ICAD: Day 16

Way back on Day 16 of the ICAD challenge I did another steampunk drawing, which I'm just now sharing here. The prompt for that day was greeting card, so here's how I went with that:

Mail call!

I'm trying to decide what names to give my steampunk animal crew, and I have yet to come up with any that I like. If you have any suggestions, feel free to shout them out!

ICAD: Day 13

The prompt for Day 13 of the 2015 ICAD challenge was blueberry and plum. I used this primarily as inspiration for my color scheme, in a drawing yet again set in my little steampunk world of animals...

I hope you like it!

And remember, if you want to see my mixed media index cards, visit my Trash to Treasures Art blog by clicking on the tab at the top of this page!

ICAD meets Steampunk, again.

For Day #9 of the ICAD challenge, I created another steampunk, animal-lover's drawing. The prompts this week have been primarily based on color and/or food. For Day #9 the prompt was carrot and lemon. By good fortune, the cat and dog starring in my steampunk drawings are orange and yellow. Regardless, I also vaguely incorporated actual carrots and lemons into my Day #9 drawing, as you'll see here:

Can you hit the bullseye?

This piece ended up a little busier than I intended. I guess I was just having so much fun that I went a little crazy!

Happy Friday, bloggers!

ICAD: Day 6

I had some more drawing fun back on the sixth day of the ICAD challenge. The prompt was taxi, and I took a small bit of liberty with this one, as you'll see here:

All aboard!

Ever since the second day of the ICAD challenge I seem to have fallen into an animal-loving steampunk frenzy with my drawings. I created this world of steampunk animals on a whim on Day 2 of ICAD, with the prompt carnival. Remember this one?

The carnival where it all began...

Now I keep going back to that concept. In fact, I will be using today's prompt of carrot and lemon to create another drawing in this new steampunk world of mine. So, stay tuned!

ICAD Catch-up

I've been keeping up with creating my index cards for the 2015 ICAD challenge, but I've been failing to get them posted to my blogs in a timely manner. I have a couple to post now, from days 3 through 5. I completed my sixth and seventh index cards on their respective days, but I still need to photograph them so that I can post them. Just think of it as building suspense.

I'll post my index cards for days 3 and 4 both here and on my mixed media blog. These two are mostly drawings (and writing, as you'll see), their primary medium used being pen, but with some Distress Ink action involved as well. Since I consider it more of a mixed media piece, my index card from day 5 will be posted to my mixed media blog. Visit my Trash to Treasures Art blog using the tab at the top of this page!

The third day's prompt was to draw a map. The fourth day's prompt was mailbox. So, without further ado...

Being an animal lover and human counterpart to a number of four-legged furballs, I drew a map more or less representative of my home. Welcome to the Land of the Pet Lovers.

For the fourth day I decided not to draw a mailbox itself, and instead I scrawled a quick letter and spruced it up (more like roughed it up) a little. Edgar Allan Poe was more or less my muse for this one.

This ICAD deal is really quite fun!

ICAD #2

If you read my other blog, Trash to Treasures Art, you know that I am partaking in the 2015 ICAD (Index Card a Day) challenge for the first time this year. It started on Monday, June 1st, and I've so far managed to get a card done all of the first three days. The first day was more of a mixed media piece, so I posted it to my other blog (if you want to visit my mixed media art blog to see and read about my first index card, just click on that handy tab at the top of this blog). For the second day, I used the prompt given on the Daisy Yellow ICAD Challenge blog, and that was carnival.

After a relatively lengthy staring contest with a blank index card, an idea finally began to form in my mind. This was the result:

Welcome to the Critters' Carnival of Steampunk Fun!

It was nice to just sit down and draw for that one. I had a ton of fun with it.

I also used the prompt for the third day, yesterday, and that was to draw a map. This one was also more or less based on my drawing, but also a bit of other media. So, I'll post it here as well as on my other blog as soon as I get a decent picture of it.

If you aren't already, I recommend you give the ICAD challenge a try! It's fun fun fun!

Art in Honor

It has been well over a month since I last made a post here. One primary reason for my absence is that my beloved 21-year-old cat fell ill, and after a two-week battle I ultimately had to say goodbye to her following a diagnosis of heart failure and widespread cancer.

I had previously shared some drawings I created of her, and here is one of them again:

Her name was Rosie. She was one tough cookie of a cat. She was a true trooper and went through a lot during her 21 years, including an emergency eye removal surgery just this past January.

I have always been a huge animal lover, and my sweet 21-year-old cat was a big influence on that trait of mine. I'll age myself here by divulging that my family acquired this cat of mine when she was just 8 weeks old and I was just 4 years old. I grew up with her. I miss her immensely.

