I May Have a Problem, Part 1

I used to colour all the time, back before the internet and cell phones took over our lives.  I do have a (sort of) excuse in that back in Washington, I had a reclining love seat and was able to spread out all my pens and pencils next to me.  Here, I have a recliner and nowhere to put the pens and pencils, unless I want to hunch over the TV or craft table.

So the colouring books have started to accumulate and I keep promising myself NO MORE, then a new Harry Potter one comes out and I have to put it on my Amazon Wish List.  

This is my stash.  My daughter in law gave me the tiny book and Snowflakes one.  The top right is a Jody Bergsma Artbook.  I will have to look up the sites in San Francisco online and colour them based on the pics.

There's a new Harry Potter one that just came out that I have to get....

I bought all three of Johanna Basford's.  These are super detailed. 

Since the Victorian Houses one are actual houses, I have to look them up online, and colour them accordingly.

I started Out Of This World like 3 years ago and I'm having so much trouble with the ink bleeding through the pages.  It's been frustrating so I haven't worked on it in awhile.  But my OCD won't let me start a new book until that one is done.  

My count is 17 total, with just one started.  I just can't let myself get anymore till I make a dent in these!!!

Dinosaurs with Jobs

I got this colouring book last summer and the designs were basic enough that I was able to do up to four pages in a very short amount of time.  The colouring books are starting to pile up in the back room and I need to make a serious dent in them.  

It's a cute book.  Good for kids or adults.  The design is on one side with blank behind it so it was perfect for markers.  I always slip a piece of paper under the page to protect the next one just to be on the safe side.

My grey markers pretty much ran out after this book; I was using Crayola.  Good thing I got more!

Of course my choice of colours for each beast was purely conjecture on my part.

I would recommend this book for it's whimsy and ease of colouring.  While I do enjoy the very detailed books, every now and then it's nice to have large swaths in which to fill in.

Stashy Saturday: Colouring Books

Tama over at Stitching Daze has been participating in a feature called 'Stashy Saturday', where you feature some of your craft stash items.  This is my first time doing Stashy, and I've decided to feature the colouring books I have yet to start and/or complete. I have promised myself not to buy any more colouring books, no matter how cool the design, till I make a good dent in these.  The only exception I made was that 'Secret Garden' one I got a couple of months ago.  Almost all of the rest were bought before I even left Washington.  

I'm about 5 pages into 'Out of This World'.  It's very detailed.

Victorian Houses is going to be a little harder to do, I think, because a lot of the houses are renderings of actual Victorian style buildings, and therefore, I want to make sure they get coloured correctly. That will mean having a google image picture of the house on my computer so that I can match the colours.  Oh, the SF book is also new.  Again, this one will require accuracy.  Can't really have a purple GGB now can we?!

These should be fun!

Gargoyles & Medieval Monsters.  I ended up sending this to my future stepdaughter-in-law earlier this week.

I also have that black velvet poster that Russell bought me last summer that I haven't started just yet.

My crafting muse has gone on an extended vacation so it's allowed me the opportunity to start colouring again. Back before I had a laptop and was online all the time, I got WAY more colouring done.  I'd like to get back to that again.

Candles, Custom Work & Colouring

I suck at candle making, I really do.  I tried it out west....I was so enthusiastic and bought tons of stuff.  I figured how hard can it be?  Well as it turns out, for me, it's hard.  I got rid of all my supplies long before I moved.  Last year, my friend Tracy told me she had a bunch of empty decorative tins she was going to toss out unless I wanted them.  Being the King Moonracer of Misfit Craft Supplies, I told her I'd give them a good home.  

Wasn't really sure what to do with all those tins, but I figured how hard could it be to pour wax inside and make candles?  It's basic enough....doesn't require a lot of technique or understanding.  Got some wicks, wax pellets, a candle thermometer and a melter/pourer.

My first attempt was a little rocky.  I cooled the tins in a pan of cold water with some ice cubes.  It was at this point I discovered that the tins aren't watertight.  Water seeped up the edges and caused the wax to separate.  I had to pour the water out of sides after they were completely cool.

So the next attempt was by keeping the tins in the pan on wax paper.  This time I only poured them about half way full, then I took them outside to set up in the icy cold air (it was about 20).  That worked a bit better except the wax leaked out the bottom around the edges but it scraped off pretty easily.

This time I decided to put some shells and beach glass on top of the first hardened wax.  I was afraid that the top layer would melt the bottom, causing the treasures to be forced to the bottom.  So instead of bringing the cooling tins inside, I brought the melted wax outside and that worked well to keep the first layer from liquifying.

It was snowing by the time I finally brought them in.  This is what the treasure ones look like with their lids.

And without the lids.  I think they came out pretty good!

Then I robbed some tea lights of their wicks and glued them onto some shells, then poured wax in them.  The two smallest shells have been painted with metallic paint and I don't know how safe it will be to have hot wax or an open flame near it.  Time will tell.  

Then I decided what the heck....why not just use up all the wax since I have the tins since the weather is cold?  So I spent over four hours one afternoon melting, pouring and setting about 12 or 13 more tins' worth of treasure candles.  They set up so much faster when it's 25 degrees out. 

A wolf charm surfaced when I was reorganizing all my beads so I made this necklace for my bff Shelly.  She picked the length and the colours.

The Creatures of the Salish Sea colouring book had also just arrived and the pictures were large enough to be quick workups and there were only about 8 pages in it anyway (since the book was designed to be easily completed in the Victoria Clipper's nearly 3 hour journey between Seattle and Victoria), so I did it up one afternoon.  Mine took a little longer than 3 hours because I had to google exactly what each animal looked like and attempt to replicate it with the crayons I had on hand.

