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Resting, Sewing & Our Weekly Challenge

September 6, 2021 Leave a Comment

I am sitting with a cup of tea writing this. We spent yesterday at a family gathering where we gifted the anniversary journal I made a few weeks ago. It was a nice day but today is my re-coup day and I am very grateful for the current silence in our home.

We are almost fully moved out of our old bedroom. I have 2 small boxes to go through and then a bookshelf and our closet which should go pretty quickly. I am planning to start painting tomorrow as we would love to have the room done in time to surprise our daughter with her new bedroom for her birthday. The painting should go pretty quickly so I’m feeling pretty confident we can get it all done.

For this week’s challenge I realized I completed it without realizing I had! We had ordered a birthday dress for my youngest that she was also going to wear to yesterday’s party. There was an issue with delivery so come Friday (2 days before the party) she had no dress. I broke my “Creative Detox” just a tiny bit to pull up a video tutorial to walk me through making this really sweet dress.

I couldn’t be happier with how the dress came out! It was lined and absolutely adorable. If you remember last week’s challenge was to use a supply you have but hardly use. For me that’s my fabric stash and my sewing machine. I tend to overbuy my fabric when I buy it for a specific purpose and I also tend to sew a bunch and then not sew for a while. So for my daughter’s dress I decided to raid the stash for a pretty fabric with a matching coordinating fabric I could use for the lining. The fabric I chose was also used last spring to make a throw pillow for our bed. It’s bright and happy and looked really adorable on my daughter. I still want to take a better photo of her in the dress but this is what I have for now.

So I was able to use my sewing machine which was collecting dust along with some fabric that was stored away. I do plan on keeping this challenge in my mind to boost my creativity and use up some of those supplies. I want to start clearing out the cabinets and cupboards and get to making more things than I purchase. I also want to start sharing more of what I am making with others how about you? Please do comment below and let me know what item you have in your stash that you hardly use.

Don’t forget to add your links to our link party. If the party is already closed feel free to comment below with the link to your blog post so we can stop by and see what you did for the weekly challenge.

The challenge for this week is to do something with a book/journal theme.

I cannot wait to see what you make! Be sure to add your links to the link party below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

I’m also sharing this post with my hand sewn dress over on Sew Can Do as party of Cheryl’s Craftastic Link Party.

Tea, Playing with Clay & Still Moving

August 30, 2021 Leave a Comment

I hope your week is starting off magical. I am sitting here with a lovely cup of tea and a pretty quiet house finishing up this week’s challenge. Do you have any creative plans for this week? I find that I do best when I have a list of projects I would like to work on in lots of different mediums. Those are the weeks I feel I have the most creative time and most importantly the most fun with my creative time.

This week I am still finalizing the move from our old bedroom into the new. I was very tired this weekend so I didn’t get it all done as I had hoped however I did make lots of headway last week. I am still hopeful we can have the room cleared out this week and I can start painting. We made some changes on the paint color and are going to use the same color we used in our new room. It’s a soft yellow and I love that it’s neutral enough to go with pretty much any color bedding we decide to put in there. Since my daughter will be starting out in a pink toddler bed I think this is a great color choice and will give her a really bright and happy room.

I am currently waiting for my weekly challenge to finish cooking in the oven. If you remember last week’s challenge was to finish a project that’s been on your table for a while. I have been making a magical dream tree for months now. It’s from a tutorial I found on Jennibellie’s YouTube channel where she made a wishing tree I think she called it. I made the basic mold for this last year sometime and then it sat on my desk. I finally started covering the armature with paper clay this year and I really enjoyed the process. It’s taken a while as I would do bit by bit and let it sit as I thought about the colors I would paint it. Once it was all covered with clay I gave it a few coats of paint and really loved how it turned out. I noticed it could still use a touch up here and there but I just love all the texture and warmth it has.

With the tree completed I wanted to add stars to it that I could write my magical dreams on and hang from the tree and that’s where I was having trouble.

