Hatching Chick Card

I've been cleaning up the craft room (see Wednesday's post). I needed a cleaning break, so I used some of the scraps in my desk to make this hatching chick card. It works as an Easter card, but it's equally fun as for sending a birthday wish, either for someone who has celebrated many hatch days or for a new addition to the family. Affiliate links below.   

 

Hatching Chick Card

Materials: 

• card blank
• cardstock (white, blue, green, yellow, orange)
• googly eyes
• cloud punch
• adhesive

Steps: 

Cut a piece of blue cardstock to fit your card blank. Cut green cardstock the same width as this base. 

Cut out an egg shape from white cardstock. Use a zigzag pattern to cut the egg into two pieces. Punch two clouds from white cardstock. Cut an oval chick from the yellow cardstock, then two tiny yellow feathers. Then cut an orange triangle beak. 

Assemble the card by gluing the green grass to the blue sky. Glue the clouds in the sky, overlapping them slightly. Glue the chick behind half of the egg, then add the yellow feathers behind the chick so they stick off the top of its head. Adhere the other half of the egg to the card, then put the half with the chick in it overlapping it slightly. Add the beak and googly eyes. 

Don't forget to add a fun sentiment on the inside!

Washington Monument Cherry Blossoms Craft

The cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. are iconic. I have several friends who live in the D.C. area who post photos when the blooms are at their peak. One such photo inspired me to make this craft featuring the Washington Monument. Affiliate links below. 

Washington Monument Cherry Blossoms Craft

Materials:

• cardstock or construction paper (blue, white, black/dark blue)
• brown marker
• tissue paper
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Use the brown marker to draw branches and twigs on either side of a piece of blue cardstock. They'll largely be covered with blossoms. 

Cut a narrow rectangle from the white and black (or dark blue) cardstock. Glue them together so that half of each color shows. With scissors, trim the top of each color to make the point of the Washington Monument. Then, on each side, cut a slight taper from the top of the rectangular part to the bottom. 

Cut shades of pink and/or white cardstock into 1" squares. 

Glue the Washington Monument onto the blue cardstock. Put a dot of glue onto one branch, then crumple up a square of tissue paper and stick in to the branch. Repeat this process until you've filled the branches. You might find it easier to do all the crumpling and then all the gluing. I worked in batches of about 10 blossoms at a time. 

In researching this project, I came across these fun facts about the Washington Monument, courtesy of the National Constitution Center. We visited in 2017 and LOVED it. I hope to return someday. George Washington will still dwarf Trevor, but not by nearly as much!

WOYWW? More Like, "Where Is My Workdesk Wednesday"

Have you heard of "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?" WOYWW is a popular way for craft bloggers and artists to share their work-in-progress. It's fun to get a peek into other people's creative space. 

Today is Wednesday and my desk is a disaster. In fact, my entire craft room is a disaster. I've been struggling to keep up with deadlines, which means I haven't been taking the time to clean up after projects. This, in turn, makes it much harder to do the next project. I greatly prefer to work in a clean, well-organized space, but that isn't always my reality. You can accurately gauge how caught up I am with life by how my craft room looks. Today, instead of WOYWW, it's more like WIMWW (Where is My Workdesk Wednesday)!

As I said, I like working in a clean space, with everything put away where it belongs. But that isn't the case with all artists and crafters. I know many who find inspiration in chaos and work best in a cluttered, disorganized studio. For others, a mess is an unavoidable side effect of the type of art they make. I recently came across a photo from the studio of my all-time favorite children's book author and illustrator, Eric Carle. It makes me feel a little better about the current state of my workspace. 

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I figured if there is any artist whose studio could justifiably be a mess, it would be Jackson Pollock. I did some Googling. Considering his technique, Pollock's studio (which you can visit), is neater than I expected. His shoes, on the other hand...

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I can't imagine getting anything done in this studio. But apparently it worked for Francis Bacon. 

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BoredPanda compiled photos of 300+ artists in their studios. They range from pristine to... not. And by "they" I mean the studios, not the artists. (Although now that I think about it, the artists themselves do run the gamut.) One of my favorites amongst all the picture is this one of Bernard Buffet. 

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As it turns out, my workspace isn't nearly as bad as I thought! But it still needs a good cleaning, which is on the agenda for tomorrow. 

Easter Egg Doodles

When I made cardstock eggs for my woven Easter basket craft, I cut out a bunch of extras to use for other projects. Here's what I did with 12 of those eggs:

I challenged myself to create a dozen completely different patterns using only a black pen. I thought it might be hard to come up with so many different doodles, but once I got going, the ideas kept coming. It was a lot of fun. 

So what do you do with the doodled eggs? You can string them to make a banner, or add them to Easter place cards or napkin rings. Or, use them as inspiration for doodling on real eggs! Dye them first and let them dry completely. Or leave them their natural color. With the eggs at room temperature, draw on them using a food safe marker (affiliate link). There are a lot of brands to choose from; I've found there isn't much difference between them. The most important thing is making sure your eggs are completely dry and at room temperature. Enjoy!

Non Voyage

We were really disappointed when we had to cancel our trip over winter break, but there was a major upside: we had fourteen unscheduled days at home to do whatever we wanted. We definitely took advantage of that found time! We visited museums in Sacramento and here in Fairfield. We cooked from scratch, completed three puzzles, read, did a bunch of art (me) and played video games (Steve and Trevor), stayed up late (Trevor) and slept in late (also Trevor). We got our COVID booster shots. Steve and I went wine tasting. And we rang in the new year with friends Rebecca and Cailei. 

Non Voyage (affiliate link)

I had originally planned to title this layout "14 Found Days at Home." That ended up being my subtitle. When I came across the "Bon Voyage" die cut, I did some creative surgery to remove the B, then added an N sticker and made my title "Non Voyage." I'm incredibly pleased with myself. Adding UN above the "Pack Your Bags" sticker is the pièce de résistance.