Thursday, December 31, 2015

Top 9 Creations! Happy New Year

Just a quick post wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
May it bring lots of joys and special moments.
 
Leaving you with my top 9 creations on Instagram.
 
 
P.S. The site where you can do this has viruses.
My antivirus software went nuts and immediately started cleaning my computer.
 
Will be back from my holiday break soon.
 
Happy New Year!
 


Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas, Trees and Cardinals

It's Christmas Eve!!
Everyone is getting for Santa!
Although my daughter is 27, she gets just as excited as the little ones.

This is my last post of the year.
I'm going to take a mini break to be with family and friends.

I'm sure I will be creating here and there.
Check out my Instagram or Facebook.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year!

Also.....

I have a post up on The Crafter's Workshop blog.
If you have some down time, please check it out.
I cut up a canvas to create it. 
 
I also talked about one of my memories of Christmas Eve.



You can click here to see it.

Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays 
Happy Everything.
I hope you have an amazing time with your family and friends.



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Words of Wisdom

It's December 23rd and I'm not ready for Christmas
I'm so discombobulated this year.
This little gift I've been trying to finish for years.
I put it away and keep forgetting about it.

I started working on the inside papers with just some stamps and watercolors.


 
Here is the close up of the heart.
My favorite part.



Inside pages.


Still not done.
And won't be finished in time for Christmas.
But I thought I would share it with you.

 
How many Christmas gifts have you started and never finished?
I have tons. You should see inside my closet!
 
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Merry Christmas
 
 

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Bright, Bold, Fun, Orange, Yellow and Pink


Hi.
 
I think this is the first year I didn't get Christmas cards made.
Well, I made one.
Usually I would be posting them all during December.
But I have been working on small abstracts but I keep screwing them up and having to change them completely to something else.
 
Today, I have another 5x7 piece on mixed media paper.
I had an accident with this one too.
I didn't take it off my table and playing with modeling paste some got on it.
Sooooo...Stencils to the rescue!
 
On the background I used the Love Remnant stencil.
The Mini Butterflight stencil I used to cover up the spots.
Can you tell?
Used the two larger butterflies to hide the spots.
 
I love the bright colors.


 
The Crafter's Workshop Stencils:
 
 
Thanks so much for stopping by!



Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Going with the flow

Hi Everyone!
This piece is on a 5x7 piece mixed media paper.
I split the piece with white BUT I accidently spilled more white and in the process of cleaning it off my table, I knocked over the black.
 


I just like it flow where it wanted and waited for it to dry.
 

I love the way it dried.
You know I can never get it to look this way again.
But I'm going to try.
 
Thanks so much for stopping by!



Monday, December 14, 2015

Down The Road to the Moon

I'm teaching myself Photoshop.
I only know how to use a tiny portion of the program.
The funny thing about this piece is that I don't know how I completed it.
It just happened playing with the program.



Thanks so much for stopping by!



Thursday, December 10, 2015

Poinsettia, Are they leaves or flower petals?

Do you know the answer?



They are leaves not petals.


I'm looking at all my rubber stamps and have many favorites.
There are few that can no longer be bought as the business is closed.  Sad.

I decided to decorate the envelope too.


This Poinsettia stamp is one of my favorites.
It's easy to stamp, color and cut out.


The Mini Woven stencil was used in white and green.
With such a large stamp the background doesn't need to be to busy. 




Stamp: Poinsettia H180 - Me and Carrie Lou Stamps (no longer in business)


Thanks so much for stopping by!




Tuesday, December 8, 2015

I'm Featured on Marjie Kemper Designs!!!

 
Today I have the honor of being featured for Marjie's Tuesday's Tutorials blog series.
 
 
You can check out my tutorial on:
 
Thank you so much Marjie.
It's an honor to be featured.
 
Thanks so much for stopping by!
 
You can see more of my art by following me here:
 

 

Monday, December 7, 2015

When the holiday season begins


We travel to Chicago to be with our daughter for Thanksgiving. This year father and daughter ran a 5K on Thanksgiving and then she cooked a yummy dinner.

What starts the Christmas season is making ornaments.
We started this new tradition last year.


Except for the paints, all the ornaments parts are from Red Lead Paperworks.  This ornament is the one I created.