I had made a few using air dry clay but they didn’t come out the best and as I was painting them I was liking them less and less. Today I decided to give my polymer clay a shot and I cut out about 15 stars using silver polymer clay, added a hole in the top for string and baked them in the oven. Even after baking they were still a little flimsy so I covered them with 2 coats of triple thick. To add the string (once they were dry) I used a needle threader and added some white embroidery floss. A few of them tore in the process of me re-punching the holes from where the Triple Thick gathered and I wasn’t too hopeful with them. However once I wrote my dream and hung them on the tree I was really happy with how they had turned out.

On a side note my son had made a clay monster probably the beginning of the year that I hadn’t baked yet. At the time I figured we would be making more polymer clay creations that week and sadly his little monster just sat collecting dust. So into the oven he went with the stars (after a good cleaning). I have to say, I really love the little orange monster. I asked if I could share a photo with you but my son said not yet. If he changes his mind I will be sure to add it.

Don’t forget if you took part in last week’s challenge to share your your link on last week’s blog post here. If the link party has already closed out when you go over please do comment below with a link and share your completed project. I would love to see what you finished!

For next week I thought I would continue with a little broader of a theme and challenge you to use something you already have but hardly ever use. It could be a stamp set you purchased (or stamps in general if you don’t use them much in your crafting) or any medium. It could be a color you have but just never paint with or a set of markers or pens. The challenge isn’t to buy something new but to use something you have but either haven’t used yet or hardly ever use. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Hermione, Journal Making, Moving Rooms and What I’m Working on Wednesday

August 25, 2021 Leave a Comment

Welcome to another WIWOW! I have really been enjoying this series. It’s nice to look back and be reminded of some of the projects I am working on.

You may remember my little felt Harry Potter doll I made for my daughter’s friend. Well, I had an idea on how to improve him a bit so I thought I would make a second doll for the gift. In the end we all decided the original was the best one and so he is still going off to his new home this weekend. The second Harry went to my son who had been admiring it. He was quite happy when I offered it to him.

I also started Hermione and finished her up today. she really came out cute and I am so happy I was able to get her all done and I have Mr. Ron Weasel all cut out waiting to be stitched. So these 3 cuties will be off to their new home soon and I will definitely be making another set one of these days for my own collection. And I imagine for my kids as well.

I finished the anniversary journal for my husband’s parents that I mentioned in an earlier post. I am really happy with how the cover turned out and I did something different with the inside. I covered 2 pieces of cardboard in coordinating fabric to match the spine and then adhered them on the inside. I love how it looks and it adds some nice weight to the book. I also tried out a new binding technique I found on The Paper Outpost’s channel. It worked great and I think it’s going to be my new go-to binding technique.

If you remember we decided that instead of filling the album with photos from the last 50 years we are going to make it a bit of a challenge journal. My husband came up with the idea inspired by my daughter’s love for her Wreck this Journal by Kerri Smith. His idea was to add challenges for his parents to complete such as taking a photo in front of a mountain or a photo with a stranger.

I love the idea since any of the photos we would be adding to the album they already have and have seen a million times. We are going to include some photos of them and the family but only about 6 or so and then let them enjoy filling it up. They love to travel so I think it will be fun for them. Plus I thought we could have all the guests at their anniversary party add a photo prompt for them. So now it’s a photo album but also a memory book.

Another project I am working on is a cardinal sculpture. I have made it out of Paper Clay and I love the shape and the color but I am not as in love with the eyes. I am may try some dimensional eyes instead of painting them on to give it a bit more interest. I was able to sculpt some feet and I decided I really wanted him to be whimsical like my Self-Care doll so I added some decoupaged old book pages. I am also on the hunt for some fallen branch that I can use to attach him to. I am enjoying sculptures specifically whimsical mixed media type pieces and they give me a lot of joy when I see them in my home.

