Flourishing Advent

Brainstormed for two weeks to design an A-typcial advent calendar.  My original plan was to sew something, but as the 1st of the month grew closer my plans of sewwing diminshed.

Enter, My Digital Studio. the new digital software program from Stampin' Up!   A quick click and dragging of the mouse and, WALLA!

Well, there was a little more designing on my part but hey, I think for a quickie Advent assembly it came quite nice.  Here's a full view:

Here are the Hollies for counting down the days.  Just attach one to the ribbon for each day until Christmas.

Another close-up of the detail.  Doesn't the ribbon look real?  I've taken my gold Zig and embellished this color copy.

Now for the fun part.  Enjoy a complimentary PDF of this Advent (available in red and chocolate) for your home.  The files are accessible in the group "Flourish Advent" on my Pockets of Inspiration.NING site.  The site Flourish Advent is open to anyone (along with suggestions on assembly).  You can download both the Chocolate and the Red if you like.  There's a seperate PDF for the hollies.

Enjoy!

Melanie

Sheet Music Wash

Want an easy idea for sprucing up your artwork?  How about getting a few pages of your sheet music and applying a light color wash to them?  Here's how.

Grab your favorite shade of paint.  Squirt a little dab onto a non-porouse surface.  I tend to use waxed paper as it's inexpensive and disposable when I'm finished (saving time on clean up).

Dip your paint brush in water and then into the paint, swirling around so the paint is no longer opaque and apply right over your sheet music.  The more you apply the darker the paint becomes (yes, even if it's diluted).

You can add another complimentary color while the paint is still wet so you get a nice blending effect, but don't over do it.  Remember, you're working with paper and it will start to warp.  Let the paper dry completely and then place it in a folder for your future projects.

Here's a wash I created using celery green. 

Look at the little animal figure someone drew.  Isn't that cute?  These particular music sheets I picked up from a thrift store so no telling who they originally belonged to.  I find the notes others make in books or like here on the music sheet, quite fascinating.  What were they thinking when they drew it and why?

Here's a sneak peek of what I'm working on.

I'm working on another video tutorial to show you how they're done.  I need to first complete the pieces I've been working on and get them in my Etsy account.  I'm working on a deadline ya know. 

Now, back to work. I hope your day is much drier than mine. It's been raining for two day snow and more cold on the way.  I'm not complaning though, it's Winter and I LOVE the cold and the rain together; makes you appreciate those perfect Fall and Spring days.  Luckily I'm cozy inside the house...with this:

He's perched on this window sill daily.  Eyeball the squirrels if you ask me.

Melanie