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

Ellie's gingerbread village project

I don't normally post things that we do with the kids for school, but this is so cool I had to share.

Ellie
had a project that I was supposed to help her with ( there was a lot of
glue gun use). She came home with a milk carton, painted, cut and
divided in two "floors". We were supposed to use cut outs for furniture
they had ( they had basic table, couch, bead, dressers etc) and what we
did was cut them out, glue them and them color with markers, cover them
in felt ( for example the couch, the bed I made for her a comforter out
of felt and fabric with glue gun etc).

Ellie and are are absolute
suckers for tiny things. When we go to Michaels we can spend hours
looking at the Christmas village displays and we never get tired. So,
for us it was incredible bonding time, cutting, gluing,
coloring...absolutely amazing!

I am so glad she had this project
because both of us just had a blast with it! Lately we couldn't do any
craft or art projects together and we loved eery minute of it.



Outside 





First floor- living room







Second floor - bedroom







Both floors





So much fun, isn't it?



And that is why I haven't written my Christmas cards yet. I am going to go in the "Christmas shame corner" now.



But it was FUN! :-)

Mixed Media = great fun!

Ever since I began my artistic journey many years ago, I always, always always wanted to try mixed media. It sounded sooooo cool... so mixed...and  so media. And I like mixing things.

Long story short, I never quite got around to learn how to do it. I had 1-2 not very successful experiments but that was before I learned about the magic of ..lo and behold...Mod Podge! Yep, that's right, this miracle liquid made all my dreams come true.

Ever since I started work I wanted to make a painting for my office and finally this past weekend I did finish the piece.



This is the before ( stage 2 actually), covered in gesso.

I love all the details that I was able to include, like the fabric flowers, the tiny stones, the net, the wooden squares, the rope...it all just came together.

And this is the final version, colored with acrylics, some golden spray, some glitter, and then more Mod Podge.

And a close up:

      

For a first time, I think it came out much better than expected. I am actually looking forward to the next one.

Woodburning 101 part 1

I often get e-mails asking me how I woodburn and awhile back I came up with the idea to make a series of videos showing what my process of woodburning is. I am glad to say that  I finally got to do it. I hope you don't mind the mess in my studio. :-)

If you have any questions, send me a message or leave a comment. I this video was helpful to you. 

Annie

I deserve that pumpkin medal!

In Bulgaria there is a saying that when somebody is not going to be "rewarded" for his/her effort ( in monetary or other way), he/she would be given a pumpkin medal.

I absolutely, positively believe I deserve one tonight!

I came back from work, made dinner, listened to everyone complain about their day, then proceeded to make two kids Halloween costumes because " by the way, we need them for tomorrow", not next week as we initially thought. Yup.

I am so extremely lucky that my kids are so incredibly awesome and agreed to make the costumes with what we had.

An old Superman cape quickly became a part of the "pile of leaves" costume of my daughter, as the same costume included a crochet hat that we had from before. 250 fabric leaves and 10 hot glue gun sticks  later, she IS a pile of leaves!

My son wanted a creeper box "mask", which if we bought from the store, believe it or not would have cost $20. A cardboard box for $20! Can you believe it?! So, we just got a plain shipping box and one roll of duck tape, and we were all set.

Pumpkin medal or not, at least I got to hear that I'm "the best mommy in the whole world" at least 3 times! What a better reward, right?

Happy early Halloween! Now I'm going to bed...hopefully.

My first book is available for purchase online!

After 6 whole years writing, planning, editing, drawing, worrying- the day finally came! At last, my first chapter book for children with the fuzzy title "Woolly" is available for purchase online! Yay! In 6-8 weeks you will be able to purchase it through Amazon as well, but for now, BUY THE BOOK"WOOLLY" HERE.



The book has a companion- a 12 month calendar, with twelve beautiful illustrations and a friendship quote in the bottom right corner. BUY THE CALENDAR HERE. If you would like to look inside the calendar, check the preview out:

Thank you for supporting independent writers! It means the world to me to be able to share my story with you and your children, and I hope you all like it! In any case, I welcome comments, suggestions and questions, so don't hesitate to write me an e-mail or a comment! 

The first book and calendar are here!

Ok, I can't wait any longer- THE FIRST BOOK AND CALENDAR FINALLY ARRIVED! YAY!

I am so excited that I decided to shoot a short video of how I open them. Please, excuse the quality of the video, my little girl couldn't wait to open them and we had to make do with my phone, instead of the camera. Of course, she wanted to shoot the video and I decided to indulge her. That's why you can hear her say ( " Read it, read it!" and "Yay" and all other sorts of giggles and squeals). LoL

I just have to write back that the copies are approved and you are going to be able to buy the books! Stay tuned! Any day now!



Annie

Woolly

Over the years ( 6 to be exact), I've often talked about publishing my children's books ( also 6 at the moment) and some of you were even my "Guinea Pigs" as test readers. I've received a lot of encouragement and support, a lot of praise, and of course a healthy dose of criticism. Sometimes I was frustrated, sometimes I was glad about the latter, but in any case, it made the final version of my very first children's book much different than I expected, and much better, I believe.



"Woolly" began as a simple picture book. The manuscript was about a page long, the story was tight, but I always felt there was something missing. Then a second picture book with the same character came to life. Then a third. Until, I was finally encouraged by Scholastic's very own Anna Bloom to take it to the next level and make it a picture book.  That was the easy part.



A couple( read: 30+) edits later, a couple of conferences, 4 literary agents critiques and 2 professional editors later, Woolly is finally ready to come to life on paper and as an e-book, and I am both excited and a little scared. I've been holding on to him for so long and just the thought that I will finally get him out there is ...well...overwhelming.



You are probably curious what is Woolly all about.

It is a story about a small woolly bear caterpillar and his friends. It's a story about loss, friendship, growing up, but it is mostly a story about bravery. Bravery, to face your own fears and then face the world. It is a story about standing proud and tall because of who you are, no matter what everyone else thinks.



"Woolly" is a chapter book for the age group 5-10. And this...this is Woolly.

He is looking forward to meet you very soon. :-)

Annie