Tessandore Creative

♥

A Few Words

Been playing around with glitter.  :)

♥

Better Than a Sticky Note

Take these three ingredients and combine to get...

A homemade chalkboard!  It won't fit in my pocket like a sticky note, but it will sure look cute hanging by the front door.  I think I'll make one for my office too.

Love the edges of these wood rounds.

♥

Felt Ornaments

Hoot!  This girl-owl was made by my friend Meg.  Love that little flower on her ear.  :)  We had a 'making felt things' get-together last weekend, which gave me a great excuse to buy some nice wool felt.  Turns out that a 1/2 yard of every color is waaay more than a person needs to make tiny ornaments.  Now I'm set for life.

This is the little house I made...
That's the back view with the barn doors & snow on the roof.  This is the front view after stitching it all up...
Glad I remembered how to do a blanket stitch for the edges.  Usually, I have to look it up online before diving in.  I like how my little house turned out.  Now I just have a zillion yards minus about 5 square inches to use up!  :)

If you'd like to see some houses by someone that really knows her felt, check out the beautiful work of Melissa Crowe at her Etsy shop Little Pink House.

♥

Little Witch

Getting into the fall/Halloween mode here.  I'm going to make hair for her out of that pink wool roving.  Now, on to make a little cape.

...and a bit later...

Cape done!  A few details yet to come.  I know I've mentioned this before, but I always get nervous at this point in making a girl that I'm going to ruin her when I do the face.  :)  I'm sure she'll come out OK.

♥

Bees, birds, interesting connections & a wonderfully spooky story.

The Jardin box on the bottom is the one I mentioned yesterday as the "before" of my project.   When I saw them at Michael's, I really loved the shape & they were a great $ deal.  {About $4 each I think?}  I knew the word on the box was French, but actually had to look up what it meant - Garden, of course.  It's not a word that speaks to me, plus I think they were supposed to look aged, but they kind of looked dirty.   After sanding off the word & most of the paint from the outside, I painted the inside a bright white to clean up the look a bit.
With the inside white, I thought it would be easier to see buttons or whatever small things end up being stored in there.

Then I got busy on the design for the outside.  This was going to be the back, but I actually like it better than the image on the other side.  :)

My favorite part though is the little bee hive on the end!
The holes there on either side of it are where the handles will be screwed back on.  Just have to paint them white too before they're reattached.

So, why all the bees?  I've been following Sharon Stiteler's blog.  It's mostly about birdwatching, but she's got a whole bee-keeping section that I just love!  Through her writing & wonderful photos, she really makes a person want to try having their own bees.  Fresh honey ~ neat!  I haven't read all the way back to the beginning yet, but from what I gather, she's keeping bees with her husband & two friends.  The friends happen to be Neil Gaiman and his assistant Lorraine!  Kinda crazy. If you're not familiar with Neil Gaiman, that won't seem weirdly interesting.  But trust me, its pretty cool.

Speaking of which ~ if you don't know Neil's work {pretending to be on a first name basis with him...ha!} please do look into it.  He's an amazing author, but has his hand in so many creative projects - not the least of which beekeeping! - that it would be hard for me to give a short run-down.  If you're in a story-listening mood however, I really recommend checking out his reading of The Graveyard Book.  It's so great to hear the author read his own work + it's appropriate for all but perhaps the most easily spooked really young child.  It's so good.  I enjoyed it last October while working on miscellaneous Halloween crafty things.   So good!  :)

♥

Flower Box

More fun with the wood burner! 

Earlier this summer I purchased 3 little tray/box things from Michael's.  (I'll show you a "before" photo tomorrow.)  I knew when I bought them that I would sand the finish back down to plain wood.  But where to go from there?
The watercolors were giving such promising results with my last project, I decided to continue on with them.
I like that fat bee!  ♥

Block o' Flowers

My friend Candice's birthday is tomorrow, and I was thinking of getting her some flowers.  But I decided instead to make a somewhat more permanent arrangement ~ kind of a wooden birthday card.

Quite awhile ago I purchased a 4x6" piece of lumber {8' long} and had it cut into 6" sections.  Now I have a whole pile of these great wooden blocks to work with.  I started out by sanding this one with my trusty mouse sander, then sketching the scene & using my wood burner for outlining.

