i am my beloved's

i've been wanting to get a tattoo for over a year. one that says "i am my beloved's and he is mine" on my foot (picture it running in a v shape just inside where flip flops sit). jason and i keep going back and forth about its permanence. still haven't come to a decision, so today, i decided to paint some shoes with that same phrase (a lot less permanent ;). 

i started with these shoes that i never really wore, and painted all the fabric with fabric paint! after removing the ribbon, of course :) sanded them, and wrote the script with a sharpie :) they might get another makeover tomorrow... i can't tell until i see them in the daylight ;)

 the meaning behind this is twofold: it is sort of a "remembrance marker" for both my relationship with jason and with God. we came out of a super-hard time together with a renewed commitment to our relationship (and while some people might just renew their vows, i want a tattoo - more permanent ;) also, i had just come out of a really long time of darkness, doubt, and despair, and feel like this would be sort of an ebenezer to God's faithfulness... i once was lost, but now am found. 

so, we'll see about the tattoo, but for now i still have some memorial shoes :)

so my creative project the last 2 days (i said make art/be creative every day, not finish a project every day ;) has been turning this old t-shirt dress into a studio apron! inspired by watching misty mawn creating in her studio with an apron safely protecting her clothes underneath, i've always wanted to have one specifically to use in art-making... one that doesn't matter if it gets paint all over it because that's its intended use! so here's mine... and i took shots along the way to give you sort of a DIY... :)

i started with this dress, which had been cleaned out of my closet to get rid of. i love the crochet details of it, but it has just never fit right (that i can remember) so i was freeing my closet from it... but what a great way to salvage it! here's how:

step one, CUTTING: i first cut directly down the center of the back of the dress. then, i cut off the sleeves and continued the curve down and back until it was at the same height as the string that would tie around the waist. third, i trimmed a few inches off either edge, making it the right width to wrap around my hips. out of that excess, i cut two long strips for the top straps (mine were about 3 1/2" x 20").

step two, SEWING: i have told you before that i am no seamstress (and if you look close at these, it will prove it.) i left it as simple as possible... you don't get a lot of extra time when you have a two-year-old! first, i sewed the straps, turned them into long tubes, and turned right sides out. then, i made a seam along the unfinished edges. i (lucky for me :) had a tie already attached to this dress, so i just sewed it in a straight line to the edge. last, i sewed on the straps to the top, to be tied behind the neck.

then, my favorite part: i added a row of little rosettes along the seams of the ties

as you can see, i made good use of all the scraps that got cut off in the reconstruction process :)

here's a video tutorial on how i make the rosettes - i'm sure there are lots of ways, and i think i made this one up myself, so if you have more sophisticated knowledge, please ignore my movie ;)

and, voila! a finished apron, ready to get splattered with paint, dotted with beeswax, and otherwise stained with evidence of art-making! (this was the best shot i could get of me wearing it, home alone, and not knowing how to use the timer function on jason's Canon 50D - sorry!

first of all, i just HAD to post this picture. my sister took it (& instagrammed) last night during joey's bath. and i just think it proves hoe irresistibly cute my son is! so i had to share ;)

i also wanted to share this piece that i made at least a year ago, but has now been strategically placed in our house where people can actually see it, and there have been endless comments (and many requests to help them make their own!) so i thought i'd do a DIY on here. i'm pretty sure i got this technique from a book (maybe Image Transfer Workshop by McElroy & Wilson? - yep, i just looked - page 20 :) - it's called making a "gel skin". they used it to include in a mixed-media art piece, as the top layer to show the rest of the layers underneath, while still showcasing the image. of course, i did my own "take" on it (as usual), and just used the gel skin itself as a work of art! you choose - here's how:

1. print out a laserjet copy of the picture you want to use (you could even do color if you had color laserjet capabilities). you're gonna want to increase the contrast some, to get a more striking image.

2. paint on a layer of gel medium (of course, most mixed-media artists will tell you, use Golden brand, but really any that they sell in the art aisle at michael's have worked fine for me! and since i'm not a "real artist", i can tell you that, and shop there ;). let dry.

3. repeat 3-4 times. let dry overnight.

4. soak the back with a spray bottle, let it soak in, then begin rolling off the paper with your fingers (gently, so you don't tear the image! but it does take some pressure - you'll get it with practice :) until all the paper backing has been removed, and you are left with your "gel skin"!

5. if you want the look i created here, take the backing out of a stand-alone frame, and simply "stick" your gel skin to the back of the inside glass! it should adhere like one of those "window cling" thingys.

or, do something totally different with it! and tell me about it! :)

this is actually the back of the piece - that's why everyone loves it so much! with where we placed it (see below) strategically between two rooms, you can see it from both, and with very different effects - here, the afternoon light is shining through it, which just makes it luminescent (yeah, that's pretty much the definition of luminescent, but whatever ;).

please ignore all the smudges and scratches on the sliding glass door here (i have a toddler! and i am home alone, and just had my gallbladder surgically removed 3 days ago, or else i might've cleaned it! ok, probably not. but here, i did the next best thing - edit in photoshop so they're much less visible ;)

ah, finally, a shot of the twice-before-noted strategic placement of the piece that engendered all the comments

(this is also one of my new favorite "comfy" spots in the house after we did a little rearranging last week :)