Just add Water, Silly.

We Have A Winner!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:55:00 +0000

I'm happy to announce that Mary of Paper Run Amok and Ellen of CardmonkeysPaperJungle are the winners of my Giveaway! Each woman will receive 5 individual pots of shimmery goodness. The introductory sets donated by Leslie at Luminarte have 5 beautiful colors, Olive Vine, Gargantuan Green, Snapdragon, Ice & Ginger Peach. These new amazing acrylic paints have mica particles and other propriatary ingredients to make them wonderfully shimmery and sparkly. Remember, if you'd like to learn how to use these paints, Dion Dior does give a spectacular class that teaches you everything you'd need to know or were afraid to ask, lol. (Email her for info on classes or peruse her blog or click on the Joggles link in her sidebar, her classes are also offered there). I'm taking the class now and it's so great!

I must admit, I was pleasantly shocked when Ellen won one of the sets as she's a good bloggy friend of mine. I thought, "what are the chances with 64 comments that she was chosen, but I guess there are several friends who entered. I just hope both women truly enjoy their new products. (The picking was done totally fairly and without bias, just sayin'.)

I'll be mailing out your sweet prizes this week, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email when they arrive! Congratulations Mary & Ellen, enjoy your wonderful Silks!

I'll be back soon with art, I know you're waiting with bated breath...

Don't miss me too much, lol.

Best,

If you're looking for this week's APR, just click here!

Last Day To Win Blog Candy!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Just a reminder that the GIVEAWAY that's currently running ends Tuesday. I am giving away two sets of introductory shimmering Silks acrylic paints with mica added for sparkle. Each set has five colors, Olive Vine, Ginger Peach, Gargantuan Green, Ice and Snapdragon. If you'd like to enter to win these wonderful paints that were generously donated by Leslie from Luminarte, the creator of both Silks and Twinkling H2O's (shimmering watercolor paints with mica), just click here and leave a comment on that post. The Giveaway ends noon Pacific time on Tuesday May 29th, 2012.

The giveaway is being done to promote both Luminarte's new Silks and Dion Dior's classes teaching Silks (A Taste Of Silks), Twinkling H2O's (Mastering Twinks) and her Watercolor Pencil Workshop. Her luscious courses can be found offered on Dreaming In Color, Luminarte's website and on Joggles.

Best,

If you're looking for this week's APR, just click here or you can always click the Artist's Play Room Button in my sidebar. That will always bring up the latest Challenge.

Artist's Play Room #11

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 26 May 2012 19:21:00 +0000

Scroll to bottom
for the new theme!

We're into APR #11, I can't believe we're into week eleven! Thank you to all the wonderful artists who support my link up when they can, I'm touched that many of you leave me comments saying you're sorry that you ran out of time but will be back next week. That's sweet loyalty and it touches my heart. You guys ROCK.

Oh, and you should all know that I've had several comments from across the blogosphere applauding the high calibre of art that's submitted in my Play Room. I totally concur, so you guys not only rock but are talented too!! Ok, enough, I'll swell your heads and I'm thinking encephalopathy isn't gonna be conducive to good artwork!

Before I get to the newest theme for this week, let me show you all the beautiful submissions from last week's Artist's Play Room. The theme was Bookmarks (or books if you want to expand it)... Mine is there on the right ------->

I painted a bookmark for my good friend Tracey as we decided to do a little swap between us. She's addicted to chocolate of any kind so I thought I'd make a bookmark that could torture her on those days she has eaten all her chocolate stash and is reading a book!! Bad Jenn, bad! (click it to see it in all it's chocolaty glory!)

Now on to all the other arty goodness from my talented participant friends, almost as good as chocolate! You guys seriously inspire me to go read with all your lovely art! Here we go!


Gloria made a lovely bookmark using colorful zentangles. Love your creativity!	Elizabeth showed many of her beautiful altered books but I fell in love with the bookmark she also included.	Kim's gorgeous Tag, also called a bookmark! Go over to her blog, she made a bunch more. Always for sale in her Etsy Shop.	Vonny says a shy book gnome showed up on her bookmarks, I would too, those books are COOL!!


Darla makes stretchy bookmarks so they never fall out!. Just "bungie" them around several pages and you're done. Brilliant!	Tracey painted all the kinds of bookmarks she has scattered around the house. Her post made me laugh!	Cindy has created a lovely stout bookmark, I don't care if it's a little wide, I think it just makes it unique.


Sandee's Mermaid bookmark is really a sweet submission. Mermaids certainly are the stuff of dreams!	Diane had fun collaging some new papers she got, what a gorgeous finished product!	Minn did a great watercolor & ink bookmark, I love it, looks like the beach.


Lynn made bookmarks using her signature "Doodly Birds". Aren't they adorable? I think so too!	Neesie rushed to get this little cutie in, I'm so glad she did. She's new to APR & such a talented edition to the play room.

On the left is Lou Anne's lovely undersea bookmark, it's quite beautiful but to see that you're gonna have to click and make it bigger!! Please do, it's worth it. Unfortunately, to fit it into this post I had to use a small picture of it, it's a very long but beautiful bookmark. Sorry to Lou Anne for how I've showed it, I couldn't come up with another way!!

This week I took an idea sent to me from Tracey's daughter. It also allows me to go back to my roots of painting, which I haven't done in a coon's age. The new theme is "Magnify". I intend to paint a macro flower, which is an extreme close up of the flower. Please feel free to magnify anything your little heart desires, here are some examples to help inspire you!


Dion's close up of a butterfly	My close up of a daisy	Bianca has sketched a persian cat face close up

And I just LOVE Minn's macro of a juicy tomato. I wonder if it's for sale?? I'll have to ask her.

Ok you lovely, multi-talented people, go do what you do so well, make beautiful art then come back here and link it up so I can SHOW IT (and you) OFF! Be inspired to look closer at your subject and get your nose right in there. As always, all artforms are welcome, watercolor, oil, collage, altered art, photography, digital, crochet for that matter! Make art, go for it, you don't have to be great, just create!

Have a great day my bloggy friends!
I'll be back soon with art or somesuch, maybe even a new Blogging 101.

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Mermaid In The Mist

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 26 May 2012 06:17:00 +0000

This week one of our newer members at Inspiration Avenue, Lou Anne, is doing her first challenge which is always daunting. They're actually not hard but the very first one always leaves the host biting her nails and asking many "is this ok?" questions. I was so flattered when Lou Anne turned to me for that advice. I think she did a superlative job of fleshing out what her theme is and it's origins. Her theme, as my title indicates is MERMAIDS. I'm not surprised that she chose this theme since her blog's name is The Misplaced Mermaid.

Ok, so I really don't do human forms. Maybe some day I'll get my mom to school me in the intricacies of how to draw the human body as she took art courses when I was young. So, don't expect beauty here but I wanted to support Lou Anne's first challenge and to do that I gotta make a mermaid, lol. It was a nice challenge and she turned out ok.

title: "Mermaid Turned To The Right"

I'll see you in my Artist's Play Room on Saturday for the wrap up of this week and the introduction of our new theme for the upcoming week.

Best,

(I would love it if you followed me using my Linky Follower Tool.)

Happy Birthday Phantom Steve!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It's my good friend Tracey's daughter's birthday today, we call her Phantom Steve because she likes it that way. P. Steve is a wonderfully unique and newly minted 16 year old! I have happily gotten to know P. Steve as I got to know Trace. She writes about her fantastically brilliant daughter in her blog posts sometimes but it's through personal emails that I've gotten to just love this girl. I must admit, I wish I had been as unique and interesting a human being at 16. P. Steve, as you can tell just by the name she likes to sport, is creative and unafraid to be herself. That's mighty unusual in this day and age and it makes me want to meet the young lady who breaks the rules of teenage-hood and marches to the beat of her own drummer.

I hear from Trace that P. Steve has decided to adopt my Birthday Week concept and she's doing it just at the right time, her 16th birthday, always a special milestone in a teen's existence. So, although I apologize to Trace for complicating her life, I think it's GREAT that P. Steve will spread out her birthday to a week of celebrations from now on, I wish I had started this earlier in my life, it's makes all the difference and takes the pressure off everyone. Now P. Steve doesn't have to cram EVERYTHING into one 24 hour slot. She can let special friends take her out to coffee (or tea in this case if she's anything like her tea addicted mom!) and still have that extra special day, May 26th, for family celebrations etc. She can even pick a day in that week to do as SHE pleases, her very favorite things that only she likes. I, for instance, feed the birds EVERY birthday. This year I could only find one lonely crow (I swear an angel sent him to me, but more about that in another post) to feed my McDonald's fries to but he was a seriously happy camper and made me laugh out loud.

So, I wanted to Celebrate Your Birthday here in Canada and send you a shout out on your very special day. I feel privileged to be getting to know you and I'm glad to call you a sweet friend (OK, neice!). I also wanted the Birthday Girl to know that I think she ROCKS!

Ok, so I'm not a professional videographer... this is our first attempt with the new camera to do a video, we forgot that there is no way to turn a video 90 degrees, oops. We couldn't re-film 'cause the candle burned out and I ate the cupcake. Hey, it's the thought that counts!

