Jun20

Goodbye!

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I began this blog on October 3, 2014, as a way to stay active after retiring from teaching. I wanted to keep my crafting and my writing chops well-practiced, and I was knew my strength wasn’t in first-time-perfect craftsmanship. Instead, I hoped to share my creative journey by describing both the successes, the workarounds, and the oh-too-many failures. I’ve certainly enjoyed the process and have fulfilled my goal.

Now, however, I find that the blog has become just one more obligation. My days are full of other creative pursuits, and I’ve decided to give crapsmanship.com an easy demise — quick and painless. And so I say goodbye. Thank you for taking the time to visit my modest attempts at crafting and writing.

If you’re interested in seeing my most recent artistic work, follow BFF’s and my Etsy site: alacardestudio.etsy.com.

Bye!

May23

Rule of Thirds

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I’ve been doing some nature photography lately, snapping pix of spring flowers with my iPhone. I’ve been trying, with some success, to use the Rule of Thirds as a guideline for where to place my main image. The Rule of Thirds is a “rule of thumb” for visual artists — photographers, illustrators, painters. See the photo above? (P.S. – It’s not my photograph, but I don’t have the attribution.) It’s divided into three sections horizontally and three vertically.

The Rule of Thirds proposes that the main image should be placed along the lines of intersection (see the red pluses in the photo above). Proponents assert that this technique creates more interest and energy in the composition. Below are a few of my most recent photos. How’d I do? Do you have a favorite?

May9

Working with the Non-Dominant Hand

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My Crafts and Cocktails group loves to play with different crafts together. One member of the group recently broke her right thumb and is in a cast. In a nod to Karen’s dilemma, we decided to each bring an inspiration photo of flowers in a vase and replicate it in acrylics using only our non-dominant hand. I had a few slips, resorting back to my dominant hand, but the effort loosened me up and made me laugh. Here’s mine — inspiration photo and replication.

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Apr25

Kitchen Art

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Because Dan the Man is a pastry chef, we have several cute chefs decorating our kitchen. We had two chef pictures hanging on the wall by the dining room, and DTM asked me to replace them with something that I made. (Quite a compliment!) I’m afraid I can’t say these are 100% original. Since I’m a crappy draw-er, I used the lightbox in the studio to trace (using a Micron permanent pen) the outlines of the spoons and rolling pin from images I found on the Internet. I then used water colors to paint the images.

As you an see from the pictures below, they don’t lack some skill if you look too closely. But they look good on the wall, and that’s what counts, right?!

Mar21

Shared Art 3

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I know you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for the third installment of my Paint and Pass pictures (wink, wink). Last week, though, I was busy with my eight-year-old granddaughter, who hadn’t stayed with us for a year due to COVID. I skipped a week of blogging to play with Lulu, but I’m back again full steam.

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Mar7

Shared Art 2

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Last week, I blogged about a routine I now call “Paint and Pass.” In the studio, two friends and I painted on our own for ten minutes, and then we passed the painting to another for continued work. We kept passing and passing, changing each painting in both little and big ways. Here are photos showing how BFF’s painting changed over time.

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