Spring!

Have I mentioned how much I love Spring?! Well, If not, I LOVE SPRING! Went for a beautiful walk down to the neighbourhood park today. Surprising because we had a pretty crazy storm last night and were expecting rain this weekend. Well, we awoke to a beautiful day and decided to go for a walk. While I am not a photographer by any means I have begun to carry our camera with us whenever we are out, you never know when inspiration is going to strike! Just can't believe all of this is right out my door!

I am working like a madwoman in the rest of my time trying to get my pieces done for the show. I hope to have most of my 18x24 done by the end of the night and I have a bunch of the components for my 4th piece prepared and ready to go. I start my new job tomorrow so we'll see how we do. Happy creating everyone!

I got the job!

WOW! This beautiful May morning has brought me sunshine and a new job! I got it! Can't believe it.....finally we can breathe a bit easier in this crazy, scary economy! Only problem is I start on MONDAY...yes, this Monday! Talk about jumping in with both feet!

I was able to keep my Thursday open for the juried art show. I am freaking out a bit now about the time frame. I only have 2 fully completed, am working on the big 18x24 which I hope to have done by the end of the weekend. But then I need one or two more. Thankfully I had an epiphany moment yesterday and realized what I could do with a piece I gave up on awhile ago. Its 2/3's done! Yay! So I think I can have 4 pieces done but 5 might be a stretch...good thing they said 4 or 5!

Anyway I better get back! Lots to do in a very short period of time!

#2 For the Art Show Complete

I am so pleased to present to you this 12"x16" (30.4 cm x 40.6 cm) beautiful tree that I am so proud of. I love her! I had it in my mind that I had the perfect green (Indian batik jungle green) to compliment the beautiful paper I bought for the trees themselves. I wanted to do one piece where I really just made the tree my focus with no background to detract from it. I am contemplating the idea of putting a little bit of ground cover flowers like buttercups or tiny daisies but I may just leave well enough alone.

I am going to go back to finishing the big mountain/cherry blossom piece because the ideas for the next ones aren't fully formed yet.

I had my first job interview today! I was surprised at how well I kept my nerves in check. I just feel so rusty since I have been a stay at home mom for almost 2 years now and was only part time shortly before that. I wish I didn't have to go back, this wasn't part of the "plan" we but we have to do what we have to do these days don't we?! Last night I had to make a mad dash to the store as I realized while I did have pants to wear that I had no tops! Thankfully I was able to find something (and some nice new shoes on sale!) because I hate shopping for clothes...I'd much rather be buying craft supplies :o) I had a really good feeling about it and I think the interview went really well. I'll know something by Friday. Fingers crossed!

A little 9x12 and some news

Here's a newly completed little 9x12 (22.9 x 30.5 cm). I am once again bummed by the photo quality as the moon and the sky look sooooo much better in person. I created this piece by layering blue lace paper over a gaudy glitter paper, in person you can see a little bit of glitter and shimmer through the blue giving the illusion of stars. The moon has texture and looks a lot more natural than in the photo.

So in my little mini break from my big 18x24 I've been blogging the process about has presented me with an exciting opportunity. While perusing local news and events on Craigslist I discovered that there will be a juried art show in Bellingham (15 minutes away). I inquired and found out that they are actually jurying the art in 2 weeks even though the show is not until November!!! I AM ENTERING! So if I don't blog or leave comments for anyone in the next little while you know why!! I have exactly 12 days to get 4 or 5 pieces done!

I have no expectations, maybe some hopes but I am realistic. I have no idea what the calliber of artists are in the local area but I want the experience. If nothing else I will get a feel for how these juried shows work and get exposure to the other local artists in the area. The Art Director that I was emailing with was very intrigued and said they have never had a paper artist enter and this is their 40th show! This for me is a giant leap forward. I am a totally fear based person, I am not adventurous, I don't jump off cliffs without knowing there is a safety net. I'm more excited than nervous at this point but I know that will come closer to the day when I have too much to do and not enough time. Good thing I work well under pressure! Wish me luck!

Burnt out

So yesterday moved at a snails pace. My arm, shoulder and hand are sore from all the blossom work. I feel antsy and was not at all motivated to keep going. Break time.

Instead of doing nothing, I have begun planning out all my cards, gift boxes and smaller art pieces. Did a bit of sketching. After this big one, I think it will be time to work on some smaller pieces that are quicker to complete. I am getting ready to work on something other than trees and have been thinking a lot about art for kids rooms, etc. Getting excited by the ideas in my head. Slowly but surely an idea for a children's book has been brewing in my head but I am going to let that one progress naturely.

I also took some steps to ready myself for selling my stuff. I ordered boxes and envelopes for shipping my work from the post office and started figuring out my price points. This is a huge leap for me, its one thing to create its another to sell. I am a little bit terrified of how people will respond to my work or if anyone will bother to buy it. Its not why I make this stuff but what's the point of making it if its just going to sit in my closet and collect dust?! Thanks to all of you who follow and/or take the time to comment...it definitely helps.

