Friday, December 28, 2012

Ready for the New Year!


I am so ready for the New Year 2013! This year is going to be awesome! I feel it in my bones. As you can tell I have changed the look of my blog. The background is tan and I have made a banner above of me teaching, my jewelry, art and collage from the past year. This is just the beginning. I plan on many more changes for this year.

My Business is changing. I am looking into creating a wonderful space in The Cozy Craft Corner for Artists. A community of Artists with similar goals. It will be a membership shop. Where you join and have many perks to the membership. Perks are; your own space in the shop to sell your goods, one class teaching a month, you get to be part of an amazing group of Artists, have a community of creativity, get to work in the shop! You get your art out there and join in a creative community. I am still working on this and fine tuning it. So keep an eye out for more details in January 2013.


I took Kelly Rae's business class and have learned so much, met many new friends and felt a movement in energy towards future goals. I learned that I love mixed media art and have been doing it I just didn't know what it was called. I have started a mixed media group on meetup. To learn more about it, and meet other artists. I couldn't find anything in Sacramento about mixed media. So I am creating it! This already has so much interest I am excited to see how it turns out. I have various mixed media classesat the shop already Artist Trading Cards, Journals, Collage and this month we are going to do a collage for what we want in this coming year, like a treasure map or vision board. It has many names but all the same effects. You gather pictures from magazines and create your future. If you visualize what you want it will come. manifestation is a powerful tool! This is one of the ways my shop came about.

Here is my piece I worked on in the meetup!


I also have my jewelry classes on meetup under wire wrap jewlery. The jewelry classes are earrings, bracelets, pendants and rings.
I might throw in a few beaded bracelets and necklaces. I know I have had many comments on this necklace that is beaded and woven in a graduated color scheme.

Personally I am so happy to be able to do what I love! Create Art! I love making ATCs and have a great group to trade with. I am creating more inspirational card decks, these are so fun! I am dabbling in mixed media art. I am making an art journal. I am signed up for a book group where we read The Artists Way and take a month to do each chapter. I am hoping to take Life Book


 I have not signed up yet, I will soon. I am teaching Dharma again, Prayers for World Peace and a Mala class. I am creating more jewelry and growing a business. How fun! I am really looking forward to this year and what it has to offer me and all those around me. I hope to do everything with ease, patience and love.

Happy New Year!

Chandra

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Mixed Media Meet Up

 We had a wonderful time at our Mixed Media Meet up! I and two other women talked about how we came to make mixed media art, what supplies we have and how to use them. We each learned something from one another, traded supplies and enjoyed learning more about each other. This is exactly what I am looking to create at The Cozy Craft Corner. A group of people who support each other, create art and enjoy our time together. Here are some pictures I would like to share.

my supplies

my journal page that I used up the left over paint on

Here are some of the beginnings to our mixed media art projects we worked on in this meetup.

                                                
                                                                my painting

another page in my journal where I used the left over paint

my hand with paint on it
 Happy creating come and join us in our Mixed Media Meetup here!

Happy New Year!

Chandra

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Say it again...


I love this song by The Weepies where she sings this line I wrote on this doodle.


You are Golden!
Chandra

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas to you...


Some doodling with color backgrounds 


I used a credit card to smear the acrylic paint around. This idea came from Kristal Norton and her Journaling 101 blog post about backgrounds. I wrote on top and doodled a woman and a bird cage and bird. When I was a child I loved Raggedy Ann she always had a heart on her chest that said I love you!


Here I drew a zentangle pinecone ornament on the tree and colored it in.


Merry Christmas to you!

Chandra

Monday, December 24, 2012

Winter Wonder Land


Here is a Zentangle snow scene it's not quite finished or maybe it is? What do you think?


Walking in a winter wonderland,
Chandra

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Doodlie doodlie do


Working on my Auraknot from Zentangle



May the stars shine bright on you!
Chandra

Friday, December 21, 2012

Inspirational Card Deck Swap


Here is what my Inspirational cards turned out like.


