love you more

love 'ya, mean it!!

happy valentine's day, sweet bloggy friend!

xox

{supplies:  strathmore 400 series 140 lb. CP w/c paper,

daniel smith watercolor, .3 graphite pencil}

an artsy 2018 to you!

happy 2018!  

i've been thinking about some of the fun things that 

i'd like to accomplish this year.....

some of those things are related to art,

and some....well, not so much.

(but spoiling my sweet grandson sounds like so much fun,

even if it's not art related!  :))

but whatever i end up doing,

i'll always try to follow my heart.....

because when i follow my heart,

i always end up in the most wonderfully unexpected places!

❤️

i hope your artsy heart leads you 

to all kinds of fabulous, creative stuff

this beautiful new year!!

xox

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper, 

daniel smith watercolors, .3 and .5 mechanical pencils}

flowers and a smile

here's to the days of giving our mom a big smile

and a handful of picked wildflowers as a kid....

and getting a big smile and a big mom-hug in return!

wishing you a very happy mother's day, sweet bloggy friends!

{p.s.  i love you, mom!  xoxox}

[supplies:  strathmore 500 series 140 lb CP paper, 

daniel smith watercolor, .3 mechanical pencil]

happy 2017!

wishing you an artful, chocolate-covered,

laughter-filled new year!

happy 2017 to you, 

my sweet bloggy friends!!

xoxox

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper, micron pens,

watercolor, 5B graphite pencil, .3 mechanical pencil}

oh night divine

thank you SO much for all your heartfelt comments and holiday wishes!

i hope your Christmas is filled with love and sweet blessing,

and your 2017 overflows with creativity and inspiration.

big love,

xoxox

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper, 

daniel smith watercolor, .3 and .5 mechanical pencils}

hear/how the bells

the vienna boys choir has been singing this in my head 

for the past week.  and then as i was writing this post,

i happen to see the lyrics and 

realized i've been singing it completely wrong my entire life!

(and now have the artwork to prove it!)

i guess the correct version is "hark how the bells...."

looks like i've been "hearing" it differently all along....hahaha!

ding-dong-ding-dong.....  :))

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper,
daniel smith watercolor, .3 and .5 mechanical pencils}

hap-happy

celebrating the most wonderful time of the year

and the hap-happiest season of all!

xox

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy 140 lb. w/c paper, 

daniel smith watercolor,  .3 mechanical pencil}

inktober #24

inktober day twenty-four,  prompt:  "one dozen"

i must admit that when i first saw today's prompt,  i thought, "really?!".

but once i started thinking about it,

 everything kind of fell into place, one heart at a time.

because these hearts appear in my artwork today 

for some very special reasons:

first.....unfortunately, this will be my last inktober post this month,

but you know it would take a really good reason for me to bow out 

of the challenge early, and i've got the best reason in the world....

our daughter is marrying the love of her life on saturday,

and it's go-time!  i've got to get ready for this celebration of big love!

second.....while this artwork contains twelve hearts,

it was created to hold the power of a lot more than that,

and it was created with all of you in mind.

each one of these hearts holds about a gazillion

little hearts, and each one of those gazillion hearts holds 

my gratitude and appreciation for all your visits to my 

blog, instagram, and Facebook, as well as

 your sweet, supportive, and encouraging comments.

thank you from the top, middle and bottom of each one

of my heart of hearts!!!

third.....you know i love any reason to draw a little heart 

here and there.  add some chocolate, and things really start 

getting crazy..... :))

thanks again for coming on this inktober ride with me....

i'll be back in cyberspace very soon!  

xoxox

click here for more info about inktober!

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper,  micron pens

pentel color brush pens, white gelly roll pen,  copic marker}

inktober #20

inktober day twenty,  prompt:  "squeeze"

i'm thanking you in a really big way for all your 

sweetness with my series of inktober artwork....

please consider yourself bear-hugged!

xox

click here for more info about inktober!

{supplies:  canson moulin du roy w/c paper,  micron pens

sakura brush markers, white gelly roll pen,  copic marker}

sweet red-white-and-blue

today we celebrate this sweet, beautiful land of ours.....

and i'm sending everyone red-white-and-blue hugs  

for a star-spangled Independence Day!

Happy Birthday, America!

xox

{supplies:  strathmore 140 lb. CP paper, watercolor,

 .3 and .5 mechanical pencil}

rejoice!

this beautiful day has been created by

our beautiful Creator.....

let us rejoice and be glad in it!

xox

{supplies:  strathmore 140 lb. CP paper, watercolor,

.5 and .3 mechanical pencils, white sakura gelly roll pen}

three things

  fun things to do today:

1.  paint lots of colorful, juicy splotches.

2.  add lots of happiness.

3.  and smile.  really big.

p.s.  these things will be great to do tomorrow

and all the days after, too!   

:))

{supplies:  strathmore 140 lb. CP paper, watercolor,
4B pencil, .3 mechanical pencil}

love birds

this little pair of love birds is wishing 

all of my sweet bloggy friends a

beautiful, chocolate-filled valentine's day….

and so am i !!  

xox

{supplies:  fabriano artistico 140 HP paper, sennelier watercolor,

7B graphite pencil,  .3 mechanical pencil}

a jar of jars

 i had SO much fun drawing and painting my little micro-jars,

but once i cut the page apart, i had a nice pile of micro-goodness... 

and all those illustrations were going to be hard to keep track of!

just like my chair collection, they needed a home.

so i grabbed two pieces of vellum and drew a jar on the top sheet…..

and then i sewed a tag on the front, 

along with some "lid lines" at the top.

then i clipped the two sheets together to keep them from moving around,

and sewed them together around the side and bottom edges.

once it was sewn, i trimmed the edges and filled my jar 

with all of those sweet little micro-jars!

these are my absolute favorite kind of projects…..

super easy, super functional, and super cute!

{supplies:  vellum paper, micron, scrapbook paper, 

colored pencils, pigment ink pad, 6B pencil, sewing machine}

from chairs to jars

just when i thought i was completely focused….

and totally immersed in one art fixation….like chairs, for example….

i turned around to discover lots of tiny little jars

had completely taken over my art journal!

happy-distractions can turn into lots of happy-fun!

{these jars were inspired by one of the lessons in danielle donaldson's

"storybook and studious girls" online class. 

supplies:  stillman & birn beta series journal, watercolor, .3 pencil} 

chair party

little tiny chairs (some no bigger than a quarter)
all together on one page so they can
mix and mingle and get to know each other a little better.

let the party begin!


{supplies:  stillman & birn beta series journal, watercolor, .3 pencil}

have a seat….and a video

for me, part of the fun in creating my chair collection was 

the challenge of how to find a proper "home" for it.

 i usually like to create a little book for my artwork,

but since each one of my chairs was illustrated on loose sheets of paper,

that made the book option difficult.

 and then i started thinking about the actual chairs in my illustrations,

and took inspiration that chairs are most comfortable arranged in a cozy room…. 

and when you open the doors to the room…. 

each chair is there, inviting you to have a seat!

so, instead of making a book, 

i created this simple box structure for my chairs to live in.


 

here's a little video peek of my illustrated
chair chamber!

 

you can watch this video in larger format here!

{you can read more information about each chair in this series

and the inspiration behind it here}

{to create these illustrations, i've cut 140lb CP watercolor paper to 6" x 6", 

and i've used watercolor, a little colored pencil, and graphite pencils.

the cover was created using a sheet of canson mi-teintes paper.}