Finally (it has happened to me, right in front of my face, my feelings can't describe it)

Back in the beginning of july I signed up for the sketchbook project, an awesome program where you buy a sketchbook, pick a theme, draw up a storm, and your finished book travels the US in a series of gallery stops! Sounds fun right? I thought so! So I signed up with wishful thinking of getting kick start on the project and...this is what my book was looking like just a month ago:


Yup. Intense procrastination and my busy crafting schedule meant no sketching for me and with a looming deadline I had to get my act together! So as soon as the holiday maddess was over I was onto exploring my sketchy creativity to come up with an entire "record year for rainfall" themed sketchbook! Hooray! So I've spent every spare moment for the last week and a half drawing, inking, and colouring and I finally finished the project! Behold:


Ta da! Wide eyed smile cuteness in rain form! Alright - so that isn't the whole book - it's just the cover but it is the truncated version! My project quickly mutated from "artistic masterpiece" into more of a "semi-educational children's super cute book" but since that very much still fits within the project rules, I figure I'm set! Here's another peek at it:


Woohoo! Just in time too! My sketchbook is currently somewhere between kamloops and brooklyn all ready to go on tour! And *whew* that last minute crunch was tough! I'd really love to see what the other sketchbooks look like but I'm not entirely sure how a trip to the states will fit in my schedule. Oh! And if you're dying to see how the actual pages of my sketchbook turned out, not to worry, I'll be sharing the rainy story on my blog over the next while (as in when I find time to blog about it all). Excited?

sketchbook fail

Back in the beginning of july I signed up for the sketchbook project, an awesome program where you buy a sketchbook, pick a theme, draw up a storm, and your finished book travels the US in a series of gallery stops:


The deadline for signup was october 31st (sorry if you're too late!) and I was so excited to have signed up in the summer to get a jump start on things! After all it is due in january - that is tons of time right? Well...one craft lead to another and quickly enough my sketchbook arrived and didn't even make it out of the envelope. In fact it has remained in the envelope until a few days ago when I decided to do an update:


Oh my. Talk about putting thigns off! (and suiting since I just did a discussion post on procrastinating)! So now how far have I gotten on my "it was a record year for rainfall" themed sketches? Let's look:


Yup...not far at all...but I am pleasantly surprised on how neat that picture turned out. Instead of drawing I've had my hands full whipping up loads of mustaches for some friends movember celebrations and their eventual new home in the kelowna boutique "frock":


Wow! That is a lot of felt facial hair! Now to sew, stuff, and stick them! Whew! Then, hopefully, I will get on that sketching thing...maybe...

The Sketchbook Project

It was about this time last year that my sister and I started our own sketching journal challenge. We both bought blank page journals on our trip to Prince Rupert and decided to do some pen sketches in them each month of the year! Then we'd meet back up in a years time and check out each others books and see what neat adventures we each went on! Cool right? We thought so. I am pretty sure I dominated the challenge by drawing an average of 1.5 times a month and last I heard from leslie she totally forgot about it after a month or so...regardless it was sort of a fun project to take on and I hope to continue with it until my book is full up! I have been carrying it around with me in a little zippered pouch all year after all so it is always on hand for any sketching opportunities! I'll have to take some pictures of it when leslie comes down to visit this summer and share how terrible of a sketcher I am! (So please remember your book les).

So you can only imagine how much the Art House Co-op's "Sketchbook Project" caught my attention when I heard about it on the paper sparrow's blog! Take a look:

It sounds like such a fun idea! You pay a $25 start up fee and they send you a moleskine to sketch in. You pick (or are randomly selected) a theme for your sketches and once you fill up your book it gets to travel around with the other moleskines as an artist tour! How cool! There are loads of neat inspiring images and themes on their site and I think it would be super awesome to join! You've got until Oct 31st to join then until Jan 15th to get your book in the mail. The tour starts in March and visits six cities around the US. Wouldn't it be fun to participate and go visit your sketchbook in California perhaps? Sounds like a good road trip opportunity (hint hint lindsay) too! What do you think?