Back... sort of... and an update.

Okay, obviously I have officially slacked on my flower-a-day project, so it has become more of a "365 flowers in a year" rather than a "flower-a-day" project. Even though I haven't updated on my progress, I'm still more or less keeping up with creating new things, just not always finishing them. Now that I'm done with school for the summer, I will play catch up and make sure all of my projects are recorded on the blog.

On another note, the project has shifted a bit to include more illustrations that have flowers in them. It's something I really want to get better at and so I need to practice quite a bit more. It would be awesome if I could make some money doing freelance illustration.

F-A-D days 145 thru 149

5-3-11
145/365

Today's flower project is page corner bookmarks. I saw a tutorial on a blog about how to make something similar, so I got out all my handmade papers and made several of them. They're about 2 1/2" x 2 1/2". I plan to give sets of them as gifts for Mother's Day. The three in the left column are going to my sister in Utah and the three in the right column are going to my mother-in-law in Idaho.

F-A-D days 140 thru 144

4-28-11
140/365

This is a camellia flower that I drew from an old print. I just used watercolor pencils at first but it needed more definition so I added colored pencils on top to help bring out the lights and darks. I sort of like how the paper buckled - it gives a neat but subtle ray-like effect. Yay for happy accidents!

F-A-D days 135 thru 139

4-23-11
135/365

Mmmmmm... chocolate mini egg flower.

F-A-D days 132 thru 134

4-20-11
132/365

Today's flowers done with Derwent Inktense Blocks.

Days 130 & 131 of flower-a-day

4-18-11
130/365

The lotus part of this piece is a royalty free graphic. I cut it out and pasted it on a background I drew with Derwent Inktense Pencils.

Flower-a-day Days 127, 128 & 129

4-15-11
127/365

I made this flower with gouache paints and a plastic palette knife.

Flower-a-day 125 & 126

4-13-11
125/365

I made this flower from my Arttero Wire & Bead kit.

Flower-a-day 121 through 124

4-9-11
121/365

This is another exercise from the drawing book I'm reading. The toy is a 3-inch tall lavender chenille Easter bunny holding a flower.

Flower-a-day 116 thru 120

4-4-11
116/365

I'm taking Design with Flash this quarter, and we had an assignment to practice using the program to write our names.

Flower-a-day 110 thru 115

3-29-11
110/365

Today I made a miniature book from a kit by Artterro. Artterro is located in the US and they make eco-friendly products. Check out the website - they have a lot of similar art kits.

This is the front of the book.

Flower-a-day 103 thru 109

3-22-11
103/365

Today I took advantage of the nice weather and shot some pictures of the flowers at Highline Botanical Garden. Spring is here!

Flower-a-day 99 thru 102

3-18-11
99/365

More cherry blossoms today! Kirigami on watercolor background.

F-A-D days 92 thru 98

3-11-11
92/365

My hubby bought me this set of pliers from Harbor Freight for working with wire and stuff.

Days 89, 90 & 91 f-a-d

3-8-11
89/365

Happy Mardi Gras! Lotsa homework tonight so I did a quick flower out of old Mardi Gras beads from The Orleans hotel in Vegas, Thanksgiving 1999.

Flower-a-day 84 thru 88

3-3-11
84/365

I was stumped for a project tonight so this piece evolved as I went along. I started out with flowery scrapbook papers, glued them together, and added flower brads for dimension. Next I added the paper flower stickers in coordinating colors, and finally I added this lovely Ralph Waldo Emerson quote I found on the interwebs.

Flower-a-day 79 thru 83

2-26-11
79/365

I made these flowers with more Daniel Smith handmade papers. I used a little heart template to cut out the petals and I joined them together with glittery brads. I glued the flowers on the page and then added stems and grass with Sharpie paint pens.

Days 77 & 78 f-a-d

2-24-11
77/365

I salvaged my empty hot chocolate container for a pencil can, then decided to jazz it up with colorful magazine scraps and glittery flower scrapbook paper. Then I glued the funky trim in a swirly pattern all the way around the can.

