Mussie Tussie Gift for Mom

Before I go any further with this post let me first say this...MOM IF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS POST PLEASE STOP. YOU WILL RUIN YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!
Everyone else please scroll down for the remainder of this post.






























                                                                             

              Every year my mom has one request for her Christmas present. It must be something homemade. I  frantically searched the internet for something I could make, but I wasn't really seeing anything that sparked my creativity........until I saw this post for a MUSSIE TUSSIE by Rachel McAffee on Teresa Collins Design Team Blog.

The photo is my mom when she was 13 years old :) love it! Hope she does too!

                               Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Merry Christmas everyone!!
                                                                      Hugs, Dawn
           

I worked on my art journal yesterday. That is 2 days in a row! Woot! I love the quote on this one. I found it on Pinterest. I know I  am too harsh on my own work sometimes, so this is good to remember. It says:"Be fearless in your art. Be kind to yourself. Give yourself permission to love what you create. 

I love this page :D

I used a page from a phone book that I tore up for the flowers. Which I then covered in paint.
Lots of paint.

You can see there is a little dimension to the flowers. 

                                       

I used an old clothing pattern as the base of this page. then threw all kinds of stuff at it. 

Gesso, paint, Conte sticks, rub-ons,  I even broke out my dymo labeler :)

Thanks for stopping by!!

 I hope you have a fantastic day.
Hugs, Dawn

I was playing in my art journal yesterday and this is the result. I should have taken a photo of my hands afterward, they had more paint on them than the page. I had so much fun making this!

I found some paper hearts and doilies at goodwill for 99 cents, so I glued some of those down and then coated everything in a layer of  Gesso and then went in with some acrylic paints. Which I applied with my hands :D Good times.

Next I added some chipboard letter stickers I have had forever. I traced around the edges of the hearts with a charcoal pencil and smeared it with my finger. This would have been easier if I had done that before adding the letter stickers, live and learn.

I found this quote on the internet and loved it so it had to go on there. "The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire". I just printed it on plain ol' copy paper and tore it into a circle-ish shape and then added the red paint around it and made it drip a little. Add more paint everywhere. I made smears, dots and dipped the edge of a gift card in paint and made lines with it. FUN!

And rub-ons. Add them everywhere!

And doodle in some spots too, because it feels good :) 

and it adds a personal touch. The last thing I did was add a piece of old packaging to stamp the date on. I have learned that I love stamping with the date stamp. Reminds me of the librarian stamping the books. Oh then I stapled it on with my Tiny Attacher. I loooooooooove my Tiny Attacher. If you don't have one, get one. You won't regret it. The staples are itty bitty and so cute! 

I love how this one turned out.

Thanks for looking and have a fantastic day.

Hugs, Dawn

Enjoy Life

I made this piece of art yesterday to go with the one I made the previous day. I added a ribbon to the top to hang it with. 

Do you think these "go together". I wanted them to be sister pieces that I can hang together. I am thinking about doing another one today, slightly bigger and with a butterfly on it. It would probably look better if I had taken the pictures together in the same light. I will do that when the 3rd one is finished. 

I drew this one and colored it with colored pencils last night. I am missing warmer temps and being able to go outside to draw.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a great day.

Hugs, Dawn

Christy Tomlinson Inspired

Hello :)

 So I was watching this video yesterday by Christy Tomlinson. It inspired me to create some artwork. I had an old Christmas box that I cut apart and used one of the side panels as my base. I painted some gesso on it to hide the Christmas pattern. Then I made some marks in the Gesso with the end of a paintbrush. Let it dry and began to add some paint smears :)

I made my own flowers out of scrapbook paper scraps from the 6x6 Serendipity paper pad. I think Basic Grey makes it. I just cut some wonky "circles" and layered them. Then scrunched them up a bit and stapled the layers together. I added a brad to the centers and in Christy Tomlinson style, added some paint to them. I free hand cut the vase and adhered it to my base.

