Its been forever....

I havent been here in the longest time! I sort of fell off the band wagon when it comes to everything... thats got alot to do with all the stress and hecticness that has happened lately with ppl from my past trying to come back into my life.... looong and loaded stories there .lol. Things are calming down for me and I did start a new drawing the other day but due to a horrible fight with my washing machine and a giant disaster of a mess, it was destroyed in the battle. .sighs. Soooooooo I am going to start it over in the next few days, good thing it was just the skeletal outlining of the drawing.... and not an almost finished piece!!!!! I would have been devastated! I decided that I am going to keep Altered Whimsey opened as well as Graphite Goodies... Im going to sell my altered creations as well as paintings on Altered Whimsey and all of my fine art drawing at Graphite Goodies, that way its all easily seperated into their own categories. Since they are 2 very different art forms. Sooooooo in the coming days, I will share links to the sites and add some new and improved things as well. hmmmmm what else...... Tim and I are still planning to renew our vows, but the date changed to September 13th. Thats official now :) We have alot planned are doing well with it all, its not going to be an extravagant thing that bankrupts us.. buuut its still going to be something special for us. Especially since my sister and dave are leaving for California that weekend, so it will be nice to spend time with them and have a sort of going away party as well. :) Sooo thats just a few things that have been happening. I hope to add more photos, art, and etc. soon. OH! Before I forget... check out www.myspace.com/wherepoetrygetsreal .... Me and my best friend Ginger write poetry and we have alot of fun at writing them together as well as seperately, so we created a page just for sharing our poetry. We would love to share our poems with everyone and get feedback etc.

I would like to also say that I am sad to have discovered that an art friend Jacquie Rubenstein passed away from health complications. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. This was very sad news!

Just a random ATC...

I was bored today so I put together an ATC. I think Im going to enter it into a lucky dip swap in Absolutely_Everything_Swap_Central :) I made the background using metallic liquid watercolor and blue cardstock, attached to an ATC made from a recycled box. I attached 2 tags together using fibers and a heart shaped brad. I stamped Togetherness on the larger tag. I added a flourish w/ blue ink to the background and a cute dragonfly stamp (purchased at michaels but unsure of who made it, its one of those foam stamps) and then I took a really cute image of a young boy and girl from a black and white wedding invitation sample that I had lying here. I colored it in with colored pencils :) AND WHA-LA! Just thought I would share :) Have a great weekend!

My lazy pooches...

I had to share these comical pictures of my dogs, Honey and Cooper. The first is of Honey, she is the oldest of the 2. She is a jack russell mix and she will be 5 years old on Halloween :) She is so spoiled. I took this picture today while she was sleeping on the couch, sooo lazy! She had her nose covered with her two paws, like she was saying 'something stinks!' HAHA. I dunno, thought it was pretty cute so I just had to snap a pic.

This next picture is of Cooper. He is 5 months old, and he is also a Jack Russell Mix. ((We love Jack Russells, can you tell?)) I took this picture today also. He is funny, its like he's saying 'what are you looking at?!' HAHA... Neither of my pooches like their picture being taken though. They always hide, or turn away from the camera, so I got them when they were too lazy to care HAHA... I just thought I would share :) Hope everyone is having a fun weekend!

Its definitely Spring :)

Spring is here, along with everything that comes with it! From gorgeous flowers, greenery, butterflies, and warmth to allergies, bugs, and spring chores :) I am actually really enjoying it so far. I havent had any problems with allergies or anything, and Tim and I did alot of yard work yesterday that needed to be done. One of those things that is going to start being a weekly chore again :) We've also been going to the park when we get the chance, and walking the paths and things. I wanted to share pictures that I took at the park, and then some beautiful pictures of butterflies that Tim's mom Candy took as well. Just a few reasons why I love spring!

St. Patty's Day Gothic Arches

This is another creation for a swap in Artistic-Creations. I took a scrapbook page for the background, added a few believe stamps here and there, and a flourish. I drew on some shorts on the baby in glitter gel pen, and added a hat to him. Then I added a pot of gold coloring it in w/ a gold gel pen and added a Luck word using my label-maker.... I also added ribbon, beads, a green jewel, a tag that I created, and also a feather and a bell lol. Its very very festive LOL... I added alot to it and got a weeee bit carried away, but I had alot of fun...

