Thanksgiving Carving

Ah, Thanksgiving in America.  It commemorates a time when European settlers shared food with Native Americans, then afterward they went out to find bargains on big screen TV's and watch football... or something like that.

I didn't have turkey this year.  I did not carve a turkey.  But I did do some carving...

I keep looking at my Kleenex boxes.  I have to hand it to Kleenex.  Over the years they have had designs that depict marbling, paste paper, and now these tile looking designs.  It's enough to make me forget that their tissues are getting smaller and smaller, even though the box remains the same size.

When one of the boxes was empty, without a second thought, I cut it apart and decided to use the design for a carved stamp.  I didn't bother to get out my carving tools or use acetone to get the words off the eraser.  I just went for it.  It took me all of about 15 minutes to carve the stamp and stamp out a pattern.  

It would have helped if the stamp was more symmetric, but over the years I have learned that's never gonna happen with me, no matter how hard I try.  

Quick, quick, quick... In no time I had stamped out a pattern.  Maybe I'll stamp my Christmas wrapping paper this year.  hahahah, right after I make my Christmas cards... (that ship sailed years ago!)

Now, if only I had some pumpkin pie to eat while admiring my handiwork.

Leaf Me Alone

I had the urge to paint leaves.  I remember doing this several years ago and got the urge to try it again.

Of course, first I had to clean the paint palette I used with the blue paints the last time I played.  This is why I like acrylics--you can just peel them up and throw them away.  (My former self would have kept these blue "skins" in case I wanted to glue them on a journal page.  The new me just threw them out - trying to simplify my life, you know!)

I gathered an assortment of paints and gathered some things from the yard.  By the time I went out to get the leaves, it was dark, so rather than traipse around with a flashlight in the backyard looking for cool leaves (and risk having the neighbors think I was an intruder), I just got some small leaves at the edge of the driveway.

I made a background with paint and stencils to start off.

Then I brayered a mix of brown and red paint directly on each leaf.

I carefully pressed each leaf onto the background, placed scrap paper over it, and pressed with my fingers.

The images were fairly light, so I experimented with adding color with Inktense watercolor pencils.  I knew the pencils would not cover up the acrylic paints on the background, but it was all for the sake of wanting to see what it would look like.

Fairly quick and fun to try.

That's why I like fall better than winter.  You can't do this with snowflakes.