Switching Gears

Lately, I haven’t had much time for creative play…

And when I do, I seem to have difficulty switching gears in my brain from work to art!

I really liked this quote from Audrey Hepburn; when life feels overwhelming or impossible, I need to switch gears in my thinking…

How about you, how do you get past the impossible to the I’m possible?

Cheers!  🙂

A Keeldeer Bird

Perhaps you have seen a “Killdeer Bird” on a sandy beach?

Well, here is its cousin, a Keeldeer Bird…

The Keeldeer is also a shoreline bird but a bit shy.  Its beak is the shape of a boat “keel” hence its name.

Let me know if you see one at the beach this summer…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday! 

Cheers!  🙂

A March Square Project

Rather than cutting circles and squares for March’s Square Project, I decided to use my own gelli-printed paper with a circle pattern printed on it (bubble wrap).

I chose the paper weaving design that I showed you in this previous post from Helen Hiebert:  Washi Papers

And for the squares, I cut a pattern into the gelli-paper using an exacto knife to reveal more of the decorative paper.  I think it is more complicated to explain than it is to do! 😉

I like the colors in both of my papers for March…blues, greens, golds, browns and a touch of white and black.  Not my usual color combos…

Yet, they seem to play well with the other colors from December.

I wonder what colors and patterns April’s project will bring!

Cheers! 🙂

Note:  If you want to see my previous square projects, please look under the art category; A Square Project in the drop down on the right.  Thanks!

Have Your Cake And…

My MIL turned 85 years old yesterday! 😃  WOWZA!

So I thought I would repost this Diva bird since I’m taking a little break from blogging this week…

And be sure to eat a slice of cake! 🍰

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

YOU Can Be…

Just think of the possibilities…

If you started your day,

Being AWESOME!!  🙂

When Charlie at Doodlewash.com had an art prompt to create patterns in watercolor on March 3rd, I couldn’t resist!

So I got out my Ecoline Watercolor markers – which Charlie was giving away last summer on his blog (I won a few to try, pretty awesome I must say!) and I just started drawing:

 

Drawing colorful patterns, just makes me FEEL awesome, how about you?

Yesterday, I decided to cut out letters on the back side of my paper:

I forgot that I had to reverse the “S” but no big deal, I just cut out another one!

After I cut the letters out, I glued them into my journal and added some flowers with my hand painted papers.  Note:  You can’t see the cut into the center of the flowers or letters when you cut one continuous line into the center.

I had some text on my collage table and found this text, which made a perfect flower center:

 

I was thinking this would make a fun card for a friend by adding a special message inside a flower!

I outlined my letters and flowers with a black Micron pen and a little pencil shading to make them pop, as you can see with my photo on the right below:

 

Part of my inspiration for my lettering was the cover of Uppercase Magazine:

Be AWESOME today!

Cheers! 🙂

Plum Good!

Last week, I was given a box of  lemon plums from a friend.  He is out-of-town and gets a monthly delivery of fruit from Harry and David.

I loved the plum’s yellow color but I knew they weren’t ripe yet.  When I opened the box yesterday, I was surprised to see a lovely blushing pink color!  Oh, so beautiful!!

So I decided to make a pie!  I found a recipe and decided to give it a try… (I don’t make many pies…)

Which reminded me a little of my Weird Bird I made for my hubby’s Valentine last week; below are the “ingredients”:

I numbered the back of each collage piece and wrote a short message.  It was fun to mix the pieces together in an envelope for hubby to open and complete a bird:

 

It reminded me of making this pie yesterday…

Sometimes the finished piece is as fun as mixing the ingredients together…

I hope your day is plum good! 

Cheers! 🙂

Weird Monday?

I enjoyed creating with my hand-painted collage papers over the weekend.  Carla Sonheim gave us a fun assignment to cut out random collage shapes from our own painted papers with our eyes closed!  Who knew this could be so fun and freeing!!

This cat and mouse showed up first:

Then Louise…. Louise loved to dress with lots of color and patterns:

I just love Louise’s sense of style, don’t you?!

And lastly, this friendly beast made its appearance:

It is a Rhino-leaf-a-rear-as!  The children loved to ride this beast at the strange animal zoo…

I hope this silliness gives you a smile today!

Cheers! 🙂

Sea Art

I drew this Sea Urchin shell over my handwriting in the post I recently showed you here:  Your Handwriting As Art – Part 1  I used pencil, white gel pen, watercolor pencils and a black Micron pen:

This art sparked an idea to create these hearts:

I sewed them together with thread on my sewing machine.

I plan to write a short note on the back and give it to a friend.

What sparks your creativity?

Cheers! 🙂

A Hankering

Do remember wearing overalls?  I did as a child… they were sooo comfortable!

Today’s Weird Bird is a feathered farm boy bird!  (John Denver’s song comes to mind… Thank God I’m A Country Boy, um, Bird!! 

Hank had a hankering to wear his overalls today…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday! 

I hope Hank gives you a smile today…

Cheers! 🙂

Favorite Shoes

Do you have a favorite pair of shoes?

I had fun creating these shoes, inspired by Andy Warhol’s shoe art; you can see other shoe art I did here: The Power Of A Shoe…

I started by drawing shoes from the internet, making a simple stencil.  Next, I used the shoe stencil as my pattern on my hand-painted papers.

I experimented with hand lettering from an online class I’m taking from Andrea Joseph at Sketchbook Skool.

Lastly, I used the one of the shoe stencils to create this doodle and quote from Marilyn Monroe:

I hope you have happy feet today…

Cheers! 🙂