Moving..

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will probably be inactive here for a week or more because of us moving. Tim and I finally got a place closer to his work and we are sooo excited! We will be moving our things this week and hopefully it wont take forever for our phone and net to be installed! I am really tickeled pink to have our 'OWN' place!!! We rent where we are now and it stinks lol. Why not pay for something thats yours... instead of paying someone elses house payment off for them w/ your rent money lol. ya know? So yay us! I'll hopefully be back soon!

'Create Art' - Gothic Arch

"Create Art" Gothic Arch

(click to enlarge)

Last weeks Gothic Arch Challenge was Pretty in Pink =) I was late (of course) on creating mine but I did want to participate so I created one today. In Artistic-Creations this week's technique challenge was the bandana technique... so I created the background using the bandana technique.. The scan doesnt show it but the outer rim of each medallion is colored in orange, pink, and yellow. Im not really sure why scanners dull colors out but for some reason they do. This arch is so much brighter (especially the pinks) in person than in this scan. *sighs* But anyway .lol. Im not sure where the stamps and image are from. I found the quote stamp at hobby lobby. I wish I would have kept better records of where all of my stamps came from. *sighs*

“The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.” ~Auguste Rodin

The Glory of Spring- an original

'The Glory of Spring'
(Click to Enlarge)

This isnt the best photo of my newest piece but I was so excited I just had to take a quick pic and blog about it =D I just finished this piece about an hour ago... its been an on going project for 2 months now. SIGHS... Im sooooo relieved that its complete! I wanted to challenge myself with something on a large scale with ALOT of detail and I thought the contrast of the darks and lights would be a nice challenge. =) This piece measures 19x24. Im hoping to add it to my shop in the coming days, but I do want a better picture of it to show more of the details and everything. Im so thrilled with its outcome, and more relieved than anything. =)

"To see a hillside white with dogwood bloom is to know a particular ecstasy of beauty, but to walk the gray Winter woods and find the buds which will resurrect that beauty in another May is to partake of continuity.” ~Hal Borland

'Destiny' ATC

'Destiny ATC'

(click to enlarge)

Today I created another random ATC... Im about to head back into my art room and work on some more, maybe do a challenge or two just for fun. There's alot going on in this little ATC =D I created the background using acrylic paints and the credit card technique. The colors I used were Robin's Egg Blue, Antique White, and Deep Sienna. I used a page from an old dictionary in a few places. The Image used is from a collage sheet freebie by Gaby at http://gaby-cajubrasil.blogspot.com/ The Word Destiny and the definition are printed on vellum and attached with vellum tape. I drew the wings, and layered blue and cream colored fiber flowers and braded them to her hat. I also edged the image in blue ink and edged the entire card in brown ink.

"Control your own destiny or someone else will." ~Jack Welch

'Beauty in Shadows' Gothic Arch

"Beauty in Shadows" Gothic Arch

Today I wanted to create something... and so I created another Halloween item. This is a gothic arch. If you arent familiar with Gothic arches you can visit http://gothicarches.ning.com/ to learn more about them. The Witchy graphic came from a collage sheet freebie by Gaby at http://gaby-cajubrasil.blogspot.com/ The background is acrylic paints using the credit card technique. Stamps are from Purple Onion Designs. The flowers at the top were just flower punches in oranges, brown and black and braded together.

You can find Beauty in the Shadows....

“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

My Cluttered Mind

"My Cluttered Mind"
(Click to enlarge)

On Illustration Friday the theme for the week is 'Clutter.' This is my creation... Have you ever had a day where you can not concentrate because you have sooo much on your mind? Have you ever had a night where you couldn't sleep because your mind continually ran through all of your thoughts continuely? Have you ever wanted to SCREAM just to try and relieve some of the stress and tension in your head? I instantly thought of a cluttered mind filled with all sorts of troubles as my inspiration. I wanted to try something different and used a mixture of materials. I wanted a drastic difference between the thoughts and the person, and I wanted to show the emotion of frustration. I am considering putting this in my shop for sell, but I dont really know if its really 'sell worthy' *sighs* I really enjoy the challenges on I.F. It really gets my mind working =]

Business Web design frustrations

Ok. I am about to pull my hair out with this stupid website designing crud! I have been trying for a few months now to find a good place to build my business site for my artwork. I want something professional but something that still says ME... I want to display my artwork in a nice way. I have tried Geocities, it didnt work. I have tried Wordpress, I have tried Blogger, and now Im trying Typepad. WHY CANT I FIGURE THIS CRUD OUT?! I just dont understand. I have seen BEAUTIFUL sites from typepad and others but I guess I do not have the expertise to make those kinds of things online. Im just so frustrated and let down about all of this. Im tired of having to download and upload all of my drawings over and over again to these different places. Its soooooooooooo frustrating. Im about to lose hope on all of this, I dont know what else to do and I just ugh.. I just dont know. sorry for the ranting, but needed to say something about it...

