Christmas is Closer Than You Think

Yes I know, you are all screaming at me that Halloween is this weekend and yet here I am talking about Christmas.  I am in a condo this year and will not get to enjoy Halloween like i normally do, so to offset my Halloween blues, I have jumped right to next season that i can actually enjoy, CHRISTMAS!  Also like many other people, I have to do a LOT of stuff to get ready for Christmas, maybe more this year than ever before.  So instead of falling behind I am trying to get a head start on it. 

This year I have gotten a little creative and decided to make Christmas cards instead of buying them.  No I am not saving any money in making them, I have probably doubled my Christmas card expense by making them, but that's ok.  I am thorougly enjoying painting the cards, putting them together and even making their envelopes :O)  

Here is a sample of some of the completed cards.  I have never made cards before so it has been a learning curve for sure.  I trashed a lot of the very first ones I did.  The more cards I make, the more I figure out what I like and don't like and what works as a card and what doesn't. 

Maybe one day I will get enough guts to start my own hand painted card business.....Lol thats a big maybe though. 

I hope you enjoy them. 

I was Thinking of You When I Painted This

Here are three paintings I did five years ago.  It wasn't long after I really got back into painting and drawing that I completed them.  Each of the three paintings took about about three days to complete.  I was home sick a lot around that time and these three paintings were my way of dealing with being so far away from everyone and everything that was important to me.  There is for sure a lot of emotion behind these pieces.  I think having emotion behind a piece makes it better.





Love Grows Here



This first one I did is Called Love Grows Here.  I did it for my Sister Roxanne.  To me this is her in all her glory, a giant growing heart.  She is a very sweet soft hearted person.  Don't get me wrong, she can get mad and be moody just like the next person.  But her overall being is a soft heart.  No matter what she will be there to take care of you, even when you think you don't want/need her to :O) 



Sisters

 The second one I did is called Sisters and I did it for my sister Sherri.  Sherri is my sister but she is also so much more to me.  This painting is of four mushrooms.  These represent me, and my three sisters.  They are all similar, but are all slightly different too.  There is just one that has a diamond on her instead of the three dots.  If you know us, you can decide which of the four that one is :O)  I am not sure why i decided to paint us as mushrooms, it just felt right at the time.   

First Date

The last one is called First date and I did this one for my mom and dad.  I am not sure what their first date was like, but maybe they were a little like these daisy's walking along looking up at the stars.  It again was just something that felt right when I painted it.  My mom and dad are as cute as the daisy's in this paining :O)

These three pieces, like all of my paintings are filled with color and are a little on the whimsical side.  I just don't have it in me to paint a pretty summer scene.  I mood decides my color choice and the canvas usually decides the picture.    





 





Baby Showers - Time to get Creative

A couple of years ago my cousin was having her baby shower at my house. So I made her these cupcake babies and a diaper cake (pictured below).

The Cupcake babies were not hard to make, but it did take a day to complete. A more experienced fancy cupcake maker may have been able to do pull it off in a couple of hours. I had had never made any type of fancy cupcakes before and I had to spend time figuring out exactly what I needed to make all of the little parts. Then cutting out the little bibs and making all of the parts and finally putting the babies together, did take me a whole day.

I used regular size cupcakes for the bodies and mini cupcakes for the heads. I cut mini marshmallows in half and used them as the bonnets around their faces. Their bibs were cut out of fruit roll ups, and the bottles were little chocolate candies stuck onto mini marshmallows. I used a tiny bit of icing to stick everything together. The pacifiers were made out of fruit loops and a tiny piece of candy. Putting them all together was a little like doing a jig saw puzzle and I like puzzles, so it was right up my alley.  Once I had them all finished and all tucked into the fridge for the night I was afraid they were going to all fall apart.  I thought for sure I would get up the next morning only to find cupcake baby parts all over the inside of my fridge.  Like a worried parent I got up and checked on them that night.  Luck was on my side that weekend. No cupcake baby parts in my fridge. Like most of the projects I start, this one was a bit bigger than I had original thought it would be. Before I started I thought a couple hours max to get it all done. Not to my surprise it was longer.  But like I said I always start projects thinking it won't take any time at all and before I know it two weeks have gone by and I still not done. It was a fun project and I would do it again.  I think it would probably be a really fun project to do with a group of friends.

The diaper cake only took me a couple of hours to make.  The only part of this project that I planned was that I was going to make a diaper cake and it would be for a boy.  Other than that I winged it.  I think these are great gifts and you don't have to spend all the money businesses want to charge you for them, you can make them yourself while your watching your favorite TV show at home.  The only advice I would give is to make a spending limit and stick to it.  For me anyways it is really easy to go out and blow a large amount of money on baby things.  Other than the diapers, and baby things you will also need some sort of plate to build the cake on, ribbons, and elastic bands.  The rest is up to you.  You can go super big or small and simple. 

This was a lot of fun to make as well.  No only did I get to shop for loads of baby things, I got to open it all up and present it in a unique way.  It actually added to the decorations of the party.

These are just two of the thousands of unique ideas you can use at a baby shower.  I hope I helped spark your creative candle.  Let me know if you try out either idea and how it worked for you.

Even Your Pets Can Get Creative.

I try to get everyone involved in art somehow or another. This piece was done by my two dogs Koyasha and Peanut. I taped a piece of bristol board to the deck out side and put little piles of different color paints (all non toxic pet safe) all around it. I than got the two dogs to walk through the paint and onto the bristol board. Of course I had to use treats to convince them to walk through the paint. But once they got the hang of it, it was crazy fun.

This is for sure an outside project for a nice sunny summer day. Peanut even sat on the board and moved her tail around all of the paint. A quick spary with the water hose cleaned them up very fast and easy. You can't see it in the picture but there is little dog hairs and pieces of grass in the piece. I think this adds to it. I was able to cut the large board up into several smaller pieces and send a couple of framed pieces of dog art home to my sister. Since that time I have lost Peanut, but I will always have this piece and the memories of that great day together.

What are some creative pieces you and your pets have done together?

The two smaller pictures next to thier art is their puppy pictures.

Everyone has a creative side

I believe that everyone has a creative side, even when they say they don't draw, or play music or that they are just not creative. Some people just need to find away to let go of their ego and let there creative side shine through. I am by no means a great artist of any stretch of the imagination, but I do like to paint and keep my self elbows deep in something creative. I am however, very very shy about showing my work. A co-worker said i should be selling my paintings and I just about threw up at the thought of putting my work out there for the world to see. Since than I have been thinking about it and came to the conclusion that I should at least take baby steps in sharing my love for all things creative with people I know and hell maybe even the whole world.

I thought a blog would allow me to share some projects I have completed, document the process of some i am in the process of completing and not have to be there when people react to them. I don't paint for the pleasure of other people, but for the pleasure of myself, so I am unsure of why I would care about what people think. I guess it would be a little heart breaking to think someone didn't like something I put a lot of time and effort into creating.

Anyways hear goes my creative leap of faith.

I hope you enjoy what you see and please feel free to add your comments/ suggestions on how to improve.