Rose Inchy

This week the theme for our inchy is "roses"....... and of course, tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so all I've been able to think of besides roses is... you guessed it..... hearts. Hey, why don't you give one a try? check out INCHYBYINCH... ...

I looked for small pics of roses... didn't find any I liked... or that were small enough. Finally I took a pic of a rose of my own .... made it as tiny as I could with photoshop... not knowing what I was doing and it took for blo%^&y ever... and still it would not make things small enough for my plan. So...I cropped it and seeing as I couldn't get "gather ye rosebuds" out of my head.... here it is. A couple of tiny hearts cut from some gold paper, watercolour pencils and gold leaf from a pen finish it off....















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We've been pretty spoiled the past few weeks with balmy temperatures....but, Mother Nature always has twists to toss into the mix ... and besides, we do live very close to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.... winter ain't over yet! Not here..... and not for at least a few months. As a matter of fact, we have had 17 inch snowfalls in May. At least it doesn't last very long at that time of year...but, it does put a damper on early spring hopes....














This morning it was snowing lightly... but now the sun is beginning to peek through, so not much more going to happen there for now... time to go out; show my face to the sun and shovel a bit.... soak up some Vitamin D.....














.... and to say hello to Mr. Bun, who has taken up residence under the big spruce tree in the front yard. Probably it is Mrs. Bun ...and I can look forward to some Baby Buns when it gets warmer. For now he/she is happy there's still plenty of snow for camouflage... (click on the pic to see him)... this is about the only time I wish I had a better zoom... not a justifiable expense for only the occasional distance photo.











Here is one of the little guys from a few summers ago... those are tiny pebbles...about an inch in size.. so you can see how puny he was. He would sit still for hours... waiting for Mom to come back at night to play with him. Poor little guy... it is 'my job' to guard them when I find them. I spend hours out there with my broom and boots at the ready (to throw) in case a dog or big bird comes by... I hate to fire up the loud lawn mower because it must scare the bejeepers out of them. Sometimes they move quite a distance overnight...and I have to search for a while to find out where they are so I can weed or work elsewhere in the garden areas...

Winter inchy

This week Fiona wanted "winter" on our inchies.

There is usually a snowbear somewhere in our yard in winter... the neighbours already think I'm eccentric...but, when bears in toques appear on the front lawn...they know it.

My inchies represent a couple I have built lately....





































here they are in person...













this little guy has big fur coat buttons for his eyes.... sparkly in the afternoon sun.. .....

Inchy....

Here's what we are up to at INCHYBYINCH this week..... buttons....... why not play along some week and make an inchy of your own?











....which right away brought to mind buttons and bows.... but, I pondered it a bit longer.... what could I put on a tiny inch square piece of water colour paper? ... and came up with this instead.











Buttons and beautiful paper....

I like to cut up pieces of origami papers and make pretty card fronts. This is a piece with gold trimmed flowers on painted watercolour paper... and a sprinkling of buttons...

Faces.....

I fell off the "inchy" wagon during the festive season... didn't get around to doing the first one of the new year. But, here I am again.... finally got one more of my balls in the air... oooooh....almost sounds a bit Freudian..( and yes... some days I do wish I had balls)..... but, I'm actually referring to my attempt to juggle more things in my hours, days and weeks.
Here is my effort for the second theme of the year.. ...."faces". Perhaps I could have done them a bit smaller and added some embellishment...but, eh.... I like colouring eyes, so I made them take up my whole "canvas"....which is only one inch by one inch. If I made them any smaller...I wouldn't get to colour would I?











Why don't you join in some week and try an inchy of your own? Or, at the very least, hop over to INCHYBYINCH to see what the others have done..... it always amazes me to see how much some of them get on one little square inch ...how beautiful some of them are... how inventive or how unusual....
Okay... got 'em posted...now I'm off to see the others. I don't usually look before I get around to making my own. That way I'm not influenced by anything I may see before I get around to doing something.











My girls are watercolour pencil on watercolour paper....

if you want to see my other inchies... look under labels and click on Inchies..... so far there are only 10....

Gifts

That is the the theme for the Inchy this week.

Everybody has their own ideas when it comes to great gifts.... by modern big $$$$$$ standards this little group would be pretty dull I suppose...but, back in the day... would have been a great little selection for any of us kids.... . we would have been ecstatic to get any one of these...










Here are a few hints for the woman who likes to play in the kitchen...











I still covet a mixer of the same colour.... and may I just say, rolling pins of various weights and sizes are a necessity. And, spatulas.. ...I have 5 or 6 and wish I had more... some are starting to bend and one got too hot...last week, my tiny spatula got a split in it... oh, and don't forget cookie cutters...see them in there?











