I'm honored to participate in a beautiful art auction created by artist and illustrator Jessica Sporn for the victims of Hurricane Maria.
All proceeds from the auction will benefit the Hispanic Federation, a non-profit charity which moves quickly to help those in need, with 90% of every dollar going to community services. For more on their efforts, please head over here.
The auction will run all week, from Monday, October 30th to Friday November 3rd. To read more about the event and participating artists, check out our Facebook page here.
To see all the auction items and participate in the bidding, please pop over HERE for the DIRECT LINK to Artists for PR.
I will be offering this 10 x 10 cradled wood canvas, "But I Only Just Wanna Be A Bunny," for the auction. I do hope to see you there!
"I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing."
-- Mae West
Hellllooooo & Happy (officially) Summer!
I've been playing with a new toy: a wood burning tool! I'd been talking about making my own stencils with an arty friend, when she suggested that I try a wood burning tool and overhead projector sheets. Not only did she tell me what to do, but she then gave a stack of said sheets for me to try it.
Try I did, and I have to say, I'm hooked! It's fun, relatively easy, and totally unique to me - or you - once you give it a go:
"What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade".
-- Gertrude Jekyll
Helllloooo & Happy {almost} Summer!
To celebrate, I'm HOPPING with the Jessica Sporn Design Team where we'll be sharing Summer-inspired projects and offering a GIVEAWAY of Jessica Sporn's newest stencil, "Women Will Heal the World."
Pretty fabulous, right? It's such a unique stencil, I can't wait to share what I did with it. Here's my take on the theme; a DIY canvas tote for all our Summertime Art Journaling needs. . . .
Now, Let's get hopping! Be sure to comment here and on each blog listed below for multiple chances to win Jessica's newest stencil. All comments must be entered by Monday, June 12th, 6:00 pm EST. The winner will be announced the following day, Tuesday June 13th, on Jessica's Blog.
I'm excited to be playing host this week, and have suggested the theme of "Thinking Cap."
Mine is inspired by my role as a homeschool teacher / parent, and the beautiful fact that school's almost out! It was our first year of Middle School - our 4th year homeschooling - and although very rewarding, there were definitely moments of stress; mostly coming from yours truly. Now that pool parties are starting to replace tutoring sessions, the 11-year-old's not the only one that's doing a happy dance around here.
But I digress: won't you join us by trying your hand at postcard art? I'd love to see how you interpret the theme!
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things,
because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
— Walt Disney
Hellllooooo & Happy Design Team Thursday!
I'm especially excited for this one, as I played with an old mixed media technique - in a new way - for my latest project for Jessica Sporn Designs.
Remember the "peeling Paint" trick? How about trying it through stencils? Welllll, it works! And is totally fabulous through the "Borders 9J Stencil" by Jessica Sporn for Stencil Girl. . . .
"It is Spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart."
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
Spring is absolutely, positively my favorite time of year. Not only is the weather gorgeous, but the air itself seems to be drenched in sweet smelling, saturated color.
So the idea of creating in the theme of Spring for our latest blog hop with Jessica Sporn Designs, gets my head spinning in all kinds of whimsical directions. And! I had a cool idea I wanted to try out: what if I took Jessica's "Build-A-Villa" stamps from RubberMoon and enlarged them to create the focal point in a collage? And, if I did that, then wouldn't it be cool to see what's behind the windows and doors? Anyway, that's where my mind wandered, I hope you enjoy watching along:
For more Spring Fun, keep hopping! Check out what both Jessica Sporn and Denise Alloca did with the theme, and be sure to comment on all posts you visit. Jessica will be giving away her (beautiful, stunning, I must have this!) "Layered Peonies" stencil from Stencil Girl to one lucky winner.
“When kids hit one year old, it’s like hanging out with a miniature drunk.
You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry. They urinate. They vomit.”
— Johnny Depp
It's Design Team Thursday. . . .
And I have the cutest little DIY project to try: It's fun, incredibly easy, and can be done so quickly that you may find yourself looking for other things in your children's closet - or your own - to alter.
I used Jessica Sporn's 6 x 6 Horned Owl Stencil for this project, and think it would make the sweetest-ever first birthday shirt. Can you picture it? "Look Whooo's Turning One?" You could even make matching invitations by taking the same stencil from fabric to paper! But I digress. . . .
