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!