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.

Father's Day art

Backstory:

A couple of years ago

my dad was driving home late at night

when he plowed into a full-grown moose at 70 miles per hour.

Miraculously, he walked away from the wreckage.

Since then we have had some fun

giving him all sorts of moose themed gifts.

It's part joke, but deeper down it's a reminder

that life is short and God is good

and that we should make the most of the time we have.

Here and now:

Last Tuesday

I randomly flipped through a vintage book

that I had stashed for future projects,

and I found a section about moose

which even included a cool moose picture.

Inspiration struck,

and in no time I found myself making the some father's day art

instead of working on laundry. : )

made from layers of

scrapbook papers, vintage book page and moose illustration,

 watercolors, my own calligraphy, and thread.

It's not a traditional card,

just a flat piece of art with a not written on the back.

He'll love it, though.

Linking up with the fabulous in the studio group

for the first time in way too long.

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

Handmade Christmas 2012

Benjamin has about six other people in his department.

We wanted to give them something thoughtful

yet low-cost and relatively fuss-free.

I made a double batch of caramel

(this is my favorite recipe, though I omit the crushed peppermint).

I wrapped them and then packaged them in cute little pillow boxes

made from cardboard upcycled from cereal boxes.

I added some festive ribbon and calligraphy tags

(Believe it or not, while all of this took thought and effort,

it really was relatively fuss-free for me.)

And then the boxes started popping apart

because the paper was too heavy

and the boxes were stuffed too full of caramel

and the adhesive I was able to purchase in town

was simply not strong enough to hold it all together.

I was frustrated and discouraged.

However, after taking a few days to regroup,

I tried again,

making slightly larger vellum (lighter weight) pillow boxes

and repackaged the caramels in them.

The new boxes looked beautiful and did not come apart!

(No pictures, though...)

Ben enjoyed giving them away,

and at the company Christmas party,

some of the recipients told me how much they enjoyed them.

Overall, I'd call it a success.

custom calligraphy

Last week I sent off another of my best-selling

custom I Corinthians 13 calligraphies.

I love knowing that I'm bringing beauty

to other people's homes with my art!

artsy peeks

The last couple of weeks have been a bit slower.

I have so enjoyed having a bit of extra time to create.

It's almost as beneficial to me as breathing.

I've been working on a custom calligraphy order.

It's another artsy representation of a couple's wedding vows.

This time I'm making a tree and bird design.

The customer said "Wow! I love it!"

So now I'm working with ink.

My art journal does not get the daily attention I planned.

I do like having it handy for the occasional doodle, though.

I decided that it's not worth stressing over.

I have many more projects in mind.

I am learning to embrace the fact

that I will always have more that I want to do

than time to do it.

It's hard not to feel as if I'll explode

from the pressure of the unmade.

I'm growing, though.

The things that need to be made

will be made,

and the best ideas will only grow better over time.

Linking up with Jennifer's Studio Sneak Peek.

a new style of custom wedding vows

Just two weeks after listing

my intertwined hearts custom wedding vows,

I received another custom wedding vow order!

This time the client wanted something simple and elegant

that would reflect the couple's love of the outdoors.

This is what I came up with.

This style of custom wedding vows

is now also available in my shop.

I love the good things that come from my creativity being stretched!

purple

I like all colors,

but purple is lower on the list than most.

And so I was less than thrilled about this month's installment

of the Color Your World Challenge

until I remembered the lines

"For purple mountains' majesty/above the fruited plain"

from "America the Beautiful.

Ah, ha.

I have always loved the way mountains

layer away, fainter and fainter

into the distance.

And so I found my inspiration.

red white and blue

Once again I'm too late to actually link up

with the Color Your World Challenge.

sigh.

Maybe next time?

This month's challenge was to interpret red, white, and blue.

I didn't want to lump

all three lovely colors into one piece of art,

so I made three.

(No wonder I'm running late!)

"Painters use red like spice."

~Derek Jarman

(Here's hoping that my red splotches

look more like paint and spice than gore.)

 "The first of all single colors is white...

We shall set down white for the representative of light,

without which no color can be seen;

yellow for the earth;

green for water;

blue for air;

red for fire;

and black for total darkness."

~Leonardo Da Vinci

The quotation made me think of a prism--

a beam of white light fragmenting into every hue.

"Once in a blue moon."

