in the mood for hearts

In the spirit of Valentine's Day coming up, I was drawn to hearts today! I got my Gelli out to play!
I also played around with some Cedar Canyon Rubbing plates, and some Penscore Foam too!
Before I got started printing, I heated up some Penscore and pressed it into some various textures. I think my favorite is the old cheese grater :) I found that my embossing folders worked really well too! I especially LOVE the Tim Holtz ones put out by Sizzix!

Then onto printing (I used Deli Paper).  Like I said, inspired by hearts today :)

My daughter, the chicken whisperer

My son went out and found this young rooster near our coop...........crazy thing!  It was trying to get in the coop with our chickens.  Anyway-we think someone threw it over but being we are in city limits its not allowed..........so we threw it back over the fence. We don't want to be responsible for the cock-a-doodle-doos in the early morning hours :)
My daughter has this thing for the chickens. They LOVE her-its so crazy! She pets them and they are very relaxed with her. She spends alot of time with them. She cried because we could not keep him.

UPDATE: So the "Rooster" actually ended up being a Hen! Hubby actually found an egg that it layed. So I guess we are keeping it after all! HaHaHa

Loving me some rusty goodness!

I started this piece quite a while back.....maybe last year sometime. But then I drew a blank. A few days ago I was rummaging througy my assemblage junk and found it. Suddenly inspiration resurfaced! So starting yesterday I began working on it again.  So far here is my progress! I made alot of headway on it today and so far I am so happy with it. Once its completed I will take a better photo, where more of the actual color shows up better!

Today's splurge.....

Its been close to a year since I had a donut. I have resisted FAR too long. I have been EXTRA good, watching alot of what I eat. Donuts were on my big "Do Not Touch" list.  But I made myself draw them first-thats a good idea, right? Hmmmm.....I wonder how many miles I will have to run to get rid of these. I guess I shouldn't think about it :)

More Citrasolv Fun

So after doing those other pages I took a break, not planning to do anymore. Except, I couldn't keep my mind off it~!So what did I do? I did more, or course!  This time I painted the Citrasolv onto the pages , closed the magazine and let it sit a while.  Before I closed the pages, I threw some stencils in between the pages.  Here are a few of my favorites!

My house smells like Valencia Oranges......

....all thanks to Citrasolv!  I have long wanted to play with Citrasolv and National Geographic Magazines, but could never locate any Citrasolv locally.  So I finally bit the bullet and ordered some.

So glad I did! It arrived a couple days ago and I have been dying to try it out. So I dug out a few pages of some old National Geographics to mess around.  I found that the more recent issues worked better (like over the past 10 years or so). I did try a magazine from around 1999 but found that the Citrasolv had to sit on the page for longer before it started to make any kind of difference.   Here are  a few pages from my efforts today. I grabbed a couple of stencils (wish I had taken more with me) to play with-hence the circles :)  I took the advice and played with this stuff outside where it is ventilated. Once they started to dry I brought them in-but the smell is strong. At least it smells pleasant :)  I can't wait to play with this stuff more-and try out some different things.

Yummy Lemon Cookies

So I volunteered to take some cookies for my friend's funeral luncheon today, and these are what I made. They are sooooo good and so pretty too, I think. Best of all, they are super easy too!

Lemon Cookies

 1 Lemon Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp Lemon Extract
Powdered sugar


Mix together cake mix, eggs, oil and lemon extract till well blended.  Drop teaspoonfuls into the powdered sugar and roll them around till they are covered. Put them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them for 6-8 minutes at 375.

Today's Doodles

Just grabbed two things that are normally part of my day-banana's and a can of  almonds. The bananas had so much character with the brown spots on them (although they are now destined to be banana bread ). For extra character I attached the del monte sticker off the REAL bananas :)  Its amazing, once you start to draw. You really start paying attention to the small details. Different things you would not normally notice. I guess it shows how much we really take for granted in life, huh?
 I also got this book in the mail today-its so fun :)
I LOVE getting new books and magazines, especially when they are just loaded with color-its so inspiring :)

 Looking forward to trying more new things out!

How Breathing Treatments Are Done Around Here

This is just too funny-had to take a pic to document this.  Gillian has managed to be able to hold the nebulizer mouthpiece in her mouth at the same time as playing the Wii.  Its a crack up.

