Vol. 2, No. 232, August 20, 2017

2232 - Season's End.

Today marked my last day of summer vacation, as I start school tomorrow. I celebrated by spending some time at the lake. Even though I didn't see any sharks, or any other fish for that matter, I decided to make an origami shark to remember the day.

Vol. 2, No. 231, August 19, 2017

2231 - Bow Bonanza.

Today on International Bow Day, founded by Claire's, we celebrate and share the versatile, lasting global trends of the bow. Claire's has a full range of bow accesories for girls no matter what their style! Customers can find bow themed product in almost every category carried by Claire's. (This information was provided by the National Day Calendar.)

To continue with the 64 Million Artists challenge, origami, I created 3 different origami bows. All of the bows were made using a slight variation of the same pattern, and different sizes of paper (1/4", 1/2", and 1"). The bows were made from old Thirty-One catalogs.

Vol. 2, No. 230, August 18, 2017

2230 - Mail Order Ice Cream.

Today we celebrate two holidays, National Mail Order Catalog Day and National Ice Cream Pie Day. To celebrate I used a page from an old Thirty-One Catalog and folded it into an origami bowl, because you can't have ice cream pie without a bowl.

Vol. 2, No. 229, August 17, 2017

2229 - Thrift Shop.

Today was National Thrift Shop Day. I celebrated by going to my local thrift store to look for a paper crafts book; the closest I came was America Girls Pastimes: Molly's Craft Book. In this book, I found instruction for a paper pinwheel. Because thrift stores are all about re-using things that people give away, I decided to re-use a scrap of paper left  from yesterday's umbrella. In addition to the paper, I used a stick pin and a pencil with an eraser.

The hardest part of this project was uploading the video. Grr...sometimes I really dislike technology.

Vol. 2, No. 228, August 16, 2017

2228 - Where's the Rum?

Today we celebrate National Rum Day. When I searched "rum origami", the first images that popped up were cocktail umbrellas. That seemed like the obvious answer, and I was excited when one of the links was a video showing how to make a pop-up paper umbrella.

It was actually a pretty simple project and I kind of want to throw a party so that I have a reason to make more umbrellas. The picture shows the umbrella from 3 different angles as well as in my morning coffee, which was the closest thing I had to a cocktail at the time.

Vol. 2, No. 227, August 15, 2017

2227 - Try Origami.

Today I stuck with the 64 Million Artist's Origami challenge and decided to fold something based on one of today's holidays, Pythagorean Theorem Day.

Pythagorean Theorem Day or Pythagoras Theorem Day is celebrated when the sum of the squares of the first two digits in a date equals the square of the last digit in the date. 8² + 15² = 17². The next Pythagorean Theorem Day will occur on December 16, 2020. 

I tried to find an origami project specific to Pythagorean Theorem, but that was turning out to be a challenge and I ended up just searching Math Origami. I came up with this spiral star shape. The spiral has a feel similar to the Pythagorean Spiral, so it satisfied my requirement.

Vol. 2, No. 226, August 14, 2017

2226 - Spread Your Wings.

Today was the start of a new adventure for me; I visited my new classroom for the first time.  In just 2 weeks, I will begin my career as an art teacher at Annandale Elementary School. To celebrate my new journey I decided that I would make something inspired by the school mascot, a cardinal. It was a bonus that this week's 64 Million Artists challenge is to explore origami.

After searching my craft room, without success, for origami paper, I used the red paper I could find and online instructions and mostly successfully folded a cardinal. It doesn't look exactly like the picture on the instructions, but it does look like a cardinal.

Vol. 2, No. 225, August 13, 2017

2225 - Lefty.

Today is National Left-handers Day. I'm a eighty, but I figure I'd still celebrate by drawing with my left hand.

I pulled out my Boogie Board and drew a simple landscape. It was a lot easier than I was expecting. I guess practice does make things better. Maybe I'll teach myself to be ambidextrous with time.

Vol. 2, No. 224, August 12, 2017

2224 - Baseball Bounty.