Here's another picture of the same arch showing the tag and other embels. :)

The second arch I made for this exchange was a little plainer but I still had fun creating it.....





I found the neat little clear letter stamps for $1 at Michaels last week and thought I would give them a try, I like them but they are a little hard to read. I colored in the little girls hair and took some paper flowers and added them to her hands, I colored in the center of the flowers and drew in the stems. It is simple but I wanted to do one simple and one a little more crazy lol.


I know its waayyyy past St. patty's day, but I wanted to share anyway :D

Why do you love music postcard

In my group Artistic-Creations we had a Zetti themed altered postcard exchange. This was my take on it. I used a Grey toned cardstocked stamped with a background stamp from A time to Stamp. Im not sure where the vintage girl image came from because I received it in a ephemera swap, I zettied her up with a hat, wings, and arm bands that I drew. I thought the little star stamp would add a cool effect to the background. Since the girl is holding a musical instrument, I thought a cool question like Why do you love music, would be something interesting to add. On the other side, I stamped simple lines for the receivers address and then stamped the definition of music using a stamp from Purple Onion Designs. I hope folks enjoy seeing this through the mail and the receiver digs my take on Zetti. I was going to put an explaination of why I love music but I ran out of space on the card. :D

Shower Creation

Candy (my mom-in-law) is throwing me a shower before Tim and I renew our vows in July. When we were first married, we didnt get to have a shower, so I really thought this was nice of her to do. Yesterday, we worked on the shower invites, and came up with this fun A-B-C shower idea... This is a picture of the inside of the invite, and then also the back of the envelope, (the flap that seals)... I blocked out private info because Im sure no one wants their private address, and phone number floating around the net, ya know?

Just thought I would share, part of what we created on our 'craft day' yesterday :)

A b-e-a-utiful sunset

Yesterday I spent a great day at my mom-in-law (Candy's) House... We usually try to spend at least 1 day each week together creating art and crafts. Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm, perfect spring day and we got alot done that we were hoping to do. We stayed for dinner and we left at around 7:30 or 8. Tim and I decided to take a nice walk around the park, and then headed home. Its about a 20-25 minute drive to our home from there, and the scenery is beautiful, especially at the lookout. (We live about 5 minutes from the lookout at the end of Bolt Mountain) We got to the lookout in perfect time to stop and watch the sunset and it was beautiful. The picture really doesnt give it justice, obviously, it was just luck that I happened to have brought my digi-cam w/ me :) Regardless, I wanted to share the beautiful sunset I was so able to witness with my hubby, it was a really nice, and peaceful moment for us :)

An Education about Art

I have been a freelance artist for a few years now, and have run into the same problem since day 1: people in general do not understand the cost or market value of custom artwork. I see many audaciously low bids for custom portraits, paintings, etc. and wanted to help educate the non-art public about commissions. For the most part I have a ridiculously hard time selling my pieces because of my prices.... First, custom work is made to order, and therefore is more costly and difficult to make than ready-to-go pieces or mass-produced department store prints. There are expenses such as canvases/papers (think up to $15 for a nice gallery-wrapped 8x10), paint ($10+ for a quality 4oz tube), brushes ($5 to $50 for decent quality), or graphites ($10+ for a good quality) and then time. You are purchasing an artist’s lifelong experience and skill, not just the hours they put into a piece. Would you ask your electrician to work for $5 an hour? There are certainly older pieces that artists mark cheaply just to clean out the studio, but you generally get what you pay for. Many good artists on Etsy and elsewhere on the net sell work for far below its gallery value. I consistently receive lowball offers for pieces already marked dirt cheap for the quality.Please be considerate of professional artists. Shop around to get a feel for appropriate prices for size, subject matter and quality of work. There are many people trying to get started that will work for little to nothing, I have been one of those for many years... A little advice for fellow artists out there ’starving’ for business like myself... stick to your guns and ask what you deserve for your artwork. That is the only way you will ever make a living doing what you love....its a hard thing to do and believe me I am working on doing that myself, but why spend all of your money on the materials, and then your time and passion on the piece.. to only sell the item for 1/2 of what you spent to create it? Its not worth it, is it? Dont give up... I’m trying not to!
For those that buy art, or are interested in commissioning pieces etc. Please take under consideration all that I have mentioned.... its hard to make a living at something that is your passion, and career when you lose money instead of make it.
Thanks for your time!

