Art of the month-Sketching/painting

So the Art of the month for the month of February is Sketching and painting (Drawing)

We will have a separate page for gallery of all the rocking sketches and paintings...

Keep following and enjoy THE ART :)

Paper Dogwood Flowers

How To make Dogwood Flowers:
1. Cut card stock into 5-inch squares. Fold a square in half, then fold in half again. Open square, and crease diagonally, reversing direction of fold; repeat to make another diagonal crease. 

2. Fold square back up along original creases. Trace petal template onto square. 

3. Cut out along open edges. Snip off a tiny bit of pointed tip; unfold flower. 

4. With an unused pencil eraser and green ink, stamp small marks at indents on each petal. 

5. Use a starburst-style stamp to mark center. Cut out leaves from green card stock. Secure flowers and leaves to branches with clear craft glue.

And your beautiful Dogwood Flowers are ready!

Using same procedure, you can even make this awesome Paper Cherry Blossom Display!!!

Tie-Dyed Leggings

Tools and Materials:
Soda ash
Water
Leggings made from 100 percent natural fiber, such as cotton or silk
Rubber bands
Jacquard Procion MX dye in a variety of colors
Squeeze bottles
Dawn detergent (or other mild or organic detergent)
Procedure:
1. Add 1 cup soda ash to 1 gallon of hot water. Soak leggings in this mixture for at least a half-hour. Remove leggings and wring out excess liquid.

2. Scrunch and gather tights everywhere except crotch area. Hold gathered areas in place with rubber bands.

3. Prepare up to six different colored dyes for the gathered areas of the leggings. In each squeeze bottle, mix 2 teaspoons dye with 4 ounces water, then add 4 more ounces to fill.

4. Starting with the color you want to be least prominent, squeeze dye into folds of fabric. Let dye drip onto fabric as you cover different areas, creating a trail of color.

5. Add remaining five colors, one by one, in the same manner.

6. Mix three more colors of dye in similar tones (for example: yellow, light yellow, dark yellow) for the background. One by one, completely saturate the leggings with these colors.

7. Let cure for 24 hours. Rinse thoroughly with cold running water, removing rubber bands once the water runs somewhat clear.

8. Wash with a mild detergent in warm water, avoiding detergents with harsh chemicals, which will remove the dye. Line dry or dry in a warm dryer.

Fabric-Punched Bouquet

Bring the beauty of flowers that never fade into your home with this surprisingly simple craft. These vintage-style keepsake bouquets includes pink violets, blue hydrangeas, and purple-and-gold pansies.

Tools and Materials:

• Lightweight fabrics, such as voile or Indian cotton
• Tray
• Medium paintbrush
• Liquid fabric stiffener, at crafts stores
• Petal and leaf craft punches
• Micro hole punch
• Floral pips (small wires with colored tips used to make silk flowers), at crafts stores
• Contact cement
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Green floral tape
• Floral tape
• Vase (optional)

Procedure:

1. Begin by punching fabric flowers: Lay a piece of fabric in a shallow tray. With a medium paintbrush, apply enough fabric stiffener to saturate, but not soak, the fabric. Let it dry, about 1 hour. Repeat with any remaining fabric.

2. Using craft punches, punch out petals and leaves as close together on the fabric as possible.
3. Using a micro hole punch, make a hole in the center of each bloom. Slip a pip through each hole, and secure it with a dab of contact cement.
4. To make a stem, cut a length of floral wire, and wrap it around each pip with green floral tape.
5. For leaves, glue floral wire to each one to create veins and stems. Wrap stems with floral tape.
6. Gather blooms and leaves into a bouquet, and either tuck them in a vase or wrap the stems in more floral tape to join them.

Embellished Felted Ugg Boots

These beautifully embellished Ugg boots are a unique handmade holiday gift sure to make the recipient think of you every time they wear them.

