Creative Sprint Day 18

Create something for a child that you know.

I saw a toilet paper roll race car craft while searching for some toddler arts and crafts to do with Kai a while back, and it seemed a little involved for a 2 year old so I decided to make one for Kai for today's Creative Sprint project.


The first step was making the tires.  My construction paper was too flimsy so I mounted the black paper onto some super stiff watercolor paper.  At first I was going to paint the tires onto the watercolor paper, but luckily I came to my senses before I warped all the tires and had to cut them all over again!

Tires

 Oh yeah, attached with brads.  At this point I decided the race car was going to be a rally car because it has 4 wheel drive.

This baby is a rally car so the brads allow for 4 wheel drive

Next step was to space the tires evenly.

With rudimentary geometry, I found the ideal placement for the tires

 Then I cut out and popped up the windshield and the seat back.

Windshield and seatback installed

 Kai's favorite color is orange so I used some of his tempera paint for this custom paint job.

A beautiful paintjob my husband would be proud.

...and here is the finished rally car!

I hope to update the post with his reaction!

xoxo

Char

Creative Sprint Day 17

Create or alter a postcard and send it anonymously to someone in the mail (snail mail, not email!) Don't forget to document it before you send it off.


I altered a postcard I received from my friend Rachel with the 2nd layer of a sugar skull napkin (also from Rachel, she's a very generous friend!) along with my leaf "hat" from Day 13 and some washi tape.

The recipient of this card is my first mail art friend who I didn't even know as a mail artist at first!  There are many strange coincidences in life if you open your eyes to them. If you have a chance you should visit Heebee Jeebee Land check out what goes on there and maybe even participate in the mail art calls!

I can't wait to see the reaction on the Heebee Jeebee blogpost when this card is received!!

Secret Squirrel
xoxo
Char

Creative Sprint Day 14

Learn something new. Ask a friend to help you do something using a technique or skill they are good at.

I had the heaviest sinking feeling of dread when I saw today's assignment.  I did not want to see anyone today, as I spent last night tending to an unwell toddler after he painted his bedroom with vomit.  It was on the carpet, seeped into his pillow, on every single one of his 6 stuffed animals that he sleeps with, on his blankets, on the wall, in between the mattress and his bed frame...  Vomit session of epic proportions which resulted in a massive amount of laundry and additional clean-up to do today.  We had a curried coconut chicken and wild rice casserole for dinner so it was visually horrifying too.  I also know how to do everything and I hate asking for help.

Actually, I know how to knit but I don't know how to crochet so with the handy dandy internet, emails and text messaging, my friend Cari assured me that she could show me how to make a simple crocheted heart.  She's a self taught hooker who makes newborn outfits for friends out of the kindness of her own heart of gold (Get it? Huh? Crochet hook? Hooker?  Hooker with a heart of gold? Ha ha ha ha ha).

A cutie Dino outfit made by Cari

So here is my evolution of heart making.  I followed the same instructions for each of the three things in the picture below:

For reals...

The result was better with each successive try and now I'm thinking I can be a hooker too!

Third time's a charm

Happy Hooking

xoxo

Char

Creative Sprint Day 13

Make a hat or something to wear on your head. Get a photograph of yourself wearing it in public.

The only thing I was going to leave my house for today was to take my baby boo to his toddler art group (Other than walking to the mailbox and letting Kai play on the jungle gym for a little bit later this afternoon).  Today's theme was "Bug Explorers.  The kids made sponge paint caterpillars, hand print bumble bees, and they also got to play with some real live ladybugs in the grass.  It was a fun time for all.  Knowing what we'd be doing today, I wanted to make a bug hat to wear at the park.

All before Go-Time I made hash browns, perfect over easy eggs, supremed some oranges and sliced my finger, showered, got Kai dressed and ready to go, packed our bag, made a watercolor leaf hat, searched for and found my car keys, and snuck Kai's praying mantis into our daypack.

Praying Mantis & Watercolor Leaf

The back....

My buggy hat at Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park

hunchback caterpillar

Bee Dance

Kai examining ladybugs

A special thank you to Cari for taking a picture of my buggy hat.  I also can't stop myself from mentioning: my Day 8 made it on ALR's Week 2 Highlights blogpost!

