Playtime

Hello peeps.

I had some time to paint a couple of canvases this week. Hope you enjoy!

They will be added to the shop later today.

What do you like to do when you get some playtime?

Art Journal

Happy Monday everyone.

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. I work weekends, so not a whole lot of relaxing for me. But I did take an hour yesterday to play in my art journal.

I knew it had been a while since my last play time in the journal, but didn't realize it had been 4 months! That is just too long!

I painted with my fingers, mixing paint and gesso on the pages. I accidentally made these cool paint bubbles on the leaf. I was drying the paint with the heat gun and bubbles formed. I have never had this happen before, but I thought it was cool, so I added more. And did some doodling. It was fun, even though I wanted to play longer.

So, I told myself once again, that I need to try to take time daily to play in this journal. Just a few minutes even. But it helps my brain and my heart when I make the time.

Do you take time to play? You should!

Laters

New in the Shop

Hello Everyone.

I had a chance this week to finish a few canvases. If you'd like one or two, just head on over to my Etsy Shop.

Walk. Don't run.

I don't want anyone to get hurt.

Laters.

Dreams

Working on making my dreams a reality. Today is a day for painting canvases. I have some exciting things planned for the upcoming months. Will share more soon. But for today, I need to go grab an iced coffee and sit down in my partially cleaned art studio and get to work.

Artwork above is from Pinterest. I was bad and did not save the link to the original post. I will try to find the link and update the post later.

Now go out into the world and have a fabulous day!

She Drew New Lines

Remember yesterday? When I said I made a promise to myself to get off the computer and paint? Or do a project? Well, I did both. Yes I did.

Here is my painting. I painted the background with a brush, but then started painting with my fingers. Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, but I'm happy. And it was fun. And I painted in my giant watercolor sketch book, which is something I haven't done since February. Wow.

I guess I cropped out the top right corner where I added the quote "She couldn't keep her colors inside the lines, so she drew new lines."

I'm finishing up the project I started yesterday. Come back tomorrow to see the finished result. It is super fun. Trust me, you want to come back and see it.

So your assignment for today is to do something for fun. Not to have hang in an artist's gallery, but just for fun. You know, something to make your heart happy!

And if you can't today, then at least commit to doing something later this week. But commit!

Invest

Have a happy tuesday! Made a promise that I would stay off the computer today and do something fun before work. Either paint or do a project. I'm down to 3 hours, so I'd better get busy!

New Art in the Shop

Well here we are at Monday again. Hope everyone had a great weekend. I enjoyed my last day of freedom (short term disability). I am officially released to go back to work today. But, lucky me, has pto until Friday. You know, for the Day of Love. The 20 yr celebration of wedded bliss!

So, I made sure to enjoy every minute of Sunday. I even made a few new canvases for the shop.

The first is Orange Capture Life. It is similar to the one that is featured here. Similar, but not the same, because as you all know, each piece is handcrafted and unique.

The 2nd one is Raspberry Capture Life. I can't seem to get enough of these cameras. They are just so cute! I feel like there needs to be one in every color! And it's hard to see in this picture, but the camera is painted a metallic grey color, so it has some shimmer to it.

If you are interested in checking out all the items in the shop, just click on "my shop" right above today's blog post, but under the banner (photos at top of page).

Have a wonderful day!

New Art in the Shop

I added 3 new canvases to the shop this weekend.

Had a little owl lovin going on.Let me know what you think. Or if you want, you could even buy one. But only if you want.

Carlsbad mini-book

I finally got prints of all my photos and had some time to play.

I started with a basic color theme. And rather than use patterned paper I chose to stencil designs using the 3 paint colors. The goal was to keep it simple, but different from my other projects

However, I did use paper for the covers. I used gel medium to adhere the paper to the book covers and added some rub-ons and a few stamps.

The inside of both the back and front covers are the same polka dot paper.

I attached the photos using tape. Some pages have 1 photo, some 2 photos, and a few even have 3 photos.

They are attached so that 1 side can flip up to reveal journaling on the back of the photos.

The only embellishments used were rub-ons and some inking around the edges.

I wanted to keep the focus on the photos.

I can't believe that I took so many photos in just over 2 days. I originally thought this would be a smaller book. I had to make several design changes due to various factors (such as dropping the Instax idea due to terrible quality of the photos).

