Art Filled Home

That is what I would love...a home filled with art. I would love to see the walls filled with children's art (already have a lot of this!) , others artist's pieces, some more pieces made by my hands, sculpture, mixed media, abstract, beautiful words & inspiration, color...just a bunch everywhere. Wouldn't that be inspiring?

Around my house, I definitely see the need to fill up the walls, corners, ledges, and shelves with beautiful works of art. So until my pockets fill up with more $$ so I can buy some art...I will work to fill it with some of mine. This week I had fun repainting a canvas that I had purchased at Michaels in the clearance section. Somewhere (Pinterest no doubt) I saw words laid out scrabble style & liked the way it looked. So I added our names using an ABC stencil. I am not sure if I am finished yet...but, I am happy with the way it is turning out. :)

 Do you have a lot of art around your home? 

How do you like to display it?

 

XO,

Fall Book Page Banner

I recently saw this darling banner made from book pages on Heather Bullard's site. She has a beautiful blog filled with tons of eye candy. I love decorating or doing projects with book pages, so I really wanted to make a banner for my mantle. It was quick, easy, and my daughter was able to join in the fun too!

Supplies needed: old book pages, pencil, scissors, watercolors & brush, letters, twine, glue, and leaf cookie cutter.

First, I used old book pages and drew a large leaf free hand. Then cut them out. For the smaller leaf I used a leaf cookie cutter I had in my stash and used it for tracing. After cutting out all my leaves, I laid them down on some paper ready to be painting.

With my daughter's help, we painted the leaves different fall shades and let them dry.

After drying for a bit, we stacked one leaf on top of another in pretty color combinations. I just glued the top of the smaller leaf down so the banner had some movement. Earlier, I had chosen the word blessed and searched through my collection of ABCs for the letters I needed. (I seriously hoard letters...lol. Maybe it's the elementary teacher in me. I don't know. The scrapbook aisle at Michaels with all the letters...hold me back. Thank goodness they are not too pricey!)

The letters were glued to the top leaf, then turned upside down so I could hot glue the twine along the top of each leaf. Just a bit of advice...make sure the word is going the right direction when you turn it around. Yep. I did it. I glued the whole thing down, turned it around...smiles & happiness. Until I saw that I had glued the entire word backwards. My little assistant thought that was the funniest thing ever. :)

But, in the end...here is how it turned out. Super cute! It dresses up the mirror on my mantle just enough and reminds us of all the many blessings we have this season. 

I am joining the craftiness with Jaime over at Crafty, Scrappy, Happy. 

I love handmade things, don't you? :)

I need my coffee

Seriously, who has days that feel like this? :)

Coffee Girl Journal Page

Wishing you a creative, energy filled Wednesday!

Inspired Home - 10/19

I love all things creative. 

Of course I love art...but, I love crafting, decorating, revamping, up-cycling, jewelery making, party throwing, holiday creating...you get the picture - I love it all. So, since I am a craftaholic and it is fall...I thought I would share a quick, easy project I just finished. Plus, my bloggy friend Jaime over at  

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy has a wonderful blog & link up party full of fun, creative ideas. I know she would love to have you pop over. Between all my favorite art blogs, crafty/home blogs, and Pinterest, my project list continues to grow...
ridiculously large. :)

Here is my cutie little pumpkin. It used to be bright orange and pretty banged up. All it needed was some TLC. I adore white pumpkins and twine, so I thought I'd change up the pumpkin to match more of the decor in my house. I love them so much - I made two. The only thing I would add next time, is maybe some book pages. Gotta love vintage book pages, right?? :)

All you need is a pumpkin, spray paint, hot glue (watch your fingers), twine, scissors, and a pencil.

Everybody needs a smiley face pencil.

First, I hid a multitude of imperfections with a couple coats of white spray paint. I seriously love spray paint. It is so quick & easy. I tend to use Rustoleum's Painter's Touch, but any paint will work. 

After it had time to dry, I hot glued the stem with twine and wrote the word I wanted on the front with my pencil. Be sure to write lightly & be careful. I found out the hard way that erasing does not work very well...

hello, more spray paint!

Then, I traced over my written word with my hot glue and carefully followed with my twine. My goodness - my poor little fingers. I don't know how many times I have burned them in my crafty career. I usually keep a pair of tweezers with me to help guide what I am gluing or move things around.

Finally, I just let the glue dry and pulled away all those annoying glue strings. (If you are a hot glue groupie, you know exactly what I am talking about!) Now the "glammed" up pumpkin is ready for the mantle or another

little nook. :)

Next week I will share a fabulous book paper banner inspired by 

Heather Bullard.

