The Artist Blog Hop Update

Hello everyone! Did you know there are over 500 artists joined to the Artist Blog Hop? That is a whole lot of inspiration!!!! I have just extended the date another year so others can still join.

Some new additions are:



Chris from the United Kingdom. She has a lovely blog and has just finished the Art, Heart and Healing course through Willowing. This is from the last session of that course. Just click on her name and it will take you to her site.




Joanne Sharpe has a lovely blog of Whimsical journal pages that will make your mouth water. Again just click on her name to take you to her blog. Here's one example of her lovely pages.



Ap Bestari has a very interesting blog, I am not sure what language she speaks but Art is a universal language isn't it. I am really loving the art she produces and she seems like such a fun artist! Her name will get you to her blog. Here again is another sample...



Karen Martin Sampson has a blog showing her very lifelike portraits! This is one talented woman! A definite must see!




These are just a few goodies to wet your appetite! I hope you are still enjoying the blog hop. If you need a quick link to the hop just click on my side bar where it says "Artist Blog Hop" and it will take you there. And if you haven't added your link, why not? LOL.

Have a wonderful, fabulous, amazing day everyone!
Happy Creating and many blessings to you!

Art Journaling At Work

I don't know about the company that you work for, but the one that I work for is pretty amazing! When there is nothing for me to do, when all my work is done... they let me do my art work! Isn't that just the most fabulous thing! As long as I'm there to answer the phone. So most days I am finished my work by 10am and I work until 3PM Monday-Thursday. I can't bring out my paints and set up my easle at work but I can get some art journaling in.

The above page is the result of one slow day at work. There was an old magazine that I usually just recycle at work but I decided to cut out the border for this page, paste them on and color them with my Copics. The mask is a piece of work that I have worked on a little bit at a time on my "Desk Calendar" ~ I doodle when it is slow and when the month is over I cut out my doodles and past them in my sketch book!

The mask got me thinking about people and how so many where masks, pretending to be something they are not. These thoughts came into my head because of my girlfriends experience with on-line dating. She noticed that there were so many men on the site that were simply "players" like they are collectors of women! GROASE! These men REALLY have no clue as to what real life is all about! Needless to say my girlfriend is no longer on the site and she only lasted one week until she gladly gave up!

I feel so very blessed in my life ~ I have an amazing hubby who is God fearing, loving, caring and kind. He is the man you see, not hiding anything about him. He has been like this since I met him - however we have both grown up since then too! LOL!






And while I was searching around online for inspiration I came across Milliande and her amazing zentangles. These two pictures are from one of her pattern pages.

Well I wish you a most amazing weekend. Happy creating everyone.
Hugs and blessings!

Sharing A Lovely Post From Carrie Todd

Today as I was going through my Google Reader I came across this post by Carrie Todd over at "My Studio 13" and it truly touched my heart and humbled me.
In this post she has layed out a number of journal spreads that are absolutely beautiful and heartfelt and are glowing with her love and spirit for Christ. I highly recommend you taking a look if you need inspiration for your day.
Thank you Carrie for inspiring us all.

Finished Journal Pages

I was able to get in some journaling while snowed in this weekend and finished the first spread in my "All Things Lovely" journal as well as the second spread.







I added more color to the second page and some fun doodles as well.





The second spread is all about my being a Girlie-girl in an All Boy household...




Which also allowed me to try out another whimsical girl ~ don't you just love her big eyes!





Well, I hope you all had an absolutely lovely weekend. We were able to put up the Christmas tree and now we have to find the rest of the decorations which none of us seem to be able to find! Yikes!

Christmas Tradition Sharing: Every year when we put up the Christmas decorations we stop at the grocery store first and pick up two very important things...

Eggnog and mandarin oranges!

While we put up the Christmas tree we have always watched "White Christmas"... now that my boys are older and they have watched it now for 13 and 15 years in a row... we re-negotiated the Christmas terms and watched "Elf" then after we were finished decorating I went into my bedroom and watched "White Christmas"! My hubbub stayed for the first half hour ~ Christmas just isn't Christmas without "White Christmas"! (wow, I used Christmas 7 times in this paragraph, now eight!!! LOL)

Do you have any Christmas Decorating traditions in your family? I would love to hear about them.

