Why Not!? Wednesday - Using Modeling Paste

 If you have read my blog before you know I LOVE using modeling paste. I love the way it looks. Don't you? The instant texture not only looks fabulous, but adds tons of visual interest. It is so easy to use too. Plus there are so many things to do with it. Soooo, why not use modeling paste with shapes. What I mean by that is...instead of applying it randomly (which is also fabulous I might add) across your surface...be very specific about where you place it.

For example, use modeling paste within angel wings. I think the dimension it adds to this piece is lovely. On this piece, not only is the modeling paste emphasizing her wings, but also a pretty shimmer paint too. I just dragged my palette knife (or popsicle stick) across the space of the wing in the same direction. If I went out of the lines of the wing, I simply wiped it away with a damp cloth or baby wipe. Easy!

 More angels with textured wings...

 What about flowers? Spring is almost here, and beautiful blooms are everywhere. Why not use modeling paste?? Below is a canvas I painted for my master bedroom in light blues, creams and grays. On the large flower petals, to add that visual interest again, I "painted" with the modeling paste. I used the same technique as the wings. After the paste is completely dry, I used watercolor and acrylic paint on top. I love how the raised parts of the petals collected the color. Oh, and remember that you can add paint color directly into the modeling paste before you use it too!

There are many different shapes try - hair, animals, grass, ocean, mermaid's tail, clouds. Those are just a few that come to my mind. What can you think of? Why not go give it try!! :)

Happy Creating!

New Orignal Art and Happy Friday

Happy Friday! I am always happy to greet Friday morning, aren't you? It may be cold, dreary, and rainy outside - BUT, it is Friday - so it is alllllll good. :) Rain is perfect for a cozy, relaxing day inside anyways. That is exactly what me and my little guy are doing today. Yesterday we celebrated my daughter's 8th (what!?) birthday, but came home from our dinner out to my son getting sick. Boo! So my daughter ended her celebration in tears because she was worried about her brother (super sweet). He is feeling MUCH better now thank goodness, but the slow morning has finally allowed me to get some computer work done - MY word! 

Before I get to the new paintings, I wanted to show you my daughter's decorated birthday seat. This is one of our family traditions. Each year for the kid's birthdays I decorate their seat for their birthday morning. The excitement they get from running downstairs to see their special space warms my heart and make is SO worth it! This year I decided on hearts (let's be honest - because it was easy!) and had fun laying out a bunch of pictures (old and new) too. I had to hold back Mama tears seeing my baby girl...as a baby! I know we say it all the time but, it all goes WAY too fast. Sigh...

On with the art... I finally listed this angel I painted with textured wings. I just LOVE using modeling paste on angel wings. It has sparkle too!! Gotta love the sparkle. :)

I wrote about this beautiful color combo back here and now she is in the shop. I am slightly obsessed about this color combo. Throw in some aqua and I am weak in the knees. ;) I am loving her trendy feather too.

AND, a bright - oh so happy - abstract 6x6 that I created on cradled wood. Ready to hang cradled wood = my absolute FAVORITE - hands down. Big, gushy love.

It's funny. I love painting whimsical girls, sweet girls for room decor, inspirational girls with positive messages... but, I would be more likely to hang abstract art in my own home. Well...or flowers maybe. But, not really girls. Funny how that works. Look at this fun circular wood panel (about 7 inches across) that is heading into the shop. Isn't the shape fun!? This wood panel is too thin to attach a sawtooth hanger, so I am selling it as is. BUT, it looks wonderful in a stand. So it is perfect for a shelf or top of a dresser. I am definitely going to try and find more of these wood circles!

That's it for now. But I feel a creative burst coming on so I am hoping my creative mojo explodes. :) I hope you are having a wonderful week full of joy, smiles, and artsy goodness. Are you planning any projects this weekend? We are planning a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party for the following weekend, so I will probably be somewhere between Whoville and the land of Truffula Trees. :)

Come share your creative happiness with us at Studio JRU's Sneak Peek Friday!

Weeping Heart Angel

I wanted to share an angel that I worked on over the weekend. 

I am sorry I have been away from my blog for a couple days. I did have some Christmas tutorials and posts scheduled (coming later), but to be honest... I just couldn't sit down to write just yet. My heart is so heavy and sad, I just didn't feel like writing about holiday decor and crafts. I have wanted to hug & hold my kids, celebrate the simplest of blessings, and tell my hubby how much I love him.

