All Creatures Great and Small | Mixed Media Collage

 

I have been finishing up loose ends of projects that I started months ago.  

In the past few days I have had a burst of enthusiasm to make art. 

A common sight in my house during the day is my daughter at the kitchen table drawing a picture of her Care Bears or family.  Me sitting at the table nursing baby Desmond while working on an art journal page. 

I'm so lucky he's an easy-going baby.

Trust me.  I know what it's like to have a colicky one.

Three months of playing at the park, sitting outside while Daria plays in her kiddie pool, chatting with neighbors close by and meeting friends for lunch.  Summer really is a great time of year.

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Watercolor Flowers with Ink

I prepared the watercolor blobs ahead of time and took them with on a long car ride.  I added the black lines with a Pilot Varsity Fountain Penand some Sakura Pigma pens.

  

This was a big weekend!  We took our first car trip with baby Desmond to Chicago and we threw a baby shower for my brother and his wife, who are due in September.  I'm so happy that they will be having a baby also and Desmond will be able to grow up with a cousin his age.  We also celebrated my mom's retirement and cousin's graduation.

Also, you may have heard about the same-sex marriage ban being overturned in Wisconsin.  My sisters-in-law got legally married this weekend!  They had a commitment ceremony several years ago, but now it is legal too.  Their story made it on the news and you can read it here.  

Links to Share:

These gelli print collages make me want to get out my Gelli plates to make some papers.

52 Blog Post Topics for Creatives

I love the contrast between the bright watercolors and black inky lines in these artworks.

I finished a new edition of my E-Zine called Art Journaling with Kids.  You can download it from my store on TPT. 

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Watercolor Doodled Creatures

This little rabbit is my favorite.

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A Tag from SMCreations

On a Facebook group for artists, I helped a member recover her Wordpress site after it went down.  (Soon I will post a blog article about an easy way to do that.  When it happened to me, I had to search a lot of forums for the answer and play around with things.)  To thank me, she sent me this gorgeous artsy tag.  You can see her art at SMCreations.  Thanks, Michelle!  I love it.  :)

Every artist is an explorer.

"Every artist is an explorer."  Henri Matisse.

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Somerset Studio Gallery Magazine

I was super thrilled to receive an email that I was going to have an art journal published in the Somerset Studio Gallery magazine (Summer 2014 issue).  I had submitted this book over 2 years ago and I had pretty much forgotten all about it.  You can see all the pages in a video here.

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Springtime Flowers in Watercolor

 

Springtime flowers painted with watercolors, like these,

and outlined with the Pilot Varsity pen

 

Inspired by Alisa Burke's online workshop

Painted and Doodled Flowers

Flower journal page painted with a variety of acrylic paints and doodles on top. Inspired by Stephanie Corfee's workshop.

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Auction Total!

How awesome is this?  The art auction for #BringBackOurGirls raised over $3,900!

Thanks to everyone who participated, donated artwork or bid on items!   Thanks especially to Jessica Sporn for organizing it!

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These two...

These two..

keep me so busy

on my toes

completely exhausted

love them so much.

Bring Back Our Girls Art Auction

I am part of a group of artists who are putting on an online art auction TODAY to raise money for Girl Rising.

Go to http://www.32auctions.com/bringbackourgirls to participate in the auction!   The auction is ONLY FOR TODAY!

Here are the blogs of all of the artists participating:

