Woodburned plate featured in a magazine

In April I posted about having one of my woodburned plates featured in a magazine. Well, now that it is finally a reality, I can finally say it is a really nice feeling to see my work recognized among such talented crafters and artists! The magazine is Pyrography by Fox Chapel Publishing and can be purchased at Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, Lowes etc. It includes featured artists as well as patterns if you would like to try woodburning yourself. It has very well written and easy to follow instructions and I recommend it. As a matter of fact, I am planning on trying one suggested technique for woodburning leather from there as well ( I'll post when I do).

 The plate on the left is mine. You can also see the description of " Harvest" on the right below the pictures.

I can stop the bragging now. :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Annie

Uncle Sam Spoof Student Council Election Poster with Minecraft

Kalin came home with a heavy task-- a student council poster. I had no idea what he was supposed to do, so I couldn't be of much help but we sat down, researched it and Kalin came up with the idea to use the Uncle Sam poster ( + Minecraft of course) to do his election poster.

I am not sure how effective it will be but we had a blast making it!

What do you think?

Squirrel Drawing

My co-worker Amanda is "nuts" about squirrels and since it's her birthday, I absolutely had to draw her one. This one is called Franks (very unique name, don't you think?)

Truth be told, I remembered  about her birthday one 1 hour before the clock struck 1 and I had to improvise.



Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Easy Halloween Decoration For Less

I am completely mentally unprepared for the cold weather but I love decorating for different holidays at home. Unfortunately, lately I find less and less time to spend making interesting crafts to decorate. However, the lack of time is not a reason for me to go and buy a ton of cheap junk that falls apart by next year. One of my co-workers surprised us all at work with beautiful Halloween jars. I've never thought about jars as a great decoration, but I was so inspired by her creation, that I immediately decided to make some for home.

The concept is pretty easy- get jars, whatever kind you have at home. Find leftover craft supplies in appropriate colors ( fall colors, Halloween colors etc) and go crazy. Please, make sure you don't use real candles in them. The battery operated candles are the best choice and they are really cheap. You can also use the jars without candles at all.



They sure give a cozier feel to this fireplace mantel, don't you think?

How are you getting ready for Halloween?

Featured Woodburned Plate Design

I need your opinion! If you had to choose one of these plates to be featured in a woodburning magazine, which one would it be?



This is tough...

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What to do, what to do???

Of all the mixed media paintings that I've made recently, this one is my favorite. It is just very personal to me.













What do you think?

In orange

I became one with this piece. I don't think I've ever felt more in control when painting than with this one.

There are really not a lot of words that I want to use to describe it. This painting is simply a feeling.

Midnight inspiration

I needed cheering up. All of this snow, ice, rain and cold....Did I mention the cold?

Everyone at home is so over this winter! Even our budding tree froze :-(



So, what do I do to cheer myself up? I make fabric flowers! That, and I got this cute jacket that needed just a little umpf.

Here is how it looks on the jacket. Cute, no?

And because my little girl loves headbands, I couldn't resist making a couple for her.

I just realized I never made headbands for the Etsy store though. Hm...should I?

Let The Sun Shine Mixed Media Painting

It has been so cold lately that I needed a ray of sunshine...

Working with sea shells,sand and warm colors was such a pleasure! Remembering the beach, the warm weather...nothing compares to that!

What do you think of this mixed media?

Buy Here

Last Minute Valentine's Day for Free

A quick, easy and (almost) free idea for a last minute Valentine's Day present for your sweetheart!







And before you start thinking I am compulsive "hair-behind-the-ear" person, that was our signal for my daughter ( 7 years old) to stop the video. I guess she forgot LoL :-)



Very improvised video, but I hope it's helpful to someone. :-)



Happy Valentine's Day!



Annie

Valentine's Day 2014

I am happy to report that this year for Valentine's day I finally got the opportunity to draw my first digital cards collection. This has been in the making for what...3 years now? LoL :-) Anyway, it was a great, great fun, and I am currently working on a couple of digital prints similar to what I've been working on before with real ink.  My software Corel Painter 12 is absolutely fabulous to do this! The results are astoundingly close to the real materials that I could use, especially watercolor. However, I will keep the watercolor prints a little bit longer before I show them to you. These are the cards that I've been working on: 

 # Love ( Buy here)

# My Heart Is Yours (Buy here)

#I Heart You ( Buy here)

# Hearts  ( Buy here)

# Hold My Hand, I'll Hold Yours Boy ( Buy here)

#Hold My Hand, I'll Hold Yours Girl ( Buy here)

#You Complete Me ( Buy here)

#Mine and Yours ( Buy here)

#Me + You ( Buy here)

As you can see, tons and tons of hearts is my theme this year. :-) Well, it's Valentine's Day after all.

But, I also have a Woolly Valentine's day card, which can be a perfect addition to the calendar and book set. ( Pictures of the whole set later!) And guess what? If you order a book and/or calendar, you get the card for free! :-) What's not to like, right?

#Woolly ( Buy here)

I was a little nervous to post these cards, since it's my first ( official) drawing with digital software instead of by hand, so...what do you think? Like? Don't like? Can be better? Hm? :-)

Sample post title

This is the content of the blog post

THis is the summary from a class

And a nice linked image