Making a Splash...

Handmade Book

2009-12-26T10:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday it felt so good to create without the pressure - just for me. I found some cheesecloth at a hardware store the day before Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve Eve ?) and it inspired me to make a cover for this book I made filled with cardstock paper.

For the front cover I stitched two pieces of cloth together - one of which is a piece of muslin I had painted and the other commercial fabric picked up at a yard sale. The inside cover (above right) is watercolor paint over cheesecloth, which left a beautiful texture. I still have tidbits I want to add - maybe some text... And I look forward to filling the pages.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T21:08:00.000-05:00

Some Fun Marker Art

2009-12-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

A New Day, Fresh Inspiration, and What is Snow Cream

2009-12-20T13:02:00.001-05:00

Today's efforts turned out okay. I just painted without worrying about who would like what and who would receive what. I just painted - for me. I will give these as gifts and I hope that the receiver will like them, not because they match their taste in colors, but because they're painted from my heart. Bright colors and all - I can't match a person's house - I just have to paint what's inside me. And it felt good!

Now what is snow cream everyone is asking:

Well Snow Cream is simply snow mixed with sugar, milk, and vanilla flavoring. Better than ice cream :-) I don't measure so I don't know how much to add of each ingredient, I just get it to the texture of ice cream and flavor it to taste.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas SNOW!! And presents to make! And lack of inspiration!

2009-12-19T17:54:00.006-05:00

Yesterday and last night we got A FOOT (12") of snow!!! Christmas snow and in no small amount!!! I can hardly believe it!

I made my daughter her very first snow cream - yes, she is almost 14, but we haven't had this much snow in years!

our half-Golden, Zoey, belly deep in a foot of snow!

Snow cream in the works

All done in my Longaberger latte mug

Now for some Christmas Presentry:

I hope you can get some idea from these pictures - not very good photos.
I began these projects with much enthusiasm, inspiration, and time. Now I am down to the wire on all three. Christmas is next week for heaven's sake! How did it get here so quickly - I feel as if I skipped a couple weeks between Thanksgiving and now. I had so many ideas - things I wanted to make and give. And now I'm feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, rushed and rather frantic. I don't like feeling frantic. How can one create while feeling frantic? I've lost my Christmas joy and I must get it back! Tomorrow is a new day - still homebound in the snow, and tomorrow I will regain my joy, slow down, and enjoy myself. I am determined.

The week before Christmas ?!!?

2009-12-14T07:30:00.002-05:00

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house
not a thing put away, everything was in a mess...

I am making presents and wrapping presents, and my house is dirty and a total wreck. Saturday I shopped all day - I mean ALL day - literally 'til I dropped - with my daughter, my sister and my niece. What a great day! But oh, so tiring. Yesterday I slept late, took a long nap, and then went to bed early. Last week was THE BUSIEST week. Our Employee Appreciation Christmas Social at work - which I am in charge of planning - thankfully with the help of a fantastic committee of hard workers. For 400 employees! We served them breakfast and a lunch of homemade lasagna. A very nice event, I think, as it turned out - but oh, the stress of planning it and pulling it off!! This year wasn't as bad as usual. I had a wonderful, talented friend who helped loads with the planning and the cooking (also a member of the committee), and maybe the experience of being in this role for 3 years has paid off.

I did manage on Friday to do the little gouache painting above. Gouache, gel pen, colored pencil - overworked -I think you can see my tiredness and stress in it. But I posted it nonetheless. I also did the little marker drawings below on Friday - with a watercolor background. I did them after the one above, so you can see my tightness starting to ease a bit.

And this morning I thought I would leave you with a little photo of my tree decorations.

Merry week before Christmas everyone!!

Today's Journal Pages

2009-12-05T18:40:00.000-05:00

I did this 2-page spread this morning - the cups were torn from a Green Mountain Coffee catalog. Given my love of coffee and coffee cups I love these pages! They started as a reason to use up some yellow paint I had left over and "do something" to start my day.

