Merry Christmas!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season.

acrylic on canvas

60th Wedding Anniversary

Last weekend I was in Connecticut celebrating my parents 60th Wedding Anniversary ~ what a blessing.

Mixed media on Arches watercolor:

Happy Valentine's Day

Today's post is a Valentine's Day card I made for my parents.   For the hearts I used watercolors, gold embossing powder, glaze and glitter; and glued them to foam to raise them off the paper a bit.  The background is watercolors, Unryu paper, Golden matte medium, shimmer acrylics and acrylic paint.  Thanks for stopping by.  :0)

Simon Says Stamp challenge:  Young at Heart http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/

Happy Autumn

A little pumpkin card painting on Arches 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper.

Mandala Card

I'm taking an online course with Dion Dior on using Twinkling H2O's, and this card is my interpretation of one of her lesson plans.  It's an abstract Mandala but my husband thinks it looks like a roulette wheel, lol.   I used 100# paper to frame my painting; the paper is called Whip Cream and I ordered it during the Paper Temptress summer sale.

It's difficult for me to capture the sparkle of the paints, but there's a bit of twinkle throughout the painting.

Thanks for stopping by ~  Ann  :0)
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Paint Party Friday

A Little Art Everyday

Like most people who enjoy art, I get the urge to create something almost every day.  However, many days I push aside that urge because I feel too rushed, too tired etc. to create my idea of how a final work should look.  I'm taking a cue from so many people in social media who encourage people not to worry about the final outcome but to create without regard to the final result.  So today I pulled out some watercolor pencils and one of those water brushes (I forgot what they're called but the nature of their in-preciseness makes them an ideal choice for a loose watercolor painting).

I got slightly distracted during the sketching when I spotted these two outside and had to run and take a snapshot:

Have a good day; thanks for stopping by.  :0)

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Creative Every Day
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Happy Father's Day

For many years while growing up our family took a two week summer vacation to Castleton, Vermont.  We would stay on beautiful Lake Bomoseen, swim in the crystal clear water and go for boat rides.  I have wonderful memories of those family vacations and painted this watercolor card for my father with those memories in mind.  I hope all the Dads enjoy a peaceful, relaxing and joyful day.

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Cupcake Greeting

I love cupcakes, looking at them, painting them, decorating them and eating them.  I painted a little cupcake the other day following mixed media ideas from Dion Dior's class in Twinkling H2O's.  Then I used some gorgeous paper from Paper Temptress to play up the metallic colors in the paint.

The decorative papers used are Laser Gold Glossy Lustre, Razzleberry, and Avalanche White Linen.  

I used watercolors and Silks acrylics on Arches watercolor paper:

Strawberry Watercolor

Lately I've been determined to improve my watercolor skills so I'm taking online instruction from Anna Mason.  Her site is called Watercolors with WOW in case you're interested in watercolor painting;  I've found her instruction very helpful.  I chose to paint a strawberry for lesson one, and who would think that this could be so difficult, eeeeekkk but it was.  Fun, but required much concentration for me, hopefully with time it won't be such a brain strain.  Here's my painting:

My watercolor was painted on Arches 140 lb Hot Press paper, hot press is new to me, but I like the smooth surface.  Thanks for stopping by!  :0)

Winter Fun

*Celebration* is the challenge over at Oozak Blog, and the DT has come up with many different interpretations for this theme.  Join us with your *celebration* project and a chance at winning a prize!  The month of December brings coziness to mind for me and so I'm hoping my project reflects this.  The house is an altered stamp design from House of Gilli; love this little house stamp.

First step of the project was a coat of Gesso on a mini canvas and after giving this some time to dry I swiped some colors of Golden Fluid Acrylics across the canvas.

I ran my Memory Box Die, frosty border, through the die cut several times as I used various paper and cutouts from this die.  Using a Deep Red background stamp, crochet, I stamped over areas of the canvas with Golden Acrylic in white.  I held the canvas backing with one hand so I could get an impression; I tried with the canvas on the table and it was difficult to make contact that way.  When I had all the cutouts laid out how I wanted them, I glued them in place with Golden Medium in gloss, and then spread a coat of it over the entire canvas.  While it was still wet I added some glitter to the trees and Memory Box Dies.

Take some time from your busy holiday schedule to create your idea of celebration and join us over at Oozak Blog!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :0)

Rose Watercolor

I've recently started watercolor painting again.  Although it's a challenge, it's the medium I love most.  Here's a rose I painted on Arches cold press:

The photo was taken with my old camera; didn't realize how much I like my new camera until I saw the photos I'd just taken.  Thanks for stopping by ~ Be creative.  :0)

House of Gilli Challenge ~ Favorite Color Combo

     The latest challenge up at House of Gilli is to make a project using your favorite color combination.  I had a hard time choosing, so went with a variety of colors, love them all.

     This is PJ Gilli and I made a little robe for her and colored her with Copics.  I gave this card to my Mom for Mother's Day.  I was fortunate enough to be able to have lunch with my parent's this week; just a couple days after Mother's Day.  Here's a pic of them:

     It's always wonderful to spend time with them; they're in their 80's and stay very active.  They live a  couple hundred miles away from me so I don't see them as often as I'd like.  For a gift I gave my Mom a summer pink robe, much like on the Gilli card.  It's fun to coordinate the card with the gift when I'm able to do this.
     I hope all of you out in blog land are able to carve out some time to be creative.  We'd love you to join our challenge over at H.O.G..  Thanks for stopping by today.  :)