The Advent Memory Game

There  is a game my sister Lili made up. She took an advent calendar and put in a bunch of stuff and the kids had to match up the boxes until they won something, like a memory game. The kids, being in their late teens and early 20's were very uninterested, winning silly putty and chapstick, until one of them  matched up two $20's they perked up.

So this Christmas we are doing the same, my niece and nephew from up north  are unfamiliar with the game, I bet they will like it.

I had purchased this box about 20 years ago and was waiting for a vision, then after playing the game and being a big fan of MacKenzie- Childs I decided to use patterns and colors and I like the way it came out.

This is the box in progress...

Now I want to do a painting for Emilys room, it has wonderful light and I got coverlets that have great colors, my sister has a painting I love,  the the artist used day glow paint and it serves as a night light, I am thinking textures and colors and patterns,  so my mind is working... on to the next project.

My Christmas Barter...

This is a piece of artwork that I bartered for with Judith Moffatt. I have known of Judiths work for years and when we met at the Highlights Party, she had mentioned she would like to purchase a Memory Bulb for her cat Minky. I suggested a barter and it worked out great. Above is the piece I picked out and also she included an ACEO which is very cute, I cant scan it because it is in a frame.  

The photo doesnt give the piece Justice, the colors are bright and the thing I love about it is the textures.   

Anyway, I am happy with our trade. Now off to have it framed...

What I do on a Friday night

My ornaments, the studio is a mess,  but I love it, Jingle Bulb time, some special orders, which means I got an email "could you do a special ornament for my..." and some  names on the ornaments I have designed.

The special part about all of this is I connect with people, some new people  and some that have supported me all these years...and the bonus is painting  here  in the studio listening to my Sirrius radio or Itunes, this year Brandy is my favorite. Sunny day is good painting music...Full Moon, its all good.

 Howard Stern had 2 great interviews this week one with Jay Z and another with Billy Joel, and the commen thread is they wanted to connect with the people through their music, that being said, I love the fact that my ornaments mean special to someone else. I guess I like connecting through my art, and appreciate all of us doing that.


So I am not making Billy Joel or Jay Z money, but as I said, its all good.

Sparkle Postcard

This is the postcard for Windermere Design, a terrific store in Windermere Florida that sells JingleBulbs, my handpainted ornaments. I really enjoyed working on this postcard, I painted it in acylics on canvas paper. 

Craft Time In Florida

One of the wonderful things about living in Florida is the reward we get for putting up with the hot summer..  Amazing weather and Craft Shows! We started out in Windermere, the next town over.  It is a beautiful little town on 5 lakes.

This is Windermere Design, the shop that sells my ornaments, owned by Mike and Doug, they have 

wonderful taste, obviously....

.

And here are my ornaments, at their outside booth.

Then we went to Finders Keepers, she has great stuff and found a terrific handbag for $8, I am thinking that because it is from Windermere, home of Tiger Woods and many more famous people, I may have gotten myself an expensive bag, only to find out it is  worth about $40 new, oh well I like it anyway. It is no Coach but it will do.

  It still is nice, I like it. 

Then there is Mount Dora. It is a town about 35 minutes from Ocoee, great town. Little shops on a Lake, resturants, very fun place to go and linger around. This Craft Show is a big deal, crafters come from all over, New York, Indiana, hundreds of them, as you can see from the photos below.  

We finally did get crafted out, I think the downside of moving to Florida or moving anywhere is we had to get rid of so much that the idea of bringing anything new in would have to go through so much consideration. But it was very fun and I got alot of ideas. I hope the crafters did well, I walked past Donna Dewberry of One Stroke Painting fame, I got a kick out of that. I am not a big One Stroke Painting fan, but I admire the fact that she built a following, while raising a family.

 Anyway, we had a great day. 

My Goodies From The Highlights Party...

These are my goodies from the Illustrators Party that the Highlights Co. put on this weekend.

We had a chance to show our portfolios to the Art Directors and also each other. Here are some cards and promotionals that I picked up.  Very motivating....