The book has about 25 pages, but about 50 photos.

Hope you enjoyed! If you have a fun summer getaway planned, let me know how you are planning to document the trip!

New in the Shop

Happy Monday everyone!

I made a few changes to the appearance of the blog this weekend. I added some images of my canvases to the header (the very top portion of the blog where the title is located). Let me know what you think. I'm hoping that the blog looks more like me.

I also added a few more canvases to the shop. Just click on the tab labeled "My Shop" to visit (just above the blog posts). I'd love it if you would take a moment to check them out and leave me some feedback. They are a flat price of $25, which includes shipping.

Any suggestions? Liking something but wish it was a different color? Prices realistic?  I'd appreciate your comments!

Week in the Life (Friday)

Friday, April 27th

6:45 am : Mark gets the kids up and ready for school (yes, the girls did sleep all night long after never waking up from that afternoon nap yesterday).
8:00 am : Mark gets a call from Katie. She is at the bus stop with a lost dog. He walk down to help find the owner. Calls animal control and leaves a voice mail. Ends up bringing the dog back to our house and letting him hang out in our back yard. The lost dog feels the need to mark his territory all over our back yard, making our dog crazy, who then has to run around and try to cover up any scents left from the lost dog! Mark ends up finding the dog's owner and lost dog ends his adventure safely.
8:30 am : Mark starts working on cleaning up the back  yard and pulling weeds. This is a HUGE chore. The weeds have been out of control for most of the winter. Go Mark!
9:00 am : I wake up and head to the computer to work on the blog.
9:15 am : Wrap canvas for the giveaway winner.

9:30 am : Start another canvas. I'm so totally in the zone right now. Too bad it's a work day.

12:00 pm :Head back to computer to work on blog. So cool to see all the countries listed who had checked out my blog!

12:45 pm: Shower. Head out to lunch. Chick-fil-a to use the B1/G1 free coupon. I do love me some coupons!
2:00 pm : Head to work.
6:00 pm : Mark take Emma and her friend, along with Katie to the school carnival. Emma will be presenting her scientific experiment at the carnival.
7:00 pm : Lunch time. Leftover red beans and rice. My view walking down the hallway at dinnertime.

10:00 pm : Break time. Finish off the last of the Thin Mints that I have been hoarding in my locker. So sad to see them gone until next year.

Notes: Where are my children?? It's crazy how few photos I have taken of them this week. Perhaps tomorrow?


If anyone is out there reading my blog, please leave me comment. I would love to hear from you!

Week in the LIfe (Thursday)

Thursday, May 26th

6:45 am : Mark gets kids up and I sleep (worked again last night)
11:00 am: I wake up. Work on blog. Announce winner to yesterday's giveaway. Open new e-mail account for blogging.
12:00 am: Look into selling at Art in the Alley, next week. Try to figure out what a state tax id number is. Get frustrated after looking online and calling the 1-800 number. Give up. Next week is too soon anyways, but definately planning for June.


1:00 pm : Spend some time looking at other blogs and dreaming about what I want mine to look like going into the future.
2:00 pm : Get dressed. Gather books, laptop, cup,etc (reminds me of when I had to lug around babies and diaper bags) and head to Starbucks to relax/work.

4:30 pm : Leave Starbucks to take Alec to the gym
5:45 pm : Safeway, then Fry's for groceries

6:30 pm: Pick Alec up from gym
6:55 pm: Unload groceries. Emma asleep on couch and Katie asleep upstairs (both girls slept through the rest of the evening!)

7:00 pm : Start dinner. Realize we are out of potatoes, so there goes baked potatoes for dinner. Decide to make bean burritos instead.
7:30 pm : Mark and Alec leave to see "Cabin in the Woods". This is a reward for getting a 100% on his last geometry test.
7:40 pm : Head upstairs to call Mom and start on a new canvas.

modeling paste

gelatos

10:00 pm : Stand up and stretch. My paintings are making me giddy!

10:30 pm : Alec and Mark get home. I'm putting the finishing touches on the 3 canvases. Still giddy!!

