inspiration monday

from start to finish.....the winter olympics was awesome!

thank you athletes....thank you canada!!

and after sixteen days of watching champions from all around the world compete, one thing's for certain.....those kids are in great shape!! i've figured out that in order to have great buns-of-steel to show off in one of those skintight snowsuits, all it takes is slaloming down a snow covered mountaintop for six hours a day.

yeah.....like that's gonna happen!

the reality is at this point in my life, the thrill of victory means having my buns-of-jello just look good in my jeans....and watching the olympics for the past two weeks has somehow subliminally inspired me to try to make that happen by eating a little better, and dare i say it....exercise more. and hopefully by the time the summer olympics rolls around in two years, i won't be feeling the agony of defeat when i see all of those runners sport their little track and field shorts!!

journal page finished using micron pens, watercolor pencils, niji waterbrush, graphite

palm trees and icicles

my heart goes out to all of you little bloggy sweeties who've been hit by yet another winter blast from mother nature....i hope you're staying warm, staying safe, and your supply of hot chocolate hasn't been depleted! it's been a long, cold season, and this winter we've even had a taste of the frigid air down here, too! for the past several days we've had overnight low temperatures in the 20's.....and while i know that sounds like a heatwave to all of you snowbunnies up north, this is north florida, and we start to whine any time the mercury drops below 50 degrees! so here's to channeling some much warmer weather really soon....because let's face it, palm trees and icicles just don't go together!

right on the button

i enjoy creating so many different things that it seems my greatest challenge these days is trying to find projects that combine all of my loves.......my love of paper, my love of fabric, my love of sewing, my love, my love.....

and sometimes i wonder if that's why i enjoy creating journals so much. i get to tear paper, slop some glue around, attach eyelets to the covers, and my most favorite part.....sew it all together....

and every once in a while i add a trinket or two.....

so usually when i'm done,

i feel like maybe i've hit my challenge

right on the button!

you can read more information about this journal here

scrappiness

here's what you get when you combine playful mary engelbreit fabric with a fabulous tutorial from rebecca sower......a happy, colorful, scrappy flower!! rebecca's tutorial comes with well-written instructions and wonderful photographs, making it really easy to finish one of these sweet flowers lickety-split! it's a super way to use up little scraps of fabric that have been living in your stash for a while......

and when you're finished, you can pin your new scrappiness to your winter jacket to help cheer on those warm days of spring that we're all longing for!!

click here for more information about rebecca's scrappy flower!

switching gears

sometimes when i'm trying to learn a new technique......like drawing hair, for example.....and it's not going too well, i like to switch gears.

totally.

so, today i'm trading in my journal and graphite for my sewing machine and these fun mary engelbreit fabrics.

it's time for a little fabric play!

inspiration monday

hi. my name is lori and i'm an online-class-aholic.

i have a yearning for learning.....and there are SO many wonderful instructors out there in cyber-space to gather inspiration from, how can i resist the classes they offer?!

take pam carriker, for example......she's a very talented artist, and i truly appreciate her "you can do this" teaching style! i recently finished pam's shades of gray class, so it seemed only natural to go on to the next step with her pursuing portraits class! of course, drawing faces is waaaaay out of my comfort zone, as this is definitely something that i've never done before (unless two dots for eyes and a curved line for the smile counts as a "face"!), but pam takes it one-step-at-a-time, making it seem very do-able! and now with practice, i'm starting to feel a little more comfortable drawing the facial features.......the hair, however, is a completely different story! i have been drawing the faces, only to fail miserably when it comes to drawing the hair.....and by the time i'm finished, they all look like candidates for the state penitentiary! yikes!!! so, when i finished drawing this little face, i decided to take the easy way out and just draw a frame around her to hide the fact she was having such a bad hair day! which i know looks a little strange, but i can see that i'm going to need lots more "hair practice".....either that, or find an online class that features drawing hats..... :))

live life

sing......dance.....be creative.....

laugh.....laugh some more.....

love.....count your blessings.....

draw, paint and sew......

call a friend.....share a hug.....

have faith.....be happy.....

live life to the fullest!

card illustration by leigh standley of curly girl design

click on image for larger view

number 5

i am completely overwhelmed by the fabulous response to my 400th post giveaway! for those of you who visit here regularly, thank you for your ongoing encouragement and sweet support! and for those who stopped by for the first time and said hello.....it's great to meet you!!

the random-picker has chosen comment number 5......

and that's you, jane farr!!!

congratulations!

i'll be contacting you for your address so i can put your little journal in the mail to you!!

thanks again, bloggy sweeties!! happy friday to you!

