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This is just a very quick post then off to visit Pinterest tonight.

Today I got another call from the library and they are co ordinating a 12 weeks of Christmas craft. Each week they will have someone come in and teach a craft related to Christmas one night of the week for 12 weeks starting in October.

I have been asked if I would be interested in teaching something whether it would be an ornament or gift or something related to the holidays. People sign up for the  craft and pay me when they arrive. The library does not benefit by any means the cost. I provide materials then charge each person a nominal fee including materials.

It will be about 2 hours so must see what I can find that will take that much time with good end result.

I have a few ideas but will go search. 

I also signed up for my 2nd show and paid, 2 shows now in November, woohooo. This has been a good couple days.

Oh and if anyone is interested I am considering doing a blog hop in December and wonder if anyone would like to do a Christmas( with tutorial )craft or gift related items. I am shouting out now so I can co ordinate something now so I can get organized for it.

If you are interested and can offer me some help how to do it please email me.

Thanks so much.

Have a super long weekend. I know I will be painting.

♥♥♥

Another mixed media and happy mail

Well I managed to get to the library and dropped some art off and I can't tell you how excited and proud of myself for seeing my art displayed on the library walls. It was so exciting. I can't thank all my blogger friends enough for believing in me, nourishing me with their knowledge in art and encouraging me and inspiring me to try new things. 

On that note, here is a little mixed media canvas I did  Monday night to take in and this will be displayed by my profile page the library was going to do to introduce who I am. I call this "Discover" it has special meaning to me, I am discovering my drawing abilities. I am discovering I am an artist. I am discovering I have boundless creativity. This drawing has been in my sketchbook for quite a while and I finally broke free and applied colour to it and I am so happy. This piece is not for sale but I told them at the library that I will do some on request or something similar that no two pieces will ever be the same. Mixed media is not a big thing here yet, seems  in my area things take a long time sometimes years to become popular.

 And I am so excited to receive Happy Mail from my blog friend Tee over at The Altered Paper.

As you recall from a previous post that Tee and I did an easel ATC swap. Neither Tee nor I had done such an ATC before and we both tackled it. I really like them and I see Tee does as well.

Below is a little altered notebook that ties at the side with a pretty image, I will probably tuck this into my purse for those times I need to make a note of something. The tag is a little beach them with cute shells and fish on it. Tee has added some glitz to it here and there. Click on any of the pictures to get a larger version to see all her details

 Here is the ATC easel card and a lovely little envelope it was tucked inside. Isn't that the cutest bird and girl. Tee you did a wonderful job on this. It is going to be displayed on my corner cabinet in the living room.

Next up is a bundle of tea, a Marie ATC and at the bottom are scrabble tiles altered with scrap paper then I think Glossy Accents applied and a magnet on the back. Such a cute idea. They will be put to good use. 

And here is Marie with her hair flipped up and Oh La La underneath, isn't that clever?

 

Last but not least a cute little organza bag filled with lovely flowers and goodies and some papers and a personal note from Tee that really touched my heart. Thank you so much Tee for the lovely swap.♥

I am finishing up a couple swap items then I am back to painting. I finished up 4 snowmen heads for wreaths (did I tell you that already?) and on to more projects. If I disappear for any length of time you know where I will be but I will try to pop in now and again. I am signing up for another craft show tomorrow so now I have 2 to look forward to.

Thank you for dropping by and never quit discovering what you are capable of doing.

♥♥♥

Paint but mostly paper

OK now that I have your undivided attention. As I told you a few weeks ago I wanted to get an early jump on my fall painting for craft shows. Well I had good intentions and I have been painting a bit but I got a little sidetracked. Sometimes I can't  help myself and I am drawn back to either paper or mixed media.

So here I will show you what I have been up to and will explain along the way. 

First up, another sign with houses on it for sale this fall, think I will do a few more of these and try to put the word Welcome along the bottom. This was a fun and quick pattern to do. I love these signs from the Dollar store although they were 2 dollars but hey, saves buying, cutting and sanding. Price of wood these days this is a good deal as far as I am concerned.

This picture looks a bit bright so you can't see the shading around the edges of the wood and I  shade a lot. Some patterns do not call for shading and if I see something I want to shade, I go for it. I love shading and detail. Just the artist in me I guess.

