guest blogging

Hi! I'm guest blogging on Soft Flex Company's blog today. Today's post is a little about me and my background in design. I will be posting there monthly about small business tips for design, marketing and motivation. Hope you will join me!

painting in progress: scooby

Scooby 5-9-2010

I ended up removing his front legs during this session. I was having a hard time getting them right so, I decided it was best to clear the canvas and start fresh. I think I may need to position them back a bit further then I did originally. Hopefully it comes together.

Here is my little artist who joined me during this painting session.

intuition and things my mother has taught me

I painted this picture frame for my mom for mother's day (it will be mailed soon, I promise)! I wanted a frame that matched the feel of the family photo we are giving her and something I know would feel at home in her decor so, channeled the creative every day theme intuition as I painted. Here's the end result ...

My mother has been so important to me throughout my life. I respect her strength and wisdom and feel honored to be her daughter. I'd have to say the most important things that my mother has taught me are:

• Be generous.
  
• Live in the moment.
  
• Carve out time for yourself.
• Family comes before everything.
  
• Be social and spend time getting to know people.

Thank you mom, I love you! xoxo

To see what others have been working on this week for the intuition theme, click here.

"sweets and treats" + a giveaway!

As I posted last week, I made an ice cream necklace for East Valley Artisans April theme exchange of "sweets and treats". This month I was the lucky winner of the adorable little ice cream sundae earrings by Trish (see #2 below). Since ice cream is my all time favorite treat, I love them! Tonight, I wanted to show off all the exchange pieces made. Everything was super cute. I mean, really, really super cute. Take a look:

1. Box of Donuts by Jeannie - Jean's Beads
2. Ice Cream Sundae Earrings by Trish - Little Silver Stars
3. Ice Cream Sundae by Jeannie - Jean's Beads
4. Ice Cream Necklace by me - Creative Stash
5. Candy Necklace by Melissa - The Silver Nest
6. Cupcake Necklace by Kandes - Kandes Lee

Don't miss the jewelry giveaway on our EVA blog ... Only 5 days left to enter! A winner will be chosen on May 10th!

East Valley Artisans is a varied mix of artists from painting to paper to sculpture and jewelry. Please support our economy, support local business, support our artists. Become a fan on Facebook!

magnet sets and party favors

I have been creating magnets sets from recycled bottle caps and art prints of my paintings. They have been met with such enthusiasm that I can barely make them fast enough! As soon as I run out of supplies I seem to have a request for more. This is good thing! It makes me really happy to know my little art print magnets are bringing a smile to people's faces and a little joy to their fridge all while recycling too!

My niece is making her First Holy Communion this weekend and my sister in law decided my bottle cap magnets would make a great favor for the party guests. So, I ...

packaged up 50 individual magnets into mini white organza bags

designed and printed favor cards

and viola, sweet little party favors!

You can now find these magnet party favors as well as the magnets sets for sale in my etsy shop.

To my friends and family, thank you for all the kind words, support and orders! It is so very appreciated. Love you! <3

monthly goal meetup

It's a new month which means it's time for the monthly goal Meet Up at Athena Dreams. The Meet Up is a monthly goal sharing group.

Here were my April goals ...

1. add magnets to etsy shop - added 4 magnet sets and 3 ice cream necklaces!
   
2. create & package up 50 magnets for communion favors - 50 magnets done just need to wrap up packaging
   
3. continue web site freelance project - in progress
   
4. buy art materials for new products: copper pendants - done
   
5. scooby painting (my first ever pet portrait) - in progress
   
6. get to the gym 3-4x a week and get moving in some way the other days - blah!
   

And here we go into May ...

1. create & add copper necklaces to etsy shop
2. blog about magnet favors & add option to etsy shop
3. blog about wedding invitation designs & add samples to etsy shop
4. get started with quickbooks!
   
5. continue web site freelance project
6. continue scooby painting (my first ever pet portrait)
   
7. get to the gym at least 3x a week!
   

Wishing everyone a creative and productive month!

painting in progress, scooby

Scooby, 5-2-2010

I finally got out into the studio today for some painting! It had been almost 2 months, waaay too long. Here is the progress of my first ever pet portrait. I still have a ways to go but, it's coming along nicely, I think. Both kids joined me for some painting today too. :D

art materpiece: marc and rembrandt

Every other Wednesday I head into 2 kindergarten classes to volunteer my time and give a short art history lesson with assigned prints. I totally spaced on posting what what we did in March. Oops! Maybe I'll post that later on but, for now here are the prints I presented in April:

The Lamb by Franz Marc

1. About the Artist
   Franz Marc was a German artist interested in using color in new and exciting ways. His paintings are somewhat realistic except for their bold and powerful use of color. He is known as an expressionist painter with bright colored animals such as the painting we will see today.
   
