Portraits

Hi all,
I have been so so so busy and amazingly happy painting portraits. I have completed my three huge paintings of my daughters and a family friend. I am so amazed at how much better I seem to be getting with each painting. All I can say is the internet is an amazing world out there with fellow artists, teachers, books, everything is at your finger tips to learn any new skill you ever dreamed of. I have never ever had a traditional in class art lesson in my life, everything I have learnt and am still learning is all from the world net.
Life is great!
Well here is my eldest daughter's portrait. She is 13 years old ..going on 20... you know teenagers.
This is done on the biggest canvas I have ever attempted painting anything on before, so I guess it took alot of guts. She is painted with acrylics and I just need to add the sealer, before hanging her in out family room.

Next is my other daughter, who is 11 years old. Same size canvas and also in acrylics.

my acrylic canvas portrait

In the past couple of weeks I have been trying to perfect my painting skills, especially in shading skin tones.
Many wise teachers have said "practice, practice, practice" and believe me I have been trying.
I have also been desperately searching for my own style, or signature look, which as some of you might know is so very hard when just about everything art wise has been done out there!
It can be very daunting trying to create something that is your own.

Eventually, something has came to me, with the help of my 13 year old daughter who loves to zentangle.
I found out that I can have the patience to zentangle as well, if I set my mind to it. Then it dawned on me, why not use my new inproved acrylic shading skills and my new skill of zentangle and create a style of my own. Of couse the photos just don't do her justice as I can't seem to pick up the depth of her skin tones and highlights.

After a quick tester piece of art with my daughter, I was quick to see a new love developing. I rushed out and bought a big canvas and set to work, this time on my own.
Here is the results. What do you think? The piece measures 35.5 by 23.5 inches and will be hung in my family room near my art station. Everything always looks better in real life. I guess I will never be a photographer... anyway I hope you get the general idea.

Hard at work.. I love every minute of it

All ready for my husband to hang on the wall of our family room near my art station.





In a Wonderland Of My own

Im in a Paper Craft Wonderland.....
I have been surfing the net this morning and have across this wonderful paper art site. The artists there are absolutely amazing. I just had to join up. They do art trades as well, so as soon as I saw that, I was hooked line and sinker!LOL
The site is called Roses on my Table and you can look it up here if you wish to have a peek.
http://rosesonmytable.ning.com/
They have all types of different groups, from ATC's, Paper dolls, Journals,  altered dominoes, accordian books, altered jars, tins and the list goes on.
Of course I had to join the paper doll group first, as it is my latest addiction.
Speaking of paper dolls... yes I have been bust again last night. I signed up for a "Make me happy" list over at AFA.com and the lady requested a Aries zodiac sign paper doll. Ive never made an animal before so I thought why not, Ill be adventurous. Well here is how he turned out. I hope she likes him..

He was also my first fully drawn paper doll. I printed off a picture to inspire me, but I have to admit it was a bit of a challenge to draw all the components seperately. He has 8 joints in all. I used Twinkling H20's for his colouring, which looks great in person. The camera cant quite pick the sparkle up.

I also was happy to recieve an atc I traded for a few weeks ago. I picked out an interesting paper doll, which happens to fold up to a normal ATC, and then fold her legs down and she is a paper doll. She is so cute I just love her.

More creations!

Morning!
I have had a busy last few days now that I am feeling better. I have been stuck in a whirl wind of paper dolls.
They are so much fun. I think the beauty of it to me is finding a head, and then a matching body and different limbs, its so much fun!

I have also been playing around with some new waterpaints I have recieved called Twinkling H2o's. They really are pretty and give a great twinkling glitterey fiinsh. In this journal entry, I used it on my ladies hair, wings and necklace. I have tried to capture the sparkle on camera. Its just so pretty, I really love these paints.

Isn't it so pretty!

Whimsical Paper dolls

For the past wekk I have been so sick with the flu. My daughter came home with it and yep, two days later I was feeling very ill. You name it I had it. Night sweats and chills, vomitiing, coughing, sore throat, head ache and just plain old I feel like sleeping 24 hours a day.
It's hard to be a caring Mum when you feel like that LOL. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who worked all day then made us dinner, fed the dogs, did the dishes and tucked us in. I am blissfully happy with my man.
Well, Im all better now and during my sickness, managed to google a few minutes a day when I had the energy and found the wonderful world of Modern Paper Dolls.
I immediately fell in love with these beautiful pieces of art and as soon as I was better, I was off to my art desk to create my first two dolls.
The first is a mermaid, made with scrapbooking cardstock, stamping on her arms, floral embellishments and some digital images I printed off. I just loved making her.

The second paper doll is made from mainly digital prints. I used a glitter sticker crown for her head and a floral 3d sticker on her dress. Both are jointed using brads.

Im thinking of making a few more and hanging them from my art desk where I can enjoy them everyday. I also thought they would make great tags on gifts, or I could make christmas themed dolls for the tree.

I have also created a swap over at swap-bot where we will be making 1 whimiscal paper doll for one partner.

Here is the link if you would like to join, or I would appreciate it, if you spread the word on your blog:

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/123137

sign up is by July 3rd and you must send by July 17th.

Swap-bot is free to sign up with and is a great place to swap. I haven't been there too long yet but in the swaps I have participated in, I have not be disappointed and its been only a great experience. Most people have blown me away with their generousity and go way beyond whats expected. It really is a great place and I highly recommend it.

