mocha floats

that's

1/2 cup of espresso

(orI'll bet strong, cold brewed coffee would work too)

1 cup of milk

2 scoops of chocolate ice cream

caramel syrup to taste

all combined in a tall glass

try it.

it's good.

weekend art

I ended up having a very artsy weekend.

It was lovely, and I now I want to share what we made.

A very stereotypical "Christina" piece

for my art teacher friend

who requested a larger version

of my little quotation

for hanging in her classroom.

This little piece is also a gift.

This one's going to a fellow blogger/contributor to Made.

The quotation is hers,

and the rendition of Montana dusk is all mine.

The next few pieces were inspired

by the beautiful Beth's (creator of Made)

challenge to make messy art.

"unfinished" set of two coordinating art journal pages

I had some fun using up the paint leftover from my dusky art

to make these two wild pages.

This piece was inspired by the paint left over

from Brother's messy art (see below).

Of course my children had to get in on the painty fun too.

They loved my idea of making paint blobs

and blowing on them through straws to make them spread out.

I really like Little Man's autumnal color scheme here.

Brother tried straw-blown paint blobs

and splatter painting.

Too fun!

Sweet Pea enthusiastically did her own thing

with what appears to be her favorite color: purple.

Benjamin abstained from the messy paint art,

but he did make lots of beautiful music.

This post has been full of Made references
(you'll have to bear with my enthusiasm).

Click here to get the full scoop on Made.

art journal

One of the things I love about my art journal

is that its pages are small (about 6"x6").

These small pages make it easier

to fit small sessions of art-making into short amounts of time.

They also make it easier to let go of my uptight perfectionism

and boldly try new things.

(For some reason it's much harder for me to let go

when I'm staring down a big, blank space.)

In short, it's a little safe haven

were I am brave and just have fun

with my art.

One of the ways I do this is by incorporating

whatever art supplies my kids have out.

The following two pages are experiments in wax resist

that were made on a rainy day

when they had their crayons and coloring books at the table.

I've been a little slow jumping on the washi tape bandwagon

simply because it seems like such an extravagance.

(No local stores sell it, so I have to pay shipping too.)

Last week I finally got some, though.

Well, Benjamin got it for me.

'Cause he's sweet like that.

 I love it just as much as I thought I would!

I think it would make great a great stocking stuffer.
Just sayin'...

While I was melting the boys' crayon nubbins

to make new heart crayons last week,

I decided to try some encaustic painting.

Okay, so technically encaustic painting uses

bees wax and powdered pigment,

but I figured that melted crayon wax

would make a fine substitute this time.

 My first try turned out pretty cool!

Melted crayon wax is hard to work with,

but the texture is amazing.

 My second try, well, lets just keep the 

brave and fun concepts in mind

because it's sure not great art.

For my third attempt I got a different paintbrush,

and it turned out pretty cool too.

And then there's this thing.

I sat down with my pens to make a

"one thing at a time" doodle

while focusing and organizing my thoughts.

But OF COURSE,

I didn't listen to my own advice

and jumped up to do something else.

When I came back, I discovered that my little Sweet Pea

had decided to edit my art.

Too funny.

I finished the words

and then added some of my own embellishments

around hers.

linking up with Jen's In the Studio again today

art journal

Here's some more art journal fun from a couple of weeks ago.

Inspired by this post, I decided to try making prints

using our styrofoam take out boxes.

A somewhat moody post

inspired by my recent contemplations on how life

is often a complexly beautiful mix

of joy and pain.

I used acrylic paint for the print

and my beloved gel pens to fill in some color.

(When making prints like this, you have to write backwards,

which is tricky. Especially when you're already dyslexic.) : )

This lighthearted number has hidden meaning.

The background includes one of my failed "joy and pain" prints.

True praise springs from both.

This piece is epicly mixed media (for me, at least):

I used acrylic paints, colored pencils, watercolors, and gel pens.

"The grass is always greener..."

Made with styrofoam stamps, watercolors, acrylic paints, and ink.

(I love the texture that the acrylic paints add.)

"Shine"

made with acrylic paints and styrofoam stamps.