Days 73 thru 76 F-A-D

2-20-11
73/365

Experimenting with some quilled flowers using different shapes - teardrops, marquises, and semi-circles.

Days 68 thru 72 F-A-D

2-15-11
68/365

More stamps with colored ink.

F-A-D days 65 thru 67

2-12-11
65/365

Today I made a flower garland by stapling strips of paper together. When I hung it up, it was too heavy and the flower shapes got deformed and looked like clouds... So here it is sitting on my desk.

Overhead shot showing shapes and construction

F-A-D Days 61 thru 64

2-8-11
61/365

This is a printed image of a lotus and I used colored pencils to practice shading, gradients, and blending.

Flower-a-day 56 thru 60

2-3-11
56/365

Doodling. Colors. 'Nuff said.

Flower-a-day: Days 49 thru 55

1-27-11
49/365

I bought a sampler set of acrylic paints so I played with those tonight. It's not pretty, but it was definitely a lesson in the importance of brush quality. I used the cheap-o plastic/nylon scholastic-grade brush that came free with the set and it really didn't do me any favors.

Days 44 thru 48 F-A-D

1-22-11

44/365

I am loving these Sharpie paint pens so I wanted to do another drawing with them. I think I need to go buy more soon.

Days 41 thru 43 flower-a-day

1-19-11

41/365

More fun with paper crafts today! I cut petal shapes out of handmade paper (not handmade by me, unfortunately) and then glued them to the end of a toothpick. After they were all glued on, I rolled the outer edges around another toothpick to curl them. This was a lot more time consuming than it looks, but I like how it turned out so I think I might do a bouquet version in the future.

F-A-D days 37 thru 40

Okay so I'm going to be honest - this project is becoming difficult to maintain. In part, it's because it has taken a back burner to everything else in my life. Every day around midnight, 1am, or even later, I find myself wondering what to do for that day, and settling for something quick and easy. I've had a couple of time-sensitive projects that have been taking up a lot of my time, but those will be over within the next week so I'm hoping that energy will go towards F-A-D. The bad news is that I'm feeling the inklings of project burn-out, but hopefully that will go away once I have a little less on my plate. On to the flowers...





1-15-11

37/365

Today I made a collage in my sketchbook with some paper scraps. The flower pots are made out of magazine ads and they have ruby red brads at the corners. The leaves and stems are scraps of watercolor paper from another project, and I cut the petals out of patterned glitter/embossed paper. Then I topped it all of with a couple of self-adhesive gems for the centers of the flowers.

Days 33 thru 36 F-A-D

Whew! My Sketchbook Project is 99.9% done so I finally have time to catch up on posts. I only need to do something cool to the cover and then I'll be done... Well, except for documenting it for my records. I'm glad they extended the deadline a couple of days. Now on to the flowers...



1-11-11

33/365

I got a gigantic coffee this morning, a Cinnamon Dolce Latte. I popped off the lid to let it cool down, and this shape was on the inside of the lid - but I added a little more whipped cream with my finger to refine the shape. Even though I asked for no whipped cream, I sort of liked this unexpected surprise start to my day. You're off the hook this time, Starbucks.

Days 31 & 32 F-A-D

1-9-11

31/365

I cut this flower out of a coffee filter. First I flattened out the coffee filter, then folded it in half, and then in thirds (the way you do for snowflakes) and then in half again (for symmetry.) Then I cut a few rounded shapes, making sure to preserve portions of the folds. Then I unfolded it and flattened it out, and voila!

Days 25 thru 30 catch up

1-3-11

25/365

Today I took apart a mini sketchbook (only 15 sheets) and made this abstract flower out of the wire binding.

Days 23 & 24 of flower-a-day

 (:  Wahoo! 2011 is here!  :)

1-1-11

23/365

These are hinged metal rings that I picked up for making books or binding other bundles of papers together.

Flower-a-day: Days 21 & 22

12/30/10

21/365

Fun with collage! I found this article about skin care botanicals in a magazine so I cut it up and made it pretty.