Getting back on track now...

I am just having so much fun with these and they are relatively quick to make once you have all your pieces cut. I back mine with pattererned cardstock, so they are more sturdy and the paper won't wilt over with time.

Have you made some paper dolls lately? If you have I would love to see.....

If your new to the craft, like me, I found this site:

http://www.theenchantedgallery.com/paperdolls.html

There you can find a paper doll template to cut your pieces out as well as some instructions. It's a great place to get you started.

Don't forget I would love to see your paper dolls, so message me okay!

A Busy Night

Top of the morning to ya!
Last night I got busy, with my exciting first swap as a host on Swap-bot. I created 3 vintage circus ATC's and plan to make 3 more, then I will decide which 2 I shall send off to my partner.

Here are the 3 I made last night. They were so fun to make. The one in the middle is my favourite so far. I knew I was going to have to make a few to choose from...Its always hard to part with ATC's.

On another note. I have to admit Ive been a little slack on my journal pages lately. So I also managed to work in that as well, and came up with a 5 minute page which I really love. It has a nice vintage feel to it and has some collage and I used my new twinkling H2o's paints. I f you would like to check it out please visit my Journal Pages Tab up the  top of my blog.

Vintage circus

Well as you all know, I have been busy making ATC's and have been very active over at Swap-bot and AFA.
I am excited to let you know I am hosting my first swap at Swap-bot.
My atc theme is Vintage Circus.

Image by Rustycage11 (flickr)

I just love vintage themed ATC's and especially of circus images.
My grandfather died when I was quite young and it wasn't until I was an adult that I realised he was actually in the circus when he was a young man. Apparantely, he was a tight rope walker! How cool is that, further more he was in charge of the monkeys and I do have photos of my father with his pet monkeys as a kid.
I wish he had lived longer so I could have asked him a thousand questions.
So this is where my love for vintage circus comes from. A very warm part in my heart!

If you would like to enter this swap head over to Swap-bot for all the details at:
http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/122138

My first Award!

Wow, my first award! Yah for me...Im delighted. I have just been nominated for the Blogger appreciation award by Narda from  http://pink-calico.blogspot.ca/. Thankyou so much!

How it works, is that I now have to answer some questions and then pass the award on.

So here it goes:

How long have you been blogging?

I'm actually very new at it. I think Ive been here for about 3 months. Ive had other blogs in the past, but this is the first one where I feel, it's not only for me, but hopefully other people find inspiration from it as well.

Why did you start blogging?

At the very first instant, I thought of it as an online journal, but as I thought more thoroughly about it and read other peoples blogs, I realised I wanted to inspire people with my art and also give the odd tutorial. I love helping people and I want the whole world to enjoy art and craft. Its just a great feeling to see my art up on the screen as well! LOL

What sort of blogs do you like to follow/read?

I am a self confessed art-aholic! So I must admit, most of the blogs I read are other art and craft blogs. I especially love ones with tutorials as well. I also like recycling blogs, as I sew on the odd occasion and love to find new exciting ways to recycle something.

What is the one thing you would like to improve as a blogger:

I personally think I can be quite funny, but I find it hard to write funny things. So I will have to try and improve that skill somehow in the future. I would like to make people laugh when they read my blog.

Now, My nomination for the blogger appreciation award is passed onto:  

http://jennibelliestudio.blogspot.com/

I just love jennibelliestudio. She has great tutorials and inspired me to make my own handmade journals. I love seeing her journal pages and she is just a delight to listen to. Thank so much for your blog jenni!

Steampunk Card

Afternoon!
It is a beautiful sunny, winter's day today. Im so pleased to see the sun shining and the birds singing.
Today I was inspired by a piece of scrapbook cardstock that I have had for a few years now and have always seemed to overlook.
It just popped right out at me this morning and I just knew I had to make a Steampunk Greeting card with it.
I have fallen in love with Steampunk themes and wanted to try my hand it so badly and now I had the chance!
I gathered some images and managed to create this card. I just love the ferris wheel and glitter and knew it would make a great backround for my steampunk theme.

Hmm, I'm thinking this may be the start of another Trade addiciton perhaps!!!!

Recent Art Trading Cards

Hello!
I have been a very busy crafter lately. Having so much fun.
I am right into the swing of things with my ATC's. I started a little rusty but am now feeling Im getting into my groove again.
Here are some, I made over the past few days. I love them all so very much, they will be hard to trade.
Oh, Im sure I will, but not just for any card. I hope to start collecting my favourite themes.
The masquerade card is definetely for my private collection, as I want to collect this theme, as well as steampunk and victorian vintage styled cards.



My two other favourites hard to part with are, 'The Frog Prince' and 'Legends of Their Time'.

I will list all my trade cards on my Flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/upcycledtoday/

My username is ARTBYSONYA.

On another artsy note, i have also been making some handcarved stamps. I have done these the hard way as I don't have a carving set yet and had to use my standley knife instead. However it was a good way in discovering if I enjoyed it or not before I fork out for the carving tools. And YES I loved making these stamps. Hopefully I can do more intricate designs when the better tools arrive.

Here are my basic stamps I carved with the knife.

Not too bad for a first attempt I think.