Shrooms and other art escapades

I hope all who happen to drop by for a visit had a lovely and peaceful (!) Christmas. And just in case I am not writing another entry before the new year, Happy New Year!!

Now that the formalities are done, I am proud to announce that I have done some more rolos, and not only that, but I felt like drawing Shrooms again and so I made a few for an Afa trade. I used markers on them instead of my trusted Inktense pencils, the colours are just so much more vibrant, the Inktense pencils work much better for more realistic drawings. And they need a different type of paper altogether, as you would be needing water as solvent.

I digress, here are the Rolos I made

I did not stop there, however. I am on a shroom spree, this one was inspired by Pinterest...

New Horizons

I have been so busy lately, that most of the time I am glad to be able to remember my name. December is not an easy month for me at all. There are several birthdays to think of and Christmas. I have all the presents going abroad sent off yesterday (I hope in time) and most of the gifts for my kids and husband got. But even though one could say I got it covered this still is an extremely tense time for me. I can not even put a finger on it. Every year around this time my hole body just tenses up, resulting in constant neck and shoulder pains and headaches. 

I am so glad I have my arting outlet. Just because I am posting very little lately, here or on my favourite webpage Atcsforall.com, doesn't mean there is no arting going on. There is SO MUCH arting going on. Especially now that I have "discovered" a third dimension! And a new medium to explore this awesome dimension: FELTING! (It's all your fault, Vikinglady)

Sometime I lie awake at night with my mind racing for new ways I could handle the wool or maybe use a needle felting technique, or... or... or...

So I thought I might post some flowers I made. I could not start on something easy, oh no, it has to be a flower, with a stem attached. I started taking pictures of the process and then got so engulfed in it I forgot to take more, I hope you like it anyway. And remember, this is only a fraction of what artsy stuff I have been doing...

This is the first flower I made, the wool fibres are already starting to felt together and I am about to attach the stamen...

Yes, it is dark green! So will the stem be, though...

Now I did not take more process pics (sorry about that) but instead here is my first finished flower...

And some more...

DIY Rolo Holder II

I have mentined on my favourite page ATCsforall.com that I have started a little Rolo collection, but that I am still lacking a proper holder for them. But what I have however is a seemingly endless supply of art and craft goodies. Among other, countless items I had in my stash a handfull f the wider lollipop sticks, in plain without any added colour. And I saw a great video on (guess where) Youtube 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=blZhZo_ogys

Where a lady makes a sort of treasure chest with lollipop sticks. My mind started working and then....

I went outside into the shed and located my hot glue gun.

In the first picture you can already see the lollipop sticks in the corner, and I used gesso and some natural yarn I don't know the proper name of right now (how awkward is that).

In the video the lady secured her sticks with tape before she did the gluing and it makes absolutely perfect sense.

Here we can see the bottom and the lid nearly done, all thats missing are the fronts and backs.

And this is it. I used the same yarn stuff for the decorative handle for easy opening and closing. I used up all of my sticks, but if I find some more tucked away somewhere I will use them to glue a sort of guide rail inside so the lid will not sit on sideways. And if I get my hands on some pieces of chain I also will attach those into the lid to stop it from opening all the way and then falling backwards. Ah well, it all is a learning curve. Once I am a little less busy with the month of December I will make some dictionary page butterflies and attach them to my Rolo box. That might be in line with the sort of natural look it has now.