 He walked into the frame when I went to snap a picture of the pillow.  

Couldn't resist a sniff of the flowers I guess,

 or maybe he wanted to just borrow my book.

People always ask

"Does he swim?"

yup

 and then he shakes

painted applique

 Vintage quilt squares were stitched together and quilted.  A light layer of Gesso mixed with textile medium was painted over the top. 

Then Pro Chem textile paints were used to paint the background.  

Using Sue Pelland's Leaves Galore rulers, freezer paper templates were drawn out in various shapes and sizes.  A number of shapes can be created by sliding and moving the ruler.  I used a pencil with the ruler to experiment with the shapes, then cut them out with scissors.  

I traced around the template with a fabric marker to create the flowers and painted with textile paints.

Below you can see the vintage blocks before painted.  

You may remember these blocks, they've been used as backgrounds in previous quilts.  

The integrity of the fabrics is poor so it wasn't going to ever be worth my efforts to put together a quilt. 

Many still remain and I will keep using them in art quilts.

It's been fun giving them a new life.

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog hop to celebrate the release of 

The Sketchbook Challenge Book 

by Sue Bleiweiss

There will be over $1100 worth of prizes given away during the hop.

I'll be giving away one of Sue Pelland's rulers, a chalk line tool for marking and one of her patterns.

  

Stay tuned for a list of all other stops along the hop and the fantastic prizes.

 Book available at

Amazon  

Barnes&Noble 

ArtPlantae

making your art - work for you

It's no secret that we live in a time when we are attached to our smart phones. 

Using an ifrogz interchangeable case, 

you can insert your own artwork into the cover and smarten' up your phone's look.

My ifrogz came with two cool leather covers but, for summer my phone needed a brighter look.

 I took some doodles from my sketchbook,

resized and glued them together with a few layers of card-stock.

Once laminated the new insert makes a hard cover that protects the back.

The one below is painted fabric fused to layers of stiff stabilizer then stitched.