Today is Naional Baseball Card Day. When my family and I went to the Twins game last week, we each received a couple packs of Baseball Cards. Many of the cards in each pack were repeats, so after my brother, who collects baseball cards, took what he wanted, I got the rest to use for my project.

The next step was to come up with something creative to make with the cards. I decided on a flower, mostly because I thought the petals looked similar to the end of a baseball bat.

I positioned the petals with the player name across from their pictures. The middle of the flower is made from the special card that came with the pack.

The picture shows the back of the flower in the bottom left corner.

Vol. 2, No. 223, August 11, 2017

2223 - Bath Bag.

Today's project is really pushing boundaries. I got so wrapped up in getting my art and Thirty-One products ready for my booth at Twine Ball Day tomorrow that I ran out of time to make my originally planned project. Therefore, I had to substitute. One of my tasks tonight was to wrap some Bubble Bath-in-a-Bag Gift Sets. The sets contained a baggie of Epsom Salt, a travel-size bottle of body wash that can double a bubble bath, and a votive holder. I had made the votive holders earlier in the year when I was practicing my wheel throwing skills.

Vol. 2, No. 222, August 10, 2017

2222 - The Art of Canning.

I spent the afternoon/evening at my parent's house helping my mom can peaches. While canning isn't really a craft, it is sort of an art, mostly because not very many people even know how to do it any more.

It was a long process, so after the first batch was finished, I took an artsy picture on one jar. My sister told me that that can't be my project because it's not art. I decided to appease her and make some art my stacking jars of peaches to make a pyramid. This was actually a good challenge, because I was stacking on a soft surface, so the jars had quite a bit of room to move. Fortunately, I was able to stack them without any falling.

Vol. 2, No. 221, August 9, 2017

2221 - Let's Pretend.

Today's project, "Spider in the Snow" was inspired by my morning adventures. Everyday is an adventure when you are hanging out with young kids, but today was particularly awesome.

This morning Littlest Miller went into the bathroom and started screaming "Aww spider! There's a spider in here!" I went to investigate and didn't find said spider. So I told her it would be okay. She asked, "it was just acting to pretend to be a spider?" I agreed because that was easier than trying to find and dispose of the spider.

After the spider incident, Littlest Miller went to play on the porch. A little while later, she came back in wearing winter boots, hat, and mittens. "We're pretending it's a snowing on the porch." I told her that was fine as long as the snow stays on the porch. She went back to the porch and in a serious voice told the others that the snow has to stay on the porch.

I knew right away that today's project would be a spider, however it took a couple tries and a google search to get it right.

I was working at the dining room table while playing cards with my siblings. I had out 3 bags of chocolate chips (all different sizes) and a square marshmallow. In my first attempt, I just laid the chocolate chips on top of the marshmallow, but the chips closest to the edge kept falling off. The spider wasn't quite right anyways, so I took all of the chips off to try again.

This time, I began by licking the top of the marshmallow, making sure the powdery coating was dissolved and the surface was sticky. As I licked, my brother stared at me, giving me a concerned look. My response was "Why are you looking at me like that? All great artists lick their work!"

After a google search I realized what I was missing was the head, so I tried again, and created a decent chocolate chip spider.

Vol. 2, No. 220, August 8, 2017

2220 -  Abundant Fruits.

Today is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day. This day was created to give people a way to get rid of unwanted zucchini, as zucchini grows in great abundance in August.

My parents are part of a CSA, so they get a weekly supply of fresh produce, more than they can eat on their own, so I visited today to try out a recipe I found a while back for Spiral Vegetable Tart. The recipe called for thin strips of carrots, egg plant, summer squash and zucchini, all of which my parents had, fresh from the farm.

I used a store bought pie crust, rolled extra thin, and covered it in a creamy, sour cream based sauce with some fresh herbs and other things I found in the fridge. Then I spiraled the veggies on top, drizzled with olive oil and baked it.

It looked awesome and tasted delicious, but it was so tedious and time-consuming that I won't rush out and make it again anytime soon.

Vol. 2, No. 219, August 7, 2017

2219 - Flight of the Dragonfly.

