Home

I was so excited when some women from church approached me about teaching a mixed media class. I knew I had to create my own idea to share. I really wanted to do a house. I thought it would be a great piece to display. I really wanted to do something to make it meaningful. So the first thing we did was take a sharpie and journal on the back our thoughts or feelings on the word home. 

I started with the simple prompt I love that our home is... and just wrote the first things that came into my head. I love that our home has lots of pink. I love when it is filled with giggles and stories and soft baby coos. I love that our home has John Deere tractors, lots of trees, and even a "monster truck." I just wrote things that probably don't mean much to anyone else, but they meant something to me. 

Then we covered it with tissue paper. You can still see the journaling underneath, but the tissue paper gives great texture. Then we added paint and put on the house pieces with fabric, ribbon and buttons. 

What do you love about your home?

Wild and Free

This is a canvas I've had in my head for a long time. I often have so many ideas in my head, but it's hard to get them down on paper. That's why I love sketching. I love my sketch book and am working in it more and more. At least that way my ideas get down on paper and I can always come back to them. Also, getting ideas down clears up room in your head for more ideas. (smile)

My sister's birthday was coming up and I knew I wanted to make a canvas for her. She's in college and dating and I wanted her to remember not to settle. She deserves the best. I knew I wanted this to be a a scene and I wanted it to capture some of her wild and fee sprint. But I still wanted it to be grounded and strong and true, just like my sister. Do you think I got it? 

Don't settle for anything less then EVERYTHING!

beautiful

I love doing suns with paper doilies. 

lots of texture and fun, the flowers are dimensional. Love ya sis!!

What We Bring

One of the things I loved about Junelle's Art of Wild Abandonment Workshop is I started to see how I could take things and make them my own. I started to sketch my ideas and thoughts and feelings. I started to think in terms of sketches and canvases and feelings I wanted to paint. One of the prompts in Junelle's class was called- what we bring. She sketched a whole bunch of ideas of things you could paint, with you, on your canvas. Things like your dog or cat, suitcases, a pot of flowers, etc. They were things to represent hobbies or something about who you are. 

As I thought about the phrase "what we bring,"I knew I had to do a canvas with me and my three daughters. 

I love being a mom. It is what I have always wanted to be. I am 26 and have three kids. Being a mom is a lot of work. It is a lot of sacrifice, but this is my happily ever after. Having our third daughter really made my life so busy. It was hard to juggle the needs and demands of 3. One example is that I can't go anywhere... anywhere, without literally dragging my 3 children with me. They come with me to the doctor, to the grocery store, shopping, etc. What do I bring with me? three amazing and beautiful girls that I could not image my life with out. They bring me more joy and fulfillment then I could have thought possible. 

This canvas is an 11 x 14 and is my favorite canvas to date. 

Here is my sketch. 

I usually pick my color pallet. For this one I choose my favorite colors, hot pink, teal and grey. 

Getting ready to start. Here you can see the journaling I put underneath. One thing I love about this canvas, is I journaled about the births of my three girls in the background. I covered it with paint and some texture, but I still wanted to see a peak or the writing underneath. 

Usually I have a quote in mind before I start on the canvas. I was thinking I would just put, "what we bring," but after I was finished I had such a different feeling about the whole canvas. I felt so lucky. I love these three so much. This is my dream come true and this was such a personal canvas I wanted to hand write it. 

Two sweet sisters

One darling baby

Here's a close up of the journaling underneath. 

It took me a long time to create this canvas because it meant so much to me. It was so near to my heart and so real. I also was afraid of messing it up. But once I got it down on the canvas it become my favorite canvas I've ever done because it was so meaningful. Meaningful art is beautiful. Do you have something in your heart? Don't be afraid. Make your canvases meaningful. 

SMASH

I never understood why people were so into SMASH journals. I felt like I have a scrapbook that I am never caught up in. I know have an art journal too to play and create. I journal on the computer.  So why do I need another book? Did any of you feel like me?

When my family went to Hawaii this summer my mom got my sister's SMASH journals. I had bought one for my sister for her birthday only to find out she already had one. So I kept it. My mom and sisters were collecting all those Hawaiian tourist promo magazines and were keeping all the ticket stubs from everywhere we went and it looked like fun. So I joined in. 

And now I'm hooked. My SMASH journal is seriously one of my very favorite things. It combines all the things that I love. I can save memorabilia. I can journal and write things down while they are happening. I can scrapbook and add tons of photos. I can sketch or paint. I can do whatever I want!!!! I love that it's just a book for me and it can be whatever I want. I love that there are no rules. This book is so much fun and just perfect for me. 

Here are a few highlights from my Hawaii pages.

This page (above) is a mostly like a scrapbook page. There's fun paper ripped out of a 5 x 5 mini book, there's titles that I cut out of magazines, there is paint in the background and a darling picture. I love pictures. 

This page is more of a glorified journal. I loved added a few elements, writing with my awesome Faber Castell pens (that I had taken with me), and journaling away.  

I love tis page. It totally captures the feeling of our beach house. It was so relaxing.

This was an art journal page that I did to capture some of the feelings I had on our trip. 

This picture is darling, mostly because of that cute little face. But I love that in my SMASH journal I'm not really afraid of messing up or following the rules. I used way more paint then I typically would have on a scrapbook page and I love it!

See how much fun!!!

I love all the awesome paper for the backgrounds. I've always been a paper hoarder and the fun papers really helped jump start  each page. It's great to have a book for me and my silly memories, where there are no rules. I love coloring outside the lines.