Later it was time to decorate for Christmas with my daughter. She strung lights on the front porch all by herself!! I can't believe she is so grown up! She learned how last weekend when she helped my sister decorate - YAY for me. I didn't have to go outside and freeze. It snowed all day today - about 4 inches total accumulation - so beautiful and perfect when we were inside decorating. I wanted to remember this magical, memorable day, so I just completed the page below -- MAGICAL!

Merry Christmas!

A Blog Award - Thank you Ann!

2009-12-05T09:19:00.006-05:00

Ann (http://nemcoskyart.blogspot.com/) gave me a blog award!!!! Thank you so much, Ann. A nice surprise on a Saturday morning!

The rules are:I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word.

So here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone?… counter

2. Your hair?… expensive

3. Your mother?… sweet

4. Your father?… strong

5. Your favorite food?… Italian

6. Your dream last night?… foggy

7. Your favorite drink?…coffee

8. Your dream/goal?… growth

9. What room are you in?… living

10. Your hobby?… Reading

11. Your fear?… illness

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?…studio

13. Where were you last night?… Home

14. Something that you aren’t?… boring

15. Muffins?… Blueberry

16. Wish list item?… books

17. Where did you grow up?… North Carolina

18. Last thing you did?… eat

19. What are you wearing?… pajamas

20. Your TV?… quiet

21. Your Pets?… dogs

22. Friends?… precious

23. Your life?… fulfilling

24. Your mood?… relaxed

25. Missing Someone?… grandma

26. Vehicle?… snow-covered

27. Something you're not wearing?… shoes

28. Your favorite store?… bookstore

29. Your favorite colour?… bright

30. When was the last time you laughed?… yesterday

31. Last time you cried?… November ?

32. Your best friend?… Kim

33. One place that I go to over and over?… work

34. Facebook?… fun

35. Favorite place to eat?… Chick Fil-A :-)

Now I need to pass this on to five bloggers. Here is my list, in no particular order.

http://kathrynestelle.blogspot.com/ (Katy)

http://www.michellechappellphotography.blogspot.com/ (Michelle)

http://possumpatty.blogspot.com/ (Possum Patty)

http://patsytaylorcraw.blogspot.com/ (Patsy)

http://fromthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/ (Christie)

Ode to Flowers

2009-11-29T20:19:00.002-05:00

I am just about to burst to share this. I spent all day Friday and Saturday alone in the studio creating!! This collage incorporates a lot of my artwork - small backgrounds and little pieces - a lot of fabric pieces that I drew on with watercolor crayons. Such a fun piece!

My "Ode to Flowers" LOL

New Marker Art!

2009-11-29T20:05:00.001-05:00

5" x 7" 4" x 6"

Wanted to share some new marker drawings with you. I plan to use the one on the right in a collage (I think). The sale on markers (see earlier post) ends tomorrow; I'm thinking of going back again before it's too late and getting MORE MARKERS!! Somebody stop me! LOL

Alive!

2009-11-28T10:02:00.001-05:00

The daily quote from Blissfully Art Journaling's yahoo group is this quote! I am reposting this journal page spread from February 2009 in response to that! I love this quote, and I like how these pages turned out. So here they are again...

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman

Musings and Giving Thanks

2009-11-27T17:50:00.004-05:00

I was just looking back over a post from October when I was doing colored pencil drawings. (http://daloweartist.blogspot.com/2009/10/e-mail-to-friend-decided-to-share-my.html)
Although what I said in the post was true - I realize now that I can't put myself or my art in a box. I can't stick to just one medium - that's not how I work. I go through phases, lots of phases!

I recently hit a sale on markers - a mega sale - and I went hog wild with markers for a few days; then I might read a blog post or a book on collage and get excited about collage again for a while; I might miss splashing with watercolors one day and decide to do that...as you can see my blog is rather disjointed, but it's obvious when I look back through all the posts that I'm having fun; I'm discovering myself; and I'm playing! I am so thankful that I have a job that I love and that I make enough money to support all my playful phases and fancies. God has blessed me so much.

