Shrinky Dinks and Shoe Doodles: Adventures in Coloring

by Sherri Stokey

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm still a child at heart so it should come as no big surprise to learn I'm still a big fan of coloring!  I hadn't picked up crayons for a long time, although I've been tempted by the whole adult coloring book craze.  I have so many projects in my head that I never have time to get them all finished and I couldn't see a real "use" for colored pictures.

And then someone reminded me of Shrinky Dinks.

I went out and bought a brand new pack of colored pencils and downloaded a couple free coloring pages and made this:

Which turned into this once baked:

Squee!!!  How cute is that!!  I'll bet at this point you're wondering what in the heck that photos of shoes is doing at the beginning of this post?  I'm getting there, I swear!  I got bitten by the coloring bug and decided to take it a step further and try doodling on shoes.  

Now you have to understand - I can't draw.  I can look at a picture and sort of mimic a shape, but I really have no talent for drawing and realism and shading are beyond my capabilities.  I embraced that and decided to go for fun and colorful doodles rather than anything that's supposed to look like "art" and came up with these:

How fun are those!?  I'm pretty "chuffed" (as my UK friends would say)!  I took a pair of white canvas shoes:

Cheap white canvas shoes, I might add (and I think that's what allowed me to go crazy without worrying about ruining a "good" pair of shoes):

Then I took a box of permanent markers and got busy.  I started with a skull couple:

I'm not all that happy with the way they turned out.  I think I was a bit hesitant with my drawing so the lines aren't as crisp.  I sketched the outlines lightly in pencil and then went over it with a marker and it was hard to trace the lines exactly.  I also wasn't happy with the decorative details on the faces because the area was so small and the markers (fine line ones) do bleed a bit on the canvas.  It got better when I started just doodling without sketching first like the flower and vines.  

To try to keep the two shoes sort of the same (although I wasn't making a matching pair), I decided I'd better do some on the other shoe and go back and forth so I drew a skull on the other one.  This one is larger so I could get more detail in the decoration and I'm much happier with it.

As you can see, I just kept adding stuff and filling in white spaces.  I did try to add similar elements to keep them cohesive (like the blue flower with a magenta center on both shoes, etc.).

Can you tell I'm a big fan of the Day of the Dead?  I'm pretty excited about the Dia De Los Muertos: A Celebration of Life Challenge by Karen McGovern.  It's easy to play along: create something inspired by Dia De Los Muertos and reveal your designs on October 25, 2016 using the hashtag #lmajdod (full details here.)

Caribbean Color Palette Challenge Reveal

by Sherri Stokey

Good morning!  And a bright and cheery Caribbean colors good morning at that!  Today's the big reveal for the Caribbean Colors Palette Challenge and I can't wait to share the pieces with you.  If you remember, I issued a challenge last month with pretty simple rules:  make something inspired by the Caribbean Color Palette photo!  Several folks decided to play along (and many thanks to each of them), so without further ado:

Mona Sullivan

Karen Colaneri

Sharlyn Premuda

We had some awesome lampwork artists participate in the challenge this time around including  Mona Sullivan, Karen Colaneri and Sharlyn Premuda.  I'm in awe, ladies! 

Laura Bailey Taskey

Doreen Neilley 

Mona Arnott

Lennis Carrier

Laura Bailey Taskey, Doreen Neilley, Mona Arnott and Lennis Carrier found some beautiful components for the challenge including glass, brass, polymer and metal sliders with crystal.  Don't you love to see how differently the theme colors are interpreted by each artist?

Kay Ackerman

Toni Gifford

Samantha Wescott

Sylvia Lupberger

The seed beaders never disappoint.  Kay Ackerman used several shapes of seed beads along with a gorgeous luminous cab in her bead embroidery pendant while Toni Gifford added just a touch of silver when she stitched her pendant (Desert Star Pendant design by Justyna Szlezak).  Samantha Wescott and Sylvia Lupberger both made multiple pieces in various bead weaving techniques (such talent!).

I played along, too.  You can see several of my micro macrame pieces in this blog post, but I'll share my favorite one with you here:

Sherri Stokey

And there you have it - another palette challenge for the history books.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing the different designs in different mediums - I know I did!