Major Progress

Well, I did not think I would be posting anything regarding my latest project for awhile. I was going to work on all of the ground details, etc. but decided against that. Instead I thought it better to get the trees glued on and get the leaves and blossoms done first so as to not over do it and end up with a crazy, chaotic mess of things to look at. The process of putting on the leaves and/or blossoms is probably the single most time consuming thing I do and I have surprised myself at how much progress I made over the weekend.

First I punch out hundreds of tiny flowers (I got this punch out of the dollar bin at Michaels). Luckily I had already done a lot of this previously so I could get right to it once the trees were glued on and dry. Then I take each flower and make them 3 dimensional with a sheet of thin craft foam, an embossing tool and a circular motion (tired hands by the end of the day). I kind of go back and forth, I'll curl a bunch, then glue them on, curl some more, glue some more, etc. I go through once and place one flower on each branch tip, I call these the anchors.

Once the anchors are dry I go back and press 2 more flowers into them with that same embossing tool to create 3D bunches. I'll do this until I am happy with the result. The below picture is after I have gone through and made each anchor into bunches of 3's. I will go back and fill it in some more later.

I though I'd add a close up. Later I will go back and put a tiny bit of detail paint into the centers of each flower.

I am very excited about how this project is coming along. I hope that the details I add to the ground along with the fence will help add dimension to the overall piece but I am thrilled with the progression of my work in each new project. Stay tuned, I may get finished much sooner than I had anticipated!

Note to self!

I am reminded today about how important it is for me not to get ahead of myself. Today I decided that before I put on any of the details that I am going to put the trees on and get the blossoms done (a very long, tedious process) before anything else. A little voice started nagging at me just before I started the process of gluing the trees on the canvas board and I remembered that I had not tested the tree paper beforehand. GOOD THING!!! This paper is hand painted, as soon as I touched the UV gloss to the paper I could tell the colour was running. No biggie - just have to UV gloss the trees carefully and let them dry BEFORE I glue them on so when I go to do the final coats of gloss they don't bleed onto the background! Phew!

Thankful for small nagging voices in my head today that's for sure!

Phase 4 continued - Background Complete!

Background complete. YEAH! Very excited about how this turned out and can't wait to start putting in all the details. Shrubs, groundcover flowers, etc.

I seem to be moving very fast on this piece but I am VERY excited about the progress I've made so far. Had a bit of creative adrenaline today and am now frustrated that I have to stop and wait until tonight or tomorrow to continue. This baby needs some good solid drying time (lots of glue!!!!).

Lots of questions and second guessing going through my head right now. Are the trees too big? Should I cut new, smaller ones (I'd hate to but....)? Where am I going to put the fence? What colour should my groundcover flowers be? How many shrubs should I put on it? Am I going to run out of glue? Blah, blah, blah.....its comes along ;o) Really having a hard time deciding about the trees though. I love these trees but they just might be too big and they'll fill in once I put all the cherry blossoms on. MMmmmmmm......I guess we'll see.

Happy creating everyone!

Phase 4 - Glue, glue and more glue

Okay, this morning I made some progress and took some photos even though the glue is still wet. Yesterday I applied the snowcaps to the mountain cutouts. Very messy and tedious trying to get it all lined up right. The I glued them onto the canvas board once they were dry. This morning I added the road and started gluing on the grass. I did not glue the top grass panel all the way on in case I need to add more background and want to tuck it behind the panel. The trees are still not attached (just there for effect). I will be working on the background trees and foliage and the fence next. Oh, and adding details and shading to the two main trees will be in there somewhere before I glue them on. I haven't decided if I want the fence in front of the trees or behind yet but I am leaning more towards having it in the front. We'll see.

If you haven't noticed I did not curve the road like in the sketch. I realized that I am still not totally comfortable with proportion, etc. and didn't want to deal with the added stress of trying to figure out the different dimensions of the fence boards, etc. to make things appear bigger as the got closer. I figured since mountains, roads and fences are all new elements for me I would reign it in a bit until I study drawing more and feel more comfortable. Baby steps.

Once I get to the end of this project I will post close ups as well. The paper I used for the roads is actually cork paper and looks like tiny pebbles. The photographs don't do my pieces justice, you just can't see the texture and details. I choose papers to use based on colour, pattern and texture...texture being a HUGE part of it!

Mountains, etc.

So the pieces are starting to come together although nothing is attached at this point. I just thought a picture of it with only the bare bones components would be helpful to see. I cut the mountains out of blue and gray papers to add depth. My next step is to add the snowcaps on the mountains before I attach to them to the canvas board so if any of them don't turn out right I can do it again. I plan on doing that tonight.

I may add some puffy white clouds in the sky but haven't made up my mind yet. If I do, I'll apply them to the sky before I glue on anything else. Then its messy time ;o) I will glue on the completed mountains, the dirt road and the grass next.

Once that's done it will be magic time and my favorite part...all the details! There will be another layer of foliage and background stuff between the mountains and the trees, the fence needs to go on, ground cover flowers in spotted areas, etc. Then the trees and ALLLLLLLL the blossoms and leaves on the trees. There are some details to figure out still but they will be based on how its looking as it comes along.

As they projects come together I seem to get more done in a shorter period of time, excitement = adrenaline = more productivity!