My heart weeps for all those effected by the senseless tragedy of Friday...the children, the teachers, their families, the first responders, and the entire community. Being a first grade teacher myself, I can't even begin to imagine the pain and do not even feel I have the ability to express completely how I feel. So I am not even going to try. I am going to continue to pray for all those involved and their families, holding them closely in my heart.

I am hoping that you (and your loved ones) are safe and resting in the blessings of today.

From Trees to Angels and Elves

Now that I have painted trees for days my creative attention has turned to angels and elves. Inspired to use molding paste for wings, I painted these two new angels on wood. The first one is painted on a thin wood plaque with rounded corners. The second piece is on a wood block that is thick enough to stand on it's own, which I love. I LOVE how the modeling paste looks especially with some pearl shimmer added to it. 

 Who doesn't love a little sparkle?

Playing with collages in Picmonkey

Then, after seeing my daughter drawing some elves, ideas started popping into my mind. I wanted to draw an elf in my little whimsy girl style holding some packages. I just grabbed a piece of paper (that came out of some packaging) and quickly sketched. 

She is too cute. I love how she turned out. :) I think I may paint another one to frame and add her to the Christmas decorations in my daughter's room. I would paint the next one in non traditional colors like lavender, aqua (oh yeah) and pink. Maybe holding candy and a gingerbread house. Eeeekkk! Cuteness! :)

Do you like using molding paste as much as me???

Hope you are having a wonderful, creative week!

New Original Art - Faithful

I have been working on a lot of new original pieces this week. I guess you could say I am on "artistic fire" or that my creative mojo is on fire. ;) So many fun little projects all at once. Some pieces are headed to my shop, while others are coming with me...somewhere special...somewhere super exciting...BUT, I am going to tell you about that later. Hee hee! I always like a little suspense. More to come later. Look at this sweet new original angel...I love her.

She is a definate favorite for me. She is painted on a wood panel that is about 8 x 4.5 inches. I started out covering the wood with some vintage Christmas sheet music that was literally falling apart. This one was "O Come All Ye Faithful." I love the bits of music showing through and the words that I circled.  The sheets of music actually came from my childhood piano music. The red you see came from scribbled crayon. I think my sister or I must have been the culprits. ;)

I knew I wanted really transparent layers. So after a bit of gesso - I lightly added acrylic paint in Hauser Light Green, Spa Blue, Sea Glass, and white by scraping it on with an old credit card. Her wings have a Pearlizing Medium (Americana) applied over the white which make her wings shimmer. Squeal! So pretty, but hard to see in the pictures.

It is true that if you paint, paint, paint...and then paint some more - a "style" starts to emerge. I am starting to see a common thread weaving it's way through the whimsy girls I paint, the flowers that keep popping up (even in fall), certain colors continually, and a level of comfort. Not like a boring "comfortable" where nothing is tried or things remain the same...but a comfort with myself and what I do that make trying new things second nature. I hope that makes sense!

I also painted another canvas of a whimsy Christmas tree that I will share in another post. I loved painting these so much that I ran out to get more of these little wooden panels (the packaging calls them "trays"). I could only find two. Boo hoo! So I am on the hunt for more.

Are you in a "Christmas-y" kinda mood yet? 

Can you believe it's November 6th??

Still obsessing over Instagram! Come find me @sadieinspired

Purple and Sugar

We have a dancer in our house. 

She is affectionately called my Sugarbean...Sugar for short. 

Her end of the season recital is this weekend and we are very excited because they put on quite a show. This year she has been taking ballet and their costumes are to die for beautiful. 

They are the prettiest shades of purple. 

So when Kristin chose purple as this week's color for The Summer of Color challenge, I knew I wanted to use the coming recital as inspiration.

At dress rehearsal I had taken a lovely picture of her looking back at me over her shoulder. It is the sweetest picture and it takes my breath away every time I look at it. I can't believe that the gorgeous girl looking back at me in that picture is my sweet little baby. Melt my heart. She is growing so fast!