Your Birthday present is the custom bookmark above, now if you catch your mom red handed using your bookmark you'll have proof it's yours, I mean, her name doesn't start with a "P" for Phantom, does it?? ;o) I'm sending a small care package to you in Queensland Australia with a few extra goodies you and your mom tucked inside like a bookmark for her so she finally leaves YOURS alone!! (Trace likes to steal P. Steve's bookmarks, she's notorious about it, then, it seems, she promptly loses them! Since mother & daughter are having a meter high stacked book read-a-thon to see who can finish their stack first, I'm thinking stealing bookmarks would be like cheating on a test or bumping an elbow in a pool game. I call FOUL!!

Tracey's and P.Steve's bookmarks are my entries for my APR this week as the theme is appropriately "Bookmarks & Books" (inspired by P. Steve's challenge to her mom.)

I'm sending much love, hugs & kisses your way, hopefully they don't leak out of the box and accost the post guy 'cause I really dislike our postal system (but that's a post for another day, probably on my new blog that I'll be co-hosting with my bloggy friend Ellen. Go here for the curious!)

Talk to you all later, hope to see you in The Artist's Play Room on Saturday for our new theme and a wrap up of this week's submissions!

Best,

Featured Artist - Dion Dior

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:26:00 +0000

It's that time again, another month has gone by and I'm featuring another artist in my continuing series that showcases talented, spectacular artists and allows you to get to know them better through the virtual interview they graciously participate in. This month I'm also doing a terrific giveaway so stay tuned, I'll tell you all about it and how to enter at the end of this post

(Please remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it!)

This month's amazingly talented artist is Dion Dior. I am lucky to count her as one of my new friends. We have been slowly getting to know one another over the blogosphere, reading one another's blogs, sending emails back and forth and each participating in an article I wrote for Featuring Magazine a few months ago. I have learned she is generous, kind and one of those special women who make you feel cherished just by talking with her.

Plein Air from her sister's garden (on vacation in Australia)

I started following Dion's blog many months ago, her art was different than most of the other artists I followed. It's the perfect blend of reality and the artist's eye. I've never really loved perfect art, the stuff that is so perfect you wonder if it's a photograph. I'm drawn to art that shows that there's an artist behind the creation, someone who sees the world a unique way and is willing to share that with us. Dion is one of those artists and I'm envious that she makes her art so elementally beautiful you want to study it.

I think Dion's genius is in her exquisite use of color. She uses the brightest, happiest colors in her art but more than her choice of color, she knows how to expertly blend and balance them to please the eye. That's actually REALLY hard to do and she makes it look effortless.

Jenn: How did you get started making art?

Page from Dion's sketchbook
in "The Sketchbook Project"

Dion: I've been making art since I could first pick up a pencil. I don't know what it was, but I always had a passion for art as a kid that just never went away. I never went anywhere without pencils and a sketchbook, even as a young child. Everyone thought I was so studious, but it was art that was driving me. I would draw, color, or paint every second I got. Even now my mother has my art framed and on display all over the house. The art from my early years is rather embarrassing, but it's all part of the journey.

Jenn: Do you sell your work, where?

Dion: I don't really sell my work. Most of the work I do is very personal and I never have a commercial perspective in mind when I create it. I'm not opposed to selling it, it's just not my focus right now. I get asked ALL the time, where I sell and can people buy prints. I may do it in the future, but for now I can't seem to find the time to put into it. I have been offered quite a number of comissions, some of which I've accepted, but most I turn down simply because I haven't had the time to really pour myself into the projects. All part of the future I suppose, however I do have a room full of art that would probably make a great exhibition.

Jenn: What is your process in creation? (do you like plein air best or use of a photograph, or your own imagination, or follow where the art supplies take you?)

Dion: I love plein air but I don't get time for it these days. I have two young children and I'm a full time stay-at-home mom right now so sitting for a while just sketching when I'm at the park is not something I can do. Most of my inspiration comes from my garden or around my house. I use magazines or the internet for reference, but mostly I play around with my subjects, apply my own flavor to colors and vibrancy. I love bold, colorful art that explodes with energy.

Jenn: What are your favorite artist's supplies?

Tulips painted using Twinkling H2O's

Dion: I use Twinkling H2O's mostly in my work. They are shimmering, luminescent watercolor paints that come in a staggering array of colors. They definitely lead the way for me and give my art a personality even I couldn't imagine. Luminarte, the makers of Twinkling H2O's has just come out with a new line of acrylic paint called "Silks". They are an acrylic version of Twinks and are very quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Another favorite of my is watersoluble mediums such as watercolor pencils and crayons. I use Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and Neocolor II's a lot.

Jenn: How does making a spectacular piece make you feel?

Dion: The feeling I get when creating art is WHY I create. That rush in my belly, the racing of my heart every time I open a pot of paint is just perfection. I get my inspiration from nature because I seem to have an affinity with it. I see a garden through an artists eye, bursting with color and shimmer. My work never comes out like the real thing, but that's art. It's always my interpretation. I think I see color more vibrantly than it is in real life.

Jenn: What do you do with a less than steller piece, do you rework until you're happy?

Dion's interpretation of ocean waves.

Dion: Imperfect art is a fact of life I'm afraid. I never dicard imperfect art, I don't even spend a lot of time reworking it, I simply accept that it's not my best, I put it away and then start again. I love going back and looking at my disasters, it's great to see how far I've come, or what I could do better....which is a lot!! I'm never REALLY happy with any of my work. I'm always in pursuit of perfection, but know I'll never achieve it. Learning is a lifetime pursuit and I've lived long enough to know that everything waxes and wanes, especially my art.

Jenn: Is there anything else you'd like me to include about you or your art? (anything you'd like to elaborate on would be greatly helpful!)

Doodling with Color

Dion: I love what the interenet has done to enable sharing. The art community has benefited from this so much. Being able to share with, learn from, and befriend other artists has been the most enriching and inspiring thing that's ever happened to me.

Thank you Dion, for allowing me to interview you, I loved learning more about you, your process and your beautiful and unique art. I'm blessed to call you a friend, thank you for being so available and generous with your time. Before I get to the giveaway, though, I must show one more set of photos. Along with the three other courses Dion teaches, she also gives a class on Mandalas. Her class is called Wisdom Circles and is part of the 21 Secrets art class conglomerate where 21 talented artists each offer a class. Here are several spectacular examples of Dion's Mandalas. (click to enlarge)

Our Celebration Giveaway!

In celebration of Dion's classes (teaching Twinkling H2O's, Watercolor Pencils and the new Silks) and the launch of the new Silks acrylic glazes by Luminarte (Dion is their Premier Teacher of Silks!), we're doing a spectacular giveaway! Luminarte has generously donated (thank you Leslie) two introductory sets of Silks! Each set includes five colors, Olive Vine, Ginger Peach, Ice, Snapdragon and Gargantuan Green. If you'd like a chance to WIN your own set of these new amazing paints just leave a comment with this post. Please make SURE you leave your name and a way for me to contact you if you are the winner, don't just comment anonymously.

If you'd like to purchase Twinks (shimmering watercolor paints with mica) or Silks (shimmering acrylic paints with mica) just click on the product links in my sidebar, it'll take you directly to Luminarte's website, Dreaming In Color. The contest will run for one week and the winners will be chosen and announced next Tuesday the 29th of May. Make sure you check back here in a week just in case YOU were the lucky winner of an introductory set of Silks. I will be talking more about both Silks and Twinks in the weeks to come as I'm now taking the Silks course that Dion is giving. I've heard so many wonderful things about these products that I'm giddy to start playing. I just know they're gonna be fantastic and add such life to my artwork.

Dion's Links:
Blog
Flickr Feed
Workshop Info
Videos

I'll see you all soon for the APR wrap up and new theme announcement, tune in Saturday for that bunch of excitement. Hope to see your lovely artwork linked up this week!

Gosh, I need a cuppa hazelnut coffee. It's a serious addiction, people.
I'm out!

Artist's Play Room #10

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 19 May 2012 21:09:00 +0000

Scroll to end for theme!!

WOOHOO!! My Birthday Week Rocked!! It started on Monday with a truly warm and wonderful day, one of the first for Nanaimo this year. Usually, our weather is much better than it's been this Spring, warmer days start usually early in March/April. I spent Monday blogging and fooling around on the computer (I'm building a new blog that I'll be co-hosting with one of my favorite friends, Ellen of CardMonkeysPaperJungle.com). Then, I challenged my mom to a Yahtzee tournament and we drank loads of coffee and ate peanut butter crackers.

Tuesday we went shopping to Coombs, a very cool little market and specialty set of shops. The coolest thing is that they have goats that live on their roof! It's so funny to drive up and see a half a dozen goats grazing on the hay covered roof. The specialty shops are like artisan jewelry, specialty papers, hand made pottery, stickers, stamps & stuff, and lots of fun cafe's etc. It's a fun and happy making place to window shop.

Wednesday, my actual birthday was wonderful!! I did one of my favorite things, went to Starbucks, bought a specialty coffee and sat down to read my Kindle! I LOVE doing this and I totally appreciate that mom joined me as it's really not her thing. I was so lucky to spend the entire week with mom, totally blessed. We then went looking at pretty flowers and the local flower & garden shop. Back home we had one of my favorite meals, surf & turf, a baked potato and grilled mushrooms, YUMMY. Mom had baked me a chocolate cake for dessert too (gluten free of course). It was a spectacularly happy day, I'm a lucky girl.

The rest of the week I spent painting, my best love. I feel so relaxed, revitalized and wonderful. Thanks mom, for making my birthday week so great. I want to also thank all my bloggy friends that sent me birthday wishes and left sweet, lovely comments for me. You've made me feel so well loved.