Nautical Whimsy

I completed this painting yesterday afternoon on a sort of whim. Its sort of a cutesy/cartoonish painting but I wanted to challenge myself to do something on a bigger scale. The canvas is 12 1/2 inches wide by 36 1/2 inches in length! So it was a bit of a challenge because I usually do smaller items but it was fun and sort of what I like to call 'Nautical Whimsy' HAHA! Thanks for stopping by :)

Finally Complete- John Wayne Original...

Whew! Its about time right? I finally finished this piece... it took me quite a while with everything going on here.. but Im soooo glad its finished. I really like how it turned out! Now its on to the next piece :)

This piece is featured at my Shop Altered Whimsey and can be purchased for $45.00 + $5.00 shipping and handling.

I want to thank everyone for all of their great comments and feedback on this! It really helps me stay motivated! :)

Unique Shaped Deco/Created By hand Challenge

A few weeks back Created By Hand had a challenge using this cute bunny template. I have been super busy lately so I never had the chance to create anything, but I really really wanted to *lol* So I kept the template until I got a chance to work on something. Then I realized I had an exchange in Altered Art Bliss for 'odd shaped' decos.... THIS WAS PERFECT! So I created the background paper using a crayon batik tutorial (one of my favorites tutorials) and cut it out using the bunny template.

I then used the Picasso quote stamp I have by inkadinkado 'Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.' Its stamped in black dye based ink.

I drew out flourish's with a black sharpee, because I dont have any flourish stamps just yet *lol*. I used my white gelly roll pen to add white accents to the flourishs in various places.

I added a bow tie and purple gem as well as a black button for the eye. The bunny was then stampled together in a book format by the tail with about 6-8 blank bunnies inside for decoing.

I really really enjoyed creating this! I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

p.s if you havent been to Created By Hand check it out by going to http://createdbyhandchallenge.wordpress.com its a great place to get inspired, and challenge yourself each week!

Hand Drawn Skinny

In Altered Art Bliss I am participating in a Hand Drawn Skinny exchange... I thought I would take time out and create things out of enjoyment and sort of unwind from all of the drama and chaos of wedding planning (dont ask, long story! *lol*) S0 this is the result of one of the skinnies :) I know its plain but I work better with graphite, then any other material so I just did what I do best. Im thinking about doing something totally different for my second skinny. We'll see. I will post one when I get it finished. I have a feeling in the next days I will be blogging more and more with creations :) Stay tuned!

John Wayne Piece still in progress...

It has taken me a little longer for this piece then planned with all the happenings around here recently. But I have accomplished to get the majority of Mr. Wayne completed. I still have about 1/4 of the drawing to complete and its mostly background. Im really really very pleased with this piece.. even if it has taken longer than I wanted.

This is a close up of my most recent work on the piece:

I do hope to finish the piece this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest and have it up in the shop by then. Thanks for stopping by!

John Wayne Drawing- Update

As promised I thought I would post the next bit of the drawing that I have completed. Its not much but I worked on it a bit. I really just focused on some of the background this time. I wanted to add a bit of the detail and darken the shading. I really would have worked on this even more if it wasnt for the aweful cold taht I am getting. Its horrible....a sign that spring is coming I suppose.

And of course here is a closer look. I hope to start on Mr. Wayne In the coming days, if this cold doesnt get the best of me!

Altered Domino Magnet

This another attempt of mine to Altered a simple Domino game piece. It was really fun to create.

The domino was painted black. I actually colored in the black and white stamped image with colored pencils and attached it to the domino. I added a crystal gem, and some golden sparkles around the edges of the domino to highlight the image a bit. The domino is coated in a water proof, yellow proof gel sealer, and to finish it off I added dangling beads, and the magnet to the back using e600.

I really am enjoying altering these game pieces, I was originally going to make this into a necklace but thought that maybe it would be "too much" for that. Funny how things turn out in the end, aye?

Results from a technique...

