Stencilling

At the end of February I took an on-line stencilling course (via Zoom) with the lovely, talented Dutch artist, Pauline Greuell. (It was so neat to be in class with a teacher in The Netherlands and other students from Scotland, NYC and Costa Rica!) Pauline's work is beautiful and she is very generous with knowledge and encouragement. During the workshop, I cut a very simple leaf stencil out of mylar and used it to print these leaves. I used the same stencil and the same paint, but Pauline showed us how to apply the paint and use the brush in different ways to create all these variations:

Then we used what we learned to make a random pattern:

It was a really great way to spend an afternoon!

A couple of weeks later I made a two-part stencil to create a flower with a small centre:

The other day I finally got around to making something out of my stencilled fabric:

I'm hoping to continue to learn about and explore more stencilling!

Enjoy your day,

Judy Ann

More Printmaking

 I've been dabbling in printmaking ever since I wrote my first craft book for kids, Prints. Recently I bought this beautiful new book by Elise Young called, Block Print For Beginners. She carves gorgeous images and shares clear instructions, as well as tips and tricks, for helping us become printmakers, too. Inspired by Elise, I'm taking time to experiment.

I carved this image in soft rubber:

I used a stamp pad to ink the image, then pressed it on paper to print it. 

I used a new pencil eraser pressed onto a yellow stamp pad

 to add the flower centres:

I got brave and used block printing ink to get a bolder, more permanent image:

I thought it might look nice to use orangey-red paint for the centres:

Then I tried printing on dark paper. It's quite a different look, not quite as appealing.

I hope to keep on playing!

I hope you have playtime, too.

Judy Ann

Dutch Appeltaart!

    Ever since I picked up the March/April 2020 edition of Bake from Scratch magazine,  I've been wanting to try their Appeltaart recipe. I've never tried making one before—I haven't even tasted one! As usual, the instructions were very well written. I ran out of time while preparing the appeltaart, so rather than serve it for Saturday evening dessert, we had a slice on Sunday afternoon. And evening!  

I was afraid that when I removed the sides of the springform pan 

the appeltaart would collapse. Happily, it did not!

I should have added a dollop of whipped cream on the plate because, well,

 everything tastes better with whipped cream!

                                                                It was a lovely treat!

                                                                  Have a sweet day,

                                                                       Judy Ann

                                                                        

A Chat with Deanne Fitzpatrick!

    A few months ago, I had the great pleasure and privilege of being interviewed by one of the most creative, inspiring, generous, curious, accomplished, and beautiful women I have ever met, Deanne Fitzpatrick. Her mantra, Create Beauty Everyday, is perfect for reminding me, and anyone else who strives to live a creative life, to get busy. The beauty we create can be as simple as a loaf of bread, an embroidered flower, a photo, a line in a story, a quilt block or, in Deanne's world, gorgeous hooked rugs. Check out her rug hooking website where you can see Deanne's amazing original rugs, her wonderful books, get instructions on rug hooking, and that's where you'll find the podcast of her interview with me! We talked about writing books, one of my favourite topics. Of course, I slipped mention of my grandkids in there, too, as often as possible! If you happen to listen to it, you'll hear me say that I don't yet know who is illustrating my next book. Since then, we have our terrific artist, Élodie Duhameau. She is doing a fantastic job of illustrating Waiting, which will be out about one year from now. Can't wait!

Have you created any beauty today? I baked cookies and buns, certainly not perfectly beautiful, but still delicious!

                                                                          Enjoy your day,

                                                                                Judy Ann

Upheaval

I don't think we could ever have imagined a time like we are enduring now. There are so many distressing stories from around the world, but, thankfully there are just as many heartening ones. In our family we've had great sadness and worry, and the heartbreak of not being able to be with our elders and grandchildren. We are doing our best to follow the rules so that we can successfully get through this time of isolation, physical distancing and total upheaval. We are so lucky to be well. We feel great gratitude for family members and everyone, absolutely everyone, who is working hard to keep governments, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, grocery stores, farms, on-line services, law enforcement, emergency services, transit, education, construction, sanitation, postal services, water, deliveries, food services and so much more still going. Huge gratitude, for sure!

On a lighter note, I'm very lucky to have enough yarn, fabric, flour and yeast to get me through many months of staying home! And I don't need much, except my imagination, to write stories.

I've done lots of baking and sharing!

I've made myself a top, and I've cut out a sweet little dress

 for a sweet little girl in my life!

I've done a little knitting and corking, too, and intend to do more.

Because of all the worry, it is difficult to really embrace the extra time I have. 

I will try. If you have a gift of time, I hope you make good use of it, too.

Please be well,

Judy Ann

I Read Canadian!

Wednesday of this week was "I Read Canadian" day, a chance to celebrate homegrown books! There's no need, of course, to limit the celebration to one day, so we've kept it going all week.

We put together a display at the library.

It's easy to identify books by Canadian authors all year long because 

 each has a cheery Canadian maple-leaf sticker on its spine.

But what's a good book without a reader?

Happy reading,

Judy Ann

Crafting!

I've written over 20 craft books because I love making things! As I wrote each book, I filled it with projects that I hoped would be fun and appealing for kids. I've done countless workshops and presentations at schools, libraries, stores and festivals, and I love the enthusiasm and creativity I always see in children. One of my favourite things, though, is when a child quietly creates projects inspired by one of my books.

 I received this photo recently and it did my heart good!

This creative gal is following instructions from my book,

 The New Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts.

What a great job she is doing!
I hope she will continue to use her imagination and crafty hands to make art,
 gifts, things to wear, items to play with, and to make crafts
 just for the joy of it!

Have a creative day,

Judy Ann