Now, here's all the lovely artwork illuminating last week's theme of "Favorite Things" from some totally talented artists (they're all becoming my good friends, thanks for that, too!)

(Mine's first, birthday girl ya know, lol.)

Title: "A Few Of My Favorite Things"


Annie made a beautiful altered journal, you can tell she's a quilter, such talent!	Victoria says her favorite thing is art, I understand THAT love	Kim did the sweetest thing, she wrote a post about me! Your owl coffee cozies are SO CUTE!


One of Minn's favorite things are words, I love her drawing that shows her love of words	Please meet Charlie, he is Vonny's boy. Both the painting and her boy are absolutely grand!	Darla's favorite things are brushes, paints, sketching & little booklets.


Gloria's fave things are color & tangles. I love both things too! This looks like a quilt, wow.	Tracey was just the sweetest to paint MY favorite things. Chocolate & hazelnut coffee. I love her and her painting!	Vonnie also loves bright colored paintings, that's a good thing as she does them so darn well!!


Debbie combined her love of color, books and beads to make this lovely bookmark.	Andrea painted beautiful things in pretty packages I totally love it.	Terrie has lots of faves, jewelry, cookies, beaches, ribbon, books. Her very Favorite thing is her family!

Lou Anne just flowers and
what she's done in this
collage is picked flowers
that represent her friends.
That's so beautiful!

This week's theme is inspired by a very good friend of mine, Tracey and her lovely and terrific daughter we'll call Phantom Steve (she's wonderfully quirky, as explained by Tracey, and whimsically likes to change her name up once in a while. Hey, we ALL should be this kind of creative). I think Phantom Steve is a perfect example of someone who knows how to live life, grab it by it's ears and not let go! She does it the way SHE sees it, and isn't swayed by what other's tell her. Trace, the spectacular mom she is, nurtures that in her beautiful daughter. I sincerely hope some day to meet these wonderful women. Trace and I get along over the web like a house on fire (much Like another friend I'm thinking of... E, lol) and I just want to give P.Steve a huge hug for being just so darn cool. So, this challenge is for you, P.Steve.

Let me explain...
P.Steve challenged Trace to a read-a-thon, who could read their one meter stack of books the fastest. They built their stack carefully in Trace's studio and diligently began unbuilding them as they read book after book, starting a new stack of read books. This inspired me to make this week's theme BOOKMARKS. Now, you don't have to make an actual bookmark, although I can guarantee I'll be doing just that, probably using my new "Silks" acrylic paints (taking Dion's course as we speak, it was one of my birthday presents). But you all don't have to do that, you can draw, assemble, create anything to do with bookmarks & books!

Here are some examples to help you on your creative journey...


Kim's handmade altered book and bookmark/gift tag, beautiful!	A selection of my bookmarks.	Virgilla's book painting


Joni's bookmark is ripped canvas	Kara's painting of a famous book cover	Kelly paints right on old book pages


Melody's original painted bookmark	Cheryl's quilted bookmark	Tiesia makes bookmarks of altered book pages, this page is from Delores Claiborne.	Ellen did a tutorial on how to make a corner bookmark!

I would love it if your creation had an actual bookmark in it but just to broaden the theme, if you only want to do something about books that's ok too. Have at it you talented creative people! Go, do your thing. Remember, as I say... You don't have to be great (although you all are), just create!!

Talk to you all soon.
Best,

Happy Birthday To ME!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:03:00 +0000

It's my Birthday and I'll cry if I want to!! LOL. I woke up early this morning, 8am, couldn't get back to sleep so thought I'd enjoy the extra hour of birthday time and get up to greet the morning. I go to email only to find it filled to the brim with Birthday wishes from everyone across the Blogosphere!! One was from Kim, a lovely friend and IA member. She wished me a very happy birthday and told me I was PURTY. Well, gotta respond to that and thank her for the compliment (as I preened, lol). I went to her blog and what do I find but a whole post about ME! Oh my gosh, it made me cry.

I got lovely birthday wishes from a very good friend, Trace, and I had forgotten to tell you when it posted that another friend, Dion, did an artist post about me, it was so cool to be featured! I was also The featured in Artist's In Blogland the other week. It's been a pretty wonderful month.

I'm actually very lucky to be able to experience and revel in the warm, wonderful birthday wishes at all. Mom and I were off to bed last night when mom popped her head out of her room and asked what time it was. I'm thinking she's setting her clock for a wake up time... I had no idea what time it was, it could have been 11 PM or 2 AM, I was oblivious. She told me it was 12:06 AM. I was born exactly 42 years ago to the minute. It reminded me of all my wonderful mother went through to ensure my survival and just how darn lucky I am to be here at all.

Jenn, two days old, holding mom's hand.

Mom went into labor with me three month early and I was born at 28 weeks. I was also born breach with the cord between her and I (so no oxygen) and got stuck. When I was finally out I wasn't breathing at all. As mom says, I was a lazy sot and decided to play chicken with the doctors and continue to not breathe. Because mom was in medical distress they gave me to the anesthesiologist who determined I hadn't made it. All members were needed to save mom so they left me to work on her. Now, understand, mom had requested NO heroics with me, she was a delivery nurse in this hospital and knew that the chances of my living were slim to none, being born SO early (this was 1970) and I was just skimming viability statistics. She didn't want me to suffer. Her good nursing friends said that about 8-10 minutes later, from across the room I began to scream bloody murder, I guess I decided to stay a while longer.

Jenn @ 2 months beside a newly sharpened pencil.

I was rushed to the incubator and my father was told if he wanted to see his daughter he better come now as I wasn't predicted to live more than an hour. Mom says after she awoke from the anesthetic she sat for more than a week with me, her hand in the incubator, flicking my foot, reminding me to continue to breath. I wasn't very good at it yet and would forget every minute or so that oxygen was vital to survival. My weight was 2 pounds 12 oz and they kept me in the hospital until I hit 5 pounds, which took about 7 weeks. Mom tells me that I was spoiled ROTTEN for those 7 weeks. The minute my mom's nursing friends could cuddle me and take me out of the incubator permanently, I didn't spend more than 5 minutes alone and the only time I was laid down was to change me!

Jenn at 2 years old with her Raggedy Anne

I feel so lucky to have the mom I do and to all those wonderful nurses who whispered in my little ear that I was gonna be ok, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know that the love I received in those 7 weeks kept me going and ensured I'd have none of the developmental and learning disabilities that were predicted in my future. My only legacy of my harrowing start is mild asthma and an inability to digest gluten and lactose. Oh, and I'm allergic to apples too, lol. Not too bad for only being one day over the viability cut off line, huh? I lucked out and I thank my lucky stars every birthday. That's probably why I consider birthdays so important and I celebrate a birthday week instead of just a day. I mean, I have so much to celebrate because life is so glorious from above the ground instead of 6 feet under.

I'll be back in a day or two with my "Favorite Things" APR post with my artwork submission to share. Until then, thank you to all you wonderful bloggy friends, I love you all.

Hugs & Kisses,
Best,

I sure would love it if you haven't yet, please follow me using the Linky Follower Tool right over there in my sidebar ------->
I'll consider it a lovely birthday present from you!

I'm a Published Artist & Writer!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Cover of first issue and
personal note from Marit.

There's a new Artist's magazine that came out this month with it's first issue. The magazine is named "Featuring" and I'm lucky enough to have written a three page article for this beautiful and highly entertaining artist centered magazine. The article is about The Butterfly Project, I've talked about this project many times because it's such a wonderful labor of love for the Holocaust Museum Houston. I was thrilled when both my article and artwork (along with the work of three of my artist friends) was accepted into the premier issue of Featuring. I spent over a month talking back and forth with Marit, the Editor-in-Chief. Featuring is (in her words) her "baby" and I'm so happy to congratulate her on it's successful launch, it's beautiful, interesting, informative and highly readable. I can't wait for the second issue.

First page of my article showing Pavel Friedman's poem

The Butterfly Project is focused around the effort to remember the children who perished in the Holocaust. Holocaust Museum Houston is endeavoring to collect one and a half million hand made butterflies from around the world, each butterfly represents one of the one and a half million children who died. The idea to use butterflies came from a touching poem written by Pavel Friedman, a teen who died in one of the concentration camps. The poem speaks about the beauty of a butterfly and laments the fact that there are no more where he is. There's still time to contribute, if you'd like to send a butterfly for inclusion in the art installment planned for 2014 then click on my butterfly button in my sidebar. It will take you to the the Project's website page where you can get all the relevant information and where to send your hand made butterfly.

The butterfly I submitted to The Butterfly Project. It's such a thrill to se my artwork published!

My article is centered around where each artists' (Tracey Fletcher King, Diane Rank, Dion Dior and me, Jennifer McLean) inspiration came from for their painted butterfly and how the Project influenced their art. A heartfelt thank you goes out to each of my artist friends who told me their inspiration and so graciously let me submit their artwork with my article.

Tracey's butterflies: bottom left
Dion's butterfly: bottom right
Diane's buterfly: top right

Tracey said that her inspiration came from her daughter who was studying the Holocaust in school. The enormity of the losses was one of the most difficult things for her daughter to grasp. How does anyone truly let those kind of numbers sink in? Diane said that when she learned about the Project she was reminded of her first teenage crush. His mother was a survivor of the concentration camps and she pulled from those feelings when she created her butterflies. Dion found that as a mother she was horrified by the loss of innocent life at the hands of such evil. When thinking about the Project and what I wanted to create, I found myself wishing I could paint a butterfly garden that all the lost children could have lived instead of in the camps. Participating in this Project was a deeply moving experience, I know all the participants would agree.