~ colloquial expression

I need to find some sort of paper

that will not curl when I watercolor on it

yet not make my calligraphy ink bleed.

Any suggestions?

linking up with Jennifer's Sneak Peek Friday.

custom wedding vow calligraphy

Yesterday I finished

this custom wedding vow calligraphy

for a customer.

I really love making custom orders,

taking a someone else's vision

and making it my own

and theirs

at the same time.

It's the best sort of stretching experience.

In fact, I enjoyed working on it so much

and was so pleased with how it turned out

that I decided to offer it

(well, offer the concept at least)

in my shop.

creative process

or perhaps I should clarify

that this is one

of my creative processes...

*not pictured:

corresponding with my client

and late-night mental design while I should be sleeping

sketching may involve

using my husband's pencil sharpener

and my son's scissors

cutting and tracing

exasperated sighing

pictures of prisms on Wikipedia

music

scrapping multiple undesirable drafts

facebook checking and updating

audibly praising ticonderoga pencils and nice erasers

a lunch of cereal for the boys

and unwashed dishes

trimming my paper to size is usually pretty straightforward

collecting my supplies might include

a trip upstairs to the kitchen

where various implements of art reside

on my magnificently dusty kitchen windowsill

meet my lightbox:

glass-topped table + lamp

ink time is simultaneously

the most nerve wracking and most satisfying

and usually includes

no music

trepidation that I'll set my hand in wet ink and smear it

horrible posture

messy fingers

multiple drafts

linking up with Jennifer's studio sneak peek

yellow

"How wonderful yellow is.

It stands for the sun."

~Vincent Van Gogh

mixed media:

colored pencil, ink, various papers, and thread

it's too late to link up

to the lovely color your world challenge,

but I thought I'd share it anyway.

green

Well, this week has definitely turned topsy-turvey.  After receiving news of my grandmother's failing health on Monday, we decided that it would be a good idea for me to take the little ones and visit her for a few days. Yesterday was a flurry of laundry and packing.  Today my mom, Little Man, Brother, Sweet Pea and I made the 8 hour drive to my grandparents' house.  I'm certain that being here right now is the right thing, but I sure do miss my Benjamin! (And my kitchen though not in the same way.)

Anyway, this post is about the color green.  We saw so many beautiful shades of green on our drive (as well as more white than I liked.)  I would have loved to photograph some of them to share with you, but since I was driving I figured I'd better not. ; )  Happily, though, I completed a mixed media piece last weekend, so even though I have not green photos, I still have something to show and tell.

This is not my usual style, but I'm very excited with how it turned out!  I've been wanting to do more with color, and since green is my favorite, it was an easy place to start.  The above pieces is made with layers of colored pencil, watercolors, ink, more paper, more ink, little mulberry paper leaves, and thread.

The quotation is by Pedro Calderon de la Barca.  Other than the fact that he was a Spanish writer, I don't know anything about him, but I feel certain that we were kindred spirits about one thing at least: the color green.

So excited to be linking up with Jennifer's Color Your World Challenge!

a custom calligraphy

Several years ago the siblings teamed up to make a family crest

as a gift to Benjamin's parents.

The oldest brother drew it,

the middle brother decorated it with celtic knotwork

(you can see some of his work here),

and I added the family name and motto in calligraphy.

(In case you wondered, Benjamin is brother number three.)

Longer ago than I want to admit,

Benjamin's mom requested a coordinating calligraphy verse

to display with the family crest.

I finally prioritized finishing it last week.

I am not comfortable with this script,

but am fairly satisfied with how it turned out.

I left plenty of margin because the middle brother

is once again going to add his celtic knotwork.

We hope to be able to surprise her with

the finished art

for Mother's Day.

Perhaps next time we visit

I'll be able to take a photo of the completed work.

set of two custom calligraphies

Benjamin has a lovely aunt who likes my art.

Not too long ago she commissioned a pink and brown bag,

and this year she requested a set of calligraphies

featuring two of her favorite sayings.

Putting these small, elegantly whimsical pieces together

was pure delight.

I'm looking forward to seeing photos

of how they look, all framed in their new home.

another I Corinthians 13 calligraphy

I still love this design.

It remains my best selling calligraphy,

and in spite of some near tears moments

(I hate making stupid mistakes)

I really did enjoy making this latest version

for a customer who wanted to give it as a shower gift.