$5 Fifth Monday!

I have joined a team through Etsy called the Etsy Texas Crafters (yes, born and raised) and we are featuring $5 items for 24 hours! It's only on the fifth Monday, which is August 30th and I thought I'd share with you some very unique handmade pieces from other shops that taking part in this celebration.

  I love to laugh, so  first up is something that made me laugh. How creative is this?! This pair of minicards features two lovely vampires, made from old photos purchased at an estate sale, with red paint and fangs added.  I can see these being given before a date night with something "special" (wink wink) written inside. If you visit CynArt, you'll find someone who is uber talented at watercolor (ahem, unlike my last attempt!) and has such a great eye for design!

I love wallets...and this one fits the bill! It fits in your pocket yet holds a TON! Super cute design too. You can't beat that, especially for only $5! There's a bunch of different designs at The Yellow Roses to choose from, even sports themed! But if you want something a little bigger, there are bags too!

Mmm...I LOVE desserts of ALL kinds! This is making my mouth water!
 It's a soothing rice bag to comfort your aches and pains. It's flannel filled with rice that can be microwaved or frozen for pleasure. BooBooZoo has a wonderful assortment of sizes and designs that children and adults would love!

It's almost that time of year! I found these adorable ornaments and have my eye on them!  One of my favorite Christmas traditions is when my mom would give me a new ornament every year while I was growing up (and she still does...thanks mom!). This way I had a tree full of ornaments when I moved out. I have continued this tradition with my two youngest nieces and my god-daughter and I think they would love these! LavenderLizard has some very creative items...some even glow in the dark! Love it!

Do you love cats? I sure do! Not only is THIS cute, but the entire shop is adorable! Refabulous has a variety of items such as Eco Dryer Sachets, pencil bags, and more...all from recycled fabric.  You really must check it all out!

And here one of a few new listings from my shop, PaintedEasel. All my earrings are on sale for $5 for August 30th only, so stop by and check it all out.

Remember this is only for 24 hours so take advantage! You can search by using the tags teametsytx and ETC5 to find other great $5.00 items available from other CAST team members. 

Have fun!

Yay! They've Arrived!

I decided to order some business cards and after doing some research and getting recommendations from friends, I found Moo to have what I was looking for. 

I was able to make cards with different images on them and put all the text info on the back by itself (I didn't want text over my artwork). 

Plus I made them more unique by selecting "Mini" cards. They are half the size of a regular business card (and cheaper too!)

So here they are!!

 Isn't this the cutest little box?!

The two tabs in the back say "mine" and "theirs". So clever!

 Here are the five designs I chose. 

I tried to get a good variety. 

Back view. 

If you haven't heard of Moo, stop on over and check out their site. Good stuff! 

I highly recommend them!

Something I LOVE and Something I LOATHE

I really want to have a pretty blog. 

One that is clean, simple, and has pretty pictures, 

which makes me think I should only post artwork I love. 

But I don't always make artwork I love. 

Or even like. 

But I want my blog to show all aspects of my work too.  The process from beginning to end.

I don't want to give a false impression that I make pretty things All. The. Time. 

But I want a pretty blog. 

It's quite the dilemma!

So here I go....Posting something I LOVE and something I LOATHE.

Lets start with the pretty one first:

I have had artists block for a few weeks now (basically since I've been making jewelry) so I haven't done much painting. I though enough was enough! Pick up a brush and JUST PAINT!

So, I picked up a green bottle of paint and put the first layer on the canvas with a knife. 

Done. I painted. 

I stared at it and stared at it. 

NO INSPIRATION for days!

Finally I pulled out 4 fall colors and just made myself start to paint. 

I knew I didn't just want geometric & outlines any more and remembered that I really liked what I painted for my friend, so I started with inspiration from that piece.

  
Here is the final product....

12x16" acrylic on canvas

You know how there are those things in life that you love because it's your favorite color, or matches your room, or is just new? And then there are those things that you see, almost buy but don't, then regret not buying it because you can't stop thinking about it...you LOVE it...for so many reasons.

Well, that's what this painting is for me. A complete surprise of love out of un-inspiration.

------------------------

Then there was the watercolor I was working on at the same time.

Hideous!

I realize you think I'm probably being too hard on myself, and I could give you all these valid artistic reasons why it's not, but I'll spare you the boring details.

I wanted to enter the Illustration Friday topic of the week "atmosphere" and thought of doing something pertaining to the atmosphere of a room. Harry Potter was on the other night so I thought of the great dining room scene with all the floating candles. 

There are several problems with this idea. 

