…all NEW stamps and samples!

Alright, let's just do WILD debut peek at all of my new rubber stamps for Art Gone WIld.  I created these 21 sample cards that will be on display at the CHA show this weekend, woo hoo!!


The line is called "Artful Cardmakers", specifically designed for coloring.  Love love love and love to color!  And it's so good for you. (relaxing, meditative, calming, ahhhhh…..)

The "Artful Cardmakers" set includes FOUR stamps.  The central image is a red rubber cling stamp and the coordinating words and sentiments are in clear (so you can position easily).  Each image has a blank box so you can pick and choose the sentiments for several occasions!  Isn't that fun?!!

"Ladybug"

My artwork can be colored and embellished with various media.  On these samples i used Copic markers, Twinkliing H2Os, watercolors, colored pencils, watercolor pencils and inks.  The possibilities are endless, you become the artist for your own cards!  I love bright colors, but i can't wait to see these designs from YOU in other color palettes.

"Flowers"

"Thank You": Copic marker colored, accented with RANGER LIQUID PEARLS

"Butterflies"

"Butterflies": Copic markers and watercolors highlighted with 

RANGER GLOSSY ACCENTS, LIQUID PEARLS and STICKLES

These were made with the "Getting Punchy" sets.  The set comes with FOUR 3" stamps, the images designed for the Marvy PURPLE PUNCHES (available at Michaels Stores).  But of course you can stamp you own repeating patterns as they stand along well. (*i posted all the PUNCHES sets in my January 21 blog post)

Lots of Liquid Pearls, Glossy accents, and MORE stickles…...

And there's more!  I also have FOUR stamps in one more collection called "Journalings".  

Didn't get the stamps yet, but will make samples and share when they arrive.  

So JUST COLOR!  It's good for you!!!

hello birdie...

It was a great honor and such a thrill to have my journal "bird" highlighted on the Brave Girls Club Daily truths today.  Here's a closeup of the message journaling…….

Check out the Brave Girls Club, it's an amazing inspirational and empowering community for women.  We are having so much fun sharing and celebrating!  It will touch your soul…….

...more "Getting Punchy" peeks

So many punches, so little time to finish cards!!  Here are the last three of the four sets of the "Getting Punchy" series for Art Gone Wild.  I love them!  There's so much creative potential for beautiful cards with these simple messages.  

But in the meantime, my sample making is a little out of sorts.(aarrgghh!)  My studio is a disaster with my "artful cardmaking" papers, inks, paints and art stuff everywhere.  So when i get a grip and get organized, i will have somethings to show you made with all these designs.  Promise.   

 Since i wasn't able to get the cards done for you to see, i thought i would just show you the entire "Getting Punchy" collection.  You'll be able to do so much with these stamps and the 3.5" circle punch!

Just enjoy the preview for now and start imagining your possibilities!

….new stamps peek #1!

Time for some peeks!  I am so excited for Winter CHA and  new stamps i have coming out with Art Gone Wild (AGW).  This week i am finishing piles of cards for their booth display.  I have 12 collections with a total of 36 pieces of red rubber and clear.    Here is the first image in black and white.  These are called "Getting Punchy Stamps",  sold in a set of 4, made to fit in a 3" circle punch. (Marvy= purple punch).  Here are some fun sentiments and coloring images to make a quick and cute card: 

Come back tomorrow to see the cards made with these designs!  I'll be posting previews for days, so remember to visit often.

my art kids....

So proud of my creative children this week.  Here's some art by my daughter Meghan, 25, a residence counselor at Heritage Christian Sevices.  I can't even begin to tell you what an amazing job she does caring for her residents.  She's always been very creative and artistic with perfect lettering.  (where did she get that from??  (LOL)   I'm crazy about this doodle she made the other day.  

Love love love the Marilyn Monroe quote!! 

Then we have my son Kevin who is a senior at Nazareth College studying Art Education.  He just started his student teaching today, at an elementary school, grades K-5 in Greece, NY.   What a thrill!  The minute he walked in the door today, he collapsed from exhaustion from the draining teacher day.

 Here he is as a summer camp counselor in the Arts & Nature program.

Kev is a clay guy, makes amazing artful ceramics!   What's even more exciting is that Kevin attends my college alma mater.  On May 8th he will graduate from Nazareth College with a degree in Art Education, exactly 30 years after i received my Art Education degree from Nazareth.  It's such an honor.


Kevin's twin, Brian does amazing woodwork, and has a flair for music.  While i never pushed my kids in the "arts as a career" direction, i always encouraged their creativity with good art supplies, journals and sketchbooks, and teaching them fancy techniques.  I cherish those times, they grew up way too fast. 


I'm so amazed at their passion and creativity, and extremely proud of the great contributions they are making in our world.

vision boards.......

...Vision boards are good.  

Here is a corner view of the vision board that hangs in my studio.  

These are a few of my intentions that i posted in 2010.....

Today i just sent off my first article to Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine 

that will debut in the May/June 2011 issue.  

It's a really "colorfun" feature that i can't wait to share in a few months.   

Just a little excited. 