I had seen a something online a while back that used maple seeds and a stick to create dragonflies.

I attached the wings and eyes (glass beads) using hot glue. Then I decorated the dragon flies using glitter glue.

Vol. 2, No. 218, August 6, 2017

2218 - Threads of Friendship.

National Friendship Day is a Hallmark holiday, one of those days created to sell cards. I decided to celebrate it anyways; however instead of greeting cards, I made a friendship bracelet.

Vol. 2, No. 217, August 5, 2017

2217 - Edible Panties.

Let me start by saying, it's a not what you think, today is NationalUnderwearDay and National Mustard Day. I decided to celebrate both by creating a pair of underwear out of mustard. I didn't want to be wasteful, so I took a piece of lunch meat and cut it to be the underwear base. Then I drew a lacey pattern on top. After taking the pictures I ate it, creating a great evening snack.

Vol. 2, No. 216, August 4, 2017

2216 - Cookie Collaboration.

To celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Mama Miller and I with some help of the Miller Littles, made chocolate chip cookies. I really like culinary art because when you are finished you get to eat it.

Vol. 2, No. 215, August 3, 2017

2215 - Kids Corner.

Today was opening day of the county fair and I decided to bring the Miller Littles. We saw all the animals at least once, "milked" a cow, went to the rodeo, entered contests, and we even found time for a craft project. There was an booth for One Community One Vegetable. The vegetable this year is carrots, so they had supplies to make paper carrots. I made a quick, ripped paper carrot; Oldest Miller made a lime green carrot and Middle Miller made a snake. They may not have followed the project instructions, but at least they were creating. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of their creations, so you will have to use your imagination.

Vol. 2, No. 214, August 2, 2017

2214 - Tree Time-Lapse.

I decided that with the county fair, Twine Ball Day, Nannying, and back-to-school, I didn't have time to procrastinate on this project. So, I got right to it. It really is getting easier to create the collage, it is just a series of clicks and then I am done. Unfortunately, I have yet to get all of the pictures lines up exactly.

Vol. 2, No. 213, August 1, 2017

2213 - Melted Center.

I continued to work on getting everything ready for the county fair. As I packed all of the projects, I realized I still needed a centerpiece. I took two plastic flowers and the melted CD sculpture, all of which I had made for projects a while ago, and combined them with a few glass gems and a candle to create a small, yet colorful centerpiece.

Vol. 2, No. 212, July 31, 2017

2212 - Procrastination Nation.

As I write this at 11:45 pm, I am reminded of my youth. I was in 4-H and every year I would bring 20+ projects to the county fair. And every year, I would find myself up late every night in the days leading up to the fair working hard to get everything finished. If I had planned better and not procrastinated, this wouldn't have been a problem.

After graduating from 4-H I discovered Open Class, where everyone is able to enter projects at the county fair. Entry day is on Wednesday; even after 20+ years of participating in the county fair, I still procrastinated. So I am up late getting things in order.

One of the things I had to do tonight was decorate the envelopes for cards I had stamped earlier in the year. So, I chose that as my project for today. It was a simple task of using a paper punch to cut out some shapes, and then gluing them to the envelopes. I could have done it a long time ago, but that would have taken the fun out of the stressful late night I am enduring now.

Vol. 2, No. 211, July 30, 2017

2211 - Farewell Flower.

Today was the final performance of Oliver. To celebrate I used one of the extra programs to make an origami flower. I gave the flower to the director, who I happen to call mom.

Vol. 2, No. 210, July 29, 2017

2210 - Production Increase.

I am continuing to get things ready for the county fair, and I decided I needed more stationary. So, using the designs I created earlier in the week, I made 2 more zentangle drawings and 5 more rose finger stamps.

While I was stamping, I discovered that if I dip my finger in water before pressing it on the ink pad, I get a much brighter stamp.

The stamped stationary is a set of 6 and the drawn stationary is a set of 4. Both sets include envelopes.

Vol. 2, No. 209, July 28, 2017

2209 - 6 Month Tree Time-Lapse.

