Good news again.....

Hi folks

quick post here. I am a bit tired tonight and not for lack of sleep. I got a call yesterday from the library and they sold one of my pieces. I was doing the happy dance, and.....they have asked for more items if I have any. Most of my things I already have in stock are small and Christmas things that didn't sell last year. So I did up a canvas yesterday

 and painted a cupboard door today

 that was in my stash in the basement. If these don't sell at the library I can always add them to my inventory for this fall. Being in a very large farming community I thought this might attract some attention. I had a bit of trouble with the nose, not sure why but I had to touch it up several times and I am still not happy with it but I think I was getting tired. I have painted this cow before but I am really liking this one. It sells very quickly so keeping my fingers crossed on it.

Well thanks for dropping by. I can't believe how quickly this week has flown.

I got 2 happy mails this week but I will post that another day.

Be back again soon.

Thanks for dropping by.

♥♥♥

Fall is in the air.....

Hello blogger friends. 

Are you feeling the nip in the air in the evenings? We sure are. The days are getting shorter and the leaves are starting to change colour. 

I have just a few things to show you then off to settle in for the night.

I am doing a fall tag swap over at Tee's blog, The Altered Paper and I wanted to do something very different. If you follow me regularly you will know that I like to dabble in all kinds of mediums and for this tag I chose to do some air dry clay work on a tag that looks like a tight basket weave. Someone once sent me this piece I think it was sample wall paper or something but it fit the bill I was looking for. I wanted a natural theme for my fall tag so this is my base. I got a leaf from outside and traced cut around it on my rolled out air dry clay. I cut a hole in the center and after making a face from a mold I have I popped it in the hole and the clay has a sort of self healing property to it as it is very sticky at first. 

I let it completely dry then I gessoed over the clay, then I painted the leaf and face in fall colours. I stamped some leaf stamps and coloured them and popped them on the bottom corner. You can't see here but I had a bit of white ribbon with brown and orange dots on the bottom as well. This turned out great I hope my partner Ginger likes it.

 And as you  know I am busy getting ready for my fall craft shows and since I took this design to the library I thought I would do up another one. Birds are always popular in homes. I don't really make very many of the same design but this was so quick and easy to do. I like painting on canvas a lot. No buying and cutting wood, sanding and all that mess and prep work. Paint and go with canvas. This is a Terrye French design.

 And lastly while everyone around blog land is busy with Hallow e'en I am busy with ornaments for the show. I don't do shows before Hallowe'en and I am really not into it too much although I like looking at other people creations and it just not one of my favourite holidays. These ornaments are Cyndi Combs designs. She makes really cute and quick ornaments.

Well I am also trying to squeeze in a bit of time with mixed media canvases. I just had a brainfart about something to try with my whimsy girls and it looks like it will work. Stay tuned and if I get some time I will finish it up and post it later in the week.

Well off to bed soon.

Take care and stay creative.

♥♥♥

More news

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

♥♥♥