In her honor, I have set up a memorial corner for her at my house. My memorial for her includes a beautiful red rose (a fake one, admittedly, so that it will last forever) and none other than a piece of mixed media art that I created especially for her:

A rose and artwork to honor my sweet cat Rosie.

Creating this piece of art for my Rosie was one of the main ways I coped immediately following her passing. Art in itself brings me a great deal of comfort, and so creating art in honor of my loyal companion of 21 years was very consoling to me during that difficult time.

I don't believe I had ever truly appreciated the full power of art until I created this piece for Rosie. It all came together for me in an artistically healing process, and creating it helped me to feel and stay close to Rosie. I chose the purple and pink color scheme for a reason - my favorite color is purple and so (as a result of my selections) many of Rosie's favorite blankets were purple, and I always loved the adorable pink color of her paw pads and nose. Even the Distress Ink I applied was in direct honor of Rosie - she was a beautiful calico cat, and so I used my Black Soot, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen Distress Inks to imitate a calico color scheme with the border and background. What's more, the white ribbon I attached to the top of the art piece was one with which Rosie used to play often.

And, of course, I wrote a message upon Rosie's art piece that rings very true for me:

Cats leave paw prints on our hearts.

More trash to treasures.

I finished three more mixed media art tags, and they are now available in my TrashToTreasuresArt Etsy shop!

"Keep calm and eat pie."

"Be U."

"You're a hoot."

Links to both of my Etsy shops can be found at the top of this very blog!

Happy Easter!

Mixed Media Art Tags

A couple of posts ago I showed you the first ever mixed media art tag that I completed. Since then I've been experimenting with a few new products and techniques, and with these I've created some more art tags. I had a lot of fun in the process, and here are the results of that fun:

I think I've truly found a new love in creating these mixed media art tags. They allow me to create fun little drawings and experiment with fun collage techniques. What's more, I'm happy to be practicing a lot of recycling/upcycling with these, using scrap cardboard that I cut into the size and shape of tags. And the paper onto which I drew the images is simply from the pages of old books I've had sitting around for ages. Even the little decorative dots you see on the tags are recycled/upcycled, as I acquired these using nothing but my trusty hole puncher and some empty yet pretty Kleenex boxes.

I hope you like my art tags so far! I've got plenty more of them in the works, so stay tuned!

I hope all you bloggers out there are having a wonderful weekend!

Journal Catch-Up...Again

I've yet again fallen behind in sharing my sketchbook scrapbook journal pages. Here are a couple sneak peek shots of my journal pages from the last two weeks.

Happy Monday!

WIP: Experimental Fun

I've been branching out more than usual lately and taking on some new techniques and projects. A lot of these new undertakings of mine revolve around mixed media art, which I've come to really enjoy. Although I prefer to keep my mixed media art relatively simple, I've found that it allows me to incorporate a little of everything I love doing. It doesn't get much better than that!

My latest project is something I'm creating for my sister (in other words, I'm using her as a guinea pig for a new series I'll be starting soon). This piece is still in the works, and I'm more or less experimenting as I go, which I find is a great way to learn new things and to get my creative juices flowing. Here are a couple of shots to show you what I've been up to with this piece today:

I finished drawing the background of this piece last night. The next step was to adhere the little pieces of the quasi-collage portion of it.

Mission accomplished!

This piece is not yet complete. I have some definite plans for it yet, as well as some potential experimentation to put it through. I love creating little mini drawings to incorporate into pieces such as this. I also like to collect pretty Kleenex boxes, magazine clippings, and mailings and use the pictures and designs they offer in my little quasi-collages such as this one. Fun!

I hope all you bloggers out there are having a wonderful weekend!

My Furry Family: Blue Steel

The sixth -- second to last! -- piece in my My Furry Family series is complete. This one is based on a young feline who is handsome and he knows it. He is brother to my little runt kitten but belongs to my parents, just like the Batman kitty I introduced to you a couple posts ago.

Without further ado, here is my rendition of this handsome fella:

I call this piece "Blue Steel", after the male model pose in the Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander.

My family has referred to this little guy as a male model since the day we met him. He likes to pose for us, and he likes to squint his eyes at cameras, making for some dashingly sultry shots. As mentioned above, this little kitty's classic pose is much like the squinty-eyed model pose called Blue Steel in the movie Zoolander. Therefore, in honor of this little guy's natural model skills, I call this piece "Blue Steel".

I have only one furry member of the family left to draw! I can't wait to work on this final piece and therefore more or less close out this fun series of drawings.

Midnight Dreary

I finished my first mixed media art piece. In my last post I showed you which of my mixed media works in progress was my favorite, and of course that's the one I completed first. Here's the finished product:

I'm calling this piece "Midnight Dreary".

