Projects from the Scrap Heap

 I'm cleaning up my studio area so that I can get a fresh start at the new year. The question becomes "what do I do with the odds and ends that I don't want to toss?"

The small painting had been used for a floormat design and some others. the horse pattern was left from another project. I was considering combining them to create a unicorn painting to be used on children's merchandise.

I hated to work over that painting so i found the start of another one to paint over. I tried tracing the drawing over it but it didn't turn out so I painted white over the center before I tried again

Now I'm deciding how I want to paint it.

So far it's a mess but I think it's got potential. The great thing about these scrap projects is that you can unleash your creativity without worrying how much it's going to cost you.

 

To make this project fast and easy I decided to paint the unicorn white and hide it behind bushes to save myself the trouble of drawing the rest of the body then all I had to do is paint in a sky,

After that it was just a matter of adding some flowers and painting the mane.

A few more leaves and a bit of outlining finished the look that I was going for.

So far It's being used on Birthday and Get Well cards for little girls. I'm looking forward to find other ways and places to use it.

It sure beats having thrown it out. Don't you think so?

After all you never know where your best ideas will come from.

Lemonade Project:Making things out of whatever comes your way

I'm always making things out of anything that comes my way. In between all of the things I'm doing with the garden, the computer and the mail there's always some crocheting. It doesn't get much respect but it's really one of the ultimate "something out of nothing" projects. All you really need is a long strand or string of anything that's handy (I recently saw a show on television where a woman was crocheting large scale sculptures out of wire and fishing line...and people say I have crazy ideas...). The actual crocheting can be done with your hands, a regular crochet hook or a stick of some sort with a notch in it to pull the yarn with. As far as I'm concerned it's a magic trick of sorts that can be accomplished by almost anyone.

This week I finished another hat for charity and 4 potholders for various members of my family. There are no photos here because they're the same type that I always make and because I gave them away as soon as they were finished so there wasn't time to scan them.

I found the designs in my last post to be a "lemonade" project too. They all came from a corner of a photo of  lily leaves on the edge of my driveway. There are 3 or 4 iris that pop up over there in the course of a summer too but there won't be anything blooming over there for a couple of months and those will all be orange.

Orange is not my favorite color so I do consider that "life gives you lemons" so I loved the idea that I could create an abstract design out of them in so many different colors..."lemonade" indeed.

Why?????

Painting makes no sense but I can't stop. It's like breathing for me. When I stop I feel underwater which is kind of funny because because that's where my mortgage is these days.
Life is so funny, crazy, terrifying exciting and lovely...sometimes all at once.
Pain mended with love and wrapped in hope is like grafting a plant and grows into something beautiful. Some paintings take us on that journey or give us a glimpse of the wonder and some are just paint.
Each day when I grab a brush I don't know which it will be and I don't really care, I just NEED to paint. It would be nice if it paid bills but I can't let that into the mix. It changes things and kills the rare moments of magic that I live for.