Dancing in the Rain

I know I haven't posted much lately, but I've been quite busy. I'm going to an Artist get together mid June. This should be a fun get together. It's a lot like the shack-a-poolaza the girls at the stamp shack did earlier this year. But since I'd signed up for this one nearly a year ago, I couldn't do both. Perhaps next year...

The get together is mainly a bunch of artists on ATCsforAll. It'll be a combination live trade show/art classes/art making. Oh, and lets not forget the social aspect. That should take up the whole weekend! I'm not sure I'll get much art making. So, in anticipation of this, I've made some ATCs and some inchies in advance.

I'll preview a few here and add lots more while I'm gone, and especially when I return.

More Inchie Faces

Another set of inchies! These little pieces are more addictive than I thought. Though, trying to color those little eyes is a bit neurotic! I did these for a swap on ATCsforall. I've drawn nearly 30 faces, but so far, these are all I've colored in. I've used mostly acrylics for the faces, except for the blue haired fairy and the little imp on the bottom left. Those I colored with prismacolored pencils. For me, the pencils were harder to get the saturation I wanted and didn't give the smoothness of color that I liked. These little pieces of art are easy to draw when watching my little guy practise his soccer game. And since they're only 1" x 1", there isn't that much detailing needed in the background. My fav. is the little girl peeking over the fence. How about you? Which one strikes you the most?

Flower Power!

I've finally taken the plunge and hosted my first swap "Flower Power" on the Stamp Shack. I have a lot of floral stamps and wanted to do some cards with them. When I saw no floral swap to join, I made my own up. I envisioned something along the lines of a physecadelic card that represented Flower Power to me. And I'm thrilled that what I envisioned, happened! I love the colors. I usually work in watercolors, but this is a first for me. Markers!! The colors are rich and vibrant.

I used 3 different stamps, all from the same set by K Marcella (clear stamps #137004). Made a collage of them and then colored with Bic Markers.

If any of you want to trade with me for a card very similar to this, let me know.

Wizards and Elves

Sometimes a card just comes together, and at other times, it takes...well, till well, forever! The first wizard (in blues) came through fairly easily. But this swap required four cards and I just couldn't figure out the others. I researched and researched and nothing seemed to work for me. So when the pressure of the deadline was making me twitchy, my muse finally came back from vacation!!! Sitting in the car watching my youngest at soccer practise, I drew the second wizard (in purple). The beauty of that wizard is, that the two look like they're talking so I drew the background path to match up. Then when I took the same youngest to chick-fil-a for dinner (hey got me out of dinner duty), I drew the old elf in the tree and a second elf. I came home and since I'd had dinner too (well, I've got no will power when it comes to those waffle fries), I sat down and drew the third one (sleeping below the tree). I don't think I've ever drawn four full cards in one day, let alone in such a short period of time. The other elf, I'm sooo in love with, I'll have to take my time coloring it. Hopefully, I've done justice to these pieces and will do so on the other elf too.

More Inchies

Well, I don't think I'm hooked, but doing inchies has helped get rid of stress for me. We've had so much going on the last month and which will last for another few weeks, that I was finding I just was too tired to create. I was under pressure just to finish my committed swaps. Inchies are so small that I'm able to complete these fairly quickly. The top two are done with water colors. The flowers are acrylics and my favorite of all favorite, the faces are done using prisma pencils. I love the faces, so bear with me. You might be seeing more of them!!

Inchies by Number

I love my ATCs. I never think I'd actually make anything other than that. And then a swap comes along that is irresistable. Perhaps because of the medium or technique used. Or perhaps the host. In this case it was definitely the host. Pixeldog at ATCsforall. He was hosting a swap with inchies. An ATC is 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. Inchies are, well, 1" x 1". My gosh, those are small!! I signed up for the swap, but waited pretty much till the end for one reason or another to do the swap. Mostly, because I was panicked and didn't have a clue what to do. One night, I started and this is what I came up with. His inchies required a number on them. Other than that, it was whatever I could create. There were 75 participants in it. Lol, he's got his work cut out for him sorting out the returns! So what do you think of my first venture into Inchies? They're all done in watercolors, except for the pink daisy. That's in acrylics.

Fairy Wings

This was an ATC done for the "Wings" swap on Stamp-Shack. The girl is an unmounted stamp that I've had for ages, and not sure who makes it. I had visualized her with some butterfly wings, but none of the butterflies I had would work for this girl. They were mostly too clunky! So, I went through my stamp drawers and found door hinges. I liked the scroll work look of them and they seem to match the design on her sleeves. I masked the girl off and stamped the wings. Then I added some stamped butterflies to give her something to interact with. Drew a pond under her and doodled a bit of flowers and grass to finish of the image. The background is colored with watercolors which I applied with very broad strokes. The fairy is colored with prisma pencils, mainly an orangish red and yellow.