bee creative

Inspire Me Thursday - Polka dots

Polka dots for Inspire Me Thursday.

Prayer Flags-or some such project

Something that I've been interested in is prayer flags.  I love the idea of a prayer that blows in the wind.  I've been thinking about ways to make my own set and to make them meaningful to me.  What I've decided to do is create flags to represent various goals.

This is a quick sketch for an idea for the first one that I want to do.  I'm going to make a mobile with two glass bottles that could be used as vases.  I'll take a picture, tweak it with filters and add text, and then print it or transfer it on to fabric.  I'm hoping to finish the set by the end of summer.

Some of the goals/ ideas I have are:

balance
live in the moment
question
connect
simplify
be prepared
work with what you have
let go

The front window of my local salvage store....

I want the bath tub.

Inspire Me Thursday - Whimsy

Inspire Me Thursday

I've been sitting out on my porch watching the wind catch the dandelion seeds and blow them into the air today.

I thought about wishes and enjoyed the way the individual seeds glistened as they floated up, up and away.  I tried not to think about future weeds to pull or about how lazy I was being.

Made me think of one of my favorite books, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.  I thought I'd save some of that magic for another day when I might need to be reminded:

“Dandelion Wine.  The words were summer on the tongue.   The wine was summer caught and stoppered.   And now that Douglas knew, he really knew he was alive….”

Ray Bradbury

Inspire Me Thursday- Calander

A couple weeks ago a prompt was given to create an art calender on Inspire Me Thursday.  I really liked the idea because I make calendars each year as gifts for my family.  My hope is to do something a little different for the next batch, so this was a good excuse to experiment a bit.  Sorry Mom, you're getting a preview!

For this page I designed a calender layout in a graphics/photo program (Comic Life) and then added photos to some of the squares.  I printed out the page and then added color with watercolor pencils and pastels.  The flowers that overlap the date squares are from an old card.  And of course it wasn't complete without pieces of text and a few illustrations from a vintage text book. 

I think that this really gives me a direction for my gift calendars.   I'll have to do something different for one of my grandmothers as she uses the date space to journal.  Everyday she writes a little bit of something on her calendars.  She's done this for years and years. 

As I was thinking about Grandma it occurred to me that I wanted to do a calender for myself, which really was what the prompt for Inspire Me Thursday was to do anyway (more or less!).   My thought is that I'll make it a goal to take at least one picture or scan an image for each day and then choose an image that sums up the day for me.   I'll post these once a month I think. 

Hmm...this layout is actually a nice one to start with.  It's really a summary of pictures and projects from over the last year.  The photo of the daisy in the middle is the image used for my first response to an Inspire Me Thursday prompt, which I have now done for exactly a year! 

Inspire Me Thursday- Two

Happy second Birthday Inspire Me Thursday!  Since Lola's second birthday and the anniversary date of my adopting Briar occurred in March, I decided to do "Two dogs," featuring  something with both dogs that makes me smile.  A few recycled items in this:  I reclaimed the canvas (covered up a project I didn't really like), the black paper, and a map. 

In honor of Lola, I decided it needed a few holes. 

Inspire Me Thursday - Wallpaper

I didn't get as far as I wanted for this week's prompt.  I was hoping to use the wallpaper on something or for something.  So this is a bit of a sampler. 

I'm going to use the original wallpaper as a covering for a kaleidoscope that needs to be finished. 

I'd really like to experiment with using elements of the black and white version as a pattern for making a linoleum carving. 

I can also see using the rubbing of the wallpaper that is in the living room to make a pillow.  There is some computer printer canvas somewhere around here....

Illustration Friday-Multiple

A response to last week's Illustration Friday prompt.  I came up with a multiple choice test-probably not the most original idea, but it's what I kept coming back to.  This is a charm for a cloth bag.   I used a floor sample  tag I had for the base.  Hope you pass the test!

Inspire Me Thursday-glass

Here's my response for Inspire Me Thursday this week.  I have a little spring fever....

Recycled materials:  old glass and text from a vintage magazine. 

Illustration Friday-Plain

What a tough prompt!  Very hard for me to keep it "plain."  Of course first I had to think about what that meant to me.  What seemed to be the essential quality of plain for me is something without ornamentation.   So I started with a picture of plain white items.

That led to the thought of the potential of something "plain" to be decorated or added to.  Vanilla ice cream came to mind!  And then I had to start thinking about the need to decorate things as one of the reasons why we consume so much as a society.  The next thought that came along was my goal that all my responses to art prompts include something recycled or reclaimed.  Where to go with this?  Ummm...that would be to embellish something. In this case, a plain old glass jar I've been using for a pencil/pen holder.   Of course, I also had to add a little vintage text, "delights you can make...."