I haven’t tried to sell anything on Etsy for 3 yrs or more. I was never successful there. But so many people I know, seem to do well, I’m trying it again.

I have a hard time pushing my self/my art. I think that’s why I haven’t done well on Etsy. So, I’m trying to be braver about advertising this time. So, here are a few pictures of some of the things I have listed or will be listing soon. I love love love painting these things. And I have a room full of them because I never sell anything. If I could make just enough money for art supplies I would be thrilled!!

 

 

I have been reading Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm-Watts and although I’ve read it several times before, this time it really inspired me.  I made a small journal just to play in with new ideas and to allow myself to loosen up.

The pattern on the left was made with a stencil I made from hot glue.

This background was made from dragging paint with a credit card. The picture is an old one of some of my relatives.

This one I don’t like much.  It’s more like what I’ve always done.  Wasn’t as free when creating this page. 

I like this one.  I was able to paint a portrait and yet still use other elements and create a looser feel.  This page is about my need to be mothered and how I was able to mother my children.  I feel like it expressed what I felt.

The look of this page isn’t that out of the ordinary for me, but the use of my own picture is.  Randi encourages using lots of photos in journal pages.  She talks about taking pictures of yourself.  So I found a picture and printed it in black and white.  It’s significant in terms of my own self image that I was courageous enough to put my picture, especially such a big one, on the page.

This one is messy and I lke that.  To me, it’s hard to make messy pages that are cohesive and expressive.  I think by sticking to just two colors and adding black and white made it more pleasant.

I’m trying out the self portrait idea again on this page.  I carved a rubber stamp from a picture of myself.  I can’t believe I used it over and over!  I’m still a little skiddish about “promoting myself”.  But I do like the layout of the page.  Again, keeping to just red with the black and white pulls the messy design together, I think.

This turned out nothing like what I planned, but I like it.  The turquoise color is unintentional.  It’s actally leading from another page.  The original idea was to create a collage that represented how our body is our home.  But as I was looking for magazine images to use, I found these two heads and was drawn to use them, so the whole concept changed.  I’m not sure what I’m expressing, but I probably will know at some point.  Randomly selected images in collage is hardly ever really random.  They have some meaning, but it can take a while to know what that is.

As often happens, this didn’t turn out like the image I had in my mind when I began.  That’s one of the reasons I am trying to loosen up.  I don’t want to have an idea when I start. I’d rather let the page flow and sort of create itself.  On this one, I found the bricks in a magazine and glued it down.  Then I got stuck.  I stared at it a long time.  Then I got the idea to write an affirmation in a grafitti style.  I searched online for grafitti lettering.  By the time I was lettering on this page, I was so focused on creating the letters the way I wanted them, that I forgot about looking at the page layout.  So, it ended up looking more “fixed” and planned out than was intended.But, as the page says, I AM enough even if it’s hard for me to loosen up!

Those of you that have followed me a while, know I don’t make pretty art in my journal.  I create backgrounds to write on.  I write a LOT in my journal and I write over the entire page.  Here’s an example of a finished page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I usually have one element that inspires me to start a page.  In the one I’m going to show you it was some new washi tape.  You can see it on the bottom right of the finished page.

 

 

 

I started by gathering scraps of paper in turquoise and black (from the colors in the washitape).  I glued them down with Mod Podge.

 

I wanted the background to look more uniform, so I painted the white paper with a teal colored glaze.

 

Now it’s looking pretty boring.  My style is more messy and grungy, so I added some black.

Ah, that’s better!  Now what?  Well, I found this adaptive tool at the drug store.  It is for people who have trouble with their hands.  It allows them to write by creating the lines for them.  It looked so cool I bought it to use in my art journal.  So I used it as a stencil.  I dabbed white paint over it using a makeup sponge.

Now the right hand page looks boring.  So I used a stencil/mask that I made.  I made it by drawing a flower with my hot glue gun on a piece of glass.  (Note: if you try this, be sure and spead the glass with thick vaseline first.  Even then you may need a putty knife to lift the stencil after it dries.)  I sprayed over the stencil with Dylusions ink.

Now I’m looking at the wole spread and all those white lines from the first stencil are looking pretty stark.  So, I use some alpha stecils with black paint, applied with a makeup sponge.

Okay, now what?  I wanted to draw a girl’s face.  But then to paint it is still pretty challenging for me, and I wasn’t in the mood.  So I decided to just so something silly.  I cut a girl’s face out of a magazine.  I lightly sanded it, because the slick magazine paper doesn’t take paint well, and I knew I was going to paint over her face.  Then I glued it down with Mod Podge.