I added some rub-ons, ink drops, and doodling. As well as some stamping in Black Staz-On. 

I punched 2 holes at the top and threaded some ribbon through the holes, so I can hang it on my wall.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look.

Hope you have a fantastic day.

Hugs, Dawn

Art Journal Page

I have a girl crush on Donna Downey. I love her artwork and I love her personality. I have been watching her Inspiration Wednesday videos. I also love watching art journal videos by Christy Tomlinson. Both these ladies inspire me to create. 

So I took some photos today of the page I made. 

Here are the "ingredients" I used to make my page.

My art journal is just a large hard cover book I found at my local Goodwill store for $1.99. I started out by adding Gesso to my pages. Then covered the whole shebang with Drywall tape for some cool texture. Then I added some random paint smears with my fingers (good times, good times). Then I added some water to black acrylic paint to water it down and dripped it down my pages. If I were Donna Downey I would call it dripage :) 

Here's my hand after adding the paints. Finger painting is just as much fun now as it was in Kindergarten. At some point I used a circle stencil (it is actually the surround left over from some circle tags) and sprayed some green alcohol ink over.

Next I made some flowers with this stuff called Metallic Streamers. I found it at Goodwill for 99 cents and it was half price ;) I just pleated and squished until I liked it and glued those puppies down. Then I added some red paint, inked some parts Black with Staz-on, and dotted them with more paint colors to add some texture and interest. Then I added some masking tape, which I ripped and crossed at the base of each flower just because I felt like it ;) 

I painted the stems and leaves on with a couple colors of green acrylic paint.

Here is a close-up of the flowers.

I decided the pages were too stark with so much white showing through so I added some teal paint that I watered down with water. I wanted to alter the color but not cover the other paint smears. Then I added some Yellow acrylic paint drips, some "grass" to the bottom and some white circles randomly on the pages. Next I added some black paint for the flowers' stamens.

I printed my quote on some copy paper, cut out the words and glued them to my pages with Mod Podge.

Next I went around all the word blocks with a black Conte Crayon thingy and smeared it with a dry paintbrush. I also dotted the stamens with white paint. Then I randomly doodled with a black Sharpie and added some black and white rub-ons wherever I decided it needed it. 

I stamped the date on the back of a ticket and adhered it to my page with masking tape.  

THanks for stopping by to take a look. Have a fantastic day!

Hugs, Dawn

I am addicted to Doctor Who!

I was looking at Pinterest today (as I do everyday, love Pinterest!) and I came across this photo of an angel statue. My mind IMMEDIATELY went to Doctor Who. I had to document it here with this.

Thanks for looking and have a fantastic day!
Hugs, Dawn

More drawing practice

More of my drawing practice. I post them here to see if there is improvement. I am seeing some.

 I read tutorials, watch videos and browse galleries online of all different kinds of artists.

  I love watching other people draw. Seeing how they create.  They inspire me to create.

   So thank you to all the artists out there who share their artwork, process, and creativity with the world.  I would also like to thank you for stopping by and taking a look. Have a fantastic day!! Hugs, Dawn

Angelina Jolie?

Here is the reference photo:

 And here is my drawing:

Not an exact match. Not even a resemblance really. But I am practicing :)

Thanks for taking a look. Hugs, Dawn

More drawing practice

I finished this one yesterday. I have been working on eyes. They are getting there. Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Hugs, Dawn

Whisper to a Butterfly....

