Sun Kissed

It has certainly been a minute since I last posted!!!  Between my mom being in the hospital for a week (she just can't kick that bug that's been hangin around for a couple months now) and becoming obsessed with various digital scrapbooking challenges, I've been neglecting my friends in blogland!! In fact, I was in the middle of creating this post when I had to drop everything and head to the ER. I should just keep a bag packed....

Up until a few weeks ago, the only digital scrapbooking challenges I've done have been twice a year during the Club Scrap PSL gatherings. A good friend of mine, however, introduced me to the variety of monthly challenges available on several digital scrapbooking sites! It's been dangerous!!! These are a few of the layouts I've completed in the last two weeks....

Prior to my digi diversion, I had stumbled across another artsy challenge blog, Inspiration Avenue, and was immediately "inspired" by her theme "Sun Kissed." Below is my very late entry for the "Sun Kissed" challenge and my addition to this week's Paint Party Friday.

Now I'm off on an overnight road trip with a friend--i'm told there will be alpacas involved!!  

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for stopping by!!

Maria

Sunday Sketches

A quiet and easy Sunday morning to all!  I have several sketches to share today, some from (way) back in the day, and some newer.


Back in my college days (almost 20 years ago), I had enough fashion and costume design courses under my belt that I should have declared it a second major--oh well--One of the last classes I took was fashion illustration and I just recently put the only two remaining sketches, up on the wall in the studio. 

The next three sketches are from my "rough draft and practice" sketch book. When I worked for one of the Big Four accounting firms, we would go through quite a bit of letter head quality paper and when some issue was found with the letters printed on it, I would take a bunch and bind them for a sketch book--it is lovely paper for that! The fact that it is re-purposed paper and printed on one side makes it less scary to start sketching!! 

A mermaid from a few years ago:

Practice poppies from a few weeks ago:

And when you find yourself with a craving for a bbq sandwich and no one to go to the Patio with you, you take your sketch book and see what happens. This was from this past Friday, and I've subtitled them "Patio Pencils" ---lol!

A fabulous week of art-ing to you! And don't forget to click the buttons on the right to visit the fantastic artists for Sunday Sketches as well as all the challenges listed!!

Thanks for visiting!

Maria

Crusade 54--Mind Games

Well here is something that never happens. I read about Michelle's August Crusade yesterday, and I have a finished product to share today! As a twist on last month's challenge of creating new colors and naming them, this month we were to choose words or phrases and make colors to represent them. As I was reading about the challenge, I happened to be listening to a playlist on my iTunes that is a mix of songs from my life twelve years ago and songs in my life now. I chose four from each time that mean the most to me to create a 2-page layout of colors.

I could put you to sleep with a long convo about colors, emotions and the psyche, but I don't think that was Michelle's intent...lol...i will say this, the one i struggled with at first, "Spoiled" turned out to be my favorite. I listed to each song and only gave myself its length to complete each color block--no time to over-think--

If you are familiar with any of these songs, I would love to hear what colors they make you think of!! How fun!

Happy art-ing to my fellow Crusaders and my paint party peeps!!

Maria

3AM Art in the Dark

We have been plagued by alternating oppressive heat and fierce thunderstorms. The storms seem to hit in the middle of the night--thunderclaps awakening me just as the power flickers and gives way. Once I am awake, there is no point laying there as it will be a while before sleep finds me again. Many candles and my portable (chargeable) Ott light offer me the means to tidy the studio and then work on some art!!

Working on my orange piece for the last challenge for Summer of Color, i used acrylic paint and a printing surface i created from some scrap poster board and foam alphabet stickers to stamp the background with yellow letters and numbers. It's my first fabric design I've worked on in a while, and I am really enjoying it--do you see the little blue owl? he is going to be part of it as well!


Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! I'll be heading to a birthday barbecue...not a cloud in sight! 


Maria

Summer of Color--Purple and (surprise!) Red

So I am sorta behind on posting my Summer of Color Challenges. I do have one for yellow with metalic, but I think it is shy and will wait for me to have something brown to post with it :)
-
But this week--holy carp--it is only TUESDAY and I have something purple and (shut my mouth!) with BLING for the bonus!!!!  It isn't terribly exciting as it is, but I believe it is meant to be part of something bigger...the Muses haven't told me just what that is yet...
-
In order to get the purple and red done quickly, i had to go small--roughly ATC size. While tidying a bit in the studio, i found a tiny piece of paper on the floor with the number 10 on it-----

---probably came from my new purse, inspected by "10", you know? But, it also just so happens to be the month of my birthday!! With a bit of digging (less than 5 minutes...remember my Muse rule??), I found a "5" stencil (10/5 baby!!) and some scraps of mat board in just the right sizes for some quickie projects.

At this point, I wasn't sure what this week's color was going to be, so I confess, I had to look it up. Could it be?? Purple and BLING???? Two of my favorite things!! With my birthday just laying around, tell me the Muses didn't plan it that way! Some purple watercolor, ink, radiant pearls, glitter and more glitter I now have this...

As promised, I also have red, with the bonus challenge "wings." My obsession with hearts and love (or lack there of) continues to be represented. This found its way to something else that's been sitting on my art table for a while...but I'll share that when it's all finished....

Don't forget to check out all the other fantastic artists participating in Summer of Color by clicking the button in my right sidebar!!  Thanks for stopping by and happy art-ing!

Maria

Studio Wonderland

Greetings gentle viewers!!  It has been a truly hectic last 10 days or so with my mom in the hospital with pneumonia and then working lots of extra hours this week to catch up on the data that piled up while I was in the ER with her! I don't know that I will have any art to share with you this weekend, but I thought you might like a composite view of where I create--Studio Wonderland! I took pics from all angles and smooshed them together to get this:

It looks so much bigger than it really is! LOL! and it was so nice and tidy! The gremlins have since been in it and made a mess :p

If I'm not battling the forces of nature to keep water out of the basement this weekend, maybe I will have something else to post :D

If not, I will enjoy living vicariously through my PPF and Sunday Sketch friend's blogs!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Sunday Sketch-

Hi Everyone! And welcome to Sunday Sketches! Just a quick post to share a couple of sketches from the week--I've added some color and a flower to last week's sketch., but it is still in progress---

And some work with marker and colored pencil.  

Hope you have a fantastic art-filled week! And don't forget to click the buttons on the right to see all of the great art for the Sunday Sketches, Paint Party Friday, Summer of Color and the Crusades!!
Maria