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Travel Sketching and Painting

| terriaw

I received this fabulous handmade travel kit from Michelle that I want to show off to you. Hope you don’t mind!

She made this adorable patchwork notebook for me. Notice all the cool patchwork and stitching on the front cover.

I made a couple sketchbooks to put in the inside pockets – a perfect fit. Notice all the wonderful stitching and details on the inside too.

She also felted this beautiful field kit that I can hook onto my belt loop when I’m on the trails.Inside fits this amazing little treasure:

It’s a compact watercolor set about the size of my iPhone and pack of artist cards!

The paint kit includes 12 watercolors, a small retracting brush, three shallow mixing palettes, a water bottle and a sponge. And all that fits inside the cute little box for travel. How adorable!

I found these adorable little (barely 2 inches long) colored pencils in my stash so I decided they would be perfect to size to include. I will tuck a small piece of sandpaper inside to sharpen the pencils without wasting the color.

Now I just need to figure out where to go to try out my new field kit. I’m thinking about starting in our backyard as soon as our gardens come back to life, but I would also like to make a trip to our botanical gardens and the farmers market. Where would you go if you had a new travel art (or sewing) kit?

Last-Minute Gift

| terriaw

I found out on short notice that a new friend from my design classes had a birthday a couple days before Christmas. I really wanted to come up with a thoughtful gift, something that didn’t look like a last-minute (lame) idea.

She works at a bookstore, so that eliminated so many gift ideas that came to mind at first. I know she plays piano, and she’s in the same design and illustration program with me, so I customized a couple fabric-covered moleskin notebooks with these cool musical fabrics using this tutorial. Every artist carries a moleskin everywhere they go!

In the gift bag, I also included a set of coloured pencils, which are always fun to play with.

I do hope she liked these goodies, especially because I secretly wanted to keep them for myself… sshhh. I am definitely going to make more of these – they are so fun to customize for just the right person or occasion.