New Jewelry and a Sale

Hi friends!

I hope you had a beautiful Thanksgiving (in the states). Our celebration was wonderful! My hubby and daughter have had the whole week off which is the best for me. :) On Wednesday night, we were able to spend the evening with my in-laws and nephew at Disneyland. It is always magical there...but, especially during Christmas. We watched the castle lighting (special decorations for the holiday season) and danced around Main Street as it "snowed." Such a perfect night before Thanksgiving.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year and I am one lucky girl. My husband does all the cooking!! How fab is that!? He is a fantastic chef too, so we all have full bellies by the night's end. :)

Yorkshire Pudding comes once a year.

 Also, I have been working on my shop for Cyber Monday. I have a few new items that I have been putting my heart and soul into. I currently have everything in my store 25% off through Sunday. Just enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY25. One of a kind pendant necklaces are making their way into the shop. They really are unique little pieces of wearable art. No one necklace is the same. :) LOVE that! 

Ornaments too! 

 Don't forget that my Whimsy Christmas Workshop is also coming next Saturday, December 1st!! I still have some seats available. Soooo, if you are in southern California come join us. It will be a fun afternoon of festive art making. More information on my Workshop page. Just hit the tab above!  

Have beautiful rest of the weekend. 
We are knee deep in Christmas decorations over here! 
How about you?

Insta-Thankful

There is so much to be thankful for this week. Family, friends, love, shelter, warm blankets, laughter, art, beautiful mornings, smiles, healthy children, freedoms...I could go on for days. After the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and the pain around the globe, I don't want to take anything for granted. 

I am so thankful that I have been able to grab little snippets of life throughout this last year on my iPhone with Instagram. Once the year is over, I hope to make some digital photo books. That way my family can easily look back over all the sweet moments and blessings we have had this year. Can't wait to put them all together. I may need a few volumes though. :) 

Here are some favorites lately...

 Getting ready to use some new watercolor pencils that I found on clearance. Sweet!

Yes! The boots have come out. Fall, I love you!

 Strolling along the aisles of Michaels with my FREE Starbucks coffee. They gave it to me for free because I had a long wait. Noooo problem!

 Our adorable entourage after feeding them some good bread.

 Election Night 2012 - My little man doing his part. :)

  I never want the "hand-in hand" to end! Ever!

 Master carving by the Hubs!

My little Christmas painting on the shelves at Urban Barn. :)

 Let the Christmas movies begin...snuggling with my daughter 

watching the Grinch. 

Instagram now has online profiles. Come visit mine right here!

I hope your week has had a beautiful beginning!

Any fun holiday plans?

Fall Tag Tutorial

I am so thankful that Fall is upon us (and Christmas right around the corner-Yikes!) and today I thought I would share a mixed media Fall themed tag tutorial. Whoa, that's a mouthful! Lol. Anyways, this is the Make N Take tag that I lead last weekend. I thought it was quick, easy, fun, and the perfect thing to share. If you need a little fall pizazz for your table, tag for a gift, or a quick autumn decoration - here you go. :)

First get your tag (or anything really) and cover it with gesso by scraping the surface with an old credit card or gift card. I made some with plain white acrylic too and it worked just fine. The whole surface does not have to be covered.

1) Next, use the same card to spread some more fall colored paint over the card. Here I used Bronze Yellow from Liquitex and Cadmium Yellow from Americana. Move the card in all different directions to get a layered look. If you want to tone down the colors go back with some white.

2 & 3) After the tag dries, use a stencil to make some circles in Burnt Umber (also Americana). I made this stencil using an old manilla folder and a 1 inch circle punch. SO cheap and easy. I applied the paint using a make up sponge.

4) Use 3 torn pieces from an old book and place them in various spots around the tag. Glue them down using a glue stick or matte medium.

After securing the book pages down, cover each randomly with paint to help blend them into the background. Your fingers work best!

Type up, print out, and cut some fall themed words. Then use a permanent ink pad like StazOn and ink around the edges of each word. Set aside to dry. I used Timber Brown.

Use that same pad and stamp your butterfly. I love butterflies! They pop up everywhere...even in fall! :) I stamped one out completely and then stamped a few that hung off the sides. Some of the tags I left as is, while others I used white acrylic over the butterfly (once dry) to mute it a bit. Next, attach your words.

Finally, add some interest and doodles with a white Gelly Roll pen and black Pentel pen. I added some definition around each word, added white here & there, and doodled away. 

That's it! Quick, easy, festive, and fun!

I hope you enjoyed this tag tutorial!

Happy Creating!

Gratitude Tag Make & Take and Class Info

Saturday was so much fun!

I spent the day at the Urban Barn in their creative classroom leading a Make n Take demo. I met lots of wonderful people, had a very helpful assistant (my mom!), and enjoyed exposing myself to new opportunity.

I also began taking sign ups for my new class at The Barn on December 1rst!!

We are going to be learning some amazing mixed media background and collage techniques. (I LOVE that learning how to make a background can then be used to make other pieces of art, gifts, cards, cool looks for scrap booking layouts, and so much more.) The project above is what we will be making! So darling!! Of course it is going to be festive, fun, and uber creative. The great thing is that the class is on the first weekend in December, so it will give you plenty of time to make more canvases as Christmas gifts. How great is that!? 

If you live in southern California...come join the fun!! The class only costs $40 and we will be painting our little hearts out from 12 to 3:00pm at the 

Urban Barn in Escondido.

I created a Workshop tab bar at the top of my blog so you can find my classes easily. This will be the first of many hopefully. :) Here are some more pics from the day...

New ornament hanging with my necklaces...

See my little 4x4 canvases among my friend Toni's GOR-geous things!

Thank you for looking! 

How was your weekend?

XO,