These arrived late yesterday afternoon. I’m in love. I’ve been wanting a set of Prismacolor Colored Pencils for well over a year now and finally just went for it. They are oh-so-delicious and creamy to create with. It’s like blending with little sticks of butter! The Julia Child of the Pencil! The colors are so rich and dreamy! You all know what a sucker I am for a good art supply. Well… for any art supply for that matter! Be it good or some recycled thingamajig I found at the bottom of my junk drawer! There’s just something awe-inspiring about opening up a decorative tin box and finding a stick rainbow! Now even my stick men will look groovy! I went right to work on an entry in my art journal using my new tools! It’s coming along quite nicely and I’m having a great time playing. I’ll be sure to share it when it’s done. I’ve also been watching some movies and elevating my ankle per Dr’s request. I’m nursing myself through some flu-like symptoms as well. As they say… “It never rains but when it pours!” It’s been a monsoon year for me thus far, yet I expect more to come … from the sunny side of life! As without the rains of life we can’t have rainbows! Even if they do come in stick form in a decorative tin! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Look at what I’m holdin!
I love “stuff.” Artsy stuff. Papers, bottle caps, box fillers, napkins, and paper towels I’ve used to clean my paint brushes. They look so splattered and delicious in their reckless painted manor. I use everything I can get my hands on when I’m doing mixed media art. I’ve used… Kleenex, wine corks, and foils from food packaging. I’ve stamped with bubble wrap, corks, bottle caps and more! I’ve smeared paint with credit cards, scraps of paper and of course… my fingers… Art supplies DON’T have to be expensive! I’ve melted crayons on my art and smeared it around with home found tools. You too can search your bathroom, kitchen, laundry room (ohh.. don’t you just love the texture of a used dryer sheet?) for a plethora of artistic goodies. What’s fun about this is it’s recycling what you already have. Keep your cereal boxes and use the cardboard for journal making or for a blotter to catch excess paint. These are all things that you are going to through out anyway so why not utilize what you can from them. I use Styrofoam meat trays for paint palettes. They was up fast and easily and can be replaced instantly with the one from last night’s dinner. If you are anything like this please share your “trash to treasure” ideas. I’d love to see what creative uses you have for “stuff.”
I made this post on some of the Ning sites I belong to and wanted to share it here.
As one often does at year’s end, I’ve been looking back at my artwork over the course of the past few years and I’m amazed at how I’ve improved. With practice one can do most anything.I love what I do so the practice is play for me. I’ve been forced in many cases to work around things that don’t look quite right in a painting or I don’t have the right element for.This helps to teach us and helps us grow as artists as well as building our character.I’m pleased with what I’ve learned through my art and how it helps to heal some of the sorrows that life dishes out.Art has the ability to take pain and turn it into beauty while at the same time healing our hearts and helping us forgive and grow.Art is an amazing tool in life. It’s a gift that literally keeps on giving and I just wanted to take this time as the year winds down to express to all of us that we here hold a very valuable ability to heal ourselves, help others and bring beauty to the ugliness that life can bring. Keep creating, keep bring beauty to your world and share your talent with whoever will have a look!
The Power of Pink! I’m happy to announce that I will be teaching an online class of how to make these fun ceramic trivets. I’m getting the software and video camera for Christmas so sometime in January I’ll be able to show you step by step how this process is done. This particular trivet was made for my Mother-in-Law for Christmas. And I had a very fun time creating in Pink! If you visit here often you know my love for the color pink! You also know how I love the challenge of making something that takes me out of my comfort zone. I’m always excited about using new products and new mediums and would rather buy art supplies than clothes any day! (Oh how my wardrobe is suffering… I’ll need to buy something to wear for Christmas!) As I’m pretty much a stay at home kind of person due to my lifestyle and my creative juices pouring themselves out daily onto one canvas or another… paint stained hoodies and yoga pants are my standard. However… showing up at the in-laws dressed in my artist attire would embarrass me horribly! Not to mention those who are with me. So…. A trip to my favorite clothing store is impending whether I like it or not. I’m so excited about learning video editing and presenting techniques to you and I promise this will be done in an affordable fashion! And it’s more than likely you’ll only have to buy a few supplies at minimal cost.. one of which is from the dollar store! The possibilities for this technique are endless and I’m very excited about sharing what I’ve learned by teaching myself this technique.
