New Old Obsession! Coloring Books/Posters

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I have always loved to color, both inside and outside the lines.  With the uber cold weather and snow this month has brought us here in Upper East Tennessee it's brought back memories of snowdays and long hours spent with a box of Crayolas by my elbow and that particular scent of crayons tickling my nose.

Super Tubes from 1990's 

My senior year in high school we had a blizzard that resulted in a week long hiatus from school where I filled the hours coloring on a Giant Coloring Poster (22 x 34) that came in a Super Tube by Creative Coloring. The tubes were color coded based on difficulty: Red - Ultimate Challenge, Yellow - Skilled, and intermediate and novice, but I don't remember the color of their tubes. The Super Tubes had a variety of designs and patterns you could choose from and they came with a pack of 10 markers. The markers were not very good, because you'd get a corner of the poster done and you were suddenly out of ink and you couldn't match the color with any other marker brand.  The only long lasting rich color marker is the crayola.  I finished my first super tube poster with crayola markers.  I went looking for it, but its buried with my husband's poster collection and I would need his help to pull it out.  I think the picture to the right gives you a good idea of the size, scope, and detail these things had.  My first super tube was of a giant celtic knot.  So gorgeous.  My second is the Fantasy Kingdom, pictured here. Unfortunately, it met with a tragic end when I spilled my soda over the bottom portion. The other poster, Scope, was doused with water. These posters have been in their tubes for years, forgotten.  I pulled them out this past fall to show Neverness's girlfriend, Ms.K . She likes to color too.  She has several of the Dover coloring books that she colors with Gel Pens while we are gaming or what have you.  They really intrigued me, but as my me-time calendar was so full last fall that I didn't persue the thought. I was telling her that after several years these coloring posters just disappeared and you couldn't find them any more.

Rose Art Super Tube
 Window Ultimate Challenge

She found them at Ben Franklin Crafts. The Super Tubes were produced by Rose Art and I got one for my Birthday!  This is almost the exact duplicate of my first poster.  The catch to working on something this size is to have a space to spread it out to work on.  Right now I don't have a place big enough. I'm tempted to get a big board and get down in the floor with it, but then I would have to contend with furry four footed helpers.

For Christmas I got Ms. K a new coloring book that the more I look at it the more I like it, but haven't been able to find it at the local book stores or Micheals.  The Bink and I went to see Disney's Frozen and as I have a Disney coloring book collection to go along with my Crayola collection I went into a little bit of a mad dash trying to find a Frozen Coloring book.  I'm sad to say that every Frozen, water color, coloring book is a disappointment.  The detail in every one is so small that even the finest tip would result in disaster.  I gave up the chase on that.

We eventually found ourselves with a hour to kill while waiting for a table at Chili's with Neverness, Ms. K, the Blonde Wolf,  and Da Masta Cheef. After storming Barnes and Noble for suitable coloring endeavors. I called it quits as I had plenty to keep me occupied in the studio, when Ms. K presented me with a copy of Coloring Book for Grown-Ups.

I pulled out my trusty crayola markers that I've had for so long that 2 out of the 50 are dead.  Since I'm actually watching TV this year due to some fantastic shows like:  Almost Human, Blacklist, FaceOff, and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I pull out my book and markers while watching my shows.  This allows me to be creative and meditative without dragging the studio into the living room.

Coloring Book for Grown-Ups
Pages 1-5

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Fixing a Newbie Mistake - Starstuff

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Have you ever had that moment where you've been working on a project or art journal page where you had to walk away, but when you come back you realize you forgot to do something and you ended up with a "oh crap" moment thinking what am I going to do now?

I sure did that with this journal page. I had cut my papers and glued them down and went to make dinner, closing my moleskin journal and putting it away.  When I came back to work on it I had the worst time opening my journal with a sinking feeling in my gut. After prying it apart and cleaning up the mess I had large portions missing from my design.

the solution to this issue was to have placed waxed paper or tissue between the pages.

I knew to do this but forgot. Didn't even think about it.

Lesson Learned. maybe...

After some gesso and some liberal use of gelatos the distressed areas look like I made them on purpose.
Maybe I meant for that to happen...
My inspiration for this particular spread came from Vicky Papaioannou over at Clips-n-cuts.  When I saw how she had cut her scraps into the base design I knew I had to try it out for myself.
the quote is from Carl Sagan, "We are made of Star Stuff."

What's in the back of your Closet?!!! Yarn, Yarn, and more Yarn.

