Growing Tree Growth Chart

  I'm making a Growing Tree Growth Chart for my cousin's baby girl's 1st birthday. I got a 24"x48" canvas for an awesome price at Hobby Lobby.  My cousin wanted this to be as eco-friendly as possible, so I got acid-free paper, some is recycled, a cotton canvas with an acid-free dye, eco-friendly, non-toxic glue, natural jute cord, cork for the tree knots instead of wood and I tried to re-use as many materials as I could instead of buying new ones- I am also going to use re-used cardboard boxes and create a box so that I don't waste another box. I had initially thought of making the tree knots as labels for her age, height and the date of measurement, but I am using little wooden birds instead and will keep the knots as 3-D decoration instead.
  At the end I will put in a detailed list of what everything is and how it was done. All photos at this point are from an i-Phone so they are not the greatest quality but when all is said and done I will get some better photos with my Nikon. 

I'm only part of the way through and changes happen every moment- more to come!



This is the sketching phase to create a layout and see how everything will have to fit. 

 I started to glue tissue paper down relatively carefully - there are still wrinkles but it's flat in most areas, but I like that texture.  I then created the tree trunk with patterned paper and ripped it into 2"x3" pieces and glued it on to look like bark. I crinkled some pieces to give it some texture.

I have finished the sky (I may still do a blue wash over it to give it a good cover, but I'm not sure yet).  The tree is almost done, but I still have to finish the branch.  The owl is now complete.  The bird houses are going to be picture frames.  I'm deciding between the two knots right now - one made of wood and one of cork.  The biggest thing to do now is the leaves of the tree and I couldn't decide on what to do so I'm working on it........

It's really coming along now and I'm very pleased with it! I added the mushrooms and completed the picture frames.  I painted the birds and still have to add the label areas on them - these birds will be used as height markers - they are not fixed on the canvas now (nor will I ever fix them on but I will attach something to the back so they can be fixed to the canvas whenever a measurement is made).  I started the tree top and like the way it's coming, but of course, still more work to be done!!

At this point I am working mostly on the tree top (the leaves) and finishing up on the details.  There are a lot of little details to finish before it is totally done. 

Here is a pretty good picture of the finished product.  I'm really happy with the way it's turned out and am so excited to ship it out! I tried to make it pretty "1-year-old-proof " and it's hard to rip anything off besides the flowers, which are a little more delicate.  I love the way the picture frames turned out and it's pretty easy to change the pictures out - and you have to admit, Cedar is a beautiful little girl!!!
On my next post I will include a more detailed "list" of what things are and how they were done. 

Crochet Much?

Olek and the Bull

I ran across this picture while trolling the internet and it piqued my interest. I was checking out HGTV's blog, which has a fun, daily design inspiration, and I saw this incredible crocheted art installation by a New York-based Polish artist named Olek.  I went to her site and found a wild crocheted artist, and her work.  And I love it.  Not your typical Granny Square blankets, but crass quotes in bold colors, entire rooms crocheted and covered bicycles scattered around the city like neon cocoons.  She's crochet crazy and I like it!  That's why her site is my latest Funky Site.  I love crocheting and can get a little carried away but never like this and I'm  jealous.  Despite being a little crazy maybe, she's incredibly talented and creative. Here's a little taste of Olek.

This installation is named "Knitting is for Pus****".
I told you... she's a little wild....

This is Olek crocheting a bike.

txt machine

I love all her crazy quotes and the time stamp at the bottom of these pieces. The costumed person on the left is one of her outfits she crochets out of balloons.

These are her amazing bicycles and cars.

Check out her site to see all the incredible art Olek does.

