The Crow's Collection

Hooray!  I'm sewing again!

This wall quilt got put away last year with so little left to do on it.  But that just made it an easy finish for this year. 

 

 

I don't remember the designer of this pattern, but since it was free, I can't complain about it.  But I will anyway .... because I've seen this pattern stitched together so many times just the way it is published.  The mid-section doesn't line up.  I don't know if it's supposed to be that way or not, but it looked too strange to me.  I thought people were simply not-so-good at joining paper pieced sections...until mine turned out looking just like theirs!  UGH!  Of course I couldn't live with it.  I had to make an adjustment to line up the wings (or at least center the sections).

(After posting, I find that it isn't clear what the exact problem was.  The wings not being the same size is not the problem area and is a wonderful design decisions in my opinion.

 It was joining the body pieces in the center where the top half of the crow did not line up with the bottom half.  He was disjointed so-to-speak.  I corrected that mishap on mine.)

It was fun and challenging to find enough one inch fussy cut colorful pieces to surround this guy with as his Halloween collection.  I wanted to do a third row but it was struggle enough just to fill two rows.

I'm just a sucker for fall colors and Halloween prints!

xxx
Annie


Altered Dictionary - O

Letter O

is our assignment this fortnight.

 

I found the word

Osculate

which means kiss.

 

 

I printed the most famous osculate and some words onto tracing paper, cut them out and glued them to my page.....as the ostrich looks on.

 

I must say now, that this is a word I could have done without coming across.  If you think of a few sentences and replace the word kiss with the word osculate, I think you'll find it sounds horribly gross and disgusting.  No wonder we use the definition word in our everyday speaking!

 

Don't forget to osculate your loved ones goodnight.

see what I mean?  Eeeww!

haha hahaha ha

 

xxx

Annie



Altered Dictionary - D

I'm barely getting my letter D word done before the next letter is announced, but here it is...

Doctor

including a bit of silliness.

 

 

The image is cut from a Steampunk magazine.  (I found only two Steampunk magazines earlier in the year but have not been able to find any more after that)  I couldn't resist adding this image to my altered dictionary.  A rather bit of poor image placement with that darn dodo bird.  I'll have to keep watch for an inspirational fix.

 

Until the next letter...

 

xxx

Annie

 



Sissy Envelope Art

Sissy

the world traveler

 

.....more envelope art.....

 

Renee has never received her original Sissy envelope, so I wanted to give her mail route another chance.  Hooray, this Sissy arrived in a whole weeks time!

 

9" X 12" envelope

 

I'm thinking Renee's mail thief only wanted one Sissy envelope for his/her collection of stolen mail.  While making this envelope I kept thinking of the phrase "Your number's up".  A bit of a play on the phrase in more than one way.

 

I seem to like creating two Sissys at a time.

 

  Carol loved her Sissy Letter so there absolutely needed to be another. 

 

9" X 12" envelope

 

I try to be a little more whimsical in the design when it comes to Carol.  And it's pretty fun writing these make believe letters.  And I really love creating these Sissy envelopes!

 

A good mail day to you all,

Annie

 

 

 



Art Calendar Journal - August

May August be a month full of pleasant moments!

 

 

The flower petals and leaves are made from those little savings cards sent out by Kohl's Department Store.

 

 

A little more detail.

 

I'm really happy that some extra effort with journaling changed July from ho hum to fun to look at. 

 

 

Now I'm off to do what I can to fill my August days with bits of pleasant moments. 

 

I hope your days are full of pleasant moments as well.

xxx

Annie



Altered Dictionary - T

The Alpha Challenge letter this fortnight is

T

 

My word is telephone

 

 

 

I was going to enlarge a rubber stamp of a telephone, but I started looking at Internet images and suddenly was remembering the wall phone that GrandMaMa had.  We kids thought that was the most fun telephone to talk on.  For many years we had to stand on a little step stool to reach the mouth piece.  And after you dialed a number, I loved the clicking sound the dial made on it's way back to the beginning.

