Hello!

Today I decided to share some nice drawing lessons I've been doing, with you.

I've wanted to work on my drawing for a while now and got books and stuff but never went further than the first chapters. So, I decided to look online for interesting looking lessons/tutorials.

After some searching I came across Drawspace.com, which offers some excellent free lessons on drawing. (It also offers paid lessons, which I have not tried, so, I do not know how they are.)

The lessons are easy to understand and you follow steps to gradually achieve the final result.
It starts from beginner lessons and the basics, and goes on to to intermediate and advanced subjects. And all the while you can mark your progress and compare your lesson results with others.

It's the first time in a while I haven't gotten bored and continued practicing! :)

Here are some of the drawings I made from the lessons: 

From tutorial "Grendel Gremlin"

From tutorial "Seeing Shapes of a Horse's Head"

From tutorial "Seeing Shapes of a Horse's Head"

Hope someone finds them as helpful as I do. :)

Also, a bonus picture of my cat, Chloe, being very serious.

Until next time!

Hello!

So, I finally finished the first pillowcase!

Removing the waste canvas was a little trickier than I had thought, but I got it in the end. The instructions said to "steam wet", so I wet the fabric and pressed it with the iron on the wrong side a bit. Though, in retrospect, I should have put an extra layer of fabric in between because my iron now has traces of glue.
Oh, well!
Here are some pictures of the process. It wasn't easy pulling the wet threads by hand, so I thought I'd used eyebrow tweezers instead. It did the trick wonderfully and it was much easier that way.

Removed the hoop.

Just starting to remove the waste canvas...

Wow! The tweezers really did the trick!

And the finished pillowcase!

It looks cool, but I think it looks kinda bare, I might need to embellish it a bit. :)
Hope you enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed making it!

Till next time!

Hello, world!

A while ago I bought a couple of white pillowcases to customize. I wanted to cross-stitch Bub and Bob sprites (from Bubble Bobble) on them. But I wanted to put something more that would be fitting for a couple!

So, I decided to do "1 up" and "2 up" next to each sprite as it was in the game

I've almost finished the first pillowcase, only a black outline remains.

Almost done...

Hurray!!! Oh, wait, I forgot I'm going to add an outline, too...

I've also discovered the wonder that is waste canvas. You just secure it on your fabric, cross-stitch on it using it as a ruler and then remove it! I can't tell you how excited I was when I found out it exists. Everything is much easier now...

I'm going to post the finished pillowcase in the next days and then the second pillowcase, featuring Bob!

Until then, take care!

Okay, I know it's been more than a few days, but things that need more immediate attention have the habit or getting in the way. Besides, no one ever specified how many is "few"! Ha!

Ahem. So, let me make an introduction! I like to create things using many different techniques: polymer clays, crochet, fabric paint and others. Many times I see something I haven't tried and I just *have* to try it at least once! Like recently I saw some paints for china and it will be just perfect to try and do something with a plain white tea set we got as a wedding present... I only hope I don't end up destroying it.

And as you will see, a lot of my arts and crafts are computer game inspired. Mainly old games, but who knows what will inspire me next!

And to get an idea, here's a shopping bag I painted for my sister as a first try at fabric paints.

 "Look Hoagie, it's a hamster! Just what I need for dissection lab tomorrow!" I never get bored of that game. :D
And I think the bag turned out pretty good, don't you? :)

Some notes:
The plastic bag on the inside is so that the paint doesn't bleed on the other side when I'm painting on one side. And if anyone is interested I used Pebeo Setacolor Opaque paints. Pretty easy to use and you set them with ironing.

I might make a post at some point about how to use these paints, in case it helps someone, somewhere!

Until my next post! :D

*knock knock*

As I look up from my desk I notice you at the door.

"Oh, hello there, random stranger! Welcome to my arts and crafts and all things creative blog!" I say beaming.

"You know, you are one of my first visitors! We just opened today!" I say, pointing at the sign on the door that you hadn't noticed until now. "Blog to let. Inquire within."

"Whoops, I meant to take that down." I say and quickly replace it with a brand new "OPEN" sign.

"You know, since there isn't anyone around here, what do you think of this wallpaper?" I say and eagerly hold up a book of samples, open to some page.

Before you can take a look, I pull it back and say, "Argh, I know, not much to work with, but these are the free choices my landlord provided me with. Anything different I'll have to get it myself."
I sit and pore through the samples for a moment with a look of frustration on my face.

"It's so hard to choose!" I say and throw my hands up. "Ok, you know what? I' ll just pick this. It's black and white, it goes with everything."

Suddenly I look up as if I just remembered I have a visitor,"Well, as you can see," I smile and motion to the room around me, "there isn't much to see here, yet. But come back in a few days' time and I promise you'll find something more interesting than me just sitting and looking at wallpapers."


:)