Wishing you a very warm and lovely week with many hugs and blessings ~ and as always... Happy Creating!

Why I Got Up At 5AM on my Day Off!

Benjamin is the reason I woke up at 5AM on my day off! If it was anything other than my family I would have been sound asleep at least until 9am... okay maybe 10:30 if I'm lucky!
Ben's school had a 'Spirit Rally' today and they had to dress up as something as the same letter as their first name. First thing that comes to Ben's mind is "Blue Man Group"! Great... way to make it easy Ben! LOL!
Actually, I LOVE that Ben has such a fun creative mind and that he chose this because somehow it really suits him! He has an amazing personality that way!
Last year around Christmas time we showed the boys who "The Blue Man Group" was. We found some awesome You Tube videos of them. I believe it was the next day, we went to Canadian Tire and just as we walked in the door we saw this wierd looking instrument and upon closer inspection we see that it is "The Blue Man Group" instrument from one of their videos - we all laughed together and decided we had to purchase it! Now we can actually use it for something other than as a dust collector! LOL




Isn't he a cutie pie! I like his hair all slicked back like Elvis! Hee-hee!



Yes, once again... my son Benjamin is bald! (This time however it is a bald cap - LOL) This summer his Father bet him $40 to shave his head bald to go and watch the movie 'The Last Airbender' ~ AND HE DID IT! AND I HATED IT! Thus the reason I refer to my hubbub as "his Father"! (Now I can laugh at it but maybe I'm not quite ready for capital letters so... lol!






After almost two hours of prepping, blotting, dabbing, and dabbing again...






And Ben is finished! Usually Ben is not so "Freakishly scary looking"! LOL!
He's actually super cute and super Benjamin! My baby is all blue today!

Happy Creating everyone... I think I got my dose of blue today!

Hello Lovelies! I Have Been Working On Something! Really!

Hello all my lovely friends in blogland! I am (unfortunately) snowed in today! On my way in to work I nearly ran smack dab into someone's backyard fence! So... needless to say, I turned around with my tail between my legs and headed home where it was safe! The roads are a nasty place to be today. Praying for all you who have to head into work or are out on the road in the snow! May you make it to your desintations safely!

Meanwhile... I have put my NaNoWriMo writing aside this week and have been able to do a little bit of journaling in my NEW journal. There is something very sweet about buying a new journal... the pages all clean and tidy... the smell of new paper! I know... I'm a sick puppy! I can't help that I go all googly-eyed and get distracted by 'shiny' objects when I see a row of journals in a store! Aaaaaahhhhhh! I LOVE IT!

So this page spread marks the first pages in my "Kelly's Book Of Lovely Things" journal. This book is dedicated to all the lovely things in my life, in my brain, all my blessings., and or any and all shiny beautiful objects that just happen to cross my path. It is going to be filled with girly, frilly, pink, colorful, bright things that make me feel feminine. (After all when one is surrounded by the male species, one must do what one must do, right???) I am getting excited just thinking about filling this one up! Hooray for being a girl!

Well my lovely friends, I wish you all the very best of days. Please be careful if you live in a snowy wintery place like me! Now, since I woke up this morning at 4AM I am going to take advantage of the fact that I am snowed in and am going to take a wee little nap! Stay warm everyone!

Much love and God bless you and as always... Happy Creating!

Great Giveaway

Hi Everyone! I just thought I would mention going over to LULU's blog where she is giving away some awesome things for her blogaversary! Take a look.

Happy Creating Everyone!

Yep, I'm Doing it! Nanowrimo!

So you are probably wondering, "Hey, where's Kelly been?" right? Well, I've been around, on my computer mostly. Not doing my usual routine that's for sure.

The other day I told my son about the NaNoWriMo for National Writing Month of November. I don't know the details but I told him the basic idea of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. We started on November 8th, 2010 and have done pretty good so far. Ben is writing a Sci-fi/fantasy novel and I am writing a Christian Fiction novel. I am up to just over 8,000 words and am amazed that I have gotten this far. I don't know what the end results will be but in the mean time I am spending some wonderful quality time with my thirteen year old writer.