Article "The Gift", journals of Jill Zaheer & Seth Apter

Obviously there were many more articles other than mine in this exquisite new magazine. Here's just a sampling of what you could expect to read about:

In the spotlight (Andrea Joseph, an amazing artist)
Hybrid Art (Rosie Rowe's Artwork)
Very Important Project (how art is changing)
Featured Blogger (Natalie Malik)
Stepping into the Labyrinth
Copyright dos, don’ts and risks!
Sleep, Dreams, and Journals
All about Etsy
The Gift (Collaboration of Seth Apter and Jill Zaheer on art, poetry and a shared journal)
Into the Studio (The studio of Michael Mew)
Message from Swaziland
Doodling
Wanna Trade ATC's?

The Featured Artist article on Andrea Joseph, a truly amazing artist.

If you would like your own copy of Featuring Magazine, it can only be ordered online. Go to the magazine's website www.featuringmagazine.com where you can order the premier issue that's now out. There will be four issues released per year but subscriptions will only be available starting in year two. Marit smartly decided to wait a year to gauge the popularity of her new magazine before promising subscription service. I'd love it if you'd all purchase a copy and support this wonderful new magazine. If you are an artist or are interested in new, upcoming art mediums like mixed media, art journaling and more then this magazine would be right in your wheelhouse!

I'll see you all hopefully throughout the week as you participate in my Special Edition Artist's Play Room. It's my Birthday Week so please come on back and participate, I really want to see you!
Talk to you soon,
Best,

Inspiration Avenue Challenge: Hands

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:37:00 +0000

Inspiration Avenue (of which I'm a member) has this week's challenge hosted by Shelly and her mom Loretta. They've decided for this challenge that ends on Mother's day, to illuminate "Hands". Loretta pointed out that now when she looks at her hands she sees her mother's hands. Those hands that nurtured and loved and mothered her, teaching her to be a good person so she could grow up to be a good mother to Shelly who then went on to be a good mother to her children. Our hands are important and deserve to be celebrated. Applause for our Hands!

Here's my submission for this week's challenge...

Title: "A Bird In The Hand"

I want to wish all mothers a Happy Mother's Day, especially to my own mom. She's truly the best mom ever. I totally lucked out in the Mother department. When other's give me a compliment, saying I'm helpful or kind, they're really complimenting my mom. I learned how to be the woman I am by her stellar example. I listened to her words and emulated her behavior. I soaked up her teachings about manners and compassion like a sponge. All I can say is I love her beyond words, she's always been my hero. Thanks for everything, mom. I Love you muchly. ♥
I'll be back very soon with a new post and probably artwork, I'm trying to finish several pieces!

We'll talk soon, K? Yes? Good!
I'm out!

I will be linking up to Inspire Me Monday as my inspiration this week and always is my mom. If you're looking for this week's Artist's Play Room just click here, it's my Special Birthday Edition!

Artist's Play Room #9 (Birthday Edition!)

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:23:00 +0000

I'm guessing because of the title, you've figured out that this week is my BIRTHDAY WEEK!! Yes, I did say Birthday WEEK. I consider birthdays important and so using the days around one's birthday as prep for THE day seems a good idea. Besides, it gives friends time to pick a day and take me to lunch or come over for coffee, with a whole week, they can all find a good day. :o) I'm so accommodating! My actual birthday is May 16th, I'm a Taurus (Bull).

I've decided that this week's theme will be Favorite Things. What are YOUR favorite things? Think about that as you look at a gallery of last week's artwork, then I'll expand on my new theme idea. Got your cup of Hazelnut coffee? (Ok, tea for Tracey and all her tea drinking followers, lol) Here we go!


Victoria has submitted a beautiful photograph that I'm seriously thinking of painting! I'm in love with the coloration. Lovely.	Vonny submitted one of her first painting, so great, I love that vase! I can't believe it's a first piece!


Andrea has been creative and used the colors of her lunch to create a face, wow.	This is such a cool idea from Debbie. The piece is made from eggshells, cool eh?

Minn has done a spectacular job of
capturing the juiciness of a tomato. Wow.


A gorgeous painting inspired by the label from Italian soap. Tracey is awesome!	Tracy makes great dolls out of gourds. Did you know gourds are fruit? Cool!


Terrie did two pieces for this week, I always love cutlery pieces, I still haven't done one!	Here's her other sweet piece, she did my favorite fruit, PEARS, love the four square lay out, I'll have to do that!!


Gloria's mom's favorite dessert is Strawberry shortcake, this looks even better than the real thing!	Kim did a great postcard that says "Phooey to sugar & spice, some days it's hard to be nice!


Hazelnut coffee is my absolute favorite beverage! I add a bunch of coffee; whitener & Splenda!	Yes sweet bunny, yes I am! I LOVE bunny chocolate, especially when it's frozen. I wish it wasn't only once a year.	COLOR, COLOR, COLOR! It makes me happy, all the riotous color by Robin Mead just makes me giddy.


I love seagulls, in fact, I actually love all birds. Just seeing them makes me smile & orange duck feet make me laugh!	I'm inspired by flowers, specifically, my favorite flower to paint is the Echinacea (cone flower). I just love their expressive petals!	NAIL POLISH, BABY!! My nails are the only thing I'm vain about, I keep them long and polished and gorgeous!

I have a few friends who have favorite things too...


Tracey Fletcher King is addicted to Arizona Iced tea. She has a chocolate obsession just like me!	My friend Cindy Garner is as addicted to roses & pink as I am to my hazelnut coffee!	Finally, I asked my mom what her favorite thing was. She said ME! Awww. She drew this, me age 6.

Now that you've made a list of those favorite things, go make art about them! Get creative, and remember, you don't have to be great, just create!

I have Birthday things to do, like make another hazelnut coffee and plan dream about presents & cake! OOhh, did someone say cake?? (Jenn starts humming the Birthday song.)

Toodles to you, I hope you all have a fantastic week.
I'm out!

If you haven't yet, could you pretty please add yourself to my Linky Follower Tool? It's right over there. ------>

Artist's Play Room #8

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 05 May 2012 21:06:00 +0000

I'm having such fun doing the Artist's Play Room every week, I sure hope you're all enjoying the weekly challenges as much as I am. As always I'll show you last week's entries from the challenge then we'll move on to our shiny new theme for this week! Are you ready? Do you have your tea or coffee or (god forbid) diet coke ready?? No? I'll wait...

Ready now? Yes? GOOD. (I'm nothing if not accomodating, lol.) Here we go!

Title: "Midnight In The Garden"
I'm not totally thrilled with this piece,
it just seems to be missing something. But
I'm using it as my piece this week as I'm
under the weather and just haven't got the
energy to do something else. Sorry.


Victoria used a photo to create a beautiful piece of art. I love the starling looking so forlorn. Lovely.	Minnemie has submitted a wonderful abstract using many shades of gray. I love that It makes me think then an elephant shows up!


This is a beautiful photo by Carol. The sun shining through the clouds is lovely.	Vonny has used blues and white to bring the theme to light, pun intended. he's gorgeous!


Tracey is from Australia where Vegemite is a popular toast spread,her blog post is so funny, great piece!	This is a beautiful example of being in the right place at the right time. You're a great photo- grapher Tracy, this is just lovely.


Nordljus did a spectacular job on this facial art piece. It's very impressive.	Andrea made a beautiful mandala in shades of gray. I find it hauntingly lovely.


Dion painted a shelf that she's using to hang her keys I love the colors! She used a new product called Silks, acrylics with mica for sparkle. WOW.	Gloria did a zentangle, I'd say that totally fits dark and light, lol.


Diane did a beautiful job interpreting light & dark. I always love her landscapes	Cindy added shading to her lovely flower to bring out the dark and light theme

Terri has made a fabric
collage that was shown
in Featuring Magazine.
Congratulations Terri!

If you haven't read the rules & guidelines, please go here. If you've landed here after this challenge has been completed but would like to participate in a current or future Artist's Play Room Challenge, just either click on the APR button in the sidebar or click here and you'll be taken to the latest APR Challenge!

Are you having trouble using the Mr. Linky to add your submissions to APR? Well here's some help! Just click on HELP and you'll be taken to my Linky Help Page. Cool, huh? I've got your back! Hmmm, now we need a new theme. Hmmm. Well, when I think of Spring I always think of fresh strawberries. That makes me think of a good theme. "Be inspired by Food". I don't care if you draw me a rutabaga or you make a Carmen Miranda "hat" with all that fruit piled high. And if produce isn't your thing, how about using the COLORS of fruit in a piece of art or collage all your favorite types of teas using their tea bag labels. You could also draw, digitally create or collage vintage food can labels, that would be cool. Hey! You could use pasta and do one of those pasta art pieces glued to cardboard. Go crazy, find your inspiration from the grocery store. Enjoy and don't eat your creation before you take a picture of it!
Here are some examples just to get you going...


Artist: Jennifer Allevato	"Fruit of the Spirit Scripture" by Angi	Artist: Jenn McLean


Artist: Kim Evans	Artist: PrintHouse	Artist: Kim Moline

I can't wait to see all your wonderful creations. Remember, you don't have to be great, just create!

Talk to you soon,Let's hug it out.:o)

P.S. If you haven't yet, please sign up using my Linky Follower tool in my sidebar, over there ----->(Thanks, I appreciate your support!)

