13th Heart, June 19th

I read a book about a girl who opens a cross stitch store on the oregon coast and solves mysteries on the side. It was super cool and it made me want to learn about how to cross stitch. I got some cool books and did a few, but have been too distracted by my quilting obsession to do much.
But still here for today is the cross stitched outline of a heart:

And here is a close up:

June 28th - 12th Heart

Don't jude me! I'm tired!

I hold your heart in my hand.

June 27th, Heart number 11

Today I had a class for work and just some time in between before I race off to do a double shift at work so I was looking for a quick and dirty heart for today's blog post. I looked through my scrapbooking box for inspiration. I found all of these heartshaped stickers that I've had for years, but never had the opportunity to actually use them. So I figured why not, a heart out of hearts, and here it is:

With flash

Without flash.

June 26th, My tenth heart

So today we all went to the beach together. Sadly there were a few great people missing, but all in all it was a really great, relaxing day. So of course we had to do the cliche hearts in the sand. And also I finished my quilt today after the beach too, so I'm pretty happy about this day. :)

Here is the picture of one of our hearts with Charlie's hand print on the left, and mine on the right.

And here's our 3D heart, which you can't really tell it is, but it's still another heart. :)

And as super bonus, here is the first heart also with our doggy Nola:

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9...

Ok, I guess most people won't get The Beatles joke in the title (White Album), but once I started typing I couldn't stop.
So today I have still been obsessed with finishing the binding of my first useable sized quilt. It's going rather well, I only have one side left. So of course all I could think about today was fabric and sewing. So I decided to go burrowing through my stash of fat quarters and make a heart with some of the cool sewing machine functions I never use. So here it is:

I used a stitch around the edges in blendable thread to stitch and bind off the edges of the two layers of fabric and the layer of batting between it. Then I used another decorative stitch with hearts to make an edging, then I set the wrong stitch, but decided to make lemonade and turned it into a speech box to write my Fiance's, Charlie, and my initials. The colors are prettier and now having figured out the process, I am confident I could make a prettier one, but this at least shows a bit of my learning process.

And here is a picture of the heart, having used the camera's flash.

June 24th, 8th Heart

Today I spent more time working on my binding than anything else. Once I start something, I become obsessed with finishing it. So I arrived at work knowing I still needed to make a heart. I saw all the beautiful roses in the yard but figured they were so beautiful it would be wrong to do anything with them. I keep looking around waiting for inspiration to strike, when I turned around and saw a wilted rose loosing its petals I saw my chance.

So here is my heart made out of pink rose petals, an oldie but goodie.

 

And here from a different angle.

7th Heart, June, 23rd

Today's heart is made of Angelina "Hot Fix" Straight Cut Fibers in Fuschia.It's a really cool thing I picked up at The Cotton Patch, which is Lauren's mom's quilting store, one of my favorite places in the whole world.
I bought this fiber that looks like strands of shiny hairs and can be molded into shapes, then if it is slightly ironed between to pieces of paper it becomes a form of fabric that can be further processed or not.
I made a heart out of it, and it's actually really pretty and shiny.
Here is my heart of the day:

 Here it is just laid on a white piece of paper.

Just holding it up.

And here again with different lighting.

P.S. It's so much prettier in real life.

So now I've had the blog for a week, and have managed to do a heart a day, at least according to my creative timelines to when days ends... :)

Heart Number Six

Yes, I know this one is late, but I have a rule that it isn't the next day, until I've gone to bed and woken up again. So since this is my blog you will have to live with my idiosyncrasy. :) It is funny how inspiration can strike at the weirdest places. I was in my bathroom and happened to glance at my make-up bags. Many people call doing make-up an art form. The profession is often referred to, as make-up artists nowadays.

So this next heart isn't really all that pretty but I used only make-up to create it. It's also symbolic for how important looks, and therefore make-up, are to how some people choose their partners. 

And here you can now see how much we women tend to put on our face. Of course not all of it at the same time. In this picture you will see: foundation, powder, rouge, eye shadow, eye liner, lip stain, lip gloss, lipstick, and even some mascara.

So here is my make-up heart. It's not a piece of art I would necessarily display in my house, but I did find it very interesting to use this unusual medium. It's interesting to see how the makeup acts with the paper and isn't absorbed like the skin does. This might have been the most interesting material I worked with, because it's a completely new application of something I use all the time, without having to think about what I'm doing, on my face.