   
2. What do you see in the painting? Lamb and natural surroundings
   
   
3. Why did he paint animals in this non-real looking way? For this artist drawing is more to do with seeing than drawing and sometimes the seeing is from our hearts rather than with our eyes. He painted with feelings.
   
   
4. Which colors to you see? Bright, He uses color to express feelings; he believed that animals held great spirit, grace, and power. Marc gave an emotional meaning to the colors he used in his work, blue would be used for boys and spirituality, yellow represented girls and joy and red danger.
   

The kids really enjoyed telling me about the many things they saw in this painting. The colors were bright and exciting and the kids thought that color representations were pretty cool. Many had a hard time seeing the lamb at first, probably due to them not knowing what a lamb is too well. I showed a few other prints by this artist and they were able to see the animals in the other prints much more easily.

The Apostle Simon by Rembrandt

1. About the Artist
   There are only a few people in history so famous that they're known only by their first names...Rembrandt is one of them! (full name Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn) Rembrandt is considered one of the greatest painters in art history. He had 8 brothers and sisters! He created many portrait figures like the painting we will see today.
   
   
2. What would you name this painting?
   Man. This was painted in 1661 (that’s 349 years ago). The name of this painting is The Apostle Simon.
   
   
3. What do you see in the painting?
   He is resting his hand on a cross saw. He has large strong hands that tell us he was a hard worker.
   
   
4. Who is he?
   Simon was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was known as healer and helped those who were hurt and sick.
   
   
5. What kind of mood is he in? How can you tell? By looking at his facial features, let’s demonstrate different expressions. How do our faces change when we are happy, sad, surprised or angry? How do you feel about drawing faces? Is drawing a face easier or harder than painting a other things for you?
   
   
6. What do you think is taking place in this painting? It appears as a fun family outing showing people, nature and machines (the bicycles) in harmony. Some may have gone swimming and they were taking a break from bike riding.
   
   
7. Color? The colors in this picture are called monochromatic. That means the colors are all in the same tones.
   
   
8. Why do you think the artist painted it? This type of painting is called a portrait. Long ago when Simon the Apostle lived they didn’t have cameras. The only way to have a photo of someone of something was if it was painted by an artist.
   

This one was interesting. I was worried about it but, the kids had lots to say. Some asked if he was Jesus. We discussed his overall appearance in depth. Many thought he was inside a cave due to the background. One kid thought he was sad because he couldn't get in the shower because his wife was in there and using all the hot water. Kids say some funny things ;)

ice cream necklace

Ice Cream Necklace

Once a month, I get together with the East Valley Artisans to chat about making and selling our handmade work on etsy and we have a themed exchange. This month the theme was "sweets and treats". I have to say, while I LOVE sweet and treats I have never made art around that theme. I was up until midnight the night before the meeting trying to come up with something. I had 2 failed ideas before the finished piece finally came together. And you know what, I ended up loving it! I ended up loving ALL the exchanges pieces for this theme! They were such fun and just adorable.

The final design shown above was made by first making the ice cream color pencil drawing. I then scanned it into Photoshop, adjust the levels to give it a bright ice cream shoppe feeling, printed, cut and lacquered on the silver joy charm. I attached a crystal spacer bead and hung on a chain chain.

Sometimes pushing yourself to think of something new can be frustrating. But, once you push through the frustration part, it is oh so rewarding.

East Valley Artisans is a varied mix of artists from painting to paper to sculpture and jewelry. Please support our economy, support local business, support our artists. Become a fan on Facebook!

creative every day: the 5 senses

ice cream waffle bowl - colored pencils

ice cream waffle cone - colored pencils

I'm so happy to finally have something new to post for the creative every day challenge! The creative every day theme for this month is the 5 senses. Last night, while working on my Etsy team gift exchange theme of "sweet and treats" (more on that later), I realized it plays right into the taste sense for the CED challenge. What's better then the sweet and creamy taste of ice cream ... yummy. It's fitting that I am trying to stay away from sugar this week ... I can indulge through my art.

To see what others have been working on this week for the 5 senses theme, click here.