100 Illustrations

"The World on a String"

I'm thrilled to (finally) be able to share with you the pieces I've been working on for Diana Evans' project, 100 Illustrations. Yep, that means I'm gonna be in a book - along with several other artists - that will be coming out this year! How cool is that!? . . .

So does the piece above look somewhat familiar? You may remember this piece (of the same name) that I did for my friend's nursery a few months back? Well, It was suggested by one of my biggest fans (okay, it's my Dad ;) to make it again for the book using the world as a yo-yo. I changed the figure a bit (making her more round than her predecessor) and chose a pink page-boy cut but other than that, the sentiment is the same.

"Future Paleontologist"

The second piece for the book (there are a total of two pages along with a character meant to represent ourselves) was directly inspired by the uber-talented Joanna from Bird on Her Head in a recent comment she made suggesting that I create a piece about Kendra. I couldn't imagine a better way to honor my baby than to include her in the project, so I did my best to capture her style and passion for dinosaurs here. Thank you Joanna for the inspiration - I don't know if I would have done it without the seed you planted in my head . . .

I'll let you know when the book is released and would like to thank Diana, joanna, my Dad and you for all of your support and inspiration. It really means so much.

Kristin xo

MMM: Play Things

"Foul Play"

4 x 6 Canvas Panel

This week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Play Things, inspired me to create something with a vintage, schoolhouse feel. For some reason, an image of a large ball popped into my head when I first read the challenge, so I decided to just go with it. . . 

I've been really crushing canvas panels lately, but have never worked with one as small as 4 x 6 before (I don't know how you "inchies" do it!).  For the piece above, I started with a black base of acrylic which I distressed with sandpaper while it was still tacky. I then wrote the phrase, "I will not bring my ball to class" over the entire panel. I was going for a chalkboard feel and therefore tried to smudge the ink in parts before it dried. The ball was created separately, using a couple of children's dictionary definitions that related to the subject, as it's base. I then penciled in the lines of the ball before coloring it with watered-down acrylic. The vintage illustration on the bottom of the piece was my attempt to play with scale. Other touches included charcoal, matte gel medium and white China Marker.

Thank you for looking! I am anxious to see all your Play Things this week . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Something Old

"Mother's Work"

Altered pay roll card

This week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Something Old, was a wonderful excuse to use one of the vintage Pay Roll cards that I found at a garage sale while on vacation. Although "Mother's Work" seems somewhat inappropriate to post on a day celebrating Fathers, the ideas that came from a time sheet with day work, night work and extras written on the front, just seemed to form themselves . . . sorry, but you know when a piece has a mind of it's own . . . 

The above was made using one of the dirtiest time cards I had in the box. I gave it a wash of Gesso and a splash of watered-down brown paint for extra distressing. I even placed a mug in the "coffee" in order to create a "stain" on the top left. The image is vintage Mother Goose and the poem of the same name (Mother's Work, worth enlarging if you are interested in reading it) is also from a vintage book of poems. Other touches include acrylic stamping, stamping, a white China Marker to highlight the text and colored pencils to emphasise the children in the foreground. I also added some dots of silver glitter. Lastly, the time card was placed on top of some torn and painted cardboard before being hung from a satin ribbon with a dangling clock and a single Swarovski crystal.

Thank you for looking and a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Diane, our Mixed Media Monday Hostess with the Mostest. May your year be full of happiness and love.

Kristin xo

MMM: Personal Symbols

"Birds of a Feather"

Clip art images on Balsa wood 

This week's Mixed Media Monday prompt asks us to examine the personal symbols that reoccur in our artwork. I used this opportunity to review the things I've done over the last year, and noticed that I often use birds, wings and children's illustrations in my work. I also use imagery that tells the story of our coming together as a family, including our hope to add another child to the mix. In addition to presenting something that represents us (in this case, Kendra, our future child and me), I also used some of the supplies that I often turn to in order to create this new piece, "Birds of a Feather."

