Happy Birthday to Me

To Celebrate my birthday I am giving my ebook "How To Get Your Creative Mojo Back" free. Just click on the Add to Cart button in my sidebar, in the discount code field enter the word birthday and update the cart.  This offer lasts for today only. Enjoy.

Coming Back to Art

ANNOUNCEMENT :  Its my birthday on Wednesday February 27th and I am having a giveaway that day only so make sure to check back on Wednesday.

I am slowly recovering use of my hand. It's easier for me to type on a touch screen so I am typing on my iPad and taking a few times to put this together.

 I tried some art with my left hand but don't really enjoy it. This bird was drawn with my left hand some of the coloring was done with my right. I found it easier to make some gelli prints so I did

This was my first round of prints.

The fun thing about making these prints is the excitement you get when you try a group of colors or stencils and are amazed how cool things look.

That is how this print came about. I put blues and purples on the plates and did another layer on one of the orange prints. I didn't know if it would look good or not but was pleasantly surprised.

These papers look amazing in person.

I may even add some more to these, maybe some metallics would be fun.

This video shows making a foam plate to us with the gelli plate. It looks easy and fun.



In this video Andy Skinner uses the gelli plate to design an entire piece, I thought it was fascinating to watch him.




If you don't have a gelli plate did you know you can make you own?  Here is a link to making your own. Or you can use a piece of tile. You can't get deep detail with tile but you can get some great prints.

Pan Pastels

I enjoy using PanPastels but have not used them as much as I'd like.  When I found out that Donna Downey was teaching classes on PanPastels I couldn't resist.

This is a page in my moleskine sketchbook I was just tooling around with color.

This is page to see how panpastels look on differently on different mediums

Here I took lots of different papers to see how they take the pastels. It was interesting to see the different absorbency indifferent papers.

I loved how this exercise was going and then I made a big mistake. I started with black gesso on one side and white on the other.  I used my birch trees 6 X 6 stencil and extended it. I think I did a good job with it.  This exercise was to include layering of colors and I was supposed to spray with workable fixative. The three previous pages I sprayed with a matte finish.  A workable fixative lets you keep adding things but keeps your original layers intact.  So yes I used the wrong fixative. I do like the look just the way it is.

After Surgery

Surgery went well, now its on to the recovery.

Lady Violet's Dinner Gauntlets

Here are the Lady Violet's Dinner gauntlets all finished. All ready to wear for the last episode of Downton Abbey.
















This show a close up of the lace cuff



Here is the lacing that is at the outside. These gloves are really fun and comfortable to wear.

I really love these Dylusion Ink Sprays, so much that I now have every color.  They just came out with 6 new colors and the neatest one is the white linen.  It has pigment in it so you have to shake it before using it.

I used the White Dylusions spray on this page in the left corner, see how it lets different colors of the background come through. It is pretty cool stuff.

Here I used painted newspaper for the background and the birds I painted on old book pages a little while ago.  Writing was done with India Ink and a dip pen.

Tomorrow I go in for surgery to have the trigger finger fixed on my right hand.  There won't be much blogging for awhile.  I will check in here to let you know how I am doing.

 UPDATE- The Dylusian inks are the brian child of Dyan Reavely. She is a Ranger designer from the UK. You can find her videos on Youtube. I bought some of my sprays at Hobby Lobby when I was in Phoenix this past summer. The new sprays I got online at the franticstamper.com here is a link to the new colors. Other online sources that I have used that carry the inks are http://bluemoonscrapbooking.comand http://scrapbook.com  Blue moon scrapbooking also has a great supply of Crafters Workshop Stencils. Now that I have enabled you all to go spend money, have fun.

BOOK SALE

Hey I have put my e-book on sale.  Is only 4.99 this week. If you have been creatively stuck or just need some inspiration take advantage of this great offer.  Regular price  9.95. Click on the buttons on the sidebar to purchase. Or the tab at the top of the page.

List Making And Where it Will Take You

I love lists, I like making them and then crossing each item off.  I will even add items later just so I can cross them off the list.  Often I will use different colors to cross things off just cause its fun.

Todays list led me to organizing my studio. No it not an item on the list. I was vacuuming my office/sewing room and looked at a storage container. It was half empty and I thought I would switch it out with some containers from the art room.

Now its in the art room and holds all my paints, spray ink,etc. I think its going to work great having it all in one place. I need to add some labels but its pretty functional right now. I won't show the rest of the room since its still in disaster mode.

I have always loved stencils and am just a bit annoyed that no one around here carries the good ones. So I have taken matters into my own hands and did some online shopping. I bought a whole slew of stencils by Crafters Workshop, Primarily Balzer designs.  Julie Fei fan Balzer has fantastic style and great stencils.  Check some of them out here.  I ordered from Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  They are fabulous to work with and got me my supplies fast. The pic is of a few that I purchased.

This is my first play with the stencils. I am still adding things to this background.   I do love to keep adding layer after layer.

I think this side may be the reverse of the stencil. when using spray ink I turn the stencil over and get the background too.  It gives different and interesting marks.

I am also doing a fairy swap with some friends on line.  This was my first try, I think she is a little chubby for a fairy. I am trying out a few poses to see which one I would like to use. Doing swaps is always a fun thing for me.  Trying to do something you have never done before helps you grow and stretch as an artist.

Have you done anything out of your comfort zone lately?

Back to Portland

I have no art to share yet so I thought I would take you back to Portland. I still haven't shared all my pictures from that trip in June. Here Sarah and Kyle were willing to pose for me.

I thought these artichokes were so pretty, the colors make me want to paint them.

So did these potatoes. I love the purple ones.

The market is huge and there is plenty of other entertainment like this juggler.

We alo stopped at the Portland Library which was an amazing place.

I loved seeing this tree in the children's part of the library.

There was also this carving of Alice and her crew that was beautiful.

Next we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts, this guy tasted really good.

I had a meetup with my CCOR friend Clarissa, that was pretty cool to meet her.