LB Courage Dear Heart with Patti Billard

Collage is a fun thing for me in fact I liked this collage so much 

I had a hard time drawing a girl over it. 

collage and outline of the woman

When I draw women I somehow always make their body too big and end off cutting off their feet. So you can't see that she is a tight roper.

Here she is done. I tried to follow exactly her style of face. Not my style but it was good to try. I changed the colors a bit too because I felt purple and blue coming through.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Chandra

Beacon of Light from Life Book (LB)

I enjoyed this activity. Create a beacon of light. This being is guiding you in your life. I started out with drawing my Spiritual Guide. But I couldn't paint it for some reason. So I just sat and breathed and did the lesson trying to be my authentic self and look who appeared! Me. Actually the girl looks nothing like me because I was trying to copy Tam's girl. Then words like Intuition, Devine me and my word of the year Authenticity came into the picture. I added colors and stamps and she was created. My Beacon of Light!

Guru Sumate Buddha Heruka

Chandra

Life Book (LB) week 3 with Joanne Sharpe Lettering

In Life Book week 3 with Joanne Sharpe was fantastic! I love lettering so this was my time to really go with her lesson and try something new with my lettering. I usually just write some words and add a bit to it. The way she taught us here was a whole new experience for me. My own lettering. Instead of the perfectionist lettering I try to do freehand, she taught us to use our own writing. So here it is...

My first attempt at her lesson.

I am not too fond of watercolor. I don't feel very confident with it. I tried her technique but I am such a perfectionist I had to fill in every space with watercolor and try to have the colors blend. So you can see there is no white accept for where the letters are. 

This one I made with my own style of drawing and lettering on a very good water color paper with twinkling h2o watercolors. I never did finish going over the black lines so they are a bit twinkly.

This is my third attempt. Still struggling with the watercolor letting go a bit, but my drawing was getting better. This was lot's of fun so much that I did not want to stop and probably if I had all the time in the world to paint I would have made a hundred of these. I'm certain I will make more. They are addictive.

Chandra

Life Book 2015

 Yes I am doing Life Book this year! 

Here is my warm up exercise given by Tam.

It was fun!

 I added my word for the year Authentic. This year I plan on being my authentic self. Being the true me, honoring me, letting me be me. Letting the real me be seen. Who know's what will arise but I feel it's really me. Creative, passionate, strong embracing my authenticity.

Chandra

My bags filled with...Happy Mail!

I am doing The Documented Life Project (DLP). Within this group we are sending Happy Mail (HM). I picked 22 people from the list to receive my HM. Here is the contents of the envelope's.

Here are the envelopes with tissue paper and gelli prints.

Here are the painted and sprayed fronts complete with doodles.

Here are the first two HM packages I received on the same day. Wow! Look at all these goodies I can use in my DLP!

Here goes my HM to the post office.

Soon after I sent these I received another HM, Yay! It is so fun getting this beautifully colored mail!

Hearts and flowers!

 Then another...I wonder what the mail carrier thinks?

I love this envelope! And the contents were super amazing! A handmade mini book, sewn tags and painted goodies. Iv;e gotten a few now with little bags or envelopes so cute!

 I got so many that I made a box for all of the wonderful Happy Mail.

I was inspired by one HM who sent a drawing of a woman on book paper. So I got out my altered book  and started drawing.

Have a wonderful day!

Chandra

SOC 4

The second week of SOC 4. Coral and Teal with a smudge, smash or pop of bright white.

These colors were a challenge for me.

Luckily I had a gelli print that had these dark colors. I used my Pentel pens over top of the acrylic gelli print. The pen took a while to dry so I was able to rub it and blend it in places and this owl popped up. I was a bit inspired by Juliette Crane after looking at her owls.

Thanks for stopping by,

Chandra

Word of the Year!

There has been talk about choosing a word of the year. I have chosen words for myself over the years to help me remember what I need to do or become. The first word I chose oh, 10 years ago was smile. When I remembered this word and used it over and over I did smile and was happier. I used this word to help me get through many mental blocks. The second word I used was strength. I felt at the time I needed strength to get through life. I strived to be strong in everything I did. It was many years of this word over and over to help me develop strength. It helped change my view of myself. Then I chose wisdom as my word for many years. I really wanted to be wise to know how to be in the world with wisdom knowing all. 

So now here I am in the beginning of January 2013! I am ready for new words. I am in a group of women who are Artists and they have been talking about how to choose a word for the year. I can do that! So I thought and thought. Last night my words came to me. Not one but two this time! Wow, I said to myself, I am ready for changes. The words I picked are Growth and Joyous. 

So what do you do with these words you choose for yourself? Yesterday I had a mixed media meetup. It was so fun! There were 8 women who came and created their own mixed media art piece. It was great to see Artists in person and talk about all their projects. One woman talked about words of the year and how she is doing all these different things with her word. Like look up the definition. I liked that! Here are the definitions from the dictionary for my words. 

Definitions written in KRR's book

I also picked out a book to write quotes, definitions and anything I wish to write about these words.

My book from KRR for my words

I am growing. I look at my business and see changes and growth. I am increasing and developing my artistic abilities. Yay! I can't wait to see the GROWTH I have this year!