400 hugs and a giveaway!

four hundred posts ago i wrote this, my very first blog entry:

thank you, martha, for encouraging me to start this blog...a digital journal of growth and progress in my world of art. i look forward to this crusade...armed, of course, with a bar of chocolate and a bag of potato chips.

and four hundred posts later, i'm celebrating the fact that things are still growing strong here in elvie studio, i'm still having fun being creative, and i'm still eating chocolate and potato chips...

but mostly, i'm celebrating you.....and thanking you for hanging in there with me through four hundred posts of babbling, blathering, and yada yada's. i could never truly express how much i appreciate your checking in with me every day, leaving such heartfelt and encouraging comments, and inspiring me by inviting me to over to your blogs to share in your world. meeting you and becoming friends with you has been the absolute highlight of my bloggy journey.....and i'm grateful for you four hundred times over!!

but what kind of celebration would this be without a door prize?!! my very first blog entry featured a handmade journal, so i'm following that lead, and i've created this little journal using repurposed hobby lobby gift cards and offcuts of my favorite decorative papers, and then bound it all together with some waxed linen thread and a coptic stitch.....and just to help keep your secrets safe inside, i've included an elastic band to keep it closed!

to make sure your name gets in the hat, just leave a comment on this post by midnight thursday (one comment per person, and please make sure i can contact you!). i'll use the random integer to choose a name and announce it on friday!!

and in the meantime, i'm sending you four hundred

woo-hoo-bloggy-hugs.....!

edited: thank you all for participating!! i'll be announcing the winner of the journal tomorrow!!!

vanna, may i please have a consonant?

i'm a real sucker for anything that has a clever use of letterforms. so when i spied this box of swedish happiness during a recent trip to ikea, i instantly had visions of using them to leave little notes for my little dutch sweetie on the kitchen counter, or playing cookie scrabble.....

but my abecedarian dreams were shattered when i opened the box, and discovered that it was filled with only the letters i, k, e, and a. three vowels and one consonant? this was a challenge that would send any wheel-of-fortune veteran straight into an alphabetical tailspin!

so, since there was no letter b in the box, i decided to create one for myself.....

in the form of a plan b.....

and just dunked them in a bowl of c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e.

i just love finding new ways to use letterforms!

inspiration monday

although i'm not the least bit athletic, i sure do love to watch sports.....and right now, i'm especially loving the winter olympics! i can't think of anything more exciting than watching apolo anton ohno and his trademark goatee speed skate himself to victory on the short track! apolo wears red, white and blue proud, and it's his amazing dedication to achieving everything possible in his sport that inspires me the most.

but this type of passion doesn't happen only at the olympics, i see it everywhere in blogland, too.....artists nurturing their creative spirits, whether it's painting portraits over and over, creating page after page of collage work, taking online classes to further their skills, sewing stitch after stitch with needle and thread until it's just right, etc.

perfecting our skills takes some sweat, and sometimes a few tears. and while our artwork most likely won't earn us an olympic medal, our prize is just as rewarding.....a journal filled with creative masterpieces, a canvas painted to perfection, or a finished needlework sampler is definitely worth its weight in gold, silver and bronze, wouldn't you say?

journal page finished using a pitt XS pen, watercolor pencils, 6B pencil

happy heart

happy valentine's day weekend to all of you sweeties in blogland!!!

you make my heart happy!!

two pockets, two videos

this is the how-to for the pocket cards that i posted yesterday. you can make one of these cards lickety-split using just one piece of cardstock (double-sided works best), and two pieces of coordinating paper. then it's time for some decorating fun.....the sky's the limit!