  Next up is a chunky ATC. I have seen these around blog land and on sites but never tried one. We all know that the standard paper size for ATC's is, 2 1/2x 3 1/2, which this is, but ,it is made out of a cut 2x4. I am not sure why they call them 2x4's because they really aren't if you happen to measure them, which I did ,and, to my luck it was only 3 1/2 inches in width. Anyways I covered the wood block with torn dictionary pages. Painted with washes  of acrylic paint. I stamped some designs using Stazon and added some white gel pen accents. This angel is a recent mini drawing I did. I painted her mostly with watercolours but her face is done with Prismacolour pencil crayons the Suzi Blu way. I have a lot of drawings in my sketch book, some are favourable for art some are not but it is all a learning process for me. I have found if I trace these drawings onto regular white paper as described in Suzi's book, Mixed Media Girls, I lose some of the proportions so I am scanning the images then colouring them. It is still my original drawing but the fun part is I can also make them any size I want. This Chunky ATC is still a WIP but I wanted to show you my progression. 

 And another one of my sketches, I applied to a canvas board background using a faux batik technique I found on Pinterest. You put glue onto the canvas, let it dry. Paint using a minimal number of colours, I chose my fav summer colours this year, lime green and turquoise and the white is the original canvas colour. Then when paint has dried peel up the glue. I added dots with my stylus and white acrylic paint. The large dots are glue and the smaller dots are stylus. This was fun. I just love the background, you should try this. And I did the same thing with the girl except I found in my stash come nice paper for her dress, real lace for the collar cut to fit. Grunge letters I coloured with complimentary colours. I may still bling them up with Stickles, not sure yet. This girl is going somewhere, but I can't say to whom or where yet....it is a secret.

 Another canvas board skinny. I painted her hair with watercolour and just dropped in a tiny bit of blue here and there. This is computer paper I did the girl on so I couldn't soak the paper like w/c paper but I got the job done. I used stencils, acrylic paint, marker, paper, pencil crayons, texture paste so this is truly mixed media and I have so enjoyed it. I found the word "Fraulein"in the dictionary, it jumped out at me,  so,I cut it out and put it on her dress. Rubbed some metallic paint over it to tone down the white paper then traced around it with white gel pen. So much fun. I am in a trade with a girl from Eastern Canada and she got Suzi's book but has not done much drawing yet so I hope I can inspire her to do some more. Once you let go and say I can do this....you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. I know I did. This is not part of our trade just an added something. 

 And I am also into these ATC easel cards. I made a few of them and just can't stop. Mona is printed on canvas paper to give it a more artistic feel. I cut out a frame from black c/s and ran through my Cuttlebug, then I inked it with gold ink heavily. then I made the easel and thought more about what to do. 

See that mini paint brush...I made that. I used a round tooth pic, cut a bit off one end, I cut a tiny piece of foil  duct tape for around the ferrule, then I cut an old paint brush and use the hairs, the brush was toast anyways and I reused the bristles, added some glue then wrapped the tape tightly around and the hairs are in there good. I found some paper gears, and then I looked for a hand charm and glued that on to make it look like Divinci just completed Mona. Behind Mona is a dictionary quote. Oh love how this turned out. Someone is getting this and if she comes by for a visit don't look Amy......

 and here is a close up of the bottom. This took some thinking but I pulled it off and I am so pleased. 

Oh and a bit of news...I was called this week from the librarian of our small local library which I frequent every 3 weeks and have been asked to be their artist of the month. Now this came about because the library organizes the craft show in the community and I left my name, blog addy to check out my work. 

Well the craft show is filled up but they would like me to bring in some artwork of mine to showcase it for this month. Now this month is almost over but hey I am willing so why not. Who knows someone may want to buy or get a look at what I make. I am a little excited

Yippee Skippee dance here.

Well I have some snowmen on my table that are almost done...big BBQ on Sunday with my MIL and it is supposed to be hot and humid again. 

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by

♥♥♥

Take a peek

A blogger friend of mine, Tee over at the Altered Paper, received a swap I sent her and in my haste I did not take pics to show on my blog so if you care to take a peek over at her blog just click on her link.