Relic Rock

In the December 2010 issue of Guitarist magazine my brother, Adam, spotted something he liked. He ripped out two pages and handed them to me and said, "Do this" (you have to know my brother). A while ago, he had given me a Harmony electric guitar he had gotten from a friend years ago. All the hardware was missing or broken and he had carved his and Eric Clapton's initials all over the guitar (once again, you have to know Adam). He had asked me to paint it, design it, do whatever I wanted to it. I put it in my craft area and left it untouched for over a year now - every once in a while I'd pick it up waiting for inspiration... and nothing. I didn't want to do anything too tacky or young. I wanted it to be something he could keep his whole life and it would never lose it's relevance. In other words, I wanted to do something timeless, and I think this idea of "relic-ing" the guitar is perfect for him.  Of course, Guitarist was displaying '60s Fenders and I'm working with a 1992 (?) Harmony. It's still turning out well so far...
This is one of the guitars featured in Guitarist magazine. This is the one my brother really liked, without the "extreme relic" on the back, so this is about what I'm going for.

First thing's first, gotta take the old one apart.  You can see the E C carving in the front and an A in the top left.  There were also some scratches and initials in the pickguard (the black part). I unscrewed it all to sand and paint. 

This is the beginning stages of sanding. I'm using a round power sander with 40-grit sand paper. I loved this half-way look - I was tempted to keep it like this.  I have to sand the pickguard a little bit with fine grit sandpaper so the spray paint sticks.  I'll then spray the paint on evenly for about 4 or 5 coats. 

I put the guitar together just to check it out.

Here's the guitar sanded down bare.  The pickguard is painted white - only 3 coats at this point.  I'll do another 2 coats probably.  Once again, I love this version. I really want to keep it bare with the white and silver accents.  I love the bare light wood. 

I put the pickguard on to really see the white with the bare wood.  I love this!! Next step is priming and painting though. Then I have to distress it a bit to give it the worn look. 

This project will take some time and be delayed a little bit because of the weather.  I don't have a heated space to spray paint so I have to wait until the weather warms up a bit in order to start priming and painting the body.  I've been working slowly at getting the pick guard painted.


Progress to come!!!



Funky Site

"Funky Site" will be a periodic review of a cool site I come across. This time it's Re-foundobjects.com. Based in Corbridge, Northumberland, England, it looks like the quaintest shop in an English market town.

I checked the site out and loved everything but picked out some of the best things I saw.

Christmas List

Here are some Christmas items - some realistic, some a little dreamy............

This gorgeous coffee table is Greek-inspired, modern, and shabby chic at all the same time.  I want this!! This "Distressed Ionic Capital Coffee Table" is from Restoration Hardware and is $1695. I love that it's two found object-type pieces put together.  While we're on the Christmas wish-list thing... I would take the room, too! The chandelier and the white couches work perfectly with the coffee table.

This graphically painted dresser is from a store called Raval Warehouse in Argentina.  They have "vintage, modern furniture" and I'm all about it.  They have a great mix of super eclectic and simple classy pieces.

 

I recently discovered Re-foundobjects.com and found some great holiday decorations.  (Re-found has awesome found and recycled treasures for year round, too. Be sure to check out my "Funky Site" post on them.)

New Kitchen Clock

This is a clock I am working on right now. It was a cake decorating pan (that you set the cake on and turned it while you iced and decorated a cake). It was super wobbly and would never serve the purpose of a cake pan anymore. I pulled off the stand and the rotating disks between the stand and this tray. I widened the center hole and bought a clock kit from Michaels.

I now need to replace the clock hands with larger, darker hands so it's visible from a distance and add clock numbers (I may or may not add the numbers).

I love taking random objects and turning them into something useful again and I hate to throw stuff out because I'm convinced I'll be able to use it again somehow........Hopefully one day you don't see me on Hoarders.......    :)

 

Hay Mas Tiempo Que Vida

Hay Mas Tiempo Que Vida

I really love Dia de los Muertos icons and subjects.  Dia de los Muertos is the (largely) Mexican celebration of the dead.  Unlike in America, they try to celebrate the life of the dead, and not mourn the death of a life. The skulls are a playful, almost poking-fun-at-death figure that I love.  The saying "Hay mas tiempo que vida" means, there's more time than life.