Art Supplies Don't Need to Cost a Small Fortune

While many art supplies are found to be quite costly, there are a few ways to cut back on costs and save money for the more important supplies on your list, such as your favorite Copic Markers or Golden Brand Fluid Acrylic paints.  When browsing the dollar store the other day I was quite amazed ...

http://goo.gl/GJ8h0z

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients

2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup Ranch dressing
3/4 cup pepper sauce (such as Frank’s Red Hot®)
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 bunch celery, cleaned and cut into 4 inch pieces
1 (8 ounce) box chicken-flavored ...

http://goo.gl/AVhU17

ART PROMPT - Create something random in black and white and then add two of your favorite colors.

Black and white are by far my favorite colors to art with.  I find that the contrast is stunning and very pleasing to the eye.  In thinking of something to work on last night, I decided that I would create something completely random in black and white.
The following is what I came up with:

I b...

http://goo.gl/N4FpW5

Altered Book Journal

As many of you probably know by now, I am completely addicted to Art Journals.  I have purchased a few of them in the past and have most recently been handmaking my own (three so far).  Here recently, I have decided to take this addiction to an entirely new level and start an altered book journal.  I began working on this last night.

The book that I am using for this project is a rather thick medical book that I was able to get for free.  When using a book that is as thick as this one, you want to make sure that you glue at least two to three pages together (unless all you plan on doing is pen and ink).  Mixed media materials and any wet/damp media will cause your pages to swell, so unless you glue some pages together and/or cut some of the pages out of these thicker books, they will likely not close flat when they are full of your art.   Below is the book that I was able to use…I would personally rather use one that is not quite as thick as this one.  I can’t argue too much about this though…free material is a good thing!

The cover was painted solid black with one coat of  black Gesso.  After this dried thoroughly, I then glued bits and pieces of colored tissue paper to the cover and spine using a decoupage medium.  After the decoupage medium dried I then covered the entire cover with more decoupage medium and allowed it to dry overnight.  Isn’t that gorgeous!!!  I will probably go a bit further with this and personalize a bit more.

In the meantime, I couldn’t wait to start working in this journal, so I used some white Gesso on the first page and then took out my best black sharpie and just began doodling.  Here is what have done so far…

Altered Book Journal

COME SEE MY NEW BLOG

Hello fellow artsy ladies!  This site has now moved to the following link....

Come see!

www.elizabethdukeartist.com

Manic Monday

Soooooooooo, before I really get started blog-rolling here I just want to make it clear that I'm well aware that I missed day #4 of the blogalong.  However, I really did have a good excuse.  I received the unfortunate news Saturday night that my beloved Uncle passed away after fighting a long 7-month battle with pancreatic cancer.  Had lots of family things to take care of on top of a not-so-typical hellacious Sunday at work.  UGH.

Without further adoooooo, here is where my life gets interesting.

This started out as a typical blah ass Monday.  Woke up to get ready for work, couldn't find jack crap ANYWHERE.  Finally just said to heck with it, grabbed whatever clothes I first saw, threw them on, brushed my hair and walked out the door.  Enter the storms.  OMG it stormed this morning.  Go to the gas station...all the pumps are shut down.  UGH.  Already irritated, I get to work and there are NO parking spots near my building, which means I got to walk a mile in the rain because my manpet (aka my husband) or my child, one or the other, has decided to take the 100th umbrella I've bought, out of my car.  Now drowned-rattish and even more irritated I walk into a dark office...nobody is there. Before I EVEN get the damn computer turned on the doctors start calling wanting their dictation YESTERDAY.

Continue hellish work day for another 7.5 hours!

Get off work to the most wonderful news that my manpet has finally acquired yet another client in his new web development business.  A rather biggie!!!  Sooooooo, on top of the one item I went to Michael's to purchase, I treated myself to a rather larger heap of craft goodies...including, Golden Liquid Acrylics, more aquamarkers (LOVE these things), fixative, charcoal, more storage boxes and new canvases.  ALL ON SALE!!!!

Now I'm going to go treat myself to a private arty party.  I deserve it.

