A New She Art Class

It's no secret that I am a fan of Christy Tomlinson. I was so excited when she announced her new classes for this Spring and as a treat to myself for having to suffer through morning sickness I signed up for all 3 of them!!!

So yes you read that right. I am expecting our fourth child. We are thrilled and a little overwhelmed. Sometimes life seems to come at me so fast with no time to rest. I've still been adjusting to the challenges of our third child. Sweet little Lydia is 1 year old. I want to be strong and independent, a go getter who can take on anything and is always on top of everything, but life is teaching me other lessons. Above all life is teaching me about work and patience. 

I'm so excited to be starting to feel better and to get back into my craft room again. One of my first projects I tackled was making these beautiful skirts for my girls for Valentines Day. A friend had recommended a tutorial on Dana Made It for this Simple Skirt. The tutorial was great! My girls live in skirts and leggings and these amazing skirts are perfect! Cheap and easy to make and fun to wear. My girls love them and they are a great addition to their wardrobe.

 I also couldn't resist making a fun pieced together heart to sew on their shirts. I love taking scraps of fabric and sewing them on with these funky vertical lines. I love the messy, artsy look and I love all the stitching. I got the shirts at Down East Basics in the little girls section. I cut out a solid white heart that is the size I want. Then I lay the stripes of fabric on top and pin them down. Then I sew a few vertical lines to hold it all together. Then I can take the pins out and just go crazy sewing lines up and down. After your heart (or whatever shape is done), you can use Wonder Under (or some other product) to iron it on to the shirt. I found that this is not enough to hold all the fabric on, so them I sew around the edge of the heart to really adhere it to the shirt. I'll have to take pictures of the process next time.

I had grand hopes of making a ton of valentines decorations, but the holiday totally snuck up on me as most holidays seem to. I guess I'll have to start thinking about Easter.  I just started pinning some fun Easter stuff on Pinterest. See my awesome board here. I totally want to make that cute Easter wreath. My front door really needs some love. 

So the class I just started is She ART 3. And I have to give a shout out to all my class mates!!! I can't wait to see what you guys create too!



So far we are working on finding inspiration, mainly through Pinterest. You can see my She Art Inspirtaion Board here. Lately my head is full of sweet babies and maternity bellies. I would love to do some fun canvases of children and some maternity shots. I did a little sketching. I'm having a hard time getting my sketches to look more like a child. I have to just keep working on it I guess. The face is the hard part. Which face do you like best??

We also have been working on backgrounds and creating our own papers. The idea of creating your own paper isn't new, but I've never tried it before. I started with making some fun designs on these coffee filters.



I used them in my background here.



Can I just say I am loving this!! Making my own paper is opening up a whole new world for me. I love how I have so much more control over the colors in my canvas.

I'm also trying to work on some new color combos. Christy gave a short lesson on the color wheel and color theory. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and loving it at the same time. It's always good to branch out and try something new.

Here is my first background. I really love the color scheme, but I'm having a hard time having it all come together for me.  I'll have to tone it down a little and had more to it, so I'll keep you posted. 

Just the paper college. 

With paint and doodling.

I took a totally different approach for my next background. I picked colors that I new I could mix and started my background with just paint. I had so much fun and was totally in love already. 

Here is my background and I'm completely in love!!! I can't wait to go create some more!!

It feels so good to be painting again. 

Embrace Life

Welcome back everyone. I'm sorry I've been away for a while but life has gotten a little crazy lately and  I've just been holding on and trying to make it through. For starters we have had the roughest flu season! We've been sick with just about everything. I've been trying so hard to just take care of my sick little babies and get the basics done. Have any of you been there? 

I know Christmas was forever ago, but I just had to share these fun Christmas trees I made with my sister-in-laws. We had a fun painting night when we were all together for Christmas. They asked me to teach a mixed media canvas. I used the same tutorial as I did for the girls' trees, but used different papers and colors. We also used some modeling paste for some gorgeous snowflakes.  It was so much fun!

So with the new year my mind can't help but turn to goals and new begins. Usually I love setting goals and having a fresh start. I love rededicating myself and striving to be a little better. This year New Years was a little different for me. I find myself trying to embrace my life for what it is rather then trying to change it. There are some things you can't change and when life throws you a curve ball you have to learn how to roll with the punches. 

I have no idea what this next year is going to bring. It might bring lots of changes. There is a lot that is unknown. I have a hard time when things are out of my control, but that's the way life is sometimes. I want to embrace my life and find joy everyday. I have so much to be grateful for. Even when my everyday life stretches me and I struggle to get it all done and things are out of my control I can be grateful. 

I am grateful for my family. I'm grateful for my friends. I am grateful for my sweet girls. I am grateful to be a mom. I am grateful for prayer. And most of all I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It really helps give me strength when I have none.

I will simply keep on trying everyday. 

So after getting home from our big Christmas trip, I was excited to get back in my craft room again. I had so many Christmas projects all over my desk that I never got to. How did the holidays get so busy? I hate when I feel like I have to finish something before I can move on to something else. Sometimes unfinished projects get stacked everywhere and pretty soon I don't even want to go in my craft room. It starts to feel like work. I can't do something simple because I'm inspired, because I have so many projects I have to finish. So I allowed myself to pack everything away. I need to be able to move on. I can work on these awesome ideas later. There's no crime in working on Christmas projects in June right? 

Then I found this super fun project on Christy Tomlinson's blog. I thought it would be so fun to try something new. Since we just got through with Christmas, instead of buying the kit, I challenged myself to use stuff I had on hand. I found some old boxes and got to work. The best one was the box from my iPhone! It worked great!

I wanted to use each box to symbolize something I am grateful for. 

I wanted to use lots of bright colors. I love painting this old key yellow! I covered it with a coat of gesso first, then picked my favorite bright yellow. 

This was also my first time playing with wire. It was really easy and fun. I wrapped this whole box in wire and added a fun heart on top. I can tuck a picture into the loops if I want to.

So what stuff do you have lying around that you could repurpose?

And what do you have to be grateful for?