Painted Ladies Canvas -

Finished up my girl canvas!!  The ladies were such fun to make and I'm tickled with how they look all together on the finished piece.  

The believe card comes from a set by Melody Ross and the words were written with Cosmo Cricket letters and held up with Tim Holtz Memo Pins (be careful - those babies are SHARP).  Some vintage lace and Me&My Big Ideas rub-ons finished up my messily painted background.

TRUST, FAMILY, LAUGHTER, CREATIVITY, LOVE, MYSELF - all good things to believe in.
Caleb - "Mom, Don't ya think it is pretty vain to put myself on there?"
Me - "Isn't it important for me to believe in myself though?"
Caleb - "You got a point there. . ."

Linking up to the Second Floor Challenge #3 - TRUTH.  

Did you know that Liquitex has spray paints now??  I just got my free sample in the mail the other day and am anxious to try it out - bet it will be awesome with stencils!

BTW - Do you see that the mass produced letter is addressed to "Dear Artist"?  Maybe now instead of answering to mom I should demand to be called "ARTIST" -
Caleb - "ARTIST - Why do I have to take a shower?"
Connor - "ARTIST - What's for supper?"
Perhaps when I show my next creation someone in my family will say - "That's nice, ARTIST".  Has a nice ring to it, doncha think??

Fingerpainted Flowers -

Messy, messy fun in the art journal - wanted to try my hand at fingerpainting flowers.  Wait for it - - "try my hand at fingerpainting" - har har!!  I'll be here all week . . .

The top page is meant to look like a patch of orange poppies on a sunny day.  However, my husband says they look like a bunch of peaches with their pits showing - sigh.  I believe a bit more success was met with the second attempt.

Here is my half-dried out palette - once the painted flower designs were dry and trimmed down for the journal, I decided to cut up the remaining bits into small strips for use on future projects -

The idea for fingerpainting flowers came from a recent Alisa Burke post where she made amazing work of her flowers -

The whole point is to try something new - It was fun, messy and quick - definitely something to attempt again on another day!

Linking to Show and Tell Saturday #25 - Artists in Blogland  and  Just Journals Link Party.

Punny Vegetable Ladies - Watercolored

The May Theme at The Sketchbook Challenge is Fruits and Veggies.  Since nearly everything I draw these days has a face I decided that veggie girls would be fun - what would veggie girls say to each other?

CARROT to POTATO - "I like your eyes."
POTATO to CARROT - "I like your hair."

They are very polite veggies with good etiquette - they've known each other since each was a small tuber.  Hence they are - "WELL GROUNDED FRIENDS" - (har, har! My husband, Corey, thought up that part)

Sometimes challenges make you draw funny things - I wouldn't ever have imagined my sketchbook would sport two talking vegetables.  I have, however, seen talking fruit - I have a 10-year old son - I've been forced to watch Annoying Orange!!
Linking to Art Journal Every Day - Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Paint Party Friday.

A Parade of Oddities . . .

Painted these odd little critters a few months back.  They were inspired by a tissue box - maybe they are germs?  I grounded them with some "aboriginal" type dirt.  Caleb's favorite is the green one - I am pretty partial to that guy too but I also like the wiggly tongue that I put on the blue dude!

Yes, I feel like these must all be male because they aren't pretty enough to be girls - 

Painted Ladies - unfinished . . .

The ol' blog has been pretty quiet lately - this has been a busy month with vacation thrown in for good measure.  I have been playing some and this unfinished canvas is my proof - I've been watching videos from Mystele of Little Glimpses Studio (Thanks, Janet for pointing me her direction) and trying to learn how to create faces with layers and layers of paint -

These ladies started out as random paint strokes on cardstock -

Some very rudimentary drawing was added with Payne's Gray (which is totally navy) - I would never have believed that you could ever start a face this way . . .

Next layer was a thin coating of Titan Buff . . .

Then I started adding several layers of paint - Titan Buff with Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber Light.

I ended up with these ladies - I was actually quite pleased with them although they seemed to be rather unhappy - I was tempted to finish the canvas with the name - "A Study in Angst" but then I decided that they really needed finished lips and eyes.

They make me happy now - if only I had time to finish them up - maybe this weekend I can work on it - - -
Linking up to - Art Journal Every Day and Paint Party Friday
BTW - I have been checking out ebooks from the library and reading them on the Kindle App on my cell phone.  I LOVE this so much!!  I was a person that swore to never own a Nook/Kindle - I like the feel of paper and the heft of a book but seriously - how amazing is it to carry a 800 page book in my back pocket?!!

PDCC128, CFC49, Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Watercolor Butterflies

Time for a Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge - I haven't done one of these challenges in what seems like forever.  At first I was definitely stumped with the trigger image - while I love the loose water colored look it was a little too loose for me.

I splish-splashed some orange and pink watercolors and then used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die to cut out some blooms.   This way I could enjoy the watercolor look in a more graphic, contained way.

This card also fits the requirements for the Play Date Cafe Challenge and loosely matches the sketch challenge from CAS-ual Fridays.

Sentiment, embossing plate and pearls from A Muse Studios.

Second Floor Challenge #2 - Use Something New

The Second Floor Challenge #2 is -
The challenge this time around is to use something from your art stash that you've never used before.  Whatever that means to you or however it inspires you.  The prompt is simply meant to get you started.  The level of challenge you aim for is entirely internal and up to you.
For me the something new is a white charcoal pencil.  LOVE the look against kraft paper (I love the look of anything against kraft paper!!)

Soon I am going to branch out from only sketching faces with pencil onto paper to trying to do some painting - I've hesitated because opening myself to the next step makes me nervous but that's what "she was open to possibilities" is all about, right?

Linking to The Sketchbook Challenge - April Theme:  Open.