I decided that I wanted to do a tree time-lapse photograph for the county fair, but I wanted more than just one month. So I began the long, tedious task of putting all of the picture files into one PhotoShop document. The file was too large to save, so I had to resize the whole thing before I could even start on the time-lapse process.

I realize I should have started sooner in the day, but it turns out I really like to nap. With the slow speed of my computer, and my many distractions, it was 11:50 pm when I finally got the photograph sliced, only to find out that I calculated the slice width wrong and I had about 10 pictures leftover.

I decided this was good enough for today's project and I will work out the details/start over tomorrow.

Vol. 2, No. 208, July 27, 2017

2208 - Tree Time-Lapse.

Well now that July is almost over, I decided it was time to get my June collage finished. I usually do my collage on the first of the next month, but on July 1st, I was still making skulls, so I put off the collage. Then as the month wore on, I never felt like getting out my computer and doing all of the necessary uploading, and editing that the collage requires.

Well now it is done. It only took me an hour or so. It's still not perfect, but not too bad either. Maybe by December I will have a perfect collage.

Vol. 2, No. 207, July 26, 2017

2207 - Charcoal Coffee.

Today's county fair project was a charcoal drawing. I decided to draw my standard teacup and saucer. CC was with me while I was drawing and said I should have it on a wooden plank table, so that's what I did. Looking at it now, it looks more like the mug is on the floor, but either way it looks nice.

Vol. 2, No. 206, July 25, 2017

2206 - Sew Colored.

I decided that today I would make my colored pencil drawing for the county fair. The only problem was that I didn't know what to draw. I decided to check out National Day Calendar to for inspiration. I found that today is National Thread the Needle Day. What makes a cuter picture than some thread and needles? About an hour later, I was finished.

Vol. 2, No. 205, July 24, 2017

2205 - Up, Up, and Away.

I needed pencil drawing for the county fair. I decided to make a positive/negative space Zentangle drawing. It took me a while to cone up with a design that I liked, before settling on a hot air balloon. The drawing took about 2 hours.

Vol. 2, No. 204, July 23, 2017

2204 - Stationary Bike.

I am continuing to prepare for the county fair. Today I made two sheets of original stationary. They include small Zentangle drawings with an outdoor theme
 The theme was inspired by my working environment. I drew them while sitting at a bonfire, listening to my neighbor's running water after having enjoyed a beautiful summer day.

The drawings were really quick, taking less than 20 minutes.

Vol. 2, No. 203, July 22, 2017

2203 - Window Wall.

Today was another Set Work Saturday. One of my projects was to paint a window. It's not glorious by any means, but it is finished. In fact I, with a big help from my family, finished the all of the set today!

Vol. 2, No. 202, July 21, 2017

2202 - Christmas in July.

Today I took the Miller Littles out for a day of adventure. We had a picnic, played at a splash pad and wrapped up our day by going to watch the Great Theatre Camp's production of Elf. My sister was the intern at camp this week, so during the show, I used the program to make her a bouquet of 5 flowers. The picture isn't the greatest, but the flowers are actually pretty cute.

Vol. 2, No. 201, July 20, 2017

2201 - Quick and Easy.

I really procrastinated on my project today. All of a sudden it was 11 pm and I didn't even have an idea in mind. So I phoned a friend; no help there. Then it hit me. I had been looking at the County Fair Premium Book and deciding what projects I could bring to the fair. One of the categories is Stamped Stationary. I thought this would be fun.

I found a OJ cap on my floor that I had been saving because it had an orange slice texture to it. I thought it would make a good stamp. Turns out it was an okay idea, but it wasn't working with my drying out ink pads. So I turned to fingerprint stamping. I made 3 pieces of stationary each with a different fingerprint flower. My favorite is the rose, so I think I will make more of that one or the fair.

Vol. 2, No. 200, July 19, 2017

2200 - Happy Birthday.

Like the past few days, I should have been at the theater working on sets. However, today is my birthday so I figured I could give myself most of the day off. Rather than go into the theater to work, I brought one of the props home. I needed to decorate a cake that would be used in the opening song, "Food Glorious Food". I was lucky enough to find a cake form in the prop room. Therefore, I just had to "frost" it, and decorate it.

