i WILL touch it.

wet stickles call my name. they say... "tigger - come touch me to see if I'm dry.... you know you want to..."

They MOCK me. 

book of days...

absolutely loving working on my BOD... taught by the one and only Effy Wild, someone who has become very near and dear to my heart - we had an immediate 'click' when our worlds collided, and it's grown from there. 

I've never been much of an art journaler, I've tried and failed many times - it just never held me.  I think maybe this time it's a combo of what Effy gives us to inspire us, and the fact that I'm doing it in a book that I made myself. 

Here are a few recent spreads - a little journaling about my 97 year old boyfriend, my 'what if's' and how good it is to be queen...

all are watercolor crayon or watercolor paints, acrylics,  marker and Dylusion spray inks. 

one of those non-arty posts.

So - I am a flirt.  I am a self-professed, unabashed, equal opportunity flirt.  I flirt with men, women,  young, old... no matter.   I recently had to make an amends to someone because I was ascared that I had offended them with my flirting.  Turns out, they didn't realize I was flirting.  (which makes me ascared that I don't flirt very well)

I have been a flirt all my  life.  Even the shy wallflower me from high school was a closet flirt. 

I come by it naturally.  My mother was a HUGE flirt.  When she was dying of cancer, we had to have her transported from her assisted living apartment to the Hospice center at a local hospital.  She knew where she was going, and was in total acceptance of what was happening. 

As luck would have it, the ambulance service that handled the transport sent over 2 strapping, handsome  young men. 

And as they transferred her to the gurney, she looked at them with her big blue eyes and I saw that familiar spark.  With a huge smile she turned on the charm and flirted all the way to the Hospice center. 

That was my mother.  She left huge shoes to fill, but I'm trying my best. 

xoxo

Two Things.

One:  I am probably going to give up my Etsy shop in favor of Storenvy - and I put a few things in there to see how I'll like it.  Hope you'll all visit and let me know how it looks.

My Shop On Storenvy

Two:  Did a couple of very quick marker drawings on old book paper and put them down on 6x8 canvas panels...  they were very fun.

angels among us...

I've been wanting to do one of those quirky girls for a while... I took Suzi Blu's class, got her book, attempted my own but just couldn't quite make it look like she did.  I moved on to something else and forgot about them... until one of the talented artists on my BOD page (Book Of Days with Effy Wild) posted an amazing duo of quirky girls.  And the itch to do it started again. 

So without thinking twice, I grabbed a big-arse canvas and just started drawing and painting. 

I like the way she turned out, and she's hanging in my studio.  I may throw her in etsy... not sure.  I need to stop wanting to hang on to the things I do. LOL

She is done in watercolor crayons, acrylics, markers, old music book paper wings, walnut ink, CTMH velvet rubons, and her dress is the fabric I had made from my original doodle. 

spanks for looking!

there's no law...

that says sunflowers have to be brown and yellow.  this is what I told Emily when she commissioned me for a large canvas - and asked that the colors be blue and green... but that she would love sunflowers... and I told her that I could give her sunflowers but that I wasn't sold on the color combo of yellows/browns/blues/greens... but if she could embrace quirky sunflowers, we were golden. 

The canvas is 16" x 20" - and it did intimidate me for a bit.

I grabbed my Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons and threw on some blues and greens in all different shades. 

Took some green tissue paper, stencils, Dylusions sprays, some modeling paste and some metallic acrylic paint and went a little willy-nilly.

Then came the sunflowers.  That used a stencil and modeling paste - Emily wanted TEXTURE.  So I gave her TEXTURE.  ;-)

Then came the torture of the quote she wanted.  The quote itself was gorgeous.  But Emily wanted it in my own handwriting, not a computer font like *I* wanted to do.  LOL  I've come a long way with doing my own lettering since taking Joanne Sharpe's Letter Love - but this was a big-arse canvas, and it was a commissioned work, not something I was doing to hang in my studio... and I was a little ascared.

Finally my friend Mel messaged me and said write it on a piece of tissue paper, and then use your MM adhesive to put it on the canvas. 

Perfect.  It worked PERFECTLY and I was happy. Spank you Mel. <3

A few added touches to balance it a bit more - since I didn't use a computer font with strips of paper, the quote itself didn't add enough heaviness to the lower half...

and then I called it done.