And.....THANK YOU EFFY for the recipe....it worked PERFECTLY!  MWAH!!!

Until next time I will leave you with what I have done to my gothie girlie.  Not even close to being done, but definitely improving!

Blogalong Day #3 / 30

Well, here we are on day #3 of the Blogalong and yes I realize that I didn't post on day #2.  Yesterday was probably the most exhausting day in the entire history of my exhausting days.  I worked a full 8 hour day and then came home just to get a 5 minute nap, got up to travel the city again and grab something to eat, got in about another 30 minute nap, and then a 4 hour meeting with my husband and his new business partners for business #2...UGH.

On an artsy note, I'm still trying to make myself work on pieces that are outside my normal realm of work, such as the gothic piece I started the other day.  I'm still not done with her but I will be working on completing her this weekend.  Might be a chore though as I'm putting in another 16 hours this weekend since my co-worker is out of state with a medical emergency in her family.

I really can't think of much else to say at this very moment because I'm still just uber tired.  I'm not just really sure why I'm not sleeping all that well.  I have too many artsy things I want to do to be THIS tired.  I will leave you with what I have completed of the gothy girl I was working on the other day.  Toodles for now.

Arty Party

It is quite unfortunate that I have to start a blog out on a bad note, but today I'm suffering from a little bit of pain.  I am more than likely trying to pass a kidney stone that was found on a fairly recent CT scan.  So, with that being said, I would like to apologize if I seem a bit loopy or out of sorts in my posting here today.

Yesterday was a rather typical day, but the fun part was arty party night with my bestie Jessica (aka: Messy Jessy).  Some of you may be familiar with her, but for those of you who are not, there is a link to her blog in my linky list.

Jessica and I met in 2008 when we both enrolled our 5-year-old sons in the scouting program here in the town where we both live (she has since moved 30 minutes away).

Jess, my husband, and I were all "volun-told" that we would be the Den Leaders for our children's scouting den and this is how we really all got to know each other.  From that point on we've been crafting and arting together every chance we get.  From scrapbooking to sewing to project life-ing, to art journaling and even photography, we've pretty much been a cute little team of crafty mommas since we met and I'm more than happy to call her my bestie now; so much so that I asked her to be my matron of honor in my wedding.

Since she's moved away (but luckily she moved to the town where I work) we don't get to see each other as much as we used to, but when we can we get the boys together for play dates and art our little hearts out.  My husband has recently been so kind as to give me one night a week off from wifey and motherly duties so I can go get my art on with Jessica, who now has her own little art studio.

Last night was a rather fun night of arting.  It didn't take us long to decide what kind of project we were going to work on either.  We decided that it was time to step outside of our norm and work on something that we had never done before...something along the lines of gothic/emo and/or morbid/melancholy.  I have to admit that I am absolutely horrible with these kinds of things, but decided that it was definitely time to give it a try...something new!

We each broke out two canvases and got to work.  Jess decided that she was going to work on a mermaid and I chose to do an angel.  I started working  on my background and then as that was finished and I started working on my angel, Jess pointed out to me that it wasn't very gothic at all.  I tend to fall toward the cute and sweet look she says.  I suppose she is right.  I then decided that rather than try to make this cute and sweet looking little angel into a gothic angel of the night that I would just go ahead and continue it in my normal style.  I decided this because I got the news that morning at work that one of my co-workers was out of state as her sister was in a terrible accident and is not expected to survive.  I decided that it might a nice gesture to give this angel (when finished) to her, as she really likes paintings and angels as well.

With all of the above being said and since I have the day off today to swim in a Hydrocodone induced state of goofiness, this might be a good time for me to start working on some gothic/morbid sketches and see what I can come up with.  Soooooo, I guess I'm going to get off of here and start drawing.  I hope the rest of you have a wonderful day of blogging and arting and rest assured there will be more inspiring blogs to come in the near future on this site...and more artfully inspired.  In the meantime, I will leave you with a photo (please forgive the shadows as I do NOT have good lighting in this house) of the angel I worked on at Jessy's last night.  She's not nearly finished, but I'm hoping that when she is that she will be of some diving inspiration to dear Rachel (my co-worker).

