Planning to Paint

I ordered some arty crafty supplies from DickBlick.com.  I plan to do some painting, pastels and playing with clay.  I even ordered a table-top easel!  The only problem is that it's too cold to work in the garage right now.  I might leave the really messy stuff for spring.  :)

Big Ideas

My crafty friend, Fiona, suggested I use rice paper to print out patterns on.  I guess it is a lighter weight paper, but heavier than tracing paper.  I found some on Dick Blick and also found colored pencils and crayons.  That brings me to my next big idea.  I've been reading tutorials and discussions about doing shadings on light colored fabric with colored pencils or crayons and then ironing them so the colors blend well.  You need a hot iron on Cotton. After shading you then embroider.  Here is a beautiful one done with colored pencils by Sew Lovely Embroidery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sewlovely/4647711421/

Here is a tutorial at Urban Threads for using crayons to make adorable shaded pears: http://www.urbanthreads.com/pages?id=448

I want to try this shading some time.  I'm thinking of doing a pumpkin design for Halloween.  Haven't decided if I'll embroider it or embroider on paper.  I wonder if you could melt crayons into paper...