Ready to play in the stash!

Hi everyone!

Not much time to write today...I am going to play in my stash!  Today I feel like I need a reminder of all of the fun things I have to use in creating my artwork, so I am going to follow that feeling and play!  Plus, it will be a good time to see if there is anything I can pass along to someone else to use (a good "win-win" for everyone...someone else gets to find something fun and I get to have more space to add more fun things myself!).

So, I wish you playtime of your own today...even just 10 or 15 minutes can do a world of good for your soul.  Remember, if you don't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anyone else or really enjoy this wonderful journey called life!

I'll leave you today with one of my favorite pictures on the shores of Washington State...when I am not in my studio playing, this is where I would wish to be playing (although pretty much any beach would do, as long as it isn't hot!)!

Happy days to you!

Progress...and then...eeeewwwww!

Greetings all!

Well, I made a little progress with some of my texture and newspaper projects.

Here's the texture project with the first layer of brown paint:

And a close-up:

And here's the completion of the first layer of newspaper on the canvas:

And a close-up of what words I'll be focusing on in the first layer of newspaper:

You know how the earth shifts when you come to a new realization or finally understand something you didn't?  That's the kind of "earth shifts" I am thinking of, not the bad kind (earthquakes and other dangerous things).

All seems to be moving right along, right?  Well, it was until I put another layer of Mod Podge on the texture piece.  I thought I would do that before I put more paint on top (with the intention of wiping some of it away) so that the paint colors wouldn't mix.  I felt like I needed a lot of the Mod Podge, so I layered it up good.  Turns out, I didn't need so much.  When I came back to the piece after several days of drying, I found a milky mess:

Eeeeeewwwww!!  Now I need to repaint over this nastiness.  I can't let that milky mess remain.  It's just too...eeeeewwww.  Oh well...lesson learned...I don't need so much Mod Podge!

In looking at all of these brown and black and white pictures, I feel like I need to share something that isn't quite so...well...brown and black and white.  Here's a picture of some of the pink roses that bloom in our yard:

Gorgeous!  You have got to love Mother Nature and all of the beauty she provides us!  I feel grateful I get to see so much of it as close as my backyard.

So, until next time, remember that sometimes too much of a good thing is indeed too much!  Have a great week everyone!

Even more texture!

I'm playing with texture again with the stuff I started last week.  First, I took this glass beads texture gel and the plastic doily I showed you last week and made a fun mess.

By fun mess I mean I took a spackle spatula and spread the glass beads texture gel over the top of the doily as you see it in the picture above so that the impression of the doily was left on the canvas.  Here is how it looked wet:

And here it is dry:

The doily impression is harder to see than I thought until I put paint on it (I'll show that in a minute).  I wanted more texture, so I took the same doily and did the same process as I did with the glass beads texture gel with fiber paste instead (upper left in the overhead picture below).  I also Mod Podged some paper doilies on the canvas, too:

Close-up of fiber paste doily impression:

Close-up of paper doily Mod Podged on:

I am not sure how the fiber paste will turn out, but that's okay.  That's half the fun!  I suspect, as the paste left quite a few peaks through the doily, that I will have to sand it a bit once it is dry.  I'm not sure I want the peaks to be quite as high as they are right now.  I'll know more when it is all dry.

As I said above, I added some paint to the glass beads texture gel doily impression (wow...that's a mouthful!) and it became much easier to see the impression:

Supposedly the glass beads are supposed to give the paint a certain sparkly quality to it, but I am not seeing it.  That's okay, though...I like how the texture of it and that, for this piece, is what counts to me.  I'm not sure I like the paint color, but it is a start.  I can always Mod Podge over the paint and paint again with another color.  

I also took the glass beads stuff and piled it into a leaf cookie cutter onto a tiny canvas.

Here it is dry:

I then am going to add layers of paint over the top...here is my first layer:

I'll Mod Podge between each layer of paint to stop them from bleeding into each other and creating a brown mess.

And finally (yep, I HAVE been busy!), I am playing around with adding layers of newspaper to canvas in a unique way...you can't really see it now, but it will be unique by the time I am done. Here's the first layer:

I know you can't see it, but there is a canvas under there.  I used the New York Times for this layer and will for other layers, too.  I'm also using The Wall Street Journal.  I like the fonts they use better than my local newspaper.

Well, that's it for today.  More will follow later!  Until next time, be you and no one else.  You are perfect just the way you are!

Texturize!

Howdy folks!

It's time for a little texture here...something different, something bumpy, something good.  So, I'm starting a new piece by Mod Podging some cheesecloth on a canvas, as well as a piece of shelf liner.  Here are the materials I am starting with:

A big ol' blob of Mod Podge:

Cheesecloth and shelf liner Mod Podged on the canvas:

A close-up of the shelf liner and cheesecloth:

Once this dries, I'm going to take the plastic doilie you see in the first picture and some sort of fiber paste (or something similar) to smear over the top of it while on the canvas to make the doilie impression on the canvas, too (I know, I know...it doesn't make a lot of sense right now, but I'll show you how I do it).

Simple stuff, but lots of fun with some really great texture.  Not sure where it will go from here, but that's half the fun!

Until next time, enjoy yourself...summer is all too short!

New fun this summer

I am excited...a few days ago, I signed up for an art class that will go from June 2 through November 2 at bravegirlsclub.com.  It is called the Art School Summer Fun package, and I am hoping this class will help jump-start some much needed creativity and fun in my life.

You see, I am experiencing difficulty with work/life balance right now (work is winning) and thought that something new and fun in my "real life" might give me a little more incentive to work on the balance thing and not let work win all of the time.  While I love my work and the people that I work with, I am ready to have a little balance back.

I am also looking for a good on-line photography class to help with taking pictures indoors.  My outdoor shots seem okay, but the indoor ones leave a lot to be desired (in my mind).  If you know of any, let me know!  Otherwise, I'll let you know how my search goes.

Until next time, I wish you balanced and happy days ahead and that you'll be busy doing things you enjoy like the little bee below!