Welcoming Love

I tried to dress up my blog for Valentines but was having a problem with Photobucket or Blogger . . . not sure which one . . . so I figured I'd just post these pictures of some of the decorations I have in my home instead.

I made the wreath a couple of years ago and the banner is hanging in my studio . . .

Happy Valentines Everyone and Have a Wonderful Day!

A "happy" accident

I was able to play with paint today . . . unlike the other day, I wasn't planning on it, but was able to get a couple of hours time by myself.

I started with a 12" x 12" sheet of linen acrylic paper and just started using up the paint that was stored in my palette from last week's painting session.  I started light with the yellows and then added brown to the edge and spritzed alcohol here and there to "move" the paint.  Then I used green paint over a stencil and had to let it dry for a bit.  I scraped in some white lines with an old credit card and also scraped off the edges to get other areas of white. Finally, I took a charcoal pencil and traced some of the lines from the stencil.  Here's what I got:

After dinner, I decided that I would try to work some more on this.  At one point I put some leaf green paint and Jacquard Lumiere in pearl white on my palette paper and took the brayer to it and put that on the painting as well.  Then I decided that I wanted to stamp some leaf images with the pearl white paint, but it didn't show up very well on the painting.  Instead, out of frustration, I started stamping the pallette and it looked so cool that I took a picture of that instead.  Here's what my "happy" accident looks like:

I'm gonna let this dry and tomorrow will see about adhering it with gel medium to the painting as another layer and continue working on it.  Hopefully, I'll have something more and interesting to show you again tomorrow.

Until then . . . enjoy!

A different take

on the body theme for me today.  I started the day off all excited  because I'd have more time to myself today and would be able to paint.  I got my morning paper after dropping the little guy off at school and decided that I'd have my oatmeal and read the paper before heading into my "studio" to paint.

That's when things started going wrong.  I was reaching to the top shelf to get the measuring cup when it slipped out of my hand and hit the bottom shelf that housed my everday dishes.  CRASH!  . . . shattered pieces of two dinner plates were all over the place.  Klutzy me!  I figured it was just that I'd had too much coffee and needed something more in my stomach . . . but I couldn't make my breakfast until I cleaned up all the mess.

After cleaning it up and having a full stomach, I was finally ready to get on with my day.  I decided that I should go to the mall real quick and pick out some new dinnerware since having only 2 dinner plates in a family of 4 was not going to cut it.  I spent my morning going from store to store . . . Kohl's . . . Carsons . . . Bed, Bath & Beyond . . . Target . . . Kmart . . . and finally back to Carsons again to check out the opened box of dinnerware that I liked to see if it was intacted.  I managed to get a good deal on the set of 6 place settings that also included certain serving dishes, salt and pepper shakers and a cream and sugar bowl.   The sign said it was $49.99, but when the girl rang it up the total was $41.00!  Even better!  I was in the car and on my way home when I realized that once again I was starving . . . it was lunch time.  When I finally did get home and lugged that heavy box in from the garage, I was exhausted! . . . 11:30 am and I was feeling so tired.

So I made and ate my lunch and started to unpack the box.  Since I had to clean all of these new dishes, I had to first clean the dirty ones that I had left from breakfast so I started washing, rinsing and drying . . . . and washing, rinsing and drying . . . and here's what my new place settings look like . . .

I really love the basketweave design so I can dress them up with napkins, glassware and place mats in any color and/or design that I like.  After all that washing, rinsing and drying . . . it was time to pick up the little one from school and yet again . . . I was feeling tired!  But the bitter cold winter air woke me up temporarily when going out to pick him up.

I did manage to do some sketching earlier this evening . . . although I really would have liked to get out the paint.  I was looking through the book The Creative Artist A Fine Artist's Guide to Expanding Your Creativity by Nita Leland and love the exercises she's got throughout the book.  It just gets the mind going . . . anyway . . .  here's one of my sketch pages . . .

Kind of sums up my day perfectly.  I just wish I didn't feel so tired all the time!

Until next time . . . Happy Creating!

I'm so excited!

The new design at the SNL site is up and running. I think it turned out beautiful! This was my first time doing the re-dress and am so happy with the way it turned out! Take a look . . . SNL Scrappers


I was able to do some more painting today as well. I started with a new sketch and watercolor paper this time and I'm happier with the results so far . . .

Will work again on this some more tomorrow.

Painting today

I was able to block in the colors on the "body" painting that I'm working on for the CED2010 January challenge. I had to do some reading about color mixing for skin tones first however, and still need to do some more reading and experimenting with the paint. Here's what I have done so far . . .




