Pardon the flash reflection at the bottom....I was in a hurry to shoot and upload these pics.

I rarely work with crayons these days so it was nice to use them again, although I notice they are definitely not the quality we had in the 70s.  I really don't remember the wax flaking and stickiness of them at all.

I have another colouring book of Washington State history and symbols, which is also geared for kids and is another one that I finished in just a few days.  I am using crayons and Crayola brand coloured pencils (usually I use the higher quality Prismacolour) on this one.

I think what strikes me most about this particular picture is the grin on the girl's face.  All I can think about is, 'Girly, you are in for the hardest few months, possibly years, of your young life.  You're gonna have that smile wiped right off your face in the first few weeks of this journey,'  I realize the illustrators had to make the book upbeat for kids, but seeing this girl look like she's having the time of her life on the Oregon Trail is a little disingenuous when you know the history of the hardships faced by the pioneers on their trips west.  

Le Sigh

I had just one Christmas altered art box to finish and then put my Christmas crafting stuff away.

I'd been on such a push to create stuff, for weeks on end prior to the craft shows, that once I got my craft table all straightened up, I realized I didn't have a clue what to do next!! I found zero inspiration on my Pinterest 'Crafts To Do' board or in the tutorials I'd saved.  

Around the 18th, I remembered that I had a new Christmas-themed colouring book.  Wish I'd remembered a few weeks earlier, but better late than never.  I always think I will get at least 3-4 pics coloured in a day but that's never the case.  Realistically, it's more like 2 per day.  Of course I had to add silver stars and a crescent moon to the Santa pic.  This one is mostly done with coloured pencils, although I did use a blue marker over dark blue pencil for the sky. 

This one is sparkly gel pens and coloured pencils.

I made a major blunder at the beginning, in that I forgot about the bleed-through on the pages, and the way coloured pencil will rub off on the page it's resting against when you are colouring the flip side.  I usually remember to put a white piece of paper between each page but I spaced it. Unfortunately it would be on a picture that contained a lot of snow, ice and clouds.  I tried best I could to cover it but you can still see it. This is supposed to be Russell & me as kids, skating on Shawme Pond.  lol  

Hard to see but I did the church windows in multicoloured gel pens to look like stained glass.

Another case of bleed-through on the page above the roof and near Santa, because I used gel pens on the other side.  I didn't realize how bad it showed up till I took this picture.  Maybe I'll go back over this and use dark blue pencil for the sky.  I just didn't feel like colouring around all those snowflakes.

I really love these vintage pics but there's sooooo much snow and I can't leave it white so I end up using a lot of greys.  I have to colour it rather than keep it just plain page to help create that barrier against gel pens on the other side.  I really wish these companies would make books with just one picture per page with their backs plain.

I'm still on pace to finish this book by tomorrow night.

Catching Up On Colouring

I've been so busy making crafts this year that my colouring books have fallen by the wayside so I finally did a couple of pages.

This one took me an entire afternoon.  I would have preferred to use markers for the sky and moon but the ink bleeds through to the other side so I had to use coloured pencils. My hand kept going numb and dead from bearing down so hard.  Also used gel pens for the detail work (that's why the lightning is so shiny).

I don't like the fact that the ink from another picture shows through.  I wish Dover Press would either make bleed-resistant pages or keep the back side of each colouring design blank, like in the mandala books.

I got a bunch of free designs off the internet and printed them on card stock instead of regular paper.  Gel pens are perfect for the fine detail work.

The Portland sign, Western Meadowlark and light green St. John's Bridge are all accurately coloured.  

Same thing for the American Goldfinch (WA state bird), the bark of the Western Cedar (Oregon STOLE the Douglas fir for their state tree, so Washington's is Western Cedar), salmon & rhododendron (state flower) are also accurate.

I've just had a new cross stitch project arrive that has taken priority over other crafts for now, so the colouring will have to take a back seat for a few weeks.  

July Randomness

The humidity has been almost nonstop, with only one day of cool and comfortable temperatures.  So I've been hiding in the house for the most part.  

Oh I thought this was kind of an amusing anecdote.  One of the craft-themed FB pages I follow asked a question over the weekend, 'Who would play you in the movie of your life?'.  I read it out loud and pondered it for a second before deciding to type 'Tatum O'Neal' into the comments.  Without missing a beat, Russell says, 'Cyndi Lauper.'  OK, first of all, he gets major props for being aware of who Cyndi Lauper is, because he is not a music fan at all. Second, I took it as a huge compliment because I admire Cyndi's colourful individuality and wackiness.

We had some real steamy, rainy afternoons.  It's not uncommon for a late afternoon/early evening thunderstorm to crop up in this kind of weather. 

I hope I can get to these before the birds do.

That's a teensy snail on a branch, inside a water droplet that's reflecting my house.  We have a lot of snails in our yard of varying sizes.  I know they are a pest but I do like them.  I always think of the lyrics to the Donovan song, 'There is a mountain':  "The lock upon my garden gate's a snail, that's what it is".  

And another droplet pic showing that leaf in the background.

Droplets on the CD windspinner.

Driftwood & foreign coin hanging.

Found inside one of the many fortune cookies we got over 4th of July.  Hmmmmm

I started a new colouring book called 'Out of This World Designs', using my new set of gel pens.  Also used were Prismacolour pencils and rhinestones.  

Liz had to go and mention that she made blueberry crisp, and I marched into the kitchen to make one too.  It was yummy. Soooo very yummy.

We haven't had many decent sunsets so far but one night revealed a lovely half moon and sunset.