Owl-fghan

In September of this year, little Liliana Elizabeth Juarez was born to my best friend and her husband.

Awww

I took it upon myself to make a blanket for her when she was still in the womb. Her mother is very much into owls and the other gift I would bequeath this newborn is a cross-stitched Owl Birth Record to be framed with her name, birth date, and 3 owls that was picked out by Mommy. (It's almost finished, I swear!!)

Going along with this owl theme, I decided to buy a white afghan from Michael's and design an owl pattern to cross-stitch onto the afghan. I wish I were talented enough to make an afghan by stretch, but the baby is already 2 months old and I still haven't finished the cross-stitching.

I looked at some owl pictures online and then sketched out my design:

This is what the finished owl looked like:

I had 8 owls in 8 different colors with 25 squares to fill. We needed some hearts.

Sorry for the green discoloration

And owl with a heart:

And now the blanket with owls and hearts:

Last step:
The middle square will have Liliana's name cross-stitched.

Hopefully in time for Christmas!!

Birds of Prey--The Gatefold

In the last issue of the Birds of Prey comics I was binding, there is a beautiful four-page spread. These four pages naturally fold in half, creating a gatefold. This acts as a set of double doors, which you open to the four-page spread. But then I had two white pages that needed some adornment. The following is the process of putting that together.

The sketch:

From left to right: Helena (Huntress), Zinda (Lady Blackhawk), Dinah (Black Canary).

Then I drew Helena and Dinah on sketch paper, colored them, cut them out, and pasted them onto brown paper.

Helena and Dinah ready to pull open gatefold.

Now to add Zinda.

It's Zinda!

And the final result.

Voila. Decorated gatefold.

Birds of Prey

So, had I had this idea of sharing my creative process with all my fans--okay, let's be honest, with my one fan (love you, Grandma!)--I would have documented the binding of Gale Simone's 50-some issue run on "Birds of Prey" into a 9 volume collection of hardback books. But since I didn't have that brain blast until later, you're stuck with only the end result.

Notice the trees are growing right to left! Oops!!

Ta-da!

With my beautiful 4-page spread!

Okay, so they're not completely done. There are a couple artistic flares I have added since I took these photos. 

Check in next time for the gatefold.

So It Begins...

All right, fans (and by fans, I mean you, Grandma)! Let's get started.

I always seem to have multiple creative projects going at the same time. And I love to share the end process with my friends and family. But why not the ENTIRE process? Watch me take issues of comic books and bind them into hardback copies. Follow me as I design baby blankets for my best friend's infant (it's almost finished, Lauren, I promise!!). See the miraculous final projects...and the inevitable mistakes (What do you mean trees don't grow horizontally?).

So, what's the purpose of this blog, you may be asking yourself. Well, it's to shamelessly show off the projects I'm currently working on. (And maybe get some credit for my epub class). And hopefully to inspire creativity and a community of sharing.

Enjoy.