Playing With Watercolors and Paper

I've been having such a good time playing with paper, but feel as if I am neglecting the other love of my creative life - painting. Creating with paper has actually re-inspired me with my painting, and more and more I see how I can combine the two mediums.

On the the Decorative Artists in Canada (DAIC)painting list, they have a wonderful thing called DTCs which is basically a 4x6 trading card for the DAIC members. I have grown to love this exchange, as it allows me to combine paper and painting. The 4x6 cards give me more room than the ATCs and less surface space of the traditional cardstock. My most recent DTC for spring, I decided to use a daffodil line drawing of Richard Bonds and paint using watercolors on canvas.I cut a piece of canvas and glued it onto the 4x6 DTC tempate and applied the line drawing. Then, I took Grumbacher watercolors and applied color.

I let it dry, then applied color to the background and then added some doodles around the boarder, using a black Micron fine point marker....and added a bit details to the flower.

I am very happy with the results, and I have decided that instead of loading up on stamps, I will begin using what I already have over on my paint table ... an abundance of line drawings and patterns from wonderful decorative artists.

I truly believe that the two, paper crafting and decorative art, can co-exist in a truly dynamic creative way.

Celebrate Spring ATCs

I still don't know sometimes if I have the hang of ATCs. I have seen beautiful ATCs made with stamps and bits and pieces of paper and ribbon ... beautiful images that make me oooh and ahhhh.

Then it's my turn.

Maybe I need a theme? ... I don't know, but when left to my own devices with blank ATCs - the doodler in me is strong. I like to put swirls and dots and hearts and simple flowers on paper ... all over the place. My mother tells a story about sitting in her kitchen, thinking about me after I had just left for college ... and she looked at the wall by the phone ... and on a small piece of paper hung one of my doodles that she'd found. "Back then", when I was in my teens, there were no cell phones and cordless phones were too much money! The kitchen phone with the 100 foot twisted cord was all there was!...and I can't htink of how many days I'd sat in the kitchen on that phone, yakking and doodling.

So in the spirit of a doodler, my latest ATCs which are to be Celebrate Spring!, were born. Materials used were 2 pieces of blank watercolor paper, a pencil, pearlescent chalks for the background, a black sharpie, H20 Twinkling pots to add the bursts of color, and a bottle of Sticklies for that textured glitter in the hearts.

Mellow Yellow Card

Well, on the Art For The Creative Mind list, our swap for cards was Mellow Yellow. I am not a "pastel person", so the thought of thinking in terms of YELLOW were not easy,LOL.

I don't know how other folks lay out their cards, but I start with the cover, and then for me, it determines the rest.


I don't lay out my colors or anything beforehand, because I don't really know what I am going to do...I like to let the designs of the papers guide me. It took a while to decide what to do to the inside, but I kinda like the idea of giving a little something extra and making things "useful"... so I added some cute tags ready for the recipient to play with.

Brrrr...it's A Chilly April..Anyone Heard Of Paper Bag Books?

Well, I'm still burrowing in my house as the last couple of days its been in the 30's!!!...and it's April!!

What better way to pass the time waiting for the sunshine, than to play with paper. I've taken a little break - not too long - from painting, and I have totally immersed myself into paper crafts.

Most recently, on the Art For The Creative Mind yahoo group, we were issued a challenge to create a paper bag book. I was REALLY skeptical about this, but dove in, as it has been cold outside and I needed something to pass the time!LOL Well, how surprised was I to totally love it! Now, since this is for an upcoming swap, I'm not going to post any of the inside pages - YET - but I promise that as soon as I mail it out, I'll post some of the step by steps and inside pages.

Roses For A Friend

Every once and a while you should take the opportunity to send something to a friend, just to say thanks for being you, my friend or do something for a perfect stranger, just to make them have a happy day. A random act of kindness or RAK doesn't require much, just a simple thought or gesture. My 1st RAK of 2009 is a painted bag, for a friend, who has lent their ear to mine on more than one occasion, who has made others smiled with a kind word ... who I decided to send this bag as a simple Thank You for being My Friend.

March Medleys

Finishing What I Start
I have been in the process of finishing projects from recent seminars that I have taken because I love the pieces and the main reason for taking the seminars, was to finally have my own painted works around my home. These 3 pieces, I painted in seminars at a wonderful tole shop in Northern Virginia, The Apple Tree.





Give a Little Of Your Heart
I have been painting for the Memory Box program since 2002. The Memory Box Program was started in 1998. Hand painted paper mache boxes are donated to local hospitals to give to parents who have lost their infants.

It eventually evolved from the 2 women who started it, Tera Leigh and her mother Marie Gemmil, into artists from all over the world, from the beginner to the very experienced donate their time and talent to ensure boxes are delivered to various participating hospitals throughout the world.

When I learned of this program, I knew I had to be a part of it.

Recently, Tera Leigh and Marie Gemmil retired from running the program, and now Tolefriends has picked up the torch for this worthwhile program.

This is a worthwhile cause for ANY artist, who would like to donate a box for hospital infant bereavement programs in and around the US. For more info, go to:

http://memoryboxes.org/

I just completed the Black Angel Folk Art boxes below, and they are only a sampling of the many boxes I have painted as my contributions to The Memory Box Program, my way of giving back.




It is always bittersweet doing these, because of the reason for them�and unfortunately, there are always families in need of one, that have lost a child. Let us hope that maybe one day, the demand for Memory Boxes won't be as great as it is today.

Happy & Creative New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! I want to wish all of you, not just a prosperous 2009, but a HAPPY 2009.

My goal for the New Year is simple - do what makes me happy. Whether its taking an unexpected day off work to spend time with my son, knitting that blanket that I've been working on for the past year, sitting down all weekend and making some cards and ATCs ... WHATEVER it is that makes you happy - just do it.

Life is too short to not take a quick mental "get away" and do something which makes you smile.