To Dye Naturally

For 5 wonderful days, I was inspired by India Flint on the process of using natural plant materials to dye cloth and paper.

Each day, we would wonder the grounds for fallen plant material. Then, fold them in between fabric or paper pieces held tightly together by string. The bundles would sit in a dye pot overnight. In the morning, we laid the bundles out with anticipation of what took place during the night.

Each bundle holds a different surprise, and every time someone in the class opened up a bundle all you could hear was "oooo, awww, oh my gosh."

These are a few of the magical surprises found.

The class quilt, hand sewn into blocks of natural wonder.

Nature and Cloth

This years art getaway takes me to Osoyoos, Canada. It is a privilege to be learning from India Flint along with 11 other fiber artists. 

This is my classroom.

Just being surrounded by these beautiful mountains and like minded souls is fulfilling.

More Documented Life Challenges

Creating with paper, paint and found objects is a lot of fun. Given a challenge every week is even funner. Here are a couple more of my documented life challenge pages from my planner.

- Add a cardboard food box in a creative way. -
I used acrylic paint and a napkin for the background, acrylic painted textbook paper for the flowers and petals, and of course, a sorbet container (which is very delicious).

- Draw or photograph your favorite pair of shoes. -

I did both because my drawing skills are not that good,  yet.

The background page is painted with acrylics, and my drawing was done with colored pencils

IF WE COULD SEE INSIDE OTHER PEOPLE'S HEARTS

From Cheryl Richardson's newsletter. 

Cheryl always includes a video along with her wisdom and tips.

This is powerful!

Thank you, Cheryl, for sharing this as a reminder that we all have a story.

Happy Easter

This year we ended up with brown eggs from the farm. My girls were not very happy when they sat down to color eggs and saw they were brown.

After a little whining, they decided to make the best of it and challenged their creativity.

I think they turned out pretty cool.

Hope you had a blessed day.

Baby Pictures

I have one more idea to share with my students on how they can use photographs to personalize their journals. You can see the other class samples here.

When I was looking through my photo albums, the baby pictures kept standing out, so Babies became the theme. 

Babies everywhere!

I used my parent's baby picture along with me and my husband and our 5 children. I made black and white copies to help blend and soften the cover.

With a splash of love (little red hearts).

Prayer Flags

This piece was once part of a quilt I started for my daughter, but after a while, it didn't seem to flow the way I had hoped. It soon became one of those UFOs (unfinished objects). After months of shifting it from one pile to another, it is time to scrap it.  

This section makes a nice prayer flag.

My small collection on the back patio.