A night so silent you can hear the snow falling.

Tonight is a snowy night. 

One of the first this year. 

It's magical.

Dear Person: the things you see while out biking

Seen on a bike ride a few weeks ago:

Click photos for larger view

The next three were seen on an epic bike ride with my dad on Christmas Day.

{mustache car}

...
I love bike rides. :)

I'm also lovin' this Dear Person thing. Not only because I love seeing epic things and being able to remember them, but because it's a bit of a challenge.
Because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be drawing cars or attempting to draw identical people otherwise. Oof. Twas difficult. Twas a challenge. Twas fun. :)
Oh, and I also discovered how much fun it is to write comic book style!

Have you seen anything epic lately??

Brown?!

I'm from Minnesota. Which means every single Christmas that I have been alive for, in the whole history of ever, has been white. And when I say white, I don't mean just a snively little dusting of powdered sugar white. I mean the world is positively smothered in an avalanche of white.

A photo from last January. This is what winter is supposed to look like, folks:

But something odd happened this year.

The world is brown. And it's warm. 

Well, respectively speaking at least. 40 degrees to a Minnesotan in December is positively balmy.

So this week we decided it would be epic to play soccer on Christmas Eve! 

Outdoors. In Minnesota. No coat. Santa hat.

You have no idea how incredible this is. 

Unless you're from around here. :)

Soccer on Christmas Eve?

History has been made, people. 

History has been made.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope you are all having a special and glorious day. <3

Not your average cookies.

Because gingerbread sugar cookie men are way more fun when they're partially "eaten" and decorated accordingly. :)

Notice the smug one on bottom? He won't be smiling long. His time is coming. 

And yes, I think these are all rather hilarious. And yes, I realize my sense of humor is a bit whacked. But I'm ok with that.

Oh, and ever wonder what a reindeer x-ray looks like? 

Because, I mean, who hasn't wondered that at one point or another??

Well, wonder no more!

(Decorated by me mother.)

Aaaand just so you don't have nightmares about decapitated cookie men and reindeer x-rays, I'll leave you with something a little prettier. :)
I tried to make the top one look like ocean waves ... kinda worked. My bro made the purple and white one.

Have you decorated cookies this year?

of presents and rear view mirrors

I've been having a lot of fun getting fancy with my present wrapping this week. So I thought I'd share my favorite!

I simply tied a ribbon around the present, added a tissue paper flower and a sprig I cut off of our Christmas greenery. (Shhh. Don't tell.) For the flower I basically just scrunched up silver tissue paper and shaped it into a circle. I would do a tutorial on it, but ... it would be pretty boring. It's rather self-explanatory. :)
So there you go. Your present wrapping inspiration for the day. Merry Christmas! ;)

Oh, and if you ever want to take an interesting photo of yourself, may I suggest a rear view mirror portrait? They are rather fun, don't you know. Especially if you're wearing a Santa hat. Even if it doesn't show much.

And yes, I realize this post is kinda random and pointless.
Meh.

Scanners as entertainment?

Wait. Did I just scan myself with our photocopier/printer? 

Weeellll ...

 hard to say.

Maybe?

I amuse myself. I really do. 

Btw, technically I don't know if this is like, bad for you. I don't know what kind of technology scanners use. So you may want to be smart (unlike me) and research it before you give it a go. :)

I'll let you know if I notice any side-affects. ;)

Marbling

Any idea what these crazy art supplies are for??

Marbling, of course! Which is where the very creative title of this post comes in. ;)

Over Thanksgiving weekend my oldest brother and his wife, Jill, visited. It is always so ridiculously fun having them over. Jill and I decided we had to do a fun art project while they were here, hence this post!

You need a few special supplies, so this isn't a tutorial. But I thought you'd enjoy seeing the process, as it's so interesting!

The day before the project, we mixed up the size, which is a mixture of water and carrageenan (a type of seaweed that acts as a thickener.) We also painted paper with a mixture of water and alum, to make the paint stick.

The next day we poured the size into an old cookie sheet thing, and we were ready to go!
First Jill splattered a special kind of paint onto the size. It floats!

Then she took one of our hand-made combs and pulled it through the paint to make the beginning of a pattern.

Then she pulled it the other direction to finish the pattern.

And then she laid the alum coated paper onto the size.

And the paint stuck!
Right after you pull the paper off, you actually rinse it under water. You'd think the paint would run off, but it sticks perfectly, and the water just rinses off the goopy size. Weird, eh?
(Spell check tells me "goopy" isn't a word. I say it is! So there, spell check. Thbzzzz!)

After each printing, we would take an old ruler and glide it over the size to pull off any extra paint, and then we could move on to the next pattern!

This is me using a comb with teeth that are closer together for a more delicate pattern.

Here are some of my favorite finished pieces:

We also did another style of marbling, called Stone Marbling, cuz it looks more like real marble!

I really like this last one, because it's kind of a mixture of both styles of marbling. First the more swirly kind, with stone marbling on top!

I just love crazy art projects. In case you haven't noticed. :)

Have you done any cool projects lately? I'd love to hear!

P.S. Jill did a post on marbling over at her blog! You should check it out. She made a really cute art piece out of one of her marbled papers!

P.P.S If you really want to try marbling yourself, this is where we bought the special paint.

Our paint has lasted for years, and we've done marbling many, many times.

You can also see beautiful and professional samples of marbling at that site. :)