My Favourite Arty Tools

Since I still can't really show anything off at the mo I thought that it may be interesting to share some of my favourite, most useful, artsy/crafty tools.


I suppose the most useful thing of all is my fingers/hand. I know it's rather obvious but I just use my hands so much.

While my right hand may do most of the painting my left hand acts as my trusty pallet. You can always tell when I've been painting because my left hand and arm are covered in paint. I never did like using a proper pallet. For some reason I find that I can leave just the right amount of paint on my brush when I use my arm, my paint is the perfect consistency, and my pallet is never out of reach.

My fingers smudge glue into place. I am so damned impatient when it comes to glue. It kills me to wait for the stuff to dry and there have been many times when I have looked up to find that something has slid out of place because of my impatience. I have found that if I put a tiny dab where I need it and then use my finger to make a smooth thin layer, things are dry in no time at all!

My fingers also smudge paint and pencil. Sometimes there is no tool as precise as your finger. It will go exactly where you want it to and apply as much pressure as you demand. Sometimes that extra brush or tool just gets in the way.

For smudging, picking, measuring, deciphering angles, scratching, holding and drawing my hands and fingers really are my greatest artist tools.

My Day Job

I still can't share my latest crafty ventures but I'm really happy with what I did at work this week so I'll share that instead.

Our paper did a sort of tribute to Kurt Cobain this week, the 15 anniversary of his death. Christ, has it really been 15 years!?! Anywho, here's my tribute to the grungy rocker...



Kurt is cut out of different photos and assembled and scanned. The background, same deal, paper cut, assembled and scanned. I'm pretty chuffed with him :)

Bargain Hunting

I've been working on a number of things but all of them for swaps so I can't show anything off at the mo'. What I can show you is my most favourite recent purchase...

I picked up this well loved record album for 50 cents at a local "Re-use Centre".



The cover looks a bit beaten but it's actually in really good condition.




I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with it yet. I do love all the hand written titles and notes throughout as well as the hole left for reading the album titles. It's a really wonderful object.

Another recent buy was this player piano roll. I spent a whopping $5 on this. That's a pretty penny as far as my spending habits go.



What I was most interested in was the box, which has been worn down in the most lovely way, and the title "Mother" which I'm certain I can work with. I'm pretty sure that I can use the player paper for something crafty... though I would feel the worst pang of guilt for cutting

Anatomical Lighthouses

This isn't witchy or crafty but it's kinda funny so I'm posting it :)

We went to visit my family in Ottawa last week for March break. My uncle was on a business trip when we arrived but came home on the second night we were there. My uncle calls to my son "Hey, look, I've brought you a souvenir." and hands my kiddo a box of gummy lighthouse candies.



I open the box to dole out some sweet goodness and discover that the candies don't exactly look like lighthouses. They are kind of a lighthousey shape, but they are soft and bending over to the side slightly. There also isn't a lot of detail to distract from the fact that they are shaped, very similarly, to a certain body part.



I can't begin to tell you how awkward I felt handing these out to the wee kiddies. The grown ladies had a pretty good giggle about them though.

hunk-o-plastic to colourful shrine in just 2 years

I bought this gaudy mess a couple of years ago. I had big plans. I was going to make it gorgeous. I cleaned it up. Then it sat on a shelf for two years waiting to made into something.

A few weeks ago a challenge was put forward to make a shrine on the Misc. Topics board on craftster.org Aha! The perfect push to transform that plastic hunk. And so after a few late nights I'd like to show off my Stash Bustin' Family Shrine.



I really love it. It's got old and new bits. Photos from the 'death/funeral' cards of long dead relatives. Little bits of goodness and colour :)

One down... four luchadors to go.

I've finally finished (kind of) D's wrestling painting! Woo hoo Rey Mysterio! It's 12" square. I've also got 4 smaller luchadors on the go but they still need a little lovin'



I missed the birthday deadline but that's alright because I'm going to put together a 'swap' package for him. He's terribly jealous of the packages that arrive for his dad and I so I'll make a box of wrestling goodness for him. If I can finish it next week it'll be a great diversion for the long car ride up to Ottawa.

In other news, D had a great birthday. How 6 little children can make so much noise I'll never know. It was a long day and the kids were troopers. The clocks moved ahead, birthday party madness and then a hockey game... that's a lot to ask of a group of 5/6 year olds.



Oh, and BTW those pom poms WERE blue! It was just the crappy lighting in my house that made them look purple. Woo hoo!

Stupidity and splendor

First I'll tell you the dumb thing I did.

I went to the $store to get some stuff for D's birthday party and saw some blue and silver pom poms. I thought to myself "That would be a fun thing to stick in the goodie bags! The boys can shake them around and cheer for the team... they're even a team colour." I bought them, I took them home, took them out of the bag. All is right with the world. Then I caught a glimpse of them the other day... a glimpse of purple. They aren't blue! They're purple! I yell at P "Do these look purple?" He says "Yeah. I was wondering why you were buying them." WHAT! Why didn't you say something? "I thought you knew what you were doing."

Bastard.

On a much nicer note I've made some lovely dishcloths. I'm terrible at knitting and crochet and completely envious of everyone who can make lovely yarn creations. One of my newest most favourite things are handmade dishcloths. I've gotten a couple in swaps and adore them. I figured that a square might be just the thing for me to attempt and apparently it is! They aren't fancy but I'm terribly proud of my little lovelies.



Here posing with my cottony dishcloth goodness is a small brooch I picked up at an antique shop last week. I asked how much and hoed and hummed and the lady halfed the price! I can never pass up a bargain so I swiped it up. I love the little stitchy thing.



Lastly, I got an email the other day from esty.com telling me that one of my shadow boxes was chosen for a little sort of competition they have for St. Patrick's Day. Sure enough, there's my King of Luck shadow box!

If you're interested in checking it out and casting a vote for your favourite item you can follow this link...
http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=34

How cool is that?