Happy Thanksgiving 18

Happy Fall to my North American crafty friends! Although the temperatures are still in the 90's here in Phoenix, Fall is still in the air :) The morning temperatures are a bit cooler so when I go for a bike ride, I don't have to hit the road by 5 am, I can sleep in until 6:00 am. Today I have a couple of Fall inspired projects to share kicking off the official start of the season. First up is a Happy Thanksgiving card:

Using an assortment of Distress Inks, I inked up a piece of watercolor paper, spritzed with water, dried then using a Prima die, die cut the elegant Maple leaf. The sentiment is from the PTI Fall Elegance stamp set:

For the sketch inspiration, I joined along with the current MOJO Monday sketch challenge:

and for color inspiration, I joined along with the current ColourQ Colour challenge:

It's Day 20 of 30 in 30:

Today I have a fall themed painting featuring a sweet Black-capped Chickadee:

One of the many things that I would like to learn how to paint are various birds so I recently purchased a few how-to books authored by the talented artist, Sherry C. Nelson. Sherry is a decorative painter and her style is much more detailed and precise than I am striving for but I am learning the basics which is my personal goal. I was inspired to paint more impressionistic leaves by one of my other favorite local artists, Krista Eaton. 

Here's how my painting began with my sketched leaves and bird:

I'm linking my painting to the Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Be Sweet ;)

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Happy Harvest 22

Hi there! I hope you're having a great weekend! Today I have a couple autumn inspired projects to share, both featuring pumpkins. First up is a greeting card showcasing an embossed pumpkin image from one of my all time favorite PTI fall themed stamp sets: Fall Elegance:

I stamped the sentiment using a more than 12 year old SU ink pad which still works like new and has never been reinked. 

For card sketch inspiration, I'm joining along with the current MOJO Monday sketch challenge:

It's Day 16 of 30 in 30:

I was in the mood to paint a whitish pumpkin with lots of texture on an 8" x 8" canvas panel:

I'm really enjoying the painting process learning how to vary my brushstrokes while incorporating the use of a palette knife:

I'm linking my painting to the Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for stopping by ~ I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Be Sweet ;)

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a season of Blessings 22

Hi there! This time of year seems to fly by so fast. Before we know it, we'll be ringing in the new year! I combined a couple different PTI stamp sets to create a trio of Autumn inspired cards to mail off to my loved ones.

I dry embossed the background using an oldie but goldie embossing folder :)

For color inspiration, I joined along with the current the paper players challenge:

 and for sketch inspiration, I joined along with the current Pals Paper Arts challenge:

It's Day 14 of 30 in 30:

Up next is a 5" x 7" painting featuring a pear that was inspired by an online art lesson presented byHall Groat Oil Painting Video DVD course. The lesson is about color theory and harmony. This particular painting focuses on COOL/WARM HARMONY A cool/warm harmony is a four-color scheme involving opposing colors. It’s based on a single pair of neighboring warm colors and a single pair of neighboring cool colors.

Still having fun learning how to incorporate the use of a palette knife. It just adds a whole new look and dimension. I'm also getting brave using more bold brushstrokes:

I'm linking my painting to the Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for visiting ~ I hope you have a great day / evening!
Be Sweet ;)

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just because 18

Hi there! Today I have a couple of very different projects to share. First up is a rather clean and simple card that I made for my dear sister:

I was not only inspired for color by the color throwdown inspiration graphic but also by the fancy flowers featured in the graphic. Here's my attempt to create a felt / paper hand stitched flower embellishment:

Here's  the current Color Throwdown color challenge inspiration graphic:

 and for the card sketch inspiration, I joined along with the current Fusion challenge:

It's Day 13 of 30 in 30:

Up next is a 5" x 7" painting featuring a pear that was inspired by an online art lesson presented by Hall Groat Oil Painting Video DVD course. The lesson is about color theory and harmony. This particular painting focuses on an ANALOGOUS HARMONY which is a color scheme that is defined as a simple harmony and is built upon two or three colors (I limited myself to 2 colors) that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel.  I also incorporated a new technique which is referred to as "fracturing" thatI learned from one of my favorite artists Julie Ford Oliver:

I'm having fun learning how to incorporate the use of a palette knife. It just adds a whole new look and dimension:

I'm linking my painting to the Paint Party Friday site:

Thanks so much for visiting ~ I hope you have a great day / evening!
Be Sweet ;)

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