mixed media bird

i am in a FB group that does art swaps and there is a smaller group of us that are called "angels" that assist when someone did not hold up their end of the bargain on the swap. i was asked to assist and make a missed swap- and this little bird is one of those....... there was someone in our group that did not receive their feathered friend. this little bird is already on its' way to her new home.

I love the fluffy yarn with trailing strings! i think i did have some other nice details on my bird. one was to hand stitch her fabric beak and another of those was to hand stitch on the edge of her lace tail. i did machine sew the lace on first and then went back over just the edge to tack the edge and a few other missed edges.

the other nice detail was the wired feet.....those make me smile. i used two different types of "ribbon" for her legs....one is a fabric tape measure and the other a cotton ribbon.

i did not want to hang her and have to attach some sort of wire or anything else to her head or back so i decided she needed to sit and added a tab on the back so she would not tip over.

her body was made from heavy 300 lb watercolor paper that i cut out the main shape of the body and started from there. her wing was made from another another type of lace. i spritz that wing with my dylusion spray ink to add a splash of color.

happy thursday!

news...

when i had gotten home from work yesterday i had learned that the very talented Mindy Lacefield had used my stamp in her video post. she used it in a very creative way.......Do you know Mindy? i bet you have seen her girls- always adorable! check out Mindy's blog post and watch her work through her process. LOVED IT!

so honored... thank you, thank you Mindy!

happy tuesday!

out and down {art journaled}

i had a day last week....you know the kind- at the end of the day you are mumbling under your breathe; talking through the situation (to yourself of course).....i had one of those. it was again, a classic case of miscommunication of a situation.

so what does any good artistic person do after a long day at work? she goes straight to her studio after a change of clothes to do some art journaling and get this out of her head and onto some paper. the kind of journaling that you let all of those true feelings out.....all of the colorful, miscommunication of the situation. and when the page is full and you have painted over most of it- you go back in with the white pen over the top to finish up and get those straggling comments still lingering in your head out and down.

shared.....happy monday.

I was able to fix my postcard transformation video (with a little help from our youngest son.....)!! Take a peek to watch my process of transforming the Artpops card into the above mixed media postcard.

happy thursday!

one thing...

do you ever feel  a bit off for some reason? not quite focused on exactly what you are supposed to be doing? you can't quite put your finger on this limbo of life, but, you are off just a bit. feeling the need for some studio time to right this off-balance and find my one thing.

xo......

postcards

a few of you had asked for a video and i was hoping to deliver.....although my editing skills are not exactly tip-top (clearly.....as this part took a long, frustrating while)- so you can imagine how disappointed i am when i was hoping to share my video this morning and let you watch my process- but after watching my video when it was posted to youtube and it was not good and i had to pull it....sorry.

i will have to try again.

love the pink and mix of collage and stamps.

i used Roben-Marie's Artpops cards again as the base and worked over the top with collage, paint and my new Dream Thicket stamps. both the cards and stamps are available at Paperbag Studios.

happiness....

just for you....happy thursday! 

thanks for taking a moment and stopping by!

two-for-tuesday (postcards)

i have been so enjoying using Roben-Marie's Artpops cards to create my own postcards. the Artpops cards provide a jumping off point instead of starting with a blank white card- if you were to look close- there are hints of the original card underneath my layers.

the rubber stamps used in each are part of the dream thicket stamps of mine available at Paperbag Studios by Roben-Marie.

two-for-tuesday....happy tuesday!

lessons

a few shorts weeks ago i took some time and went to art class. our instructor was a watercolorist by the name of Mark Mehaffey- very talented gentleman who told great stories. i managed to snag a pic with him after a lesson.

i really like going class as it is always good to hear the fundamentals again (and maybe a different way than i have hear before). some of the concepts are easy to pick up on and other things are more difficult.

the class was watercolors and i don't always paint in watercolor- mainly because i have a hard time mixing colors and getting what i want and understanding what is a light, medium or dark.

day one we started with a sketch and value study (which i am finally getting better at)- but, then i am supposed to transition into color and that is when the whole thing falls apart. except....this time, i did understand maybe just a bit more. i had heard that concept enough that my brain finally understood what the heck i was supposed to be doing. (thank goodness.......) these are a few pics from Mark's lessons.

here are the results from my lesson (this was actually my second value sketch- as my first one, i missed on....again.....):

day two and three were abstract painting. here is a sample- i like the layers and small details.

happy saturday!

Postcards

i love the look of this edge....

working off of Roben-Marie's ArtPop cards as the base to make all of these postcards. the ArtPop cards and Dream Thicket stamps are both available here at PaperBag Studios.

 i used watercolor to tint the card pink and started with a man's face from a magazine; but, he was a bit too masculine still- even with his pink cheeks and lips- so i found the eyes and added those. 

not into strange creatures? how about abstracts?.....

maybe a fairy?

happy tuesday....

#DreamThicket {more samples}

would you like to see more?.....need your own set of stamps? the stamps are available at PaperBag Studios here!

mixed media piece-watercolor, acrylic, stamping, sewing....this vintage paper reminded me that it sometimes can be very fragile; but, i so loved the look and feel of this.

and what can i say about owl?.....he is just so darn cute! i added a few extra details to him which was so much fun. this was in an art journal that originally was a blot off of a stencil- if you see the pink polka dots showing through- that was a very wet stencil that i blotted off into my art journal to use as a jumping off point- which was perfect!

happy thursday!