Chicken Soup and a Bottle of Steroids

My girl is at it again-she's got some upper respiratory thing going on.  This is her 3rd day off school-which is no big deal. The big deal is she is on steroids! eek!  This time they gave her a stronger dose, and wow-shes is literally bouncing off walls! I have to keep telling her to not jump around. She is jumping on the couch like a trampoline! Then she gets herself coughing and sometimes it lasts a while.
So Steroids are NOT my friend!LOL!!!! I did manage to do some doodling and playing with my watercolors today-its amazing how just even doing a little bit of that can brighten the day up. Art saves, right ?:)

I have been reflecting the past few days-its not been too easy.  I had a friend die on Sunday. We have known that this was coming for about a year, but this happened a little sooner that I thought.  I thought I was prepared, but it turns out, maybe not as prepared as I thought.  She suffered ALOT, and she was truly done after the holidays passed.  I just had two really great visits with her about a week before she died. I will always treasure them-we had some really good laughs (and she had a WONDERFUL laugh) and just some really serious talk. As I cried, she told me to please not cry, that this was just all part of the plan for her.  Its going to be hard, knowing she is not a phone call away, like she has been for me the past 10 years or so.  I loved her so much, and her family too. I looked up to her-and she always had a way of setting me straight when I was having a hard time (which has happened alot over the past 10 years).  Life is kinda funny, isn't it? I know that death is just part of our circle of life, but wow, how much it hurts to lose someone you love, even though you know that person is no longer suffering.   I know how important it is to let people we love know it, and I am so glad I told her that I loved her the last time I saw her.

More of my rambling , about reflection.
As the new year has started, it really got me thinking of all the challenges  I had last year. But, really, I had sooooo many triumphs. I think the triumphs far surpassed the challenges. Lets see, for starters-I got myself healthy again.  I realized how important it was to get rid of any stress, and how much that can impact your health.  I gave up Dr Pepper!  HUGE!!! I ran my first 5k, and got a pretty dang good time too. My faith has strengthened by leaps and bounds. I rediscovered sewing. Sent my daughter back to school (after a year of homeschooling).  I have learned to laugh at things more-even the challenges. I have learned to let things roll off my back more. I have learned that having my feelings are okay, and its okay to express them ( no matter what anyone thinks). I have learned to be honest with myself.  And last but not least, I have gotten rid of some things (and people) in my life who have really brought me down. 
Overall I am very happy, and soooo relaxed-much more than I have ever been. I am glad for a new year, and new triumphs :)

Gelli on Canvas

So I purchased some loose canvas a few months back to have on hand-you know, the kind you  get at the fabric store by the yard? Anyway, I have been dying to use it for some different stuff. I got out my Gelli Arts Printing Plate and went to town.  It didn't print AS good on the canvas, I am sure because of the texture (and I primed it first) but I think I DID get some good impressions here so overall I am pleased with it.  I may try some different things next time.  As I was printing, I decided to collage on a couple pieces of found text. Then I got out my loooovely Elna Supermatic (Her name is Ethel) and stitched away (Ethel is awesome! She is so powerful she plows through many layers).  Then, after trying it out on Canvas, I thought I would try it on some muslin.  Worked great!  This is all done with regular acrylics (Liquitex soft body and Golden).
After all that it needed something more so I printed up one of my old collage pieces (5 Senses) from a few years ago on some inkjet transfer paper. I ironed it onto a scrap of muslin that I had used on the Gelli and stitched it on.  This is 5x7 in size.

Not striving for perfection

I did this in like 15 minutes (or less).  I have a collection of magazines related to horses and different animals that my husband brings home for my daughter-she has a huge thing for animals. Seeing this picture today I just felt like drawing it. Instead, I got my Higgins Black Magic ink out (with a dropper) and used that and sketched it out as quickly as I could then added color with watercolors. So fun-gotta do this more often!

Scattered Leaves

Its sooooo windy here that leaves are blowing allllll over my front yard. I grabbed a small branch with leaves and was noticing the leaves imperfections. Even with imperfections the leaves have such beauty, I think!

Just A Lazy Thursday

I knew I wanted to do some art today, but honestly I felt SOOOOOOO lazy I didn't want to do anything. But I was inspired to do an art journal page and when I saw my sweet  shih-tzu,Sumo, curled up asleep on the loveseat I knew I wanted to try to draw him. Its always scary to draw, and especially a dog curled up asleep! But overall I love the way this came out. I used cake watercolors to add a bit of color! The   thing below Sumo is our colorful abstract rug :) It felt good to do something artsy today. I aim for pleasure, not for perfection  :) 

Got my art on today!

Wow-its been sooooo long I forgot the feeling of exhilaration I get when I create a piece of artwork.  As I was browsing an art book today I decided to get some supplies out to play today and here is my finished piece. Wow! I feel a rush. MUST get back in the habit. Its absolutely necessary!
I don't normally make new years resolutions, or should I say don't like to, as I NEVER keep them.
So I will make this a month by month goal.  At least to do some art every week, in addition to my sewing (which will be combined with my art-coming soon) and the other 1000 things I do every day.

Now that my girlie is back in school I have time, and energy, to do this.  I NEED my quiet time to focus-can't have any distractions! Oh, and music is a must :)

Monoprints

I have been following the Gelliart blog and got the urge to play! Its been a while!
Here's what I came up with today :) The Middle one is layers  of paint over found papers