(I got all of my letters the right way this time!)

Abstract styrofoam stamp by Brother

in "the color of peanut butter."

(I liked the his stamp so much that I added some more color

and used it for the background of my "Brown" page.

Recognize it?)

Little Man's styrofoam stamp: A Spider Web.

Little Man's "Circle Sun Colorful" made with gel pens.

Brother's abstract art also made with gel pens.

color your world challenge

Remember how I was participating

in the Color Your World challenge?

No? Well. I got way behind.

I feel like I'm finally coming out of the pregnancy haze

and am tacking long-planned projects.

I scaled down my plans

and completed all three missing color challenges this week!

September: Teal

This is supposed to be a teal silhouette of a teal duck,

but I think it might actually be a wood duck. Oops.

It still turned out pretty nicely.

October: Orange

“[Orange] is one of God's favorite colors--

He stuck it right there between red and yellow

as the second color in the rainbow.

He decorates entire forests with shades of orange every autumn.

It shows up in sunrises at the start of the day,

sunsets at the end of the day,

and in the glow of the moon at the right time of night.”

~Reggie Joiner

November: Brown

I love Brown.

"The color brown, I realized, is anything but nondescript.

It comes in as many hues as there are colors of earth,

which is commonly presumed infinite.”
~Barbara Kingsolver

linking up with Jennifer's In the Studio

resolution

So it's almost the end of March,
and I'm finally posting about my New Year's Resolution.

This actually ends up working nicely
because often by this time of the year, Resolutions are forgotten.
But instead of forgetting,
I'm writing about it for the first time
and getting a nice reminder of my year-goal.

(acrylic and sharpie)

Several bloggers I follow

wrote in January about how their resolutions

were encompassed by a single word or short phrase.

I loved it.

And the more I read,

the more convinced I became

that my special resolution words for this year

should be Peace and Peaceful.

Between family and friends, church, work, and play,

not to mention sleep-deprivation and emotions,

I find myself becoming agitated far too often.

So this year I am pursuing being a

person who is characterized by peace.

It is a hard but excellent goal.

art journal

Doodles with a basic ball point pen.

This rather psychedelic creation was made

when Little Man wanted to share his markers with me.

While I was doodling with his markers,

he drew a picture of the two of us together.

I so love it.

And Brother drew "ladybugs in the tall grass beside our porch."

Sweet Pea is still mostly drawing abstract squiggles

though she is working on drawing circles.

Another bright marker doodle.

Even though this one's just a doodle,

it has special layers of meaning for me.

The black dots are braille for "love"

which is significant since my mom is legally blind.

I wanted to communicate that love is a language

everyone can undersand

and that it can be "seen" be everyone.

I got some fun new art journal supplies last week.

A water brush and basic water colors.

And a package of colored GellyRoll pens.

I know, I know.

Gell pens are so nineteen-ninety-nine.

But I really love the way these lay down ink so smoothly.

Plus once they're dry, they're waterproof!

I'm learning to make the most

of the small windows of time I have for art.

This only took about ten minutes

but I felt refreshed afterward

and had a little art to show for it!

I really need to stop chewing on my pen lids while I draw, though.

It's a yucky and destructive habit.

Little Man wanted to try my new pens too.

This is "A Jabber" when it's facing this way

and "A Colorful Bag With A Handle"

 when you turn it upside down.

just some art journal fun

Some of these art journal entries are a couple of months old.

I haven't had a lot of time to journal lately,

but what I have had has been so nice.

From December,

more experimentation with negative space:

"Snow had fallen, Snow on Snow,"

a line from Christina Rosetti's "In the Bleak Midwinter"

The snowflakes were fun.

A complainy entry from way back
when I had to drink crazy amounts of water
for my kidney stones.

Happy New Year complete with glitter glue

that Little Man generously shared.

(Turns out fireworks are hard to draw!)

And two from this week!

I must be getting tired of winter.
Something very bright and warm sounded nice.

Lovely morning drawing in the sun with some coffee.

Delightful.

Linking up with Jennifer's Studio Sneak Peek.