Practicing. ..sort of

someday I will have ALL the star sparkle colors! 

These are some brush markers I picked up to use. Sadly, all the ones I had from 20 years ago were dried up.  Can you believe that?  They just don't make 'em like they used to! LOL

A while ago I was playing with stencils and FW Acrylic Inks. I created a bunch of backgrounds to practice calligraphy on as well as show students what amazing results you can get with a few simple tools.  It's important I find that when you are learning calligraphy on fabric you have some basis to put your words on.  Not just plain material.  Stencils are a great way to create simple backgrounds that you can 'tuck' your writing into and leave space for other interesting stitching to go. 

I love playing like this.  You never know what you'll find. I was trying to make a mask but then got carried away and realized it was really a silly bird like thing. 

looking at this really small like this I also see an elephant head.  

then upon pivoting the design I could see the bird more clearly. 

And so I added legs and glittery feathers. 

Then I realized a bird probably wouldn't like the term 'plucked' so I changed it.  It's silly and the exercise is moot given I wasn't supposed to wasting time doing this right now. 

However I suppose no effort is really in vain; It gave me a chance to unrap my new pens, get to know them a bit before my class on Sunday and spend some time away from all the sads on facebook right now.