Last week I finished painting our bedroom and we moved in over the weekend. We have quite a bit of stuff moved in (my creative corner is almost completely set up and I am already using it) but still have some things to move down or decide to let go of completely. I like how contained everything feels now and I am finding having my creative space on the first floor is working so well. I can come in and work for little snippets of time throughout the day. It’s also turned into everyone’s favorite hangout which makes getting in some creative time that much easier. With any luck we will be completely moved out of the old room and ready to paint it for my youngest daughter next week.

I did have a play on Monday with my acrylic inks-the first project I worked on in my new creative corner. It was for last week’s challenge (you can see it here) and I had so much fun! Initially I didn’t think much of the piece-just something fun I made that had a nice childlike quality but the more I see it the more I really like it and I think I will be working more with black and white inks.

The last little item on my desk is a mixed media piece I started Thursday during my Artist Date in My Mobile Art Studio. I have been doing and re-doing this piece a lot over the past week and a half. I just can’t seem to get the face right and I am thinking of leaving it off completely. I originally was thinking of her as a bit of a self-portrait so I made her blonde but I decided today to change her hair color and it seems to work better. For now I’m going to call her done and make her the first piece for my new cardboard journal.

If you are interested in learning more about My Mobile Art Studio and my cardboard journal I am going to be blogging about them over on my other site The Creative Spiritualist. That site is also going to hold all my art journaling, journal making and energy art so if you are interested please stop by and say hello.

Well that’s about everything I have going on now. I hope this post finds you well and able to get in some creative time. I will see you all again on Monday with our weekly challenge. Are you taking part? You can join in all the challenge fun here.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Resource Section

The Paper Outpost: This is where I learned the hidden spine binding technique for the journal.

Baul de la Malinka: This is the Etsy shop where I purchased my Harry Potter felt doll patterns. There is a 3 pack that includes Harry, Ron & Hermione that I opted for.

*Note: All of the items listed above are being shared for your convenience. I purchased any and all materials with my own money and have not be paid or sponsored in any way for sharing these items. I share them because I like them and I love supporting small business. I hope you find them useful!

Cats, A New Creative Space, Ink Blots & The Weekly Challenge

August 23, 2021 Leave a Comment

As I wrote the title for this post I am finding the irony in last week’s challenge word.

As you may remember we have been rearranging rooms in our home and my husband and I just moved our bedroom downstairs this past weekend. Our intention was to make the room pet free and that lasted about 10 minutes. For the past 3 days our new bedroom has been the favorite room in the house for, well, everyone!

I am still setting up my creative space and we still have quite a bit to take out of the old room but I’m hopeful to get that all moved around this week and then next week I can hopefully focus on painting the room for my youngest daughter. I have just started a 30 Day Creativity Retreat so I should have plenty of time. (You can read about and follow my Creativity Retreat on my other site if you like).

I did manage to film a creative corner tour and I hope to get the footage edited and up for you to see and then I do promise to share a tour of my little creative corner in our new room. For now though, I still have some work to do.

If you remember last week’s creative challenge word was: Cats. In all honestly I completely forgot about the challenge until last night before bed so I am a little late getting today’s post up. I had been reading Carla Sonheim’s book “Drawing & Painting Imaginary Animals” and I was really enjoying it. I am looking forward to picking it back up after my 30 days are up but in the meantime I thought I would have a play with ink blots to make my cat.

First, I started with a sheet in my mixed media sketchbook (It’s a Canson mixed media which I love-the one with the blue cover) and I wet the paper and used my acrylic inks to drop colors onto the wet areas. I could sit and watch the colors spread for hours it’s so pretty. Once I did a few splotches I dabbed up some excess water and let them dry.

My hope was that at least one would take shape as a cat.

It didn’t.

They all somehow seemed like Halloween characters to me and so I lightly added some details and wrote down what I saw in each blot. At first I was feeling a little disappointed with my artistic skills wishing I could more correctly convey what my mind was seeing. Then I remembered that this is supposed to be fun and since a cat didn’t emerge the first time I could just go again. So I did.

No cat.

