MaeLyn's Musings

Something that I have enjoyed doing a lot in the last couple years is using plastic canvas and yarn to make tissue box covers. This is a simple way to be creative and make something that I will use!  I start with 5 pieces of plastic canvas. The top is about 33 holes x 60 holes, two sides are 60x24, and the last two sides are 33x24. The top will have a slot cut in the middle, but the size of the top varies depending on the design. It should at least be large enough to easily feed the tissue through! I usually plan my design before I begin, often drawing it out either on graph paper or sketching it onto the canvas itself with a permanent marker. I like experimenting with different types of stitches and textures to make each one unique in its own way. Once each side is stitched, then I sew them all together. Here are some of my past projects: This is the one I have on my bedside table. The colors aren't good in the photo, but it is navy and pink. The monster box was one of the first o...

This bottle has a wide, solid base, so it is well balanced, sturdy, dependable, and isn't easily knocked over. The neck tries to break free of that image a little, and reaches out in an attempt to be graceful and artistic, although it falls a bit short of its aspirations. In looks, it is pretty, but not glamorous. It is fine standing on its own when it has to, but is usually more comfortable when something else shares the stage.

Josh chose our activity for Family Home Evening last night. He divided three pieces of paper in half lengthwise, then gave each of us one piece of paper and told us to fold it into sixths. Then we each drew the top of a head (to the eyebrows), then fold down what we drew and pass the paper to the next person, who finished the head down to the neck before passing it on. Next person drew down to the waist, next to the knees, next to the ankles, and the last person drew the feet. It was fun to unfold the drawings and see the creatures that we drew!  Sometimes the lines get lost going from one section to the next, which is what happened to the picture on the left above. As the kids have gotten older, this has happened less frequently. These are fun because each of the six members of our family drew one section of each of the drawings, but it is difficult sometimes to figure out who drew which part!

I mentioned last week that we had checked out the movie "Monsters University" from the library. It inspired last week's Monster Logic puzzle. Since then, I have been having fun drawing the monsters that were referred to in the puzzle. I finished the last one today, so I thought I would share. Warning: if you haven't solved the puzzle and don't want me to give away the answers, don't look at this! These were the sketches I started out with when I created the puzzle to help me remember who was who, and who had what. Art was drawn entirely in Photoshop. Herbert was sketched in pencil, then colored with colored pencil. Ponzi was originally colored in crayon, then scanned and changed a bit in Photoshop. Theodore was drawn entirely in Photoshop. Bonzo was drawn entirely in Photoshop. I'm not the only one who drew monsters this week. I was just having fun with some random monster sketches, and Peter added a picture of the real Art ...

Kandinski's Squares with Concentric Circles In school, Joshua studied the artist Wassili Kandinski . Joshua learned that he is a Russian artist, who was inspired by Monet's Haystacks . Wassily was dazzled by colors as a child, and when he was older, he went to an academy of art in Munich, Germany. He painted things that no one else would have painted, and expressed things in strange ways. He was the first abstract painter. In Josh's art class, he got to try to recreate one of Kandinski's paintings. He chose a painting called Squares with Concentric Circles . Joshua's recreation.

Yesterday, in a last effort to keep the kids entertained for one more day before they returned to school, we pulled out the art supplies. I received some watercolors for Christmas, and so I, too, sat down to try to remember how watercolors work exactly. I don't think I've used watercolors in the last twenty years, so it felt a bit weird, but it was fun. Here are the results of our artistic endeavors, with photos taken by Joshua: Joshua's painting Peter's painting Hannah's painting Me, while I was painting. Here is my completed painting:

Josh made these in art this week, and he wanted me to write about them. Here is what he said about them, in pretty much his own words. (He even took the pictures himself!)  This is a dog dragon and his nest. This is when the dog dragon helps some fishermen get to safety at Waterfun's palace. Waterfun is Josh's god name. (Sometimes Josh pretends to be a god.) The coiled bit at the top is the dog dragon's nest. The nest is portable, and he has many places to put it, some on land, some near the palace, and some even in the water. Never say, "A dragon is protecting the house" when it is this dragon, because the dragon will destroy it.

The end of the school year means the kids start bringing home projects that they have made at school. Here is a picture/collage John made in his art class.

This started out just playing with circles and shades... but then the eyeballs appeared and I had to pursue that theme.

Last night, as I was driving home after visiting teaching, I noticed the beautiful full moon. It was gorgeous! When I got home, I went inside to grab the camera and went back out to try to take a picture of it. Unfortunately, my little point-and-shoot camera had trouble with the concept of trying to take a picture of something as far away as the moon. It wanted to use the flash... I couldn't hold the camera steady enough... the street lights were in the way. I am not really a photographer, like a couple of my wonderfully talented sisters with their fancy cameras and tripods. I eventually set the camera on an electrical box near the street, and did the best I could. This morning I've been having fun editing the picture, cropping, editing out a street light or two, and eventually, I got an image that I like. It doesn't quite have the same feel of that bright, crisp moon with the wispy clouds drifting in front of it that was the original inspiration, but it's still not bad...

Do you ever get bored? Do you like to draw? Then this activity is for you! Number of Players: Any number, but lots more fun if there is more than just one. What you need: something to write on, something to write with (pencil, pen, marker, chalk, crayon, fingerpaints, whatever), and a blindfold for each person playing (this could be a scarf, an over-sized hat, anything that can be worn so a person can't see what they are doing), an imagination and sense of humor not required, but definitely suggested. (We played this as part of our FHE last night. Can you guess who drew what?) How you do it: Everyone puts on a blindfold. One player suggests something to draw, and everyone draws it while blindfolded. When everyone is done, take off the blindfolds and compare drawings. Who's drawing looks most put together? Who's looks most random? After every drawing has been looked at, repeat process, taking turns suggesting things to draw.