it's an alien! it's a slug! it's my niece/nephew!

my brother and his wife are expecting a baby. he sent me the first sonogram yesterday!!! nick's sister had her second girl last wednesday, making him an uncle twice over. nick is hoping to have a nephew at some point in time. my brother wants boys for now. so here's hoping this little one comes with the right set of parts. :)

postcards postcards postcards

over on amusing muses we had a postcard-a-thon. so from July 31st to Aug 2 we had to make as many postcards as we could with the theme of wings. i made 3 total:







lately, i've been creating basis for my work. normally, i'll draw what i want to do and then paint from there. but i've been experimenting with just drop dots of paint on the paper and smearing it with a piece of cardstock. then i base my image around this. it's a little more organic and adds some depth.

here's some more postcards i made over this past weekend:

k is for koala.


august challenge using the word "map".


thursday trade off using the word "snail"

Matroyshka Doll

so over on amusing muses, i'm hosting my very first swap. i really like the swaps with shapes so i've been racking my brain trying to think of one. then i thought of russian nesting dolls, Matroyshka Dolls. so i decided to do a chunky book with this idea. each artist will make five dolls in different sizes. then when i receive them, i'll swap them back out and everyone will receive a different doll for the 5 different sizes. in order to get people that were on the fence to come on over, i made the largest of my 5. she's made with 140lb water color paper, banana tissue paper, text from a floral book, prisma colors, chalk, pastels, ink, and some brass metallic paint. i'm thrilled with how she turned out!

and some other stuff

some random bits for challenges:

a ring leader for the July ATC hand drawn challenge:
prismacolors and sumi ink



a postcard for the Edgar and Nevermore swap:
acrylics, pastels, and a salvaged Poe stamp from this year

1" x 1" pieces

so i've signed on for numerous inchies lately. why? i have no idea. i like making as much detail in as small of a space as a possible (did that sentence make sense?). i'm trying to get a large enough collection together that i can frame them. here's the ones i've been working on:

Day of the Dead:
made from gold paint, ink, and lots of glitter


Monochromatic Reds:
paints, inks, prismacolors, pink staples, and red light gels


Swamp Houses for the House Swap:
acrylics, silver paint, scrap paper


Monochromatic Greens:
vintage european stamps, acrylics, and glitter

July contest

for the amusing muses July contest, i felt like doing a little space-themed doll. the purple bead attached on the bottom represents the planet/not a planet Pluto. :) every month they put out a new challenge (see my cyclops bunny from May). for this challenge we were given a template with the goddess body shape, a pair of wings, and a mermaid tail. we could use any of the shapes however we felt. i cut out the main body and debated what to do. then i thought: blue. so i painted her as the star field and then cut out and painted all the planets. there's a small bit of craft foamy stuff in between the body and the planets, this way they stand out some. i went over everything and painted gold paint along the body and some detail on the planets. i hate that using a higher resolution on the scanner causes my computer to shut down. 300 just doesn't do it any justice. :(

Doll Babies

last night i finally got pictures of my art dolls. they are all crafted from random bits found around my house and work table. here we go:

Pill Baby


Swatch Baby


RAM Dancer


Stillwell Baby


and for good measure, a random Frida postcard i made today using pencil, ink, and crayons.