Halloween Art Journal Sketch

Even though I am not much of a lover of Halloween I thought I would still do a page so that I could draw some spiders! The background is watercolor crayons and the drawing is done in Sakura Gel Pens.....oh how I love those! 

Nish Prims

A few months ago I began making

these dolls. I love watching their little personalities coming together! These little gals are never replicated and no two will ever be the same. You can find and buy these little beauties at Antigonish Garden Studio in Wilkies Court on Main Street, Antigonish. 

Water Color fun!

window/flower box with added greenery and flowers

Fence with shrubs/vines and some little flowers

depth perception just by adding a foreground and background

I have been having so much fun playing with Water Color Stamping. I was so intimidated to even try it at first but once you start and you realize how much control you have with creating scenes in any size/shape/color you will just want to keep on playing and playing and playing! I have been cutting up sheets of water color paper in all kinds of sizes and I just keep on creating. I will be putting on a class at Shabby Shutters teaching the basis and tips and techniques on creating these little unique masterpieces! Sure hope to see you!
May 8th @ 6pm
or
May 16th @ 10am

Altered Paintbrush

This morning while driving with Nate in his truck I spotted this paintbrush sitting in the console between us. It was still wrapped pretty in its paper and waiting for Nate to use it to paint another shadow box however....my mind started thinking it could be pretty as an altered piece. Thus....I hurried up and snuck it in the pocket of my jacket before Nate would notice and I carried on as if I had not just committed a crime. I did eventually tell him that I stole something from his truck. I didn't tell him what I had stolen though. Needless to say when he did see the project his first comment was, "I needed that!". Well Nate, Obviously I did too! Its a paint brush. Get over it. :)
So...
I gesso'ed the paintbrush handle and painted it bright yellow. I applied a layer of crackle and then instead of putting another color on top I just used brown ink to get into all the cracks and crevices. I painted the metal strip with green paint and made some pink flowers to add here and there. I painted a canvas butterfly and stamped some script on him. I added lots of bling and a cute little sentiment that says "make your own path". A few Liquid Pearls finished off this silly project of the day.

The flowers were all cut from a sheet of double sided paper and scrunched up or distressed with a gem added to the middle.

Its always nice to do something you wouldn't normally do and break free from the comfort zone!

A bit of spring perhaps?

This is one of the cards for my upcoming class. I think I am tired of feeling like we are in a deep freeze and needed some spring colors to cheer me up. Mission accomplished with this card. I love the bright yellow/orange flower along with the subtle flowers in the background. I even added some wire around the flower for another touch of texture. This is gonna be a fun one to do :)

Lots of products to play with in this card....Dylusions Spray, Claudine Hellmuth Paints, Perfect Pearls Powder and Spray and some Dry Glitter just to name a few. All products available at Shabby Shutters of course! :)
Lets consider it a 'breath of fresh air' with the bright colors!

Art comes in many many forms...

Art comes in many forms and it does not always have to be created on a piece of paper. Below are just a few samples of things that make you take a step back and realize that you or somebody just like you created that. Whether you consider it art or not...it was made using our hands as the tools and it is something to be proud of!

doodling art

the art of scrapbooking

The art of flower arranging

The art of Stained Glass

The art of creating a snowman (simple but still an art in my eyes)

Moi...the hired help for the day of building lobster traps

A few of the creations 

Last but not least...the art of making a lobster trap. Totally not the kind of item you would consider art right?
However, when I watch (and occasionally help...photo to prove it) my husband create these traps from scratch and I see how 'picky' he is about what pieces of wood go where, and how deep the nail is hit and how tight the netting is I realize that he is also an artist in his own way. He has taken a long lost art and has kept it alive. Each trap being a challenge to be better than the last one.

Long live the many forms of art and the people who create it.

Happy craftin'!

Canvas heart art...

Wow...its been a while since I've been here. I didn't really do any crafting over the holidays but in reality the holidays were over weeks ago. Ok, I've been lazy!
Yesterday though....I got inspired over these little pieces of fabric below. I had tons of scraps of Stickyback Canvas and didn't want to throw it out so decided to put together some canvas creation using the Stickback Canvas and all the colors of a heart in all forms...Dylusions, Colorwash, Distress Stains and Paint.  I colored all the little pieces of canvas different colors and then gathered all my 'love' stamps. I stamped all of them with Stazon Ink because I knew I was Modgepodging over the canvas and I didn't want anything to run. After coloring and stamping I started piecing it together to form a heart. I wasn't too concerned if it didn't make an exact shape of a heart as I knew I was going to be Gesso'ing all around the heart to create texture for inking....and inking I done! My fingers were sooooo covered in ink (that makes me happy!). I used a mask to cover the heart and then went crazy spraying the canvas with Dylusions sprays. The texture that I created with the Gesso comes right thru the ink (love!). I made a few flowers and extra hearts made out of different textures and added some bling and Bobs your Uncle! Done! This was so much fun to play with yesterday just hanging out with the fur kids and listening to music. I hope it inspires YOU to get out some inks and just PLAY!

Here are some pics of the canvas along the way....

The scraps of canvas and all the inspiration inks and sprays!

Canvas inked and drying

All stamped with different stamps from various stamp sets

layered on canvas with Modgepodge on heart and Gessoed all around the heart

                               Sprayed and waiting to remove mask (see the beading over the heart?)(the mask is still in place)

The only thing left to do is bling it up! Thus leading you back to the first pic and the completed project!
Happy Friday!