Hooray!
xoxo
Char

Creative Sprint Day 10

Make a puzzle or something using the pieces of a puzzle.


I decided to make a puzzle out of some puzzling questions.... Where does it all go?  Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Does bigfoot exist? if a tree falls in the woods with no one around does it still make a noise?  Who moves my keys around when I'm searching for them? What happens after life? No, what really happens? Will we ever be able to travel through time?

What I really should have asked was "Were my husband's socks and underwear stolen or misplaced by the ship's laundry?"  Hopefully the latter.  Also, will Kai stay asleep until I'm finished posting this?!

The image

The pieces drawn out on the back

What happened to K.I.S.S?

And there you have it....

All in a toddler's nap time!

XOXO 

Char

Creative Sprint Day 9

Open a drawer where you live or work and create something with just the contents.


I have so many awesome drawers in my house but I decided to use my kitchen junk drawer...  I thought it had a lot of potential, but everything in it seemed lackluster.

Don't mind the crumbs.

Pickins were slim and I settled on my kenzan (spikey frog for ikebana), cotton thread, and some linen thread.

The materials...

Then I had GRANDIOSE plans to make an awesome mandala.  After being poked a handful of times and realizing my vision was much more difficult to execute, I started creating a more manageable pattern with the two colors of thread.  The act of creating my design was as therapeutic as creating a mandala, though it is definitely not the image I had in mind when I first started.  I'm okay with it and feel that not all was lost.

Xoxo

Char

Creative Sprint Day 6

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I was so excited to see my own "boring to exciting" project on the ALR Week 1 highlights blogpost first thing this morning (After I take Kai to go potty, looking at today's e-mail prompt is the first thing I do now)!  Talk about fueling the fire!  I'm shouting everything! I'm so excited! ...and Kai woke up dry!  HAPPY DAY!

Today's prompt:
Make something in a box. Any type of box will do: shoebox, jewelry box, filing box, shipping box.

I decided to make a Kraken in a Box diorama to keep up with the nautical theme.  I have a bunch of these smallish brown boxes from a make-up subscription I did for a year.  I kept the boxes thinking they'd be great for organizing my photos, or postcards, or art supplies, or....  the list goes on.  Well one box was spared for my Kraken.

The lid... and my materials.

A close up because Jonathan turned out so cute.

And thar she be.... the KRAKEN!

 Hooray!
xoxo
Char

Creative Sprint Day 3

Use your non-dominant hand to create something today.  If you are right-handed then only use your left or vice-versa.


Day 3 and still going strong. Heh heh heh heh heh, and posting earlier than 11:30pm even.  I decided to make a left handed journal entry in my little sketchbook about today.  My son Kai went to his friends' house and made bunny hats, decorated bunny butt cookies, and dyed eggs.  I cut, pasted, wrote, drew, and painted all with my left hand.  Now I'm exhausted and ready for an afternoon snooze.

A bit of the process included in this image.

Xoxo
Char

And this is a bunny butt cookie

Creative Sprint Day 1

"If I post this, I'm committing to this 30 day challenge... after not touching my blog for over a year?!" is all that is echoing in my head right now  ....but you know what? I can do it.  I can make this project as simple or as complicated as want to, so I'm going to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) and forge ahead.  No, this is not an April Fools joke!

Front Cover

Page 1 & 2

Page 3 & 4

Back Cover

"Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only materials in your immediate environment"

I made a little accordion book as a tribute to my friend Rachel, who shared that she was participating in this challenge.  My book is made of leftover card stock, washi tape, art nouveau book plates and a snake charm from Rachel, and a metallic twisty tie.  Everything was in my book bag that I use when I go on my urban sketching excursions. #CreativeSprint

Keep Creating!
xoxo
Char

My day with Elvis

Elvis' origami kite 

Elvis crafting a photo stand of rocks shells and sea glass

shell rose made by Sensei's Darling

Shoko sensei invited me to spend the day with a neat guy who is close to her heart, Elvis.  Elvis, 11, is visiting Japan from Hawaii (well, his grandparents) on his own for the summer and I found out that she has a very creative family.  After a nice lunch on Friday, we went over to Sensei's house and I finally also got to meet her Darling who makes beautiful sculptures out of sea glass and other found objects from the beach.  Elvis and I both made little photo stands, and when I got home, I drew this etegami to mail to Shoko sensei and her lovely family.