Love and artful blessings!

Daily Blogging in the Month of August

For those of you who follow the lovely Effy Wild, I am sure that by now you have heard of her project for the month of August, which is one blog per day.  As you can probably see, I have not been the most consistent with my blogging here, as I had hoped to be.  With this being said, I have committed to the August project of daily blogging and will do my very best to keep up with it, though this will be a hard promise to keep.  

As many of you know, I am the mother of a 10 year old boy and 2 year old girl.  This in and of itself has made my life rather busy.  Also on my plate is my full time job, my husband's new web design business (www.vestrainteractive.com), and then there is the master's degree I'm working on getting completed.  On top of all of this, I still make time every night to work on my artsy projects.  

So with this in mind, I do look forward to the blogging daily in the month of August and look forward to reading the blogs of those of you who are also participating.  In the meantime, here is a piece of art that I just finished.  I decided to try my hand at Zen Tangle.  While this piece is not exactly Zen Tangle it was inspired by the art.  I really enjoy trying new techniques and new art styles in hopes that I may one day incorporate them into something that is uniquely my own style.  

Enjoy.

Art Every Day

For the past several days I have been in somewhat of a funk secondary to finding out that I had a few medical conditions I was not aware of.  Prior to all of this, my mind has been swarming with ideas of what I want to work on artistically.  I'm rarely without an idea for a new project.  I often make lists of new art supplies I want to play with and new design genres that I want to tinker with.

This week; however, has been quite different for me.  My mind has been drawing a blank.  I would assume that it is secondary to the stress I've been feeling and from being mentally tired.  However, last night, I told myself that I would not go a day without putting pen, ink, paint, or anything else I can find onto paper.  I promised myself that even if I was drawing a blank I would just put the tools to the paper and see what I can come up with.

Day #1 went pretty well with this new agenda and this is what I ended up with:

Basically, all I did here was start out with watercolor in my favorite color (PINK).  I just started making swirls around the page with the watercolor.  I then just started adding other colors randomly around the page, pretty much not thinking about what I was doing at all.  When the watercolor had dried I got out the NeoColors and just started adding some colors here and there and even outlining and just filling in the spaces.  I was somewhat happy with this considering I gave little to no consideration at all about what I was actually doing.  All I really cared about was putting color on the paper.   

Day #2 went just as well.  I was still blank in my head about what I wanted to do, so I just did a repeat of Day #1 and voila...here is what I ended up with.

I'm not sure what I will be using these pieces for, but I'm sure that at some point and time they will find a really good use in some other piece of art that I'm working on.  So, just remember, even when your mind is drawing a blank, you can always create something...and that something just might come back to benefit you later on....so keep hoarding all those craft supplies and practice prints!!!

Mother's Memory Journal Page

With Mother's Day coming up again soon, I have found myself thinking a lot about my biological mother whom I lost to lung cancer 4 years ago in April.  I do not typically do "journal" pages in my journal, but I decided that it was time to do so.  I figured that it would be good for me to release the emotions I was feeling.

I found myself digging through all of my art tools and papers to find things I had which reminded me of her, most of which consisted of rubber stamps that I have recently started collecting again.  I found words which reminded me of her and some florals and butterflies also.  I printed an owl on the page, because my biological mother was a very wise woman.  She was very loving and kind and she was my very best friend.

I decided that since I was feeling so down and out regarding her death that I would use warm colors, such as pink (her favorite color) and some oranges and yellows and then I added a spray of turquoise Dylusions brand Ink Spray to remind me of why I was putting this page together in the first place.

I suppose my real point in posting this is that I have  found that when I'm feeling blue and down and out that doing an actual "journal" page is probably the best therapy for me.  It certainly made me feel a lot better and now I have somewhat of a memorial page in which to remember her by.

Happy journaling!

Cute Mother's Day Craft

I found this on Facebook yesterday and thought that it was just too cute not to share.

To make:

1/2 c. salt
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c water (give or take)

Mix together, roll, press adult hand in first, then child's hand.
Bake at 100 degrees for 3 hours.
Decorate!