To keep her features visible after I paint over her face, I went over them with a Sharpie.

Then I painted her face pink!

While I was doing her face, I forgot to take pictures.  But I used paint and colored pencil for the features.For her hat and dress I used paint and gel pens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s funny and pretty typical for me, is that at this point I had completely forgotten abut the tape that inspired the whole page in the beginning!  But I remembered and added it below her dress.  Here’s the whole spread.

It’s colorful, messy and fun.  Just the way I like ‘em!

 

It’s been quite a while since I had an inspirational idea for something fun and crafty.  I’ve spent most of the past year drawing.  I was so focused on that, that I didn’t have many creative ideas beyond drawing.
But yesterday, I had this great idea and I want to share it with you.  I made these shimmery hearts and hung them in my studio.

Here’s how I made them:

I tore pages from a telephone book.

On each page I spread paint on the page with a credit card.  I used red, pink, yellow and turquoise.  Just randomly applying each color.  I made smallish swatches to avoid the small hearts being all one color.  I applied one color then went to another page, in order for the paint to dry before adding the next color.  It only took a short while to dry because the paper is very thin.

Once i had all the colors on and it had dried, I used a metallic silver paint over the whole sheet.  It’s a transparent color so it allowed the colors to show through while adding a shimmer overall.

Then I took two pages and glued them together with Mod Podge.  I did a total of 6 pages, which gave me 3 double pages for the amount of hearts you see in the picture.

Once the Mod Podge dried, I cut the paper in strips as wide as I wanted my hearts to be.  Then I folded the strip in half longways.  Then just cut out half hearts along the folded edge of the strip.

I used a needle to string thead through each heart and knotted it to string them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They give my studio a sparkly reminder of the love that surronds me.

 

I haven’t posted in quite a while because, honestly, I haven’t felt like I had anything to say that anyone would want to hear.  I’ve been dealing with health issues and medication changes which have just knocked me out of life’s stream for quite a while.  I have continued to practice drawing a bit but not everyday like I was for a while.   I haven’t worked in my journal in weeks.  Everything feels like it’s just too hard.

Hopefully in a couple of weeks when I see my doctor, she will be able to straighten the med thing out and I can get back to normal.

I have been looking at a lot of artwork online and being inspired by so many artists.  Well, I’m not sure inspired is the correct word.  I have admired their work, and frankly, feel jealous.  I guess because I’m down right now, I feel like I’ll never be any better than I am now and that is frustrating because I’ve worked so hard to try to improve my skills.  I look forward to having FUN with art again!

So, if anyone has words of encouragement, even just to remind me of the truth about low times as an artist, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m participating in Daisy Yellow’s Index Card A Day  (ICAD) challenge.  It’s to make a piece of art on an index card every day in June and July.  I’ve made 10 but have lost two of them.  Oh well.

So here is what I’ve made so far:

I got some really cool office supplies from Shoplet.com to review and I’m so excited to tell you about them.

 

The coolest were the highlighters.  They’re Sharpie Gel Highlighters.  In this picture you can see what the tips look like.  They look like a tiny thing of roll-on deodorant.     It’s sold gel and works so cool.   They don’t bleed through the page and they won’t smear the ink if you use them over writing.  But, as an art journaler I found an alternate use for them.  I wrote with them and it looks like colored chalk!  But it doesn’t rub off like chalk does.  If you are a Bible reader, you will really like these for highlighting. The only thing I didn’t like is that the gel tends to sort of crumble and fall off if you press very hard.

 

Next I got a Premium Sharpie pen.   The pen itself – the nib and ink – are like any other Sharpie pen (not marker).  But the barrell is so nice!  It’s stainless steel and very sleek.  It’s heavy which I like and the grip is larger than the smaller Sharpie pens are.  I’m taking Joanne Sharpe’s letter class and  I’ve used this pen for most of my lettering because it’s a permanent marker so I can use watercolor paints over it.   If you’re not familiar with Sharpie pens, the nib is very small.  It writes a fine line which is great for lettering.  It doesn’t do well over acrylics, though because the nib digs into the paint and gets coated.

 

Lastly, they sent me a set of Paper Mate InkJoy 700 RT Ballpoint Pens.  Have you tried these?  They are dreamy!   I got one a few months ago at Target and it writes sooo smoothly.  It comes in black, blue and red, but I wish they had lots more colors because it’sa great ballpoint pen for journal writing, even over acrylics.  There are several inkjoy types, but this 700 is the top of the line and it writes much more smoothly than the others, although one of them does come in a pack of a variety of colors.

