Slaving Away

It has been a day and a half and Rach hasn't gotten into things that he shouldn't.  Of course, he did spend half the day yesterday at a farm with two other dogs and then he took a long walk with yours truly.  Anything to save the house.

I have finally finished the first week of She Art 3 offered through Christy Tomlinson and Scarlet Lime. It was all about backgrounds.  So, I created backgrounds.  Now, I have no idea what I will do with all of these, but they are ready to roll.  I imagine that I will paint girls on them since that is the focus of this class.

Unfortunately, the backgrounds are going to sit around for a bit.  I am off to the Valley of the Sun in a couple.  Just me.  No kids.  No husband.  No cats.  No dog.  I will miss them all like crazy, but I will get out of this crappy weather here in Iowa and into the balmy 80's of the Southwest.  I cannot wait.  It actually snowed all morning and now the wind is blowing like crazy.  Yeah.

Anyway, since I will be gone for a while, I will concentrate on catching up with the online drawing classes that I am taking.  I can handle transporting my sketchbook, pencils, wc pencils and an aquabrush or two.  I may post some things here if I have a chance.  However, the lure of the pool and the sun, along with some shopping and field trips may prove to be too much.  I may never return.  I wonder if Rach would miss me?

This one is in the very beginning stages.  It is made entirely of paper on canvas (to start, anyway).  I just randomly laid out the paper and then stuck it down.

Some paint is added here and there.

And voila.  The completed background.  Well, complete is a relative term.  I am sure that I will dink around with it.

This is actually my least favorite.  Darks were the focus here.  I think there is too much going on and while I like the colors, I will probably cover up some stuff later.  I really hate that flower stencil on this.  I like the stencil, just not here.

This one actually turned out better than I thought it would.  It focuses on neutrals and is a combination of paper and paint, etc.  

I believe the focus here was to be paint with stenciling and a tad bit of paper.  This one is a gift for someone who just had a baby girl.  It will be late because I have to figure out what I will put on it.  I hope she doesn't mind.

I really like the details.  I think I like doing backgrounds.  Now we will have to see what happens when I add people.  Gulp.

Have a great couple of weeks.  Unless the Rach decides to do something amazing, I am signing off for a bit.  Enjoy life and be creative.

Is That Mud?

We don't go out much.  Not because we can't. It's more that I get involved in things around here and then I don't want to go anywhere because I am in my comfy clothes.

We went out for a couple of hours tonight.  We have learned to put the kitchen trash in the pantry, the bread in the oven and the bathroom trash on the sink.  You know, the normal things you do when you have a Karelian in the house.  We thought that we were gold.  We were wrong.

Swim Girl wants a special dessert for her birthday.  We will celebrate it tomorrow because I will be in the Valley of the Sun for her actual birthday.

She showed me a Facebook post with the recipe for her birthday 'cake'.  It requires Oreos, peanut butter cups, chocolate fudge pudding and whipped topping.  Nom nom.

Grocery Boy remembered to put the pb cups and Oreos in the pantry.  Good job.  He forgot to put the box of chocolate fudge pudding in there.  He should have remembered.

When Rach does not greet us at the door, something is up.  I hollered out to Alaska Girl, "Check and see what he has done.  He is hiding."

It didn't take us long to find it.  I will let the pictures speak.

I have to admit that we were laughing so hard that we couldn't even discipline him.  Then I saw his legs and really lost it.

Nope, that's not mud.  It's chocolate fudge pudding.  Oh and that's the 'box of shame' taped to his head.  I pulled out half of his neck fur when I took it off of him.  Alaska Girl will go get more pudding tomorrow.  Along with a Rug Doctor.

Not the Fur I Wanted

Some people like fur.  It is warm.  It is gloriously beautiful.

Some people hate fur and what it stands for.

I do not wear real fur . . . willingly.

I have mentioned that Rach is shedding.  A lot.  It is far warmer here than in his native land and his body has been adapting for the past month.  Alaska Girl spent about 10 minutes helping the little dude get rid of some of his extra fur.  This is the result.

Actually, this is just a small pile.  There is more scattered throughout the floor in the living room.  I even found some clinging to a lamp.  

She spent some time vacuuming it up with the hand vac and threw the pile away.  She's a good girl.  I know that she would have done this outside if it hadn't been raining.

It appears that parts of his coat are finished self destructing, so I believe that there may be a light at the end of our tunnel.  A very dim candle of a light, but a light none the less.  Now if we could just get him to stop obsessing about the cats.

Still Workin'

They are almost finished fixing our new bathroom back up to it's former glory.  Swim Girl's closet is nearly done, too, so maybe we can get the boxes out of the living room this weekend.

Anyway, I had some time yesterday (since my house is clean, except for hunks of fur from Rach) and I was able to do another piece.  Somehow, it just came out and I got it done in an hour or so.  It is not totally complete, but for now I am good with the background.  I will add a girl of some sort when I get the nerve.  Lots of nerve.

This one is all liquid mediums.  No paper.  Lots of stencils.  Have I mentioned how much I love stencils?  I do.  As usual, it started out as one thing and then became something totally different.  I will have to try that other thing another time.  Got that?

I like how the flowers picked up the other paints and inks that I was using.

I was trying to be innovative and turned the balloons upside down. Yeah, not so much. I just wasn't paying attention.

Ta da!  Here is the entire canvas background.  It's kind of cool, I think. 