I had an old 12 x 12 frame that I no longer used, so I thought I'd try a straight forward scrapbook layout to frame and hang in her room. Can I tell you that I drool over the whole scrapbook thing. I love the idea, collect all kinds of things to use, have really good intentions, have lots of friends who have "scrap parties" - but I have not finished my daughter's FIRST YEAR scrapbook. 

Hello! She is six!! Please, tell me I am not alone? :)

I really love how it turned out. 

As a bonus challenge we had to use some "bling." OK, twist my arm - this girl does not have a hard time adding sparkle at all! I used scrap paper I already had on hand, ribbon from my stash, the best crystal swirls, sheet music, pretty flowers left over from a cupcake stand I made, and some fun ABC stickers. I left some space to the left of the picture so I can journal a bit after the recital.

 

The best news - my pint sized ballerina loved it and can't wait for me to hang it up. Sweetness, pure sweetness.

Of course, there was painting too.

I had a canvas that definitely needed some help. 

I am still working on it.

But she went from this....

To this...

Work in Progress

I love all the purple touches. I must have still had red on my mind... look at those lips. Some of you mentioned red lipstick - 

so thank you for the inspiration. :)

XO,

Jen

The Summer of Color - Red

Red is so BOLD!

I love it. 

It is all about strength, confidence, love, and fierceness.

I am a pretty shy person, so attention freaks me out. Red screams, "Look at me!" Right? I think secretly I want to deck myself out in red shoes...or maybe a red dress...or a red coat. Totally fabulous. My friends and family would probably pass out from shock. ;) I looked in my closet and I am not kidding...I have one - ONE red cardigan sweater that must have been my attempt at being "bold" for Christmas. 

But, that's it. 

Are you a red wearing girl?

If you are, I totally admire you! :)

I mean, look...

Source: tumblr.com via Mars on Pinterest

Or what about this.... just a little something to wear to Target. :)

Source: citified.blogspot.com via postcardsandpretties on Pinterest

Oh my goodness! What about a red shoe? 

Source: goldandgray.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

I think I need to wear more red! And, have you checked out Pinterest? I could spend hours, but, I won't! :)

So this week the lovely Kristin inspired us to work with red. It was quite fun & I ended up with, of course, another girl (I promise I will try something different!). I had an idea in my head about what I wanted to create in my journal, but started working on another piece of cardboard. I was having tons of fun working on textured backgrounds. I used Mod Podge and some napkins I had on hand. I loved the texture of the napkins & it looked great on the surfaces I was using once it dried for a bit. I love using napkins, tissue paper, and paper towels to add some visual interest to the background. 

I hope you can see it in the picture.

She was Brilliant

I used acrylic paint, Faber-Castell PITT pens, napkins for background texture, watercolor crayons, Sakura white Gelly Roll pen, black Pentel for details, bible pages for wings & crown, and pencil.

See the yummy texture!

Have a beautiful, creative week. I am looking forward to purple this week. I already know what I am doing. :) Come join the fun!

Hugs,

Jen

Summer of Color - Pink!

It's that time again! The summer is full of color and this week I worked with some pink inspiration. So fun...so girly. 

I love pink. 

I guess I should say that I love pink...now. As a little girl, I was not dripping in the color. My mom did not deck me out in pink head to toe. My love affair with pink did not start until later...until I was older, an adult...when I became Mama to this little angel...

After this little one's arrival you would have thought a pink tornado whipped through my house. :) Oh yes, this one was dressed in pink...head to toe. 

Even her tiny hair clips were pink, and later her cowboy hats.

So, needless to say I fell in love with pink & she did too. I still love pink (and paint with it A LOT), but lately my heart has been stolen by turquoise. But let's not tell that to Pink. ;)

I had lots of grandiose plans for pink this week & wanted to tackle the challenge (somehow using wax). 

But, the week ran away too quickly! I ended up working on a fairy/angel princess in my journal. I think she still needs some words. I'll get to that later.

 

I used acrylics, pencil, watercolor crayons, book pages, and some sparkle.

I want to thank you for all the wonderful, sweet comments. I can not express enough how they warm my heart. Seriously. 

I love every. single. one.

Traveling around to all the other artsy, creative blogs is super fun too!

Super huge thanks and hugs to Kristin - our ever sweet 

Summer of Color hostess. :)

What about you?

Do you like pink? I won't hold it against you if you don't. ;)

XO