And now it's complete

I always amaze myself during Art Every Day Month or AEDM.  And this is the final day.  But it doesn't mean I'm going to slack off.  It only means I need to make sure I post at least six times a week, but not every day as I have during November.  If God could rest one day a week, so can I.

To finish out November,

I created this beauty.

Let me begin by taking you back a few weeks when I auditioned this in front of Kathy,

who promptly thought I should have a darker color than the stark white lace.  I laughed and told her I preferred white because I could dye it any color I chose using dye or solvent based inks.  She was stunned because she said she never, ever thought of doing that.

Yesterday I knew it was time to finish this piece, so I grabbed my lace (and more since I got way too much ink to go with my alcohol) for the dye bath.

I even had enough of the dye/alcohol mix to swipe one of the yellow flowers.  I wasn't sure if it would dye properly or turn to mud (since these are complimentary colors that sit across from each other on the color chart), but I was willing to give it a try.  Subtle, but nice, and no mud, either.

Using my sewing machine, I attached the lace to the red burlap and rusty fabric from my stash.

Years ago I printed this little boy on vellum and decided today was the day to use him.  If memory serves I believe this is a Claudine Hellmuth image.

I love how the beige burlap shows through the image.  You can see I didn't wait long enough for the Ultimate! glue to dry.  I assure you, it dried clear.  If only I hadn't gotten in such a hurry.

I'll let you peruse these images without my need to comment.

I've now added the hanger.  If this had been a quiltlet, I would have needed to reinforce the artwork.  However, since it was created on a book cover, there is no need to do so.

This is the back and you can see two of the many layers that made up the front.  And because there are so many layers, I'm sharing this with Moo-Mania and More. 

I made this back as part of Day 6 of AEDM where I created backgrounds for a masterboard.  I used my handmade shimmering mists.

But now it's time to wrap this gift so I can give it to a friend I'll be visiting this week.  The substrate is some red rosin paper I previously removed from my craft room desk.  I realize it looks just very much like the paper that is on my desk now.

I began with this snowman.  I mostly used white paint for everything.

Remember how I said spray inks tend to bleed when they get wet?  This is an excellent example of bleeding when I added my next snowman.

And of course, what is a snowman without snowflakes?  I finished the decorations with these.

Next it was time to fold the bag and sew the sides together.  I also used one of my decorative scissors to trim the edges and cut along the top of the bag.

I used repositionable glue to seal the top.

The gift tag is one of my WSU (Wichita State University) tags.

I wanted this gift to reflect the wintery scene we are experiencing outside, but I didn't want it to feel like a Christmas gift, which it is not.  And even though it's not the prettiest or the best or even a good bag, it was made from recycled parts, it IS a bag, and only took about an hour to finish.  For that reason, I'm entering it into Try it on Tuesday's latest challenge which is bags and boxes.

It's the final day (Day 30) of Art Every Day Month, or AEDM, where I'm also joining Moo-Mania and More, with their challenge of Lots of Layers, and Try it on Tuesday, with their challenge that calls for bags and boxes.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through this entire month of creativity.  I'm very grateful and hope to see more of your art because you have certainly inspired me.  And I think more than anything, that's what this month has been about for me!

I'll be back early tomorrow (Monday) with a wrap-up of the month.  I also need to remind you to get your Second on the 2nd post ready for Wednesday.