Another Day in Paradise

I love our animals.  They each have their own distinct personalities and are endearing most of the time. Pluto the cat is the lover.  She is the only one who will go to anyone and let whoever pick her up.  Skittles is the diva.  She is so damn ridiculous she just makes me laugh out loud.  Her thoughts are visible, she is that predictable.  Squirt is a neurotic.  She will eat any paper or string that is left out and Swim Girl has had to put tape on her climber so that she won't eat the carpet fibers.  Still, she is cute as a button and has the most enormous eyes ever.

Then there is Rach.  All 60 pounds of him.  What's not to love?  He has a dog's unmitigated joy upon seeing you.  He will lick you and greet you until you have no choice but to acknowledge his existence.  Yesterday he nearly jumped OVER Swim Girl he was so excited.  She was standing up at the time.

He is always ready for a game of tug of war or chase the tennis ball; at least until he spies something better.  Squirrel!  He willingly goes on walks, even though he has to wear his gentle leader collar.  He will even clean your counters for you.  He will clean them of everything.  Including stuff you want.  Like, say, the bread.

When I got home today, I was greeted with enthusiasm, but then I thought he was acting a little ashamed.  That was when I looked up and saw the following in my living room

Yes, those are empty bread wrappers.

Rach can tear holes.

                                               Oh look.  Another one.

I must have interrupted the crime.  I will say that he is very neat.  I saw no bread crumbs.

Here he is trying to avoid eye contact and pretending that he is all ashamed.

Bad dog!  He does have his standards, however, as he left a package of hamburger buns on the counter.  I'll make sure not to buy that brand again.  Apparently they aren't appreciated.

Snow Day Happenings!

Yes, it is March.  So we had a snow day.  Because it is Iowa and it is March and we are never safe until after the middle of April.

Here it is with just a wash of paint with glaze added.

Believe it or not, I am one of those people who would rather be at work.  That's because I work at a preschool and I am immature.  So for me it IS like staying at home.

Instead of driving in the snow to work, I decided to clean up the Bat Cave (I use the term 'clean' loosely) and get ready to start another project.  You must have noticed by now that I have no life.  That is why I can start and finish so many projects.

Gathering supplies.

This canvas is just for practice.  I am taking a new class from my fave instructor, Christy Tomlinson.  It is called She Art 3.  I have taken the first two (appropriately titled She Art and She Art 2) and loved them.  In fact, I can tell you that the original She Art class is the one that unleashed the art monster within.

We have an assignment to practice backgrounds.  So, here is my first practice.  I used some cool papers that I got a couple of years back.  I love the color palette and since I am lazy, I figure that I will let the paper designers choose my palette for me.

I started with paper on canvas.  I have only added paint so far.  Still to come:  ink and stamps and rub-ons.  Then when all of that is finished, a girl.  Maybe with a face.  Shut up!

I found this little flower stencil that I forgot about and used it a lot.

So here is the background with all of the paint on it. So far.

Baby Project #2 Is Delivered

Well, it hasn't been delivered exactly.  But, it is finished and ready to be wrapped.

I started this project as a sort of Art Journal/Baby Book for a friend.  Her baby is a couple of months old, but I am hoping that she will understand and forgive me.  It took a while to think of something that I wanted to do for her.

I was inspired, as usual, from a class that I am taking through Christy Tomlinson and her company, Scarlet Lime.  If anyone is intrigued and tempted to dabble in the Mixed Media pot, I highly suggest taking one of her classes.  They are full of technique and just messy goodness.  The classes should come with a couple of warnings:  You will start to order art products from her shop,  you will have permanently stained fingers, and you will disappear for hours into your work area.  Depending on how you look at it, these are warnings or promises.  Your call.

Anyway, the materials used in this project are far too numerous to remember (especially when you are my age).  I did try to maintain the same color palette throughout and I tried to use the same colors that were already in the journal pages.  I bought the journal notebook (it included pages) along with some embellishments from JoAnn's.  They are by Basic Grey (one of my faves).  Some fun things that I used were stencils, Dylusions sprays, paint (acrylic and Golden Fluid Acrylics), Liquitex Acrylic Inks, Ranger Alcohol Inks, found objects and plenty of stamps, ink and rub-ons.  Most of these items can be found at the Scarlet Lime shop or at your local art store.  The big box stores like Michaels also carry some things.  I personally had the supplies on hand.  But then, my shelves are collapsing under the weight of my stuff.  I sort of get nervous when I watch those hoarding shows.

I hope that you enjoy the pics!

The orange dots are from paint on punchinella (sequin waste).

                                                 Oh, Steeeeenciiiiiils!

I love rub-ons!

The blue grid is actually a stamp that I put in paint.  I like the globs.

I wanted to add some size variety to the project, so I cut 2 of each shape out of coordinating paper (Basic Grey again) using my Cricut and Gypsy.  I then stuck them together using my favorite decoupage type medium.  This helped give the papers strength so that I could mess them up fearlessly.  It also added some more pages to the book.  Because this project wasn't big enough.

It's amazing what you will use that is just laying around.  These circles were made with Coke Zero bottle lids.  Other circles were made with the tops to my sprays or pens or whatever.

This is the entire journal laid flat with the covers up.  They are plain covers meant to be embellished.

The words were made using some letter masks that I had.  Like I said, I am a little worried about this hoarding thing.