I was very overwhelmed and down Wednesday, and I finally realized that I needed to go straight to God with all my feelings - of course, the bad thing is that first I vented all my frustrations to a couple of friends and I regret all the things I said and the mood I was in...it's funny how one day life can seem so fantastic when just a few days earlier one can be so disheartened, critical, and grumpy. I'm thankful that God knows all about our moods and various "disorders", quirks, and idiosyncrasies and He loves us anyway. Psalm 139 - he knows when I sit down and when I get up and he UNDERSTANDS my thoughts - I love that. God understands!

I need so much work, so much refining...I pray that God will forgive my ungrateful heart, my pride, my critical spirit, my envy, my judgmentalism, oh how I need Jesus - I am so thankful that we have an Advocate, a Saviour, the Prince of Peace. I am so thankful for Jesus Christ and that because of His sacrifice on the cross I am God's daughter - think about it - a Daughter of the living God! Now that's something to be thankful for - something I can't even fathom! I've been Adopted into the family of God - forever! God is so patient with me, so full of mercy - I pray that He will continue to have mercy and grace as I learn to walk with Him and reflect the Character of Christ - I fall so very short.

I am blessed, truly blessed, and very thankful tonight.

I want to thank all of YOU who follow my blog, who read my posts, view my art, follow along with all my phases and play along with me. Your comments are so encouraging and it makes me so happy and fulfilled to share my art with you. I have had almost 6000 visits to my blog since its inception and that is incredibly rewarding to me. I can hardly believe it! Thank you all so very much.

Thank you for letting me muse and ponder tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend to all of you!

Painting Glass and Ceramics

2009-11-27T17:14:00.006-05:00

I have been busily and happily painting glass and ceramic pieces all day! Dots, dots, and more dots! Happy Day after Thanksgiving! Black Friday at its finest in my opinion - avoid the crowds, lines and sales and spend the day in the studio!

Today's Lunch Journal Spread

2009-11-24T16:18:00.001-05:00

Last night I went to sleep thinking about how I wanted to splash watercolors around in my Aquabee sketchbook. I grabbed my little Crayola palette filled with tube colors and headed out the door this morning. Finally, lunchtime came and I opened to a page I had already glued an e-mail and a tea bag paper into and drew my coffee cup - I never get tired of drawing this Longaberger Tomato colored coffee cup - however, I never feel like I totally capture it either. (Notice the coffee stains on the pages - I poured a little coffee from this morning out of the cup and sat it into it to purposefully make a stain on the page LOL) Once again, I feel as if I overworked the washes a bit. I want to lay down the color and leave it in is pristine, fresh state - but I can never seem to do that - I just keep going back into those first washes, dabbing here, dabbing there - until I have a mess and wish I'd stopped a long time ago!

What is great is the absolute JOY doing this journal page brought me!! I'm telling you, there is nothing like splashing watercolors to make my heart sing!! And it has been singing all afternoon since then. I have so missed my little palette of watercolors and my lunchtime watercolor session - I must get back into that habit. Hey, the Thanksgiving holidays are coming. I can splash away in my studio for the next few days! Happy, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

Word of the Day - Journal Page

2009-11-19T17:43:00.001-05:00

Today's journal page: word of the day - INFLUENZA
My daughter has the swine flu. The moment we've all dreaded...

I've been home from work with her today - I like how this page turned out.
The page on the left is from a dictionary - defining the word "influenza".
That's about all I've been able to concentrate on today.

We did have a very colorful start to our day - Grace's bowl of Trix - it was

so pretty I had to take a picture : Trix are for rabbits, not for kids :-)

We learned the truth of that as it gave her an upset stomach later. I was mad

at myself for letting her eat it. I offered to make her something for breakfast (honest),

but she didn't want anything I suggested - so we resorted to Trix - mistake...