So if you've been wondering... that's what I've been up to. I will still check in every now and again. I hope you are doing awesome and having an absolutely fabulous weekend.

Hugs and many blessings and as always... Happy Creating!

Lesson 1 of Art Heart Healing - different direction

I didn't really get to watching the complete lesson one but I did the portrait, then I decided that I needed to do a little venting and just went with it. Sometimes I just need to do journaling on top of portraits - I find that in itself to be quite healing.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend filled with many blessings.
Happy Creating Everyone

Sunshine Love

After last weeks Willowing Course online, and learning a little bit about whimsy drawing I created this flower. It goes very well with our news this week! We have a condo for two weeks in the spring in Arizona! YAY! As you may know already, my favorite place in this world is Arizona in the Spring - well, Arizona any time of the year really! I have been day and night dreaming of laying over an innertube as I flow down a lazy river pool. The past few months have been really HARD on me and I really need something to look forward to! YAY!

Hugs to you all and I hope you get some sunshine from my flower into your day! Happy Creating everyone!

Art Heart & Healing

I have joined the free online course of Art Heart & Healing over at Willowing and have managed to successfully do lesson 2. I am really enjoying her free lessons and I think I will follow it up with one of her other courses, possibly the 'Whimsy'. This past week she gave a lesson on 'whimsy' girls and the above is what I produced from that lesson. These gals are so different from what I am used to, but boy were they fun to create!




The first part of the lesson was much more emotional for me. We had to find pictures of ourselves when we were children and then create a list of what we "Wish for" that child. Oy vay did I have a problem with this one... it brought up all sorts of emotions that I wasn't prepared for! Anyway... I muddled through it okay. I followed her steps in transferring images and managed to transfer three images to my spread. I don't know if I like this technique too much as it rubbed a lot of the image off, but it also represents my childhood because my childhood is faded because I am a completely new person... so I guess it works out well.

Hopefully I will get to tomorrows lessons this week and not two weeks from now! LOL!

Here's hoping you are all having a wonderful week! Happy creating with many blessings!

Angel Of Healing

The idea of "Healing" has been on my mind so much lately... I needed to create something that acknowledged that. This is my 'Angel of Healing'. God has given me a heart of compassion that desires strongly to help other women who need to come into their healing. This world is FULL of tragedy, suffering, and 'Everybody has a story that could break your heart' as the song from Amanda Marshall states. It is true, I don't know that I have ever met another woman who did not make me tear up with compassion from her story, whether it be during our conversation or later while praying for that individual. Why is there so much suffering in the world and why does God allow all this suffering? These two questions are HUGE in people's eyes, in fact this is one main reason why some people choose not to believe in God.
I firmly believe that God is a God of love - He wants us to come to Him, to choose to serve Him and to love Him, not to be bound to serve and love Him without a choice. In the Garden of Eden He gave man a choice, and man chose not to obey Him. Sin was let into the world by man and suffering and tragedy is the result. I am certain that God does not sit on his throne in Heaven rubbing His hands together plotting what destruction He can rain down on mankind each day! That doesn't make sense ~ if you read the Bible God is not portrayed like that at all! He is a loving God who gave man free will and He patiently waits for us to come to Him. He knows we suffer in this world and He waits for us to bring our burdens to Him.
I have received so much healing from the Lord and I have been down that long twisting road of pain and suffering, heartache, grief, letting go, giving up, etc. He was with me throughout the entire journey and continues to be with me now. I am currently free of depression which plagued me for most of my life and now it's my turn to give back what He has given to me.
I may have an opportunity to be a witness to some women in dire need of hope and I pray that I will do God justice in allowing Him to use me for His good and perfect purpose. May the Angel of Healing guide me to help others. (I'm not meaning that in a physical presence, idol-like nature to which that sounds, my drawing is of course only a drawing, if that makes any sense).

Happy Creating everyone! May the Lord lead you to your healing today.

Wonderful Mail Days As of Late

I LOVE LOVE LOVE MAIL DAY!!!!! I look forward to picking up the mail every day in hopes that something in that lovely box is for me!!!! No, I'm really not a selfish person, honestly! I just love receiving Happy Mail!!!!!

