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Tracks

August 2, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

I stumbled upon the movie Tracks a while back and had no idea what I was getting into…but it was one of those movies that just sets my heart beating at the richness of life. I ordered the book that the movie was based on right after I watched it:

Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson

“Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia’s landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity. Tracks is the compelling, candid story of her odyssey of discovery and transformation.”

I remember the National Geographic cover Robyn was on, even though I was only a year old when it was printed (May 1978):

(See more photos from the Nat Geo Photographer Rick Smolan from the original trip here.)

When there is no one to remind you what society’s rules are, and there is nothing to keep you linked to that society, you had better be prepared for some startling changes. -Robyn Davidson

I remember it because I think my mother had every Nat Geo ever printed and sometimes if we kids needed something to do she would have us put them all in order by year to organize them. As I sorted I would set aside certain ones to read over and over. The other covers I distinctly remember reading over and over when I was a child were:

1. Jane Goodall (Dec 1965)
2. King Tut (Mar 1977)
3. Pompeii (May 1984)
4. Titanic (Dec 1985)
5. The Ndebele (Feb 1986)
6. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (Jan 1990)

Sometimes I feel a little sad that Boo will miss that experience and I’m tempted to go out and find a huge collection to bring home. I traveled the entire world through those magazines.

Which covers do you remember?

State of the Art: Painting on Maps

July 31, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

Michaels is celebrating their Big Brand Sale starting this Sunday and as part of that they asked me to make a project using my favorite art brand. I picked a brand that I’ve used for as long as I can remember and one that I’ve carried into the most wide variety of projects: Liquitex.

There are so many ways to use Liquitex products because they are intermixable and colors match across ranges allowing you to layer tube color, paint markers, spray paint and ink, or work wet onto wet with mediums.

The project I came up with was to create these cute little paintings using old maps, a fun way to recycle old maps you might find while cleaning out the car or your National Geographic magazines. You can stencil whatever you want on the canvas: a state outline, words, wedding dates:

On any scale:

Besides old maps and a canvas to start I used Liquitex Acrylic Gesso and Liquitex Matte Medium:

I used a few old maps, but the stamps were an old piece of scrapbook paper I had laying around:

Step 1: Cut a piece of map to the size of the canvas being used.

Step 2: Put a generous coat of Liquitex Matte Medium onto the canvas using a paint brush. The medium works like glue and because it’s archival quality won’t disintegrate and yellow over the years. It also creates a nice matte quality if you are gluing something with a glossy finish.

Step 3: Press the map onto the canvas and try to smooth out as many air bubbles as possible. A credit card is the perfect sized tool for this.

Step 4: I created a template for my design using Powerpoint but you can do this in Photoshop or just freehand your design. I placed chalk transfer paper underneath the template and outlined onto the canvas.

Step 5: This was another design for another canvas.

Step 6: Once I had my outline I used a brush to fill in outside the lines with the Gesso. Gesso is used as a primer but is great for white-out because of its opaque quality. Without Gesso you would probably have to paint multiple coats:

On the other canvas:

Didn’t they turn out cute?

Save those tattered Road Atlas’s for quick little gift ideas:

You can also use the same technique using paper, magazines etc!

It was so fun helping Michaels celebrate their Big Brand Sale, which launches next week, and getting to create a project using product from a brand that I love!

Check out all of the Liquitex products in store or on Michaels.com – and great news! Liquitex is on sale for the next 2 weeks! Just check out the Big Brand Sale landing page for more details.

Click below for more fun art tutorials for gifts or home decor (or here for direct link):

How to Grow Succulents from Leaf Cuttings

July 30, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

My new favorite hobby is growing something out of almost nothing: growing new little succulent plants from succulent leaves and cuttings:

We grow them in trays with regular potting soil. Some sites recommend pricier mixes but my local nursery recommends just regular old starter soil…they grow all their own varieties of succulents and they said “fancy dirt” won’t make any bit of difference:

We start the soil pretty damp to keep it all packed down nice:

When a succulent plant is getting too big or has a large offshoot I will carefully pull off the leaves in a gentle twisting motion to make sure I get the entire piece from the stem of the plant:

Spreading all the pieces out on a board I let them sit for 2 to 3 days in indirect sunlight so that the ends can dry out. This will keep them from rotting when you set them back in the soil:

Key step: Don’t let your dog eat them.

Once the ends have dried out or calloused over we just place them on the soil:

If they are a small top cutting with more than one leaf we just stick it straight down into the soil:

You can mix up the technique to see what you have the most success with but depending on the kind of succulent sometimes when I just stick the leaf down into the soil I get better results:

Set the trays out in the sun and mist the soil with water every few days. Remember that succulents prefer an arid environment so if you water them too much they will begin to rot. If it’s too cold bring the succulents inside and set them in front of a window. You might need to move them into indirect sun if you see the leaves starting to scorch. But I’ve found that when I tend to ignore them for a while they thrive! Sometimes they’ll grow at different rats as you can see from the three plants below that were planted at the exact same time:

It’s so exciting to see “baby” succulents appear from the cutting! One day you’ll look closely and an entirely new plant has just popped up through the soil:

To transplant these you can carefully clip off the original leaf cutting and replant the new succulent:

Some of the smaller leafy cuttings will just start to grow and grow. I usually snip off the top a few leaves down for a new plant and then use the rest of the leaves to start new plants as well:

And so many varieties:

All of my cuttings were trimmed from this beautiful succulent wreath and from this one wreath I’ve created hundreds of baby succulents!

Feel free to leave any of your own tips in the comments!