I know I’m not usually on top of the holidays - but, hey! I’m here.  Everyone’s here (no school).  I hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day and that we take a moment to remember those who have fought for us so we could maintain our freedom.  Freedom isn’t free - it requires constant vigilance and much responsibility by those who hold it (us!).  I hope we treasure it, are careful with it, and are not so eager to give it away into the hands of those who would mis-use it.   Stepping off soapbox now.

I’ve been experimenting a little with encaustics - just a few more small paintings.  I’ll post those soon.  In the meantime, here’s a little drawing I did for my niece: 

You can download a free pdf copy for printing here.  Yes, I know the proportions are a little off… I’m not worried about it… I just did this while on the phone with family last night, and I just did it for fun.  I thought it would be a fun thing to share - maybe you know a little girl one who might like to color it.  Feel free to print a copy.

That’s all for today.  Hope your weekend is fabulous!

Ok - I waited because I wanted the “next” post to be on the new site.  Not ready yet.  But soon, very soon. And I will definitely post sooner the next time.

So, in few words plus quite a few photos, here’s a mish-mesh of what I’ve been doing the last month or two:

The little birds are going in some “thank you” cards.  They are cut out of randomly painted watercolor paper, and tied with a gold string.  The photo quality is bad, my apologies - and this is why I do not like using the flash.

Two quite small encaustic paintings, 5″x5″. “cosmos” and “Rosy”.  I am playing around with different techniques.  I bought 12 of the 5×5 wood panels, so there will be more coming. Yay!  Viva encaustic!

These sweet nests were for Easter, of course.  I wanted something “chocolate” that my allergy boy could eat.  These were made from non-dairy chocolate chips. You just melt & mix with the chow mein noodles, shape, put in the jellybeans, and then let them cool.  Easy.  Kids love them.

I caught this patch of fog and snapped a quick photo before it went away.  You’re probably tired of the same view of my backyard by now.  But, I like how the fog looks in the photo, nonetheless.

A few other things… a big big “Thank You” to my dear friend Tangie, and to ALL of those who made it possible for me to travel to Salt Lake City to attend the opening of the art show.  It was so very nice to be able to attend in person.  I don’t know if an artist could ask for more than wonderful, supportive friends and family.  Thank you. Everyone.

A design I made from some of Tangie’s digital scrapbooking products (photo by me).  You can get her products here.
{background: “Yippe-ki-yay”, Tangie Baxter & SherrieJD {collab}
Orange paper: “Orchard Lane”, Tangie Baxter
“Wise Guys” (digital stamp), Tangie Baxter
Typefaces: Century Gothic, Century Schoolbook (large “B”)}

Last, but definitely NOT least - I finally finished the website I’ve been working so hard on.  I’m pleased with they way it turned out.  The products are great, and I loved working with another mom.  Check it out!

No creativity question this time - isn’t this post long enough?

Happy creating until next time!

I didn’t realize it would conjure up such conflicting emotions as I sent my artwork off to SLC for the second round of judging in the art competition.  On the one hand, I’m thrilled and excited to have gotten through the first round.  On the other, it was difficult to part with the piece.  As an artist, I feel like I put a lot of myself into my work - so it’s like sending a tiny bit of my soul away.  Thankfully, it regenerates.  Another thing, is I’m trying to trust that it will make it there safely.  It’s not so good for encaustic work to travel in 35 degree or colder weather (which it is).  It could crack and come right off the substrate.  But, it had to be done, and now.  And, actually, I’m glad it left yesterday, because today, it’s about 11 degrees outside!  Oh, and the sticker shock - <gulp> - I had to overnight it to minimize the transit time.  That was painful.

The photos are of an accordion book I had made for parents & grandparents for Christmas (front, back, folded).   An inexpensive gift that they really enjoyed, especially since we’re far away and they haven’t seen the kids in a few years.

I had mine professionally printed (saved a lot of time), but I think it would be a project which could be do-able by hand.

Creativity Question:  Do you ever get stuck in the middle of a project?  And you can’t figure out what to do to fix it, and/or how to proceed?  What do you do?  Do you have a recipe for clearing your creative roadblocks?

This happens to me A LOT.  Really.  It happened when I was taking design classes, and it happened when I was designing our Christmas card - of course it seems to happen frequently when I have a deadline closing in.  I admit I don’t always know what to do.  A lot of times, I just entirely scrap what I’m doing and start over with something completely different and it works (like with the Christmas card).  Other times, if I just set it aside for a while - a few days sometimes, it will come to me.  I wish I had a more consistent method.  Any ideas? It seems like if I think about it too much, it just makes it harder.  Hmm.