Here is the group of them all together. 

I had so much fun making my 52 Inspirational Cards and sending them to Jessica Brogan from her web site In Search of Dessert! She has created the most wonderful swap for this. If you click the link to her name above you will go to her blog where she has posted two tutorials on how to make the cards. Jessica told me recently that The Inspiration Card Deck Swap will be featured in a magazine soon. 
I received my deck of 52! I am so excited. It seems every time I look at them I see something new. It is so fun and every day I can draw a new one and reflect on the quote it has. The art is amazing. A big thank you to all the artists who participated in this swap. I enjoyed every minute of it.



Now Jessica is having another Inspirational Card Deck  for the families effected by the Sandy Hook school tragedy. I am participating in this because I want to do something to help. I have already prayed for them now I can contribute something artistic. Bring joy into their lives with art. I look forward to this. I have created a yellow background with acrylic paint, sparkling finger paint and a snowflake stamp so far for it. We have all been sent a quote to put on each one of our cards. There are still some space left if your interested in joining this group in creating these for the families. I will post the pic's of them when I am done. 

Have a lovely day,
Chandra

Book Review!


I love this book! We got it last year and doodled away...


There are pages and pages of beautiful swirling holiday doodles to color in.


And lots of pages where your encouraged to draw your own doodles.


My son likes ugly holiday sweaters why not doodle them!


I love this tree one! In fact there are many fun trees to doodle. 


and Santa's presents



even an advent calendar! 
So if your in the mood to doodle but have no idea what to draw check out this book!
Happy Holidays!
It's almost Christmas!
Love,
Chandra

Doodles





I have been so busy I have not had a chance to post my doodles. Here are some!
A bird I drew!



This ones from Thanksgiving.
zentangle
Love, Chandra

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Reflections Blog Circle


It's time for our Flyers Blog Circle once again. This time our theme is Reflections.
Reflecting on my experience right now is what I have chosen to write about. But the other amazing women in the circle have even more! So when your finished with my post circle around and enjoy!

It's Christmas time. Usually I am so excited at this time of year but I just can't fully jump for joy this year. I have been so busy with trying to keep the business going, creating interesting classes, revamping my business to become my dream job. Trying to come up with money just to pay the rent for the shop is a big bummer. I know it's the first year of the business and I can expect this. It still gets me down. I don't have time to relax and enjoy the season much.

My daughter wearing the Santa glasses and singing
I am trying to get into the holiday spirit...
I have been listening to Christmas music, decorating the tree, putting out all the holiday fun things like the glasses that make the Christmas lights into different shapes; Snowpeople, Santa, Angels and Stars. We love these! I have been buying presents, making presents and eventually I will get around to making the cookies. The cookies are a family tradition. My dad used to make cookies every year for Christmas and give them out to us in fancy tins filled with half peanut blossoms and half russian tea cakes. Then he realized he was gluten intolerant and stopped. At that time I decided to take over because the kids and other family members still wanted cookies so, I started making the usual ones my Dad made and then added my own gluten and sugar free versions so my Dad could still eat them.


I have been collecting tins all year!

I just don't have the excitement this year that I usually have. I should have started making dough by now but I have no time. It seems everything I try to do sucks. I decorated the inside of the house in lights before Thanksgiving to get in the mood early. My husband and son complained about how I decorated and said it wasn't very symmetrical so a few weeks later when I was decorating the tree I changed the lights to be more symmetrical yep it looked better they were right. I am realizing when others around me are negative I try to stay positive but deep down it just tears me up inside. It's like a cell in a vast amount of cells, if it has gone bad all the others go bad. I decorate for them so they enjoy the beautiful lights and have a good time. I am trying to be the cell that is healthy and makes all the others healthy. I am trying to stay positive. I meditate and practice compassion for those who are being negative. I guess it just makes me sad how we make ourselves miserable with our negative thoughts. I wish we were positive all the time! I can try to be the anchor but ultimately I can't control other people so I take care of my own mind and sometimes it's easy and other times not.

