Cardio

Our life seems driven by a series of doctor visits. Today, it was the cardiologist's turn.

Suncatcher is from TadsaShop on Etsy

As we waited in the exam room for the results of Dale's EKG, I noticed something on the floor. You can see it there between Dale's knee and my shoe.

It appears to be a tiny paper heart.

I tell you, those hearts follow me around. 

(We had a mix of OK news and troubling news. That's part of our life these days, too).

Play Like a Two Year Old

Our granddaughter received some Play Doh for her 2nd birthday. With her encouragement, I started playing.

I even bought myself my own set of dough and some implements. I never had a set like this as a kid. I figured it was about time.

On my own, I only played for a few minutes while backing up my computer. Predictably, I made a heart

with some details:

It's good for me to stretch this "creative play with no specific end in mind" muscle. I rarely engage in messy, unstructured play. Even before I started, I checked Pinterest for some ideas and a jumping off point. Confession: I literally had to mess up my tools before I took this photo because I tend to line things up in rows.

Somehow, little Abby doesn't need to do that.

Painting with Sharpies

My first art experiments this year were inspired by a few videos I saw on YouTube. (Thank you, Algorithm, for tempting me).

Using Sharpie permanent markers, draw a design on a background of choice, then distort the design with rubbing alcohol. The result is a tie-dye effect.

I gathered my tools, all of which were in my stash, er, retirement supply stores:

Clean white 4" tile

Sharpie markers in a variety of colors

Cotton swabs

Rubbing alcohol

Using scribbled lines, I created my design. Up to this point, I was happy with my process.

Next, using a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, I placed droplets in the white spaces between the scribbles to allow the Sharpie to bleed. I was rather pleased with the results. 

So I grabbed the can of spray adhesive I had on hand and gave it a light coating.

and immediately moaned (or cussed. I'm not sure which). Apparently this spray has an alcohol base. My design immediately bled more than I'd intended. 

I tried using more Sharpie and alcohol dabs to fix it. No go. 

So I next tried coating the "revised" painting with Gloss Mod Podge applied with a disposable foam brush.

This time I'm positive I cussed.

The foam brush scratched the image, leaving this:

Ugh! I thought I was done with this experiment. I threw the tile away and went downstairs to calm down with a jigsaw puzzle (Hint, hint: more puzzles to come).

But the next day I thought I'd try something else. I have some canvas-covered boards on hand. So while waiting for a video call to start, I scribbled a similar design on the canvas with Sharpies. I used the same colors I'd used on the tile.

Then, instead of dabbing the painting with cotton swabs, I used an eye dropper to let the alcohol drip onto the canvas without the dropper tip touching the canvas. That worked well.

After the painting dried, I touched up the heart a bit and added a few more drops of alcohol. This way the heart shape is very distinct with the bleeding happening behind the shape.

I tucked my completed Sharpie painting into a frame I had on hand.

I don't know that I'll keep this version, either. But it was fun to try both surfaces to see how the Sharpie and alcohol reacted. I like the look of the tile better, but the colors are fragile on that slick surface. The canvas version, even without a sealant, feels like it will last longer.

Later I did a bit of research and learned that Dupli-Color Acrylic Enamel Sealant might be a better coating to use on the tile because it won't distort the finished painting. One could also experiment with the original formulation of Mod Podge. It's supposed to work well, too. But I don't recommend applying it with a foam brush. I'd use a soft paintbrush that I won't mind throwing away afterwards. Mod Podge is a glue. It's really hard to clean out of brushes.

I'm not going to try again right now. I don't feel like spending $15 on a sealant I won't use often.

Here's one of the videos I watched to learn the process:

I'm Knot in Love

Look up! Love is everywhere.

Even where a branch used to be.

They Find Me

This morning I took my walk through a new subdivision being built near our neighborhood. The houses are starting to go up with lots of contractor trucks coming and going, lumber being dropped off, concrete trucks, workers constructing the curbs.

As I walk along the curb, this caught my eye.

I walked by before my brain caught up with what I thought I saw. When I doubled back ...

The heart wasn't just in my imagination.

Love Bomb

On my walk through the neighborhood, I saw something interesting lurking in the shadows of a front porch.

My neighbors got a love bomb! Colorful hearts flung across their front door, some with personal messages.