We also made this small snow globe ornaments.
This is the one I created.






My daughter's favorite holiday is Christmas and she loves to create the ornaments. As she was growing up we used to make ornaments that she would give as gifts. The best part of Christmas for her was giving her gift, watching the recipient open it and then their smile. To this day, she still makes ornaments as gifts and can't wait for everyone to open them.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I'm linking my ornaments to Karen Evans' challenge blog called Emerald Creek Dares. The challenge is called Let The Festivities Begin.










 

Sunday, November 29, 2015

uP cLoSe AnD pErSoNaL - A Selfie Bullet Journal

Happy Sunday
I'm so excited to show you a new journal I started.
I'm hoping I can keep it up on either a daily or weekly basis.
I called it "Currently".



I do a lot of writing in a journal before I go to bed.
It helps get everything out of my head so I can sleep.
It doesn't always work.

This one is a selfie, bullet kind of journal.
I wanted to write down thoughts of the day.
I always loved reading my mother's letters and notes.
I thought this would be a good thing for my daughter some day.

The prompt "Currently" is perfect for me.
It gets me writing immediately.

Here is what I'm going to use.
I'm doing it simple so I can keep it up and take it with me on my travels.

My cell.
Date Stamp
Tiny Tags
Ranger's Archival Ink Pad in Jet Black
Black Pen


It was fun doing the first page.
I just wrote about why I started it.


Do you have a selfie journal?
Or a journal you're hoping your kids will read?
My inquiring mind would like to know.

Thanks so much for stopping by!



Thursday, November 26, 2015

Pathways

Hi Everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!
I will be celebrating with my daughter.
I'm so excited.
It's also my birthday so enjoying the day with my daughter is a special birthday gift to me since she lives so far away.

Today I have a Yupo painting titled Pathways to show you.
I've been hooked on the Squared Scrolls stencil from The Crafter's Workshop.


Here is a close up of all the layers



Thanks so much for stopping by!
Have a great day!



Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Do Over Time! Purple Haze

It's time to show you another do over.
It just wasn't working for me.
I didn't like it and threw it in the closet.
It was sitting there since 2014.

Sorry it's blurry.
Even the camera didn't like it.


So I pulled it from the closet and added some white, black and shades of blue



It's amazing what adding more color can do to a painting.
Now I love it.


Here is a side by side comparison.

  

Although I love the final result, did anyone like the original?

Thanks so much for stopping by!









Saturday, November 21, 2015

uP cLoSe AnD pErSoNaL

For me, as an artist, the hardest part of creating art is letting someone have or buy one of my paintings.

My art are like children each created differently.
Can't be duplicated.
So it's hard to let them go.

I love looking at close-ups of my paintings.
The layers and brush strokes or in this case brayer strokes give me more inspiration.



Most of the time I paint intuitively.
I lose complete track and time.


This year I let four paintings go for a good cause.
They were put in a raffle.
It felt good.
It felt even better that those who won my paintings actually loved them.
Yes, I was afraid no one would like them.
I may let more go to new homes.


My mother was an artist.
Although she's no longer with us, she's my biggest fan along with my daughter, of course.
Sometimes she had a hard time letting her art go.

This is one of her paintings called The Ugly Duckling.
She painted this piece by a photograph she took.
She worked full time and during her lunch time she took pictures for inspiration.



This was damaged during an art show.
It started to rain and she didn't get it out of the rain fast enough so it's a little water damaged.

These small paintings I have in my house.


This one was painted on black paper with only white paint.
She loved painting animals.


When she started selling her art again, she wanted to find something different that she can sell but didn't take a lot of time to create.

She started painting on milk bottle caps.


My father would wash the caps, sand the inside of the cap, and glue the magnet in place before she started to paint each one.
She started selling them at the church's craft show.
People loved them so much they would come to church on Sunday giving her baggies full of caps.
She even painted special orders.
Customers would give her photographs of their pets.
This was the first one she tried.
This was my dog, Heidi, as a puppy.


As you can see her art work was amazing.

Have you sold your art?
Was it hard to let it go?
Where do you sell your art?

Inquiring minds want to know!
Me too!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
I can't wait to read your comments!