Light, Dark & Pearly Paint

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:54:00 +0000

Well, I ended up changing my mind about what to submit for this week's Artist's Play Room Challenge (Light & Dark). I was going to finish a painting I had drawn out weeks ago so I worked on it and another painting all yesterday. I finished one but not the other I was going to submit. Then, I woke up this morning with a pulled muscle in my neck. Ouch. I guess I've been working "tensely", keeping my shoulders around my ears instead of relaxing into the artistic process. See, I'm desperately trying to find my style and I guess it's kinda stressing me out! So, I'll be posting the other piece, which also thankfully fits the theme, then I'm gonna use some prewritten posts to finish this week out. I'm going to take a couple days hiatus from art, allowing my neck muscle to relax and I'm going to try to relax myself too. It's not good that I'm stressing so much, it's never good for one's health. I know this. I need to learn to stop worrying about where my artwork will go and just let it go where ever it wants.

So, here's my artwork, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's very naive and different for me. even just working on black paper is different. I neither love it nor hate it... at the moment I'm ambivalent. :o) I look forward to your opinions...

Title: "Midnight In The Garden"

As a minimum, I'll be back Saturday for the Artist's Play Room wrap up and net theme. I look forward to seeing you there!

I'm gonna go take a hot shower.
Later Gator,

(Since this was supposed to be for Mr. Toast's weekly challenge, I'll be submitting to that site. The theme was lovebugs, hence the flying hearts, lol. C'est la Vie.)

Artist's Play Room #7

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:13:00 +0000

It's time for a new APR Challenge, I can't believe we're onto week seven! Please be patient for a few more minutes while I wrap up last week's challenge.

The theme we worked with last week was "Rainbow". What a fun theme this turned out to be! I'm not surprised though that I'm so thrilled as I covet color, I can't get enough of it! In fact, when I go to do a more morose piece, much of the time it comes out happy and colorful. The more color, the better. Here's my "rainbow" piece and all the wonderful submissions from last week...

Title: "Over The Garden Fence"

This was a real departure for me. I've never done anything at all like this. First, it's NOT from a photograph. I made it up!! I know, wholly cow. I didn't know I COULD. I knew I wanted flowers growing up a fence so I figured out the dimensions of a fence moving slightly off to the right then sketched in my very favorite flower, the Echinacea (cone flower). The cone flower is also a real butterfly magnet, when you google butterflies, 99 times of a 100 if the butterfly is on a flower, it's a pink cone flower! But I digress. I knew I wanted the background to be deliberately naive and the sunset to just be lines of color. I'm thrilled how my first original piece came out. I've always either worked from reality or a photograph. I'm really happy now. :o)


Victoria created a painting with many layers of paint & colorful feathers on her dress.	Cindy has done a wonderfully colorful painting. So sweet! I think how the color is flowing off the paint brush is wonderful.	Terri made a wonderful impressionist piece. I love the riotous color she used.


Lou Anne did a mosaic raindow. She doesn't think it's good art, I disagree, I love it.	Leslie did a great job on a commissioned piece.I especially love the perspective she's achieved. Wow.	I love how expressive this piece is with minimal lines. So great Darla!


Tracy @ Domestic Gourdess has made some fabulous earrings in bright colors. I love these. Peace, Baby!	Ayala painted a dower face with happy colors in the background, love the juxtaposition!	Andrea does beautiful mandalas, this one is a rainbow of color!


Debbie broke out of the mould and made a rainbow catcher! Lovely idea.	Minnemie has done a great painting of a Zebra, so wonderfully expressive, wow.	Gloria has done a beautiful oil painting I absolutely love it!

And one last beauty, again by
Gloria, she says when she
doesn't know what to paint
she paints fruit.

There's something just wonderful about painting fruit, I love the curve of the flesh. I've done several fruit paintings so I guess I felt that I should do other things but my friend Diane has changed all that silly thinking. I changed my perspective about repetitive work when she said "I'm a serial painter, I paint in series." That freed me, changed me and allowed me to paint whatever I wanted. If that's more pears, so be it! You can read more about Diane by going here.

This week's theme is totally opposite of last week's. As I've shown above, we did color last week, this week let's explore darkness and light. In your artwork I want you to show me how you'd interpret these two words. If you only want to illuminate one of them (pun intended) then pick one and go for it. Here are some examples of how to interpret Darkness & Light...


Marney has played strongly with shadow and highlights (light & dark)	Shelly has used black & white and color to illuminate the idea of darkness and light.


This example by Tummy Mountain is literal, a light in the darkness.	Stephanie gives a perfect example of how to successfully use a light background and dark subject.


Robert shows here how just black and white and the placement of one's subject truly makes stunning art.	Julia added shadow under each brush stroke by loading her paint brusha specific way, wow. (Click to enlarge)

I hope these examples help you find your way to a beautiful and amazing piece of art. As always, feel free to do any kind of art, from collage to watercolor, from crochet to altered books and journaling. Just remeber, you don't have to be great, just create!

Talk to you all soon,
I'm going to make a cup of hazelnut coffee, anyone want a cup while I'm up?
Line forms to the left, taking orders...
;o)
I'm out!
Best,

If you haven't yet, could you pretty please add yourself to my Linky Follower Tool? It's right over there. ------>

And The Cow Says MOO!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Two very cool things have happened recently. I was trolling the internet and happened upon a blog where the author had listed the best, newest things she'd come across. Buried in several photo editors (which I will review in an upcoming post) was a very cool new site called Klout. Klout measures your influence across the blogosphere and recently some of the major players who use scoring mechanisms to rate websites have started to use Klout scores as one way to rate all things web related. I hurried and signed up for Klout and found that my score is a lowly 14ish. Since Klout is complicated, it's difficult to figure out how to raise one's score successfully so I'm kinda just going about my normal business and not worrying (too much) about what my influence & reach is according to Klout. But I digress, this wasn't meant to be a commercial for Klout.

You see, on Klout you can win stuff caled Perks and I won a free set of 50 MOO.com business cards!! This was totally fortuitous as since I moved 6 months ago, I desperately needed a new set of cards. They just arrived yesterday and they're even better than my first set! I can't get over the quality of MOO cards. They're so thick and luxurious and they're just perfect for artists. MOO allows you to add a different picture to the front of every card without extra charge. Then you put your particulars on the back. I choose my best artwork and use the business cards as a subtle advertisement for me and my Blog/Etsy shop. Take a look at how they turned out... ( I took pictures of the whole process of opening them up so you could experience it with me!)

Normally, MOO cards come in an amazing black
heavy duty box, such great quality. Since
these are a free gift they came in a less
spectacular box.

My Apple, hey, it matches the MOO box!

I just LOVE how the cards look, you should
FEEL them, wow!

Aren't they PUUURRRTY??!? I love just looking
at them. The great thing is that the price
for 50 cards is low enough that you can
afford to do small runs and get a new set
with your new art every 6 months!

...and here's the best part of MOO.com, I really love this about their company because it engenders loyalty!

THEY HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR!!

You've gotta love that as a customer. You assume that employees are having fun doing their job if this is the cute little addition thing they slip in. They didn't have to put a little message at the bottom of their generic box. They didn't have to make each customer who "looked" smile and chuckle because they'd been caught out looking into an empty box. That's just something extra, a fun little thing to make you remember to enjoy life. Thank you MOO.

The second wonderful thing that's happened this week is that I've become an affiliate of MOO.com!! So, in a few days or so there'll be one or two links in my sidebar that you, my loyal readers can click on and order your own MOO products. They don't just make business cards, they also do postcards, greeting cards, stickers and mini cards (I made some as tiny thank you's and on the other side I put blank spaces for the name of the art piece a customer bought, my blog name, etsy shop and date the artwork was completed.) Moo's actually having their annual Spring sale where you can get 25% off many of their products. I'm thinking of ordering some postcards and selling them as reproductions of my work on Etsy.

I will be keeping you all up to date about sales and special promotions at MOO.com and if I get any promo codes I'll be sure to extend them to those of you who'd like one. I actually do have a 10% off code for your first order. If you'd like the code, just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you ASAP (just make sure you link your blog or leave your email so I can get back to you!)

I'm off for my requisite nightly hazelnut coffee! If I weren't so lazy I could have a freshly baked gluten free golden cupcake with cream cheese icing. Damn my laziness!
Hugs to you all,
Best,

P.S. I would really appreciate it if all my visitors who are enjoying this series would join up using my Linky Follower tool in the sidebar, that-a-way ----->
(if you'd like a follow back please leave me a comment requesting one, I'm always thrilled to discover new bloggy friends.)

Blogging 101 (Part Three)

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:01:00 +0000

...and the series continues! If you missed my two other blog posts about Blogging 101 you can either click the blogging 101 sidebar badge (or grab it and add it to your site, hint, hint!) or just click on Part One or Part Two.

In Part One we learned the basics, how to center images etc., how to italicize, bold or underline text in the sidebar and how to make an image clickable. Then in Part Two I taught you how to make your very own clickable AND copy/pastable blog button. We even added some extra sweet functionality to it like making it open the link it points to in a new tab/window and to display a message when you mouse over your blog button.

This time, I'm going to teach you a very useful thing, how to horizontally align images in a blog post. If anyone of you have tried to do this manually by dragging your uploaded pictures around inside a blog post you know it usually doesn't work. In fact, doing that usually screws up all the other formatting that you added to your blog post! After reading this article you'll be able to easily make pretty, lined up pictures, which not only look cool but saves serious real estate on your blog post!

