Three Ornaments

I have a bowl of vintage glass ornaments that remind me of Christmas past.  When my hubby and I have his family to our home to celebrate Christmas Eve, I like to decorate my table with these ornaments, bells and ribbons. Add a few candles and it makes an inexpensive yet festive table!

I was thinking about these decorations when I created these three ornaments today:

My ornaments and ribbons are Gelli-printed papers I made with acrylic paints earlier this year. I like how festive this looks!

Do you have a favorite holiday ornament?  I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Decorating!  😄

The Snow Fell Softly

The snow fell softly,                                                                                       Covering the forest floor                                                                                      With an artist’s touch.

Paper collage created with my own Gelli-printed papers and purchased handmade papers and sheet music from a vintage songbook for children.

May you find beauty in the quiet moments today…

Happy Discovering!  😊

 

S is for Sunflower

Today I will show you how I made my Sunflower on my wood block:

I started by making some sketches in my journal:

Next, I sealed my wood block with a coat of gesso.  After it dried, I drew my image on with a fine point black Sharpie marker:

Mixing Golden Fluid acrylics and Liquitex Gloss Medium, I painted my block yellow and then added some colors on my sunflower:

I wasn’t liking my colors real well, so I decided to paint it red and sand it:

I then added more paint:

And sanded it again:

I liked how it looked kind of old or vintage.  So I finished the back side by gluing a piece of scrap paper and a quote I typed on the computer.  I painted it so it looked old:

Next, I nailed small nails into my sunflower on the front and painted the nail heads yellow:

I also added an “S” sticker to the bottom left corner.

I finished it by attaching eye hooks to the edges and stringing a wire with a few beads for it to hang:

I will probably add a coat of varnish before I hang it outdoors…

I really like how the sunlight reflects the nail heads!

Hope you enjoyed seeing how I created my sunflower!

Happy Creating!  🙂

Welcome to my Block Party!

I have been busy working on my art block from last week’s challenge and look forward to seeing or hearing what you created too!  🙂

Here is my finished block – a Sunflower:

And on the back, I included this saying by Helen Keller:

Tomorrow, I will show you my process on how I did it!

Happy Creating!  🙂

Gregg Shorthand

I created this mixed media collage in Lynn Whipple’s online class, “The Joy of Collage,” last year:

It says, “Gregg could twirl like a top with 2 shorthands, he’d spin nonstop…

It makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Did you have to take shorthand in school?  I didn’t but I found an old shorthand book at a thrift store and it makes wonderful additions to my collages!

I created this other collage in Lynn’s class too:

I created it in memory of my mom.  It says, “Little bird at the window… tapping at my heart.”  I found my mom’s journal in her handwriting of the flowers she had planted in her yard.  One of the flowers was Forget-Me-Not.  It just seemed to appear to me when I created this collage.  I also used pages from an old school book.  My mom was a teacher.  The photograph is someone I do not know.

Hope these make you smile today!  🙂

Cheers!

It’s An Enchanting World

A friend let me borrow a book that was well-loved by her children, here is one of the illustrations:

It is very old.  It is called, “A Day In Fairyland,” illustrated by Ana Mae Segren and written by Sigrid Rahmas.  It was printed in Sweden.

Last year I took a drawing and painting fairy class from Val Webb and painted this fairy in gouache:

Her name is Ivy as she is peering out from the ivy!  I enjoyed painting her eyes especially.

This year, I took another painting class from Val Webb and painted this unicorn:

It is also using gouache.  I love the sky!

I enjoy painting the magical world of fairies and unicorns.  It is fun to use my imagination!

Happy Creating!  🙂

She Sells Seashells…

I collect vintage postcards.  This one has an one-cent US stamp on the back:

Last summer I learned to paint a crab and seashells from Fred Lisaius:

I found a photo online for the black starfish.  I used photos or real shells for ideas and the rest were imaginary.  It was so fun!

Fred is a very talented artist and a wonderful teacher!  I recommend you look up his work online.  He is teaching an acrylic painting class in July.  You can find out more from this link.

I hope to paint more seashells by the seashore (lake) this summer.

Happy Creating!

Sue’s Flowers

I painted a pot of flowers in watercolor this last weekend:

My friend, Sue has them growing at the lake.  I really like the color combination of flowers and colors:

I hope to paint some of my flowers too!  Here are some Impatiens I recently planted:

And a collection of old buckets – which make awesome planters:

I like these quotes on flowers:

Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom.  They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.  – Jim Carrey

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.  – Claude Monet

Wishing you a day of sunshine and flowers!  🙂

Hippity-Hop The Robin Goes…

There has been a male Robin singing loudly outside my window in the evenings, trying to attract a female.  I don’t usually pay much attention to the American Robin because they are so common in my area.

His loud cheery song prompted me to create this collage last night:

I looked at a photo of a real bird, a Robin and pasted a variety of papers together to create this bird.  I like his red breast, don’t you?

I often see Robins in our yard with their head cocked to one side, staring motionless at the ground, waiting for a worm.  Robins eat large numbers of earthworms in the spring and summer as well as insects and some snails.

Robins also eat an enormous variety of fruits.  In the late winter and early Spring, I see Robins eating the crabapples on our backyard tree.  I took a photo today of our crabapple tree in full bloom – so glorious!

I like the poem from this old book:

Hippity-hop the Robin goes,                                                                                 Skipping along on his dainty toes,                                                                                   Pulling up worms with hearty tugs,                                                                        Chasing and catching unwary bugs;                                                                              He has a lovely bright red breast,                                                                                       I think I love the Robin best.

May the cheery song of a Robin brighten your day!

Happy Creating!