Tools and Materials:

• Olive branch, deer 1, deer 2, cedar tree, and snowman templates
• Crocheted UGG boots
• Permanent marker
• Iron-off stabilizer
• Foam
• Rubber bands
• Pins
• Felting needle
• Muslin
• Iron

Procedure:

1. Download and print olive branch template. Using a permanent marker, trace template onto an iron-off stabilizer.

2. Roll up 1 inch of foam and wrap with rubber bands; stick foam inside boot. Pin stabilizer to boot, felting branch through stabilizer. Begin felting olives. Pull away leftover stabilizer.

3. Place a piece of muslin over design and give it a little steam with iron to relax fibers.

Beaded Bags

1. CUT FABRICS

Using a pencil, lightly trace the shape of the bag onto the fabric you plan to bead. Cut that piece 1/2 inch to 1 inch smaller than the trace line. Trace again onto a contrasting piece of fabric, and cut 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch smaller than the trace line.

2. SEW BEADS AND TRIM

Stitch seed beads, bugle beads, and sequins onto smaller piece of fabric, or glue beaded trim directly onto bag. If the fabric has a pattern, accentuate it -- outline a polka dot with sequins, echo stripes or plaids with bugle beads, or dot seed beads onto flowers.

3. ATTACH TO BAG

Fold the edges of the beaded piece under, and stitch to larger bottom piece; spray adhesive to the back of bottom piece, and press to bag.

Here are your beaded bags...Ready :)

Heart-Shaped Pot Holders

Cooks seeking to renew the spark in their culinary lives need look no further: Creating heart-shaped pot holders is a charming way to add whimsy and color to your kitchen's decor. They also make sweet Valentine's Day gifts. After all, these mitts are warm and fuzzy inside and all heart on the outside.

What You'll Need:

• Cotton batting
• Pins
• Cotton fabric (3 stacks of 12-by-12-inch pieces)
• Bias tape
• Sewing machine
• Scissors
• Pot holder template

Procedure:

Step 1

Before you begin, enlarge pot holder template by 200%, print and cut out as indicated. Fold three layers of cotton batting in half; align batting template's straight side with fold; pin, and cut out. Fold three stacked 12-by-12-inch pieces of cotton fabric in half; align heart template's straight side with fold; pin, and cut out. Lay pocket template on one folded fabric heart; cut on diagonal line.

Step 2

Sew bias tape to straight edge of pockets; backstitch ends.

Step 3

Layer the pieces, starting with a fabric heart (face down), batting, another fabric heart (face up), and pockets (face up); pin. Sew outside edge, leaving 1/4-inch seam allowance. Trim edge as close to stitching as possible.

Step 4

Sew bias tape to heart, starting at top center, folding ends under.

Step 5

Sew 5-inch piece of bias tape, ends turned under, into a loop. Stitch to pot holder.

Heart Seals card making

Tug at your valentine's heartstrings with an embellished envelope. 

1. Cut out the hearts from colored card stock using a specialty hole punch (available at crafts stores). 
2. Poke two holes into each heart with a needle, then sew the hearts onto dual-capacity envelopes (buy your own or download this template) using the needle and silk beading cord. 
3. Secure stitches with a double knot on the backside of the flaps. 
4. After inserting the valentine, close the envelope by winding a 5-inch length of the cord in a figure-eight motion around the hearts.

Denim Covered Pencil Can

What you need:

• Large recycled can
• Recycled denim blue jeans with seam
• Patterned fabric scraps
• Colored denim scraps*
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun

What you do:

1. Cut enough denim to go around the can, positioning the seam at the top of the can. Hot glue the denim to the can and trim excess.
2. Cut the letters A R T from patterned fabrics. Hot glue the letters to colored denim. Trim around the letters so that each letter has a denim border.
3. Glue the letters to the denim covered can, overlapping each letter.

*Note: Color denim with clothing dye or paint with fabric paint.

Denim Craft: Colorful Flower Frame

What you need:

• Plain wooden frame
• Old blue jeans
• Dark blue acrylic craft paint
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Clothing dye or colorful acrylic paints

What you do:

1. Paint the frame with dark blue craft paint and set it aside to dry.
2. Cut green denim into thin strips of varying lengths for the flower stems. Glue them to the frame, ensuring you have three different heights of stems on each side of the frame.
3. Cur flower petals from different colors of denim, cutting them in the shape of a teardrop, six per flower. Glue the petals together to form each flower.
4. Cut circles from the colored denim for the centers of the flowers. Glue the circles to the centers then glue the flowers to the stems.