Watercolors were used to fill in the flowers & sun on the front...
And a balloon on the back...

Not sure why I used my last name in there?  Force of habit I guess, but it looks kind of funny...like I added it in case she didn't know who I am.  :)

Anyway, to finish up I gave it some little round feet & used a high-gloss spray as a top coat to seal everything...
Now I just hope it will be dry in time to wrap it.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute to do my crafting!

Still watching BallyK & enjoying the sound of the rain coming down.  ♥

Whooo!

For quite awhile I've wanted to make a small felt owl.  A family friend made one for me when I was a kid & it was always one of my favorite things.  So this is my version of that little guy from memory.  :)
He's only about 3 or 4 inches tall & has just a bit of stuffing to make him puffy.  I like his crooked beak.  ♥

Camping ~ Homer, Alaska

Not much can beat a cup of hot chocolate on a chilly day of camping.  We had a great spot right on the beach...

Had to keep the fire going pretty much the whole time to stay warm.

I'm happy to say I was able to cook a little breakfast between the raindrops.  The pancakes turned out better than they do at home!
(Yes, that pancake is square.  It was tasty though!)

We came in off the beach to get away from the wind for awhile & thought of hiking the trail behind the Pratt Museum, but...

We didn't feel like meeting a bear!  :o)  So we headed back to the campsite...

Amazing the ways you can find to entertain yourself.
I think we had a pretty good time despite the weather.  Plus, now I can cross #16 & #21 off my list! 

On the way out of town we spotted this funny sign...
I could have bought my chickens there!  I was voted down though, since they would have had to ride 5 hours back home on my daughter's lap.  ♥

Happy Camper

Hello!  Just got home from 5 days of camping on the beach in Homer, Alaska.  I brought a sketch pad & watercolors, but with the rain and the wind ~ those activities didn't really pan out.  During a break in the weather I made this little rock girl though.  :o)

More to come...we're still unpacking & have a zillion photos to sort though.  ♥

Wedding Buttons

I spent the holiday weekend celebrating with my friends at their wedding!  The weather was perfect -a relief since the ceremony and reception were both outside.  The ceremony was beautiful, relaxed, funny in parts.  It all came together so wonderfully.  The photo above is the button bouquet she carried.  It was made by Letters4Lilly out of Perth, Western Australia.  There are quite a few folks out there making button bouquets, but this woman's work really stands out.  She has a great, creative eye and the construction is solid so there were no worries about it falling apart as the bride came down the aisle.

Since I was in the wedding party, I didn't get a photo of this - but you should have seen the ring bearer.  Their Corgi dog came trotting right down with the rings tied to a flower on her collar!  She was quite the star.

Hope you had a long, wonderful weekend too.  ♥

Wedding Season

Shower ideas, anyone?  I'm so excited that my friend Meg is getting married this summer & that she's letting me throw her a shower.  Now I just have to figure out what's suppose to happen at a shower!  I seem to recall a game where wedding dresses are made out of toilet paper, but after that I'm out. 

I think making invitations is one of the most fun parts of planning a party.  But I only had email addresses for the women she wanted to invite.   So I decided to make the invite on an 8x10" canvas board, then give Meg the original & email a pdf to the guests.  I love how it turned out!  Notice I'm still in "button mode"?  :)

I had a clear vision for how I wanted it to look...off-white with the layers underneath.  First, I arranged the text in PhotoShop, then printed it out with a creamy background color so it wouldn't be too stark.  After gluing that page down to the canvas with gel medium, I started arranging a patchwork frame using bits of textured paper. In fact, I almost left it at this quilt-looking stage...
But I'm glad I trusted my first idea and was brave enough to roll on the paint.

