Link love

http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/  I have been following Geninne for quite awhile. I thought these leather cuffs were amazing so I had to share.

This one is a video on making decorative tape with a gelli plate. Its fabulous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZNNboYneDAc#at=272

Madelyn Mulvaney I found her link on another blog.  If you love photography, I think you will like her photos and words.  http://www.madelynmulvaney.com/

Janet's Art Play http://janetsartplay.blogspot.com/ This blog if full of art journaling and fun, I am sure you will enjoy.

Ready for Mermaid Mania check out Tabitha's blog. She has other fun stuff too.  What a riot of color. http://tabithalenox.blogspot.com/

Envelope Swap

I've been working hard to get ready for two local events. I am having a booth for my coaching at a local psychic fair and a wellness expo. If you are local, make sure to come by and say hello. As a result there hasn't been much time for art, just bits and pieces.

This came in the mail yesterday.  I was part of an envelope swap.  It was made by my friend Lisa Bowlin.  I love all the color

This is the back, it has a lot of detail that you can't see. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my own envelope.

I made this little sketch when I was in Oregon.

This is a little collage I've been working on. Lots of spray inks were used here, not sure if she is done yet.

 



















This is another work in progress, I loved the background which was made on newspaper and the image is a favorite, not sure what else I need to add so I am letting it percolate for awhile.

I've been working hard to get ready for two local events. I am having a booth for my coaching at a local psychic fair and a wellness expo. If you are local, make sure to come by and say hello.

I find even when I am busy with other things you have to grab those moments for art when you can.

On The Road In Oregon

I just got back form a short trip to Eastern Oregon. We went to see the Great Gray Owl. They are the one of the biggest owls out there. We have only managed to see one once before. We heard about owls nesting in a certain area in Oregon so thought we'd give it a try and see if we could see some. It was hard to get pictures since you needed to be there are sundown.

 













Here is the female sitting in the nesting box.















Here she is looking up a little more.  At times you could see her moving around.  We never saw the babies.  Dave saw the male but I didn't as I had gone back to the car to warm up.  It was really cold and wet.

With several days of rain we also went exploring in La Grande and Pendelton.

I found this Aboriginal fabric at a great quilt shop in Pendelton.





















Of course I couldn't leave with just one fabric.
















I am attracted to color and pattern and always hope what I bring home will go with some of the fabrics in my stash.

I found a couple bead stores too and came home with a couple treasures. The ones on the left are silver, the celtic knot is stone and the feathers were more like bone.

I also got to meet Betty Boop herself.

This boot was all mosaic and each side was different. I saw it on the street in Pendelton. There were other painted boots but I like this one best.

One side was the cowboy and the other the Native American representing the two cultures in Pendelton.

I love the look and color of this facade, the artist in me had to take a picture. Next I went to the Pendelton Woolen Mill but I'll save those pictures for next time.

Link Love

Its time for Link Love again.

This site does posts themed on benches.  They asked to use one of my photos of a bench for a blog post.  I was fascinated by their blog and I think you will too.
http://benchsite.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/monkey-business-on-st-georges-day.html

http://mybloominglife.blogspot.com/  Tracie Hansen is someone I met in Sedona last year.  She does wonderful art and likes to pull images from backgrounds like I do.  Her tribal emphasis really speaks to me.

I met Camilla Olson in Misty Mawn's Face to Face class. She is a wonderful artist from Sweden.  You'll love seeing he work http://camillaolssonart.wordpress.com/

This is not a blog but a pinterest board on zentangle tutorials, just full of fun stuff. hhttp://pinterest.com/branwennfaelan/art-journal-zentangle-tutorials/

Dion Dior does wonderful watercolor illustrations. http://www.diondior.com/2013/05/the-color-journal.html

Have fun exploring these link and there are many more at http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/

Doodling After Midnight

Recently I used my tax return to get a couple things from Dick Blick. I tend to make wish lists on that site and when I have the money I go through the list of wants and I choose something.

After taking Misty's Face to Face class I really felt like I needed a drawing board for my easel.  I had tried cardboard and foam core board but both were unsatisfactory. This was the one she recommended. Considering it is made of wood, it is really light.

I added a few new colors to the InkTense pencil set I have.

Then I wanted to try some of these new Catalyst Polytip Brushes that I heard about on Julie Balzer's blog. They are supposed to take a lot of abuse and my smaller brushes are quite a mess. I have debated just tossing them. These new ones look like plastic but I haven't tried them out yet.