The Accoutrements of my Morning at Work

2009-11-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Diana Trout's Journal Spilling - at lunch today, I glued all the papers from my morning tea and coffee and journaled about my morning here at work. My favorite coffee cup, my mouse, my phone... etc. Not exactly "art" to some, but oh it was fun! Such a release to do something creative and on such a rainy day when going out was not appealing. I used line and watercolor, stamping, collage - all the processes I love so much - in creating this. I'm pleased with the composition, the way the red ties it all together and most of all the FUN I had doing it. Thanks to all the wonderful artists and authors who've written such inspiring books!!! (Why the word accoutrements came to my mind, I have no idea - but here it is - the "trappings", if you will, of my day...) Happy Wednesday everyone - go create something fun!!

A Kid with Her Toys

2009-11-15T18:30:00.010-05:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Not because I haven't been busy with art, in fact, the problem is I've been too busy with art to blog. My mind has been whirling lately - positively teeming with ideas - my cup runneth over. Way more ideas and supplies than time to implement them. Isn't that usually the way of an artist...

So... remember my marker sale I told you about... well here are the results of not one but THREE visits to the store to take advantage of that sale. I also purchased this ArtBin to put them in. You must remember that I also have another, older selection of markers about half this size or maybe 3/4 of this again. A sickness, yes -- quite probably... BUT I have been using the markers - more results of which are below - small 3 1/2 x 5 drawings. And, oh, what fun I've had doing them!

Now -- a problem I've had with markers is their tendency to fade when exposed to light. In fact the fading was very bad - so my solution to this is pictured below - Krylon UV-Resistant spray.

I don't have any idea if this works yet, but I felt I had to do something to try and preserve the gorgeous color of the markers. I can't sell them until I know if they will fade away in a few months. I hope this works!!

Now -- for my newest passion - only days following the marker craze...

Glass Paint

I went out yesterday and bought glass paint and tons of glass and ceramic pieces from the thrift and consignment store. Rescued! to turn into art pieces! I plan to give most of these as Christmas gifts and would like to set up a display in the local coffee shop and sell them.

I started this about 2 or 3 years ago and then I got rid of all my glass paint reasoning to myself that I didn't have time or space for so many different art endeavors. Well, for the entire time since then, everytime I go into a thrift store and see glass pieces I feel this intense yearning to paint glass and regret that I got rid of all my paint. So finally after much arguing with myself I just DID it. And when I do something, I don't do it half-heartedly...

See this tub...

It's at least 3/4 full of glass pieces, mugs and saucers. Yes, I go all out - the whole hog! No starting out slowly for me. I want to paint glass, and paint glass I shall!! I have probably patroned my local art store this month to the tune of over $100! Not to mention all the book making and fun supplies I purchased at AC Moore and Office Depot on Wednesday last week during my fun day off.

I also dream of writing. I want to write a book - I don't know if it will be fiction or non-fiction. I thought Christian fiction and became really inspired after joining American Christian Fiction Writers - a yahoo group and voraciously reading Christian fiction. For my birthday a friend gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble and with it I purchased SARK's book Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper, which I've wanted for a while. SARK's writing is so colorful (literally) and so expressive. She combines her art and her writing by hand-writing and illustrating her books. I like that! I have a story to tell, I'm just not sure how to tell it.

I suppose it's all these passions and dreams that keep me alive and happy. I get so excited and then I tend to feel overwhelmed by it all - that's where I've been today. I tried to paint the glass pieces (pictured above) and couldn't get into it -- kept dropping things and making a mess... so I stopped for now and will come back to it later on when I "feel" like it.

I just gathered my bin of markers, my Derwent Inktense pencils, my Niji waterbrush, and my little pack of paper and walked into the living room. My husband looked at me shaking his head and said, "You're like a little girl walking in here with more baby dolls than she can carry. Bringing your toys with you and carrying them gently so nothing happens to them."

