Still painting

And having a great time! I am still loving watching Cinnamon teaching acrylic painting. Her Youtube channel has so many lessons and they are all fun just to watch even.
 The Art Sherpa Easy Pug Painting. This one took me a while. It is 16x20. I got tired and would take a break and then play the video again the next day and I played around with colors and changed the shape a bit. I had to change a couple of things. First of all, I had placed my drawing a bit to low and the tongue was off the canvas. The body took up the entire bottom of the canvas and when I stood back from it, it just didn't look right, so I decided to make his body go the the left side of the canvas and bring the background down. I named my pug Walter. Mostly because I was watching Scorpion and I was going to do a yellow swish like Cinnamon's on the top of the canvas. It ended up being a W. So that is where his name came from.. I got to where I thought he was done when I realized that I forgot to give him a lower jaw. I must have changed his forehead at least 4 times. Lastly, I wasn't digging the background color. Bye bye W. Then I decided to add a pattern of circles and I found a gear looking thing to print with. I think it was in the handle when I opened my new Big Shot machine. I am loving it and he looks so fancy in his sweet frame I got 2nd hand.   Now I do have to admit I am not a huge lover of abstract art but I like this and really look forward to doing more in this style of abstracted art.

My next thing to do was one of those wonderful color charts. I didn't do my cheap acrylics. I only did the Golden's which I got when I worked at Michael's and the Liquitex Basics that I got to fill in the colors that I needed to do the paintings with Cinnamon. She uses a pretty regular palette but some of the colors, I just didn't have and can't afford the Golden any more. I ended up making 6 pages of color charts. I had no idea that I had so many tubes of paint. I haven't pulled out the good stuff in years and it is in a cabinet. Out of sight out of mind. Of course there is a video on making this. Big Art Quest #2: Custom Color Chart 

 Beginner painting lesson | Kawaii Elephant with Rainbow Bubbles | Art Sherpa For Kids   I did this today. I love how it came out and I actually did it in one sitting. It is an 8x10 but still I was very happy with being able to do this in an afternoon. There was a near disaster with the black paint. I set my brush down to go answer the phone. I came back and grabbed my brush and got black paint everywhere......except on the painting. Whew! When I was first setting out my paints, I did think about not putting out the black yet since it wouldn't be used until the last. I should have listened to my inner voice on that one ;p

I am so looking forward to continuing this journey. Take a chance and try something new. You never know, you may just find your passion.

What's new! 2016

I have really gotten into watching Cinnamon Cooney The Art Sherpa lately and decided to break out the acrylic paints. She does an awesome job of breaking things down for people to follow along. I used an old canvas that I had covered over with Gesso to try to cover the old painting. You can still see the outlines from the vase and oranges. Even with that I decided to go ahead and figured If it didn't turn out very well it wouldn't be a huge loss.

I had trouble with the ropes and could not get them the way I wanted them to look. I ended up painting over them and trying again. I still don't love the way they look but from a distance they look fine and so I left them. I also, while trying to blend out the new colors found that the paint was leaving swoosh marks under the swing and I liked that. It seems to add to the idea of motion. I do like the way it turned out and can't believe that I actually painted it.

After almost 2 months of waiting for them to come from England I finally got the Brusho powdered watercolors. I love these! The black is probably my favorite because of the colors that go into making it.

Yup, that's black or it would be if it was mixed. I got 20 colors. 5 of them are reds, which I don't recommend because 3 of them I can't tell apart.

These are some of the pages I made in my hand made watercolor journals.This stamp is Stampendous Glance colored with colored pencils before sprinkling the Brusho's on.

These stamps are also from Stampendous. I had previously watercolored a bunch of these flowers with water soluble oil pastels from Portfolio. Her hair is questionable. LOL Especially after I added the colored pencil on top. Reminds me of my bed head when my hair gets longer.

That's it for this post! See ya soon!

Happy Holidays!!!

A quick nail stamping that I did on Sunday. They should last through New Years unless I get bored with them. They have already been through several rounds of hand washing dishes even with the big gathering we had for our building Tuesday night. I helped with the dishes after and they are still looking good.The dots are holographic glitter and of course I topped it all off with my new favorite holo polish.

Look what I got in the mail from Stampendous! I won the Patty Pop Ons Puzzle Pieces and a mystery stamp set :) Which is NK Studio Marks. I have been chomping at the bit to use these on the  Creative Palette Monoprinting Plate. These stamps also come with a stencil which is awesome and doubles the fun. I just haven't had time with the holidays upon us. 

By the way, have you noticed how slow the mail is this year? OMG! I have been waiting with bated breath(whatever that means) for stuff I ordered at the first of the month. I usually get my stuff in no more than 10 days. I am hoping that I will get the rest of my gifts today. Yea, Christmas Eve. 

My cards this year I made with the Create Christmas Cling Stamp Set and the Create Christmas Die Set. I hand cut the banner after stamping Happy Holidays with Teracotta chalk ink from Clearsnap. I embossed it with Stampendous Ruby Pearl Luster Embossing Powder In order to make multiple cards I stamped the sentiment well spaced on cardstock so that I had room to make the banners. I used the first one I cut out as my stencil for the others. I used Crushed Olive Distress ink to darken the top part of the die cuts on the tree. I use a bit of Tacky Glue on the top of the dies and foam tape on the bottom half to give my tree dimension. I cut strips of red/white bakers twine to decorate my trees. I used Gold Lame' Smooch on the star.

A Christmas card

I love this Cheery Lynn Die French Lattice (small). It makes such an elegant background. I would use it on almost every card but I tend to do larger coloring designs that would just cover the whole thing. So sad. I do use it often on the inside of cards though. I used the 2nd die in this set: Oval-Scalloped-lg-stackers-nesting-dies/. The stamp I used is from(gasp!!!No, not Stampendous ;p) After Midnight Art Stamps Christmas Sheet #5. It was stamped in Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo. Then I went over the edges with the same ink and penned in over the top with Copic Atyou Spica in Sky Blue. Then I used my Irresistable Pico Embelisher to add a tiny dot on each of the scallops and at the meeting point of each lattice. I added everything to a white pre-made card that I edged with the Vintage Photo Distress ink. I made my Poinsettia with Cheery Lynn's  Build-a-flower-1-petals-leaves/. After I shaped the petals I used my Craf-t-Products-Metallic Rub Ons in gold and red on the flower petals and leaves. Before I used a small brass brad in the center of the Poinsettia I added light dabs of glue to the petals and sprinkled them with red micro glitter from Stampendous  Christmas-micro-glitter-kit. It doesn't show in the picture but it sure looks great in the light. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Viki     

That's better

Yup, it looks much better with the animals added. I used my Tombow pencils to color the animals because I wanted soft color on them. The little fox has an orange red undercoat with a dark ocher over the top. The deer is just dark ocher with a touch of pink on the ears and cheek. I think just that addition makes the card look much better. Sometimes you just need to stand back and look something the next day and you will just know it needs more. 

The sun was shining today so I decided to see if I could get a good shot of my right hand. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to hold the camera with my left hand and take a decent shot. My nails are a lot longer on my right hand which is weird because I am right handed. I don't have a dish washer either.