New Uses for Old Christmas Cards

 As we get ready to celebrate the new year some of us are taking down our Christmas cards and deciding what to do with them. Which ones are the keepers and which go to the recycling, trash or can be used for craft projects.

I have one more solution that works well for me. A lot of them have shiny surfaces so they work well to lay my paints out on instead of using a palette or palette paper and best of all they are free.

I'm using small scraps of heavy/stiff watercolor paper and acrylic paints to see which kinds of strokes and effects that I can get with each of my palette knives. First I tried a standard mixing knife and was pleased with the results.

Here you see the results along with the knife I used. I could have stopped here and made a card out of it but...

I was listening to the news this morning as I was working and wondering if I could capture the feeling I was having of what it must be like with the snow hitting some of the lava flows in Hawaii. The results were no where close to anything recognizable and I seem to have spoiled the previous painting. What do you think?

This was my 2nd exercise and I used a diamond head knife for this one. I liked the fact that the areas of color it put down were more delicate and less defined than the basic knife.

You can see quite a bit of difference between the two.

I nearly called the painting finished at this point until a friend and artist suggested that it looked like a bunch of flowers at which I took as a challenge as I went back to work on it.

I used both the pallete knife and a couple of brushes to achieve this result.

 

The 3rd exercise involved a much larger knife and should have been done on a larger surface.

To me it began to suggest a couple of people working in an art class but when I tried to develop that theme, the painting failed so I will be painting over it very soon. Don't worry, every failure just builds a strong surface for your next success.

Thanks for joining me and be sure to comment below. I'll be continuing my experiment with my collection of odd shaped palate knives over the next few days so you may want to pop back in and check the results.

I ordered very few art supplies last year beyond sample sets of both gouache and acrylics in tiny tubes in less than half an ounce yet I had a very satisfying year of work. Read on (or back) to find out how I managed it an whether or not I want to go on that way in the year ahead.

Picture Framing

I went to a local art and craft store to pick up a frame for that small sunflower painting. It's a 9 x 12'' and neither Wal-Mart or target had anything that would fit so I headed to Michaels and they only had Three choices in the ready made. I had a 40% off coupon and wound up paying fourteen dollars for the least objectionable of the choices.

If I buy canvas panels these days I always buy eight by ten inch ones because you can pick up frames at WalMart for as little as two or three dollars.

I was SHOCKED that the framer had NO idea that you DO NOT put glass over an acrylic painting. He's talking about having something to protect it and NOT getting the fact that I've been doing this for 45 years and STILL have a couple of my paintings from back then that have been through hell and back, stored in all kinds of conditions and still look great. I keep telling people that acrylic paintings are a lot tougher than they think, it's just too bad that no one listens.

Avoiding the worktable

I rearranged some of my art supplies but was afraid to get caught up in anything so soon after the last painting so I went back to designing at Zazzle with some of my older drawings and paintings while I wait for inspiration...or is that obsession to strike. I made just over a dollar yesterday, no wonder artists get crazy...or desperate...or...

Orange, yellow and gone

The watercolor brush markers are gone now, the yellow and orange were the last to go and I couldn't resist using them to the very end whether there was enough to really do anything with or not.

Yes, it's another note card and envelope which just goes to show that the mail is interesting even when the art is not.

With the watercolor brush markers gone I'll go back to colored pencil and regular watercolors to keep the mail interesting and try drawing and painting a number of different subjects.

...as soon as I get those pencils sharpened...

Studio Space update

I continue to  sort, clean and organize my work space and feel that it's much easier to use than it used to be. The biggest improvement has been the way that material are arranged on the shelves.

Seeing all the wooden horses lined up on that top shelf gives me hope of improved finances and reminds me that I do have something to show for my time whether it adds up to cash or not.

Learning Polish Folk Art from "junk" mail

I get a few cooking catalogs which as you can imagine is kind of funny considering the fact that I hate to cook and rarely venture into the kitchen (always with disastrous results, but that's another story). Anyway, as I was saying "I get a few cooking catalogs" and love to look at the pottery and china patterns so I began to clip them out and practice drawing and painting some of the patterns on some of my letters and pictures or wooden items I'd been working on.

Yes, I always recycle everything afterwards. The catalogs go in the recycle bin and the pictures I've clipped go into letters and my sketchbooks where they're enjoyed by a number of people in different ways and lead to other projects.

This is going to be fun!

I started trying a few of the designs in colored pencil and will be using this to write a letter on to share my little art project with an elderly aunt. I think you'll find that mail like this makes almost anyone happy and each time I do it I learn a bit more about the designs I'm using so it does us both good.

Wildflower Revival

While cleaning the studio I came across these scraps of pink papers and some stickers and couldn't resist taking some time to combine them and turn them into a card.

It's nice to see last summer's drawing find new life and keep brightening up my mail.

Recycling fun with and for my friends

Everyone knows how much I love my mail (both creating it and receiving it) so today's project will be something that we all enjoy.

Thank you's go out to Margaret for the great desk calendar. I was enjoying it so much that I just couldn't bear to toss the pages when I'd finished with them so I'm recycling them into note cards with the help of blank cards, card stock and envelopes given to me by Colleen and scrap booking paper scraps given to me by Mary and Sharon.

Thanks everyone! This will be a project that will make people happy at the mailbox all year long. With all the bad news we're getting these days it will be nice to have a little fun to go with it.

I plan to make some cute stickers with some of my drawings and paintings on them to make the envelopes bright and interesting too...or I may just grab my colored pencils (Thanks to Irene and Esther and Colleen) for some of those) and just draw directly on the envelopes. Either way they always make the mail carriers and the people getting the letters smile.