This time I saw a horse and I realized that these were just really fun and great warm up exercise for me to get playing with my creativity. Instead of starting with an ink splotch I decided to sketch out a cat. Initially I thought about looking up an image online then I remembered my Offline Retreat and took a look at the 2 cats snoozing on my bed. (See, the no pets in the bedroom thing was a terrible idea!)

It’s a very childlike cat but you know I had so much fun making it! I loved the black and white look-something I never do and I really enjoyed blending my Stabillo graphite pencil to blur the cat. To be honest I liked it best before I added to it but it’s such a great way to learn and to play. I learned how much I liked working in black and white and with a simple graphite pencil so I am going to be sure and play more this week.

So that is my challenge for last week. For this week I thought it would be fun to do something a little different. Instead of a word prompt I am going to challenge you to: finish a project. Take something you maybe picked up but have worked on lately or maybe something that is close to being done but you didn’t quite get there yet. Pick anything you want and be sure to share your link below and check out some of the other creatives and what they are up to. I will be coming back to this post when my 30 day retreat is up to see all that you have shared. I cannot wait!

I did film a process video that you can check out below. I left in the first ink blot attempts and I would love to hear what you see in the images.

Music by Joystock – https://www.joystock.org

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Mobile Art Studio: The Journey Begins

August 17, 2021 Leave a Comment

Happy Tuesday to you. I hope you are finding your week is going along well and that you have maybe even managed to get in some creative time. Even if it’s not a lot-a quick sketch on a napkin or a doodle is all you need to show your creativity how important it is to you. I hope you can do that for yourself this week. This post is planning to be a long one so you may want to make yourself a cuppa sit back, relax and enjoy. Or, if you just click here because the idea of a Mobile Art Studio is really appealing and you want to learn what that is exactly, click here and you can jump to the video where I attempt to tell it all in a more concise manner all from the inside of my mobile studio. As for you daring folks, drink in hand, who have decided to read on-I hope you enjoy! A few weeks ago I was taking part in an online class and the topic of Artist Dates came up (if you are unfamiliar with the concept an artist date comes from Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist Way” and the idea is that once a week you venture out solo to refill your creative well.) I shared in this class that I was being called to make my minivan into a mobile art studio and venture out once a week on a little solo adventure. I also mentioned that I really want to gather with a group of fellow creatives and have creative camping weekends but until I found such a group I thought it was a great idea to start this solo adventure. A way to call in the energy of what I was seeking so to speak. The group loved the idea and the woman leading the class said that she totally could see me sharing the whole series on my blog with photos of my mobile studio and that I need to run these creative camping weekends! She went on to say that she saw me appearing in a Stampington magazine with my van. It was so sweet and genuine and totally scary because I had already been called to all this by my lovely spirit guides/muses. In fact as she was saying this, sitting beside me was an image I had just 2 days before cut out from a Stampington magazine. The image was for my New Moon page and was of a bus that had been converted into a backyard art studio. I had taken the image out because I had wanted to call in the energy I needed to start my little minivan mobile studio. I have to say I do love synchronicity and I believe wholeheartedly that The Universe loves to speak with us in fun and unique ways. For me, this felt like The Universe giving a physical voice to the calling they had been whispering to me the past few weeks. Telling me that I was on the right track and this was where my creative work needed to start. So what can I do with a such an idea but run with it? I am a big picture person. I can instantly jump 5 years into the future and see the amazing thing that can be created. I see what this site can be and do and what my other sites can be and do and to be honest? Seeing things that way is awesome however it can make it hard to actually get anything done. Having ideas like I want to make a zine and do podcasts and videos and road trips and share them here-wow it’s so cool and it fills me with a kind of energy where I feel like I am bouncing around inside a pin ball machine. Grounding that energy? Finding a starting point? Doing something small like write a blog post for this huge idea?! This idea is huge it needs so much! Only, it’s just an idea right now. It’s not the big picture awesomeness that I see in my mind. Not yet. So, I am learning to ground the energy and start where I am instead of leaping to the finish line. I am learning to do one thing. Like learn to camp. Yea, my whole life I have been on one camping trip. Ever. So perhaps, learning to camp would be a cool thing to do before say, hosting a camping group? Probably 🙂 Of course, I don’t have to learn to camp today. I don’t need to camp to start. And that’s where the mobile studio idea came to me. I have been watching a lot of minivan home tours on YouTube. These awesome people have turned their mini vans or regular vans into a home on wheels. I mean, that is freakin’ cool. A home on wheels? That is my retirement plan. Well, actually, my retirement plan is to not retire because I am doing all