Smeepins goes to Hogwarts

Smeepins has the sorting hat on his noggin - can you tell which house he wants to be sorted in?

I'm watching all the Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the last movie's premier. Tonight we are watching tiny Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Octoby the Octopus Magnet

Hey, it's another plaster fridge magnet. Octoby likes long squishy swims in the ocean and eating fortune cookies.


Goofing around with Picnik on Flickr - look he's in the ocean on my fridge!

Pileated Woodpecker

I was requested to draw a pileated woodpecker with markers. It has Craaaaazy mohawk feathers!

The under drawing. 

Thanks for the inspiration tonight Desiree :) 

Put A Bird On It

I spent most of the evening trying to learn a bunch of sophisticated stitches for my embroidery class. I'm making a sampler of sorts. It went.......okay. I think I left my StitchinBrain at work under the desk. I was having trouble following directions. I have to rework some of it later this week.

So, at the end of the evening, I used one of the new stitches I feel confident I learned. It is the Coral Stitch and I used it to make this bird. The stitch makes little knots along the line of stitching and works up pretty quickly. The bird is small enough it could go on a onesie like my little sheep from a few days ago.

Why a bird? Watch this video.... it gets totally odd at the end...I like the beginning part best

Nightbear

My head is still aching more than it has in a long time. I managed to make it through work today. I doodled this spooky little bear creature, traipsing across a purple meadow. The wind is blowing and the moon is glowing.


Before photo-processing.

Patriotic Zebra

I have a massive headache today so I colored this with an app on my phone. *hides head under a pillow from firework booms*

Joe the Alien

"Hey howdy hey!", says Joe the Alien. He came to Earth today to get a good viewing spot for the 4th of July Parade tomorrow. Save him a funnel cake and some sparklers!


I based Joe's pattern off one I found in Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To. I added sequins for the lights on his ship. Down in the right corner will be a planet stitched in. Maybe something in swirly orange?

Happy Caterpillar 2

I drew this Happy Caterpillar on April 7th. He was never colored in so tonight I made him flamboyant and bright :)

An Origami Hamster named Cumberbatch

I haven't done origami for awhile so tonight I made a hamster. Tonight I watched two episodes of the new Sherlock series from BBC. Sherlock is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch is so fun to say! It's playing on Netflix Instant right now - 3 episodes like mini movies almost. I recommend it.


I think the hamster is trying to move into Penelope's hamster home!
Instructions for the hamster is here

6 Months!

Yay it is July 1st! I've been blogging for 6 months now, holy cow...wait when was the last time I made a cow.


There was this Teensy Cow back on January 18th when I was hobbling around on crutches in the winter.


And the Purple Calf back on March 29th when I had a theme week of drawing baby farm animals.

I digress! I am happy that I've kept up with this blog for half the year and am excited to see what else I can come up with for the rest. Coming up I have more weeks of my embroidery class, a glittery painting I'm finishing for a friend, some sidewalk chalk to play with this weekend. I think I'm going to look back over my blog this weekend and post a mosaic of some of my favorite critters :)

A Rhino named Hammer

A drawing just for my friend Hammer! As thanks for letting me borrow your wife tonight for wandering around TJ Maxx looking at random things and balancing cheeseballs on my head at Walmart and getting slushes at Sonic :)


Cheeseballs!

Sheep for a Onesie

I'm combing two of my classes for this week into one piece of art. I'm making clothes fancier (class 1) while learning more complicated embroidery stitches (class 2). This sheep pattern is specifically for a onesie from the class and the pattern is by Mollie from Wild Olive. I just need to get a onesie this week to stitch it on. Maybe I'll use another new stitch I learned as the decorative border around the sheep's circle.


I used split stitch on his wee face, backstitch on his ears and legs, french knot for his eyes. The brand new stitch from class for his fluffy floofs is called the Pekinese Stitch. It starts out with a backstitch and then gets bumpy curly. I somehow made it stand up a bit on a few of the sheep floofs, but I like it that way! I should figure out how to do it again.

Shark

I drew a shark at work and then forgot to take it home to photograph it. I just snapped it's picture quickly Wednesday morning. We are all about sharks at work this week. Did you know they can bite through paint cans?

Digital Ham

 

Today was a really really long day. I totally had a case of the Mondays. I started painting around on this picture of my hamster, Penelope Pancakes. It's actually a still from a movie I took of her. I got about this far and said "Argh she looks mean not cute" and just saved the file and now I'm going to bed.

 

You can't always make something cute. At least I started making something instead of just going to bed right away. 

Squishy Little Shiny Bluejay

Back on June 1st, I drew a Squishy Little Bluejay and here is his shiny cousin! As you can see by my thumb in the corner, he is quite tiny!

I sewed the large sequin on first and then winged it for the rest. Winged it....hee hee hee. 

And the inspiration for this.

Beading Practice Kitty Noggin Part 2

Class this week taught me how to add shisha embroidery to my art. Adding shiny objects like mirrors and sequins to embroidery like they do in India.


Now my kitty has shiny sequin eyes and a small smile. I practiced a few times on scrap fabric and the sequin kept falling out. Then POOF I got the technique all of a sudden. It's kind of like backstitching. Worked up pretty quickly :)

The sequin's package says they are washable so I am going to attach a few to a t-shirt for fun soon.

Doodle Bunnies and friends

Tiny highlighted doodle bunny drawn on break at work says "Hip hip hooray it's Friday!"


Teensy highlighted doodle bunny drawn on break at work says "Friday is Funday!"

Teensy peas in a pod say "Hey bunnies don't chew on our faces!"

Rude Ant!

This is the face that ants make when they crawl into your house uninvited!

Rude!

Beading Practice Kitty Noggin

I decided to go back and redo the lesson from yesterday's class instead of the cute hummingbird. To quote myself from yesterday "The actual lesson called for using a simple shape like a heart to practice beading techniques". My simple shape is a kitty noggin. I sketched a noggin on my twill fabric and then winged it.


It was soothing to be able to improvise as I went along while watching "So You Think You Can Dance". I ended up making a sequin ear and a bead ear, sequin whiskers and bead whiskers. Fancy kitty noggin!


I did have an actual kitty noggin in close proximity to this project so there are kitty hairs stuck to it in the photograph :)

Andrea Zuill's Hummingbird

I have been wanting to make this hummingbird pattern since Andrea Zuill posted it as her free pattern in April on her blog. And then today's lesson for my embroidery class was about adding beads and sequins to embroidery. I immediately thought of shimmery hummingbirds and their jewel toned feathers. The actual lesson called for using a simple shape like a heart to practice beading techniques on but I bit off a bit more tonight. And finished just under the wire for bedtime.


It's a magenta-throated hummingbird! I learned how to attach the eye bead with a french knot - tricky and cool looking!


So, I learned two new ways to attach beads. Also, even though I love sparkle and shiny, I don't regularly attach sequins to things so it was good to learn a few ways to do it. I used more of the variegated colored thread from Monday and last Friday's critters. I need buy more! And first write down the DMC number for them so I can get more. I tend to tear the labels off the thread before recording it somewhere.

Does someone have a good tip for photographing embroidery in the evening? I liked to photograph it with natural light but sometimes I'm finishing projects at 10 or 11 at night.