Penelope in Progress and Crafty Goodness
May 7th, 2008
Today I felt really good. I got some exercise in, got some random tasks accomplished, did a little painting, and a little soul searching. The weather was fabulous too! This is a painting I'm working on. I think it's 20"x20". I started out by doing a couple magazine transfers with Golden's soft gel gloss. The transfers never come out perfect, but I kinda like that. I've never put a face image on a painting like this, but I liked the length in her neck, so I'm going to paint over the image to some degree to keep the shape, but make it my own. I've been experimenting with mixing paint with the gloss medium as well which has been fun. It makes the drying time longer, which is sometimes frustrating for me because I like to work fast. But I also like the glazes and thickness you can get.
With the bigger canvases, it takes me longer to finish a piece (duh!) 
, so I figured you might like to see a work in progress. The colors made me think of summer and Greece and as the piece developed, the woman became Penelope, the title became, "Penelope's Web." Now, things could change. The direction of a painting often changes mid-stream. I like to give it the opportunity to do that. But usually when the name of a piece pops into my head that's what it will be. We'll see.
I'm spending the next two nights at my old job to make a little extra money. I was a nanny for this family for 6 years and the younger child is graduating from high school next month. Crazy! When I first met her she was only ten. Eek! Anyways, it's great to see her, much more fun when I don't have to be here every day, and my main job is simply to be here as an adult presence. That's easy enough.
Yesterday, wrapping up the baby gift, I did a little crafty recycling project to get it ready to go. I used an old paper grocery bag and cut it up to make one big flat piece of craft paper. On the non printed side I used two different sizes of swirl stamps to decorate it. Then I wrapped up the gift in the printed paper, taped it up with some purty printed packing tape, and bingo-bango, a fun package ready to go to Colorado.
It reminded me of covering my school books with paper bags in high school. Man, I used to doodle all over those things! I read somewhere that some people don't buy wrapping paper, but just use craft paper that they decorate themselves. If you've got paper bags at home that just might be the way to go. I'm sure you could make something far prettier than what I created above. Hehe. Check out how great blueprint pages can look as wrapping paper!!
Time to wind down for sleeping. Night, night.
12 Responses
OMG THAT PAINTING IS FABULOUS, LEAH!!!!
Posted by: Design for Mankind | May 8, 2008 at 1:30 am |
What a fun way to wrap a parcel – it certainly looks exciting!
And I love the way magazine transfers are so incomplete – it changes them immediately. How many coats of gel do you tend to use?
Posted by: Caroline | May 8, 2008 at 5:38 am |
mmm….love it. i am drooling waiting to see the finished piece. the wrapping paper is so fun! iam always looking
for new stuff to wrap with.
peace.
Posted by: kelly | May 8, 2008 at 7:01 am |
That painting is such a beautiful start ! Love the transfer ! I can’t wait to see where it ends up. Thanks for sharing the process.
Your package looked so great ! Unique wrapping adds so much to a gift, doesn’t it ? The only problem I have when I go all out with the wrapping is that then my peeps expect such attention to detail all the time from me ! When I am lazy and pick up a pretty bag at the Dollar Store with some tissue paper, they get disappointed ! Lazy Kim replies “Gotta keep my fans wanting more, more, more !!!”
Have a good Thursday !
Kim
Posted by: Kimbo | May 8, 2008 at 7:16 am |
I LOVE the magazine transfer piece. It looks amazing just as it is. Beautiful!
Posted by: karen beth | May 8, 2008 at 10:19 am |
I love Penelope! She does look Greek to me. I hope it doesn’t change much. I like it the way it is. It could be a web page for someone named Penelope. The wrapping paper was a creatively neat idea too and probably time consuming. I once hand stamped a table cloth for my son’s 1st birthday with his name and a lamb. I was worn about buy the time I finished it just prior to the party starting! The things we do for love. LOL
Posted by: becky aka theRAV | May 8, 2008 at 10:54 am |
Not telling you what to do here, but I am… I see Penelope as a bust statue. I’d use the right top square as a window showing the blue Sea.
Posted by: becky voyles | May 8, 2008 at 10:59 am |
Love the image transfer – before i read your piece i was thinking Greek/italian. Looking forward to seeing the end results. I also really like the decorative tape you used, nice touch!
Posted by: Violetkey | May 8, 2008 at 12:18 pm |
Looking forward to seeing the end result!
Really like the wrapping paper! That is
one thing I use to always like doing is
wrapping gifts.
Thanks for the link I use to have his link
but had lost it. That is one thing I like
about having the blog list. If the computer
crashes I think at least I will have the links
on my blog.
Have a Blessed Creative Week!!!
Posted by: Flassie | May 8, 2008 at 1:35 pm |
Great start on your piece. I look forward to seeing its progress and what it turns into.
Posted by: Rebecca | May 8, 2008 at 4:45 pm |
Leah- Love the transfer! Every time I’ve tried an image transfer it never works. Never. What’s the secret?
Posted by: Kim | May 8, 2008 at 6:57 pm |
Awesome work on the wrapping of the gift! I REALLY like the packing tape on the edges, it almost reminds me of some sort of ribbony artistic fringe on the edges of the package. Truely cool work there!!!
Posted by: Dale | May 9, 2008 at 1:09 am |