My Creative Dad - Intarsia

I've mentioned several times that my dad is a very talented woodworker.  He's done a huge variety of wood-related projects over the years (furniture, cabinetry, picture frames, shelving, etc.), in addition to large-scale projects like home additions.  But his favorite hobby is intarsia.

Intarsia is a woodcraft in which the artist uses different sizes, shapes, and species of wood and fits them together to make a picture.  There is no staining or painting - all color comes from the choice of wood.  It is a very time-consuming and exacting art.  The results are stunning.

My dad has made hundreds over the past 15 years or so.  We have around a dozen or so on display in our house, plus another handful that are seasonal and come out for Christmas.  My parents have a couple dozen of his pieces on display in their house as well.  The last time I visited, I snapped pictures of a few of my favorites.  Remember, all the color is the natural color of the wood.

 

This USA piece is about 5 feet across.

 

I'm blown away by the colors and patterns in this fruit bowl.

 

Isn't the cornucopia amazing?

 

His designs come from a variety of sources.  He buys some patterns from Judy Gale Roberts and creates his own patterns from coloring books and photographs.  One of the coolest was the Trouble intarsia he made for Trevor for Christmas 2011.

I've made exactly one intarsia project in my life.  It was a very simple Winnie-the-Pooh that I made for a friend's baby shower gift back in 1993.  I know I have a picture of it somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.  After working on such a very easy project with so few pieces, my appreciation for my dad's amazing artwork rocketed.  He makes it look so easy, always a sign of talent and many years of practice.

Happy 65th birthday Dad!  I love you.

Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and....

At least once a month, a friend hands me something unusual and asks, "Can you use this in your crafting?"  It's never normal stuff, like fabric scraps, or glitter, or egg cartons.  No, it's weird stuff.  Like this:

 

It's a full box (12) of extra large rubber finger tips.  And by "extra large" they mean "far too big for human use."  Someone at a friend's work purchased this huge size and couldn't use them. Since she didn't know any giants, she passed them along to me.

They sat on the back corner of my desk for at least 8 months.  I knew there was a craft in there somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.  One day, I was tired of them sitting on the desk, so I opened the box and lined up 4 of them in plain sight where they would inspire me.    

Within minutes, I knew what to make.  I grabbed the paint and did a test run to see if acrylic paint would stick to the rubber.  Yes!  I grabbed my beloved microtip scissors and carefully cut little triangles out of the bottom of the four finger tips.  Then I painted them.  One red, one pink, one green, and one orange.  When they were dry, I added googly eyes.

I rooted around the craftroom to find some yellow cardstock and a clear lid to make a quick accessory.  Then I lined them all up to take this picture.  

Obviously, the Pac-Man needs work.  Eventually, I'll probably think of a cute way to make a Pac-man that will stand up.  I might need to resort to clay or something similar.  In the meantime, I'm really happy with my Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and .... do you remember the orange ghost's name? It's Clyde.  Just a little '80s trivia for you.  If you got it right, you're totally tubular.

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Today I'm joining the rest of the Flamingo Scraps Design Team in wishing Suzanne a very happy birthday!  Each of us made a card using Flamingo Scraps supplies.

Do you recognize the supplies I used?  They're leftovers from the six months I've been the Flamingo Four Coordinator!  Here's a rundown:

• November Flamingo Four:  I used the Clam Bake Glimmer Mist to give some color and shine to the paper that holds the sentiment.

• December Flamingo Four:  A little grey paint transformed the Maya Road chipboard frame into a resting place for the initial.

• January Flamingo Four: The only item still left from January was the sparkly Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue button.  It adds fun shine to the card.

• February Flamingo Four: The base of the card is Heidi Swapp "Vintage Chic" patterned paper.  There's a subtle ledger print on the B-side, which provided nice, straight guidelines for writing my message on the inside.

• March Flamingo Four: The yellow and striped papers are Pink Paislee's "Indigo Bleu."  I love the colors and subtle patterns.

• April Flamingo Four:  The S is from Pink Paislee's 'Parisian Anthology' Corrugated Alphabet.  This was only the second letter I've used from the package, so expect to see these pop up plenty of times in the future!

I had so much fun challenging myself to use up the leftovers! It was tempting to skip a month (I'm looking at you, January button...) but in the end I think the card shows a perfect marriage of Flamingo Scraps products and my style.

You can see all the other designers' cards over at Flamingo Scraps.  Be sure to wish Suzanne a very happy birthday when you're there!   

Whole Orange Cake

I've mentioned our prolific orange tree many times.  This year, there are more oranges than ever before, which just didn't seem possible.  We eat oranges morning, noon and night. We've given dozens away.  The tree is still full.  It's May.  As far as problems go, it's a great problem.  

Last year, I discovered a recipe for Blender Quick Orange Bread that literally uses the whole orange, peel and all.  I was extremely wary about a bread made from orange peels and pith, but it was delicious and I've made it several times since.  Then I discovered another whole-orange recipe, Orange Cookies. Also delicious.

Now that I know that orange peels and pith do indeed make delicious baked goods, I was really excited to find a recipe for Whole Orange Cake in the March 2013 issue of Sunset Magazine.  I went outside and picked some good-sized oranges, washed them, cut them into chunks, and threw them in the blender.  Then I measured out 1.5 cups.  

 

The batter came together quickly and easily and smelled really good.

 

The house smelled amazing while it was baking.  The cake looked perfect when I removed it from the pan.  It was hard to wait to add the glaze.  

 

The verdict?  Absolutely fantastic!  Another great recipe to add to my file of what to do with a bumper crop of oranges.  

Anyone have any other great recipes using oranges?

"Mommy! Watch this!"

This is the last of the 14 layouts I made for National Scrapbook Day challenges.  (I made 11 of them on NSD and the remaining 3 the next morning before Grandma delivered Trevor to me.) Not knowing what the challenges were ahead of time, I didn't preplan any pages... with one exception.  When I printed these pictures, I thought the jumping picture desperately needed a speech bubble with Trevor yelling, "Mommy!  Watch this!"  So I found a die cut and had him write those words in his handwriting before he left for the weekend.

When the challenges were announced, one of the first I tackled was Scrapbook.com's "You Spin Me Right Round Baby" challenge, which required us to make a pinwheel and add it to a page.  I made a pinwheel, intending to pair it with the picture of Allison, but it wasn't working for me.  I thought the colors of the pinwheel worked with the colors of the corn bath, so I built this layout around it.

 

I would never have put a pinwheel on this page if not for the challenge, but I love how it turned out. The challenges really pushed me outside my comfort zone and stretched my creativity.  More than anything, that is what I love about National Scrapbook Day.  My calendar is already marked for May 3, 2014 and I'm counting down the days.