This is the results from a background tutorial ...It's a marbling technique. It was pretty simple actually... I took an old baking pan and filled it about 1 inch thick with white foam shaving cream (not the gel kind)... I then took acylic paints and dropped in in various spots, then used a plastic knife and "sliced and swirled lightly the top of it. You cant swirl too much or it gets muddy looking... Then I took my watercolor paper and placed it lightly on top, pressed really really lightly and lifted. Once that was finished, I went to my sink and I turned the water on to almost a drip and rinsed the shaving cream off after about 2 minutes (when I thought the paint was settled.) It was fun and messy *lol*

This is actually March's Technique Challenge over at Artistic-Creations... Im thinking about creating a few atc's or maybe skinnies with these, or even an arch, or some 3x3's or 4x4's... oh goodness who knows what I will come up with *lol* It should be interesting to use these in a project though. :) Just thought I would share! Try it out, I would love to see what you come up with... its something really fun to try with your kids =)

Odd Shaped Deco...could it be a mesh?!

It could indeed be a mesh in the world of deco exchanging and gothic arches! I adore Gothic Arches so very much and have only create 2 of these gorgeous exchanges in my past... but when I was catching up with my creations I had a unique challenge of creating an odd shaped deco. Of course I only create untaped and artistic decos these days... so I was trying to figure out an interesting shape to create as well as something that could be artistic. Then my urge to create a Gothic Arch over came me and I came up with this unique twist of meshing the two together =)

So now we have a Gothic Arch themed Deco... woo hoo! I wanted to make this deco so that each individual that participates will create their own individual arch in their own choice of theme, and the owner of the deco can then cut away the side where they are sewn together and use each arch in different ways, so they are not all together, or keep them together as a book. Either way, each individual will sign the back of the arch instead of the front of it so there is more art on the arch and the labels do not take away from that.... Interesting aye? I hope to create more of these too... it was a really fun project for me =)

I basically cut the main arch but added a side to it. I sewed blank arches in between the cardstock arches using cross stitch. I used my chocolate brown stamp pad to stamp the speckles all over the arch. I then hand drew the design with markers. And WAH-LAH! =)

I am working * lol *

I really am! Here's the proof! * LOL * I thought I would share a little drawing that I am working on. Its John Wayne, of course. I Started this about 2-3 days ago and have worked on it a little each day. So far its only like 25% complete but its a start, right? I thought maybe I would share part of my drawing process, I already had this drawn out before I even thought of sharing the entire process with you..... But I can talk about the previous process. Basically, I just sketch out the entire drawing a little at a time until the entire piece is drawn out, to where it looks like a drawing, or at least you can tell what its supposed to be. I even draw in where the darkest spots should be for shading.



This is a bit of a close-up of the part that is complete... well sort of... its shaded and shows a lot more detail but I still need to add the darkest places and sort of straighten out and deepen the lines a little more.... I'm pretty happy with the way it is turning out so far. I will blog more and more each time I complete a part of the drawing and hopefully you can see the process a little better. But since I have been working hard the last few days on this, Im taking the weekend off. Its eerie and plain yucky here with all of the rain and snow, and coldness! So Monday, I will hop back on the bandwagon and get some more completed.
I just wanted to share that I am working.... even if it is slower than usual. ~A~

A random creation....

To the left is the beginning of a random piece.... I have been practicing yoga for a few weeks now and I guess this was the outcome of me enjoying it, or appreciating it. I thought the cat reaching as well was a cute addition and I enjoyed the black vs. white silhouette. I really wasnt too sure what I was going to do with this after I drew it out. So I just randomly started 'arting' around it. Here is the first product I created using it. I may redraw the main image and create some other pieces with it. The background was done with oil pastels. I used white acrylic and painted stars in random spaces. I used black ink and a great scroll stamp for the border around the entire image and drew out the word Believe in black. Its actually a rather large 9x12 piece, and Im really unsure of what to do with it... any suggestions would be great! Thanks for taking the time to take a look! ~a~

A bookmark for my sister....

My sister and I share a passion for reading... and when she was relaxing on our couch reading a book by her favorite auther James Patterson, and using a $1 bill as her bookmark, I had to do something for her * lol * I was so shocked that with all the books she has and all the reading she does she didnt have a bookmark, even one she bought to use. Sooo, I got my supplies out and started creating something for her :) For this bookmark I used oil pastels for the rose and background. I added some glitter gel to accent the rose in some areas, and also to add a sort of border around it for an embellishment. Finally I added the gold foil filigre stickers and the cool multicolor fibers. It is laminated to protect the oil pastels, since I was well aware she would be using the bookmark very often I didnt want it to smudge or ruin the pages in her books. I thought it turned out nicely and she was really happy to have it rather than $1 bill *lol*

They make my day!

