Sign Making Class

It feels like forever since I've done anything creative and my paints have been in storage for over 6 months now. Getting all of my art supplies out again is one of the things I'm looking forward to most in my upcoming house move. To get some respite from all of the moving crazy, I did manage to squeeze in a quick class at the weekend though:)

We made one of those wood farmhouse-type signs that you see everywhere. I was intrigued to find out how the lettering is done and really happy with how mine came out. The ladies in my class were very sweet too which was a bonus. I'm so looking forward to life getting back to normal:)

Photo of the month - March

Pretty happy with this snap of two great egret chicks:)

Getting Back at it!

It's been such a long time since I've done any artwork and I took the plunge and donated a lot of my art supplies in the big cull. What's left is packed up in the garage but if I wait until we are moved into our destination home, I fear I will have an even harder to get back into the habit of being creative on a regular basis. So to fill the gap for now, I have bought a sketch pad and pencils. I started playing with them last night and had really bad results:( It's been a very long time...but practice makes perfect so I'm going to keep trying until I have something I'm happy with. For now, at least I'm getting started:)

Baby Card

This is one of the happiest cards I've made! Super easy and fun to do:)

Greetings Cards

I'm still keeping up with the card making for family birthdays this year and have a lovely new spot in the house where the dogs can curl up at my feet while I'm working. It's my new happy place :)

Feeling Inspired in 2017!

I've started painting again and it feels great! Half of the battle seemed to be getting organized so I took care of sorting out all of my supplies and signed up for Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday class which (so far) I've managed to stay on top of. She is encouraging us to be more 'painterly' which is definitely a challenge for me...

I'm not finished with my lemons yet but I'm loving the challenge!

I've also discovered Dina Wakeley who has inspired me to experiment with watercolor. I love painting my little birds:)

Upcycled Cards

I have been making lots of cards lately to keep enough in stock for when I get too busy. I'm pretty happy with how this latest batch came out and should be all set for the Holidays now:)

Maddy's an artist!

Maddy is doing advanced Art as part of her International Baccalaureate program. Not only is she progressing really well (due to her very hard work) but she is loving it too. She has such a tough curriculum in her Junior year - I'm so thrilled she has found joy by connecting with her inner artist.

Inspiration Journal #1 competed!

The inspiration journal classes have been going really well and I was going to do all 26 classes in one book for the whole year. My book has gotten really chunky already though so I have decided to divide the year into two and start a new one for July-Dec. Now that I think about it, it will be an excellent opportunity to refocus on my goals for 2015 and start over on some of those too!

Happy Half Year!

Inspiration Wednesday update

I am keeping up with my iw classes still and learning a lot. Here are my latest pages:)

WPS Art Show

The Art Show at Maddy's High School was really impressive and we had a great time :)

Mike and I were so proud of Maddy's contributions...

Maddy's pottery house blew up in the kiln so she redesigned it to look 'burned out' and called it "The Blitz" - how stinkin' creative! The art teacher said he'd never seen a student do that before :)

Some of the older students are pursuing Art as a career and had some amazing work on display. Here were some of our favorites...

I loved how they shared their journaling too...

 Great grand-daughter and great grand-mother :)

Thank you Windermere Preparatory for such a great Art department :)

Week 6!

So it's week 6 of my Inspiration Wednesday classes and I am still on track. I mixed pan pastels with glazing fluid for this page which produced a really vibrant color. One of my favorite color combinations so far:)

More Inspiration Journaling...

I am loving my Inspiration Journal online classes with Donna Downey! (Link to Donna's site here!) Not only do I get to try new techniques every other week but I am also taking the opportunity to focus on my thoughts, goals and dreams through the process. Here are my second, third, fourth and fifth pages so far...

I'm so grateful for this class - now I'm back in the habit of doing something creative almost every day! It feels great and I'm feeling much more 'myself' these days. Thank you Donna Downey and my amazing classmates:)

Inspiration Journal #1

I loved week one of Donna Downey's online Inspiration Wednesday course. I picked 'bravery' as my word for 2015. I have so many goals and dreams for my life and I really want to focus on being more brave :). It felt great to express myself through art and capture it in my Inspiration Journal :)

I tried modelling paste for the first time to get some texture on the page...

And added different color glazes...

Maddy joined me and created some beautiful art using stencils...:)

Happy New Year! Here's to more art and more bravery!

Finding Inspiration for 2015!

Happy New Year! I'm so excited that 2015 is finally here and I can take some time to focus on re-balancing my life:) I'm determined to get more creative in 2015 - I miss it so much - so I've signed up for photography classes and I've also signed up for the amazing Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday classes (Donna's blog here!).

Some structure will really help me put time aside to invest in my creative journey and Donna has always been such a positive catalyst for me. I'm excited. Happy New Year and I hope that you are putting time aside for whatever it is that you love too!

Diaper Cake

A baby shower is a great excuse to make a diaper cake! It was my second attempt (and first for a girl) and I was really happy with how it came out :)

To make one you need about 100 plain white diapers, ribbon, a cake board, cake dowels to stabilize the whole thing and lots of elastic bands. Oh and about 4-5 hours and lot of patience :)

I didn't follow any kind of pattern - I just found building groups of 9 or so easiest...

Once you are done with construction, you can cover the elastic bands with ribbons and hair accessories and some fun turrets and flags...

It looked lovely on the cupcake table :)

Getting back into the zone :)

It's been a long time since I did anything remotely creative and I miss it so much! I did embellish a couple of T-shirts for Maddy though last week. I thought they came out really well :)

Maddy's shelf

Maddy has done such a beautiful job of her desk shelf decorations for her bedroom...

 

 

So cute!!