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! =)