The difference between a house and a home

"The difference between a house and a home is like the difference between a man and a woman - it might be embarrassing to explain, but it would be very unusual to get them confused.  

                     - Lemony Snicket

This girl started on a gelatin leaf print on paper from a childrens' dictionary with help from a Balzer Designs chevron stencil and a sprig of leaves from the backyard.  Stencils don't often show up with my girls but when one does it almost invariably ends up being this chevron stencil - love the clean geometric feel that it gives to this layout.

Linking to Paint Party Friday and

Art Journal Every Day

Abstract Flowers with Color Burst - Part II

Loved the first abstract flowers so much I decided to make another piece featuring Color Burst by Ken Oliver - not sure what those weird little seed things that are coming out of the one flower are. . . 

This one puts the pot on the opposite side of the paper.  My family is divided - two of us prefer the first one and two of us prefer the newest one - which one do you like best?

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Abstract flowers with Color Burst

During a recent jaunt around the Internet I discovered the gorgeous art of Sandrine Pelissier and in particular her abstract flowers.

Take a few minutes and look around her site and you will not be disappointed!  She has an amazing grasp of color and composition and the way she adds texture with inked patterns makes me so happy!!

For her flower pictures Sandrine has been using YUPO paper - I had some in my hands at Blick one day but then ended up putting it back on the shelf - guess I'll need to drive back to the store and pick some  up to play!  I ended up using regular cold press watercolor paper that I taped to my board before sprinkling with Color Burst by Ken Oliver and then liberal amounts of water to make the background.

I drew a design and then started to paint the background white but had problems with the Color Burst soaking through so I took a few minutes to spray a fixative on the background and then added a thin layer of Liquitex Matte Medium to seal everything in place.

Used a variety of spray inks to paint more intense colors and to differentiate the flowers, leaves and pot.  Finished up with my favorite part - the ink work with gel pens and black markers.  Doesn't look anything like Sandrine's flowers but I am still tickled with this piece!!  The bright cheerful colors are a great way to welcome spring on Saturday!
Linking to Paint Party Friday and
Art Journal Every Day

Any hints on how I can straighten up my warped paper??

ETA:  Had so much fun with these flowers that I made some more - check them out here.

The Dreamer

Linking to Creative Every Day

Price tag girl

I had drawn an ATC girl and tossed her on the table where she fell on a price tag from something that my son had bought - couldn't resist that pop of orange!

Linking to Paint Party Friday and

Art Journal Every Day

Bike riding in the moonlight

Can you tell what the background of this girl is??  I see a lot of artists using security envelopes in their collage work so I thought it would be fun to use it as a background for a girl doodle. 

The best part of all is when I was done and folded up the envelope - look what I found!!

It was a total surprise to see her peeking out the window - I couldn't have done that on purpose if I tried!!  Made me so happy that I worked on finding a book quote that would work for the front and inside of the envelope.

Linking to Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

The mysophobic

Her issues with mysophobia caused her to stick to a rigid set of rules.

Linking to Paint Party Friday and

Art Journal Every Day