Angel Themed -Inchie Cube- Creation

In Paper Imagery Designs there was a swap for Inchie Cubes. I neglected to get my cubes in on time to participate but I still wanted to try my hand at the new form of inchies and I had such a fun time with it! The template for the Inchie Cube was created by Shelly Rae Wood and can be located at http://shellyraewood.blogspot.com/2008/08/inchies-cubes.html
I thought these would make adorable tiny Christmas tree ornaments so I made one in an angel theme...

Here is my Inchie Cube:

Time for the theatre atc

I have been putting off blogging for a few days now and am a little behind so I thought I would catch up with what I have created. I created this ATC for a prize in Artistic-Creations via a Bingo game I was hosting.

Fear (a chunky book creation)

I was rummaging around Hobby Lobby a few weeks back and saw these nifty book kits that I really liked alot BUT I was disheartened because they werent in a theme I nescessarily wanted. The pages are made from Chipboard and are cut into letters that are bound and spell out what ever word.. these books they had were for the christmas and a baby. So I thought... what if I go home and try my hand at making one with a word that I could use.... So since Halloween is right around the corner I thought I would make one for that occassion just for fun as a neat keepsake and my first attempt at this project. I havent taken pictures of the book completed because I am still working on a few pages... But I did take pictures of the pages that I have completed and I thought I would share. The pages are made from Chipboard and then covered with my embellishments front and back... etc. They are bound together by sewing.

Here are the pages I have completed so far:

I would have to say that my favorite page so far is probably a tie between the front cover and the Dia De Los Muertos page that I completed today. I still have 3 more pages to complete in the book and then the remaining binding and embellishments and I'll be complete. I just thought I would share what i've done so far because Im so excited about it. I'll update with the finished product very soon! Doesnt it put you in the spooky spirit?

Naturally Inspired...

(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: a picture I took looking through the canopy, Tim and I in the forest, and the tree carving my hubby did [so sweet!])

I was inspired by nature to blog about my weekend (well my Sunday anyway.) My hubby and I decided to go shopping on Sunday and well its about an hour drive to get to any decent stores in a big town (like walmart for example) but on the way we saw a sign that we pass almost weekly that says 'Twin Falls State Park' with a large arrow on it, and every weekend we comment on how we would love to stop there and see the falls and everything. My hubby's coworkers told him it was a nice place, very peaceful and pretty so this Sunday we decided to actually go there for a change. We drove along the path through the woods to the parking area, and there were signs there pointing towards a paved walking trail in the woods. So we started walking... Keep in mind this was spur of the moment decision so I was wearing flip flops of all things! My husband had made the comment 'Im glad that its paved, so you wont trip and break your neck on stones or tree roots' and then the pavement magically disappeared and we were left with guess what... mud, stones, and tree roots lol. Im not scared of getting dirty and it was nice and quiet, very beautiful and cool under the shade of the forest, so I continued hiking. We were the only ones on the trail and it was nice spending the time talking, joking around, and just enjoying the beauty of nature. The trail seemed to never end, it continued to go deeper and deeper into the forest, the shade becoming denser as we went. We could hear the running water and we were surrounded by the neatest rock formations and fallen tree's covered in moss and all sorts of nature created sculptures. We took a few pictures together to document the occassion, and continued hiking. Eventually we ran into another young couple who were ironically from the same area we are originally from. They were really nice and we chatted for a little while. My hubby asked if there were any falls farther down the path and the guy said 'no, we walked 15 more minutes and found nothing but more of this' and so we decided to turn back after hanging out for a while, and my hubby carving T and A in a heart on a tree :) The other couple took off after our talk and left us alone once more. Eventually he found a small path that went down a steep incline almost like stairs carved from the ground of mud. He climbed down it and found a small pool with a small waterfall and took a few pictures of it. I couldnt climb down or possibly back up in flip flops so he did that for me, otherwise I would have been down there with him in no time. *sighs* On our way back the clouds were blocking the sun and it made the forest darker, and more eerie. I was a little spooked by the fact that we were about 45 minutes deep into the forest and were the only couple left there with no sort of protection from animals, or a phone to call for help if we needed it (well we had the cell phone but of course there was no service there... ) We were talking and I was going to step over a tree limb but my hubby thought I didnt see it and held his hand out and was going to help me and step down on the limb... well I didnt realize he was doing that and the limb hit bushes that were behind us making them shake and I jumped with a scare because I thought there was some sort of animal around us and he was stopping me because of that lol. My hubby thought that was the most hilarious thing to happen and joked with me all the way back to the car... in all honesty it was a nice hike with nothing but natural beauty surrounding us, and the peace and quiet that you could only get in the forest alone... but I was let down by the fact that there wasnt really anything I would catergorize as a waterfall there... it was more of a trickle of water onto a rock in a pond lol. but hey what do I know about these things.. Im just a simple girl, hoping to experience a natural beauty that will take my breath away. One of these days I hope I will see something like that, but for now... the forest was beautiful, but it wasnt breathtaking... my dream hasnt happened yet.....