Blog - In A Tickle

Documented Life Project- Week 48

Posted on November 30, 2014 by JanNovember 30, 2014

The art challenge for week 48 in the Documented Life Project was to: “Depict Gratitude in a creative way.”

Although every week should be a week of gratitude, this week is when those in the USA focus on gratitude with a celebration of a day of Thanksgiving. Melinda and I are grateful for many things, but we do want to express our gratitude for all of you who have become faithful followers of our blog. It brings us much joy when we hear from you about how you have been inspired to express your creativity because of the encouragement you have received from us. That is our desire– to help you find the creativity that is locked up inside of you so you can find ways to play with that. One way Melinda and I have been stretched this year is by doing the challenges in the Documented Life Project. We chose to share them with you not only to inspire you to try something new but also to help us stay committed through the year. Only four weeks left! It is really fun to look back through each of our challenges– some we really liked, some we didn’t, but we can both see growth in our abilities and it feels good to have tried things that were new to us.

We would like to invite you to participate with us in the Documented Life Project for 2015. It is free and you can do it with or without sharing your work. This past year the focus was on a calendar planner/art journal but Melinda and I just did the art challenges (without the planner.) It is our understanding that 2015 will be focused on an art journal and the coordinators are bringing in several teachers to present new techniques and ideas for you to try. Be sure to sign up so you don’t miss anything. You can find out more about it here. Melinda is even considering having her older kids join with her in doing the challenges next year.

Jan:

My heart is full of so many things for which I am grateful. My inspiration for this was a silver necklace pendant I have which is puffy and has open cutouts of hearts and circles on one side. I used colored pencils, white and black pens and a little acrylic paint on my page.

Melinda:

This was my third attempt at doing this challenge. The tree wasn’t coming out right at first. I like how this turned out. The things I am grateful for are the leaves. I used a black 05 Micron and colored pencils.

Documented Life Project- Week 47

Posted on November 26, 2014 by JanNovember 26, 2014

The Documented Life Project challenge for week 47 was to: “Add a map of your town, state or country. Document about this map.”

Jan:
On my recent flight to NYC I was enjoying seeing the fall colors from above as we took off and descended. So for this challenge, I chose to make a bird’s eye view map in the fall of the largest lake in the area where I live. Table Rock Lake was formed when a dam and powerhouse were completed in 1959 to help control flooding on the White River and is part of a system of 5 dams and lakes in southern Missouri and northwest Arkansas. There are nearly 800 miles of shoreline on Table Rock Lake.

Melinda:

I chose a map page of our area out of an old maps book we had. My family is about to head off on an adventure of full-time RVing for our ministry, Four Point Families. As I worked on the page, I kept thinking about “home base.”

Documented Life Project- Week 46

Posted on November 25, 2014 by JanNovember 25, 2014

The art challenge for week 46 of the Documented Life Project was: “Incorporate fabric onto your page.”

Jan:
Digging through a box of scrap fabric pieces I came across some fabric scraps that I had used a while back for feathers on a stuffed owl pillow. It made beautiful feathers. This time, however, when I saw the fabric it made me think of waves and some pictures I had taken in Hawaii.

I cut out waves from the fabric and some rocks from brown fabric and collaged them to a piece of paper used to roll paint off a brayer while gelli printing.

Melinda:
As I looked through the fabric scraps, I saw ones that were leftovers from making the lovies in our Etsy shop. We had given one to Baby Boy a couple weeks ago, and he loves it! I decided to commemorate that on my page for this week.

He is a fan!

Documented Life Project- Week 45

Posted on November 21, 2014 by JanNovember 21, 2014

The challenge of week 45 in the Documented Life Project was to: “Add a tab.”

Jan:
I drew a picture with graphite pencils of part of my computer with the “tab” key showing and then glued the cover and tab pages from an old pocket sized planner to the page.

Melinda:

My Hubby hates it when I leave tabs open on the the computer. He told me it’s like all the lights being on in the house. While I don’t exactly agree with him, I thought his quote was perfect for this challenge. I used a graphite pencil and colored pencil to draw for my page.

