Chalk It Up Festival

When most people think of sidewalk chalk, they imagine little kids doodling on their driveways... when the artists of the Chalk It Up Festival think of sidewalk chalk, they dream big!

This past Labor Day weekend, I participated in the Chalk It Up Festival in downtown Sacramento. The Chalk It Up Festival takes place at the same park every year on Labor Day Weekend. Each year, local artists will come and decorate one of over 200 squares of sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. Each square is sponsored by a local business, and the artists will work on their squares all weekend long. The festival is hosted to raise money for children's arts education programs.

Besides walking around and looking at all of the chalk drawings, there are also craft and vendor booths, food stands, music, and activities for kids as well.



Prepping my square.

My drawing took just over two hours to complete. I was able to do a sidewalk square on the inside of the park, a bit smaller than the outer ones, but in the shade!

I used a photo I had taken a year or so ago as the inspiration for my drawing. After I had drawn a grid in my square and over the original photograph, I had to do a little photo editing in my head to figure out how I would make it work with sidewalk chalk, and with the colors I had.

 I'd never done anything like this before, so it took a little bit of experimenting to find out the best way to make things work. I used a couple of towels to rub in larger areas of chalk, as you can see, and I used a few brushes and my fingers to do the smaller, more detailed areas. My fingers were pretty chaffed at the end of the day!

Water also helped in creating different shades of chalk, and spreading it out more. If you mixed it just right, you could get your chalk to achieve a more paint-like quality, which was great for making it look more smooth.


I love this picture!


The underside of the flower and the shadowing were the hardest parts to figure out how to do. I had (mistakenly) not picked out a dark brown or black color in my set of chalks I bought, so I had to figure out a different way to do the shadowing. I ended up using purple and light blue to do it, and I really liked the way it turned out, especially on the petals.




Finishing up...

  I almost ran out of white chalk towards the end, but thankfully, I had just enough to finish up. My fingers were definitely tired by this point, but I was pleased with how it had turned out.

 I also discovered just how messy sidewalk chalk can be! Both of my rags were completely blue (they looked as though someone had tye-dyed them!) and my feet, knees and hands were covered in blue chalk as well. It took a couple of days to completely wash out the blue stains from my hands.



Finished!



Overall, though, I was happy with the way it came out, and I had a great time doing it. I'm definitely going to try and do it again next year.

You can view more photos of the drawings from the Chalk It Up Festival online at www.chalkitup.org .



Seven Reasons Why I Like Pinterest

It's a time waster, really, it is.

If you've never heard of Pinterest, in short, it's a social media website which acts as a giant corkboard. After you make your account, you can begin sorting through images and "pinning" them (saving them) to your own boards. It's the same concept as tearing a picture out of a magazine and stashing it away in a file or notebook for later.

1. The difference between Pinterest and all of those magazine cutouts that are stuffed away in a box in my drawer is that Pinterest is... organized. *angels sing* I love organization. Everything is sorted into categories (DIY and Crafts, Education, Books and Movies, Food and Drink, etc) or you can search for something specific. As for what you are pinning (saving), you can create as many boards as you like, allowing you to be as organized and specific as you want.

2. Pinterest is typically a gold mine of ideas. Notice that I didn't say good ideas; you'll need to do a little searching and looking and clicking and reading to find exactly what you're looking for, but you can find some really great ideas on Pinterest. I admit that using their search engine can be difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it and find the right phrasing for your search, you are almost guaranteed to have more ideas then you know what to do with. Need a new recipe? Check. A craft to do for a rainy Saturday afternoon? Check. A knitting pattern for a pair of socks? Check. Ideas on how to paint your nails? Check. Photography tips? Check. Want to make your own soap? Check. Need a new exercise plan? Check. I think you get the idea.

3. Pinterest is a time waster. Why is this something I like about it? Not sure. It just happens to be handy for those days and times when you don't really feel like doing anything.

4. Pinterest is a time saver. I know, I know ... didn't I just say Pinterest was a time waster? Ah, yes, yes I did, but it actually can be both. For example, imagine your birthday is coming up in just a couple of days and you have invited all of your friends over for a party, but you still have no idea what to do. Just search "birthday party ideas" or "birthday party ideas for teens" or something similar and you have instant ideas. Again, remember what I said earlier in #2 - they might not all be good ideas, but you certainly can get a few good ideas, or modify what you find to fit what you need. Any way you go, you've just found something (hopefully) that will help get your creative ideas flowing.

5. Pinterest is easy. Its a simple idea and a simple design. There are just a few basic things you can do... create your own boards and pin things, comment or like something someone else pinned, or browse and search for pins... it doesn't take long to learn how to use it, and once you do, there's really not tons of hidden features and programs.. just one simple idea and purpose.

6. Pinterest is endless. This is part of why it's a time waster - the pages go on forever, or so it seems. You can just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I thought once that I had reached the bottom of the page and then a little bar popped up at the edge of the screen that said "Fetching More Pins" and suddenly, there were more pins on the page and I was no longer at the end... or what I had thought was the end.

7.  Pinterest helps you create a reference of good ideas. Once you pin something, it stays on your board forever, or at least until you move it or delete it, so you can consistently go back and scan your boards for ideas and inspiration. I use Pinterest to store recipes, craft ideas, quotes I like, traveling tips, little odds and ends, scrapbooking/art pages that I like, and so on. 

So there you have it. My top seven reasons why I like Pinterest. Want to give it a shot? Sign up here, or check out my boards here.  

Do you have a Pinterest?