this really cool creative work and why would I ever want to retire from that? Living in a van though? Traveling the country? Traveling the continent? Yea, definitely doing that. Right now however there are 5 people in my family, 2 dogs, 5 cats, a rabbit named Frank and 2 guinea pigs. So living in a van now? Well, it would have to be a really, really amazing van. Still, I love watching the van tours. It is also what sparked the idea to make my mini van into a mobile studio. I don’t have plans to camp in my van just yet but I did think it would be a lot of fun on the weekends to convert my minivan into a mobile studio. I have claimed my weekend mornings for my work so being able to hit the road, be in my own space for a while, find some pretty spots to pull over, open up the hatch and create sounds pretty cool. It’s a lot cheaper than rent for a studio space, I can move it wherever I want if I find I have some noisy neighbors plus I can hit the Starbucks drive-thru so really it’ a win all around! Now, I am someone who when I throw myself into things I go full on. Fortunately my amazingly supportive husband is my grounding wire and is totally supportive (and even a little excited) for my idea but is helping me take those needed baby steps without going overboard, head first into shark infested waters. “You keep me safe and I’ll keep you wild.” Pretty much could have been our marriage vows. So, here is my mini plan. I am going to start planning out little minivan adventures. I am going to have an art bag and I will be adding some cute items to make the van feel cozy and homey and inspiring to work in. I am going to plan (hopefully) at least 1 mini adventure (or as my friend Michael Nobbs would say, “tiny adventure”) a month. I will have a destination point that I can drive to and from in one day but the real destination is the drive. I want to explore, follow where the wind takes me and see where I stop, where I end up and what I do with the time I am exploring. I might pull into a parking lot because a song lyric spoke to me and now I have to write/paint/draw. I might drive to a Starbucks 45 minutes away just because it’s a prettier drive than the one 10 minutes from my house. (Not might, I actually do this regularly. Love it.) What I hope this will be is fun, inspiring and a neat adventure to chronicle. Want to join in? That would be lots of fun and really cool! What I hope is that you will be inspired to start where you are with what you have. I never, ever, ever want to promote the idea that any of us need anything other than what we currently hold in our possession to get anywhere we want to go. So while I love to look at the neat things people buy and awesome craft supplies and goodies the whole point of what I am doing here is to start here. I don’t need to go out and buy things-no one does. The point is to begin right where I am and let this be an evolution. I want this to be a journey where I am focusing on the journey and never on an end destination. (As cool as those creative camping workshops I am going to host are going to be it’s still not about that-yet). So maybe you don’t have a mini van maybe you have compact car. Awesome-start there. Maybe you don’t drive or don’t have a car. Great-start there. You just need an adventurous heart you don’t need wheels. If all you can do is sit on the balcony of your apartment and watch the world under your feet-let that be your mobile studio. If you can wander to a park bench or an outdoor cafe let that be your mobile studio. If you aren’t able to leave your bed or chair make a bag of goodies that you love and inspire you and let that be your mobile studio. You need to buy nothing, you don’t need to be anything more than you are right now. Let’s adventure together meeting up where we are and as we are right this moment! So what am I planning to do? Well, during the week Mary Margaret is still the vehicle we use to adventure in as a family. However, because of the genius that came up with the idea of stow-and-go seats, my plan is to easily convert her into my mobile studio in less than 10 minutes and then back again to the awesome grocery-getter that she is during the week. She’s kind of like a creative super hero going from Mom Car to Awesome Creative Mobile Studio Star in a single fold. Next week I am going to share my first creative play in my mobile studio. I had just over an hour to play with some creative supplies and try out of my set up. If you would like to see that post be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and I will send it out to you when it’s live next week. I hope you will join me in forming your own version of a mobile studio and if you are please comment below. I want this site to have it’s own little community. A place where we can all start to recognize one another and share our creative journeys as we go. So please comment below and let me know what you think and what your plans are for your own mini-adventures. If you would like to watch my little welcome video to this new series you can check it out below. I originally created this post and video with the intention of sharing it on a separate blog I have called The Creative Spiritualist. Having been journeying with all this for a bit now I have decided to just keep all my creative work here on The Dreaming Dilettante. I am forever trying to separate out aspects of myself and I think my life is showing me that we are meant to show up wholly ourselves-not just in little pieces so I am joining the two blogs together here. I wanted to mention that so when you see the intro of the video you aren’t confused 🙂 I do have a site that I have dedicated to my spiritual journey that I will be keeping separate for now. I think of it as my ministry page and it is still in it’s early stages but I would love for you to visit it here if you feel called. Until next time… Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