I have not received Tee's swap yet but when I do I will be showing you.

http://creationsbytee.blogspot.com/2012/08/easel-atc-trade-goodies.html?showComment=1345255354260#c388212142543978472

I found in my blog travels ATC easel cards. They are so much fun to make. I emailed Tee to show her and gave her a link to how to make them and then we decided we would do a private trade. I made her 2 even tho we were only to make 1, but, I can't usually stop at one of anything. When I get on a roll I go for it.

I will be trading soon with another blogger friend, Amy Jo, and you never know what will be in the works. Our theme is Divinci inspired for an ATC and the tag we are swapping also is game or game piece inspired.

So between my painting which is going on rather slowly I enjoy stopping and playing with paper now and again.

I also am feeling a little blue as of late. My Auntie Lesley is not doing very well. I pray for her but there is no more the doctors can do . I am so blessed to have met her in person and talked to her over the years on the phone. The miles are too far when it comes to these hard times. I hope she knows I am thinking of her and love her very much.

PS did you notice I have a little buddy on my blog now???? Isn't she the cutest?.Looks like my fat Rosie, as a matter of fact, Rosie will stay with you and follow you around and make sure you feel at home while visiting my blog.

TTFN, ♥♥♥

I'm still here

Hello everyone.

I took a bit of a blog break and got some things done and took some time to visit other blogs which I had neglected while doing my challenges, so please forgive me for my absence.

I am also slowly and I mean slowly starting to paint for the fall. I have got a few things to show you and a couple things I made for myself. I don't generally take any time to make something for "me" but viewing Pinterest lately I thought if I am pinning all this stuff why not put it to good use.

So firstly I will show you what I have been painting. Seems rather fitting since during the month of July everyone was doing a Christmas in July theme as I blogged around. Little did all you know I had the paint flying and brushes just a moving. 

Here are a couple dollar store signs with chains I bought and painted a  couple different snowmen things on them, I have more to paint. I don't generally do more than a couple of one thing, it makes it look like you are buying the only one of this type of item. I don't mass produce larger items like these.

This is a Monika Brint pattern, new this year. It just caught my eye. 

I had to tilt some of my items because it is dreary today and to get the right lighting and no shadows I had to tilt so the shadow would not appear. 

 This is a Renee Mullins design, it was really designed for a window,  the frame in front and it looked like you were peeking out the window ,but, I didn't have any of those and I just thought this would be cute to hang on a wall over the holidays and even over winter. Snowmen live year round in some areas!!!!

 Years ago I painted soaps and the last couple of years I didn't do any. They are quick, easy and very affordable. They usually fly off my table. I have to seal them still but will do that when I get more done. You can even use these soaps and the painting will stay on them til you are done. Most peeps just put them in dishes in their BR over the holidays. The Snow on the bar to the left I put a bit of Stickles to make it sparkle,

and, you can never have enough cats in the house...can you???

 And this....I had to make one after I saw this either on Pinterest or blog land. I can't remember but I do have the link to make one here. How clever, an accordion box for ATC's. This took a bit of paper to make but I have loads to use up so I really enjoyed making this and adding embellies and stamps from trades I have done with peeps from all over. The letters on the front I did in a crackle, I found these in a stash tucked away, they are wood and I wanted something a little on the large size.

 This is one of the sides with a metal butterfly I have had stashed away for some use....I think Becky sent me these a couple years ago, thanks Beck. 

 And this is the inside with the accordion folds. Now I must say, the accordions are tricky to lay in place until you actually put a couple ATC's in . I also have to replace my magnetic closure. It isn't what I wanted so I have to go and get some discs so it snaps shut and flush. I only had strips and they are not really working. I tried Velcro dots but they didn't work for me either. Oh well overall I am so happy and now I can put some ATC's in this and display my little box. 

 And last but not least I saw this while on Pinterest and thought what a cute idea. I was recently given some buttons from my MIL's friend. She got them for free but was destashing and thought I could use them. So I picked out a number of white or I guess clear buttons and there were a few copper like ones as well. I bought a length of chain for next to nothing and made this bracelet and another charm  one. I don't generally wear a lot of jewellery but this just caught my eye. It will go with jeans or semi casual and I bet it will get noticed at craft shows. What do you think? So I have put Pinterest to some use. 

Thank you for looking and I would love for you to comment.

Do you get inspired from Pinterest? I know I do even if it is just to look at and spark some ideas of your own.

Til next time....TTFN and stay crafty

♥♥♥