"Put it out in the universe!!!"...  

Vision boards are good.

journaling art calendar

Here's a fun way to journal!  Make your own art calendar in a book form.  Just started this one for 2011, after seeing a challenge somewhere online.  Heaven knows how i find things, and get connected to links that take me to people and projects and challenges.  There is so much creativity on the internet.

This calendar challenge came from Kate Crane, an artist in the UK with this really great blog The Kathryn Wheel.  So much fun to be inspired by others, especially in another country!  There are over 70 people following along, doing her calendar art project.  t's not to late to make one yourself!  You would just have to gather up your supplies right away, make the book and remember what you did the last nine days!

My calendar journal is made all from scratch with TWO 22" x 30" sheets of Winsor Newton watercolor paper.  I cut the sheet up to 11" x 15" pieces and scored the pages in book form and sewed the signature with book binding thread.  The surface pages are misted with Ranger Color Wash of course, with some masks for textures.  I punched the date squares out with a Marvy (tag shape with top cut off) punch and edged them with Copic marker outlines and am using a fine tip Sharpie for the journal entries.

Since i didn't buy a calendar yet for this year, this is a good excuse to quickly journal daily and create at the same time.  Looking forward to looking back in it later this year.  It doesn't seem like much when you start a progressive project, but when it's finished it's so rewarding to look back and reflect on the little details in volume.

So go play and make your calendar journal!  

And share if you want to.

wordy pages...

This week, I'm all over the place. Working from sun up til sun down, in the middle of some big deadlines for quite a few projects.  There are several art licensing design and product submissions, workshop and class proposals, stamp design samples for CHA, and my debut article and artwork for Cloth, Paper Scissors magazine.  It's all good.  Sooo good.


As i am looking for my own inspiration, i end up paging through all my art journals from 2010.  I think i have about 12 journals, all different sizes, papers, covers, etc.  I have painted, markered, collaged, doodled, lettered, wrote and sketched on a few hundred pages.  It's so rewarding to put them all in a pile and see where i was all year.  These are some of those pages. 

 A new year is a good time to 

embrace reinvention. 

 I do know that my reinvention is to grow,

 it's to seek higher, 

become more than i am and have been.  

  Most of my journal creating time was spent experimenting, exploring and looking for direction, reinvention.  I look back and read my own writings and illustrated messages again.  Something always ends up speaking to me in a new way, like this:

 "you can dream as big as you want"

 ...Reinventing the direction with action.  I know what i am good at, i know where my heart always puts me.  So look back in your journals, reflect on what your heart was speaking.  Be grateful for your journals, for the art play and as an 

authentic 

diary of your heart's desire........

...it's all so good.

...a bird and trust

I'm really loving the bird silouette lately.  Journaling takes you to so many places in your head and your heart.  I don't even know where the thoughts come from or how they get into my head as i am creating and start writing the entry.  The inks and pens and words take you away, very therapeutic.  Perhaps that's why we find it so appealing, that we can be in  a comforting place right through our artwork.

This year could be about searching your life for the thing that God has trusted you with........what gifts in your life do you think God gave ONLY YOU, and trusted only you to have???

...be about "action"

 

2011 is my ACTION year........ACTION is my new year word.....it's not a resolution, but an energy and faith to put my intentions out into the universe, in God's hands.  I will trust unconditionally to be guided to the right place, in my place.  

 I love words.  I love writing words, and apparently i LOVE the WHITE PEN!!!!!  I love how the white ink pops on a page of intense bold color and squiggles and flows as the words pour out from my soul.  Still playing with styles and outlines to see what stirs me in journaling.

Funny, this journal page was created in November of 2010.  It seems that my heart was going in the right direction...."aspire and action"...

 .....be about action. 

happy, fresh and new......

2011 is here!  Time to give energy to the possibilities and dreams that will come true this year.  Hope you celebrated with all the things that make you happy to your core....

family, friends, faith, food and frolic!

This is my first journal entry for the New Year.  Many of my friends are talking about their  New Year's "WORD" (something that will direct purpose for their new year).  My word is "ACTION"......this year to strategize and energize exactly where i am supposed to be, and to do whatever it takes to make all the "things" (that i will share throughout the year) in my head, "happen".  I have what it takes to make all my dreams come true, i do!!!

...two pages in my watercolor Moleskine journal.....

 ..."2011 go deep into the depths of heart and soul....your thoughts have vision"

 ...Give ENERGY to your DREAMS and take ACTION so that they will happen"....

 These pages were all "Ranger Driven", using Color Wash, Distress Inks, way too many Stickles and lines of Liquid Pearls with gobs of Glossy Accents.  I have piles of flower scraps from Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, and i seem to love them in a lot of my projects!

 ...the whole spread was misted with Perfect Pearls Mists in Perfect Copper, toning the bright colors and coating the pages with a warm glistening hue.  It's the perfect finishing touch that takes your breath away. 

Even though i worked on this for two days, it surely qualifies for  start of my 

"Art Journal Everyday".! So excited to be energized by my creative ventures with this really cool art community.  Check it out and Happy New Year to YOU!