Jessica Sporn   http://jessicasporn.blogspot.com
Linda Kittmer  http://lindakittmer.blogspot.ca
Ronda Palazzari  http://rondapalazzari.typepad.com
Marjie Kemper   http://www.marjiekemper.com
Judy Shea   http://thekeytomyart.wordpress.com
Glenda Hoagland   http://pilgrimsthoughts.blogspot.com
Astrid Maclean  http://astridsartisticefforts.blogspot.com
Lisa Pace   http://lisapace.com
Jackie Neal   http://creatingwithoutcrayons-jackiepneal.com
Claudine Criner   http://claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com
France Papillon   http://www.france-papillon.com
Kristin Van Valkenburgh  http://TwinkleTwinkleLikeAStar.blogspot.com
Marcia Beckett  http://marciabeckett.blogspot.com
Ruth Levy   http://lerusho.wordpress.com/
Sally Lynn MacDonald   http://www.SallyLynnMacDonald.com
Renee Zarate   http://renee-boltonhouse.blogspot.com
Natasha May   http://natashamay.blogspot.com/
Carmen Whitehead   http://www.serendipitystudiobycw.blogspot.com/
Seth Apter   http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/
Marybeth Shaw   http://mbshaw.blogspot.com/
Amy Ingardia-Walker  http://creativelyquirkyathome.blogspot.com/
Kelly Warren  http://happyshackdesigns.blogspot.com
Julie Bernier http://juliebernierphotography.zenfolio.com/
Adrienne Hoban  http://www.allure-decor.com/
Krista van Tol   http://craftylittlepigtails.blogspot.com
Cheryl Grigsby http://cherylspaperartz.blogspot.com
Jill Meyer www.jillmeyer.com
Lisa Flaherty http://mypeaceofpaper.blogspot.com
Kerry C. Mitchell http://kerrycmitchell.com
Lizabeth Harrington http://www.craicarts.blogspot.com; www.facebook.com/craicarts.com
Barbara Lanza www.barbaralanza.com
Jamie Dougherty www.jamiedoughertydesigns.com
Doreen Kassel www.doreenkassel.com ; www.http://doreengay-kassel.blogspot.com/

Bring Back Our Girls

Thursday, May 15, will be one month since nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped; it is rumored that they have been sold into slavery.  Can you imagine their anguish, and the anguish of their families?  It is unthinkable.

After weeks of this tragedy being virtually invisible, our government is sending some aid and many demonstrations have occurred.  The world is taking notice. Jessica Sporn put out "A CALL TO ART," and a lot of incredible artists are participating.  Here are the details:

 

So many amazing artists (including Ronda Palazzari, Kristen Powers, Marjie Kemper, Lesley Veneble and Judy Shea, to name a few) are participating in the online auction, which starts on May 15th at 7AM EDT, and ends on May 17 at 3PM EDT.  

Here is the artwork I am donating to the auction and here is the direct listing.  Bidding starts at $10 for this 9"x12" original mixed media collage on paper.

Layers of Color workshop

Thanks everyone who sent me messages of congratulations on our new baby, Desmond!  He is doing very well, sleeping a LOT and I am steadily healing. 

I still have a LONG way to go to get my strength back up.  A simple trip to Target just completely exhausted me yesterday.

I have not had time to make art since Desmond was born, but I have been watching some of the videos in Stephanie Corfee's online workshop.  She is so talented!  The workshop is jam packed with so many ideas it will take me all year to work through them I'm sure.  And, each one, I just want to create multiple artworks based on the lesson. 

The artworks in this blog post were made based on one of her watercolor lessons.  When I photograph my watercolor pictures I have a hard time making the pinks not look washed out and strange.  Any suggestions? 

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Art Journal Flip-Through

Here is a flip-through video of my most recent art journal!  I hope you enjoy it.  All of the pages can be seen on this blog or on my Flickr account.


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Waiting

Still no baby!  Just waiting...  It feels like the baby should be here now, although I am only about 37 1/2 weeks.  The last ultrasound had the baby measuring about 8 lbs 12 oz already.  This is going to be a big boy!

Last night I made some of these watercolor backgrounds.  I started watching Stephanie Corfee's workshop videos and she starts out very similar to how I do my watercolor paintings.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the videos.

NEW FAVORITE CHEAP PAPER!

I picked up a watercolor sketchpad called Kid Made Modern from Target for under $3.  The paper is 7.5" x 9" which is perfect size for sketching and art journaling.  I was SO impressed with the quality of this watercolor paper.  For kid's watercolor paper, it is pretty darn good.  My plan is to buy a few of these pads and bind them to make my own art journal.  The three smaller paintings in the background were painted on this paper.