Of course, men are a different breed altogether aren't they? My sweetie said he wanted a new Mercedes under the tree. So, I stopped at the dealer on the way to Future Shop and got him one ...... hahahha...well... I got him one of the brochures. The real thing would never fit under there.

Inchy .....

This week's theme at INCHYBYINCH was trees .... and I think getting my own Christmas tree decorated yesterday gave me some ideas... although this is more of a Charlie Brown tree ... lol...

The first pic I took was on dark material...with natural light and just had no ooomphf at all... but, then I put it under the dining room lamp and lo and behold.. the gold actually shows as gold on the stars. It is gold leaf pen. The gold gauze beneath it is so clear it looks more like burlap... but, perfect all the same for a background...

Why not give an inchy a try sometime? Click here if you would like to see some of the others for each week....

Fall leaves...

... that's the latest over at Inchybyinch .... so, I had some fun incorporating real leaves into my inchy for this week. If you would like to try your hand at making one.. go have a look at the site and the other inchies... any medium can be used.











The back ground is watercolour pencil dampened to make it look like paint. The leaves are spirea and the little flowers are centers of potentilla and a blossom from the stalk of hen and chicks...

My collection of colourful choices was spread all over the table..... all the latest flowers and leaves have now been shaken out of books that have been under weights all over the floor...










.....outside the poplars have dropped most of their leaves and with the gusty winds of today surely all of the huge limbs will soon be naked.










you can hardly see sidewalks in some areas...

Poor young Private Elmo.... he's still valiantly pushing fruits of all kinds...some days I actually try.... but on other days... the poor little guy just gets ignored. I must be pretty hardhearted to ignore a cute little face like that..... bad me...











Ramped up my exercise program and wrenched something in my gut. Won't be doing much today except ... ...taking pictures of my laundry room cupboards and drawers wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !! Try as I might, though, I am unable to get a picture of the true colour of the beautiful, soft, sage-y green. The knobs are being installed as I type.... the look of brushed nickel,... oh, my lovely laundry room, tra, la la.... ....it probably sounds a bit silly to be that excited about it...but I am. It is also the downstairs bathroom.. it has a toilet beside the sink counter... this week I think I also found a perfect sized mirror for over the sink. Bringing it home next week to try it out....

Suncatcher

Hopefully I managed the illusion of sparkle from my crystal hanging amidst the fuschia. This week's challenge is to incorporate "Sun" into our inchies. ...... pat..pat...pat... that's me patting myself on the back. New challenge is issued each Monday. Look how early in the week I am this time, fellow procrastinators ...! Of course, it's only because as soon as I saw the word 'sun', I thought of suncatchers. Dating myself I know....... and, I still like them too..... so there.

Watercolour pencils on Bristol Vellum sketchbook paper..

Why don't you try your hand at a teeeensy but fun inchy? It is a bit strange at first glance when you draw or cut out a one inch square, believe me. You immediately think...how can I get anything to look like anything on this?? .....but...once you begin to fiddle with it, place miniature pictures on it.. or sketch on it... all of a sudden it becomes your whole world..... and pretty soon....voila! done! ... you step away from it and wonder again ... how on earth did I manage to make it look like anything on paper that tiny? lol.....

You can see what everybody else has done at INCHYBYINCH.

I have no idea what I will do with my collection of "inchies". However, ...for now I am saving them in a perfectly sized little box that a fellow bear maker and crafter from Poland sent me..










She recycled part of a pretty envelope I had sent to her...

Rain

Well, not here, right now... as a matter of fact we are having amazing sunny days....a bit blustery the past few...but no raindrops. No rainbows either.....

Cloudy and cooler yesterday .... and last night was very cool ... down to -5C...brrrr.... too early for that (it's always too early for that!) and since today would have been a golfing day .... the old guys and I decided it would be silly to be out there in earmuffs or toques and still be cold.

I worked on my "inchy" instead. Rain was the keyword for this week's challenge but, I tossed in a rainbow for good measure....











If you would like to play along and make some inchies.... check us at INCHYBYINCH. They are only one inch by one inch...so don't take up a lot of time ... as a matter of fact for me, the biggest holdup is just planning it in my head. I don't even like to put a pencil on the paper til I have a plan. Maybe it would be better to just doodle a bit and see what happens. Maybe next week I'll give that a try. But..hey...look! I'm early this week and feel good about that.... don't think I'll go overboard on trying to totally change my methodology....