11:00 pm : All done. I'm in my happy place!
11:30 pm : Mark home from Quick Trip run. Sitting down to watch episode 1 of Season 2 "Game of Thrones"
 1:00 am : Bedtime


Notes:  Still not enough pictures. But it's going to be okay.....I keep telling myself. And I'm so happy. No matter what happens with this blog and the shop, I am so happy working on my "business". Thanks to everyone who is showing their support and love, especially thanks to my husband. :]

Giveaway winner

The winner for the 6x6 camera canvas giveaway is........tginguyen who commented:

Love the orange one! It is absolutely gorgeous!

Are you enjoying the happiness project? I came across it once, thought about it ... and then forgot about it. I'll look into it again. Thanks for sharing.

Week in the Life (Tuesday)

Tuesday, April 24th
Welcome Week in the Life Linkers.  To celebrate the project, I though I would give away one of my camera canvases (a $25 value). These a 6x6 canvas art that are so cute. Just leave a comment letting me know which camera canvas is your favorite, and one lucky person will be chosen at random from the comments.

Capture Life

Live in the Moment

Oh Snap!

So let me know if your fave is "Capture Life", "Live in the Moment", or Oh Snap. Giveaway ends at 7am, Thursday, April 26th:

•  6:45 am : Same wake-up routine. Katie missed the bus (she fell back asleep), so had to drive her to school also
• 9:00 am : Appt. with Otho doctor to review MRI results. Look like I will be having surgery in early June

• 10:15 am : Back home. Decide to finish reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. The days are long, but the years are short. Wow. So true! Leaning heavily toward starting my own happiness project, but will have to wait a bit. Life is just too hectic right now. Maybe when I'm stuck home, recovering from surgery, I will have some time.
• 11:10 am: Work on blog
• 11:30 am : Leave to meet dad at mall for lunch. I'm leaving early so I can fit in an hour at Barnes and Noble. Flipping through magazines and books in their cafe, along with an iced coffee, is on my top 5 favorite things to do (does that make me sound boring?)
• Dad treated for lunch at Subway and desert at Starbucks (inside B&N). Had a nice visit.
• 2:30 pm : Head to work. It's 95 degrees out today. Yikes. Too hot for me!
• 3:00 pm : Work starts. Woo hoo. It's Lab Week (of course I forgot). That means dinners provided all week long. Tonight was Nacho night. Very yummy. Thanks Lab Week committee!
• 11:30 pm : Break time. Check blog stats. 35 visits to my blog today. I almost fell out of my chair. So happy! And I even had my first comment since I started the blog {about a month ago}. Thanks for the comment!!!! Good to know there is someone out there listening!

Miss Zoey enjoying the sun

Future project??

Dad

Sitting area st work

Happy Earth Day

Okay. Here is that project I hinted at earlier in the week. We are going to re-purpose old gift cards.

It was super easy and took about an hour to make several. Here's how we, Emma and I, did it. (The idea came from the Michael's website).

1. Gather some old (zero balance) gift cards.
2. Pick out some pretty papers to cover both sides of the card.
3. Apply a layer of gel medium or Mod Podge to one side of the card. Place a piece of paper over the wet gel medium and smooth out any air bubbles. Add a layer of gel medium on top of the paper.

4. Allow the surface to dry to the touch (no longer tacky). We used a heat gun to speed up the process.

5. Trim off the excess paper using scissors.
6. Flip over and repeat the process. Note: Don't worry if the edges of the paper are not adhering well. We will be adding another layer of gel medium at the end.
7. Paint both sides of the card.

When dry, decorate the card. We used extra paint colors, various stamps, some decorative tape, and markers to add words (both gel markers and sharpies).
8. Punch a hole in the top. We used the Crop-a-dile tool, but a hole punch would work too.

9. Apply a last layer of gel medium over both sides of the card, and on the edges also, to really seal that paper to the card.
10. Add a pretty ribbon.

These are the front and back of the 2 that I made:

   

And this is the one that Emma made:

Now you just need to decide what to do with your art. I'm going to use mine as gift tags for presents. Maybe in December I can make some for Christmas presents. I was also thinking about attaching several with a jump ring to make a mini-book.

Turned out to be a cute idea, and it cost no money if you used supplies you have on hand. And we even helped to celebrate Earth Day by re-purposing something that would have been thrown away!

Happy Earth Day!