The background looks much greener here than it really is (my photography skills aren't all that great) but I figure if the pictures are not blurry, it's good enough for me. In actuality, the background is more of a muted green. I really like the way the draping is coming along! After looking at it more and more, the right arm just isn't right and she looks a little squat and chubby. I'll have to work on this more . . .

It's has been a little hectic around here these past couple of days. I voluteered to do the site re-dress for SNL which I did on Tuesday and am awaiting to see the results. This is the first time I've done it and I'm really excited and anxious at the same time! As soon as it's up and running, I will post a link to it from here.

Hope to be back soon with more creative projects and happenings.

Until then . . . Happy Creating!

Color Pencil Sketch

Here's my latest on the "body" theme for CED2010. I decided to go with this magazine clip first of all because my hubby said that the girl looked alot like me and my body. I cut it out of a magazine quite a while ago and always intended on doing something with it so when I heard of the theme for this month, I knew this was the picture I would be using. The other reason is that I have back issues and have since I was 22 years old when I had my first bout with a "slipped" disc. Since then, I've had several episodes of sciatica and recently had a displace rib. So my doctor says I need to do exercises to help strengthen my back muscles.

For this sketch, I decided to try colored pencils to get a feel more for the colors . . .

I think it looks pretty good! Next time, I will try my hand with the acrylics on this new linen paper by Strathmore I found at Michaels last week.

On another creative note . . . I have been trying to work on my new SNL kit . . . I have the papers done (which I'm really happy with), but seem to be struggling with the elements right now. I was trying my hand at making pearls again and seem to be running into a problem with some of the effects in PSE 5. Here's what I've done so far . . .

Well, I'm off again for now . . . hope to be back soon with another creation!

My Word for the Year

So, yesterday I mentioned that I would be doing the exercises to find out what my word of the year would be. Well, I have done them and feel confident that I have found mine! I know this was the word for me because it was the basis of everything that I felt was hindering me from doing certain creative projects. I realized that everything negative that I have been feeling and what keeps me from wanting and having the energy to pursue a more creative life is not feeling healthful.

Since I quit smoking 5 years ago, I have struggled and put on a few more pounds than I care to admit. There was a time that I was exercising by walking or riding the bike and I was even doing Pilates and yoga as well. I got fustrated because I felt that instead of losing weight . . . which the scale told me that I wasn't . . . I was bulking up instead. When I look at pictures of me just 2 short years ago, I definitely looked slimmer even though the scale didn't say so. Right now I have no exercise routine at all and it sure doesn't help that the weather outside is so cold!

Sure . . . there are also those excuses of all the things I need to do on a daily basis and all the people who rely on me to help them out and do certain chores around the house, but when I struggle to keep my eyes open and feel tired all the time, it's tough to summon up the energy for anything but just getting through the day. It's a bad cycle that I need to break so I can have the energy I need and feel like I want to create something.

So my word for the year is healthful. Everything I eat, drink and do, will be to benefit my physical and mental health. I know I can do this! I know I will feel much better and have more energy when I do so!

As far as creating today, I did manage to make some background papers for my SNL kit and I was able to do some sketching. This is just a preliminary sketch for the painting I'm going to be doing for the "body" theme for this month's CED2010 challenge . . .

























For a first sketch . . . I don't think it's all that bad.

Well, it's getting late so I'm off for now . . .

'Til tomorrow . . .

Happy New Year!

OK . . . so I mentioned that I'll be taking part in the Creative Everyday 2010 Challenge and have found this interesting tool for finding your word of the year. Leah mentioned it and has a link on the site for a free download from Christine Kane. I've downloaded and printed it out and will be settling down for the night to read and write and find out just exactly what my word of the year will be!

We had some more Christmas shopping to do today. There's the family party for my husband's side of the family on Sunday so tomorrow I'll be wrapping and baking again and hopefully have some time for creating as well.

I'll show you what I have done so far on the painting I've been working on . . .

I'm really happy with the sky! The building needs work and so does the foreground. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some more done tomorrow. I already have something else rolling around in my head as the theme for CED2010 for January is "body" . . . but I really would like to finish this before I start on anything new!

I just might also be working on an SNL kit as well . . . I was thinking that I might put making kits on the back-burner for a while . . . but I really like the theme and colors for January's kit so I think I might have to find time for that as well. This is the color swatch we have to work with . . .

They really are some pretty colors that I don't think I'll be able to resist!

Well . . . I'm off for now . . .

Hope to be back tomorrow!