Notes:

The jeans we used were dyed with Rit clothing dye. Because you will not be washing these pieces of denim any longer, using regular acrylic craft paint is a totally acceptable alternative. Simply paint the denim, allow it to dry, then cut the shapes from the colored denim as described below.

Leaf People Craft

Materials Needed:

• Leaves
• Glue
• Wiggle Eyes
• Yarn
• Fabric and/or Scraps

Instructions:

1. Lay the leaf in front of you. 
2. Cut pieces of yarn and glue it along the top edge of the leaf to be the hair. 
3. Glue on the wiggle eyes just below the hair line. 
4. Use the scrap pieces of fabric or felt and cut out the appropriate shapes for clothes. 
5. Glue the clothes on and set your leaf people aside and let them dry. 
6. Hang them up!

Tree of Leaves Craft

• Age Guideline: 6 Years and Up
• Time Required: 30 minutes (Does not include drying time)

Materials Needed:

• 8" X 11" Picture Frame
• Leaves at Different Stages of Changing Colors

Instructions:

• Collect the leaves that you want to use. This is collected enough to create a picture that looked like a tree. Press them for 2 days to flatten and dry them.
• Take the back off of the picture frame. You can simply use the blank, back side of the page in the frame or you can use your own piece of paper. 
• Place the piece of paper on top of all of the picture frame parts ( the backing and the cardboard piece that comes with it to hold picture tight on in the frame). 
• Arrange the leaves any way you like on the piece of paper.
• Carefully put the glass on top of your arrangement and slip it all into the frame. Before you close up the back, make sure the leaves look how you want them. Hang and enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this craft project....

Types of Crafts

Maybe you’re been working in the crafts field for awhile and would like to branch out into a different or complimentary type of craft. To help you along, here is a basic list of different types of crafts.

1. Textile Crafts

These include any type of craft where you work with fabric, yarn or surface design. Some examples are knitting, quilting, appliqué, weaving and dyeing. Many of these could obviously also fall into the decorative or fashion crafts categories, since the finished good is sold as a sweater or wall hanging. However, they are technically textile crafts since it all starts with the fabric.

Silk fabric dyeing very is appealing to the creative mind as the dye can either flow freely across the fabric or you can use resist to make the dye form different shapes.

2. Paper Crafts

As the name implies, paper crafts have to do with well – paper! The grown up version of this is wood engraving. Other paper crafts include papier-mache, calligraphy, and papermaking.

Many people also hand cut their own stencils from plastic to create the same effect on paper.

3. Decorative Crafts

Furniture making, metalwork, stenciling, stained glass, gilding, spongeware, surface design of walls such as trompe l'oeil, basketry and dried flowers fall into the category of decorative crafts. This category also includes toy making.

Lately, I’ve seen a trend in combining furniture making with metalwork. Arts and crafts and home décor magazines are showcasing a lot of furniture constructed from wood but with metalwork legs or trim. The metalwork tends to be very industrial looking but there is a good amount of ornate metalwork added in as well.

4. Fashion Crafts

 This type of crafts encompasses all the elements of dressing the human body: jewelry, hats, leatherwork (shoes, belts, handbags) and garments. This craft type will naturally intersect other craft types since jewelry can be made through metalworking and garments are fabricated by sewing – which can be classified as a textile craft.

If you’re looking to have your craft work showcased in magazines such as In Style magazine, this is your area of craft discipline. Pursuing a fashion magazine with relevant press releases or kits is a great way to get free attention that should turn into a sizable increase in sales.


 5. Functional Crafts

Many of the four other types of crafts can also be classfied as functional. For example, decorative pottery is made with components that are okay for your customers to eat from such as serving platters or utensils. Many furniture crafts are primarily functional but can also be quite decorative.

Obviously, to attract the widest possible customer base, it's good to have functionality built into your art or craft. Many times customers who won't shell out the big bucks for an original creation just because of it's good looks will justify the cost because it can also be used in day-to-day life.