Our First Expo November 15, 2014

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Melinda PrinceMay 7, 2019

Mom got back from New York, and we got busy right away preparing for in a Tickle’s first craft show/expo.

We will be going to Kansas City Saturday, November 15, 2014. If you are in the area, we would love for you to stop by.

The Expo will be held at Blue Springs Assembly to benefit their Early Childhood Department. Check out the info on the facebook page.

We have all kinds of great products from Children’s lovies and doll carriers to hair accessories and jewelry. We have a little something for everyone!

We would love to see you there!

Documented Life project- Week 44

Posted on November 10, 2014 by JanNovember 10, 2014

The art challenge for week 44 of the Documented Life Project was to: “Incorporate leaves (real or drawn/painted) onto your page in a creative way.”

Jan:

Last spring I bought some new plants for a flower garden and was fascinated with the look of the leaves on the herb plant with the funny name of Rue. I had never heard of it or seen it. I was told by the clerk it was a plant that helped ward off mosquitoes, so I was sold! It grew but never produced the small yellow flowers shown on the card that came with it. Maybe they don’t grow in the first year. Here it is in my flower bed. Since I have recently done other challenges using leaves (here, and here, and here, and here), I wanted to do something different to do with these leaves.

While watching my grandkids play outside, I started sketching some sprigs of my rue plant with pencil. I then colored them with watercolor pencils and used a black fine point Pitt pen to draw around the leaves. For the final touch, I brushed the back of the rue sprigs with mod-podge and stuck them onto the page. I covered the whole page and the tops of the leaves with a final coat of mod-podge to help preserve the leaves.

Melinda:

I recently had a birthday, and My Hubby gave me one of the best presents I could get, a whole day to do whatever I wanted! So in the afternoon, I took about 45 minutes at the local coffee shop and worked on some drawing. I didn’t want to draw a normal tree leaf, so I started looking through pinterest for some inspiration. I thought about Basil because it is one of my favorite herbs. I found a picture of a tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil appetizer. In one of the Derwent Academy challenges, I had to draw a shell using just dots, called stippling or pointillism. I thought it would be a good challenge for me to try doing that again with this drawing. (Gotta love when you realize you have a typo after you’ve already taken a picture. Mozarella, mozzarella. I always get that one wrong.)

Documented Life Project- Week 43

Posted on November 8, 2014 by JanNovember 8, 2014

The art challenge for the Documented Life Project for week 43 was to: “Sketch what you see right now.”

Jan:
Usually when the challenge is issued (on Saturdays), I read it but don’t always have opportunity to start the challenge right away. However, my brain always starts working on figuring out what I am going to do. I usually have a mental image of what I want my project to look like by the time I start actually working on it. So when I read the challenge but couldn’t start on anything at that moment, I felt like I would be cheating when I sat down to “sketch what I saw right now” if I allowed myself time to “plan” mentally. When I finally had opportunity to sketch, I decided to sit on the couch and draw something in the living room. The end of the old trunk I use as a coffee table caught my eye.

So I sketched the end of my trunk with graphite drawing pencils and a red colored pencil for the lettering.

Melinda:
It’s not often that I wake up before my kiddos, but this particular morning they slept in. I got the coffee started and sat down at the table. I wanted to do a rough sketch and not spend a whole lot of time on it since I knew my time alone would be short. I used colored pencils to draw my bowl of pumpkins.

Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?

Posted on November 7, 2014 by JanNovember 10, 2014

I found a place that definitely has the button. Tucked away in a narrow brick building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is an amazing shop named Tender Buttons that claims to be the “only shop in American devoted entirely to the sale of buttons.”

For someone who loves to sew and also loves antiques, just stepping in the door feels like you are entering a magical place. I took my little Songbird (wearing her baby doll in the carrier I made for her) on an adventure to check it out.

One wall of the 12 1/2 foot wide shop is filled with boxes and boxes of every color and kind of button imaginable from all over the world.

In the center of the shop are antique tables and chairs for your comfort in making decisions about the best buttons for your project.

In the entry and along the right wall are hundreds of antique buttons from around the world displayed museum style, but even those buttons are for sale as well.

