The Maxwell Challenge

I recently joined a group called Paper Imagery Designs, and this is my first week there. I am really loving the group... everyone is super created, talented, and friendly! There is a challenge this week called the Maxwell Challenge.... basically everyone takes the vintage image that is shared of a man named Maxwell and they creatively and humorously create an item showing what Maxwell is up to. The entry's are due today and I just HAD to participate because it sounded like so much fun! I thought I would share my creation.. its a Gothic Arch of course, and I drew Maxwell in comical swimming gear :) I had a lot of fun with him as you can tell! I used a green polka dotted scrapbook sheet as the main background... but I then took some scrap punchinella, placed it on my arch and colored over it using different colored crayons. When I got the colors the way I wanted them. I took my scissors and I gently scrapped the excess wax from the paper to give it a less shiny/waxy look and a more subtle flat look. I added some random flourishes using black ink and a flourish stamp. I cut out Maxwell and edge him with black ink then attached him to the arch. Next I took white cardstock and stamped Fun in the Sun with black ink. Then outlined each letter using neon colored Gel pens. I used orange, yellow, green, pink, and blue. I tore out the words and edged with black ink again. I attached them to the arch, and then edged the entire outside of the arch with black ink as well. The final step was to attach the neon plastic half marbles I had lying around... and Wha-lah! Maxwells having fun in the sun! *lol* =}

Wow, what a week!

This week has been very interesting and fun for me. There is an art show in Danville, W.V. this week that goes along with the Boone County fair and I wasnt planning on entering anything into the show because I wasnt sure if my stuff was something that would be worth it. But my husband, in-laws, friends and other family kept hammering me to do it and I did. I entered 10 pieces into the show...the judeing goes on this week during the fair and Friday we can go and see the results. They asked us to keep our pieces there until Sunday because they have the annual car show then and its the busiest time of the fair, so they want everyone's work their until its over so everyone gets the chance to view the entries and everything. Which totally makes sense but it makes me nervous to keep my pieces there and knowing in my mind that hundreds of people are looking at my work this week. I mean wow, its the first show I have ever participated in! Im trying not to get my hopes up in winning any awards but you know its there in the back of my mind, hoping that I do. Just because I havent won awards like that before except for in school. In highschool I won N.C state art award for a drawing I did my senior year... but other than the one award I won in elementary school for best coloring, and that awards, thats all I have ever won. lol. It just makes me nervous.
Then yesterday afternoon a friend called me up and told me that she had been talking to a guy at a local Dune Buggy shop that she knows and deals with and he has been looking for someone to design his logo for his shop for over a year now and couldnt get anyone to do it. She was telling him that she knew someone who would do it in a heartbeat and would do a great job and that all she had to do was talk to me. So when she got home she called me up and told me about it and asked me to put something together and of course instead of me just waiting around on it until today. I started right away lol. I had an idea brewing in my mind and its not often I get hired for something like this so I was like OK lets go! lol I started working on the logo at 8 last night and finished the rough draft of it at 2 am. LOL. then this morning I sent Robin the rough draft and she told me she loved it but it did need a few tweaks (after all I have never even seen a dune buggy so I was using photos I googled as references) and I worked all those tweaks out and sent it back... She printed it out on photo paper and drove up to Mudslinger's to show Eric (the owner) and he LOVED it. He called me up on the phone and told me that it was like I had plucked the idea's he had right out of his brain and put them on paper! LMAO. I was so thrilled to hear him say that! He said he was going to give Robin the $ for it and that he is having t-shirts made up with the logo and he will get a couple of free ones to me as soon as he gets them. I am just thrilled to death! I have never been hired to do a logo for a business before and I've done it. Im really getting my name and art out there now. WOW. This Friday I get to see if I won any awards, I get to go to the fair and walk around and I plan to look at all the entry's and see what others think of my work from a distance by watching people who check them out and maybe talking to a few. I cant wait. Then Saturday Tim and I are celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary. but we havent decided what we are going to do. On Sunday I get to go pick up my artwork from the show, and then head over to Jack and Robin's to pick up my pay for the logo and everything. Im just super excited and proud of myself. Below is the logo for the shop. Its alot larger but I shrunk it down so it wouldnt take so long to load. I just wanted to share how my week is going so far... can you believe I was actually giving all of this up because I didnt think I had what it takes... and now look at whats happening! Someone really is looking down on me right now!