To see the video - it's just 3 minutes! - and to learn more about this teeny tank, check out Jessica's blog and her YouTube channel.
And if you love this stencil as much as I do, you may wanna check another other video in which I trade this owl for it's mixed media alter-ego. To make sense of all that, check out the video below:
Today I'm playing with the Jessica Sporn Designs Creative Team as we create Valentine-inspired artwork for our Valentine Blog Hop, featuring products from DecoArt Media!
So what did I make? Why something sweet of course! Or, better put, something to put something sweet in. Check out the video below for the whole process.
And if you'd like to try it, please help yourself to the following TEMPLATE:
Leave a comment here and on the blogs below for a chance to win your own "Seven Hearts" Stencil. One lucky winner will be taken from all blog comments and announced on Jessica's blog next Monday morning, February 13th.
“That night she dreamed of the deer. Strangely, the animal was holding her. She cuddled close into the soft fur and touched and kissed it gently. In the morning her pillow was wet with tears.”
-- Julie Andrews
Helloooo!
I had the opportunity to see a deer recently, not a normal site for this girl. I was so entranced, so enthralled and so just,blown away by the beauty of it, that I haven't been able to stop thinking of her since. This page is a direct reflection of my thoughts in this way, thoughts that run up and down that creek and keep landing on the meadow where I first saw her. . .
"Surround everyone you can think of in bubbles of love."
- Diana Cooper
Happy, Happy, Happiest New Year!
And welcome to my first post of the year for the Jessica Sporn Desgins CT. . . . This go around, I've been art journaling with a loose piece of "scratch" watercolor paper and my very favoritest (that's gotta be a word somewhere) stencil by Jessica Sporn for Stencil girl.
Head over to Jessica's blog to for more, including details on the process. . . .
Oh, and while you're there, be sure to check out all the Design Team YouTube videos: there's a ton of talent, fabulous products & tutorials and a whole lota loveliness awaiting you there!
"Someone once said it's the good girls who keep diaries because the bad girls never have the time.
Me? I just wanna live a life I'm gonna remember even if I don't write it down."
- Anon
Hellloooooo!
I hope this finds you happy, well, and in the throws of stuffing your face full of candy. (Oh wait, that's me). . . . ANYway, I had the time to play this week, and wanted to share what I did.
Truth be told, I knew I wanted to create a video, but I had absolutely no idea what to do. It was only when I took out a big piece of watercolor paper to cover my work space for filming, that it occurred to me to create a Teeny-Tiny art journal from a scrap of it.
So I got out my ruler and wax thread and started making a bitty book inspired by artist Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 page Journal. It's a really small version, but it was fun, easy and done within an hour.
Thank you for watching! I hope you like it and maybe even create a Teeny-Tiny journal of your own. If you do, please let me know! I'd love to feature it on my Facebook Page.
To celebrate all things crisp, cool and Pumpkin Spice-ish, I'm thrilled to be playing along with the Jessica Sporn Designs Creative team for our very-first-everBlog Hop! October's theme is "Frightfully Fall," and I for one, can't wait to see with everyone did with it!
Anddddddd while you're hoping, be sure to leave a comment on each post! There's a fabulous giveaway up for grabs, and every comment counts. There will be one lucky winner to win both the Cascading Leaves Stencil and the Tree of Life Stamp. . .
For your chance to win, simply leave on comment here and on every post you visit. All comments on all the blog hop participants count, so be sure to leave your love by Monday, October 10th. Comments close on 10/10/16 at 9:00 PM EST, and the winners will be announced on Jessica's blog the next day.
Wanna see what I did?
I played with the Horned Owl Stencil and created an Owl for an Owl, of sorts. Anywho, I hope you like watching along . . .
"My big thesis is that although the world looks messy and chaotic, if you translate it into the world of numbers and shapes, patterns emerge and you start to understand why things are the way they are."
- Marcus du Sautoy
I learned something last time at bat in the studio. As you may have guessed by my lack of posts or art or really anything of creative value this Summer, I've been totally absent. Absent from painting, absent from drawing, and absent from the very room that I usually long to play in. {Although, having said that, I did spend weeks - literally weeks - transforming that hot mess of a room into a real working space with proper storage, organization and a new YouTube set up, so that was exciting}.