A mandala I made with growth in mind

An Artist in my Flying Lessons group has a mother who makes beautiful mandalas out of words. I thought that was a great idea. But I prefer to do it myself to really get to know the word. Use it over and over again. That's how it really sticks.

Some inspiration for my words 

 I also created some pictures with my words on pic collage! I love this app. It is wonderful! See how my words turned out! Lovely indeed!

I think JOYOUS came to me in my sleep last night. I was thinking how I would like to master being happy in everything I do. If I make a mistake, happy, If I have difficulty in life, happy. I know that these are lessons in growth. 

Remembering to be joyous in all I do. Like this lovely Artist Cori Dantini says in this picture below, "Joyous Living a challenge worth taking"

Cori Dantini I love her art!

I drew this for Joyous

 It feels great to share my words with you! I have never shared them before in all my years of choosing words for myself. I can't express how happy I am to be a part of a community of Artists. I didn't know I was craving this community before. It is fun to have my virtual Artist community and my Personal Artist community. There are many ways to use your word of the year. All of the above and more! I have seen jewelry made with the words. I know I will be working on this for myself. I am just learning to stamp in metal. I'll share this with you in a future post. So I hope you choose a word or words for yourself this year. Enjoy ( the first word I thought of using this year but chose joyous instead ) the power of repetition and imagination with these words. Have a wonderful New Year filled with personal inspirations and love.

Chandra

Now hop on over to Nazmoon Laila's blog to find out what her word of the year is...

Doodle a Day...

Santa!

Chandra

Welcome to...

Here is my first doodle of December!

I love bells and caroling. I think more people should go caroling. I recently found this great doodle artist and her blog. Cindy from Rainbow Elephant has a website where she posts many tutorials and pic's of doodles she has named her own.This is where I learned to make these cool balls and I thought they looked like bells so I added some ribbon and the words Jingle all the way!

What is your doodle of the day? I can't wait to see it!

Cheerily,

Chandra

Artist Trading Cards Tutorial

Artist Trading Cards or better known as ATCs have been around for a while. I have only recently discovered them. They are great fun!

 I have made a tutorial for anyone out there wondering what ATCs are and how to make them. Artist Trading Cards are small 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 size cards. On one side you create a masterpiece and on the other you write your information like blog, email, web site, name and date. Grab your supplies and start creating!

Supplies

Card stock 

Scissors

Paper cutter

Glue stick

Pen's

Optional materials depending on what media you use

Paint

Decorative papers

Stamps

Glue gun

Cloth

Felt

Embroidery floss

Pictures

Magazine cutouts

Ribbon

Anything you want to use!

You can make the base card out of anything, card stock is what I use. But you can also use canvas, watercolor paper, an old playing card (covered in paper or gesso). There are even ones that are pre-made for all types of media. I have bought some of the pre- made ones. They are nice if you want to use a specific medium like watercolor, but card stock works fine.

So, let's get to the making. Start with the card stock. Measure out 2 1/2 along one side with a pencil mark, and 3 1/2 along the other side.

Card stock and ruler measuring 2 1/2 inches across.

 The next step is cutting the cards out. Here I use a paper cutter for straight lines. Of course you can use scissors as well but I tend to make crooked cuts so I use the cutter. 

There you have a nice card just the right size.

I like to round the edges with an edge cutter. I have tried cutting the edge myself, needless to say I can't make good edges with scissors. You can leave them square as well. 

Now the fun begins! Get your supplies. Here I have the scraps from another project I was working on they have paint stains. The large paper is for the back side. This is where you can get creative, make backgrounds with paint or paper, collage, whatever you like.

 I use a glue stick because it goes on smooth, doesn't wrinkle the paper and is quick drying. I made a frame with the scraps of paper.

Here I have glued a decorative paper on the back.

Cut the back paper off.

I stamped the back paper with a Made with love stamp. You can use any stamp that has lines or just write your info on the back.

I colored in the stamp with gel pens and added my info.

Now for the front. Here are my examples. In this one I colored inside the frame I made of papers.

Here I had drawn a picture on another paper and cut it up, glued and done!

A different stamp with lines to write in your info.

Here is the stack of the ones I made that day. 

Now it's time to trade them! Find a local group in your area, a mail group or make a group yourself. 

Every Friday at The Cozy Craft Corner from 3:30 to 5:30 we have an Artist Trading Card class and swap. It is so fun! I love making small pieces of art. It's tiny and manageable. We usually end up making about four each class and trade them. 

I have also started a group of women from my Flying Lessons class with Kelly Rae Roberts to do ATC's in the mail. This has been very successful so far and great fun! 

I hope you now have a better understanding about how to make Artist Trading Cards. Enjoy :)

Here are some sites that give you ideas and themes;

Altered Art

Art Junction

Family Fun

Here is an interesting idea Tea Bag ATCs

Here is one that has supplies.

Sky Blue Pink

Here are some books on ATC's

I have this on in my shop Artist Trading Card Workshop

1,000 Artist Trading Cards: Innovative and Inspired Mixed Media ATCs

Trading Card Techniques & ATCs

Have a wonderful day,

Chandra