I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I hope you are all safe and sound and ready for Santa to visit! Enjoy this special time with your families! Through all the hustle and bustle that are the holidays, take time and remember the reason for the season!!!
I finally got my fanny in gear today and listed my birdie houses and some other artwork in my Etsy store today. The picture above is one of my new listings. I just put them in my original store, since Etsy didn't really sound too hot on opening a second store. Hopefully people can find them...!!!! Now I am going to spend the rest of the day working on Christmas gifts that I need to get made!!!
This one has a little locket and key hanging on the front and antique lace around the outside edge.
This one has a little bell on the front!
A couple of new birdie houses that I will be putting in my Etsy store soon. I got the pics taken this morning when we finally had some sunshine. These little ditties are about 7-8 inches tall and approx. 3-4 inches wide. My hubby made them for me and I had fun designing and painting them. 
It's been awhile since I posted anything here. Been busy like everyone else, I guess. I've been taking a new class Italic Calligraphy from Martha and loving every minute of it. Above are a lot of the practice sheets I've done. I have lots to learn yet, but it is a good start. I tried to learn
I am not sure what I am going to do with this geometric design...maybe hang it in my studio. I really am not crazy about it, thats for sure. But, with these lessons, we can't choose what to paint, so have to complete each lesson as is. This was a study of Marquetry, but done with paint. We had to apply layers of transparent paint to build up the colors and shading. Marquetry is normally done with all kinds of inlaid wood.
This little painting is from my gut art class with Mystele. I had the background done, and saw an arm and a shoulder.....and suddenly "she" appeared in the background. This is my first NUDE painting....lol!!! I couldn't decided on what clothes to put on her, and decided that she was supposed to be naked, walking through her flower garden. So....she is!!! This was much more fun to paint than the above paintings were.
Today. I am working on some items to add to my Etsy store. Oooopsss..it will be a NEW Etsy store for my artwork. I thought it really wouldn't work to put paintings in with my rubber stamps, so "Beyond the Cellar" will be my new store. I will post when I open it so you can peek at what I've been doing....
I finished this page the other day, and forgot to post it here. This is painted on a piece of cardboard that has had some of the layers torn off to create texture. Several pieces of collage papers were added and then I gessoed the background and created more textures. I painted layers of paint on with several tools...no brushes! Think I did use a bit of cloth to soften some of the colors and blend. When I was done layering all of this good stuff, I saw her eyes in the background!!!! Wow...she was right there looking at me. I would like to think of a name for her.....any ideas??? After she was painted, I added the butterflies. Who would have thought to paint on some ordinary, everyday cardboard??? I love the textures it creates.
One of the inspirational videos we watched in my Gut Art class I found so beautiful was the Omo people. They are a tribe in Ethiopia and the live life naturally. They use each others' bodies as a canvas and paint on them. They then adorn each other with flowers, stems of grasses, pods and fruits. I tried to quickly capture a little of this beauty in my artwork above. I would like to paint more of these, but take my time with it. With our Gut Art book, we are suppose to do a quick sketch and go at it with freedom and movement. I had a lot of fun working on this. Tomorrow, I will be working on another painting that will be inspired by some music we will listen to.
This is my first page in my new "Gut Art" book. I am taking a class from Mystele called Gut Art and this page came from our first lesson, viewing some artwork, and then taking what we saw and turning it into our own art. We first make the background on the page using collage, then layers of paint and pencil, etc. After the background is done, we study it, and see what we can see appear to us. The first then I saw in my background was the BIG eye....so, I went with that and sketched a face. I tried to use some of the abstract style of the artist we were studying and incorporate that into my painting. I don't think I am too crazy about her, but do like what I ended up with. Mystele calls this "pulled art". Letting yourself go and using your intuition to paint. This is terribly hard for me, as I've always been such a "controlled" artist and creating with such abandonment is not easy. She is trying to teach us to find out our own style, our own creative niche. I love her artwork, and she is a wonderful teacher...she really connects with her words.
This is the back cover of my Gut Art book. We used cardboard and covered it with collage and the layered paint over that.
This is the front cover. After collaging and painting it, I put the heart in the center...writing "art pulled from the heart". The word Embrace is collaged below.....embrace your own style. I hope and pray that I can do this.
My book is filled with wonderful papers to work on. Watercolor paper, cardstock, handmade papers, paper bags, old cardboard ....some small and some large....It should be a lot of fun to fill up with art.
This is a project that really isn't finished yet. On a piece of masonite, I collaged 2" squares in various background papers. Then I used a charcoal pencil to shade around and between each square. A thank you to Carol Wingert for the inspiring idea on her blog awhile back.
My hubby built the frame for me and it is a deep frame. I crackled it but it didn't get the deeper cracks like I had hoped it would, but it will work. The deep frame allows me to set some little nick knacks on it if I want to . I have it hanging on the wall right next to my computer. Sorry for the glare from my flash.....ooops!!!!
Another journal done from Julie Pritchards Super Nova class. We collaged the pages first before making the book. Most of the backgrounds, quotes, and journaling will be added now that the book is finished to personalize the book. This book was more time consuming to make, with all of the collaged pages, but I am lovin' how it turned out. The pages are just card stock, folded in half length wise, and then bound together with ribbon. 
No painting for this gal today!!! We just picked these today and it looks like I'll be canning tomatoes this week!!! Guess that is what happens when you plant over 100 tomato plants!!!
I've been taking another new class and it has been wonderful. We are learning how to make three different types of journals. The pics shown are the first style. I had so much fun, I ended up making two. They are made with watercolor paper for the inside pages, but you could use any kind of paper to make them.
A new page in my Altered book that I am working on. I decided to have a little fun and paint something whimsical this time. Plain and simple...that is for sure!! I have fun drawing and painting it. I think I will do more of these little ditties!
Please take a look at this beauty!! The Singer sewing machine was my Grandmothers, and then my Moms' and I've owned it since I was a young girl. I used the make all of my own Barbie Doll clothes on it. It is a 1925 Electric Singer sewing machine. I was told that it was the very first portable electric model they made. Don't know if that is true or not, but it is a beauty.
This photo shows some of the attachments and the booklet and box.
This fits into the front of the machine and hangs down. You use your knee to operate the machine by pushing on this.
It's even got a light!!!!!
Outside of case when closed with key attached to the handle above.
I've also been playing with my calligraphy and some watercolors. I will post some of them here soon too. I've got another page ready to go in my little altered book that is calling to me also. I've got the background done, and have been trying to decide what the page needs next. So, soon I will have some ideas, and then I will finish it.
A quote that I found that I liked. I think I'll use this somewhere in the future on some other paper.
More playing......and doodling. Doodling is something I have done for years!!!!
On to more practice now......
This page, the theme is BEAUTY.....inside beauty.
About my artistic journey.........
I will be posting more pages from my book as I get them done. I think that I will be making many more of these books in the future, as I'm lovin' it!!
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