I recently created a Butterfly Reminder for The Artistic Mother's Group that is going through Shona Cole's new book of the same name. I still had some of the supplies on hand (and inspiration from Shona in mind) when I decided to create this piece from some clip art that I found from The Graphics Fairy. The original bird is black and white and was enhanced (along with it's reduced twin) with stamps, water-soluble oil pastels, glitter and Swarovski crystals. It was then backed on Balsa wood and strung (along with the cage that hangs on the bottom) with wire. Final touches included more Swarovski crystals (beads) and a piece of satin ribbon.

Thank you for looking! I look forward to seeing what everyone does this week. . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Eggs

"New Possibilities"

8 x 10 Canvas Panel

Detail of poem

Detail of paint chips & Tim Holtz mask

For this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, Eggs, I wanted to create something that spoke of our hope to adopt again. I found a wonderful vintage poem by Laddie Fisher that sums up how I feel about the subject. This piece represents Kendra looking upon the egg and all of it's New Possibilities . . .

This was created on an 8 x 10 canvas panel and has my favorite color as a base, Robin's Egg Blue. I wanted the whole thing to be a study in blues, so I started with a background of various blue paint chips. To that, I added some blue, cream and white acrylic with a brayer (over a Tim Holtz mask) and some of the circles that I was playing with last week. The egg was created out of decorative paper and the image of the little girl is from a vintage Mother Goose book. Final touches we added with charcoal, white China Marker and, of course, some beautiful pale blue Swarovski crystal stones (I so wish these photographed better!) on the child's toy.

Thank you for looking! I am eager to see all the beautiful work featuring Eggs this week . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Vintage Children

"Dance Now"

8 x 10 Canvas Panel 

Well, it's no surprise that I would be excited about this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge: Vintage Children. I find that I use a lot of children's imagery and illustrations in my art; especially those that have to do with fairy tales, children's fables or nursery rhymes.  However this week (because I knew you'd expect it), I steered clear of those altogether and instead, tried to capture the  feeling of Vintage Children (and their surroundings) by creating a bright and whimsical background for the "fairies" in the foreground. 

I have been reading Kelly Rae Roberts' wonderful book, Taking Flight and was eager to try some of the background techniques outlined in chapter 3: specifically, using a brayer to create depth and add color to a collaged surface. I created a subtle wash with blues and greens and to this added another element she suggests, a shampoo lid to create the white acrylic circles. 

In addition to the tips above, I also used magazine cutouts for the first time. The fairy bodies are from a children's catalogue and the ice cream cone was cut from a family magazine. The child's head (that sounds weird) was taken from the cutest vintage Kellogg ad and the house and birds in the background are also vintage. Both were from Art Freebies. Final touches included water-soluble oil pastels (loving these lately; they add such bold, blendable color), white pencil (Sharpie white china marker), glitter, swarovski crystals and snippets of a poem, Spring Child by Caroline S. Kotowicz.  

The text reads, "Sip now from the chalice of laughter / Dance now to the song of the breeze. . ."

Kristin xo

The Artistic Mother's Group

Art Action Plans 1 and 2

Project 1

Art Action 1: blue with floral elements

Art Action 2: Yellow with fairytale collage elements

Our task for the second week of The Artistic Mother's Art Group was to create Action Plans or "To Do" lists from the background papers we created in week one. The project outlined in Shona Cole's book, The Artistic Mother, suggests that this could also work well with a babysitter list. Although I love the idea, I don't really use babysitters yet (lucky to have Grandma close!) so I choose to create two separate sheets for the same purpose. The intention of the Art Action Plans are to encourage ourselves to create something on a daily basis by defining and working though our goals. The finished sheets were scanned into the computer so that they can be printed out and used week after week....

The Action Plans above were created with handmade background papers, vintage collage elements including Mother Goose illustrations, scrapbook papers, alpha stickers (version 1) glitter, water-soluble oil pastels and, in version 2, a vintage poem. The poem reads:

In childhood days a heart is free, / Outweighs the fears of destiny. / When youth arrives, dreams still remain / To lace each day with love's rich grain; / But age is when the heart and mind / Must have the courage to act blind. -- Caroline S. Kotowicz

To learn more about The Artistic Mother's Group, please click on the badge to the right.

Kristin xo