Photomerging in PS

I wanted to merge these 2 sketches together so I could print it out on watercolor paper. 

I got this tip from Jane Dippold, it works great, there are many ways of doing it, but this I found to be very simple. I have Photoshop PS2. 

Photoshop>File>Automate>Photomerge 

The Result: 

My Favorite Books

I got this idea from Kate Harpers blog, I thought it was a good one. These are the books I go back to, when I moved 2 years ago I got rid of a bunch of books, not these. I go back to them some for information, some for inspiration. I especially love the Talking with Artists, I have all 3 books. Every once in a while I will sit down with a cup of coffee and read through those, it for me is a motivator. The Painted Crafts I get a kick out of because it has an artist Peg Miller, that was my Moms name, her actual name was Bringfriede, she was German,  but when Americanized it became Peg. Peg in the book did work that I think my Mom would  have done had she taken an interest in painting, she never did, but was creative with rug hooking and  gardening. She never had nothing to do, luckily I inherited that.
When I painted my gourds I did them Peg Miller style.
I got the color manual because Loreen Leedy suggested it, she was my first artist friend in Florida, I am always amazed at the both digital and quilting art that she creates.

A reason to walk...

We were walking the other day someplace new, some people cleaned out their house and left a bunch of stuff for trash pick up. I looked down and what did I see....  Glass bulbs!!!

Perfect for JingleBulbs. And Free! All different sizes I am especially intriqued with the little ones.

I want to come up with something different to do with them.

One persons trash is another ones treasure.

More Digital Fun...

I have been having more fun with Photoshop, discovering painting. I really love the light colors and a different way of working. I also enjoyed scanning in the sketch and working from there. The computer always amazes me.

Christmas in the summer...

It is hard to believe, but all my bulbs are designed and this years postcard is all done.

 And ready to get printed. The challenge is to put myself in a Christmas mood in the summer, but painting the bulbs is so much fun.

Ripplesketches Donation/SOLD

This is a watercolor painting I did for a fund raiser for the Gulf relief.  A great idea called Ripplesketches, started by a very talented illustrator named Kelly Light. 

p.s. it sold to a wonderful person in Minnesota. Thanks Nina, glad you liked the art. 

this is the website:

 http://ripplesketches.blogspot.com

So far  Kelly has raised over $6000 for the relief effort. 

My Art in High Five...

I was very happy to recieve my latest issue of High Five Magazine, a younger version of the classic Highlights, and there was the art I did a couple of months ago. This was a very nice experience working for such a terrific magazine.

More Digital....

Another day with Photoshop, I love the idea that the eye dropper tool picks the colors I used to use.

I am still finding it challenging to get details in the drawing, but I think the more I learn, the more I really will like this way of working. This is calling riding in Amsterdam.

Ellie on the computer...

 

This is the first piece of art that I have done in Photoshop, with the help from a friend and some discovering on my own, here she is. I have so much more to learn, this was fun though.

This is the underpainting of an idea I had for a new piece of art...

Her face has gone bad at this point, time to look and see what other paints I have in the studio...

And I found them, Golden paints.

So her face is fixed.

The key to all of this non digital art are good brushes that hold up and dont split at the ends, I have a couple.

Now I need to see if this drawing is going to work out, so I do some detail on a place I feel is important, the main character, if this feels good I can move forward, if it doesnt, I feel bad and move on to another idea. 

Actually, I like it, It feels good, I found Spa on Sirrius and am into a groove, so painting at this point is fun.

Every thing is done, all the details put in and here is my new art.
(Double click this one for a bigger picture.)

 I used to love playing hide and seek.

 And our much loved but very neurotic cat is checking things out from the window, there may be a book in that, back to the drawing board...

Heart Shaped Rocks and then some?

My husband loves to hike, I do, kinda... And then I got the idea if I could collect something? Heart shaped rocks, so hiking became more fun, and when the kids were little they became good heart  rock hunters. These are just a few, from the beaches in Rhode Island to the heather fields in Buchaltz Germany, some got lost, but these are a good examples. Then...

