Studio & Art

I thought I would post some photos of my studio today. This is my desk area. Working on some project there. It sits near the window that is on the front wall of the house. Could use better lighting though. My Ott light comes in handy.

This photo is from the door into the room. You see my paper cutter and ScorePal there in front. They sit on top of plastic drawers that hold fabric, Stampin' Up stamp sets, metal, tissue paper/napkins, alphabet stamp sets, larger paper or cardstock. My Xyron sits just to the left of the drawers on top of a cube that holds 12" X 12" paper. The red and blue cabinets on the wall hold beads, sewing stuff, jewelry findings. I will post some photos of my studio later.
This is a wire lamp shade frame that I took the shade off of. I saw the idea in a past issue of I think it was Somerset. It was along time ago to say the least. I attached dyed scrim to the top and bottom wires. Added flowers and ribbons. There is a crown with rhinestones on the top where the finial would be placed if it was real lamp.

This is the closeup of the photo cabinet card I decorated to hang inside the frame. I mounted it on watercolor paper I painted and used charcoal pencil on. Added some paper and words along with a rhinestone earring.
I thought it came out pretty good when finished.

Well that's it for now. I'll post more studio photos later this week and I have some more art I have bought and made to post too.

New Book Published

I had a new book come out with my art in it. It debuted at CHA in Anaheim this past January. The last four pages of the book are mine. Plus the art on the cover is mine! My chapter covers alcohol inks and Copic markers being used on canvas. Look for it at your local scrapbook or stamp store. The other chapters are great also. Lots of inspiring projects.

I have had this piece of wood for years now and finally decided to make something with it. So I colored it with Portfolio Oil Pastel Crayons. Blended them with my fingers then attached color copies. I also stamped some swirls on. You can't see the sides or top of the piece here in this photo but I used Ten Seconds Studio molds and silver metal to emboss the sides with. I added some tiny rhinestones also to the front.

Last Saturday I took a class from Lisa Renner at the Stamp Asylum. It was so much fun! We made our own papers with paper towels, Colorwash, and Procyon Dyes. She had already rusted tissue paper for us. The substrate is a an 8X8 piece of wood. We ran metal through the Cuddlebug using the embossing folders to texture. Very cool. Lisa has wonderful molds made of clay to use so I made the face using one of them. The crown is made from wire. We waxed all the papers on and I added some glitter. It was a fun class! Can't wait to make another one!

Valentine Tree

Well things are getting back to normal around here after the holidays. I have put up all the Christmas decorations and gotten out the Valentine's Day things. My friend Melody brought me this cute little candy mold last week.

I added glitter hearts and red glass hearts to my feather tree. This is the sweetest little tree I have ever seen. They can be done up in any holiday season you wish. I will have to figure out what to put on it for Easter.

I usually do not put a lot about my family on this blog because I want to mainly use it for my art. But my son received his school letter jacket this week for golf. So I have to post a photo of him in it. Handsome guy that he is!

Stamp Asylum http://www.stampasylum.com will have a booth at the Mesquite Rubber Stamp Convention this coming weekend. Friday night is a dessert party where the participants get dessert and make usually about 9 - 10 different projects for a fee. Check the website http://www.stampscraparttour.com/infopage.asp?id=1 for ticket information regarding that but purchase your show tickets for Saturday and Sunday at the store. They are $5.00 and gets you in for both days. I will be working our booth both days so come see me.

Have a great week!

New Year New Art

Well I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Now it's time to get back to normal. I went to Canton yesterday and it was freezing!! But I had a great time with some friends and we found some good stuff. One of the things I bought is this beautiful wooden angel. She has metal wings and is about 29" tall.

I found these ceramic bingo balls. Or at least that's what I call them. There is a cool booth at Canton and then they also have a store outside the grounds called Laurie Anna Vintage Home

http://laurieannas.blogspot.com/ Anyway I got the balls and angel there. The bowl came from the Montgomery Street Antique Mall. It's enamelware.

This cloche came from Chesare Vintage Home which is in downtown McKinney. Great little store with vintage home decor, glitter art, seasonal items and soon to be more paper products like banners/garlands, cards, wall art, etc. for the up-coming holidays. Right now they have some beautiful feather trees that you can decorate for any holiday or theme. I will post a photo of mine later when I finish decorating it. The scene I did here is with a vintage photo of a child and I cut her out from wood with a scroll saw. Mounted her on moss and added some eggs. It's sitting on a metal birdbath in my den.

