Lovely Cruise

new pet portrait

I think I shared a sneek peak of this sweet dog last week or so, but I then forgot to share the finished painting.  So here it is, a cute little dachshund named Annie. 

 
You can check out more examples of my portraits here and if you are interested in purchasing a portrait they are available in my etsy shop.  And speaking of my pet portraits I wanted to design a little dog stamp to use with the packaging of my portraits.  This is what I have come up with so far:

 
I think this will add a nice whimsical and personal touch to my pet portrait packages.  (Say that three times fast!)

sharing the process: SCAL & Cricut

First I want to say I am no expert on either the Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) program or a Cricut expert.  I wasted two 12 X 12 sheets of cardstock today before cutting anything because first I couldn't remember if I had the right blade in (it was the wrong one) and then after I switched the blades I had the setting wrong!  Oy!  This is how I learn though, by making many mistakes.  So now that I have that out of the way I will show you my process in turning one of my silly little doodles, this time a couple of flowers, into die-cuts. 

So here's a page of doodles, drawn in pencil and stuff I've been doodling over and over on scratch paper for probably the past ten years.  Oh, and don't ask me why everything tilts to the left.  I promise there were no mai tais involved in this drawing...

 

I then trace everything with my favorite black pen.  Love these Faber-Castell pens.  After I trace the images, I scan them into my computer.  Oops, looks like I'll be scanning this again if I want to do anything with the chair. 

 
Next I decide what I want to use first and I crop that image in Photoshop and since I finally figured out how to do a screen capture I'll share with you what that looks like: 

 
 
I then do "auto contrast" in Photoshop, I resize the image to 300 dpi and save the image.

Now it's time to open the image in SCAL by clicking on "image" and then selecting the file name.  After I open the image I resize to the dimension I want to work with.  Next I click on "object" and then "break apart."  For some reason (and again I'm just learning) SCAL breaks the outline of my images into two lines.  I discovered today if I click on "break apart" the program will separate the two lines, creating two images of slighting different sizes.  I then copy and paste the image, as well as change the size again so I have several different sizes of the same flower until I have the number of images that I want to cut.  This is what the flower looks like in SCAL:

  

Next I cut the flowers with my Cricut.  And this is what they look like on the cricut cutting mat (those are some weird looking flowers):

 
Now what to do with all these flowers?  I decided to layer them on tags.  I added some foam adhesive squares between the layers to add more dimension.

 
Here's one in blue.  I colored the string with a copic marker to match (which I'm pretty sure I saw here, as well as the idea to color the button in the last tag with a copic marker).

  

 
And that's it!  What is really great about this is you don't need to learn Inkscape to make die-cuts from your own drawings.  It's really a simple process, with almost instant gratification.  But I also want to learn how to make svg files so I can offer my images as files here on my blog.  I found a great tutorial online on how to do it from scanned images, and I easily made a file, but now the link doesn't work and I can't remember how to do it.  Grrr.  When I do, I will let you know.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me, the link is up there on the right.  And now I'm off to clean my poor neglected house.  Oops.  :)  What can I say, my house is dirty but my crafty soul is happy. 

cabin cooking {german apple pancake}

 
This recipe is so easy and so delicious.  It's from my mother-in-law and it's another Thomas Family classic.  The first time I had it was Christmas morning at David's aunt and uncle's house.  Perfect for a special brunch, and equally so for just another Saturday morning.  Enjoy! 

German Apple Pancake

3 T. lemon juice

4 apples peeled and sliced

2 T. butter

6 eggs beaten

1 t. salt

1 c. milk

1 c. flour

Preheat oven to 450°.  Mix sliced apples with lemon juice.  Melt butter in an oven proof skillet (cast iron works best), add apple slices and saute for 5-7 minutes.  Mix eggs, milk, flour and salt.  Pour over apples and place in 450° oven.  Bake 20 minutes, reduce heat to 350° and bake 10 minutes more.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.  Serve with maple syrup.

 
 

What's inspiring me this week?

**This recent addition to my milk glass collection:

 
**Tomato Tea.  It is giving me so much relief as I fight this sinus infection.  And it tastes great.  I just cut the recipe in half and make it in a coffee mug and then heat it in the microwave. 