I started with pictures from old magazines. After I found clippings I liked -- these particular ones all containing some quaint architectural elements -- I used Mod Podge to adhere them all to my base cardstock. Then, once I had that initial canvas, I had to decide what to do with it.

Although I love to read, I've never been a big fan of poetry. That being said, though, I do enjoy the eerie poems of Edgar Allan Poe. My favorite Poe poem is "The Raven", which is what inspired my final touches of this mixed media art piece. I decided to add two of my favorite lines from the poem -- "Once upon a midnight dreary" and "Quoth the raven, 'Nevermore.' " -- to this piece of mine. I wanted the paper on which the quotes were printed to look aged, so I tore them so that the edges would be frayed, and then I stained the paper slips with coffee. And, I drew a little raven on cardstock paper to add to the mix. Then I pulled the Mod Podge back out and adhered the quotes and raven drawing, and applied a final coating of Mod Podge over the whole thing.

I prefer to use glossy Mod Podge, as I like the sheen and texture it gives the final product. However, being a novice photographer at best, I find it difficult to capture just the right picture of my glossy Mod Podged pieces. Nevertheless, I tried various angles and lighting in order to capture the gloss and texture of the Mod Podge finish I used. So, here's another picture of my "Midnight Dreary" piece, this one giving a little indication of the textured, glossy finish:

I hope you like it!

My Furry Family: Batman!

My newest My Furry Family installment is finished! This one is based on my little girl kitten's brother, although he belongs to my parents. This little guy's facial markings earned him the nickname Batman early on. I like to call him my little hero.

So, here's Batman (or, perhaps more appropriately, Catman):

I hope you like it! Only two more My Furry Family pieces to go!

Journal Catch-Up

I've been keeping up with my sketchbook scrapbook journal. In fact, it's actually come to serve as my primary daily planner. But, I've failed to keep up on sharing the drawings in my journal with the blogger world. To remedy that, here are some sneak peeks of the last two weeks' drawings in my journal.

This is part of last week's journal pages, drawn in honor of the frigid, snowy winter we've been having.

I drew these two love birds for this week's journal pages in celebration of Valentine's Day!

Every time the weekend rolls around, I start getting excited about planning and creating my journal pages for the next week. Oh, the simple pleasures!

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Monday Night InspirACEOn

As we all know, sometimes life is difficult. So, here's a little InspirACEOn to pick you up:

"Life is like photography. You need the negatives to develop."

I came across this quote the other day, and I fell in love with it immediately. I hope you like it, too!

Have a great week, bloggers!

The Night Owl

This weekend is my sister's birthday, and as part of her birthday gift I am completing a pencil drawing for her. My sister loves owls, and I have drawn them for her in the past. Apparently she likes my owl drawings, because she recently asked me to draw her another one for her collection, and she gave me some loose ideas as to what she's hoping for. So, I've been working long and hard on getting this owl just right. I hope it turns out to her liking.

Here's a close-up WIP shot of my sister's birthday owl:

I'm tentatively calling this little guy "The Night Owl".

Although I'm enjoying creating this pencil owl, I'm also eager to start my next My Furry Family piece as well as more of my InspirACEOns pieces. So many ideas, so little time!

Good night!

My Furry Family: The Belly Roll

The fourth completed piece in my My Furry Family series is based on my little runt kitten. I adopted this adorable little girl after my grandmother found her and her three brothers abandoned. At the time the kittens were only about three weeks old, and this little runt girl of mine didn't even weigh half a pound.

Well, my little kitty is now 9 months old and 9.5 lbs. Not really a runt anymore, but still adorable.

My little kitty likes to do what I call The Belly Roll.

I have three more pieces to complete in this My Furry Family series. And those three pieces will be based on my little kitty's three brothers, because they also stayed in the family -- my parents kept two, and my sister kept the third. So stay tuned for more feline cuteness!

I hope you're enjoying My Furry Family so far!

InspirACEOns on Etsy!

The original illustrated ACEO cards in my InspirACEOns series are now available in my Etsy shop!

"When you have a dream, you've got to grab it and never let go." -Carol Burnett

"Courage, dear heart." -C.S. Lewis

"Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit." -Kahlil Gibran

"Love conquers all."

"Know thyself."

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil." -Psalm 23:4

Just click on the Etsy link at the top of my blog to visit my shop!

The above pieces are just the current six original ACEO cards available in this series of mine. I will be creating many pieces in my InspirACEOns series, so stay tuned for more!

Have a great week, bloggers!

Weekend InspirACEOn

I just finished another ACEO card in my InspirACEOns series and thought I'd start off the weekend by sharing it.

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil." -Psalm 23:4

I hope everyone has a nice, safe weekend!