Now, on to menu planning!  ♥

Buttons

My table's been taken over!  For awhile now I've been wanting to make button flowers.  This seemed to be a good weekend for it since JoAnn Fabrics was having a 50% off button sale.  :)

I started out by attaching silk flower pedals to some felt and sewing the buttons to the front.
But they didn't quite have the look I wanted.  So I played around with little stacks until I found some that looked right...
...and threaded florist's wire through for stems.  Now my bouquet is starting to come together!
I especially like the bee that landed on this bloom:
   ♥

Beach Houses

With all the bright colors, it's starting to look kinda tropical on my work table.  ♥

House Painting

The neighborhood is starting to take shape!  I especially love the little blue house.  The daisy on the side is a snippet of lace brought back from a friend's trip to Vietnam.  ♥

Wee Birdhouses

Look what arrived in the mail today!  25 little houses with so many possibilities.  Even though the measurements were clearly listed, I somehow didn't realize quite how teensy they would be.  Here's a photo with a penny to show the scale:
Better get out the small brushes.  ♥

Mermaid Girl, kinda

She almost looks like she has a fish tale, doesn't she?
Must be the color scheme making her look so aquatic.  I like that iridescence.

I think my favorite detail though is the last thing I added - her cute chubby arms! ♥

Wood & Clay Doll

Have you seen all the cute little wood dolls going around?  My favorites (like the ones above from this Etsy shop) are 3.5" tall.  There are also 2" dolls, but I think they'd be too tiny to get much detail into.  I ordered a few of this larger size thinking they would be a nice, quick project to play with.  But I just had to get a bit more involved...
This is my first attempt at embellishing one of these sweeties.  I had some left over PaperClay from my Cloth & Clay doll, so I decided to give my girl a blowy dress & crazy hair.  Clearly, she's standing near an up-draft of some sort!  I can't wait 'till she's dry so I can start painting.

I also wanted to share these dolls by Danita Art...
Love 'em!  Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to snap one up when they went on sale.  They're so cute, she can hardly keep them in stock.

♥

Hello Dolly!

Look...she's barely off the work table and already out exploring the world.  :)

I just love how she turned out ~ all barefoot and spring colors. I especially love her skin tone & hair...used my trusty espresso to dye the clay!  Can't go wrong with that.  Plus, now she smells like coffee.  ♥

A bit of this, a bit of that...

This is the dolly I've been working on as part of the Cloth & Clay Dolls group.  :)  She may not look like much yet, but I'm kinda proud of her because I'm just not good with sewing!  I usually have to call in back up (Mom) to help me with the sewing machine before I toss it out the window.  But I managed this one all on my own.  Well...with the considerable help offered by Jane (the teacher/creator of this doll technique & online workshop) and her instructional videos.  She's got a really exciting project organized for us to work on this summer!  If you are at all inclined to make a doll, run right over and sign up.  I've learned so much already ~ it's great fun! 

I also wanted to share this treasury from Etsy...
That's my Veronica there with her camera!  Susan Hale put together this treasury and was kind enough to include my girl.  Thanks Susan! 

I should have guessed from looking at the all the cameras, that Susan is a photographer.  Take a look at her gorgeous work:
That's an artist's studio in Amsterdam.  
And look at the light in these two:
I really love that window image.  Anyway, she just started her Etsy shop in January and she's got many, many more lovely photos at really great prices.  Check it out!  :) 

♥

Matilda, the problem child.

This is Matilda a.k.a. "ice cream hair girl".
The color scheme ended up being kind of chocolate/cherry.  I've dubbed her my problem child in this post because this is about the 5th version of this box!  She just wouldn't come together and honestly, I'm still not sure she's quite right.  Hmmm.  Maybe she's too pale for her pink hair?  I don't know.  What do you think? 

Here's where she came from originally:
And here she is about 3 incarnations into the process...
I liked what was happening with her hair at this point, so I kept that.  But the color scheme felt weird.  What can I say, sometimes it flows ~ sometimes not! 

Suggestions?

♥

Yep, still boxing...

Unlike yesterday's box,  I have no back-story to tell about yoga inspiring me for this girl.  And even if I did, there would surely be no photographic evidence!  :)   I think of her less as a self-portrait and more of a person to become.  A future-self portrait maybe. 

Here's a better look at her with the words that originally accompanied the print:

   ♥

Box #2

Finished my second little box this afternoon!  I've always liked my scuba girl & her snapping crab friend, so it was fun to revisit this one.  I added a few details with my gel marker that aren't in the original + I'm happy with how the sides of this box came out...kind of a dappled water-blue.   (The box it's sitting on is the one I posted yesterday.)

Each one will have a tag on the back that reads: "Handmade Original Art by..."

Ok, now I have to show you what inspired scuba girl!

