REZRAGZ is Born

I have always gotten a kick out of taking a discarded, worthless piece of "junk" and recreating it into something of use or beauty. (Reminds me a bit of my own life, only I didn't do the recreating.) Of course, now this pastime is a politically correct. Green, even. So recently the Jazzercise Instructor (JI) and I have been getting together on Tuesdays re-making old tee-shirts into wearable art. Thought you might be interested in yesterday's pieces. The JI made this burgundy dolman-sleeved top from an  XL tee-shirt based on this tutorial Dolman Tee-Shirt.

Very easy and very cool! She also made a long blue skirt and obie-tie belt from an XXXL tee-shirt and a cowl-necked dress from a powder blue tee. You'll have to take my word for it though, because we forgot to take photos. We'll do better next Tuesday, I promise.

I took a discarded black shirt I had bleach tie dyed for the Professor a few years ago. Because I neglected to rinse the shirt after discharging it, the fabric continued to degrade. (Note to self: rinse all discharged items in a solution to stop  discharge action!)

Because the shirt had a few tiny holes, I figured I could experiment. So I copied a shirt that fit beautifully, adding seam allowances as I cut the shirt apart.
Ver
Voila! New, fun casual shirt to wear to the blues festival this year.

Anyway, the JI and I got these fantastic labels for our creations at Custom Labels.We may even start a Facebook page, who knows.

Mind Mapping

There is something great about beginning the week with a creative project among friends. This afternoon at Creative Playtime, we did a little mind mapping. Now if you're not familiar with this activity, give it a try after you read through today's blog post. First we prepared the background. Using a partially wet (spritzed with water) sheet of sketch paper. Onto that was layered color with Derwent's Inktense Color blocks. These wonderful sticks of pure color go on like watercolor pencils, but the colors are richer, brighter. And once the ink has been wet and dried, the color becomes permanent. Great for layering more color or glue or any wet media. No running or smearing. These may be my new favorite tool.

Look at these backgrounds. We set them aside to dry while we rummaged through the collage items to fill our pre-cut heads.
  The heads were covered with the collage materials and then attached to the dried backgrounds.

Next week we're planning to do aprons to protect our clothes from paint splashes. Stay tuned!

Needle-Felted Journal Cover

Monday afternoon a longtime goal was realized. I started meeting with some girls on a regular schedule to do art. I put together a sample project for inspiration

and we made it. I'm calling the group Creative Playtime. This week we needle felted journal covers.

We started with an 8x10 piece of wool onto which we felted wool roving, wool scraps and various yarns. By using a barbed needle to push fiber through the wool, they are joined 

creating a single piece of fiber.

 

After the design is felted onto the wool, the wool was then attached to an 8x10 piece of matboard with one of my favorite iron-on products: Wonder-Under.

 

After affixing the wool to the matboard,  words were stamped onto the cover

 

and dots were added with permanent Sharpie markers and gel pens.

With the final addition of wire binding by my Zutter binding system, the journal was completed.

Can't wait for next week's Creative Playtime.

Choosing Color BHG Style

My sister, the Fashionista, was here this past weekend. We wandered the Farmer's Market, bought fiber art at a garage sale. We ate at the local Co-Op, went home and planted the pink and white Cosmos she bought me there.

We stopped and smelled the flowers everywhere we went. We stayed up late cocooned in blankets on the fire-lit  patio. We shared inspiration and encouraged each other to live fully awake and alive. It was grand.
The last night we were together, I pulled out a sketchbook of sample color studies from my school days as we considered the possibility of designing a room inspired by the peony blossoms she had carried home from the Farmer's Market.

 

The bright pink set off by the yellow center pierced by pale green on a stem adorned with dark green leaves. We imagined pale green walls, a neutral couch in white loaded with pillows of bright pink or a pale yellow couch with pink and white and pale green pillows and dark green carpet... The choices went on and on. Great fun exploring the options.

After she left, I got my weekly BHG.com email which had some interesting information about using color in decorating. Thought it might be helpful to share it with you, too. Check out the link.  Tips and Tricks for Using Color I'd love to hear what you think.

And by the way, she loved the skirt!