The Making of a Mobile Art Studio & Weekly Challenge #4

August 16, 2021 Leave a Comment

I am sitting in my writing spot on a gorgeous Sunday. If I am being honest, I should be making dinner but instead I am enjoying some crafting time and catching up on my blog writing.

It feels so good to me when I make time for my creativity. It can be 10 minutes or 2 hours but carving out time each day to do something, make something, paint something or sketch something makes all the difference in not only my well-being but in the way I perceive and interact with the world. It’s always wonderful to be reminded that the better I take care of myself the more love and light I can share with those around me.

This week I got back into my weekly Artist Dates. If you are unfamiliar with the concept it comes from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way where she talks about going out on your own to refill your creative well with something that you love or inspires you. For me it’s usually a drive, maybe a visit to a local garden center, or my latest creation-my Mobile Art Studio. I am just working on editing together some videos and sharing my weekly adventures but if you are interested you may want to check out my new site The Creative Spiritualist where I will be share the whole adventure. (Don’t worry I am still keeping this site going!).

One of the things I have been having a lot of fun with this week is playing with clay. I shared my Self-Care Doll in this post (and every time I look at her through out the day I smile so she really is a bit of magic) and I am delving more and more into the world of Paperclay. If you haven’t tried it you may want to as it is so much fun. You can also use Air Dry Clay which I used for completing last week’s challenge.

You may remember I let my oldest daughter pick our challenge for last week and she chose cupcakes. I knew right away that I wanted to make something out of clay so I pulled out the air dry clay and had some fun. I was inspired by this video where she made a cupcake trinket box. Her box was large and required a few days to dry and as I waited until the weekend for this challenge I didn’t have the time. Instead I made a mini version and I couldn’t be happier with them!

Sure they are wonky and lopsided but to be honest that is something I love out of clay pieces. I don’t know if it makes me feel like a kid again but when I see whimsical, bumpy, lopsided clay pieces I just always smile-and these little guys really made me grin!

I painted the bases in different colors-each one is one of my kids favorite colors and then for sprinkles I used all 3 colors to give it a bit of uniform look and have it feel more like a set. It was a lot of fun and because of their size the clay dried overnight and the paint dried almost immediately so I was able to go through and paint all 3 in about an hour. I finished them all off with a gloss varnish. I did notice when I was taking photos a few spots that need touch up that I will take care of but otherwise they are done and super cute!

Their mini size makes me think of storing something really magical inside. My daughter suggested glitter but I am almost thinking a secret treasure of some kind. I even have some mini crystals that would be perfect for inside.

I hope you had fun with last week’s challenge. For this week we are leaving the food theme behind and going to something a little more cuddly.

This week’s challenge is: Cats.

I cannot wait to see what you make!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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