So, here we go!

We have to start by uploading two pictures to Blogger. Do this by clicking the picture in the link bar above. You can upload your pic anyway you want, just get them on the page! When the first one is up, center it if it's not centered (that function is also in the link bar above or can also be accessed by clicking on your uploaded picture.) Now, before you upload your second picture, click on this first one and add a caption. You don't even have to put anything in the caption, you can just leave it as it is, it just adds the code that allows us to horizontally align our pictures. Here are our two pictures...

Albert Einstein

Author Unknown

When we're done, they'll look like this...


Albert Einstein	Author Unknown

Won't that be a cool thing to be able to do with your pictures? Yes? I thought you'd like it! Coincidentally, just this weekend my Inspiration Avenue friends begged to learn just HOW I was lining up all my pictures so prettily. So, this post is dedicated to those lovely women I so adore!

COMMERCIAL BREAK:
(Oh, and here's an IA plug, we're doing a Postcard Swap over on Inspiration Avenue, the button is grab-able from my sidebar. Go on over and read all about it, all are welcome & it's gonna be a whole lot of Mail Swapping FUN!!)
Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Let me explain generally what we're doing with the pictures so you have a framework of where we're going. What we're doing is using simple code to set up invisible rows and columns kind of like a spread sheet, then putting each picture into it's own "square" called a cell. This orders them into a horizontal space so they look lined up! Doing this is called setting up a table. The whole set of cells makes up our table. The code is relatively simple and there's two ways we can go about using this code to it's best advantage. To decide what way to go, answer this question...

Do you want to add a caption like a title or comment to each picture that you're lining up?
Do you just want to line up a bunch of pictures, one after the other, keeping it absolutely simple?

If you don't want or need any captions that center themselves under each photo and all you want is for your pictures to line up horizontally, then you can put in the code yourself, it's pretty simple. What I do is keep a text file that has the basic code copied to it so all I have to do is copy it and add the specific details of each picture into their own "cell" in the "table". Easy Peasy! Here is what the basic code looks like.

<center><table cellspacing="10"><tbody>
<tr><td>PHOTO 1 INFORMATION HERE</td><td>PHOTO 2 INFORMATION HERE</td></tr>
</tbody></table></center>

Let me explain each piece of this code, then when I show you the more complicated one, you'll understand what you're seeing. First, the "center" does just that, centers our pictures. Remember from the previous Blogging 101 series', we need them in pairs with < > around them, we first tell blogger we want to center all that comes next by saying center (with < > around it), then at the end of what we want centered we put it's pair, telling blogger to STOP centering with /center (with < > around it), right? OK. (Please also remember this applies to many pieces of code, it mostly comes in pairs, start doing something, then stop doing something!)

The next part, table, tells blogger we're gonna make a table, notice it's pair is at the END of the sequence too with /table. Right after that is cellspacing, this can be set at whatever you want, from 0 to like 100 (although that would put some HUGE space between pictures), that's what cellspacing does, it puts space between each cell of the table we're creating. For instance, with the horizontal pictures above, I used a cellspacing of 10, sometimes I want a wider space so I'll use 20. Here, I want to mention that there's a similar code bit called cellpadding, it works similarly, you can use either or both. I tell you about it now because the more complicated code that blogger creates for us, (that I'll tell you about below soon), uses both padding and spacing. Cellpadding puts padding within each cell, between the picture and the cell's border. Cellspacing puts spacing around EACH cell. (Don't worry if you're confused, just put a number from 1-20 in either cellpadding or cellspacing until you get the distance you want between the pictures.)


This is a visual example of cellpadding! Each cell has padding around it.	This is a visual example of cellspacing! A space is added between cells .

Here's why I tend to use cellspacinging, if you look closely, comparing the two sets of pictures, you'll notice that the names (Albert Einstein, Author Unknown) are different distances from their requisite picture. With cellspacing, it puts the space ALL THE WAY AROUND the picture & caption, which keeps the caption close to the picture as opposed to cellpadding which tends to move the caption down.

Ok, onward...
Here's the code box again.

<center><table cellspacing="10"><tbody>
<tr><td>PHOTO 1 INFORMATION HERE</td><td>PHOTO 2 INFORMATION HERE</td></tr>
</tbody></table></center>

The next part is tbody, which tells blogger that next we're gonna be filling the body of the table with cells that we're going to create. Now into the nitty gritty of the code. We start with tr, which encompasses all the table cells, then the first td, which, in pairs, goes around each cell using < >. Notice that table, tbody, tr and td all have pairs of /table, /tbody, /tr and /td. These, if you remember from a previous Blogging 101 are called opening and closing tags. It's the opening and closing tag td that repeats with each cell. So, right after the opening tag td, we put the info for the first picture we want to see in our horizontal line. After putting in the picture info we use the closing /td tag, which closes that cell. We then put an opening td tag again, opening a new cell, saying we're adding another picture in this row, then add the picture info, then the closing /td tag cell. We continue until we can't fit more pictures across our blog post. (I'll talk about blog post width in a minute, let's just finish here...) Then, when we're finished adding pictures in a horizontal row we add all the requisite closing tags that go with our opening tags, so we're adding /tr, /tbody, /table and /center, all with the < > around each one.

Side Topic: Blog width and number of pictures you can get across a post.

My blog post section is about 600 pixels wide, some are more narrow, around 500-550 (they might have a sidebar on both the left and right side, making the post part narrower. Some are actually a little wider than 600. Your total width of pictures have to be at least 10-20 pixels smaller than your blog center width. Don't forget to include the cellpadding (or spacing) you add between each picture! For instance, if your blog post width is 600 and you want to have four pictures in a horizontal row, then each photo cannot be any wider then 140, assuming that you use only 5 cellpadding (which would be a total of 15 extra pixels added to the widths of the total width of pictures...

140+5(padding)+140+5(padding)+140+5(padding)+140=575 pixels

The great thing is that when you upload a picture to blogger and choose a size (I choose small usually) then blogger adds height and width functionality to the picture code for you! If you remember from previous Blogger 101 posts, you can tell blogger what width and height you'd like your pictures. So, choose whatever requisite width you've calculated will fit your blog and put that as the width, then you can calculate the height that will keep the ratio of height to width the same so the picture stays the same dimensions. (if this calculation is too complicated, you could try taking out the height= part and only changing the width, this should change the ratio as the width changes, although I've never tried it this way, lol, so don't quote me!)

Ok, back to the code...

So, let me show you what the code will look like with the two above pictures added where they should be added.

<center><table cellspacing="10"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-qn43e2eiafkge787dxq7u6c84u.jpg"><img src="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-qn43e2eiafkge787dxq7u6c84u.jpg" width="150" /></a></td><td><a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-qk6bixkfhyw2stfih7rrj1pj3w.jpg"><img src="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-qk6bixkfhyw2stfih7rrj1pj3w.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table></center>

And this is what that code above will look like! (oh, and if you noticed, I tried using just the width code, and it WORKS, it changes the picture to the correct height ratio to go with that width.)

Now, if you don't understand the picture code that I added between the td and /td then you'll have to go back to Blogging 101 Part 1 & Part 2 to learn what you're looking at.

I'm going to go over the basic code one last time so when you see the complicated code you won't freak out, lol. Let me show you the basic code, in the most simple way, then you'll "see" what I see when I look at the jumble of code I'm about to show you.

There are several sections to the basic code. I've explained about Line 1 and Line 3, it's LINE 2 that we're really concerned about. This is what the basic code will look like when we have three pictures in a horizontal row. We're gonna start on the left orange arrow and move along, with up and down arrows, toward the right, explaining as we go.

First we open our table, that's tr, then we open our first cell with td and put the image code (our picture #1) then we close that cell, /td. Then open cell two with td, put the image code (picture #2) then close our second cell, /td. Finally, we open the third cell with td, put the image code (picture #3) and close our third cell, /td. Don't forget to close the table now, with the /tr. No matter what other code is added around this basic code, it's still just a simple table with three cells.

Now I want to teach you how to use the code that Blogger makes, no having to type in your own code, just moving code around, manipulating it's placement. Since you understand what you're looking at, this should make putting pictures in a row much easier and quicker than what you have to do above, making your own table.

So, imagine you open your new blank blog post and want to add a line of pictures horizontally across the screen. You want to do this easily, without having to build your own table. What you do is this...

Center your cursor using the button in the header bar, it looks like a bunch of stripes, I've highlighted it in pink!
Upload the first image you want in your row of pictures. It doesn't matter if it's from a URL or from your computer or some other way.
Click the uploaded picture so it's highlighted. Choose "add caption" and type what you want in the caption. (later, if you don't want to use the captions, you don't have to use them. It's just that adding the caption adds the extra "table code". What blogger does is when you add a caption to a picture it makes a table with only one cell, putting one picture into that cell, and "attaching" a caption, which allows blogger to make sure the caption stays with the picture)
Now, click just below that caption you've added and if you cursor isn't centered then start at #1, if it is centered then start at #2 of this list.
Continue until you have enough photos in a vertical line that will fill the width of your post (about a total of 550 pixels). This is usually three or four pictures unless their seriously small.
Now, click the HTML button on the very left of the header bar, next to the arrows. You're gonna now be able to see the code for the pictures you just added in your post. This is what you'll see...

