It's Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  46 years ago, I went into labor on this day - in the middle of a great snowstorm!  Finally got into the hospital at around 10pm, but my beautiful baby girl decided to wait till the next day to be born!

So, Happy Birthday - tomorrow - to my wonderful daughter and best friend, Serena Dawn!  I love you more than words could ever express!  xoxo

Birds on Stilts

Today in the mail, I received my "Mixed Media Inspiration Deck" by Kiala Givehand.  These cards are to be used to prompt you if you are stuck - which I always am!  So, I drew four cards from the deck - and here's what they said!

I had just gotten some new stencils from Stencil Girl - and I was wanting to use them, so here they are!  The worst part for me was writing with paint and a paintbrush.  I have such difficulty, that I don't like to do it.  But, in the spirit of the cards, I did - but I had to go over the letters later with a black pen.  Still don't like it, but, Oh Well - it is what it is!  I certainly will do it again - there are 52 prompts, so what could go wrong?  Ha!

Stencils

I've joined The Stencil Girl Stencil Club.  In this club, you receive 3 exclusive stencils monthly, and access to all sorts of wonderful sites!  While I'm waiting for my first club stencils to arrive, I've been playing around with the stencils I do have.

Derwent Inktense Blocks

The other day, I received my Derwent Inktense Blocks.  I've been watching all sorts of videos using these blocks, and was very intrigued.  You can color on the page with the blocks (which is how I made the rainbow) and then add water - they become like watercolors, but once dry, they won't reconstitute - so you can add more wet paint or medium and they won't change their color! And, what intense colors!  Also, you can wet a paintbrush, rub it on the block and paint that way - that's how I did the flowers.  The flowers are a new stencil I bought from Stencil Girl.

So this is just a page in my journal, testing out things.

Wonderful Mail!

So, not only did I receive this beautiful tag from Jessica Sporn, she also sent me this cool card!  I love getting gifts from other artists!  I have a little place in my studio where I put all these treasures.  Some things I've bought, others were gifts - and they all are so precious to me!  Thank You, Jessica!

And, she's giving more things away -- check out her blog and go onto her Stencil Scavenger Hunt!  It promises to be a lot of fun!  Now, if I would just get back in there and create something myself!

Inspiration from Jessica Sporn

After watching Jessica Sporn's video, I was inspired to try to use the technique to make some more bookmarks!  Although I used paper, instead of paint as the background, I still feel that they turned out pretty good! (I've got another 3 in the works).  And, I won the tag that she gave away at the end of the post!  I should receive it in a few days - how exciting!

Birdhouse in the Woods

This is a painting I did today, at Carlynne Hershberger's Studio during her monthly "Painting Party".  Since we all paint the same painting, and it's a copy of one of hers, I usually give these away to my family.

Carlynne is responsible for almost all that I know about doing art!  I started taking classes from her in 2008.  She helped me with oils, watercolor and acrylic.  If you live in the Central Florida area, check out her workshop on April 3 & 4 at  the Lifelong Learning College at the Villages.  She will be teaching "Color and Texture in Acrylic Landscapes".  I'm going to try to be there!  You can see samples of her incredible work here:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/hershbergerhuff.

It was fun to get into acrylic painting for a day!

Finally Fixed

Finally!  Took my computer in to be cleaned - had a bunch of unwanted stuff on there!  He explained to me that Blogger is owned by Google, so they are always trying to get folks to use Google Chrome as their  internet browser, so once in awhile they fix it so you have to use Chrome to make things work on Blogger.  I've done that before, but I didn't think that it was the problem.  Anyway - my advice to anyone having ANY issues with Blogger - try Google Chrome and see if you still have the problem.

So, these are my other "Paper Doll" bookmarks!

Problems

For some reason, I'm not able to upload my photos to my new post.  I'm not sure how to fix this, so if anyone has some hints - please let me know.  So frustrating............


When I try to add the photos (it does let me upload them), I get a small circle on the page that changes colors - and then everything freezes, and I have to go totally out of the internet to close it.


I'm thinking of changing my blog to another site.

Paper Doll Bookmarks

 

 

Today, I was inspired to start a little collection of "Paper Doll" Bookmarks.  I found these darling faces and accessories downloads in an Etsy store.  Then I just collaged them on bookmark blanks, and added the dresses and words.  These are just the beginning - I have a bunch that I want to do for Mount Dora.  I've added photos of each of them, so you can see them up close and personal!