Caribbean Color Palette Challenge Reminder

by Sherri Stokey

As you can see, I've been having a lot of fun playing around with the colors in the Caribbean Color palette.  I'm hoping some of you have been busy on pieces inspired by this palette as well.  Just in case anyone needs a reminder:

If you haven't started anything yet, there's still time!  Photos need to be to me by September 14th and you can find all the details on how to submit them in this post.  Have fun!!

Color Palette Challenge - Caribbean!

by Sherri Stokey

Are you ready for another color palette challenge?  We had so much fun with the Starfish Color Palette Challenge, I thought we should do it again.  This time I chose some pretty blues (cyan, aqua, Caribbean blue, teal), lime green (chartreuse) and a dash of white.  It has a bit of a Caribbean feel, don't you think?  I found some pretty beads in my stash, including several handmade lampwork pieces, a ceramic pendant and a polymer clay sand dollar.  I even found some macrame pieces I've done that fit the theme:

The rules are simple:  make something inspired by the photo.  It can be anything - a painting, jewelry (of course), a scarf, a hand painted pair of shoes (wouldn't that be cool!?) - as long as it's made by you.  Share a photo of your creation with me by September 14, 2016 and I'll put together a blog post revealing them here on September 16th.  If you'd like to do a blog post, send me the link along with your photo and I'll include it.  Please send photos to me through my business Facebook page  or via email.

Who will join me this round?

Happy Independence Day!

by Sherri Stokey

Happy (almost) Independence Day!!  I love this time of year!  I don't just make jewelry, either - I love to put my creative energies to work in the kitchen.  What's more fun than themed (red, white & blue) food?

It's even better if I get helpers!

After everyone leaves, I like to spend a little time unwinding, and to me that means making macrame.  A little patriotic jewelry, anyone?

Not everyone enjoys the 4th quite as much as I do, though.  My poor baby doesn't like fireworks (or thunder, or rain, or wind or snow...) 

How about you?  Are you celebrating this weekend?

Starfish Color Palette Challenge Reveal

by Sherri Stokey

Today's the day and I'm SO excited!  A few weeks ago I issued a challenge to come up with handmade pieces (didn't have to be jewelry) based on the beads and cord I've been working with for a while.  I call it my Starfish palette, thus the Starfish Color Palette Challenge.  I know, I'm clever like that.  Anyway, several talented folks were inspired to play along so without further ado...

Pamela Troutman does amazingly beautiful things with seed beads as demonstrated in her necklace above, wile Emilie Le Ret used nail polish (yes nail polish!!) to create the fun ring and earrings below!

Jessica Green used a special bead she'd been hoarding for a long time and a whole bunch of others to create the necklace above with a shape vaguely reminiscent of a fish.  Linda Landig chose to expand on the color palette in her beachy necklace featuring a glass starfish.

Samantha Wescott knocked it out of the park with a reversible necklace (so cool!) and two different bracelets.  You'll want to check out her blog post for more photos.  A starfish pendant by Michelle McCarthy is the focal in Sarajo Wentling's necklace below featuring soft beautiful color.

Shai Williams used a brass seashell and a whole bunch of other yummy beads in her necklace above while Sheri Gumina used a real starfish in making her detailed silver metal clay pendant below.

I have to admit, Shawn Pippin won a place in my heart working from my Leaves Micro Macrame Bracelet Tutorial for the bracelet above.  And last but not least (I'm not sure there is a "least" with these pieces!), is the necklace below made by Wendi Reamy (Door 44 Jewelry) combining wire wrapping with knotting in her awesome design.

I do have one little problem with all these pieces, though: I want them all!!  It's almost like they all chose my favorite colors or something!  

This challenge was great fun for me and I loved seeing how everyone interpreted my photo and created something beautiful.  I don't know about you, but I think we need a little more beauty in the world lately.

Many thanks to everyone who played along.  Be sure to click the links to visit everyone's blog and/or shops and let them know if you like their work!

Edited to add one more:  Treena Rowan might have been a little late submitting her bracelet, but it's so pretty!!