Artwork from the Closet Depths

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently visited my parents and spent most of my time cleaning out the closet in my childhood bedroom.  I can't believe the stuff I found.  Among the more interesting items, some watercolor paintings.

First up, a matted painting of a hippo.  I'm not sure when I painted this, but all the wrinkles in the paper mean it was obviously before I knew about watercolor paper.  Which means it was probably late elementary or middle school.  I'm not sure why it's matted.  I must have displayed it somewhere.

 

When I was about 16 or so, I took an 8-week watercolor class through 4-H, my first (and only) painting instruction.  I learned the basics, bought proper materials, and did a few paintings which are now hanging on my parents' walls.  (Note to self to photograph those one of these days....)

Apparently, I stored unfinished paintings in my closet.  I found this half-done picture, which looks really weird without any of the foreground.   

 

Taped to the back was this image, torn from a cruise brochure.  It's nice to know what I was aiming for when I started this!

 

I also found the start of an interesting United States piece.  There are 2 pages, each with 25 boxes.  The names of the states are at the top.  Some of the states have a painted image below that.  Others have a sketch.  Others are blank.

 

Here's a close-up of Maine.

 

And California.

 

I'm guessing I made this in late high school.  I have no idea why I did this.  I wish I'd finished it, as it's kind of cool.  When I asked my mom what I should do with these, she said to finish them.  I might, but probably not.  After a 22+ year break, it's hard to get back into a half-done project.  

Next I think I'll show you some stuff from when I was really into miniatures.  Stay tuned!

Back in My Camp Counselor Days...

Approximately 22 years after I moved out of my parents' house, I'm finally getting around to cleaning out the closet from my childhood bedroom.  The treasures I've found so far are awesome.  One of the first things I found were the nametags from my years at 4-H Camp. Such great memories!

Each year, our camp had a different theme.  The campers were divided into 6 tribes of about 20 people.  Each tribe had a themed name and it was the responsibility of the two Tribe Leaders (one male, one female) to make creative nametags that the campers wore everywhere they went.  I went to camp 4 times as a camper before I became a Tribe Leader. In no particular order (because I can't remember the order), I was a member of the following tribes: 

 

Lords and Ladies

 

Great Britain

 

Whales

 

Elephants

(It's a good thing I was a healthy weight as a child.  After being called a Whale all summer one year and an Elephant the next summer, a person might develop a complex...) 

After 4 years as a camper, I applied to be a Tribe Leader.  I was selected to lead the Scorpio tribe.  I was really excited about creating awesome nametags.  I couldn't wait to get together with my partner Rich and discuss our visions.  I had a sketchbook full of ideas and designs.  As it turns out, there are 16 year old boys out there who don't care one bit about nametag design and Rich was one of them.  How could he not care?!  He told me that whatever I wanted to make was perfect.  I designed these.

 

I hand-lettered the word Scorpio and drew a scorpion on each of 25 pieces of Shrinky Dinks, which I then shrunk.  I cut wood into rectangles, sanded the pieces, drilled holes, and dangled the Scorpio tag.  I added yarn, then wrote the names of each of our campers on the wood.  Rich told me I did an awesome job.  Looking back at it now, I'm super impressed with the fact that I wrote the date on these (1988).  None of my camper nametags have the date on them.

The following summer, Noel and I were in charge of the Moas.  Having learned from my experience with Rich, I didn't even bother including Noel in the nametag design process.  I got him busy on other tasks while I created a prototype for another Shrinky Dink nametag.    

 

In 1990 (just after graduating from high school), Scott and I were the Tribe Leaders for the Dolphins.  While Rich and Noel were both my age when we were partners, Scott was 3 years younger than me and in his first year as a Tribe Leader.  I mistakenly thought he wouldn't care that much about our nametags, but he was far more into how they looked than the other two had been.  Together, we made nametags that looked like this:

 

We did something I hadn't thought to do before - we signed the back of every nametag.  I wish I'd done that with my other partners.  I also wish the Tribe Leaders I had as a camper had done that.  

Thanks for joining me on this trip down Memory Lane!

Another UFO off my desk...

It's a good thing I have a scraproom where I can leave things out.  I am not one of those people who starts a layout and finishes it in the same scrap session.  Far from it.  I usually have 10 or more layouts in various stages of completion spread all around the scraproom. Some are done except for embellishment (the hardest part for me), while others are waiting for journaling.  Some just have the photos laid out on a piece of cardstock with some possible patterned paper choices underneath them.  

A typical layout sits unfinished in my scraproom for anywhere from a week to a month. However, if you dig down in the pile, sometimes there's one that's been buried, 95% done, for far longer than that.  Sometimes I forget all about these UFOs until I do a major cleanup. Such was the case with the layout about our visit to our New Year's visit to our Washington relatives.  The pictures, title and journaling block were all adhered just waiting for the last touches.

I finally brought it to the top of the pile and finished it up.

Those of you who scrapbook: do you work on one layout at a time until it's done, or do you have tons of projects going on at any given time?

Lost: 1 Tooth

A one photo layout!  That doesn't happen very often around here.  

I started with two photos- this one and a picture of Trevor holding his lost tooth in his hand. When I put both the pictures on the page, the proportions were all off, making him look like he has a giant hand or a tiny head.  I experimented with resizing, but the angle of the photo meant it just didn't work. As soon as I decided to work with just one picture, everything fell into place.  I ended up using a sketch by Jill Sarginson for the title and embellishment placement.

I really like how this turned out.

Fun with Shrinky Dinks

When our neighbors came over for dinner and a crafty playdate, I set out Shrinky Dinks and let everyone create.  

 

The kids (and mommies) had lots of fun making our designs.  We used stamped with StazOn and colored with Sharpies.  Then we punched the holes.  As per the instructions on the package, we put the finished designs on a brown paper bag and slid the tray into the oven.

 

As we watched through the oven door, we saw R's pennant shrink to a perfect circle.  So cute!

C made matching BFF pendants.  Adorable!  

 

But this is how Trevor's and mine turned out.  

What the heck?!  Twisted, lumpy and distorted.  Usually you can press out folds with a spatula while they're still warm.  Not this time.  Apparently our oven has some major problems with even heating.  I haven't had any trouble the last dozen times I've used shrink plastic, like for my Fiskateer necklaces or when I tested what happens when you put rub-ons on the not-yet-shrunk plastic.  I suppose if anyone's projects got messed up due to our oven, it's best that it was ours and not our guests'.  Next time we do Shrinky Dinks I'm going to do a test shrink first!