I was so surprised this morning to receive such a lovely email from a fellow artist letting me know that my blog and artwork "Makes her Day!" --- Thanks Jodi! You are on my list as well =D



"The rules for the “You Make My Day” award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through email or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved.So to pass it on and keep the love going ~ here are 10 of the 100's of blogs that keep me inspired and bring a smile to my face. Check them out when you have a few minutes... perhaps there are some new friends to be made!

- Aileen

- Lori

- Jodi

- Sue

- Kelly

- Judy

- Patti

- Sandee

- Linda

- Sarah

A few new creations *from Altered Whimsey*

I have worked on a few new items and have them added to the shop. Feel free to check them out at http://alteredwhimsey.etsy.com/

I am very happy with the turn out of the items. I sort of just started the decorative box project on a whim of wanting to create SOMETHING yesterday and thats what the outcome was hee hee :) I really love the vintage image that I chose to use,its one of my very favorite images.... and I was very surprised at how everything fit together so well. I had a bit of a disaster when I first started the project as I was attempting to use vellum *ps never use vellum printouts and then glaze the finished product* That is just what I attempted to do, the image was a totally different one printed on vellum. I have had some good items come out of that technique but this one wasnt very good. The new gel medium I have for glazing actually made the vellum start disintegrating and the ink from the printout started smearing together and bleeding... it was a nightmare of a mess. I was basically back to square one by the end of that stunt *lol* So I learned a valuable lesson, but it must of happened for a reason because I came out with an even greater product when I was finished. =D

The other item that I have added is an altered domino necklace, I already posted about it here, but I thought I would share the new picture of it... I had my sister do the modeling for this item. I havent really created jewelry that much but I did want to show how it would look being worn and also the actual size and things. I think she did a great job for the photo and I really appreciate her help. Maybe in the future if I decide to create more *depending on the success of this one* she could model some more for me. But again thats in the future.

I do hope to start drawing or painting some more items soon... I have an idea swimming in my mind about a 3 part painting that I want to attempt... but I havent gotten the nerve up just yet. Soon though, Im sure! Stay tuned for more updates and news to come! Thanks for stopping bye! ~Andrea~

The beginning of an altered domino necklace...

I decided to do something fun with domino game pieces that I have here for Altered Whimsey. I enjoy recycling things into new treasures and this was a cool challenge. Believe it or not, this was a domino at one time. =D I hope that when I am finished it will be a snazzy necklace for the shop =D

I just wanted to share what I have put together so far. This is only the front. I used a graphics program to change the hue's in the image before printing it. I also painted the domino in a matching design along the sides and back, added sparkles, and a clear jewel as an embellishment that is permanently attached using E600. When I am finished this pendant will be sealed with a gel medium that is water resistant, and yellow proof. I hope to add the chain or necklace parts soon and once that is finished and the painting drying is complete I will take more pictures, and hopefully with a model as well =D Thanks for checking this out and stay tuned for more creations, and to see the final product. Also check out Altered Whimsey at http://alteredwhimsey.etsy.com or http://alteredwhimsey.weebly.com

Native American ATC's

Today I created some long overdue ATC's for the group Artistic-Creations. They are in a Native American theme. Just thought I would share, I enjoyed working on them :)

I believe the 'Encourage, Trust, Faith' ATC is my favorite of the two... I wanted to make one with alot of elements and another that was more simplified.

I'm still kickin!

It has been a long time for me to blog and its because I have alot of things going on in my life that have kept mefrom being able to get online and work on my blogging and arting like I would like. But I wanted to take the time tosay that I am ok and that things are so-so. I am working on art, that is soon to come, and I will share as soon as I get something completed lol, I have so much running through my mind and so many different projects going on thatits a little overwhelming! I wanted to share this picture that I stumbled across while searching for something on the net. Isnt this the coolest car?! I know some of you are like 'um no' but for me its really cool! I would love to be able to take mycar and just Paint art all over it! This lady in the car, was teacher of the year in Minneapolis in 2006, and I can definately see why!She is an Art teacher at Southwest High school and the car was painted by her senior students (with her permission of course)the entire car is covered in famous historic paintings! I just love the idea, and if I could without being called CRAZY, I woulddo something like this, but with my own creations on it. *LOL* Its inspiring to know that their are teachers out there that care, and that encourage their students to think out of the box and not to be afraid to do so!

Thumbs up to Southwest High School and Ms. Cecily Spano!