**This new punch by Martha Stewart.  I love paper lace and cannot wait to make my own.  Sorry for the teeny tiny photo.  I'll take a better one when mine arrives.  :)

**Apple slices, the color turquoise, gold metallic anything and of course, princess shoes.  Good thing they don't fit me...

 
**And Fridays, Fridays always inspire.  Especially when they begin a weekend with no plans, no events and no ballgames.  Just lots and lots of family time.  And hopefully some warmer temps and sunshine!

Har det godt. 

 

The Littlest

 
I'm interrupting this sinus infection induced blog/creativity break to share a major update on The Littlest blog.  My sister has been begging and pleading for an update and I'm tired of hearing her complain.   Just kidding.  :)  Enjoy! 

seven

Last night we celebrated Sam's birthday a day early because David is out of town today.

We had his requested birthday dinner of mac-n-cheese (I made this recipe, delish!) and roasted broccoli (broccoli?  Little man is growing up!).  We wore silly glasses with fake mustaches and party hats.

 

 We ate choc chip cake.

 

We played kazoos and we danced and danced and danced.  He was happy and had a great time.  And so did the rest of us. 
Happy Birthday Sweet Sam! 

my pet portrait process

I thought it might be fun to share the painting process with one of my pet portraits.  I wish I would have started from the very beginning and will do a post like that in the near future.  It didn't occur to me to do this until I already had the background painted and the dog sketched in. 

This is one of the photos my customer sent me and the pose she wanted me to use for the painting:

At this point I've already painted multiple layers of the background, "sketched" in the outline of the dog and I've begun painting and shading the dog.  I also like to quickly place the eyes and nose to see if I like the shape of the head:

 
 
Next I added more layers of paint, did more shading and erased his eyes:  

Now the dog is done, I've added all the details and only the words are left to paint:

 
Here are the words describing sweet Sheriff:

 
Some paintings come together so easily for me and this was one of them.  I'm always happy with my end result, but sometimes anxiety and self-doubt seep in and make the process challenging for me.  I can't get the color just right, or the shape of a ear...  In those times I try to remind myself that my customers bought their pet portrait from me because they like my work and they get what I do.  So far I have never had anyone unhappy with their portrait.  I truly have the best customers.  And every time I sell a painting I can't believe how lucky I am to get to do this. 
  

For my Auntie

In December my aunt Elsa asked my mom if I would paint her a green chair like the one on my business card.  Sure, no problem.  Unfortunately for my aunt, her painting kept getting pushed to the end of my to-do list.  I finally remedied that this week.  This chair is painted on a 9 X 12 inch piece of watercolor paper and the chair itself is about 5 inches tall.  I've cropped the photo here so you really don't get the right proportion of the original painting.  Anyway, I hope she likes it! 

Speaking of my aunt Elsa, several weeks ago she sent Ella these felted wool slippers she made.  Aren't they adorable?  Thanks Auntie.   

And I don't want to deny you the rest of the outfit.  I really need to update The Littlest blog, I've got some doozies to share.  Soon! 

one of my favorite photos

 

This might be my favorite photo of Charlie, and definitely one of top five favorite photos that I've ever taken.  It was autumn in Yosemite.  We went there every year for David's annual environmental law conference.  We would play and he would attend the conference.   It was always a special time.

This is a scan of a print, that is why it is a little scratched.  I've been thinking about getting some special photos framed and hung in our staircase.  This was one of the first photos I thought about using and today I came across it when I was doing some cleaning.  Now I really need to find the negatives!  I took the photo with David's old Pentax K1000 camera that I've played with off and on for the past 10 years.  I actually have a roll of film in it right now and need to finish it up and get it developed.  I bought a new lens for it in December so I could use it indoors.  Can't wait to see if I got lucky with any photos.

a brown rabbit

 
After painting the background and staring at it for a week not knowing what the subject of my painting should be I decided on this sweet rabbit.  He is perfect for spring, and I think he would also be adorable in a baby's room.  You can find out more about him here.