That made my own heart swell a little.

What a simple, thoughtful expression of care. I love living here!

Melted Crayon Art

The teaser:

I wanted to attempt some melted crayon art because long ago I was inspired by this piece. I saw it on Pinterest where it was pinned from an Etsy shop. It seems that shop may not be in business anymore, so unfortunately I can't credit the original artist. My attempt was much smaller.

Inspiration Photo

I thought these glitter crayons might bring some extra pizzazz to my little artwork.

I used two of the three small 4" x 6" canvases in this pack from Dollar Tree. 

In most of the tutorials I watched, the crayons were placed closely side-by-side, then adhered to the top of the canvas with hot glue. I only had one pack of crayons, so I dry-fit them in place, ultimately  spacing them out a bit.

I didn't want to have the crayons stuck to the top of my finished piece, so I first taped the two canvases together, the finished canvas beneath the canvas holding the crayons. I peeled the paper off the crayons and cut them in half. Then I used hot glue to adhere them to the bottom edge of the upper canvas. 

To make sure they stayed in place, I also taped the top edge of the crayons to the canvas.

Using some clear Contac paper, I cut out two heart shapes and placed them on the lower canvas. 

I decided to try the crayon art on a day when the temperature reached over 100 degrees. I wanted to see if the sun could melt the crayons. I covered some cardboard in foil, then set the canvases on top. I placed the apparatus in direct sunlight, with a heavy rock to hold everything in place.

Then I waited.

When the heat of the day was over, not much had happened. A couple of the crayons had fallen off the canvas when the sun melted the hot glue. So I counted the melt-in-the-sun part of the experiment as a fail and brought the apparatus back into my Studio.

I got out my heat gun, tilted the canvas "just so," and started melting the crayons. The melting happened instantly.

Check out that concentration on my face!

Dale helped by taking these photos of the process. I was glad to have the cardboard/foil under the canvases. They made clean-up a breeze because all the extra melted crayon pooled on the foil.

Here's what the lower canvas looked like when the crayon wax cooled and dried.

Then I peeled the hearts off the canvas.

This is what was underneath. Obviously, the Contac paper didn't adhere to the bumpy canvas thoroughly, so the crayons seeped underneath a lot.

So I took a blue Sharpie and traced around the edges of the hearts to make them more pronounced. After that I used watercolors to fill in the white parts of the hearts, extending the rainbow pattern the crayons made. I used a light blue watercolor to fill in the white parts of the canvas background.

I found a slightly-dinged-up frame in my stash and slid the artwork into it.

Here's my final result:

This was a fun process. I can see trying it again, perhaps. I'll know to:

1. Have more crayons. Make sure they're a quality name brand (melts better) and plain, not glittered.
2. Try a smoother background like poster board instead of a canvas.
3. Make sure whatever I use for a sticker adheres really well, but can still be removed after the melting process. Perhaps I'd try some kind of resist like what's used in watercolor or batik.
4. Not bother setting it outside. Use a heat gun in the first place. Much faster and allows for more control.
5. I'd like to try this with my granddaughters.

Even though the glitter crayons didn't add much of anything to finished piece, the pool of overflow crayon left on the foil was pretty.

This is the last project I made on my Crafting Retreat. It was an excellent weekend. I gave myself permission to let some regular life stuff go, and allow my creative juices to run.

What's for Lunch?

It's not every day that's National Junk Food Day ...

But when it IS National Junk Food Day, pizza rolls, Cheetos, Nilla wafers, lemon iced tea and Gummy Nerds are on the menu. (My guts are begging me for fruit and veggies now).

It's also Global Hug Your Kids Day. So I spent some time with Jodie and Abby doing just that.

Follow Our Geotrail! - Part 3

Here are the final photos from our birthday/Mother's Day geocache outing. Geocaching is the ideal sport / game for us!

A surprise along the way ... this gnome lives in a hollow tree.

Cache of the Day - a pirate themed cache! It earned a Favorite Point from me.

Cap'n Pete's Hidden Treasure

This guy hung around in the trees, guarding the treasure chest.

Jodie found a travel bug

And so did I! 

And finally, a heart charm came home with me after I exchanged some swag.

It was a lovely, lovely, lively day outside in nature with two of my favorite people in the world.