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-dwp579hhm2skukfki1r9rx7tj5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-dwp579hhm2skukfki1r9rx7tj5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Einstein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-phnetekin5w79p4hsdmhicrsc8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-phnetekin5w79p4hsdmhicrsc8.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice People</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-ahi2maj7i6qk36jiryrbxbwe5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://img.skitch.com/20120423-ahi2maj7i6qk36jiryrbxbwe5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharing is Caring</td></tr>
</tbody></table>

Don't panic when you look at the extra code in this box, you'll get to mostly ignore it because it's unimportant. Let me show you what this code above would look like...

Einstein

Nice People

Sharing is Caring

Now, we want to manipulate the code by dragging it around so the pictures will be horizontally aligned with the captions under the correct image. Below is the same code as above, just highlighted to teach you what we want to highlight and drag around.

The pink parts are the three coded pictures each in their own cell & table and the blue parts are the captions, also each in their own cell (a special kind of cell for captions). All the rest of the (black) code is making individual tables with each picture/caption combo. Notice that it's totally similar to the code I showed you that puts the pictures in a line, but each picture is in a table of one! We want to use this fact, use the first picture's table but add two more cells to it, for a total of three cells for our three pictures. Remember, each cell is opened by td and closed by /td with < > around each tag. If you notice, each pink section has it's requisite opening and closing td tag. Each caption, in blue, has it's own specially classed td cell that "goes" with the picture cell. Don't worry, separating the picture cells and the caption cells doesn't "break" anything, in fact, once we move all the pink sections to make lined up pictures, we can erase all the other code, if you don't want the captions.

We will be working with the pink parts first, then the blue parts. Let me go over what we're gonna do generally then I'll try and show you visually. We're going to use the first pink section of code as the place we build the entire horizontal line of pictures. We will be moving the other two pink parts up so they sit right after the first pink section. Then we'll do the same with the blue parts, putting the second and third blue sections right after the first blue section. Basically we'll be eliminating the second and third picture's non highlighted black text. We only need one set of tr and /tr tags for the pictures and one set of tr and /tr tags for the captions. The great thing is that we can just highlight sections of code and carefully drag them to the right place. No copy/pasting or typing new code!

So, lets start with the picture of the code again, but I'll highlight the first move...

What we're doing first is moving section B to right after the /td of section A. (NOTE: I can't put the < > before & after the /td as I type because that tells blogger it's a closing tag and then blogger looks for the opening tag! This applies to ALL tags I type. That's why code is either a photograph or within a textbox.)

Ok, so we highlight section B, just like I've shown you in pink, then click and HOLD down the mouse button and drag the code so it's right after the /td at A. Now "drop" the second pink section B. When you're moving text, you'll notice that Blogger will put a straight vertical line like this... | exactly where your code will go if you drop it. As you drag your code, the vertical cursor moves with you. We want that vertical line to be right after the /td (with no extra space) where A ends. OK?

We now want to do the exact same thing with the third pink part, let me show you what the code looks like after B is moved to right after A below.

Notice that A/B are now together, I'm pointing to A's closing cell tag /td and B's opening tag td. We now want to move C to the END of B, again, right after where B's closing /td tag is. Highlight and drag C just as I told you to drag B. You will notice that after B is moved that all the black code is left, same thing will happen with moving C. Soon, we'll go "rescue" the captions (if you want to use them!). This is what your code will look like AFTER you move C.

Okie Dokie Pokie! Now we've done the major moving, putting A, B & C in the SAME table. Notice that I've highlighted the captions for each picture. Look close, you'll see #1 says "Einstein", #2 says "Nice People" and #3 says "Sharing is Caring". If you want the captions under the picture they went with, all you have to do is move #2 and #3 to the back of #1, just like we did when we put our pictures A, B & C together.

(If you don't want any captions and were only using them to add the necessary code then you need to delete them and all the other superfluous code also. You have to eliminate all the blue captions and also 99% of the black code around them. The only black code we need to keep that's below the pink part is the closing /tr right after the pink part and the closing /tbody and /table that's just after the first blue caption. Remember, tags come in pairs and we have opening tags tbody and table above the pink part so we need to close our tags BELOW the pink part.)

But, let's assume we want those cute captions that go under each picture...

We want to highlight #2 and drag it to the end of #1, right after it's closing /td. Then highlight #3 and drag it to the end of #2, right after it's closing /td. This is what it'll all look like AFTER you move #2 & #3 so they snug up with #1 (just like we did with the pictures).

The pink part is the three picture cells making our pictures line up within the table. The blue part is the three captions that will now line themselves up below their own picture. The green part is the extra code that is left over after we move the pictures A, B & C and the captions #1, #2 & #3. This code must be deleted, it's the code that was making a table for each photo, to keep the picture and caption together when they were in a vertical line (in the beginning, before we started moving stuff.) If you notice, the green is made up of opening and closing tr's, tbody's, tables (with extra code that you don't need to understand, lol) etcetera.

You need to delete the GREEN, but make SURE you leave the closing tags /tbody and /table that are right under the blue captions, they close your table, remember? Guess what? You're nearly done, all the hard part is DONE. All we have to do is put a number in for the cellspacing!! If you have a lot of pics that you're trying to squeeze into a line, then use a small number like 2, but if you have more space to use up then use 10 or so. You can play and see what number makes the space you want. Oh, and to truly see what space you'll get, you have to preview your page which is beside SAVE above the header tools.

The other thing I want to mention is that your code may be wider or narrower and therefore the "cuts" to start a new line may break at different places. Just see the basic code then it doesn't matter where the line breaks happen. Here's what our completed horizontally aligned pictures with captions look like...


Einstein	Nice People	Sharing is Caring

We've finished! Whew, that was some serious thinking work! Did you get it? I sure hope so! Because I couldn't come up with a better way to teach it. I know I used a lot of words but I wanted to make sure EVERYONE understood.

**One Last Note: One of the comments I received about this post mentioned the size of the pictures you can use to put in a row. I should have made that clear, the pictures DON'T have to be the same size, they can totally be a mix of long and wide and tall and small. I used three the same size because they LOOK better, lol. Hey, life if a series of looking good!

I'll be back soon with my artwork for this week's APR challenge (rainbow), until then, be good to one another and enjoy your Spring week.

Best,

Artist's Play Room #6

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:01:00 +0000

The time has come, a new week, a new theme for APR. Are you gonna play in my Play Room this week? Well, I'd love it if you did, just wait a few more minutes while I showcase some of the art from last week's challenge, then I'll reveal the newest theme. Ok? Thanks!

Last week's challenge in The Artist's Play Room was Coffee & Tea. I asked you to create art that used either one of these drinks. Sketch beans, paint cups, tea or coffee stain something, go crazy! We got some Fabulous submissions this week, here's mine and yours.

(You can always click the picture to see them in all their splendor!)

Title: "Join Me Over Hazelnut Coffee?"

Terri of Morning Dewdrops emailed
me, apologizing that she didn't
realize that APR was themed. Well,
this is an excellent teaching
example! you don't ever HAVE to do
the challenge, you can put up any
piece of art you want or use the
theme as a jumping off place, your
choice, I'm just glad to see you!
Her hair reminds me of a beautiful
peacock's tail! Lovely.

Cindy of Cottage Remnant always delivers
great art, I love the three dimensional
illusion of this piece. What a beautiful
and special birthday or mother's day card
this would make!

Tracey always makes me laugh
with her blog posts but this
is the first time her art made
me laugh! I just HAD to look up
teapots to see the actual one
online. What a funny pot, for
manly tea!

Kim of IMGirlwithoutwings made
the cutest bookmark on the planet!
I especially love the play on
words, "A Moment OF ClariTEA."

Diane made two, no THREE pieces this
week about TEA so I had the privilege
of picking my favorite, it was a hard
choice, but her it is... Thanks Diane!

Vonny was lamenting that she's not sure
she likes this piece, the background and
vase frustrated her. I'm blown away, I
it's totally spectacular, I want to reach
out and pick up the cups!

Tracy of The Domestic Gourdess made this
tiny carved gourd cup, what a wonderfully
sweet little submission. Alas, we coffee
hounds are losing another one to the dark
side... Tea drinkers! (I love Earl Gray
tea too but hazelnut coffee is my crack!)

Katja has penned this wonderful sketchbook
addition, a simple cup and teapot in a
lovely blue. She says her fave tea is Earl
Gray, hey ME TOO!!

Leslie submitted an awesomely lovely
piece. I just love the coloration of this.
I can't believe this is a collage using
napkins, wow.

Andrea of Falling Ladies has done
a beautiful tea centered mandala.
These are so beautiful and as I
understand, very meditative. I'd
love to learn how to create these
beautiful art pieces. Such a lovely
submission!

Gloria has painted a spectacular piece
in oils. I must say,I LOVE this painting.
There's something so deep about oils, they
have weight. I love that about them and this
piece is something truly special, I'm so
glad you joined Gloria, I'm a new FAN.

Debbie at Crafty Moose has painted a
happy teapot with one of those lovely
blooming flowers, I've always wanted to
try those, I think you totally need a
glass teapot to truly appreciate the
beauty though. Thanks for submitting!

Minnemie of Cripple Pencil has
used her pens and pencils for
great purpose today. I have such
awe for those of you with the
confidence to write on your artwork.
I wish I could do that, I think
it looks so cool, I'm just afraid
I'll spell something wrong or
mess up somehow. This is a very
cool piece.

