adventures in keeping a sketchbook

After years and years of following Alisa Burke's blog, I finally got inspired to start a sketchbook. I tend to go in cycles with creative outlets, which can last as long as six or seven years. I'm certainly not giving up jewelry making, but I don't have the drive to make jewelry all of the time (and document much of the process here) the way that I did three or four years ago. Mixing up my creative routine allows me to not burn out on making jewelry so that I can still keep my jewelry Etsy shop and keep selling jewelry at craft fairs.

I've never had much natural talent or inclination when it comes to drawing or painting, but something about working in a sketchbook has appealed to me lately. It's been a fun way to experiment with colors and ideas while working on something creative and relaxing while I watch TV or hang out with family and friends and still pushing myself out my comfort zone a little. Actually the biggest part about getting out of my comfort zone is sharing my sketchbook pages. I still feel like a huge amateur. But here it goes.

 I have about a zillion little paper scraps left over from various projects (i.e. greeting cards, flowers), and I hate throwing them away. It's so fun to find new creative uses for paper scraps.

 

When I was printing sheet music on card stock for greeting cards recently, one sheet got pulled through twice and thus printed on twice. I didn't realize it until much later. It turned out to be such an amazing background that I might do this again on purpose.

I know that this looks really simple, but it takes many many hours.

Among many other things, Alisa has inspired me to use really cheap readily available supplies, like cardboard tubes (which I used here to make the circles), in my creative process.

I absolutely love silhouette skylines at sunset and would love to take a photo like this someday.

As you can tell, I sort of have a thing about clouds. It's one of the first things that I gravitate toward when I'm doodling.

Sometimes when I have little stretches of time, I prep backgrounds. I have no idea what I'm going to do with these little shapes yet. They're kind of fabulous on their own, but I might add more detail at some point.

Watercolor background. I have several of these backgrounds in different colors.

Another fun experiment with color that I may or may not add more detail to at some point.

As of writing this post, my current work in progress.

I do a lot of pencil drawing before going back in pen because I don't trust myself to freehand these sorts of designs in pen (yet anyway...).

I have no idea where I'm going with my sketchbook or exactly what I'll be working on over the next few months, but I'll continue to share my progress periodically.

update: house organization

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of what we've been working on around the house lately.  I thought that everyone would enjoy a little update.

When my mom was in town earlier this month, we painted the living room and main floor bathroom.  The living room was Packer yellow and terribly done.  Whoever painted it didn't tape the woodwork and painted right over the light switches and whatnot.  The bathroom color somehow escaped me when we were first looking at the house.  It was the most dull shade of light purple that I'd ever seen.  I'd been thinking about painting the purple bedroom first, but the bathroom had to change.  Secretly (or not so secretly anymore) I love the purple bedroom so it's staying.

We were promised this dining room table from my in-laws 3 years ago or so.  Now that we have a dining room, we made a big push to get it.  I just ordered some new seat cushions.

The previous owner left this candle holder behind.  I got a tip to look for candles at a dollar store.  Normally I don't shop there, but it is an excellent place to find very inexpensive candles.

For now, I'm using the purple bedroom for my craft storage and photo staging.  When we have kids, I can transfer a lot of this to the basement (where there will be tons of room when we've finished unpacking the remaining boxes).  I say storage because I do the vast majority of my jewelry making while sitting on the sofa.  This room is large enough that I may get motivated to do some of my other craft projects like button magnets and card making in here.

The previous owner left all of these wire storage units behind in the second and third bedroom closets.  Can you believe that there are empty spaces in them right now?  I may try to transfer some of what is on the desks right now into these units so I have some real work space in this room.

The previous owner also left a computer desk behind so this spare one is in this room.  I'd like to use this space for my other crafty projects.  Right now it mostly has my future project ideas as well as one of my my button gluing trays. Both desks in this room have slide out keyboard trays so I can move a lot of this stuff onto those.

This set up isn't too different from the condo.  Isn't it great how much light this house has?  I shot these pictures in natural daylight with no lights on.

This is the one corner of the room that I haven't done much with yet.  I'd like to get a bookcase for the empty space.  Jake is using the small table that I used for my keyboard for something else right now so I haven't set it up yet.

These final cubes have my card making supplies as well as a few other random craft supplies.  I have a lot more stamps, stickers, etc. elsewhere, but this is what I'd organized before we left so it's what's here now.  I'll keep adding as I keep unpacking.

Finally, in case anyone was wondering, Angel is pretty relaxed here now, especially in the basement.