Working Bird

All I've had time for recently is work-type things. Fortunately, there's still a bit of room for painting at work every once in a while. 

Summer Reading is almost here!

Christmas Birds, Part 2

Here, finally, is post no. 2. Since it's past the halfway point in February, I figure it's about time to post it. Also, Carroll has been nudging at me. :D


Coasters!

Animal stencils are awesome.

More t-shirt fun! Argyle is yay!

A tea wallet, so your tea bags don't get demolished in the bottom of your purse! :D

More earrings! I think these are awesome, and I wish the original idea came from my brain. But it didn't.


Ok, happy late Christmas! :D

Christmas Birds, Part 1

I made a crazy amount of stuff for Christmas. Here's post no. 1, which includes all of the gifts I've already given away or are similar to those of people who probably won't be checking this blog any time soon.  :D

I spent several days basically making enormous messes. My parents were very gracious.

   Dinorawr. This one was made for my cousin's very small son!

  The Hat. For Don Pablo!

Le argyle. For Kimberly!

Another Dinorawr. For Zach!

Paperclip earrings. For Kimberly! I did not invent these, even though I have tweaked some of my (not-yet-posted) versions. For the original/a nice tutorial, go here. 

Altered sweater with felt flowers. For Mom! (I felted two wool sweaters I found at the thrift store by washing them on the hot water cycle in the washing machine and then drying them on high heat.)

L'Etoile du Nord (Star of the North). For Josiah!

Altered notebook. For Zach!

Mr. Mustache. For Chris (obviously)!

Tea tray. For Renee!

festive bird

As I've been on a monster kick lately

(

),

I've decided to make some Christmas monsters. Currently, they're being used as ornaments for the library's YA Christmas tree, but I also think I might make them into cards. :D 

thirtieth bird

Make a path and challenge someone to follow it.


Ok, so, technically, I did this for work, but I've decided that it counts.


I am swamped. You must take what you get.


So, I created a giant board game in which the teens are the pieces and the players.


Basically, it's Cranium, but I changed the art so that
a) the teens wouldn't know what it was until I told them
and
b) I could take pictures and post them places without worrying about copyright infringement and lawsuits and other such things.


I used 25 pieces of poster board and blue painter's tape because it shouldn't leave much of a sticky residue. It took me about an hour and a half to tape the lines.


So, these are the board squares:

This is the start/home square. It comes up periodically throughout the game; when you land on this, you get to choose which category to attempt. The exception: when you land on the last of these squares, everyone else playing the game chooses your category for you.

This is the facts/trivia square.
In what country were fortune cookies invented?

This is the art square.
Draw a pelican. With your eyes closed. In a minute or less.

This is the words/language square.
As a team, you must spell the word "sudoku" backwards.

This is the performance square. 
You must act out and get your team to guess the following animal with no speaking or pointing at other objects: humpback whale.

Here's the game board.

Here's a close-up of the center/lines.

I had 25 teens play this yesterday, and I'm hoping for the same numbers today. After that I will pull the tape up. However, I'm going to keep the squares in case we ever want to play again. 

twenty-first bird

Waste not. Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials.


Well, I couldn't think of a recycling bin that I trust that was easily accessible, so I decided that "recycling bin" could equal "Library Freebie Table." It's sort of safer.


I found four educational art prints:

Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci

The Plains of Heaven by John Martin

The Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge, Venice by Canaletto

The Water-Lily Pond by Claude Monet






















These four paintings have been altered and, therefore, reduced in value, aesthetic, and grandeur. But, I get a kick out of them.


I give you:

Ramona

They're Here to Take Us Away!

Casting a Large Shadow

It's the Code for Love.






Unfortunately, the pictures are all too large for my scanner, so I had to find a place in the cave (aka, my apartment) that had enough lighting. Brightest place: the washing machine closet. And I still think it could have been brighter. Most likely, it would have been best to wait for daylight. But, I was feeling impatient.