My Library Peeps

 The Friends of the Key Center Library sponsored another #CraftWithAnna class on Monday and it was SO much fun! The theme was Faux Batiking, and the idea I had was that we would use bleach on fabric with wooden block stamps to create some unique impressions.

The images were decidedly not distinct, except in their originality! There was hardly any way to predict what would happen. Depending on the fabric, the amount of bleach and water ratio'd, the quality of the stamp and or the image of it, they all created something! I made sure to caution each participant that the most important thing to remember was that the goal was to experiment, and have fun, not to expect perfection, and to enjoy the process.

Judging by the feedback, I'd say those goals were achieved!

 

Date Night at the Lakebay Marina

Recently I had a post on here featuring a scrapbook page with photos of me dancing last summer with my daughters at our local Lakebay Marina. The Marina is full of character and characters, and last night I called in grammaD for babysitting duty and headed over there with hubby in tow.
It was a beautiful night outside and many of the patrons inside were lined up at the windows overlooking the inlet to capture with cell phone cameras the setting sun reflecting gorgeous oranges and peaches onto the fluffy clouds above.
After introducing ourselves to a gal I see at Rainier's art class often, we went searching for the wine and beer. Trillium Winery out of Home was out front serving some of their grape juice and the owner was kind enough to sample me with a Chardonnay. We ended up sharing a bottle of Silverdales Silver City Porter as we visited with our neighbors and met another couple there with their adorable baby Kariss. Isn't that a beautiful name? It means Love in Welsh!
One of the highlights of the evening was meeting Dayna, who was there premiering her latest film, Cold Light Day. It's a lovely movie featuring her choreography; two young men frolic down the pier on an average February morning. I thought the film's title was a perfect reflection of the way Washington weather plays with you- it can be a really nice day even though we don't actually see the sun, it shines brightly through our cloud cover regardless.
A perfect date night away and when we got home the kids were both sleeping soundly. Can't ask for much more than that!

Prepping for CK: Artist Trading Cards

One of my favorite memories from the first year I went to CK, is that of an elderly artist handing out Artist Trading Cards to the vendors at the Make and Take tables. The fact that it was a MAN and that he was there for himself, not his wife or other female companion just made it stick in mind that much more! Every year at the Creating Keepsakes Convention since has found me wishing I had some of those cards to pass out to the wonderfully creative people I encounter.
Well this year, I will!

It was so much fun making this batch of cards, Rainier and I are going to whip up another group some time today. First, we dripped watercolor on shiny paper. Its got an interesting effect with paint, if I knew what type of paper it is I'd tell! But alas I do not. The cool thing is that it lets the paint dry without it soaking in, so the paint remains really vivid. On some parts of the papers we did some ombre style painting, other areas we just went hog wild with drips and splatters. We recently watched a video by Wilma F. at Two Peas and could see that influence lol. After the paint dried, I got out my special Artist Trading Card Stamp and used that on some cards for my information. Other cards just got the same details freehanded in. Then we dripped on more color in the form of spray ink. Stamps by Ali Edwards that read Live In the Moment, Life, and Love were dispersed.

I wish I'd had these cards with me yesterday at the Library to share with all the storytime moms!

One of these days I'll have to do a tutorial about how to make this teabag gift holder. Turns out, it works great for holding this set of cards. Even if it is Halloween themed!

On a side note- did you happen to see how messy my desk is in the background shot from above?! I usually try to get it cleaned off in between projects, but I feel like I'm in creative limbo this week, storing up my mojo for this weekends outpouring :-)

Making some updated versions of this nifty holder might be a good side project for this afternoon... People often ask me, how do I find time to do all the art projects my heart desires? well, I'm pretty sure exposure to papercrafting from birth for both my girls is the key to my success, as well as the support and, time, and space to craft I get from their dad. Having the girls near me can be frustrating at times, like when they grab papers or fingerprint on stuff or peel off all the stickers from a brand new sheet to decorate the floor... but it's all worth it when I think about the fact that while sometimes a project doesn't turn out "perfect" it is perfectly full of the love of art we all share :-)

 I love the way my ATCs turned out,  and it will be so much fun making new friends and passing these little labors of love out. Maybe some will even end up in someones's Project Life or SmashBook Albums!

Bonanza!

At the Library today we really hit the jackpot!
First we were gifted these beautiful -handmade- headbands from our friend Christina. I've always wanted to adorn my girls with larger than life headwear, and she saw my envious glances at other children's hair-dos and even made them neutral colored to go with every outfit we own. They are so cute and also actually worked to keep Rainier's growing out bangs out of her eyes.


The next surprise came from Andrea, whose daughter Penelope is just about the happiest baby on the block. She looks around at us all with joyous wonder in her eyes and a big toothy grin on her face. I love all her very girly outfits and joked that I called dibs on her hand me downs... well I should joke like that with more cute kids' parents, because she brought us a big bag of beautiful, cotton clothes today! At first I thought that since they are like, 12-18 months clothes that Sunday would need to wait  a bit to fit, but apparently she wears a 12 months jeans now. And then I realized, well, this dress really is a shirt now... lol don't know why it's so hard to cycle through the outgrown clothes but I think it's because they have the associated memories of our growing kids within their fibers.

Came home to find a huge garbage sack full of 3T clothes for Rainie! Apparently her dad found them "out back" somewhere. So overhaul of kids drawers will be my project tomorrow. Not very crafty, but certainly delightful!