I think my absence in part comes from the fact that this was the first Summer that I didn't have The Summer of Color, an annual art event I hosted for 5 years, keeping me busy. And I think in part because of all this time I had on my hands, I just froze. Like a deer in headlights. But like, one that's holding art supplies and stuff.
So back to what I learned. For me, when I'm out of sorts or out of practice, I find myself waffling when I get back to it. And my waffling, turns out, comes in layers. Many, many layers. I don't know if its insecurity that makes me want to throw every trick or technique or color that I ever learned, used or bought to the table, or honestly, if my picker is just off. You know, that voice that tells you when enough is enough. Maybe that voice is just quiet right now. Or, I guess there's always the opposite, that this page just didn't want to stop being played with.
Either way, I filmed the process and you can be the judge. If you too have been absent from creating, I hope my lack of direction in the above video inspires you in some way. After all, sometimes all we really need is a bit of messy & chaotic to get us back in the game . . . .
"When you start recognizing that you're having fun, life can be delightful."
- Jane Birkin
Helllllooooo!
I hope this finds you happy, well and hopefully, with your hands covered in some sort of fabulous neon paint. . . .
Speaking of paint - and neon - I played with a bit (or okay, a lot) of both for the above project that was filmed for the new Jessica Sporn Designs Creative Team.
Just pop over HERE to watch the video and help us celebrate the beginning of what I know will be a throughly delightful year.
I hope this finds you happy, well and in the throws of creating something fabulous. . . .
Speaking of creating - and fabulous - I have exciting news to share! I along with 7 other artists from across the globe (six countries actually, how cool is that?!) will be representing the ever-so-talented Jessica Sporn and her beautiful line of stencils and stamps from Stencil Girl & RubberMoon.
Starting this September, you can expect weekly posts and projects from the Creative Team (many of which will be filmed) as well as occasional guest bloggers and blog hops to keep us all inspired!
Wanna know more? Head over HERE to meet the artists & learn about the Creative Team Celebration GIVEAWAY happening right. this. moment. (Seriously. You don't want to miss it).
Good luck and we'll see you back sooooooooon for some stencil & stampin' fun!
"I curled closer to May, comforted by her warmth."
-- Kiera Cass
Hi there! I've missed you so.
The last several weeks have been a whirlwind around here, and I'm happy to have found time to play a bit. Actually, it was a few tweens that got me back into the studio! I assist in an art journaling class for kids every Friday, and last week I brought - along with several other collage materials - some colored copies of my old work. I hoped they would like the bright colors and perhaps some of the images, but what I didn't expect was how much they liked the idea of using old art in new ways and, moreover, how much I would learn from them in the process! They completely inspired me to try new things and to look at my own art in a different way. Sooooo, I decided to see what I could do with one of the same copies I'd given them and filmed the process.
In the end, I used copies of one old collage (wayyyyyy back from the first Summer of Color!) and created two new pieces with them: both a loose art journal page & an altered brie box.
Loose art journal page
Altered brie box
Wanna see the process? It's all here, and below, and all under 10 minutes . . .
Thanks for popping by. Happy May & happy creating from our crazy house to yours.
"Unity is strength . . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved."
- Mattie Stepanek
One of the things I most look forward to every year is a trip I take with my friend Daniele Shannon. We actually met here - online through our blogs - several years ago and decided to meet in person at an art retreat in Portland. Long story short, we had such a good time that we've made it a tradition, and have been meeting every October since. We don't actually go to a formal retreat anymore, but rather make our own adventure by picking a place somewhere cool and lugging our stash to make art.
For our most recent trip - to the wineries in Temecula, CA - we decided to do something different and brought a huge (I mean, huge) canvas to the party. The intention was to create a collaborative piece that Daniele would then take back to her new home in Colorado. Wanna see what we did with 3 days, the 2 of us and a lotta wine? Okay then, here we go . . . .
(The canvas in it's entirety)
(The sides)
And there you have it: An Arty Collaboration! And although I highly doubted our ability to finish both that huge canvas and all the wine bottles we had, I'm happy to report that we we successful at finishing both. . . .