Here's something else I just made.... a great plum loaf, and even though it belongs on my food and recipe blog... I just have to show it off .... it is every bit as yummy as it looks. As a matter of fact, this is one of the tastiest loaves I've made. If you have plums.... mmmmm.... make it..... the recipe calls for Italian plums or prune plums and I finally discovered what those are. They are just the smallish plums that everybody had on little old wizened trees in backyards when we were kids. I think the round plums in the shops would probably taste about the same....but... I did score some of the right type...and oh, is it yummy!

I picked the last two persistent pansies and some other little blossoms as well ..... attempting to enhance the colours of the plums. The girls on the site where I found this recipe have a beautiful dahlia with their loaf.... but the pansies are very pretty too. Scroll down under the recipes for "quick breads" to find this one ..... it's a great site; lots of amazing recipes and their photographs are beautiful.

last day!!

Here I am posting my inchy on the very last day and Fiona at INCHYBYINCH already has the new challenge up a day early this time...hahahhaha......










THIS W ...oops... still had caps lock on after doing the title... lol.... what I meant to type, was.... this past week we were to incorporate some stars into the design ... Some weeks, it seems I have to do way too much thinking before I actually put pen or colour to paper ... then..when I finally get around to it, and the project (whatever it is) takes less time to get the done than anticipated, I am a bit annoyed with myself. Sort of like being back in school... procrastinate til the night before something was due and then... either swot the books or get busy drawing, painting and pasting.... til about 4 a.m........ eerrrgghhh .... probably I will never change.... but every so often I do try to hop off that big, slow, procrastinator's wagon...and walk beside it...going ever so slightly quicker than the wagon wheels ....... but, I am mostly lazy and like to ride along.... just taking it easy.........................












If you would like to play along and perhaps make a little "inchy"... check out the site. It is easy and lots of fun to see what all the ladies come up with for the various weekly challenges.... this coming week.... it will be "rain"..... or anything to do with it..... hmmm.... on goes the thinking cap. And this week...I'm doing it before Sunday rolls around!

the latest "inchy"...

The latest challenge over at Inchybyinch is to depict a blah day.... I thought this little guy might do the trick.

"Blah" or loss of creative mojo, or any other term it is given... doesn't really seem to happen to me. However, "lazy" is another thing altogether....and that does happen to me ... a lot. Those are the days on which I fritter away a whole day and create nothing; then feel like I have missed out on opportunities....or have wasted hours...or even days of perfectly good "fun" times. Sometimes I suppose it is also unavoidable...as in ... real life interferes and other tasks must be accomplished.... but I am too lazy to do both.... or by evening, I would rather plonk down and watch a movie instead of sewing or drawing..... mostly just lazy......

My little one by one inch jester/clown is watercolour pencils... edges lightly sponged with colour....

a new "inchy"

The latest inchy challenge is to have some circles in it.... See the challenge here at Inchybyinch and also have a look at the others creating them.

That great old gal Mother Nature was my inspiration and also my actual circles... ...

First, I painted the water colour paper with the palest of pinks... then added some of my dried flowers and tiny weed bits... some of the teensiest weed tendrils can be very lovely...

The pink flower is a tiny potentilla ... I was actually quite surprised at the roundness of each petal when I looked closely at one.... also the center of it is nice and round....... if you click on the picture... you will be able to zoom in to see the miniscule reddish circles on the centre stamens of the other little flower... (not sure what type it is, but it was cute enough to be pressed! ) and hey...a half circle formed by the white with the green backing (which could be a miniature baby's breath bloom) and also the circular curlicues formed by the tendril at top right....

On the edges I used my gold leafing pen.

I think I need some type of big magnifying glass to work under for these little guys! I'm cross eyed@! don't forget... an inchy is one inch by one inch.... come on...give one a try.

"Inchies"

I've heard of "inchies" before... but always in fabric. I found several sites dedicated to those and thought I might like to try one...someday. Then, the other day Bob the Bear Esq. suggested a try at the challenges offered on this site. Inchybyinch

An "inchie" is just that.... one inch by one inch. Here is my first that is almost late for this two week period. Inchies with HATs is the theme.










I've never tried drawing anything on a scale this tiny...but was surprised to find I could actully get plenty of detail. However, I can see I'll have to practice using a steadier hand...hahahha...if you peer at it too intently, you will detect plenty of wobbly lines! Practice makes perfect they say..... there are those darn "they" people again.... "they" are just everywhere these days it seems.

My little lady is on watercolour paper... first did a pencil outline of features..then coloured with watercolour pencils... dry. Just added a bit of moisture on a q-tip to smooth out the blush... brushed the edges and corners on a brown stamp pad.