I decorated the tree and didn't have enough white lights so I had to use red and then multicolored lights. It looks different. It kinda sucks but it's done. It's a decorated tree. My daughter and her friend helped me decorate it. It's got style. My daughter was talking about how she likes it when people decorate their car with the reindeer nose and antlers. I tried to find this... but where does anyone buy these things? Instead I found a nice wreath that is made out of jingle bells and strapped that to the front of the car. When we go down the street we jingle. My daughter loves it! My husband on the other hand does not. It might scratch the paint. Oh no, I didn't think about that! So, it comes down to my half assed way of doing things once again. I have an idea and try to do my best to make it happen, I rush through and it turns out looking different or ruining things. My Husband says I need a plan, I don't think it through. I just want to get it done so we can enjoy it. Now I have put tape on the one bell that was touching the paint, after all and I do want to take care of it! There are many presents under the tree this year. I hope they all like them I worked really hard on getting everyone what they might like this year. Stocking stuffers are my favorite! I love finding rare toys and candies.

We have to be grateful to have so many things like a house, family, health and food. The basics so many don't have. Then on top of it we have presents, and more. I know that without my Husband we would be in a much worse situation this year. He has supported us to no end! Thanks Robin! :) My son has helped out tremendously with my daughter. And the topper is that my Mom is coming for Christmas! Last year she was not so we are excited to have her here. She always made Christmas so much fun!

The fact that this last month has been one of loss to so many people is sad. I pray that those effected by the tragedies of these days are able to cope and be filled with blessings of a peaceful mind. I wish you all a Warm and Happy Holiday Season!

Blessings,
Chandra

Hop on over to Suzanne McRae to see what she's reflecting on.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Ornament Swap!





I joined a lovely group who swap ornaments or jewelry, it's the Holiday Bling Blog Hop! Now it's time to see what we each received from our partners and what we gave our partners.
Here are the ornaments I made for my partner Lori. We spoke a bit about what we do for the holidays. She said that she enjoyed the traditions she had with her children. Going to see the tree lighting and making gingerbread houses. So, I got out my felt and started sewing. Here's what I came 
up with.


Now here is what Lori sent me!
A beautiful package...



A Sea Snow Person in very lovely stained glass with real sand. Very Nice! 




on my tree
Happy Bling Blog Hopping, now lets blog hop on over to...

Shirley Moorehttp://www.beadsandbread.blogspot.com Lori Bowring Michaudhttp://artfullyornamental.blogspot.com Catherine Kinghttp://catherines-musings.blogspot.com Dyanne Cantrell http://deelitefuljewelrycreations.blogspot.com Sonya Stillehttp://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com Elaine Rayhttp://elaineray.blogspot.com Gina Hocketthttp://freestyleelements.blogspot.com Jo-Ann Woolvertonhttp://itsabeadifulcreation.blogspot.ca Debbie Rasmussenhttp://kepirasmussen.blogspot.com Renetha Stanzianohttp://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com Ginger Bishophttp://lilmummylikes.blogspot.com Miranda Ackerleyhttp://mirandack.com/category/thoughts Sandra McGriffhttp://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.ca Tammie Everlyhttp://ttedesigns.blogspot.com Alicia Marinachehttp://www.allprettythings.ca Melinda Abrahamsonhttp://www.firstreetcrafts.com Rita/ Toltec Jewelshttp://www.jewelschoolfriends.com Chandra Merodhttp://www.junipergoods.blogspot.com Mary Govaarshttp://www.mlhjewelrydesigns.com Kelley Fogelhttp://www.mylifeonebeadatatime.blogspot.com Tiffany Goff Smithhttp://www.southerngalsdesign.blogspot.com Heather Rats Ottohttp://www.thecrafthopper.com Anitra Gordy Boyerswww.leelucreations.blogspot.com  Marlene Cupohttp://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com Shelley Graham Turnerwww.shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by I love comments so don't be shy send me a reply. He he,

Chandra