It took me a while to find a recipe for pipe-able fake frosting that will harden and wasn't expensive to make. I ended up using Plaster of Paris, water and acrylic paint, piped through a plastic baggie. The cake is by no means perfect, but it was well received at rehearsal tonight.

Vol. 2, No. 199, July 18, 2017

2199 - Summer Fun Days.

This morning I brought the Miller Littles to a Summer Playdate. It was supposed to be an outside event, but because it was raining, it was moved indoors. That didn't stop us from enjoying all the fun outdoor activities. One activity was sidewalk chalk.

A large piece of black paper was rolled out on the floor and we were invited to draw pictures. Littlest Miller and I drew popsicles, Oldest Miller drew a love bug, and others added their own pictures as well.

Vol. 2, No. 198, July 17, 2017

2198 - Maids-A-Milking

With only one week left until Oliver! opens, I was at the theater again today. One of my projects was finishing the milk pails and yoke that others had started. Rick built the yoke and Mary and Brenda created the milk pails. The pails were made by wrapping 5-gallon buckets with masking tape, then painting them. Special shout out to my Milk Maid Model.

Vol. 2, No. 197, July 16, 2017

2197 - Farm Fresh.

This evening was Setwork Sunday for my family. One of my tasks was making a basket of eggs. I took plastic Easter eggs and spray painted them a whitish color with brownish specks. They are pretty cute and from a distance they look real.

Vol. 2, No. 196, July 15, 2017

2196 - Sandy Shower.

Today was my sister's bridal shower. After the chaios of the morning, and a fun afternoon at the lake, I realized I needed to do my project. I was going to just draw in the sand, but then I noticed an umbrella shaped seaweed covered rock. I added some reeds for the handle and top spindle.

Vol. 2, No. 195, July 14, 2017

2195 - Hamburger Surprise.

I was busy with bridal shower prep today, so I made part of the prep my project. One of my tasks was to make scones. I was making White Chocolate Raspberry Scones, and my sister looked at the pan and said that they looked like raw hamburger.

Despite the look, they taste delicious! To make the picture more artsy, I laid the scones out in a flower shape.

Vol. 2, No. 194, July 13, 2017

2194 - Keg Party.

Despite the title, there was no drinking involved in this project, and it was a party of one. I was back at the theater this afternoon painting sets. One of today's projects was painting a tapped keg that was hung on the wall of the bar.

I can't take any credit for the construction of the keg, that was the amazing Rick Fischer.

Vol. 2, No. 193, July 12, 2017

2193 - Wall Wednesday.

I spent about 5 hours painting at the theater today, working on the set for LCT's Oliver. Because of this I didn't have time or energy to make anything else. So my project is a wall. The base coat and horizontal gray lines were already done. I added the vertical lines and dry brushing to create a wall that looks like old, weathered wooden slats. This picture shows just a small portion of all the wall.

Vol. 2, No. 192, July 11, 2017

2192 - Twine Tea.

I took yesterday's twine ball and some hot glue and after only a couple small burns, I created a twine teacup. It's not perfectly even, but it will make a great decoration for my sister's bridal tea on Saturday. The diameter of the saucer is about 4".

Vol. 2, No. 191, July 10, 2017

2191 - Twine Ball.

Today, I was working to get things ready for my sister's bridal shower. Since we grew up in Darwin, the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine Made by One Man, we decided that one of the games at the shower would be to guess how many feet of twine was used to make a mini twine ball. So I took a length of string (I'm not going to say how much in case someone who is attending the shower reads my blog) and wrapped it into a tight ball.

Now as I type this, I am thinking that it would have been cool to use the twine to make a teacup rather than just a ball as it is going to be a bridal tea. Maybe I will have to make that my project for tomorrow.

Vol. 2, No. 190, July 9, 2017

2190 - Pageantry Puppets.