That's me -- a kid with my toys... I'm going to play now. Would you like to join me?

The Marker Craze Continues...

2009-11-07T08:45:00.001-05:00

You may remember the drawing below from prior posts - I had put it aside to think about the background and where I wanted to go with it in general. Then I rediscovered "THE MARKERS" and here you go - progress again.

It's a beautiful day and life is good --- God is good.

I CAN'T STOP!!

2009-11-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

I'm having more fun with my markers!!

A New Drawing Using my Markers

2009-11-06T10:05:00.001-05:00

Prismacolor Overdose!!

2009-11-05T15:03:00.002-05:00

Look at this!

A local art supply store is selling Prismacolor Art Markers for $.50 each - yes, 50 cents!!!! Can you believe that! I am so excited; like a kid on Christmas morning, or a kid in a candy store - good grief!! I bought all these - I went yesterday and today! Who can resist!! What's sad is, I probably owned this many again already - but 50 cents each!!!

Below is a little drawing I did using these and Prismacolor pencils.

I'm having way too much fun!!

Painted muslin and a Sketch in my Journal

2009-10-25T20:25:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday, 10/17, I cut pieces of muslin fabric in 5 x 7 or 4 x 6 sizes. I then painted and stamped and splashed and played all over them. I had the best time! I plan to use these in collage, books, etc. Not really sure what possibilities they have, but they sure were fun to do! I have a large stack of the cut fabric pieces and I can't wait to paint some more.

This evening I drew the 2-page spread below in my journal while my husband watched TV. I'm really enjoying working with the Prismacolor Art Stix - I love the bold strokes of color. In the upper left corner of the left hand page, I tried a zentangle - my first. I've seen them on blogs and wondered what it was all about and then I read an article about them in the most recent issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. I need lots of practice obviously. I just couldn't get into it tonight. I've had a dull but annoying headache all day. I did enjoy the sketching though.

I hope everyone has a great week! I have a busy day coming up tomorrow! Happy Sunday evening everyone.

Constructive Criticism Welcome

2009-10-24T18:54:00.005-04:00

I revised the painting on the left today. I didn't like the first version (shown below)

I welcome advice and critique. Constructive criticism. I think maybe it needs text, or more layers, but I can't figure out what to add or how to add it. Or maybe they are complete as is. ? Any suggestions are welcome.

Quote for the Day

2009-10-20T20:54:00.003-04:00

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.

~~~Kathleen Norris, Hands Full of Living, 1931

I recently joined the American Christian Fiction Writers Book Club group on yahoo. I am so enjoying myself! I used to labor over my reading trying to "perfect" myself with Christian self-help, classics, and other laborious books - forgetting to ENJOY myself. Mind you, Christian self-help has its rightful place, as do the classics and those laborious books -- but I have rediscovered the power of a good story to thrill, inspire, uplift, entertain, suspend, evoke emotion, and fulfill. Right now I am reading A State of Grace by Traci Depree and awaiting the arrival of It's Not About Him by Michelle Sutton (the book of the month for the book club). At the library tonight I checked out the first in the O'Malley Series by Dee Henderson. Now I'm off to see what happens next in A State of Grace.

Hopefully by the end of the week I can share what I worked on this past weekend during studio time with my favorite partner - my daughter.

Here's to a good book awaiting us at the end of a long day!

Happy Tuesday to all!

Saturday Evening Post

2009-10-17T21:44:00.002-04:00

This is my messy corner of the living room - books, books, books! Oh how I love books!

Speaking of books...below are a couple of two-page spreads in my SKETCHbook --- I did these just now while my husband watched VA Tech play football -- fun! This has been a very cool (cold actually) fall day (felt like winter actually). We accomplished a lot today - cleaning, organizing, getting ready for winter with blankets and sweaters.

Happy Autumn Evening everyone!