I heard of an artist that collected shapes of rocks, she collected  the alphabet. 

She wears the crown for rock hunting, but these are my offerings for todays day at the beach on Merrit Island.

A Dophin, a mouse(see his ears?) this was suppose to be a duck, but didnt come out like that and an armadillo?  You have to use your imagination on this one... Kept me walking and kept me non bored, now off to the alphabet...

Our day at Mozaic Arts in Orlando

My sister and I wanted to learn how to do Mosaics so I found a place in Orlando that had a day where we all made picture frames. Micheles shop is quite impressive, thousands of tiles and other things that you could use for your frame. It was funny but after we got done, the colors in our frames were so similar. A very fun day.

New favorites..

My art space is little, so I was looking for a little palette, I found this at Michaels, used my coupon, all of $6 so I am good to go, the instructions are a something to pay attention to when setting the palette up, so worth it.  It is called a stay wet palette, OMGD, pretty great. my paints blend like buda, ok, like butter, so smooth, I like just mixing those paints up, its  a pleasure. I love it when I find something that makes my life nicer.

Also  let me introduce you to my new favorite paints...   I love Jo Sonja paints, I had them sitting here in the studio for forever, not knowing how to use them, but I rediscovered them, very fun.

The Bunny Box...

My sister and I had gone to St Augustine a year ago and she spotted this bunny box in an antiques place, Lili wasnt sure if she wanted it,  so after a failed attempt to negotiate the price down, we left.
I figured I could paint her one.

 I looked to see if I  could find a box that was well made like this and I had done some sketches, I was planning to make her a bunny box.  I never was able to find one that was really well made and shaped like this.

But Lili kept thinking of the Bunny Box, she wanted to keep her Easter stuff in it.

    So, about a year later she finds herself back in St. Augustine and what is there in the Antiques store?

Yup the Bunny Box. 

  She brought it up for Easter, now I want one.

I got tagged...

I got tagged by my friend Loreen Leedy with this great award...

Here are the rules for this award...
1) Thank the person who gave you this award.
2) Share 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass the award along to 5 bloggers who you have recently discovered and you think are fantastic!
4)  Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

So, here it goes... Seven things about me...
1) I have a love/hate relationship with computers.
2) I love the word, Illustration.
3) I am easily inspired.
4) Apple Crisp is my favorite dessert.
5)  I enjoy dancing.
6)  My favorite city is Amsterdam.
7)  My favorite show is Ugly Betty and I enjoy watching it with my daughter, Emily.

Here are my top 5 blog picks...

Lorreen Leedys blog has everything from Art Quilts to tips on Photoshop. Her blog makes me want to quilt again.


Elizabeths Dulemba's blog is full of interesting information, my favorites are Coloring Page Tuesday and Monster Engine.

New Art News is Marion Eldridge's blog. I especially enjoy her posts about how she created her art Welcome Virginia being a favorite of mine.

Joan Beiriger's  blog is full of great information on licensing, I always find something new and useful there.


Phyllis Harris's blog has a nice way of blending her illustration work with her home life. She just adopted a dog Annie, which is very touching to see.

More Egg Fun

I saw these online and absolutly fell in love with the idea, of fake chocolate eggs. Very fun to make, wooden eggs, acrylic paint and fabric dimentional paint.  Hope you like them...

Easter, almost....

Here are some wooden eggs that I painted last Easter, when my camera decides to cooperate I will post eggs I did years ago for my parents. My girlfriend Sandy knew someone who worked in a place in Maine that made the wooden eggs, she came back with some for me and they were my little treasures for the longest time. I have always bought a new egg or some new eggs to add to my Easter egg collection.

And then of course there is the Egg Man here in Florida, he paints with a chicken on his head, (not a real chicken, a fake one, but still, he has a dedication to his art)  I am not kidding, he does nice work. I wont wear a chicken,but I love to paint, so here are more eggs that I did...