Something About Nothing

I keep saying to myself that I am going to be better at keeping up with the blog. Sigh.  This has been a very long month. Living in a pandemic is weird.  I am fortunate. I know this. I have so much, however I am still in mourning for what was. This is my busy season and I had a lot of plans. Plans which had to be postponed or cancelled all together. These plans have been mourned.  And despite these losses, I am so fortunate. My husband still has his job, and although he goes in to work everyday he does not come in to contact with the public. I know others do not have these privileges. I have a home, food, bed, and a pesky cat. I recognize these privileges, and am working each day to be busy and happy. Some days I am successful, and some days, well, not so much. But that is okay. The 100 Day Project was starting at the beginning of the Stay at Home orders,  and I felt extremely stressed trying to come up with a project. I had several ideas, but couldn...

In 2014, I created a webinar on how to make Shibori and stenciled Prayer Flags.  These flags have been hanging in my front yard tree ever since. And despite the faded colors, the flags have held up well. With the current Covid-19 pandemic, I decided it was time to create new flags to send my wishes of health and calm to the world through the winds. I used hand dyed fabrics, an acrylic paint pen, and some of my hand carved stamps.  If you would like to make some to brighten your world, I've created a tutorial below. The blue flags at the bottom are my newest flags. Supplies: Fat Quarter of fabric - (18"x22") hand dyed, solid or a print. All of them will work! Acrylic paint pen such as Posca , or a Sharpie marker Stamps, hand carved or commerical * Stamp pad, such as VersaCraft which stays on Fabric * 4 yards of Ribbon - my favorite to use is a 1/4" grosgrain Sewing machine, or hand needle and thread *only if you aren't using a print fa...

I took a number of my prints from the 100 Days of Pattern and had them printed on cotton, and denim through Spoonflower , a digital fabric printing company.   My designs on Petal Cotton from Spoonflower I would like to create some zipped pouches from the denim. My designs on Denim from Spoonflower Not sure what I will be creating with the cotton yet. Click on this link or up above and it will take you to my Spoonflower Shop: Something Lisa. You can order any of my prints in a variety of fabrics, or as wallpaper, a bed duvet, pillows, and an assortment of kitchen linens too! Bed Duvet and pillows in Blue Comic Circles Table cloth, runner, napkins, placemat and tea towels in Blue Comic Circles.

On August 2, 2019, I started my second 100 day project. This one was 100 days of pattern. My initial idea was to use both old and new stamps to create these patterns, but life happens.  Day 1 - 36 - all hand carved stamps About day 45 I had to leave town and decided using iOrnament to create designs would be easier than dragging all my carving and printing materials with me. Can you tell where I stopped using hand carved stamps? There are a few days of stamps mixed in with the digital drawings. Most of the time I took the stamped images and used an app called Prisma to change up the colors. It would be difficult to print the stamps in these colorways without the app. Day 37 - 72 - A mix of hand carved stamps and digital drawings. Using iOrnament for so many days in a row really taught me more about the program. I amazed myself at what I could create. I really love this program. Day 73 - 102 - mostly digital drawings, but a few stamps too. I had a hard t...

I started this piece in January, during a class with Leslie Jenison at Craft Napa. I added more and more to it. But I just wasn't liking it. . . so I ripped it apart. Did you realize your sewing machine foot can make an excellent third hand when you are ripping apart fabrics? Especially when using Havel's Seam Ripper. Sorry this is a bit dark.  Soon it was all just pieces.  And I ended up with a few bits and pieces on me. He thinks he's helping!   These two always seem to be in mix.  I really like the houses which I accidentally made and decided to make lot's more.  And then the houses needed some trees. The progression of one of my trees.  And it's coming along!

At the beginning of July my cat, Keiko, knocked my water bottle on to my laptop keyboard. I wiped up the water immediately but lost use of the "u" and "7" on my keyboard. Then a week later I came in to the studio to find she had thrown up on my closed computer. Some of the throw up managed to get in to the plug. After cleaning it up, the computer would start up but nothing showed on the screen. I chatted online with a very nice Apple tech, but nothing helped. I suppose after 7 years, or maybe 8, she has lived a good life and deserves to be retired. Thank goodness I have an iPad with a keyboard that will get me through until a good sale comes up on a new lap or desk top. I use the iPad for traveling so perhaps a desktop is best. They are cheaper too! Unfortunately I won't be able to do everything on the iPad I can do on my laptop, but things could be so much worse! UPDATE: I purchased a desktop in August and it is fabulous. A few months later I decided to s...

Dragon Blood tree (day 75) is named such because it has dark red resin! I really like attempting to draw twisted trunks on trees from my head. (Day76) For day 77 I decided to take the tree from top to root! Day 78 I would rather not talk about. It's not my favorite. Mostly because my cliff was so steep that it left nothing to draw on a third of the page! I suppose I could change that. But sometimes it's just better to move on.  Day 79 is a carved stamp of a Northern Pin Oak leaf. Day 80 is a carved stamp of a Blue Gum Eucalyptus. Day 81 is a leaning lemon tree. A repeating carved olive branch brings around day 82, and day 83, is just a simple tree from my imagination.  "Old Tjikko" is a Norwegian Spruce and thought to be the oldest living tree - or at least the roots are. Click on the link to learn more about this old tree.  Day 85 is a Shagbark Hickory. Such interesting bark. Day 86 is a crazy doodle. A Cedar of Lebanon  brings us up to d...