New Year ... New Direction

Happy New Year!

It's a wonderful thing to wake up to a new day ... a New Year! I hope everyone brought in the New Year with loved ones, whether at church, at a party or at home tucked in bed warm and comfy!

I am happy to bring in the new year creatively rejuvenated - and going in a new direction this year with my hand carved stamps.

Look for many things int he future from journals, cards...and lots of fun things with fabric! I'm excited and can't wait to share!

Updating Those Canvas Bags

If you're like me, over the years you've collected little tote bags...some have logos - some are plain .. but they all seem to pop up here and there.

Now, I'm not one to recycle (SSSHHHH!!!) but while cleaning up my basement, I kept moving a pile of canvas bags from one chair to another ... and I just decided I'd join the wave of bag toting ditching the plastic grocery tote folks.

I normally start with a pencil sketch ... I'e used transfer pencils, charcoal pencils and reg ol' number 2 pencils.

Now I know there are tons of fabric paints out there on the market ... but I ditched those long ago in favor of plain acrylic paint. These bags will be used to tote groceries to and from ... and will most likely rarely see the washing machine. The first layers, I'll scrub in to my fabric with water and glazing medium. I've found glazing medium to work wonderfully in sealing the paint into the fabric, while keeping the painted surface pliable.

Shading on fabric, at least for me, is just as easy as on paper. This is where I left off with my tote last night ... I'll post the finished bag soon!

Here is a pic of another canvas messenger bag that I painted last weekend .. . I love painting on fabric - and painting on canvas is actually my favorite.

Melancholy ....

Her name is Melancholy ... and she is currently on my painting table. I promised myself this year that I would be truer to my art ... dig deeper ... be freer ... not there yet .. but getting there. It's all in her eyes, isn't it? :)

Something Fun Update

Around Mother's Day I posted my initial progress with an old surface I had laying around HERE. UPDATE:  I think I am closed to finished with this piece ... I messed up the front near the hydrangea and covered it up with all the colors that were on my palette ... and here is how I left off...

Here is the inside ...

Many are telling me they wouldn't want to cover up the design with paper plates ... I'm thinking it would be nice to hang on a wall and use the racks to drape something?...I dunno... what do you think?

Custom Journal - Work In Progress

This latest custom order is for a fellow crafter ... she wanted her logo on a journal. So far, so good. Step One: I sketched the logo onto the journal face, using my fav yellow marking pencil.

STEP Two: I started basecoating the headdress, ankh symbol and her face...very loosely...also adding initial shading.

Step Three: I am now adding more colors to the under tones for the flesh ...

So far ... so good...the sixe of the journal is 5x8. The paint I am using is by Jo Sonja

Something Fun In Progress

Good Afternoon .. I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. I have several surfaces in my stash that I bought so many moons ago ... and I'm starting to dig through it all - just looking for something fun to paint. This surface is a paper plate holder .. so with the coming of summer ... I am painting it up. I have no clue as to how it will turn out - but that's half the fun!! Enjoy the weekend...and have a Happy Mother's Day tomorrow.

Tea Time .... In Progress

Good Morning! I have started a new piece .... it's amazing what you can find when you clean your stash room!!LOL This surface is a wooden tea packet holder - and I've just begun a loose freehand sketch with acrylic paint and a round brush. I hope to paint all the tea packet holders I was able to find - they are a really nice size and weight - so stay tuned!!