A couple of days ago I posted about making bad art.  I’ve thought about that a lot since then.  I don’t think I have the fear that many people have of creating bad art.  I create lots of it, so I’m used to it, I think.   I do art almost every day.  The only time I don’t is if I’m deathly sick and just can’t.

But, I do have a fear that limits me from being totally free in my art.  My fear stems from beliefs of scarcity.    Have you ever been poor?   I imagine most of us have.  Maybe when you first left home and had a job that didn’t pay much, or when you were in collge, or if you’ve been laid off your job.   Or maybe you are there now.

I don’t know what exact numbers determine if a person is poor or not, but I’m talking about having to make things stretch out.  Things like art supplies.   Mister and I have met some challenges over the past couple of years that require that we watch what we spend our money on.   I can’t go buy canvases or paint just because I want some.

So, that leads to me fearing that I’ll waste a valuable resource if I mess up.   What if I get real brave and try some outrageous colors in a paintng, and it doesn’t turn out?  I will have wasted a canvas.  In reality, I can paint over it.  But in my scarcity mind, the voice says “You’ll never be able to get another one”.

I use cheap craft paints in my art journal.  They work great and I love all the color choices, and of course the price!   I use more expensive heavy body paints in my paintings on canvas.  If I’m running low in a color, I tend to avoid it.  Again, the fear is that I’ll never get any more of that color.

This is very frustrating to me.  It stifles me and I don’t want to be stifled.   It creates this inner conflict where I’m constantly fighting myself.   I want to conquer that stupid voice.  I want to grab whatever calls to me and put it on whatever surface I decide I want to use.  I want my muse to dictate what I create.  I know that many, many artists have been poor.  But you never hear how they managed to be free to create within their budget.  I want to hear that.  Not how to make money, but how to fight the scarcity demon.

In the book Wide Open by Randi Feuerhelm Watts, she writes:

Doesn’t it seem
that you get ot a point in your lfe
where you just plain settle?

Living in places
you don’t want to live.
Staying in dead relationships.
Spending tme doing
what you don’t want to do
and wondering why everything stays the same.

Settling is easy.
It is lazy.
It require no effort
and produces nothing.
it is reoutine and
can be done
with yourr eyes close.
“Someday” becomes a regular part
of our vicabulary.

Time passes.
Days continue.

Another year goes by.
After my nap.
Tomorrow.
Eventually the dreams stop completely.
Unnoticed.

I was reading along the first time I read this, and I was identifying, but when I got to that last line.. “unnoticed”  I felt horribly sad.  How many of my dreams have died?

I am 62 years old, and I can tell you that I have a graveyard full of dreams.  It’s a lot easier to put them off for later when you’re 30 or even 40 because you know you have 40 or 50 more years to live.  But when your time left starts dwindling,  it is easier to give up and say “I don’t have time “.   But, thank goodness I had the opposite reaction.  I want to learn to draw and I decided not to waste any more time.  In the time I have left I’m going to practice and learn all I can so I can say I finally saw one of my dreams come to fruition.

Locally, there is a radio commercial where they interview a woman who graduated from college at 92 yrs old.  Assuming it took her four years, that means she entered college at age 88!!

What dreams are you putting off?  Make a journal page and list them.  Are you ready to write an obituary for any of them?  Don’t let them die.  Revive them.  Do CPR and get some life and breath back into YOUR dreams!

 

As you know,  I’ve been practicing drawing portraits.   I found out that Amy McDonald is offering a free portrait class at http://fluttebye.ning com, so I decided to check it out.  It is a very comprehensive class with I think about a dozen videos.  So for the past few days I’ve dug into the lessons and been drawing, drawing, drawing.  She is teaching how to draw a frontal view face.  I’ve been having problems getting the eyes right on 3/4 views so tonight I decided to try one again and see if any of the new skills I’ve learned might help even though she isn’t teaching 3/4 views.  I was so surprised at how well it turned out, so I just have to share with you all.  I really hope if you want to do somethng – anything! – that you will look where I started and what practice can do for your skills.

 

Isn’t this amazing?  I just look at it and can’t believe *I* drew that!!  I have to laugh when I think how I used to think “I wish I could draw people.” and then I’d think about practicing, but the response in my head was always, “I hate practicing because I’m pr

acticing making ugly drawings.  So, how is that going to help me draw well?”   And, of course, then I wouldn’t practice.  I am so grateful that I finally decided to just do it, no matter what.  No matter how ugly they were.  I didn’t show them to anyone.  I just kept trying.   And it paid off.

Please, if you want to learn something, just try!!!  I never, ever dreamed I would be able to draw anything like this.  So, if I can do it, YOU can do it!!!