Sprocket the Kitten

This is the newest member of our family, Sprocket, the kitten.  He came to live with us in April.  For some reason, he likes to sit on what I'm working on. Sometimes to nap.

Maybe he's trying to help me craft?

One Image, Five Ways

At the end of May, we spent the weekend at Snowshoe Resort.  Go look at that link - great place to go. Absolutely beautiful mountain top resort.

While I was there, I colored the flower images from the Simon Says Stamp June kit five times (images on right of line of art).  I used different paper, different media, and different colors.  Fun.

Here are the cards:

On Graytoned paper with Gray polychromos pencils

On watercolor paper (Tim Holtz) with watercolor

On either bristol or Neenah Solar White with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

On Nennah Solar White with Polychromos pencils

On Desert Storm paper with polychromos pencils

Father's Day Cards

This is what I did for Father's Day Cards.  I actually made four the blue one; one of the green one. 

All are painted on Tim Holtz watercolor paper.  I started with a blue water, and then did increasingly darker washes of color for each mountain as it came closer to the viewer.  In this way, the front mountain has several washes of color and is the darkest. 

The green one might be my favorite (it went to Steve), but some of the other blue ones (not pictured) were good, too.  Fun to make.

Seattle yarn, part 2

I spoke earlier about our trip to Seattle.  I shopped for yarn (twice, yes, I know) in this store.  It's called So Much Yarn, and it is located near Pikes Place Market.  Cool place. 

Even cooler story - we were talking to the owner, who asked us where we are from.  She is also from West Virginia.  Amazingly small world.

When I went back, I bought this yarn.  The colors are Seattle Seahawks colors, but I don't care.  I love the colors.  The company is Raven Frog Fibers, located it Sitka, Alaska.  Funny thing - I recognized the company and realized that I had bought a skien of yarn from Raven Frog Fibers when I was in Alaska (see this post).  With that yarn, I made this scarf.    Looking forward to seeing what I knit with this giant skien - maybe two scarves?

Polychromos Flowers

I’ve been debating purchasing a set of Polychromos pencils. I received an amazon gift card for my birthday and used it to buy the 60-count set. I know I’ll want more colors, but this versus the 120-count set - cheaper to buy the other colors a singles and add them as needed. 

Pictures in this blog are my first attempt to use the pencils - Simon Says Stamp Beautiful flowers set

Seattle Yarn

Pretty yarn, right? I purchased this at So Much Yarn in Seattle.  It is a California yarn, specifically dyed for this store.  It's La Jolla yarn from Baah Yarn, and the colorway is Market Flowers.

It is a perfectly appropriate colorway name considering the number of flowers for sale in this city, espeically at the Market.

Colored Pencil debate (with myself)

I'm continuing my study of Prismacolor versus Polychromos colored pencils.  I purchased three red polychromos pencils so that I could do a good comparison between the blending of them against the prismacolor.

One of these was colored with Prismacolored pencils (the bottom one); the other with Polychromos.  A few differences:

• You might be able to see (in the terrible picture) that the prismacolor leaves a waxy finish. That isn't present with the polychromos - you're able to add more color layers with the polychromos.
• The prismacolored pencils are softer, and may be better for larger areas.  The polychromos are harder, and might be better for more detailed images.
• The prismacolored pencils, when you add too much color, shed onto the paper around the image. This I Really Don't Like.
• The polychromos don't break like the prismacolored pencils do. I can sharpen them to a better point, and they hold the point.  Also, there is less breakage inside the wood of the pencil - that drives me crazy with the prismacolored pencils, and results in wasted pencils.  

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, but at this point I'm thinking I could use the difference kinds of pencils for different projects.  Also, the shedding of color outside the image and the breakage are really turning my heart away from Prismacolor.