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I figured out around Christmas Eve/Christmas Day that my 2 rubbermaid totes containing my yarn stash were hiding in the back of my bedroom closet.  'Course I couldn't just shove them aside to forget again.  I had to take every last skein and ball and remnent out and sort the darn things.  Found an afghan that's about 90 % finished that I had started out of my scraps.  I couldn't figure out as I stared at the darn thing what crochet hook size I had used, so I set it aside.  So, there I was looking at this pile of yarn surrounding me in the living room floor thinking to myself, "You haven't made an Afghan in like forever!  You're not doing anything right now other than watching tv."  Then I thought Christmas is over there's no one to make one for, when I realized I have 2 friends with birthdays on the same day, Dec.30th.  I knew that my new buddy, Kristy would appreciate a handmade afghan so I started putting colors together and balling up half started projects: chocolate brown and a purple, blue and green variagated, and the granny square commenced... I love to make big granny square afghans because they can be made quickly and are not complicated... you just have to remember what size hook you're using or you end up with something ruffly, which could be cute if that's what you're going for.  I ended up needing additional skiens and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find these two specific colors so I went looking for a good solid color that would blend nicely with the purples of the variagated yarn.  The varigation has a slight blue color as its changes from purple to green and I discovered Caron's Simply soft in Ocean.  Its a dark green blue teal color that doesn't come across in the photos, I so wish it did, because it is gorgeous when crocheted.  It turned out to be perfect with the other colors!  I also wanted to do a fringe, 'cause I love fringe on blankets, but Kristy has a small boy and I didn't want him to get caught up in it so I found a pattern for crocheted bobble trim, which I think is super fun.

Here's a good site for basic granny square instructions: 

http://www.wikihow.com/Crochet-a-Granny-Square

Instructions for the bobble edge trim:

http://anothervegetarian.blogspot.com/

yummy color!

Close up of my bobble stitch edge trim

Here is the finish afghan.  I'm happy to say that she loved it. Especially the Caron Ocean it's her favorite color.  It was even kitty tested and approved for napping.

Journaling withdrawals

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I hadn't realized until I was sitting in at the table across from my scrapbook friend, Debbie that since about October my "me" time at the art table with my art journal open in front of me has been zilch, nada, nothing!  No wonder I've been a little grumpy. Well, work may have something to do with the stress and not just withdrawals from not having paint permenantly affixed to my fingertips.  I was looking forward to a day with the girls catching up from our Holiday hiatus, but due to the frigid weather the rest of my chicks decided to stay home.  So, it ended up being just Debbie and myself!  Tables all to ourselves! woo hoo. I wanted to work on Project Life but didn't have any pictures printed or prepped, so I packed up the art supplies sparingly.  I've gotten quite a few new art supplies in my travels in the past few months, but haven't used them so I packed those so to challenge myself in using them.

One of my favorite techniques is to layout Distress Inks on my craft matt and add a little water to use them like water colors; which is what I did here. I then started stamping a few of my favorites.  The Star is a die cut from Tim Holtz that I had tested with white card stock and used Distress Inks to colorize it.

The Jar is from Little Yellow Bicycle and the fairy is from Hot of the Press, Inc.  The little stars are from the Martha Stewart all over the page star punch.  I'm in love with the Prima Washi Tap stamps, with a little shading and some white ink they really pop.

I added a little bit of doodling here along with a quote from Shakespeare, " Though she be but little, she is fierce."




On this side I started with the doodling along the wire and then added the flower, which is from the Indie Bloom Collection by BasicGrey.  I colorized it with my copic markers. I had my circle template with me so I drew a circle around the flower in pencil and used it as a guide for my text.  It reads, "Bold Bloom * Flower of Beauty True."  I later added the bee and I colored it with copics as well.

It was a well spent Saturday playing and catching up with my friend.

How do you get back in the art/craft groove?

Practice sketches! Potential journal fodder.

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Monday Munchies - My Addictive Hot Stuffed Pepper Recipe!

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    Good Monday Evening Blog Readers! Boy do I have a treat for you!  If you caught my post Gettin' Daft Punk'd! I talked about gettin' back in the gym and being harder, better, faster, stronger; which includes making healthier meal choices.  That post even generated this comment from Neverness, "...does this mean no more stuffed peppers? :( "  O Contraire Mon Fraire!!! I don't think so these Stuffed Peppers are super delicious and come in at 424 calories a pepper! One pepper and I'm stuffed!!!

Addictive Hot Stuffed Peppers!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef ( I prefer 80/20)
• 1 med onion, diced
• 2 gloves garlic, minced   
• 1 packet Old El Paso hot and spicy taco seasoning
• 1 10oz can of Rotel habanero & tomatoes 
• shredded cheese, to taste (optional)
• 4 large bell peppers
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Saute onions and garlic, when onions start to become translucent add meat and brown together.  Stir in taco seasoning and 1/4 cup water.  Do Not follow the directions on the seasoning package if you spicy stuffed peppers, if you want your peppers mild, then add more water or just use a mild taco seasoning mix. Let mixture simmer and reduce. While your filling is simmering prep your peppers.  When I purchase peppers I look for peppers that will sit level.  If you end up with one that leans or rocks, you can level it out by trimming the bottom.  Cut the top off and scoop out the seeds and interior flesh.  If I miss any seeds I leave them in, but for a mild flavor rinse out any seeds lingering inside. When filling is almost done, add the rotel and shredded cheese (if using) and let it melt. I place the peppers in baking dish and then fill evenly.  Bake for 45 minutes, the last 10 minutes I top the peppers with a little more cheese and let it melt.  I serve with sliced avacados on top.

saute onion and garlic

brown meat

with Taco Seasoning

Yummo!

Clean Plates all around.