Sparkle Plenty...

 

Makeup artfully applied? Check. Sparkly outfit? Check. It's time to ring in the New Year! This fancy girl is ready to party. She is another of the fun-to-make Art Warrior Dolls from a class taught by sisters Celeste Beck and Merri McKenzie of Goatfeathers Studio. I've made several of these dolls before, but this one was stitched from a kit I picked up from our Fiber Art Bee free table. It had been donated by the sisters. All of the sparkly fabric, netting, and canvas for a face were in there. I just had to paint the face and do the stitching and stuffing. She got done just in time for the holidays.

Yes, she has a heavy hand when it comes to applying makeup, but it is the season after all. These dolls are such fun to sew and their personalities just develop in the making. She needs a name though. Suggestions are welcome.

You'll notice a couple of scraps left from the doll in this sparkly flower, too. A quilting friend, Joanne in Pennsylvania, and I have each made a fiber book from muslin. We are sewing pages in our own book, and then swapping through the mail to work in each others' book. Each page has a small stitchery based on a theme.  This is a fancy flower I sewed for Joanne's book. I'll show more of the pages soon. So far we've made pages on faces, flowers, vintage, rusted fabrics, and redwork embroidery. It's lots of creative fun and the pages are about 6" x 6", making each one quick and easy to complete. We've got only  three empty pages plus covers left to fill and our fiber books will be complete.

Finally, I had some sparkly green scraps left from the flower which were just right for making Snappy Pickle! He was the brainchild of artist Kecia Deveney. She taught an online workshop in designing the whimsical stuffed pickles as part of the Holiday ARTfest 2023. There were lots of chuckles over the pickles that came from her workshop and were posted on Facebook. Snappy has ample sparkle, a mega-watt smile, and a great big personality. Plenty of sparkle and shine for the holidays here. Wishing you a happy and healthy 2024! 

Angels We Have Heard On High...

 

These fun wooden ornaments are the result of an online class titled "Angels Among Us" taught by P'zazz Art Studio on Facebook. In just three hour-long evening classes, participants learned to draw and paint cute angel designs on an ornament, a greeting card, and a journal page. One lesson also covered the lettering, which is a specialty of the instructor.  

A few special techniques included the gold metallic highlights and the use of molding paste to create texture on the angel wings. 

Participants could make changes in hair styles, and some even drew and painted male-looking angels which are more reflective of Biblical descriptions of angels.

And on the backs of each ornament, we wrote a message in white acrylic marker. I chose The Priestly Blessing from Scripture. The replays of the lessons are available continuously, so I can practice and repeat the painting skills as often as needed. I'm never a fan of my writing, so did appreciate the lettering instruction, especially. These make lovely hand-crafted Christmas greetings and I'm sure I'll be making more. Christmas blessings to you!