Cranberry Cloud

I have made a very dear artist friend through the world of blogging. 

Her name is Laurel Martin and she owns Cranberry Cloud. 

I highly recommend checking out her ArtFire & Etsy site and purchasing a piece. You won't be disappointed!

I had asked for one of her mixed media pieces for Christmas and I was just thrilled today when it came in the mail!

It's even better in person and even the envelope is stinkin' adorable! 

(the names have been blurred to protect the innocent)

I am so excited to find a frame and hang it right above my desk where I sit and make art. 

Such wonderful inspiration and something beautiful to look at every day!

Thank you Laurel! I absolute love it!

(and thanks to my wonderful husband for the great gift too!)

Plastic Bottles

We've been working in class using colored pencils on toned paper to draw clear plastic bottles. 

Here are my examples. 

Can you guess what the bottle is on the left?

I didn't have time to finish it because the bell rang and the student wanted to take her drink. 

Really? Didn't she know I was in the middle of a masterpiece?!

The water bottle is complete though. They are on a 9x12 piece of brown paper.

Illustration Friday - Mail

I was so excited to see that the topic for Illustration Friday was "Mail".

Very appropriate considering today is my birthday and I've gotten 

such sweets notes and messages. Thanks everyone!

Made a New Friend!

I made a new friend a couple weeks ago.  

Christie Cone

We both volunteered at a craft show and ended up welcoming people at the door together. 

We had coffee today and she helped teach me the ways of the craft/arts business. 

She sells handmade ceramics. Both functional and decorative. 

Her nativity sets are super adorable!

I encourage you to check out Christie Cone's work. You won't be disappointed!

I'm off!

I'm off to the craft show! 

Wish me luck!

My First Craft Fair

I've signed up for my first craft show this Saturday! 

I am so excited but nervous at the same time. There's a lot to do to get ready for one.

I have list after list, but things are slowly but surely getting checked off! 

I'll be there Saturday, Dec 4th. Stop by and say hi!

Illustration Friday- Sneaky

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the prompt for this week was my kitty.

She thinks she's so clever. 

Every morning when I step out of the shower I see her trying to sneak her little paws under the door to grab my clothes or feet. Little does she know I think it's adorable and I intentionally play along!

2.5x3.5 Colored Pencils

Illustration Friday- Burning

2.5x3.5 Mixed Media

Right now I really feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends.

In the middle of the candle is everything keeping me busy and distracting me from precious sleep.

ArtFire Collection of Warm Colors

May These COLORS Help to Keep You Nice a...

Curated By: ByBonnie

ArtFire.com

Indie Design

Electrician's Tape

This is a one hour drawing I did with my students of black electricians tape to have them practice drawing from observation and pencil shading.

3.5x2.5" in pencil

For Kaily

My sister is in town and today with my niece (who is 7 months old) 

so I made this adorable onsie for her with the new screen print process I learned.

The first attempt was not so successful, but this one turned out better.

Another friend will be joining us for dinner who has a baby boy (about a year old) so I made this for him too. I didn't want him to feel left out!! Like the one above, the first attempt was awful, but this one was much better. The blue paint was much thicker than the pink and had a harder time going through the screen. I looks a little better in the picture because the edges aren't super crisp, but it'll do.

What an Honor!

This was such an honor!

Something New

I took the coolest class this week where I learned how to screen print. It was awesome and super easy!

I made a shirt last night for my husband that includes two of his favorite things (besides me of course!): The Dallas Cowboys and the TV show Lost.

The design was not our idea (kudos to you, Mr. Designer), but I printed it on the shirt myself.

He wore it to the game today. 

It was something different for sure!

A Visiting Artist

I got to use Skype in my classroom for the first time yesterday! Laurel Martin was so kind to be our visiting artist for the day (she lives in Canada, so a plane trip was not an option!). We had some trouble with the "reception" and had to call several times to get it to connect, but eventually it worked out. She did such a wonderful job giving demos about different altered book techniques and lots of cool tips & tricks my students (or I) hadn't thought of. I can't wait for them to apply the techniques so we can send her pictures of the artwork. 

Thanks again Laurel! It was awesome!

My First Art Fire Collection

ArtFire.com has a way of making groups much like Etsy's Treasuries, but they are called Collections.

In Etsy, I could only link to the treasury, but with ArtFire, I can actually post my entire collection here for you to see in all it's glory.

My sister-in-law's birthday is coming up and I was searching for something wonderful to get her. I looked through the gift guide on ArtFire, but she likes such unusual things, that I decided to put together my own collection of things she would like. Maybe this collection will help out others who have a friend or sister like her.  

Gifts My Sister Would Like

  Curated By: PaintedEaselJ...

ArtFire.com

Unique Gifts

Ta Da!
How cool is that!?!

What do you think?
Would you like any of these items?

Drawing Glass

I was subbing a class today and they were drawing glass.

I had never attempted it myself, so I sat down and gave it a shot.

 Used Prismacolor pencils on brown paper and they are very small (3"x2").  

I'm not sure which one I like better.

What do you think?

Illustration Friday-Spooky

A cat, hat and bat all flat on a mat. 

Oooo Spooky!

Watercolor  2.5x3.5" 

Illustration Friday - Transportation

I had the day off and found the time today to make ACEO's for Illustration Friday.

Initially I thought about my feet being my number one mode of transportation and I knew I wanted to make a collage. While I was looking through a magazine, I found an awesome page of individual pieces of cereal. I instantly saw a car flash through my head.

So I decided to make them both. 

Here is my shoe transportation and my cereal car transportation.

Which is your favorite?

Collaging Technique Video

My students know how much I love Nev'r Dull. 

It's a metal polisher that I find in the auto department at Walmart.

Sounds strange, I know, but it's awesome for manipulating magazine pages. 

I look for any excuse to use it!

Here's a video I found Empty Easel on how to use it.

You can find a couple of my finished Nev'r Dull pieces in this blog post. 

I'd love to see what yours looks like!

Altered Book

I have recently been intrigued by altered books. I currently have a student observer who showed me some cool new stuff I could do with my book. 

This is a new technique she showed me. 

Here's the second attempt, which turned out much better than the first!

I used an xacto knife and cut out my rose. Then I used watered down white glue and glued tissue paper to one side. Let it dry for a couple of minutes and then fold the tissue paper over to the back. Trimmed off the excess and tad-ah!  

A wonderful silhouette!

In the last picture you can see the thinness of the tissue paper with the ruler under it. It looks even better in real life because you can see the words on the next page barely through the tissue paper. 

Try it...it's super easy!