My sea glass & shell photo holder

Add caption

King of Kindness

シニアー "Senior"

Today I had a wonderful opportunity to go on a shopping and lunch date with my new friend "Senior" who is also known as the King of Kindness by some group members!  We're both in an online etegami group, and he happens to live in Yokohama which is fairly close to where I live.  We went to a store called Yuzawaya to get some etegami supplies, which he brought a 30% off coupon for us to use, and he came with all kind of presents!  I ended up purchasing various postcards, brushes, ink, and a rubber block to carve my own hankou or signature stamp.  

Below are the goodies from Senior which are priceless!

Hand made from Japanese Knotweed

Some stamps Senior carved for me.

Impromptu carving demonstration after lunch.

"し"

So, I showed up with these two etegami that I made last night.  The first one is for Senior's wife.  It says basically "To a beautiful year..." Despite today being her birthday,  I still got to meet up with him for our excursion.  He did pick up a cake from her favorite bakery on his way home <3.  The second one is for Senior, it's an image of a rubber chop saying "It looks right, but it's upside down".  Senior is also famous in our group for his stamp making.

I asked tons questions and received lots of advice about etegami, paper, other supplies, and stamp making. He even gave me an impromptu demonstration of how he makes his stamps.  I love the stylization of his letters, and the variation in thickness of the lines...  what a cool experience!

Campanula 

rubber stamp

xoxo Char

Season's Greetings... Spring.

Here are some Etegami that I made in class a few days ago.

Kabocha

Pansy in UW colors.

Stock Flower

My Etegami Sensei bought a little Etegami Starter kit for me over the weekend.  She brought it to class  so that I can keep illustrating/painting at home.  I appreciate her thoughtfulness so much.  The dry wintery air has cracked my "C" Hankou that Sensei made for me last month, so I finished my postcards from class with a new Hankou (signature stamp) that I made today.  It's nice to have my print making tools with me and not in long term storage!

A lovely lady, Carole Marshall, from an online Etegami group that I recently joined is having an exhibition of her Etegami works at a hospital in Australia.  She invited the members of the group to join the exhibition by mailing some spring themed post cards to her.  Today I painted this camellia with my new kit for the exhibition.  It is my first Etegami I've created outside of class. :)

Camellia "Spring has arrived" 

There are signs of spring all over the place, but it's still chilly when the wind blows.  I should get started on that Kabocha soup, pronto!

xoxo
Char

Etegami by the Sea

A sampling of some finished pieces. 

sumi

watercolors

a tissue and some turnip greens

After participating in etegami class last week I was invited to attend a different group out on town by my sensei, Shoko.  I spent a wonderful Friday afternoon with a nice group of ladies at a lovely little cafe called "Private" where we chit chatted and made Japanese folk-art.  

Our subjects were turnips, a lily, and a yellow bell pepper. 

Below are the 2 drawings I made.  

I chose to draw the turnip and the lily since I drew a green bell pepper last week.  

"The turnip's tail" 

Lily of Chigasaki

I love this style of drawing.  There are no rough drafts, and there are no such things as mistakes.  3 simple elements to make etegami are: the line, the message, and color.   The lines are full of energy and movement, however it is a slow process.  We were instructed to draw 1mm per second.  We also give up a majority of our control of the evenness and thickness of the lines by the way we hold the paintbrush. The paintbrush is held vertically with just your index finger, middle finger, and thumb grasping the end of the brush. As you draw, you keep the brush as perpendicular to the paper as possible.   There were a lot of shaky arms.  The message is written from right to left and might not have anything to do with the image you created.  The message might be a simple greeting, a poem, or just a statement on how you feel.  There really aren't rigid rules to this art-form.  Coloring is a much faster process; load up the rounded brushes* with pigment and dab away making sure to leave some white.

I finished my etegami with a little hankou (signature stamp) that Shoko sensei carved for me.  She also sent me home with some homemade madeleine cookies and a case to keep our received and unsent postcards in.  I love Japanese culture of hospitality and kindness.  It's something I'm looking forward to bringing back to the states, along with etegami.

xoxo
Char



*I'll be sure to get a shot of the 3 different brushes next time.