Sorting through the worktable by the numbers

By the numbers:

52 inches-the size of the tabletop
15 wooden horses
3 tote bags
8 paper products
65 paintbrushes
2 palette knives
14 bottles of paint
2 tubes of paint
2 pair of scissors
1 roll of tape

...and an assortment of items that don't fall into any particular category.

No wonder I often find it hard to decide where to start when I go to work in the morning.

Right now it's looking like I need to finish at least one of the tote bags because I've given away all of the last ones I made and I'm out of the big ones again.

It's a tie between that and the horse that I need to finish painting tomorrow night...

A change of plans

I never got enough space cleared up in the dining room to get back to that sunflower painting so I ended up going back to work on the horses I've been painting as part of a boxed set of Christmas ornaments. They don't take much room and it's giving me a chance to explore some of my design ideas and practice different stroke work with an assortment of brushes.

The weather is pretty nice now but is supposed to get hot later. I've stopped painting outside because the wind drys my paints out too quickly. There are a number of ways to get around that but most of them cost money so at least for now I'm still working in the dining room.

No Photos Today

There are no photos today which is probably a good thing because all I've been doing is cleaning house and kicking around ideas for my next painting. I'm thinking I should spend some time working on my last painting (the watercolor of the sailboat) but I'll save that until Tuesday. The nice thing about the painting group that I go to is that everyone there is working in watercolor so that's what I take along too. Walking away from the studio forces me to use supplies that I'm not as comfortable with and encourages me to try new things.

clean up and damage control

It's surprising how messy the house can get when I'm caught up in other projects so I'm taking a day to get things caught up a bit. I really enjoyed how that dot painting looked on the valentines day merchandise I designed in my Zazzle store so I'll be finishing off the edges of that so I can get it hung up and out of the way. That will make 16 paintings currently hanging in the living room so I'll be listing some of them for sale in by eBay store  hoping to gain some wall space and some money for bills and art supplies. I'm looking forward to changing from conventional watercolors to liquid ones or acrylic inks so that will be the significant investment I'm hoping to fund with the paintings I'm trying to sell. Wish me luck!

Winter Studio (the Dining Room)

I'm settling in for the winter. All of the recent work I had room for has been hung and all of the supplies have been brought in.

I sure like the new wall color better than last years, don't you?

Not much of a centerpiece at mealtime but i love to have my pencils and brushes handy.

Scrap Project for bits of card stock and watercolors

My card stock is limited to scraps of assorted sizes and I thought it would be fun to mix them with the results of the salt experiments a few posts back to see what I could come up with.

There was also a floral painting in that little watercolor book that  I thought should "come out and play" too. I trimmed it with part of the watercolor I used on the other card and used bits off the top and bottom of the floral on the second card too. As they say in the movies "I love it when a plan comes together".

Here's that second card and below is a photo of both cards along with a few other things I'm working on.

What do you think so far? Yes, I mounted the paper bits on those watercolor note cards that I'm so fond of using. There's so much you can do with them that I order them in 100 at a time...several times a year.

$21.39

I've been exploring some of the cheaper colors in the paints I prefer to use. In the 44 years I've been painting I've never thought about the expense much, I just need to paint and prefer this brand, texture and intensity to get the results I want. Is that selfish? probably but I just know what works for me.
There can be as much as a 10.00 difference in the prices between some colors in the same line of paints so I'm working with some of the cheaper ones and seeing how much difference it will make on a project like this one. Meanwhile, it just feels good to be painting again and I'm hoping to get the easel moved out of  the dining room sometime in the next week or so as the weather improves. The daffodils in the front yard are getting ready to bloom and I check them every day so that I can get started on a new series of drawings of them as soon as I can. Things change so quickly that you just don't want to miss that "perfect" moment. Putting the easel in the yard will keep it handy for good weather and any of the sections of the garden that I decide I want to paint.

Designing and loving it!

    
     As I struggle along with that new painting Doug started a new store that would allow me to see what I could do with some of my old paintings and drawings.
It's fun to look at your work in new ways and it brings me closer to my original goals. People always thought it weird but I was a lot more interested in seeing my work as a Dixie cup or a Kleenex box than in having it exhibited in a gallery.
      Seeing my work on the things we use every day makes me so happy and I'm hoping it cheers other people up as well. For those of you that enjoy my letters I even created a bit of stationery with  some of the drawings. I still can't afford to buy any of it but I really enjoyed creating it.
     As an artist people are always saying "you have to do it because you love it, you can't expect to make any money".  This blows my mind that the same world that professes to value creativity and art thinks you should do it for free. In what other line of work that takes so much time, materials and effort would you be expected to go without a paycheck? I've been painting seriously for 43 years so I'd really be interested in discussing this further. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Easy Pickin's

All the yellow flowers inspired today's bird feeder. Later today I'll try drawing some of the flowers and tomorrow I'll tackle them in watercolor so grab your art supplies and follow along.

...let me count the ways

A friend gave me this embroidery floss so here's the Thank You card I made and the envelope I decorated along with the shirt I used some of the embroidery floss on. As you can see there are lots of ways to have fun with any project you do and it's even better when you can share it with the people that support your efforts. Everybody wins and that's what makes me happiest of all.

Art, life and the ways they come together

Going through some old photos. It's been a LONG time since I was the girl in the little blue dress (which had been a big, long  one the year I got it). It's also been ages since I've been anywhere near a guitar other than appreciating and enjoying other people playing them. What's this got to do with art or gardening?
These days I look at everything around here as art supplies so it will be fun to see what I can do with these.