art house

when the art-to-the-5th gals revealed this week's challenge to draw a house….

i went a little crazy with my art supplies…..

and came up with my own version of a fun little art house!
{and there's a bonus room inside with belgian chocolate tucked away,
because all well-designed art houses have a special spot
for the chocolate stash,  you know.  heeheehee}

i hope you have lots of time to
make really awesome stuff this weekend!!  xox

{supplies for this week's DLP challenge:
moleskine planner, fabriano artistico 140 lb HP paper, 
derwent inktense pencils, micron and pitt artist pens, pan pastel,
washi tape, 6B and 4B graphite pencils}

little yellow dreams

i caught myself day-dreaming about a
sweet little yellow house again....

isn't it great how your paintbrush
always knows what's on your heart?
xox



{created on fabriano medioevalis paper using
 koi watercolors, micron pen, pitt pen, and a 2B graphite pencil}

green, pink, yellow and brown

it's amazing what you can find in your
very own backyard!

i hope this weekend offers you lots of time
to enjoy the beautiful things around you!
xox

inspiration monday

 sometimes inspiration is as close as finding your favorite stripey-roofed house

and little heart hand-carved stamps in your craft drawer.  but what do you do when

you discover that your favorite yellow stamp pad has completely dried out?

with just a few supplies, you can create your own custom "ink pad".....here's how:

place a small piece of craft felt onto a protective surface (i'm using a plastic paint palette, 

but you can put your felt onto a piece of waxed paper, freezer paper, plastic mat, etc.).  

now, using a craft knife, scrape the side of a stick of chalk pastel onto your piece of felt 

until you have a nice little pile. 

with an inexpensive paintbrush,  add a nice dollop of fluid matte medium into 

your pastel shavings.....you can also add a drop of water to help mix it together.

once you have your new "stamp pad" made, it's time to get on with the stamping! 

if there's a portion of your stamp that you want to block out,  just place
a piece of tape over the area that you want to mask......

then, just press your stamp onto your colored felt......

and then carefully remove the tape from your inked stamp.

now just press your inked stamp onto your paper.

(important:  since the matte medium is acrylic, make sure to clean your

stamp right away.....you don't want it to dry on your stamp!)

you can mix all kinds of custom colors, and add other stamped images to 

your paper.......

and by the time you add some lettering and all your favorite little details,
you have a fun journal page that was actually inspired by
your favorite stamps and a dried-out stamp pad!

p.s.  and since the matte medium is 100% acrylic, it makes the chalk pastel
permanent, so there's no smudging!  woo hoo!


{this was created in my strathmore visual art journal using hand-carved stamps,
craft felt, chalk pastels, craft knife, paint palette, fluid matte medium, 
micron pens, 2B graphite pencil, watercolor pencils, waterbrush}

hands and hearts

ever since i made this fabric tape, i've been wanting to use it on a page in my journal.  

so i decided to snip a piece of each tape (i cut the floral tape into a triangle shape).......

and glued the pieces into my journal in the shape of a house. 

then, using my microns,  i wrote out a little quote to go with it.

but, when i finished, it definitely didn't look "done" to me.

so i added some watercolor to the page, along with some doodle marks on the house to

give it more definition and jazz it up a bit.  

i think it still looks like something's missing, though......

because sometimes when you work on something, it's not complete until
you add that final element......that perfect "finishing touch".......

and then you know without a doubt that, yes......now it's done!


{thank you from the top, middle, and bottom of my heart 
to all of you who signed up for my letterLAB cursive class!!  xoxox}


{journal page created using fabric tape, micron pens, pencil,
koi watercolor, waterbrush, glue stick, elvie heart-in-hand}

where the heart is

i've been in kind of a weird art mood all week.
 i want to be creative, but have no idea what i want to create,
so sometimes i don't create at all!
but i figure instead of doing nothing, i may as well do what i love......
 pass some time carving a few stamps.
goodbye, weird art mood.

i hope your heart helps you discover playful art this weekend!  enjoy!

black, white and grey all over

this is a little doodle that i came up with, trying to use the shading exercises that i'm learning in pam carriker's shades of grey online class. i must admit that using a black, white, and grey palette is quite different than what i'm used to.....trying to create the same doodle whimsy without using my rainbow stash of watercolor pencils has been a bit of a challenge! and this is probably the only time you'll ever see me color a heart grey!

journal page finished using pitt brush-tipped pens, micron pens, pencil

setting up house

it looks like i'm not the only one trying to get settled into a new house.  i noticed this little guy in a birdhouse that sits next to our front door.   he's kind of cute....in a primitive, prehistoric sort of way.  :)

dream house...stamp style

i'm still carving up a storm...but kind of getting to the point of not knowing what to carve next!  so many choices!  today i happened to look over and spy this little house that i made over a year ago using some of the papers in my stash, and i decided to try carving some of my own artwork.  

so i made a copy of the finished artwork, reduced it, and transfered it to my stamp material.  this is the almost-finished-product...i see a few spots that still need to be touched up!

construction...beginning

dirt...plans...hope...patience...future...time...life...love...family...

dreams...creativity...more patience...togetherness...sharing... 

thankfulness...trust...belief...answered prayer...moving... 

new address...settling-in...house...home.

collage attempt

yesterday, i went to martha's wonderful little playhouse/studio, and she showed me how to do this collage technique that's outlined in kelly rae roberts' book, "Taking Flight".  if you haven't yet seen it, i highly recommend this book...it's filled with techniques and permissions to be the artist that you've been created to be.  i am very "collage challenged", and this was difficult for me, mainly because with this technique, success comes with trusting your intuition and not over-thinking each decision that you're making.  uh, okay....this type of work process doesn't fall anywhere within the four walls of the box that i'm happy to remain.  but, martha is a great teacher, and before i knew it, i had several layers of paper, matte medium and paint laid down on a piece of canvas board.  and just to inject a little of "me" into it, i outlined the house with a very thick line of black watercolor crayon. must...have...structure!  click on photo to enlarge

p.s. make sure to go to martha's site to see her fabulous collage!!

house butterfly

walther and i went for a sunday drive yesterday, and ended up in a tiny town towards the west coast of florida.  i love the big city, but it's always refreshing to be in a place where white picket fences line the front yard and people make eye contact and give you a smile.  as we walked down the street, we came upon this house, and the metal butterfly hanging over the front door immediately caught my eye.  i can't remember ever seeing a butterfly ornament on a house, but it makes perfect sense to me.  a house is always being updated, changed, transformed.  and so is the family who lives in the house.  our family has endured a lot of change within the past several years, and i'm sure that's why this has made such an impression on me.  our new house begins construction next month...time for me to begin my search for a butterfly. (click on photo to enlarge)

life happening...again

we moved into our new rental almost a week ago, and for the past several days i've been hearing this little voice nagging me to finish putting away all of this "stuff". the past two days have been studio time, but today was the day that i finally tackled the spare room/storage room...this is the room that we literally put in everything that we didn't know what to do with.  by the looks of this room, we didn't know what to do with a lot of stuff!   and as i've learned with most unpleasant tasks, you can't really think about it, you just have to do it.  so after a long day of hard work, i'm happy to report that i have paper and portfolios behind every door in the house,  there is no room left under the beds, and the goodwill pile has grown again.  so, nothing to creative to show today from my studio, but, finally, i'm starting to feel moved in. 

house book

tomorrow, we are signing papers that will make it official...we're building a house! i am so excited! i'm going to try to stay organized, so i made this book to keep all of those little bits of paper and paint swatches in order. i used ziploc bags instead of paper for the pages...i wouldn't want anything important to escape!