inspiration monday

close your eyes and you will see a place, a 75-year-old bungalow with gingerbread molding and a white porch swing.  as you enter, you notice two red leather chairs that you could spend the rest of your life in situated next to the fireplace, beautiful hardwood floors that squeak in just the right places, antique furniture, and walls and shelves lined with gorgeous artwork created by its owner.  as you open your eyes, you realize that this is a real place...the red door studio...lovingly owned and operated by artist, martha lever.  i've been blessed to have known martha for over fifteen years, and she inspires me every day.  she spends many hours at the red door studio daily, creating beautiful poppies and her "girls" using watercolor, acrylic or oil...and uses each medium with much skill and success! i truly do not know anyone who can accomplish more in one day than martha can...follow her blog, and you know what i mean!  i'm in constant awe of her energy and passion.  and, that element of sweetness that you notice in her artwork is not by accident...martha's love for the Lord is seen in each piece that she does, and many times, a favorite scripture is the focal point.  

a few days ago, we celebrated martha's birthday (woo hoo!), and i can't think of a better occasion to also celebrate her artwork!  martha, your friendship is such a blessing and your artwork is fabulous!  you truly inspire me! :)

to see other wonderful artwork and inspirations, please visit martha at her blog here...and her etsy shop here!

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.

time - inchie style

i've named this piece "time square".  here's how you can create this....grab a stack of catalogs and your one inch punch.  start punching out objects that interest you.  before you know it, you'll have a theme started.  if you're like me, you'll end up with a big pile of one inch squares in no time!  to make them sturdy, i use a glue stick to adhere them to card stock (some catalog papers can be quite thin).  then, just start "organizing" them,  and embellish as much or little as you want.  voila...inchies!  i'm sorry about the poor photograph...i had "glare issues" because of the paper! 

online journal class

i've been taking an online journal class with sue bleiweiss, and i've just finished my first project.  this week's lesson was a fabric journal with a wrap-around cover.  there are three signatures inside that i decorated using various papers and stamped images.   there's also a fabric pocket on the inside cover to hold important papers.  i really enjoyed this project...i've been making so many hardcover blank journals lately, it was great to do something fun and different!  i think that my favorite part was "decorating" the inside pages and i'm going to try to do more of that in future journals.  for a peek inside this journal, check out my flickr account here.  let me know what you think!  

inspiration monday

a while back, i discovered  "jellybeans", a fabulous, colorful etsy shop, created by artist angie vandenbogaard.  when i first came upon angie's artwork, i found myself staring at it...for a long time.  i really admire anyone who can take a simple subject, such as an apple tree, and put a completely different spin on it.  and, she does it so wonderfully.  i'm so inspired by angie's intuitive nature and brilliant use of color.  and what makes it so successful is her incredible talent for balancing it all!  

they say that our attitude is revealed in our artwork.  in her own words, angie proves this to be true:  "I like to think that I live a very positive life and i feel that it reflects in my work.  I believe that not everything necessarily has to be so complicated and overworked all the time - that simplicity with a dash of color can be beautiful and refreshing."  

angie, i couldn't agree with you more...and you truly inspire me! thanks so much for sharing your beautiful artwork with us!

you can find many other items of inspiration here at angie's etsy shop, jellybeans.  and please visit her artsy blog here