 

So, the page is simple but the memory is big.

xxx

Annie

Altered Dictionary - Y

The letter is Y

And the twist is to use the color yellow.

 

Now, the twists always scare me because my altering style is not like most others where the entire page(s) get painted, and I worry that I won't want them taking place in my dictionary.  So I look for ways to work around them.  So far it's all working out smoothly.

 

I chose the word yardstick (because of the need for yellow).  This one was a creamy color so I took out a color pencil and gave it a yellow tint.  (Looking a bit more orange than yellow)  So I was sure to highlight the word in a lighter yellow.

 

I've been altering a few other words along the way.....

I went to the beginning of the book to choose a word.

Abbreviate.  I stamped a list of abbreviated words.

 

 

I then turned the page and chose the word abode.  I have seen so many cute houses being created and thought this a good time to try one myself.  I DO NOT draw, so I surprised myself with this little 'abode'!

 

 



I then went again to the very next page and chose the word abreast.

 

 

At a time when I was playing with face stamps, I went in search of a word to use this "features" stamp.

 

 

Then there came forefinger.

 

And then I found this awesome bicycle rider on The Graphics Fairy blog and it just HAD to be in my dictionary.  Bicycle already had an illustration and the word rider didn't have a good space for the image, so I went to wheel.  Which also already had an illustration, but what I did not know and learned there was that a bicycle was often called a wheel. 

 





 

And that's how my dictionary alters.

xxx

Annie

 



Sissy Art...

...is not art created by sissies.  It's art created with Sissy...a large rubber stamp.  And I'm loving the challenge of working  with her!

 

I've mentioned previously that I first saw the use of this stamp on Renee's blog, Bolton House .  Renee also helped me to find my own Sissy stamp.  Once she arrived, we decided to trade Sissy Art.  Specifically envelopes.  Totally intimidating for me!  But quite an enjoyable challenge too.  This is the 10" X 13" envelope I created for Renee.

 

 

But sadly, Renee has not received her envelope.  Sissy was either kidnapped or just plain lost her way.  I tried so hard to make a swap-worthy envelope, so I hope it is somewhere being enjoyed.

I couldn't wait to start again on another envelope.  Before sending off Renee's envelope, I photocopied it for something to stuff into an envelope to Carol.  I wrote my note to Carol right on the photocopy around the design.  This triggered an idea for another Sissy envelope.  So this 9"X12" Sissy envelope went to Carol. 

 

 

I'll never know if anyone between myself in California and Carol in Wisconsin read the letter, but most humans have an irresistible nosey curious nature about them, so I hope it was enjoyed across the land. 

It was awfully fun creating both those envelopes.  I feel a need to make more!

XXX
Annie

July Journaling

I am happy to report that a bit of extra effort in creative journaling is giving this lack-luster layout design some life. 

 

It even makes my uneventful life almost "look" fun.  LOL

 

Happy July days to all!

Annie

Art Calendar Journal - July

July

has arrived here with a sweltering bang of heat!  Two more days of 100+ temps before we get some relief.  The worse part is the rare added humidity.  I don't like to wish my life away, but I DO wish the next two days go by quickly!

 



I said I was done with traditional themes for these calendars, but I already bought the stars paper and just wanted to use it and be done with it.  A while back Carol drew some birds for me to make postcards with (which I still have not done yet).  I decided to give one a try for my July calendar in hopes of adding some whimsy to the spread.  July doesn't turn out to be one of my favorite month creations, but I'm not totally disappointed, so I will journal it and move on.



On the other hand, I quite enjoyed working on June.  June had an over abundance of high temps.  Some I didn't even note, but wish I had now.  We don't usually get so many 100+ days.  Obviously I thought the 8th was going to be one of those really unusual hot days.  Oh, little did I know...!

 

Wishing everyone a safe, sparkly and happy 4th of July!

 

Annie