1. I am still learning to use watercolor. I'm not always patient enough to let it dry.

2. Because I didn't let it dry, the paint bled and merged like none other. 

3. It's really hard to make candles look like they are floating especially in a small sketchbook. With watercolor. When you are not patient. 

I need to work on my watercolor skills!

I repainted it 3 times and I still LOATHE it.
Eventually I gave up on making them look like they are floating. 

Here it is in all it's glory...

4x6" Watercolor on paper

I basically just gave up. Maybe I'll rip it up and use it in a collage!

(You might say you like it, but I know you're just saying that to be nice)

Circles in Watercolor

Here's my latest watercolor. 

5x7" on paper

Free Stuff!

Everyone likes free stuff. Right?! 

Because of that, I'm having my first free giveaway! 

You can choose between my watercolor paintings or any piece of jewelry. 

Click here to enter the contest and for more details.

 

The winner will be announced Friday, August 20th.

Good luck!

For a Friend

Here's a painting I finished this week for a dear friend.  

I matched the colors in their duvet to make even more personal.

24x36" Acrylic on canvas

Inside the Artist's Studio

Ever wonder what my studio looks like? 

Well, it's ridiculously crowded. 

And messy. 

Here's my desk at the moment. 

 It's pretty overwhelming. 

This is the only desk/surface space I have in my studio. I do all my artwork & crafts here with the exception of acrylic painting. But the problem is that I like to work on multiple things at a time. With my table like this, I don't have room to watercolor for a few minutes, then go back to making jewelry. 

So what I've been thinking that it would do is take out this old comfy chair I have in the opposite corner and move it to another room. Then I can put a little table there for watercoloring (did I just invented a new word?) or jewelry. Probably watercoloring though. It doesn't take up as much room as all the beads do. 

I'll show before and after pics when I get it finished.  

Now...to find a table...

Back to Painting

Here's a painting I finished this week for my Etsy shop.

I really got stuck on it for a while. 

The first layer was two different greens and it looked like grass to me. 

I just couldn't get past it for over a week. 

So I covered most of the green with blue and then covered the blue with the off white.

Circles outlined in black finished it off!

 18x24" Acrylic on canvas

New Jewelry Items

This weekend I was able to make some new jewelry to sell on Etsy.

I've listed the first two already. 

The rest are previews of what is soon to be listed. 

Bling

I had the opportunity to spend some great quality time with some girlfriends this weekend. During that time, one of the ladies taught the rest of us to make jewelry (she's super creative and crafty!). We were all hooked! I went out and bought all the supplies necessary this week, thinking it's another fun hobby and a great way to make gifts (we have a large extended family). 

So here's what I made for myself during craft time. 

(I think this cluster set is my favorite!) 

Usually the chains are too long on me (I'm really petite), 

so I tailored this chain to fit me perfectly!

I can't wear heavy necklaces without getting headaches, so I prefer light small necklaces & earrings. So I made a variety of small pendants to go on the silver chain I made or to fit on the gold chain I already own. Oh, I just realized there might be a couple more I made that aren't in this photo. They were just single beads. Nothing impressive. 

Now here's what I've been thinking about all week. Should I make jewelry to sell on my Etsy site? I mean, I have all the supplies so it'd just be a matter of making and taking pictures of it. 

I think it would need to be bright modern-ish jewelry to go with the paintings (as opposed to most of the jewelry above), right? Or could I list items like these?

 I really can't decide. I'm leaning towards yes, but I want to know what you think.

Illustration Friday - Artificial

I went to an art conference last week and we worked a lot with repetition and made our own stamps. So repetition, pattern and rhythm were on the brain for my Illustration Friday entry. 

Here's my train of thought...See if you follow. 

Artificial. Artificial sweetener. Eh. Artificial Intelligence. Computers. AI. Repetition of AI. Stamping is easiest. Make AI stamp. Oops...drew it out so it would stamp backwards. Start over. Complementary colors are always nice. I like blue and orange together. Must stamp darker on lighter. Orange washed background. Blue stamp. Like the repetition, but kind of boring. Want to keep it simple though. Computers. Hum. Information. Transferring info. How would the info get from one letter to the next? Solid and dotted lines. Need little bits of detail to break it up and add balance. I like squares. Seems like a computer chip. Green. Red. Yellow. No yellow! Not a stop light. But ew..not Christmas either. Green, red, and orange. Yeah. Placed around page to balance. Enough lines? Yep. Each letter has a line connected. It feels finished. 

I hope you like it.

5x7" Watercolor, Stamp, Ink