Lauren's Blog

My friend Lauren is the one who has inspired me over and over and is the reason I have actually realized, that I do have creativity in me!
Without her I would probably be banging my head against the wall, ready to explode. So needles to say I am so very grateful to her! She introduced me to quilting, which is my new passion. 
So here is the link to my best friend's blog, where she blogs about all things quilting related: Lauren's Blog

June 21st, Heart 5

Today I used oil paint for the very first time. I'm not completely happy with the background, I wasn't really able to get the purple quite the way I wanted it. But that's ok, next time I'll be better :) So here is my first attempt of oil paint on canvas:

And here without flash:

Heart Number Four

So today I decided to make a heart that wasn't a permanent medium but something I would disassemble once I had documented it. I decided not to draw or paint anything. I got these buttons at my favorite store: The Cotton Patch. I just couldn't resist all the bright and cheerful color! As of yet I wasn't really sure what to do with them for lack of inspiration. I keep looking at them and wondering. So I decided to make this heart by just piling them into a heart and still having all of them for when I figure out what I want to use them for. :)

So here is my cheerful button heart:

Heart 3. June 19th

Today I discovered some acrylic paints Charlie had bought to decorate some mugs for me. So I bought some cheap cheap paint brushes and made another heart. I just started out with a purple heart and the rest just came on its own. I might upload another picture of it tomorrow, when it has completely dried.
But for now I'm off to girlsnight and to fun.

With flash

Without flash.

Day 2: June 18th

For today I decided to make another easy heart with something I'm familiar with: GLITTER! Well, it is me we're talking about, isn't it. So glitter would be a natural material to work with. Sadly it doesn't translate into digital form nearly as well. This post was actually really interesting for me to make, because now I have a better idea of how glitter reacts to/with scanners, cameras and flashes.

I chose to use different colors of glitter, because I like lots of bright colors, but mainly as kind of a follow up, to the first heart showing all the different shades of emotion there can be and are.

And yes, of course my little sister would instantly inform me that the heart is only as muscle and doesn't really contain or feel any emotions, and that emotions are only the result of chemicals processes and nerves firing in the brain. Even though most of us know on some level, that that isn't really where we have our emotions, it still remains symbolic of love for most people.

Interestingly enough it has been theorized, that the heart in this shape actually stems from the middle ages, and is what women's rears looked like when they bend over.

Most people that have had their hearts break will agree, that you do feel a tightening in your chest, and a feeling that your heart has just dropped all the way down into your stomach and is causing knots there. Of course there is a logical and scientific explanation for all of those phenomenons, but I choose to retain my personal beliefs of the symbolism of the heart, and everyone else is welcome to do the same.

And here from further away:

Using the scanner bleached a bit of the color out, but also added some sparkles too:

When looking at this picture on my little netbook I originally thought it was awful. Now looking at it on my big imac screen, I am surprised to find, that I actually really like it. It's dark, but also has all of these superb glints sparkling off it. And here is the picture:

June 17th: First Heart

June, 17th this is my first heart for the blog.

My main Idea

I recently just got this book called: "A Daily Creative Journal 365 - Make Something Every Day and Change your Life!" by Noah Scalin. This fantastic book describes a part of his journey as he challenges himself to create a new skull every day for a whole year using multiple mediums and sizes. Here is a link to his blog where he documented his work. Skull a Day His book is also a reference for people like me who are interested in integrating more creativity in their lives. He offers guidance, tips, inspiration and also interviews with other artists that have created similar projects. I definitely recommend his book to everyone who is in search of more creativity in their lives.  Amazon carries his book: A Daily Creativity Journal

Now, I am no artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I felt inspired! I have recently found a wonderful creative outlet with quilting, that my friend Lauren has introduced me to. This is still something I am learning, and it's not something I'm able to do every day, even if I wish I could. So here I think I will give this idea a whirl in addition. What attracted me especially to this idea was the opportunity to use lots of different materials to work with and to challenge myself. 

Growing up my sisters were both extremely artistic and I always felt like I fell short because I was always able to picture what a painting or image should look like, but I was unable to transfer it from my head to anything. Now having gained some distance and learned to not compare what I can do with others I am willing to see what I can do.

So here is my humble attempt at creating a heart every day and seeing what it will evolve to.

Technically it is already the 18th, but I have a funny little rule that the day doesn't end until I go to bed. So for my intents and purposes It is still the 17th.