Here is another page from my art journal. I used Gesso, Acrylic Paint, Stamps, Staz-on Ink, White pen, Magazine pages, tissue paper, Mod Podge, book pages, scrapbook paper, Dimensional Magic, Sharpie, fonts printed on copy paper, watercolor pencils, watercolor, rhinestones.
       I am enjoying the process of doing whatever I want with no rules. The best part is getting messy with it :)
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic day!
Hugs, Dawn

Art Journaling

I recently became aware of Art Journaling. After watching how to videos and seeing some pages other people have created. I decided I wanted to give it a try as well. Here is one of my first pages. I found a large hardcover book at Goodwill and decided it would work well as an Art Journal. I Gesso'ed the pages before I applied the oil pastels (Crayola Portfolio Water Soluable Oil Pastels to be specific). Then I sprayed some ink, stamped, adhered torn bits of tissue paper, magazine pages and a pattern for making clothes. I then added more paint, doodled and glued whatever I wanted to the pages. Finally I stamped the text and VIOLA! I had so much fun playing with color :)

Thanks for looking

Hugs, Dawn

Hair don't

Practice, practice, practice.....

 

Thanks for looking. Hugs, Dawn

Practice, practice, practice

I was flipping through my old drawings yesterday and I saw a lot of improvement in my artwork. The faces have more symmetry and the shading is getting better.  I can also see the areas I need to work on. Specifically....hair. Oh the hair! I have read and downloaded every tutorial I can find on the subject and still cannot wrap my brain around it. Maybe I need some reference photos. I will draw on and eventually it will get better (I hope). Until then  I will just enjoy the process and keep practicing.Here is my latest drawing:

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you are having a fantastic day :D

Hugs, Dawn

I drew this one yesterday. I don't know if you can see it, but I wrote Inspire in her hair. Thanks for looking and have a fantastic day!

Hugs, Dawn

Drew this one last night

Hello. I hope everyone is having a great Friday. Just thought I would post my latest drawing. I did this one last night while watching Project Runway. I love that show! Try not to notice the uneven eyes on this. Harder to do that when it's being pointed out to you huh? LOL. Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Dawn

I drew these today

And I like how they turned out. I took the pics with my phone and tweaked them in Photoshop. I am excited that their eyes don't look like alien eyes anymore. back to practicing :) Hope you have a fantastic day.

Hugs, Dawn

Pillowman

Thanks for looking. 

Have a great day!

Hugs, Dawn

100 Themes Challenge

The word is Dark:

This one is uninspired but I couldn't come up with anything else. 

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Hugs, Dawn

100 Themes Challenge

Today's word is Light.

I am still working on my hand/eye coordination. There is a steep learning curve with the tablet. I think the hardest part is not being able to turn my "paper". Practice, practice, practice. Oh and I added a texture to this one. Not sure I am in love with that. Thanks for stopping by and have a marvelous day.

Hugs, Dawn

100 Themes: Love

Here is my digital "painting" for the word Love on the 100 themes challenge:

Thanks for looking. Have a happy day.

Hugs, Dawn

Watercolor and patterned paper

I drew this one and decided to try my hand at water coloring again. I also added some Twinkling H2O's for  sparkle and some pattern paper for dimension. Oh and some Prima flowers :)

Thanks for looking and have a fantastic day :D

Hugs, Dawn

100 Themes Challenge

So I came across this blog with a 100 words challenge. I decided it would be a great way to practice using my tablet. The first word on the list is Introduction. Here is my take on that word:

The circus tent lines bother me. A lot. I need to improve my hand/eye coordination with my tablet. Finding some Photoshop tutorials to learn the tools couldn't hurt either. I did figure out how to use the shapes tool AND add a drop shadow! Exciting stuff. As always, thanks a bunch for taking a look. 

Hugs, Dawn

Tried my hand at Digital Painting

And this is the result...

The best part......I had so much fun drawing and painting this guy with my bamboo Fun tablet. 

The worst part......Either he is the biggest squirrel ever or those are some really short trees! My husband said they could be broccoli instead of trees. Gotta love him for trying. I am off to work on perspective.

Oh but first I have to share this: 100 Themes Blog. There you will find a list of 100 themes to draw. I thought it would be a good idea to try when I don't know what to draw. I am working on 1. Introduction right now. I will post it when I finish it. 

I truly hope you are having a beautiful day.

Hugs, Dawn