DAY 16 - MAKE A PRINT FROM A POTATO OR SPONGE

Well I had to adapt this one once again as I had no fabric or paints, but i did have potatoes and a way of changing its colour, so heres the original potato leaf:

 And here it is being fried:

 Time to make: 10 minutes

DAY 15 - WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A DOLLAR BILL?

I'm going to have to admit defeat on this one in one respect, (but I have found a way round it I suppose, IF you;ll indulge me!) I have no dollar bills here, and at the moment, in France I only have a rather large pile of Euro coins, no notes.

So, take a look at this Origami 4 leafed Clover video which is made from dolar bills,
or alternatively you could create something virtual like I did -  Create your own Dollar Bill - mine has a photo in the centre made of leaves (have to stick to the theme of course!)

I've had to take a photo of it on my computer screen then upload that as I have no printer here so excuse the quality

Time to do: 10 minutes

Day 14 - MAKE SOMETHING AS SMALL AS YOU CAN / MICROSCOPIC

Today it's going to have to be an embroidered leaf on the corner of my fabric - perhaps out of chain stitch?

DAY 13 - USE TEA LEAVES OR BAGS TO CREATE SOMETHING

Now I wish perhaps I'd saved my Day 8 Blog idea for today, but never mind:

 

As I had just made a cup of my favorite tea,  Earl Grey, I thought I'd use the contents of the tea bag. As it was wet it resembled soil, therefore I went and picked the tiniest of the tops of some of the plants and leaves in the garden to make a miniature scale picture of a garden, all on a kitchen side plate:

Another quick and simple creation while on holiday!

DAY 12 -CAMOUFLAGE - CREATE SOMETHING THAT DISAPPEARS INTO ITS' BACKGROUND

Having arrived in the south of france for a well needed break at a friends villa,I don't have bmy endless boxes of bits with me, so I'm now very short of items to use as inspiration for the next 2 1/2 weeks
Camouflage and leaf inspired? My first thought was combat gear, but with no fabric, and no fabric paints here (and the minor fact that I can't draw also) I decided i needed to look closer to home.

After a wander round the garden I found the same leaves as there was a picture of in my Day 2 Blog

So, I pick 3 leaves, slice them in half lengthways and attempt to plait them together to see what I end up with (nothing much actually!) But, when you fold it back upon itself it sort of looked like a flower:

So, I put a pin in it, and stuck the camouflage leaf flower intot he vase of flowers on the lounge table:

Time to make: 15 minutes

DAY 11 - WORK WITH THE OTHER HAND

This is a project I've been working on for some time but many of the leaves on the tree needed some TLC so I decided to work on a repair of an existing aertwork as my project today!

A couple of years ago I went to Ravenna, Italy and did an intensive course in traditional mosaics at Luciana Notturni's Mosaic Art School. The course was held in engliish for a varietyy of international students, and some of us are still in touch now. The ladies teaching on the course were amazing, and they took us to many sites around Ravenna to view both traditional (mostly in churches) and more modern (a mosaic park) styles of mosaic, in the area, as well as a historical lecture, and bags of teaching time!

This is one of the two pieces I made on the course - combining traditional materials and methods (no tile cutters here, all the tesserae (the small tiles used in mosaic( were not cut  with modern tile cutters but with a Hammer and Hardie. 

Believe me, this is easier to master than you think, and is endless amount of fun!  All the repairs to this were done using my left hand, honest!

DAY 10 - USE WATER AS YOUR INSPIRATION TODAY

This one has been perplexing me for a while, and while I had some great ideas, I've not been on or near a beach to carry them out, so I decided to change and make liquid my medium.

Into the kitchen therefore to draw a leasf shape out of washing up liquid on a white plate.
I hadn't however allowed for the fact that the liquid would be a little runnier and move far faster than i could take a picture of it and became a huge poool of washing up liquid - even drawing the outline of a leaf in it I was not fast enough as you can see below:

so, after a small change, i started again making more of a palm frond -  Still not perfect but who would have thought just washing up liquid could inspire you?!!!!

TIme taken: 10 minutes