being creative.

A few months ago, I signed up for a "Being Creative" project started by illustrator Julia Crossland.  Every month, there is a different theme, and May's theme was "Home".  (I actually signed up as "ART by Amelia Kay"--my art blog--but I thought I'd post my project here for the check-in, since it isn't as "artsy".)

So here's a little background on the whole project, because when most people see what I made, they have NO idea what in the world it is... and you'll understand once you read my little bit here.  :)

We are working extra-hard at paying off our debts, and have been trying to think of ways to make a bit more income.  So last fall, I started collecting acrylic paints, canvases, easels, a few new paintbrushes and began painting again.  I'm still working toward my first sale, and along the way somewhere we thought it might help to sort of "tie into" something that's already working for us income-wise.  Which is renting out our Marquette house as a vacation rental. (Our former home, our "home away from home", which ties this all into the "home" theme, see?)  

So I'm working on some Beach House-related art to sell, and I got this (crazy?) idea that I could make pillows shaped like Michigan's Upper Peninsula to sell at the house and on etsy.  It really has been an obsession lately, and I finally have two pillows to show for it.  (Well, there were probably five prototype pillows, but I have two that I have deemed "sale worthy".)  So far, we've had a couple views on etsy and one "heart", so we'll see what happens there.

Anyway, here they are...

This pillow is made with the same fabric as the curtains in our Beach House's "Sailors Cove" bedroom.  The fabric is a lightweight canvas, and it makes the pillow SO soft and cuddly!  :)

Here's Marissa with a pillow made of a nice weighty upholstery-type fabric, which was a little tricky with stuffing the little areas, but it's nice & substantial and I love the little swirly pattern.  If you click on the photo, it will enlarge so you can see a little better.

Okay, so for those of you unfamiliar with Michigan, I'll help you out. Here's a map of the Upper Peninsula for your comparison. I had to tweak the shape a bit to make it more pillow-ish, so it's not exact.  :)

A map of the U.P. I just found online.

And even though it's not finished yet, I will post my main project.  I am hoping to get back into working on it today so that hopefully this weekend we can take it to the printer and have it scanned and have some giclee prints made of it.  (I know some of my readers are wondering what a giclee print is, so that's why I've put a link there.  I didn't know what a giclee print was until I kept seeing the word online and looked it up a few months ago.)

Here I am, a week or two ago in the midst of working on my current painting.  I painted a lot more of the tiny branches since I shot this pic and have taken a bit of a break to work on the pillow obsession, but I'm getting back to work on this one today.

Just had to post the finished painting, which I did indeed finish the day I posted this.  My "ta-dah!" post is over at my art blog.  Prints will be coming soon!  :)