Fuzzy Green Field

So I've been making a few more ATCs in the past few days. I tried doing a little painting with these super cheap watercolors I have... very difficult to work with. They aren't my best work but it's fun to just doodle things on cards. 


A loggerhead shrike and a burrowing owl. 


A Lincoln's sparrow.


Ruby-crowned kinglet.

I guess I like drawing birds. Birds are so cute and puffy! If anyone wants to do any swaps with me (we can pick themes) I would be more than happy to trade with you!

Hi there everyone! Sorry about the long absence~

A lot of things have happened in the meantime. I've graduated college, had a month-long trip to Japan, moved into a new house, and I've been enjoying the summer weather.

Now since I'm back and more situated in my house I can start updating this craft/art journal. I've been very busy with other things, but I've managed to make a few items since I've returned. I'll post on those later.

I discovered Swap-bot, which is an online community where people can swap items, many of them art and crafty things. I've mainly been participating in ATC (artist trading card) swaps, which is a lot of fun! If you like making and receiving art/crafts, Swap-bot might be for you.



Here are a few ATCs that I've made for Swap-bot swaps and other purposes. I've been just playing around with random materials and themes, it's a fun thing to do when you're bored. I really need to get myself some watercolors!

I would love it if any of you out there would be interested in trading cards with me! You can even request what you want on your card~ I'm excited to start a collection!

 

So I've finished my very first real knitting project, and I'm so proud of myself! I finished most of it 2 weeks ago but my button came in last week so I finished it this past weekend.

I started to learn knitting because my friend Phoe got me knitting needles and some yarn for Christmas, and I love learning new crafts so I taught myself both knitting and crochet. I'm not very good at both yet -- I'm still a novice -- but I plan to do many more projects in the future. The only bad thing about it is that both knitting and crochet hurt my wrist and elbow... I've got to learn a way that minimizes the damage.

The pattern I used was Berroco's Brea Bag. When I seen this pattern... I liked how the green/brown looked together (green/brown is my favorite color combo) so I wanted to try to make my own. I was confused at first because I've never read a knitting pattern before, but with the aid of YouTube and Knitting Help, I quickly learned how to do each stitch in the pattern.

The pattern called for a thinner, expensive yarn... I just used cheap Wool-Ease that was on sale. It seemed to work fine. It took 2.5 balls of Wool-Ease yarn to complete all the pieces.

( Progress of making the bag under here! )



Here it is! Yaay! The finished product... my very first knitting project. It came out better than I expected because I thought I would really mess it up since I am such a n00b at knitting. I added one of my chirimen charms because it matched so well...



Weee~~! Here's how it looks! My favorite type of purse are ones with long straps so that I can just wear it over a shoulder, then my hands are free!

Yup, so there it is!

So I started a painting last week for the last day of my painting class, and I thought it would be interesting for you to see the process of how I paint!

I decided to do an oil portrait of my Grandma. We are both going to Japan together for a month at the end of May~

I have a total of 3.5 hours so far on the portrait. It is way far from being completed, but as I work on it I'll post my progress. I won't be able to paint another session until I move which will be in 1-2 weeks.



Mixed up paint!! My paint is stored in medicine bottles~~ Here is my pallete for this painting, pretty basic but gets the job done:

Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow, Light
Cadmium Red, Medium
Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Pthalo Blue (watch out, this is strong)

( Progress of the oil painting under here )

Well, that's as far as I got so far. Next I need to get the first layer done for the clothes and hair -- then I'll wait for it to dry then add in a couple more layers. I won't be able to work on this for 2 weeks, but I'll make sure to continue taking some progress shots~

I wont' be able to update this journal much till after April 12th. I have a big project due at school!

I haven't been able to craft things lately. I've been so busy! I can post some of my thingies though~

( Pictures this way )

So I've decided to make an art/craft LJ account. I've had this name saved for a while, and today I decided to actually use it. I had an account on Blogger but I just didn't like it -- no friends list, have to go out of the way to comment. I'm so used to LJ since I've been using it for years, so LJ it will be!

So... this journal will be where I post all my arts/crafts, this way I can keep track and it will be fun to see how I progress. My other personal LJ I just usually complain about everything, you don't want to read it. Maybe having this journal and actually posting about happy things will make me not be so negative. Anyway... yeah..

Today is the second-to-the-last day of my Spring Break -- or rather my "winter" break because its been 0ºF most of the week. I didn't get a lot accomplished, but I did make a few things during the begining. A few weeks ago I learned how to crochet, and I really sucked at it in the beginning. I practiced a lot, till my wrist started hurting (and.... it still hurts... uh oh). I don't have the pictures of my very first projects (I made a bear from a pattern, and made a few bunny prototypes) yet, but I do have the pictures of the ones I made for my Etsy store. Do you want to see...? Ok!


Yay! I made up my own pattern for a bunny so that I could sell some on Etsy. The first couple I made were too cute and I didn't have the heart to sell them (I'll get pictures later) -- but these ones I'm posting now I'm going to sell.

( More bunnies under here! )

That's all the pictures I have for now. I'll have more next week... (I have a big project for school to worry about). There's a bunch of stuff laying around that I made that I still need to take pictures of. In the meantime, check out:

My Flickr Page
Happy Green - my Etsy store