This fun art piece is made from wood. I painted the wood base then glued on the frame corner, letters to spell dog, rusted star, re-bar, rub-on words and seamstress tape. The acrylic piece with the photo behind it is attached with tiny screws. It came out really nice I think.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Tree in Bedroom

I got these beautiful glass balls from a store in McKinney last week. The store is called Cherase Vintage Home. They have some wonderful home decor items for Christmas right now in stock. Go check them out. Another store on the square that has great stuff for the home and any color German Glass Glitter you need is Smitten. I bought some pink and they have it in fine and coarse grades. There is a rainbow of colors to choose from. I bought the silver ball ornaments with snowflakes etched on them in the picture below from there too.
I made these small brown metal ornaments from grungeboard, metal tape and molds from Ten Seconds Studio. They were fun and easy to do.

I constructed the art for the ornaments below using Basic Grey snowflake cardstock, printed words on the computer and charcoal pencil. Then soldered them between glass. There are twenty of them and each word is one that reminds me of this holiday season.

Here is the completed tree. It sits at the end of my bed on a bench.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get it posted. Things have just been crazy around here.

I also wanted to share a beautiful piece I bought from another antiques store in McKinney called Homepieces. The owner of the store told me the item came from Illinois and you don't see many of these that are dark colored. This is black and usually you see white or natural wood colored ones. I fell in love with it and had to have it. I figured it made a good birthday present to my self. My birthday is Sunday the 28th.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Hope Santa is good to each of you tonight.

Christmas At My House

This is my Christmas Tree. It has gifts under it finally today, but it didn't when I took this photo. My raggedy old Grinch is sitting underneath.


I made this tree from a sweater last year. Not my idea. One of the girls in my stamping group came up with it. Her name is Traci Hutton http://www.art-t-dolls.com/bio.html She has a great website to sell her gourd dolls. Check them out. Anyway I sewed sequins and beads on the tree then printed onto muslin with my printer (peace). I like how it came out. it is mounted on a small piece of wood.
These are bottle brush trees and a few ceramic snowmen from Hallmark. The reindeer is from Prescott AZ. Monica brought it back from there for me last year.
This is my fireplace. The let is snow hanging deal is one I bought plain at Hobby Lobby then covered it in German glass glitter using Glossy Accents. It really sparkles!

Well that's it for today. Later on I will post a tree I have in my bedroom. I am not finished with the ornaments yet. They have to be soldered.

New Art to Share

I noticed I didn't post at all in November. Oops! It has been hard for me to keep up with this blog. I am sorry about this. I intended in the beginning to only put up my art. But I might have to start posting other stuff like family or whatever else I come up with. Just to keep something going. Sometimes it takes me awhile to do art for me. I seem to have other things to do too. Like working, family, etc..

Well the two photos above are of a candle holder I bought at Hobby Lobby last week. It was on sale so that made the purchase even sweeter. I have been playing with a scroll saw some. I am by far not an expert! It takes some practice to get the hang of it. I definitely need more practice. The two kids are glued to craft wood (1/4" thick) and then cut out. I painted the edges and back of them with black acyclic paint. It finishes them off. I crackled a wooden cube with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Crackle Paint. I glued the girl to the cube because in the photo she was sitting on a chair and I cut it out. Next I placed moss and such in the vase and attached the cube to a birds nest. Then placed the nest on top of the moss. I then glued eggs in the nest. Lastly I placed silk flowers in. Oh I did glue a crown, flowers and bow to the kids before placing them in the vase. It turned out really cute.

This photo of a shadowbox to the right is one I did either last year or the year before. I can't remember which. Anyway, the doll was purchased at Target and the trees came from Michael's. I made the paper fan deal on top by just pleating music paper and then attaching with glue to the top of the box. I added a red ribbon with a star to the center of it. I believe I purchased the box at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Inside I glued paper to the background and rusted stars. Then added iridescent confetti as snow to the bottom. It was easy and fun to make.

Today is my baby's birthday (not Blair my son)! His name is Duke. He is 3. I took some photos of him on the couch with some pumpkins in October. Speaking of pumpkins I didn't carve any this year but I do have some of those Funkin ones I have carved in the past. They work really well from year to year. Here are a few I have done and a fiber optic cat. Can you believe I bought that cat in Georgia and brought him back on the plane with me? I did! Several years ago. He looks really cool because he changes colors.

Well, I will try to post some of my Christmas decorations later in the week. I can't believe it is December already!

Oh if you have a chance you need to go to the Waxahachie Tour of Homes. http://www.waxahachiechamber.com/candlelight/ I went last weekend with my Mom and a friend and her Mom. We had a really good time. The houses were very interesting. They were built like in the 1890's and one was 1929. It goes on for the next two weekends with different houses each weekend. Check it out if you can. The houses are decorated for Christmas. There is a great scrapbook store on the square also. Check it out too. http://www.thecraftyscrapper.com/