I’m still playing with the mosaic mixed media collage technique and loving it. This was done with collage papers, decorative napkins, modeling paste, stencils, bottle cap stampings, beads, itty, bitty seashells. and imagination. I also used mica powders on this but the camera never picks up the pizazz from them. This is a 6×6″ ceramic tile from the dollar store with hanger attached. It’s a very easy peasy canvas. I simply sanded and gesso’d the surface then played away. Today’s creation is a “pink” version of this technique. The tiles are so wonderfully inexpensive that you can buy a handful and have several going at once. Tutorials for this technique are coming up soon. =)
*Angel Baby* mini 4×4 painting is loaded with goodies! She’s woodburned onto the small birch canvas and collaged with oodles of goldleafing, lots of stars, a delicious apricot dress and topped with a spiffy flower. The combination of colors pretty much gave birth to itself. I started with an apricot colored textured collaging paper for her dress and found goodies in my piles of supplies that looked like they would go with apricot. The purple seems to set it off with the combination of gold. What a fun subject. You can really never go wrong when you paint an angel. =) May the angel of the Lord look after you as you paint today. Tomorrow I have a new Frida Kahlo painting to post. She’s Frida with a “twist.” I got a little “punny” with her and I just love how she turned out. =) Today I’m putting the finishing touches on Dorothy. I also placed an order with Dick Blick today… Here’s what I’m super excited about getting ~~ Grafix Rub-onz Transfer Paper, Stabilo Pacific Roller, and Strathmore Artist Trading Cards, and that’s it for this order. I’m SUPER excited about getting to make my own Rub-onz! What a fantastic thing to be able to do. =) I’ll be sure to share my ideas with you when I have my paint stained handys greedily grabbing the Grafix! =) Until tomorrow… Keep the paint wet!
Here’s a snapshot of some of the goodies I picked up on my shopping trip while visiting with my parents. I got oodles of stickers and jewelry supplies along with some paints, and stencils, and other yummy goodies. The frames in the lower right side of the photo are for making some jewelry with my art. Some of the other goodies I got are ladybug beads, rub-ons, jump rings, paper doilies, and stretchy beading cord. I’m working on a painting today and plan to use some of the goodies from this photo along with some gorgeous sea blue napkins my niece bought for me on our adventure downtown during her last visit. Lots of creativity will be happening with these goodies. I’ll be sure to keep you posted! =) Happy Friday and have a super duper weekend.
I wanted to share an awesome find I ran across in a craft
magazine. It’s a ribbon club. You can join for as many months as you wish and
it’s only $9.00 per month. The ribbon is preselected for you with a monthly
theme in mind. You get a healthy amount of ribbon as well. I just received my
first batch shown above.It’s neatly
packaged, high quality and best of all it’s like getting a stocking stuffer
each month.Ribbon is something I frequently
overlook buying when I’m at JoAnns so this club is perfect! Check it out at www.reasonableribbon.com They also
have a blog at www.reasonableribbon.wordpress.com
I just had to share this treasure. I love ribbon and never seem to take the time to shop for it. When I get into JoAnns I could stay for hours this club will save me some time and will save my family part of their sanity.
Friday is Valentines Day!! What’s everyone making their sweety this year? I need ideas! S.O.S. =)
Here she is in all her flower glory! Grow With The Flow is complete. What a FUN painting this was to do. The colors are vibrant and sparkly. I used some metallic paints and some iridescent mediums to add zest to the paints that weren’t metallic. The flowers are shaded with metallic gel pens that I just smeared around with my fingers. The centers of the flowers are decoupaged with yellow wrinkled up tissue paper and then smeared with orange metallic gel pen. I simply put gel medium on the flower centers and smushed the tissue paper on in large pieces and when it was dry I carefully tore the remaining tissue paper away. Super simple! The ladybugs are rubberstamped on and painted with red paint and zig markers, I added some DecoArt Craft Twinkles in red to make them pop a bit.
I’m rather sorry to see her finished as she was SO MUCH FUN to work with. Now I’m off to work on “Let Your Heart Soar.” Tomorrw I will have the blog love up for everyone. It’s been fun searching through other blogs to find the ones to share the love with! AND! Tomorrow is TGIF! YAY!
Taken with my new digital cameria my Dad gave me. As you can see, I have a bit to learn yet about the camera but this is the first picture I took with it. (so far!) This is my current work in progress. I’ve come a little ways with it since the photo earlier this AM. I had a nice lunch break w/my parents for Chinese food and now I’m tinkering with some glittery colors on the painting. It won’t be done till tomorrow but the woodburning on this was FUN FUN FUN! I plan to do more this way. I’m also busy making my blog love list so that will also be featured this week. There seriously not enough seconds in the minutes, minutes in the hour, hours in the day, days in the week, nor weeks in the month for all an artist needs to do! Want to buy more TIME! =) As well as more art supplies. =P I have a painting sketched on wood that I’m wood-burning now as well. “Think… Beach!” It’s going to be another fun project. I hope to take my origionals down to a Folk Art Shop downtown to see if I can sell them on commission…. do share ~ how are all of you selling your art? Share your success secrets so we can all be successful in our art endeavors! What are some of our favorite artistic tips? What’s your favorite medium? What’s the one you struggle with the most. Let’s help each other! Hugs till tomorrow! My tip for today is Gel Pens work great on birch wood! I’m having great success embellishing edges of flowers and leaves with the glitter or metallic Gels!