Yesterday was a frustrating day so I found myself doodling late at night with my Lamy Safari Fountain Pen.  I am really loving that pen.  I am thinking I might have to get another one, this time with an extra fine nib. When I got it I made a big mistake of putting India Ink in it.  It ruined it and I ended up sending it in for repair.  I am using Noodlers Brand Ink with it and it works fabulous now.

After The Fiber Fair

The Fiber Fair is always a whirlwind of activity. I always have friends staying with me and this year was no different. Then is a weekend of spinning and knitting and visiting with old friends. It really is wonderful and quite a magical time. We started out by going to see Star Trek on Friday night and it was fantastic. Benedict Cumberbatch makes a wonderful villain

I received these two Dr. Who inspired gifts. This is a needle gauge shaped like the Tardis.

This is River Song's journal, she is my favorite character, the one I would be if I could.

The Fiber Fair has lots of vendors with yummy stuff.  This earrings are made from polymer clay.

This is handmade soap that has wool felted over it. It feels great and your soap always looks pretty.

This is some wool/silk fiber I bought to make a small shawl. Its from my friend Carolyn at Greenwood Fiberworks.  She does the best dyeing.

These silk batts are also from her.

I also got a new bumper sticker for my car.

Its not just all the goodies I got but the camaraderie of new and old friends.  Its the laughter and sometimes the frustration of creating wonderful things. Its the reconnections I make with friends who live far away. It seeing the fashion show and seeing the wonderful creations made by fellow fiber artists.  Its just one of the best times I have every year.

LINK LOVE

I am back again to share some wonderful links for Share the Link Love.  Check out Tammy's Blog for more inspiring places to go.

How to Draw Hair I loved this tutorial I found this week.

Make your own gesso comes from a link I saw last week. Jennifer at Pixie Dust share recipes for making your own gesso. I thought it was so interesting I knew I had to share it here too.

http://mayamade.blogspot.com/  Maya Made has been a favorite for a long time.  She carves her own stamps, makes repurposed art among many other things.

http://www.creativecarmelina.com/ Carmelina does sewing and paper crafts and art. She is on hiatus now but there are plenty of past posts to enjoy.

http://www.creativenachos.com/ This the lovely Natasha's blog.  I met Natasha at the Total Alignment Retreat in Sedona last year.  She truly is a bundle of creative energy and so much fun to be around. Make sure to check out The Art Soiree her new course.  It looks and sounds like fun.

Have a great weekend.  The Fiber Fair is this weekend so I'll be immersed in spinning and weaving all weekend. My good friend Cyndi is coming to stay, so its going to be lots of fun.  Have a fabulous weekend.

What If You Don't Want To Dream Big

What If You Don't Want To Dream Big

You see it all over the internet, on coaching sites, blogs, rubber stamps and even on art journal pages. Everyone is always telling you to dream big. So what’s wrong with dreaming big. Some of us can dream big and have not any problems creating and following a dream.  Some times we need a push so we hire a coach to get us moving.

For others I think it can be scary,  a big dream has big responsibilities, big steps to take. Some may thrive on that but for others it can cause additional fear and it can stop you in your tracks. It might be just too scary to pursue that big dream so you just let it slide. The dream comes back though and you may work on it a little bit more. The scope of it always makes you stop and give up.  This helps no one. I think we need to step back from Big Dreams and look at them in another way.

What if your dream is small, does that make it any less important well of course not.  Many women I work with don’t have a big dream.  They may have a kernel, a tiny thing, that sets their heart on fire.  It might turn into a big dream but looking it at it that way, it never has time to grow. Dreams need to be nurtured especially when they are small.  So how do you nurture a dream. I think you do this by going slow, by taking small steps.  The coaching model I use Kaizen-Muse Creativity coaching focuses on small steps to reach real goals.

So how do you take a small dream and nurture it and follow through with it and make it real. Say your dream is to be a full time artist. Now that is a big dream and has that to a small dream you could change that dream “Have your art hanging at a venue in your town.”  

What are some small steps you might take to make that happen. The following are some things you might choose to do.

1. Check with local galleries, coffee shops, hair salons and other places where you see art being Get on their waiting list to show your work. In my town a local coffee shop has a 2 year wait. There are lots of things you can be doing while you wait your turn.

2. Create a body of work to hang in the place you’ve chosen. You might choose a theme for your work or you might not.  When you know the size of the venue, that will give you an idea of how many pieces you will need.

3. If the place is big, you could find another artist to do this with. Contact artist friends to see who might be interested.