{The photo of me in my scuba gear was removed. 4/25/09}

That's me doing the scariest thing EVER.  :)  This was my very first dive in 2005 right outside of Seward, Alaska.  {Hence, the dry suit...super cold water.}  I learned to dive precisely because I never thought I could.  It was a HUGE challenge to myself.  Despite that smile on my face, I was terrified.  But I did it! 

I have to admit that I have not become an avid diver.  But I have my own fins and a really cool BCD.  Maybe if I visit someplace tropical I'd try it again.  {You don't have to wear so much gear in warm water.}  It would be cool to see a sea turtle swimming by, wouldn't it?

Do you have a mental list of things you think you could never do?  Things that seem too big to even dream?  What would it take to just try?  What would really be the worst that could happen?  (Ok, in my case I thought I might drown or be eaten by a killer whale.  But I took reasonable precautions to make sure those things didn't happen!)  Ok, now what would be the best outcome?  What's stopping you?  :)

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it."
~Goethe
♥

Boxes & Baskets

In an effort to offer some affordable original art in my shops, I'm working on these cute one-of-a-kind boxes!  I'm attaching prints of some of my original drawings/paintings on the top, then having fun customizing each box inside & out.  I'll show them all here before I post them for sale.  Hope you'll like them!  :) 

I'm focusing on the "affordable" part because I've been struggling a bit with pricing lately.  I don't subscribe to the starving artist way of life, but I do want folks to be able to bring my work home.  There's a balance there that is somewhat of an art in itself to figure out.  More on this later...I'm still mulling. 

Anyway, aside from my little box project, I took advantage of having the house to myself on this sunny day to finish up Easter baskets.  Once they were all done, I looked around and realized I had an extra basket ~ and enough extra ingredients to fill it up!
Aren't those topiary bunnies cool?  {Found 'em at Pier One.}  I would have a drawing to give the extra basket away, but I don't think it would make it through the mail!  Maybe my neighbor's little girl would like a treat.

♥

Cloth & Clay Dolls

This is so exciting!  I've worked quite a lot with Paper Clay and have always been drawn toward a folk-art type of doll.  I think I fell in love with Nicol Sayre's dolls originally.

Then recently I found this "virtual classroom" online that shows how to make exactly that combination of things ~ a folk-art doll with a paper clay head/face.  The class costs $40 and I keep promising myself that I won't invest any more $$ in my art/craft pursuits until I can sell some of my art. 

I couldn't resist this though.
I signed up and it was SO worth it!! 

Jane DesRosier is the teacher.  I find her very pleasant to listen to and the video classes are casual, well paced & detailed.  When I joined tonight, there were just over 250 members.  In addition to being a self-paced class that you can revisit as needed, there's a nice community going in there too!  You can customize your page, chat back and forth with other members and take inspiration from the photos everybody posts of their dolls.

This brings together many, many of my art loves into one project.  I'm so thrilled I can hardly articulate it.  I'm not sure where I'm headed exactly with my art, but I've got the most amazing "on the verge" feeling.  How wonderful and what a privilege to be learning & making art every day.  It's just one foot in front of the other taking me on this journey...I can't quite see around the corner.   I don't even know if there IS a destination exactly.  I'm just happy every day to be doing what I love. 

The best part of everything is that my personal life is going extremely well too.  Not that my art isn't personal...but you know what I mean.  Friendships are rich & my heart is full {romantically speaking}.  All is in balance.  

♥ ♥ ♥

From Recycling to Songbird

Tonight's project started with this find in the recycle bin...
They're just cardboard, but they have an interesting structure that makes them really light but super strong.  I think I could stand on them and they wouldn't crush.  Anyway - they looked like canvases to me!

So out came the gesso and gel medium.
Then some sketching...finding the idea.
And paint...
An hour or so later, I had a finished girl!
My goal here was to not think...just play!   So each decision was quick, quick, quick.  I like how the bird is singing notes right up to her ear.

Am I the only one that has started to see painting surfaces everywhere?  :)  How about you...do you prefer a traditional canvas?   What's the most unusual thing you've painted on?

♥

Experimenting {& a give-away reminder!}

I ran into a technical glitch with the large canvas I'm working on, so it was back to the proverbial drawing board!  Sometimes problem solving gets in the way of creating, but I enjoy the process.   I'm working on different ways to best adhere leaves to a canvas. 

