New Projects

I have been sick this week, so I haven't gotten as much done as I would have liked.  I have been working a variety of projects in between bouts of coughing.
I have been working on a Lifebook lesson and goal setting.  We designed a game board with some obstacles and some encouraging words.  We also made cards with our goals and wrote down ways to accomplish those goals.   

I chose a thimble as my piece to represent my textile art and in honor of the campaign to keep the thimble as a Monopoly piece. 

I have also been making some sample greeting cards using my hand dyed fabrics, some lace, and stamped with my own carved stamps.   These are some of the close-ups of the designs.  I am hoping to have some of these to sell in the near future. 

I will share more later, for now have a great end of the week.

Janelle

Give-away Results

I had my little one draw names for my birthday give-away this morning.  I put all the names from both blogs into a bowl and had him draw out two.  The first person won one of the bookmarks that I made from my painted papers.  The second person won one of my ATC's.
The first winner of a bookmark is: Cindy Easter
The second winner of an ATC is: This Dog's Mom
Please get in contact with me if you are one of the winners so that I can get these out in the mail.

I'm will have more give-aways in the future, so if you didn't win this time around you will have a second chance.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Janelle

Growth Collage

I recently made a collage out of a paper cloth background and my painted papers and hand dyed fabrics plus some other bits and pieces.  I started with the idea of personal growth and a picture of a tiger lily taken from a vintage encyclopedia.  I echoed the colors of the lily and the background in the collage.  I added free motion machine stitching and some hand stitching too.  This collage is attached to a piece of watercolor paper to make it sturdy.  It is now available in my Etsy shop.

This is the last day to be entered into my give-away, because it closes at midnight tonight.  Tomorrow I will be drawing the winners.  Look below for the give-away and post a comment if you want to be included in the drawing.

Have a great day,

Janelle

 

Recent Journal Pieces

I have some journal pages that I haven't shared yet, so I thought that I would do that.  I hope that these bring a bit of color to your weekend.
These are all in my art journal.

Here are my latest Lifebook spreads.

I hope that you have a creative weekend,
Janelle

Birthday Giveaway

Today is my birthday and it is a milestone year.  I have been contemplating my life the last few weeks as often happens to me when I hit a milestone birthday.  The last decade I decided to go back to college and finish my degree.  I am not planning anything that life changing this time around, but there are some things that I have been working on changing.  I want to make sure that I stay healthy and prevent the health problems that are prevalent in my family.  I need to evaluate my eating habits and my exercise routines to make sure that I stay healthy and to encourage my husband to do the same.  I want us to be around for many more years so that we can enjoy each other's company.  I also want to make sure that I am spending money wisely so that we can enjoy our retirement years and not leave debts to our children some day.

I am really enjoying my life now for the most part.  I stay home with my youngest and work on my art in all the free time that I can carve out of my daily life.  It does take some time to raise five kids, but it gets easier as they get older.  I want to work on my art the most this year.  I want to keep learning and perfecting skills and I want to grow my new baby business.  I really enjoy creating things that can add beauty and meaning to daily life and sharing them with the world.  I have a lot to learn about the business side as well.  That is the hardest for me as it is for a lot of creative people. I have set some goals for my business this year and I am currently planning out how I am going to meet those goals step by step.  One of the things that I want to do is to share a bit of art with my readers.

I am going to give-away two pieces of art just to show you all that I appreciate you reading my blog and supporting me.  I am going to take all the comments from both of my blogs and put the names into a pot and have my little one take out two names.  I will send you a small piece of my art. The first one will be for a bookmark created out of bits of my painted papers.  The second one will be for one of my ATCs.  I will let the winners pick out their favorite from the category that they have won.  

Here are the bookmarks.  I have shown both sides of each one.

Here are the ATCs.

In order to be put into the drawing please leave a comment on one of my blogs about what you like about my art.  Please check out my Etsy Shop and my art that is available for prints on Fine Art America too.
I will leave this open for a week and draw the names on Thursday, January 24th.  Please leave an e-mail address so that I can get in touch.  Then I will contact the winners to get their mailing information.
I hope that everyone enjoys my birthday give-away and I wish you all a peaceful day.
Janelle

Textured Flower

I thought that I would share a small piece that I just finished recently.  I took a small wood panel, 3" x 3", that had a wire hanger attached to it and I covered the panel with patching plaster.  When the plaster was completely dry I sealed the whole piece with several coats of gesso.  After that was dry I painted this really simple flower with Golden Fluid Acrylics.  I was using these flowers that grow in my garden as inspiration for this piece.  I went with a different color scheme, but I always enjoy seeing these flowers brighten up my yard each summer.  I wanted to bring a little color out this winter.  I added this to my Etsy shop which you can find by clicking on the link on the right side of my page.

  

I added a little more detail to this painting. 

Have a wonderful creative week,

Janelle