watch here or watch at you tube

and here's a quick way to decorate a tag that you can tuck into your card pockets. i first saw this distressing technique demonstrated by claudine hellmuth using the ranger distress inks and the blending tool.....tons of fun, and instant art gratification!!

watch here or watch at you tube

i hope you enjoy making these.....and remember, a little chocolate bar fits nicely in those pockets, too!!

two pockets

i made this card today....

and like the last card that i made, this one has pockets, two (too)!

and tucked inside the pockets are some fun tags.

i'm working on a video to show you how easy these are to make....hopefully i'll have that ready to go for you tomorrow!

the purple cottage

my friend kelly over at happy shack is not only a fabulous artist and photographer, she's also a dreamer extraordinaire. for many years she's been dreaming about a place called the purple cottage.....a retreat haven nestled amongst the trees in northeast florida where fellow artists can come together, where creative exploration is encouraged, and where creative rules don't exist.

and now turning dreams into reality, kelly has opened the doors of purple cottage and is inviting us to come and play......and fellow dreamer and bliss follower carmen torbus will be helping out by offering one of her fantastic workshops, Art and Dreams Bound, where she'll show you how to create your very own dream book! mark your calendars now for may 21-23 , because this promises to be a weekend filled with good-for-your-soul-artistic-expression, opportunities to meet new friends, much laughter, and maybe even a little chocolate!

to read more about purple cottage, click here!!

inspiration monday

i've heard that words are just words......

but i've discovered that when they're put in just the right order,

and they speak to your heart......

then you have inspiration.

*handmade journal made with fabriano 140lb. paper

*acrylic paints

*micron pens

*uniball signo white gel pen

*8B pencil

a heart full of hope

my sweet bloggy friend sophia over at blue chair diary is following her heart by creating a new line of jewelry for her etsy shop.....and a portion of the proceeds will go towards charities for national domestic violence and child abuse. unfortunately, sophia knows first hand what it's like to grow up in a house filled with abuse, and i admire her courage as an adult to shed the unhappiness of her youth and look forward to each new day ahead.

i was honored to help her with some artwork to represent her new pendants.......and since i gave her more than one option, she's asking for our help in deciding which design to use! head on over here to see the other designs and read more about her very worthwhile project. and don't forget to vote for your favorite design (the ballot is in the sidebar of her blog)!

thanks for your help....have a great weekend!!

crickets, be gone with you

my poor little etsy shop has been severely neglected. so much so, that when you enter, all you hear are the crickets that have set up camp....and the noise is starting to irritate the guests. so, yesterday i had a binding party in my studio and created several books. maybe this vintage-style parisian journal will chase those crickets away.....

or this one with sweet little red birdies and green birdcages.....

or this "book of me", covered with linen book cloth and a chipboard

die-cut on the front.

i also made another one of these, and several more of these.....

buh-bye crickets.....

sticky fingers

i'm feeling the need to get some glue on my fingers today, so i've got all of the fixin's ready to go to put three new journals together. this is pure comfort zone for me.....and one of the few times that i don't eat chocolate while i'm working! hee hee

happy creative day to you!

another gray day

we've had overcast skies and lots of rain for the past couple of days, so this little gray doodle sure fits the mood. to create this, i used a leaf rubber stamp, staz-on ink, "shades of gray" pitt pens, micron pens, an 8B pencil, and techniques that i learned in pam carriker's online class, shades of gray.

here's looking forward to bluer skies tomorrow!!

inspiration monday

my creative world is starting to look like forrest gump's box of chocolates......you never really know what you're gonna get. i have so many things that i'd like to do and learn, but i have no idea which one i'd like to do first. inspiration overload is alive and well in my studio these days, and when i look ahead, i see many different paths in front of me.....and they're all enticing me to go down them. i've always had a yearning for learning, i just need to figure out how to do it a little at a time instead of trying to do it all at once.

as well as hope that forrest hasn't eaten all of those chocolates yet....