Tonight I wanted to see how liquid polymer would work when poured over mixed media.

Using gel medium, I started by sticking a paper background down on this 5x5" canvas.  Then a layer of leaves and a girl I had painted on watercolor paper.  Once it was dry, I mixed up the polymer to pour over the top.  You can see some little bubbles coming up to the surface.
If you gently breathe on them, they'll pop and the surface will smooth back out. 

I can already see one thing to do differently ~ which is good, I wanted to do my learning on this small canvas instead of ruining a large work. 

The edges of any paper sections need to be sealed with the gel medium before pouring the polymer.  You can see how the green paper has soaked in some of the moisture and darkened a bit.  {It shows up best in the first photo.}  Without a "before & after" you can't really see it, but the painting of the girl has soaked up a lot of it too.  I didn't coat her at all...just glued her down before pouring the finish over the top.
Now the canvas is sitting protected under a box overnight to keep dust from settling into it as it dries.  Ought to be interesting to see how it looks & feels tomorrow.  I think for my 12x36" canvas, this type of finish might make it too heavy?   We'll see!

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention ~
I've still got one opening in my Round Robin give-away. 
If you've got a blog & would like to participate,
I'd love to send you something!  See details here. 
♥

Chocolate Bunny? Check!

Once I added bunnies, the baskets came together just right.
I don't usually use the cellophane bag wrappers, but for these particular baskets I like how fancy & finished it makes them look.  

The little feather & glitter butterflies were the perfect toppers...
I hope the girls will have as much fun unwrapping them as I had putting them together ~ I can't wait!  :) 

I've made a lot of Easter {and other gift} baskets over the years, but something about these two reminded me of the big Easter baskets my Grandpa Tessandore brought me when I was little.  I didn't see him very often, but he would show up on holidays with enormous gifts and I was always just awe-struck.  Not really because of the gifts, but they were all part of my bigger-than-life impression of my Sheriff Deputy grandpa.  Here's one of my favorite photos of him as a young man...
He was the best.  ♥♥♥

Easter around the corner...

So, I probably shouldn't be allowed into Michaels within several weeks of any holiday.  Too temping!  I have no impulse control when it comes to all the goodies that accompany most holidays.  Luckily, I have several girls in my life that definitely need Easter baskets.  :) 

This tiny bird is sitting on a cute paper cupcake that opens up ~ leaving a perfect amount of room for jelly beans!
+Yellow fluff-chicks always remind me of these books, which are so clever & hilarious.

After more than an hour of blissed-out gathering at Michaels, I called the trip successful and came home to assemble all the treasures.  But ~ see that kind of blank space in the middle of the basket...?
I forgot the chocolate bunnies!   What's an Easter basket without a chocolate bunny?!   One more shopping trip to rectify that & I can wrap the baskets up to admire for awhile before they're delivered.  It's been a lot of giddy, hand-clapping fun for me.  I'm nerdy like that.  :)
Lastly, speaking of bunnies...please take a moment to check out these handmade beauties by Black Crow Primitives on Etsy.  I ordered this one for my daughter and couldn't wait for Easter, so gave it to her last week!  They're really well made.  Wonderful work, and I think very under-priced at about $30 each.  But at that price the artist is selling them, so maybe it's better to keep them affordable and have them find homes.  We're happy to have one in our home!  ♥

Art Night

This last weekend was the first Art Night get together!  I should have taken a "before" of the table, but here it is while we were right in the middle of our needle-felting fun.  Note the band aids & chocolate kisses - we were set for all eventualities! 

Penny made this cute brown hedgehog...
And Meg made a replica of their Volvo for her fiance.  It's even got a roof rack!
Pam made a sweet little nest with eggs & also a heart shape with a pin-back sewn on - wearable art!  My mom tweaked a couple projects she already had in the works ~ an easy chair for a critter to relax in and a teddy bear that needed a bit more padding in the rump.  (Didn't get a photo of everybody's work before we packed up...too busy chatting!) 

My daughter made some eggs in a frying pan, cooking over a camp fire.  She clearly has more patience than I do for details!  :)
Everyone went home with some needle felting supplies & ideas for new projects.  We're all looking forward to the next gathering in March ~ thanks girls!

#8 from my list ~ check!  ♥