Next time you are in New York City, head to 62nd Street just off Lexington Avenue and visit Tender Buttons. You can read more about the shop at their website.

After you’ve visited the Tender Button shop, you can head straight across the street and enjoy a cup of coffee from the newest Birch Coffee location. We’re a little partial because Songbird’s daddy is the owner of Birch Coffee!

NYC Marathon 2014

Posted on November 4, 2014 by JanNovember 4, 2014

Do you like to run? I mean as in running just to run, not as in being chased or trying to catch something? I had the honor of being in NYC this past weekend when around 50,000 people ran because they like to run– and that was only a small percentage of people who try to get a spot the race but don’t get in. It amazes me! I don’t like to run. I really tried to like it years ago after college when we had a good friend living with us for a few weeks. He was a runner training for the Olympics. He inspired us to get up and run every morning. It didn’t stick. Or maybe I did not stick with it long enough to start liking it. But I do admire those who set a goal, train to reach the goal, and run the race.

My daughter, Kara, who likes to run, gave birth to her second child in the spring, started training on her own in July, and ran in the 2014 NYC Marathon on Sunday. I am so proud of her perseverance and determination to commit to the hours and miles of training and then to accomplish the goal. Pretty amazing that she could run 26.2 miles at one time, but equally amazing that she has run about 400 miles since July! She did inform me that not all people who run necessarily like running, but they like setting a goal and accomplishing it.

NYC Marathon Race Map

About Mile 17

Congratulations!

People of all ages and abilities participate in the marathon. When you watch people racing down the street in wheelchairs, and with various other physical challenges, you can’t help but be inspired. I loved the story of one lady running the race. Margaret Hagerty is 91 years old and this marathon was her 81st marathon! That’s pretty amazing in itself, but she did not even start running until she was 64 years old. She was told she needed to stop smoking and get moving. So she started running down her street. After the first day, she determined to run by four houses the next day. She ended up running in marathons on all seven continents! You can watch an interview with her below. The last update I saw was at just over 24 miles and I haven’t heard what her final was yet.

So what is it that you would like to do? You don’t have to run a marathon but you need the mindset of those who do. Train, take lessons, practice, practice, practice, and just keep learning, stretching, and growing in your abilities. Pretty soon you will accomplish your goal!

If you do want to run a marathon, my daughter highly recommends this book, The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, by Whitsett, Dolgener, and Kole.

Fall Crafter–Julie Hume with Encaustic Painting

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Melinda PrinceMay 7, 2019

It can be easy after you have seen several booths of paintings to look for a minute then move on, but when we stopped by Julie Hume’s booth at the Silver Dollar City Harvest Festival, our interest was piqued more as we realized the technique was new to us. We saw the sign that said “Encaustic painting,” and mom said she had seen something about that recently but wasn’t sure what it was.

We started talking to Julie and her passion for the style was obvious as she explained her technique and how she came to do it.

Encaustic painting has been around since the Egyptians.

On a handout from Julie it says, “The ancient art of encaustic painting involves applying melted wax colored with pigments to a wood panel or other surface. The wax is applied using various methods and tools, including brushes, metal scrapers and carving instruments, to shape the wax before it cools. The wax is heated between each application to fuse it and make it stable. A blow-torch, heat gun or heat light can be used to blend or move the wax to achieve the desired effect.”

Julie was introduced to encaustic painting over 40 years ago. She attended a demonstration by someone who did this kind of painting, but didn’t like the abstract way it was done. She decided to try it out and see if she could do it with more detail.

When Julie first started playing around with this technique, she used her kids crayons for the wax. They weren’t too happy about that and were probably quite pleased when she discover beeswax was a better option. She also does her own blends of color even though there are more wax options available these days.
Though hard to convey in a photograph, Julie’s encaustic are beautifully detailed in a way that seems impossible with just wax and heat. She carves out her detail, and with patience and a willingness to change directions from her original plan, ends with a unique, beautiful finished piece of art. She says the real trick is that “you just have to know when to stop.”

You can contact Julie by visiting her website, or by visiting her Etsy page.