XO,

Wisdom

I was looking through the dollar bins at Target when I spotted this cute little guy. I think he is meant to be some kind of hanging decoration, but I thought it would make a great stencil. So cute...and owls are quite the obsession right now!

So today I had a chance to play a bit with my new stencil in my journal. I used my watercolors, a fabulous water brush, a few acrylics, pens and rub ons.

I love this quote by John Wooden. He had so many little nuggets of truth. How many times have I focused on the things I am unable to do...instead of celebrating what I can do and growing from there. I don't want to focus on the negative things I see in myself, but it sure is hard isn't it!? Let's use the words of a very wise man to celebrate all the wonderful things GOD created in us. :)

Here is a link to a free printable of this same quote, but done differently.

Loving the small

Today I painted small and I loved it. So quick & easy. Now I know how painting ACEOs can become addicting! This little guy was painted on a card from one of my daughter's games. Yes, Sleeping Beauty is under all those layers. :)

I used acrylic paint, book pages, watercolor crayons, pen, and various stamps. 

I had love on my mind. The love of art. Isn't it amazing how something can reach your heart and just take hold?

I hope you have a beautiful weekend!

I am joining all the lovelies at 

Paint Party Friday.

Time to fancy up....

Hi lovely ladies & 1 gent (that would be my Hubby!)...

I am super excited!! As you might have noticed my little ol' blog is getting a much needed facelift. :) Yeah! I am working with the 

uber-talented Carrie Postma from 

Ink & Mouse Graphic Design to revamp my blog! 

(I am seriously beyond jazzed to make some changes to my blog.)

Carrie is awesome, professional, creative, fast, patient (totally puts up with my non-techie language like "matchy") and an absolute pleasure to work with. She is also owner of Paper Trunk. So talented!

Soooo, please bare with me as things continue to get fancy around here! :)

 

Have a wonderful day!

Moments

WIP

 I had to find little bits of fleeting moments to create this week.

My "studio" is in an upstairs loft area in our house.

There is no door to shut, so every time I walked by, 

my gorgeous art supplies kept calling to me.

"Come play with me."  :)

I promise this week I will carve out more time to play.

I did get started on some pieces. I used some wooden plaques that I picked up from Michaels this summer. I love that it already had wire for hanging & a frame. Plus, I really LOVE painting on wood. Do you?? If you do, what kinds of wood do you use? I don't know what it is about the wood, but I think it is my favorite thing to paint on.

WIP...not sure which word to use

I am very excited to be working on lots of little goodies to restock my Etsy shop too. I am a little rusty with Etsy so any prayers would be greatly appreciated...lol. If you have any suggestions - I would love it!!

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend!

Jen :)

I am joining some very talented artists at Studio JRU's "in the studio",   

Artists in Blogland and 

Paint Party Friday. 

I am very happy to be in the company of such inspiration!

Silhouette Art Journal

I love art journaling. It is super new to me, but I love the freedom. Sometimes I just paint, sometimes I write...sometimes I do both. It is my own little sacred space where I can let loose. I like to try new things, attempt something I have seen, or try out ideas I have floating around my head. Super fun, right?!

There are so many talented journal artists that I love to follow, read, or watch. I saw Julie Fei-Fan Balzer using a magazine cut out to create a silhouette that looked really fun, so I thought I would give it a try. 

All you have to do is find a picture from a magazine where the model is working a fabulous pose. I happened to have a Brides magazine laying around which is full of great pictures!

I am going to use this girl next! Work it! :)

So I found a girl I liked and cut her out. Julie said to find a pose that has spaces between the arms so it doesn't look like a big blob (that is my paraphrase...I am sure she sounded much more technical, lol).

Anyways, I laid her down and used my watercolor brush to spread some color all around her shape. I recently bought this  water brush. I had seen someone using it & thought I must have that. :) I love using it and it makes a great portable tool to use when you are on the go...or chasing little munchkins all over the house & can't move your whole studio.

After I added color, I lifted her up & had a very cool silhouette. I traced around her shape with my Micron to define her more. I really like the way it turned out. Inside that silhouette makes for a great writing space!

Do you like to work in an art journal? 

Do you have some favorite art journal artists?

Do share! :)

I love Roben-Marie Smith, Samantha Kira Harding, Pam Carriker, 

of course Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and Pam Garrison.

Ohhh, and here is a link to Julie's video. Enjoy. She is fabulous!