4. Design place cards for your work and make them while you are working on your art. Then there won’t be a mad dash before the show.

5. Create a post card announcing the show that you can mail out and give to friends.

6. Create an artist statement/bio that you can display at the venue when your show is hanging.

7. Search for a dynamite outfit to wear at your shows opening.

I would break the steps down even smaller. Small Steps are really small.  You are not limited to just doing the first small step though.  You can see it as a starting point.  For step 1 it could be as simple as going out for coffee. While out for coffee you can be looking to see if the place has art on the walls. You can see how that breaks down a step of looking everywhere for a venue to just a small step that is easy to do. Break down all your steps in this way and you'll find you are getting those tasks done faster. The next time you hear anything about a big dream, know that you now have some tools to break it down and make it manageable.

This is the first in a series of articles I'll be doing on following your dreams. They'll be posted here and in my newsletter, so sign up in my sidebar so you don't miss any of them.

Prayer Flags For Friends

With two friends dealing with health crisis's I have been making prayer flags.  To make them I start with at least an 8 x8 piece of canvas and paint them with gesso. Then I made a simple drawing and started adding paint. My friend Connie has been dealing with a husbands illness so this flag was for the entire family.

After doing the first flag the second piece of canvas I had cut was just waiting for an idea. My friend Patty is fighting inflammatory breast cancer. She own a labyrinth and has prayer flags everywhere.  I don't know why I had not thought about making her a flag before.  She loves orange and this is a representation of her garage labyrinth. She also has a Chartes style labyrinth. If you are ever in Montana its a must to experience. Its called Red Sun Labyrinth.

Making prayer flags for friends is a simple thing that can make such a difference in someone's life.  They can add them to their yard or treat them like art and hang them in their home.  Its a great reminder that someone truly cares about them.

Do you know someone who could use a boost? Why not make them a prayer flag, I know they will love it.

Sunday Sketches

Today's sketch led to journaling about Mother's Day. I hope all the mothers out there are having a fabulous day. To see more sketching go to Sophia's blog

Link Love

I decided that I would jump on the Link Love bandwagon organized by Tammy over at Daisy Yellow.  The idea is to share blog posts that inspire and to introduce new people you have found to get them some traffic. We all love sharing what we have found. I love looking at new things, as I am sure you do.













Make your own file folders with Aimee at Artsville . These are so cute, I might make some just for fun.
Lost Coast Post Michelle has a delightful blog with all these cute monsters, plus tutorials and more.  She never fails to delight.

Dances With Wool. Lene is a knitter and creates beautiful work.  Even if you don't knit her blog is a visual feast. She is in Finland and truly appreciates the beauty of her surorunding.

Fueled by Clouds and Coffee Tina's delightful blog showcases her watercolor sketches. I like her style and you may too.

Its About Time  Barbara does this wonderful blog and a few others too.  The focus is on art collections and history.  Make sure to check out all the different collections.  Its a great resource for artists and history buffs too.

You can see what other artists have linked by going to Daisy Yellow

How Do You Get So Much Done

How do you get so much done? This is a question I am often asked so I thought I would share what I do.  To begin with I have to admit I go through periods where I really don't get a lot done. In those times I think my focus is elsewhere. When I am not getting things done I find that I need to regroup and see what the problem is.  Often I do some or all of the following/

* Turn off the TV
* Limit my time on the Internet
* Do things in small steps
* Choose to focus on finishing
* Put the project on my To Do List.

Here is a tote bag that I finished last week.   This was made with the Birdie Sling pattern by Amy Butler.  I just love her patterns. I use small steps to get this completed.  By this I mean I will do just a little bit every day, sometimes as little as 15 minutes.  At first I just cut out a few of the pattern pieces at a time, then the interfacing, lining etc.  I did the same small steps in making the bag. Some days I would pin pieces together and then next day I would do the sewing of them and move on to the next step. Before long I was almost done and did the final work in one longer session.

Often I will use this small step technique with art too. I'll work in an art journal the same way. In a short time you can easily get a background done, or add some collage. Even a quick sketch in your sketchbook can be done in 15 minutes.  Most of us don't have large blocks of time to get our creative work done. Try breaking things down to small steps and you might find that you that you really can accomplish a lot.

Weaving A Shawl

Since I have been feeling better all these projects around the house have been calling to me. I have been sewing and spinning and weaving too.



Here is a shawl on my Triangular loom.  I started it last winter and it has sit for quite awhile.  I want to weave some rugs on my old rug loom but I needed to get this finished first so I could free up some space.

