Being a Parent

Being a parent is so rewarding. Most of the time anyway.

Like when your kid plays with the Symphony and gets all dressed in a tuxedo and stuff.

My Project for 2016

I'm working on a new book for 2016. Not sure that I will fill all the pages in a year, but I'm gonna work as often as I can to to add art and words to this lovely blank book.

I will probably even add some stamped pages.

Oh wait, I already did.

I love my new Strawberry stamp from Art Gone Wild.

I also plan to add lots of sketches and qoutes that I love.

Maybe some color, but maybe not.

I also plan on dreaming big this year.

Because, why not.

P.S. I love my new beetle stamp. And honestly, I didn't even see the heart on his back until I started coloring this one in.

Big things -- yup they do start small.

And, they often start with cupcakes.

And sweet strawberries.

So why not.

What's your project for this year? Thanks for dropping by, have a wonderful day!

New Art Gone Wild Stamps, Part 4

In case you couldn't tell, I love drawing flowers. I have a lot of perennial gardens and am always inspired by the uniqueness of each flower. I don't often pick them, instead sitting outside on my porch or on a rock in the garden enjoying how they smell and the beauty of each flower.

Also, I love butterflies.

The way Michelle Pearson colored this one makes me pretty happy, I love the blue and purple together!

Oh, and here I am with all of them! Have a great day, I have one more stamp post for you, coming soon.

New Stamps from Art Gone Wild, Part 3

For all you stampers out there, I think the stamps I've drawn for Art Gone Wild over the last few years offer a nice range of diversity. I started with flowers and some fun paisley designs and have progressed to more flowers, some abstract items and now mushrooms, cakes and cupcakes to some pretty cool bugs.

I really like that they have stretched me out of my comfort zone, but it's been hard that's for sure. 

And maybe even a little frustrating. 

But in the end, I really love what I've been able to bring to the stamping community. Especially the bug lovers. Yup, that dragonfly down there really makes me happy.

Just one more post about new stamps and then I'm done for a while -- well only until I have time to start creating with them that is! I miss having time to make videos to show you how I create -- I need to make that a top priority that's for sure!

Have a wonderful day, thank you for dropping by.

New Art Gone Wild Stamps, Part 2

It's always a thrill for me to see my stamps in action, and mostly to see how other artists see and use them. In this case, samples were made for the Craft + Hobby Association Meeting in January and AGW had a card maker make samples using my stamps.

( If you click on the photos below the photos below the link will take you over to the Art Gone Wild website so you can see the stamp! )

I so love her use of color.

And how she added stitching and fussy cutting to many of them.

They turned out so lovely, I wish I could color with Copic Markers like this!

I am especially in love with the strawberries. They remind me of the many years that my Mom and I have gone strawberry picking together - and the hundreds of batches of strawberry jam I've made over the years.

And this one, well. It's one of my favorite and it simply makes me happy.

Thank you Michelle Pearson, for making my stamps look so beautiful! I am honored that you created such amazing cards with them!

Thanks for dropping by, have a wonderful day.

New Stamps from Art Gone Wild

This year Art Gone Wild had an amazing card maker create samples using my stamps. I'm not much into cards these days, so seeing how someone else uses them is such a breath of fresh air. My first love is art journaling -- which is always where I see my work. 

They even had a great show special, which I think was pretty popular.

 

The stamps below are from the stamps we released last summer. I just love that large mushroom!

I'll be sharing some of the individual stamps over the next few days! Thanks for dropping by, have a wonderful weekend!

Doing what I do, New Stamps + Old Friends

Last month was the Craft + Hobby Association Meeting in Anaheim, California. I went with Momenta -- I taught a class, presented some new product on the Create + Craft Show and demo'd their new products for the rest of the show.

Here I am demoing the new Luxe Paint from Art-C, and that's my friend Tasha in the background. We work together at Momenta, she is the Director of Product Development.

Oh, and I got to see my new stamps with Art Gone Wild, and I love the cards they had made for the show. The gal they hired did an amazing job with them. I'll show you some more photos in a few days!

And what I love most about the show is seeing old friends, like the sweetest Nat Kalbach. We've been friends in this industry since 2005 -- maybe it was 2006. I can't remember exactly but she's a great creative friend that I always love spending time with!

Intuitive Painting with Jenny Doh, Part 2

We painted 2 paintings in the Painting by Heart class with Jenny Doh. This was my second hot mess -- or that's what I thought of it before lunch.

It had some spots that I loved. Like the x's.

And this little spot of neon pink flowers and leaves.

But mostly it was a mess.

I have never had an art teacher be so open from her heart, with her process, her painting and with her art as Jenny Doh. I was inspired by a painting she had done that was on display in her studio -- and she walked me through it -- STEP by STEP to recreate it on my canvas.

We shared the paint, the paintbrush and painted side by side, step by step -- for the last hour of the day so that I could learn her process to paint this amazing bouquet of flowers. Thinking back on that golden hour in her studio really makes me a little teary at how open and amazing it was to learn from her. 

Now, if I can just find the time to do it at home!

Intuitive Painting with Jenny Doh

It's amazing what happens in your head when you to want something for so long. For like years. The moment that you see it somewhere, you just know that you have to be a part of it. There is this expectation that you have. Because you have only seen the final result. The best of all the possible outcomes.

And then, when you are finally there, and in the thick of it -- your head says -- what the heck was I thinking.

That happened to me recently. I have always wanted to take a class from Jenny Doh at her Studio Crescendoh. I have followed her blog and Instagram for a long time and really wanted to take her Painting by Heart class. Her style is loose and I want to be more like that. Less precise, were the words I said to her.

Let me say that Jenny is an AMAZING teacher.

 

But at this point in the day I thought I wasn't such an amazing student. I was discouraged and disappointed with my painting, my color choices. My art. I had followed all her instructions to the T -- but just wasn't sure that I was gonna be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat on this one. 

Jenny was encouraging. With lots of suggestions and even a cautionary I wouldn't go much further on that one. And thank goodness for lunch. I saw nothing good in this painting at this point. 4 hours into it and I was ready to get back on a plane and head back to Maine.

And then we came back from lunch. The paint was mostly dry. and I turned it this way and that. I saw nothing. Zippo. I was truly discouraged.

Finally I turned it in the right direction, turned my head away to talk to her -- and when I turned back I saw them. Flowers. A lady slipper to be exact. They magically appeared in the mess and haze of judging myself, my art and what looked like a hot mess.

With some gentle encouragement and lots of great teaching, I was able to pull the rabbit out of the hat on this one after all!

If you ever have the chance to take an Intuitive Painting class or this exact Painting by Heart class from Jenny -- do it. But be gentle on yourself in the beginning. You might need to turn your head away for a moment and turn back at just the right moment to see the magic.

Thanks for dropping by, have a wonderful weekend.

Winter Wonderland Challenge with DecoArt

Living in Maine it's hard to lack inspiration on a Winter Wonderland Theme. Between the snow and wonderland that we live in -- there is inspiration all around. Today I wanted to share how you can create a simple art journal page that you can do at this super busy time of the year.

For this challenge I used:

• Fun Foam
• SnowFlake Dies
• Strathmore Mixed Media Journal Paper (5.5 x 8.5)
• DecoArt Media: Matte Medium, Silver, Cerulean Blue and Titanium White Fluid Acrylics
• Black Pen

Check out my little video to see how fun (and messy -- just look at my hands) this little page was!

Thanks for dropping by, have a WONDERFUL day!