Wrapping up the Watercade festivities, I attended the Miss Litchfield Coronation. I got to the auditorium a little early and was talking to the spotlight opperator when some friends and I decided it would be fun to make shadow puppets. Shining the spotlight on the wall, I helped to position the others to create some fun shapes on the wall. If we had more time we maybe could have done a shadow story, but people started arriving and we had to stop.

Here are a few of my favorites. On the top row we have a weird monster, complete with an eye, and another creature; and kissing swans. On the bottom row we have a peacock and a turkey; and a butterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 189, July 8, 2017

2189 - Daisy Chain.

I was out and about today taking in various events including the softball tournament, Art-in-the-Park, and of course the parade. While waiting for the parade to start I looked around for something to use for my project. The most prominent thing was clover. I began picking the flowers and then braided them together to make a chain. I wasn't patient enough to collect enough long seemed flowers to make a full sized crown. Since Little Miller wouldn't wear it as a bracelet, we made it a crown for her bear instead.

Vol. 2, No. 188, July 7, 2017

2188 - Carrot Collaboration.

Today I brought the Miller Littles to story hour at the library. The subject was carrots, as that is Litchfield's One Community One Vegetable vegetable this year. At story hour we learned that carrots come in a wide variety of colors including white, red, yellow, orange, and purple. We also learned that carrots are biannuals which means that if left to grow, they will produce flowers and seeds in year two.

After learning about carrots, reading a book and singing some songs, it was time for a craft. We made a carrot collage. I collaborated with Little Miller to make my collage. She drew the ground line, and cut out the some of the carrots after I helped her draw them. She could have drawn and cut them all out herself, but she was having a stubborn 4 year-old moment.

I cut out the carrot tops and she glued it all down. Then when we got home I used colored pencil to add a little more detail.

Vol. 2, No. 187, July 6, 2017

2187 - Polished Piggies.

My toenails were in desperate need of re-painting, so I decided to make a fun nanny activity out of it and paint my nails and those of the Little Millers. Of course, Middle Miller opted out.

Oldest Miller just wanted lots of colors, so I did polka dots. Little Miller couldn't decide between watermelon or strawberries, so we did both. It was pretty cute, so I did mine the same way.

Vol. 2, No. 186, July 5, 2017

2186 - Fancy Pup Blotter.

Not having a theme is really getting to me, I might have to pull out my book again. After much research, while sitting down for supper with a can of pop, I decided to make a butterfly out of my pop can. It was a fairly easy project. The hardest part was getting a good butterfly shape that was even on both sides.

After the butterfly was cut out and details were add, I brought it outside and placed it on a flower to be photographed. Then came the really hard part, adding a title to my project. I decided to use an anagram of Pop Can Buterfly.

Vol. 2, No. 185, July 4, 2017

2185 - Melon Shark.

I was excited to not have to make skulls anymore, but I found myself stumped unsure what to make. So when my mom asked for someone to cut the watermelon, I jumped at the chance to try my carving skills.

I chose to carve a shark. I cut off one end, carved out the insides, and then cut in the teeth and eyes. I concluded by putting the shark on a plate, filled it with the watermelon pieces and added a fin.

Vol. 2, No. 184, July 3, 2017

2184 - Celebration Skull.

In celebration of my 30th day of skulls, I took CAT out for ice cream. Before I ate my ice cream I carved a quick skull. I love how it looks like it is melting away just like my skull project.

Vol. 2, No. 183, July 2, 2017

2183 - Cotton Skull.

My family gathered at the lake today for an early 4th of July celebration. Our lake lot is surrounded by cottonwood trees, so there was cotton covering everything. I decided to use this to my advantage and "harvested" some of the cotton from the pontoon and dock to make my daily skull on the pontoon deck. The fun part about cotton and the carpet on the pontoon is that they stick together, which means that my skull is still there for others to see.

Vol. 2, No. 182, July 1, 2017

2182 - Set Work Skull.

Today was another Set Work Saturday. This time for LCT's Oliver. There was much painting to be done and I almost forgot to do my project. I remembered in time to use a bit of spilt paint to finger paint a skull on a step. I think it looks kind of like a monkey.