  













In this close up you can see all the lovely colors of this yarn, Its a boucle in acrylic called Caribbean and has lovely blues green and yellows. Even with all the lovely colors sometimes its just work to get something finished.  I use music to motivate me. I put on some Motown music and then some Celtic mixes to keep me working on this.















You see that lighter section in the center, that is the part left to weave. It doesn't look like much but it took a couple hours to do. In a loom of this type you are warping and weaving at the same time. The warp threads ar vertical and the weft are the horizontal. When it gets towards the end I end up using a crochet hook to do the weaving so the process slows right down. I like to put the fringe on while I am weaving because to do it all at the end is pretty daunting.  I think there must be over 200 fringes on this shawl.

















Now we have the finished shawl draped on my outdoor swing. I think the results were worth it.

Sunday Sketches - Glad To Be Back

I haven't done Sunday sketches in a long time. I have been sick most of the year so that is going to be my excuse for now. I am glad to be back though, today's sketching was fun.


 



















Lady in a huge hat that reminds me of my mom. Sorry this is so dark, I find it so hard to photograph graphite sketches.






















I have always loved the reference photo I used for this sketch.  I think her body is a little small for her head. I didn't realize this until I was finished.

Then I did some doodling on the portion of a page. Patterns are always fun to draw. You can see more sketchers on Sophia's blog

New Techniques and Free Classes

So its Friday and I was going to do something for Link Love over at Daisy Yellow 's blog but realized that was set up for blogs and not videos.  I found some great videos when I was ill that I wanted to share with all of you.



 
In this video the people at GelliArts show using gel medium as a resist. Just one more way to use a gelliplate. They also use distress stain instead of paint which I liked because I have some of the stains but don't use them that often.  I love finding new ways to use old supplies.



In this video I.K. Tolbert show how to make prints with some glue and cardboard. It looks like a fun technique.



This is a step by step journey through creating a portrait in charcoal.



My friend Kelley made this video showing how to make paper fortune cookies.  They are so cute, I know I will make some soon.



In this video you will learn how to make a strip of tickets without using a die and its so easy.  I wish I had seen this last month.  There was a ticket swap in a group I belong to and I really didn't want to buy a die to participate. Now I know I didn't have to.


Free Classes 

I know that you all like a bargain so here is one for you.  A coupole years ago I offered 2 online classes. They were called Mixed Media 101 and Bodacious Backgrounds.  The first covers the basics of mixed media and gets you started on your own art journal and the second is all on backgrounds.  I am making them available free to anyone.  Here is the link to both sets of classes.  Pass on the information to anyone you think might be interested.  Have a great weekend!

Revisiting My Word of The Year

Remember back in January when we all chose a word for the year? I have done this several years in a row and in most cases after about 4 or five months I have forgotten about what this word is.  It is not in my focus and so I lose what work I could have done with it.  I talk about it in this post. When I chose my word this year I decided that I was not going to do that. My idea was to revisit the word maybe every 3-4 months.  Well now we are into May so its past time to take a look at it again.

My word this year is DEEP. I chose the word for several reasons which I talk about in this post. So have I thought about my word every day, not really. I wanted to be more present for it.  I had a necklace made with the word deep on it. I have found that to really help keep the word front and center in my mind.

One other thing I have done before is to paint the word and hang it up where I can see i everyday.  I find visuals to be very helpful for me and you might too.  I had 4 tiny inexpensive canvasses that I thought I would use to spell my word. I used left over paints from my palette to begin. I thought I would do these great stylized letters making them all perfect and beautiful. What this really meant is that I ended up delaying doing the project. At the rate I was going I might be finished by December so I had to change tactics. I let go of the perfection and decided I just needed to get the word done and up on the wall.  So I grabbed a copic marker and just wrote a simple letter on each canvas and tacked them on the wall.  There it was simple and it was done. Do you ever find you make a big production out of something. As Artists we make everything a work of art and that is ok but sometime we just need to make it simple and functional and stop trying to make it perfect.

The other thing I am doing is pulling out my 2013 workbook and revisiting it also. I am always gung ho about it in January but then I lose that emphasis.  I had to decided to re-look at this several times a year.  I want to revisit my goals and ideas, see where I have come from and where I want to go.  Even if you didn't do this in January I highly recommend it now. (Its available in my sidebar). Or if you have the workbook pull it out again and have a look. Now is a great time to re-evaluate how you want your year to unfold.