I received this package from Louise Gale last week but haven't been feeling well enough to post it until today. A few weeks back I posted one of her lovely paintings on her blog and mentioned that I won a giveaway of hers... I was tickled pink to open this package up and inside to see her beautiful artist postcards...





and then to also see she sent me this fabulous book on the history of color! What a blessing I have received from this gal! Such a giving and generous heart and her website is so inspirational and talk about creative!




A Dear Blog Friend whom has been with me since I started blogging is a wonderful creative soul named Michelle over at Creative Treasures. She makes beeeeeaaauuutttiiiffuuulll cards and other creative treasures and is an amazing photographer. I love her site so make sure you take a look! A few weeks back one of her cards touched my heart so much that I decided to contact her and beg her to make me one so that I could give it to my friend and she so lovingly agreed to send me one. However, she not only sent me one but TWO of her beauty's! Aren't they gorgeous Darling????? Thank you Michelle for taking the time to make these cards for me and for sending them all the way to me here in Canada! I am going to give it to my friend right away! Hugs and blessings to you!





My Dear Blog Friend Phoenix Peacock sent me this lovely postcard! I LOVE receiving them and to know that someone out there is thinking of me makes my day! Thanks so much Phoenix, she is now officially one of my "Dear Darling" pen pals (which is such an awesome experience to share. The art of writing a letter is truly lost in the world these days so for me to be able to find individuals willing to share their lives with me on pen and paper, well, that just is the most awesome thing ever!!! View Phoenix's Blog HERE.


I pray that you are all having an absolutely wonderful weekend!
Happy Creating with many many blessings!

Living To Love

As I was drawing this image I thought about the lifeforce flowing through the flower and out into the world... in every creation the Lord has made He has used such incredible detail, uniqueness and beauty. When I look at a flower I feel joy, then I smell it's wonderous scent and I am filled with love and romance... isn't this the way God's love works? He fills our souls with love and romances us to Him as a Father draws a child into his arms.
The verses in Matthew 6:28-29... came to mind, "See how the Lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his spendor was not dressed like one of these." Does this not show the beauty of God's creation in a Lily? And yet I can't help thinking that He has dressed each and everyone of us like this as well. Psalm 139:14 says, "I praise You because I am uniquely and wonderfully made".
Living to love... the name of this piece because this is the message I want to put out there. We are here to love one another, in God's eyes we are all equal though we are all fearfully and wonderfully made which means we are precious in His sight. Now if that doesn't fill you with a little love an romance for your day I don't know what will!
Have a blesed wonderful day!
Happy Creating Everyone!

New Tree Of Life - Texturized

Since learning the technique of 'texturizing' with the faces I have had an idea to do another Tree Of Life piece. I adore trees (as you know if you are familiar with my blog), so I decided to do another tree. I am really happy with this one as it turned out very earthy and fun! I love the effects of this technique on a different subject than on the faces. I might just try other pieces with this technique too!

Hugs and happy creating to all of you! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Blessings

Art Journal Fun

I hope all of you Canadians are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and for everyone else you may commence the drooling of the thought of turkey coming soon! LOL. I love Thanksgiving because it is my hubby's and my Anniversary. I never forget my anniversary so it is the perfect date because my hubby never forgets either! Today we celebrate 17 years of blissful marriage!

This past week I went to Vancouver, British Columbia to celebrate my middle sister Tania's Graduation receiving her BA in Criminology! I am so proud of her! She has worked extremely hard for her degree as she worked full time and raised 5 kids while getting her BA. I think she is the strongest lady I have ever met! We had a wonderful time visiting and I was finally able to meet my Great Nephew Brock! He is such a cutie-pie! I thoroughly enjoyed making him giggle and ponder the idea of blowing kisses!

The above face was created on an 8x10 canvas using watercolor crayons and black markers. I started this face a few weeks ago and I usually finish right away but I did not get a chance to work on it. This gal I have named "whimsy". Everything seems to have the word 'whimsy' in it lately so I decided to play along.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Canadians, happy weekend to all others! Happy Creating and many blessings to all of you!