Oh I almost forgot to mention... along with me doing this logo Eric (the owner of Mudslingers) is thinking of having the logo tattoo'd AND he mentioned that he has an airbrush set and that he really thinks I should borrow it and see how well I do with that... if I do well maybe thats another side job for me to take on. WOW! So not only am I drawing, tattoo designing, and trying to teach myself how to tattoo... Im also going to start airbrushing and logo designing too. SHEESH! Talk about some fun and busy times ahead.

Tarheel Fanatics...

My brother, Jeremy, is a HUGE UNC Tarheel's Fan. He wants to get a unique tattoo of the UNC logo and asked me if I would create something for him. I, of course, couldn't say no because I love designing tattoos and this is what I came up with. He loves it and as soon as he gets it done he is going to send me a few pictures of the finished product. I am very excited to see it! He will be the 4th person to get a tattoo designed by me actually put on his skin =] I've also decided that I want to teach myself how to tattoo and maybe go into that as a side field... and so I have been working on that. I have found alot of great things on it and have gotten tremendous support from my family and friends! Just thought I would share! =)

August Creative Challenge...

The image on the left is the challenge image for the August Creative Challenge in Artistic-Creations. So for my challenge share, I thought I would just draw the picture. I thought it would make a great drawing or tattoo design for sisters, or best friends. Just thought I would share!

Art Quilt 4x4

I created this 4x4 for a swap in Artistic-Creations as well. Its called an Art Quilt, but instead of using fabrics I used paper because I have no clue how to sew and didnt even want to attempt the mess *lol* I can tell you now that would be a disaster! HAHA! So I used some need background paper I had laying around with a few die cuts of flowers and butterflies. I cut the background into 1 inch squares and glued them to a green sheet of cardstock. I then cut even smaller squares out of white cardstock and used those in the empty spaces of the pattern. I added a weird shaped heart design out of pink cardstock and edged everything in black ink. I then attached the flowers. The butterflies wings are actually 3-d I folded them up so that they looked like they were sitting on the flowers. But scanning them made them flat of course. It isnt the best, or most creative but I just wanted to try something different and challenge myself.

Sitting Pretty 3x3's

This is for another swap from my group Artistic-Creations. The swap was for 2 3×3’s in a ‘Sitting Pretty’ theme, and this is what I came up with….
I created the backgrounds using metallic and regular liquid watercolors in a mini mister. The images were actually from a cute set of rub on’s that I stumbled on at Michaels on the clearance shelf. They actually have glitter in certain parts, you cant really see it that well with the scan but its there in the wings of the fairies and their outfits.
For the first 3×3 I used a corner flourish stamp and black ink. I then drew in the stars and moon with a white and silver gel pen. Of course did the edging with black ink and then added a small and simple stamped word ‘Pray’.
For the second 3×3 I used a flourish stamp and black ink. I then drew in accents with a white gel pen. I drew in stars with a black gel pen and did the centers with a white gel pen. I used a sun stamp and also added white accents using a gel pen. I did the edging also in black, and added a small and simple stamped word ‘Hope’.
I really love how they turned out. Im really glad to have this hobby again as a release from every day stresses.

Tim Holtz Tutorial Tag

I am participating in a Tim Holtz Tutorial Swap in my group Artistic-Creations , and today I made an attempt at creating a tag using his Tutorial but because I didnt have some of the supplies, I twisted it a little to work for me This was the result of the tutorial. The tutorial I used is located at: Here
I thought it turned out ok, Im not too thrilled with the way the coloring of the main image turned out but what can ya do lol. I used gesso instead of white ink, lots of fourishes, and lots of hand drawn hearts =]
I hope my partner likes it =] I know its not exactly the same, but I wanted to try and do something a little different and try to figure out how to do similar techniques w/out having the exact supplies. Oh and the little words I used say Love, and Togetherness. You can click on the image to view it larger.

Cant make up my mind...

Im back on Blogger... I had a wordpress blog but honestly after having it for just a few weeks I miss Blogger. There are alot of things you can add and do to a blogger that you cant do on wordpress and I missed those things, like animations, widgets, and well I could name things on and on but Im sure you understand what I mean. So here I am again... back on Blogger, this is my new blog... HOPEFULLY it will stick. Im hoping to use this as my main blog. However I do have a myspace as well, but I dont typically post my artsy stuff on there... I use that more for keeping in touch with family and friends. But if you would like to check it out the link is www.myspace.com/artisticande

Well I suppose thats all for now, I have a lot of work to do..... Just wanted to say SOMETHING.