A Gathering Apron

I am part of an amazing group of ladies who meets once a month and back in March, we drew names for an apron swap.  As soon as I drew the name of who I was going to sew an apron for,  I knew exactly what I was going to make for her.   I remembered that I had stumbled upon a tutorial for a gathering apron at The Cottage at Frog Creek during some late-night blog browsing and it was just perfect for my friend!  She is an organic farmer and also has over 100 chickens that she raises that lay the most beautiful eggs that I have ever seen.

The apron came together very quickly and I was given the opportunity to practice my button hole making skills....there are 4 botton holes along the bottom of the skirt.   

I chose a darker fabric that would hide stains and usage, because I wanted her use this apron, not keep it hanging up in her kitchen. 

To gather the skirt up, you simply thread the ribbon through the botton holes along the hem of the skirt, pull up the fabric and then tie the ribbon.  This holds the skirt in place and creates a large pocket to collect produce from your garden or fresh eggs.....well, anything that you want to collect really. ;-)

The only change that I made was that I used red, dot fabric for the lining.  The tutorial uses muslin.  The only reason why I made this change is because I bought the wrong width of muslin and I didn't have time to run to the fabric store to buy more.  Luckily, I had a large enough piece of fabric that matched in my stash!  I'm actually really glad that this happened, because I love having the lining red. :-)

Here is the matching tag that I made to go on the gift bag~

This was the first thing that I have sewn for quiet awhile!  Having a new baby has really cut into my sewing time.  It's a lot easier for me to work on my art journal right now, because I can leave everything out in my studio and work on it throughout the day.  I can't do that with a sewing project, because I sew at our dinner table.  It sure did feel good to be sewing again though!  I didn't realize how much I'd been missing it.  :-)

I'm finishing up a journal page about the Joplin tornado today and I will share it soon.....

Happy Friday everyone and I hope you have time to be creative today!

God Bless!

di

Brave Girls Club - Soul Restoration journal pages

I have been taking the Brave Girls Soul Restoration Workshop these past few weeks and I am really enjoying it.  I only wish that I had more time to really dig deep into each weeks assignments, but I am taking what I can from each week and trying to remember that were I am in my life right now, I just don't have a lot of free time.  I am actually several weeks behind in watching the videos and such, but slowly catching up.  Thank goodness we have a few weeks of extra time after the workshop, because I need it!

I wanted to share with you the journal pages that I have completed so far.  Many of them do not have journaling on them, or I took the picture before I journaled on them, because this is a private journal where I've been writing down lots and lots of junk that needed to come out and get acknowledged, so I could move on to brighter and better times.  :-)

The cover of my Moleskin journal

The girl was clipped from an ad in a magazine. I hand-cut the earth and adhered it in her hands (which were originally holding flowers)

The background was created by painting several colors of acrylic paint onto masking tape and then tearing the tape into strips before placing it on the journal page.

Gel medium transfer with pieces of magazine ads for the house and the grass was created by layering several pieces of patterned paper.

 My first time attempting to draw/paint a face.

The girl is from an ad clipped from a magazine and adhered to the page using image transfer with gel medium.

Hand-drawn and painted bird....

Playing with color washes and a butterfly template.

Bottom layer of this background was created by rubbing distress ink over paper, wetting with a water and then placing plastic wrap over it until it dried.  Flourish is a template with colored modeling paste.

So those are the journal pages that I have completed so far!  I know that this will be an art journal that I will be adding to for a very long time.....I have so many journaling prompts waiting to be turned into pages.  I have been trying to do something different for each one....try and learn a new technique...so I am really enjoying this in so many different ways.

Thanks for looking and I will be sharing more of what I have done for the Soul Restoration Workshop with you soon....there is more! :-)

Take care and God Bless!

di

me time - art journal page

We had a power outage today for over two hours and by some wonderful luck, both of my little ones took a nap at the same time!  So, I ran to my studio and I was able to do this page in my art journal.  I just bought the clock face die cut by Tim Holtz and I was thrilled to have some free time to play with it! :-)  I had a hard time getting good pictures, because I snapped these in between rain showers!

Take care and I hope that everyone stays safe tonight....so many terrible storms are ripping across the midwest right now....it's been another wild day....

God Bless,
di

free- art journal page

Quickly sharing a art journal pages that I finished last night....I a dear friend challenged me to use my Tim Holtz bird cage die and this is what I came up with!

I hope that you are all doing well.  Sending up lots of prayers for everyone that has been affected by all of the severe weather in the midwest this week and for those who are still in danger due to this strong line of storms traveling across the United States.  I am a Missouri girl and lived in Joplin for a year or so and I have family just north of Joplin in Webb City.  So, this has been a stressful past few days.

Take care and God Bless,
di

discover - art journal page

Here is a page that I started on last night and just completed this morning......it was inspired by a stamp that I have that says, "The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust."  I wanted to play in my journal last night but wasn't sure what to do, so after rummaging through a draw full of stamps and finding that quote, I knew it was a good place to start! :-)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I have to go clean now....I have company coming today and I've been spending all week playing in my art journal than cleaning my house!

Take care and I hope you have time to be creative today!
God Bless!
di

Seek - art journal page

After a bit of a tough day yesterday and chatting w/ a dear friend, I was inspired to do this page..... Not to get all preachy with you all, but things have been tough and I had pretty much put my Bibles up on the shelf and had forgotten about them.  Until my friend asked about them yesterday when talking to me about what was troubling me so much.  So, I went in to my studio, pulled out my Bible, randomly opened it up and this was the first verse that I read......and, it was exactly what I needed to read.

So, all day I had this page stuck in my head.  I'm not sure how else to explain it. lol  Once I get an idea in my head about something that I want to, or rather need to, create, I'm restless until I'm able to get it out.  Sometimes I even have to get up in the middle of the night to get things out or I can't sleep!  I wasn't able to start working in my journal until around midnight and was able to work on it all night until I finished it. :-)

Thanks for visiting me today to see what I've created and I hope that you are able to do something creative today!

God Bless!
di

busy, busy, busy!

Well, it's been a long time since I've been able to blog!  I have been so busy w/ my new little one.....he's almost 4 months old now!  I can't believe that!  Plus, my oldest son is graduating from high school....then so many other things that I won't bore you with....I'll just say that a lot has been going on. ;-)

So, for awhile, I'm going to try to just add pictures of the things that I've been creating and keeping the talk short and sweet.  I have found a wonderful way for me to express my creativity - art journaling.  And, I've been spending more of my free time working in my art journal.  So, not much sewing for me lately.  It's been a lot easier for me to play in my art journal than to work on sewing projects right now.....that's just too much for me w/ a 4 month old and an almost 4 year old running around the house.  :-)

Here is what I did yesterday in my art journal:

I have been watching tons of videos on YouTube and UStream about art journaling and I have learned so much!  I will share with you my favorite places in another post.  But, I do have to tell you that the art journaling community is full of the most amazing people!  I have met so many kind and talented people! I think it's like that with all creative groups though.....everyone is so generous and kind!

Take care everyone and I hope you all have been doing well!
God Bless,
di

I'm hoping on updating my blog every day here for awhile, just to catch you up on everything that I've made these past few months, so be sure to come back and visit often!