Elizabeth's contribution this
week is a lovely collage, I'm
especially loving what she did
with the spoon, great piece.

If you haven't read the rules & guidelines, please go here. If you've landed here after this challenge has been completed but would like to participate in a current or future Artist's Play Room Challenge, just either click on the APR button in the sidebar or click here and you'll be taken to the latest APR Challenge!

Are you having trouble using the Mr. Linky to add your submissions to APR? Well here's some help! Just click on HELP and you'll be taken to my Linky Help Page. Cool, huh? I've got your back!

I have a happy theme for this week's APR challenge... "RAINBOW". Color makes me so happy, I'm totally passionate about colorful art, it makes my spirit soar. That's why I picked this theme. Now, don't think that you HAVE to actually make a rainbow, if you want to do that, fabulous but you can just make something colorful! Make a mash up of all the colors or highlight a few of them, just make art that makes you think "OOh, HAPPY COLOR!". Here are some terrific examples...


Just Add Water Silly	Robin Mead	Diane


Vonny K	Dion Dior	Life In Color

So, my lovely bloggy friends, have at it! I can't wait to see your colorful submissions. In fact, I'm just giddy with anticipation. :o)

I'll be back soon with some sort of art, I'm guessing it'll be colorful!
Later Gator!
Best,

This Just In...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 04:52:00 +0000

I have a plethora (nice word, huh?) of things to tell you all about! Firstly, I have a very exciting announcement. I'm a published Artist & Author! I was blessed with the opportunity to write an article for the premier issue of a new artist's magazine named "Featuring". The article is about The Butterfly Project that I've talked about many times on my blog. If you'd like to read all about this labor of LOVE by Holocaust Museum Houston just click here. I co-opted several of my artist friends to send in butterflies with me to the magazine for inclusion in my article. It was done as a last minute submission because the magazine closing date for article submissions was only days away. I want to send out a heartfelt thank you to Tracey Fletcher King, Dion Dior and Diane Rank for sending me butterflies and little stories about your creation of them so quickly. You all ROCK!! I can't WAIT to see my article in print with my own artwork! I'm just beside myself with excitement!

Second thing: Have you all noticed the new button in my sidebar? Inspiration Avenue (the artists group I'm involved in) is hosting a PostCard Swap! Yay, such a fun idea. We're doing a sign up currently until April 30th. If you'd be thrilled to receive 5 postcards from 5 different participants then get your art supplies out and make 5 postcards. To sign up, just send an email to us at inspirationavenuepostcardswap@yahoo.com and tell us, "Yes! I'm in!" Please also include your mailing address and name! We'll be mixing all the names up and randomly matching you with 5 other people to send to. Click Here for more information about what to expect.

Here is our small list of requirements:

Make 5 postcards.
The size of each card should be 4x6 inches.
Each piece, since it will be original art, should be mailed in an envelope/package of some kind to protect your lovely artwork.
This one's optional, we'd really love to see the back designed like a real postcard. There are lots of images on the web, you can just google postcard to see many of them. You can either print one out like the one below (feel free to use this one) or you can design your own back, adding all the details you want!

Click to Enlarge!

This is going to be such a fun SWAP! I've been working on my postcards already, and one of them fits this week's theme, so this is my official entry for this week's APR theme (Coffee & Tea). Here's the piece...

(I'm not showing the back so if you sign up for the P.S. Swap above AND you get me AND I send you this piece of Postcard Art, you still have a little surprise on the back, the back is fantastic, btw!)

Title: "Join Me Over Hazelnut Coffee?"

Last but certainly not least, I bought my mom a prezzie to make her feel loved. She's been going through some stuff lately and I wanted to cheer her up. I was thinking of her as I perused Etsy, looking at all the lovely jewelry etc. I came across a lovely shop called Tesoro Jewelry. Trolling her shop, I found a terrific key chain that was JUST what my mom needed, as long as I could "tweak" it I'd be golden. See, two things made this find perfect,

Mom just bought a cute new white Honda FIT. (so totally cute, we named her Mattie!)
She used to sing "You are my Sunshine" as a lullaby to me all the time when I was young.

Click to Enlarge!

So, a keychain for her new car that had "YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE" stamped on it (with a little heart added) was totally perfect as an I love you present/Easter present! The tweak I had to have done was totally fine with the shop owner, she enlarged the key chain so she could use the largest font possible and didn't increase the price!! Jessica is a wonderful Etsian, she was so helpful and made wonderful suggestions to make sure I got the product I'd wanted. I truly appreciate her attention to detail and speed of completion of my custom order. I look forward to ordering again from her the next time I want a little something cute. Please go check out all of Jessica's jewelry, it's really beautiful, cute, funny, sweet and just plain wonderful. Thanks Jessica!

That's it for this multi-subject post, kind of a mash up of all that's been happening this week to ME. Hehehe, yep, didn't you know, it's all about ME?? Well, tomorrow it will be all about YOU as I'm gonna wrap up this week's APR Challenge and show all the world your PURRRTY artwork. The wrap up post and new challenge post will be a little late tomorrow, expect it late in the afternoon. My aunt's coming over so I'll have to do last minute tweaks in the afternoon! You can wait that long, right? YES? I KNEW you could! Thanks in advance for your patience.

See you soon my bloggy friends!
I'm out.
Best,

Featured Artist: Diane Rank

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:33:00 +0000

This is the second edition of my ongoing series featuring accomplished and spectacular artists I've come across in my travails through the blogosphere. In this continuing series I have interviewed each artist, asking about their art, process, tools & inspiration. You'll be able to learn all about the artists in their own words. The F.A. series will focus on a new artist every month. I hope you enjoy our second Featured Artist.

(Please remember, you can always click on a picture to enlarge it and see it in all it's splendor!)

Diane Rank (blog: The Expressive Palette) is a wonderful watercolor, acrylic and collage artist. I met Diane when she applied to be a member of Inspiration Avenue. When she was unanimously accepted, I was lucky enough to become her mentor and show her around our little I.A. Kingdom. We became fast friends as we have many things in common. Sometimes it feels as if a new friend is heaven sent, that's what meeting Diane was like. She's a lovely, happy, positive and multi talented woman who has a loving husband and children. She works hard to find time to create and I admire her for keeping all the proverbial balls in the air with all she has to do.

Title: "Hope & Life"

Diane and I collaborated on a project for the premier issue of the new artist's magazine, "Featuring" . I had put forth an idea for an article and when it was accepted I asked Diane if she'd like to contribute a piece of artwork (along with two of my other artist friends) to illuminate the subject matter. She graciously painted several new butterflies for my article about the Butterfly Project (learn more about this labor of love from Holocaust Museum Houston) and told me to choose my favorite for inclusion. This painting on the left is one of the other especially lovely butterflies she painted in that series.

"Blueberry Field"

Diane's artwork, although diverse in kind, has a distinctive, simple style that shines through in whatever she creates. She knows intrinsically how to edit her subject matter and winnow down the details to the most important component parts. Her work doesn't overwhelm and tire out the viewer with too many superfluous details. An example of this is on the right. Diane was driving with her husband through the fields of Maine just after the blueberry harvest. She said she quickly did a plein air sketch of the splendor of color in front of her. I think she captured the beauty perfectly.

Now, don't get me wrong, Diane's art isn't always edited down to the minimum elements necessary to convey the subject. She also paints with more detail, especially when she's using acrylics. Acrylics and watercolors have such differing techniques for laying down color that it's not surprising Diane's style changes slightly with the change in medium. Her style is still wonderfully distinctive, though...


Title: "Bare Autumn Cathedral"	Title: "Mystical Cathedral"

Diane hails from Graniteville, Vermont and she has successfully used the beautiful landscape around her as inspiration for several of her beautiful watercolor paintings. She has also travelled to Maine and Nova Scotia where she's taken advantage of the scenery encompassing her. What amazes me about Diane's art is that she says so much in one little painting. These next two watercolors are Artist Trading Card size which is only 2.5" x 3.5"! I know! She conveys so much feeling in her paintings with a few brush stokes and bursts of color. I find her work quite inspiring. I've wanted to try doing some ATC's and seeing her work makes me want to go try right now, lol. But I'll endeavor to fight that urge and finish this post/interview.


Title: "Vermont Birch Autumn Landscape"	Title: "Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia"

Diane has not been wasteful of her other talents after she decided to shift exclusively to the painterly arts. She's been smart and morphed her other skills into more art centered possibilities. To utilize her jewelry making abilities (she was a jewelry artist for many years), Diane makes tiny original pieces of art that she then displays in glass lockets. They are exquisite jewels of art that you can wear around your neck! The piece on your right is inspired by Van Gough's "Starry Night". I think she did a beautiful job of capturing the feeling and movement of the famous painting!

I did a virtual interview with Diane Rank and she was so generous to answer all my questions! Here's the interview...

Diane's last "Ribbons of Grass" series.
Her collage paired the painting with a
wonderfully appropriate quote.

Jenn: How did you get started making art?

Diane: Like so many artists, I've loved to color and create since childhood; I could spend hours happily coloring and drawing or building things with my brother's Lincoln logs. Beginning in Junior High and continuing throughout college, I took art classes whenever I could fit them in, but I regret not majoring in art.

I married and had children but the only "Art" I did back then were all sorts of crafts. It did help placate the need to create though. Then a botched back surgery changed everything. I was no longer able to stand or sit in a regular chair for more than a few minutes without excruciating pain, and was basically confined to a rented adjustable hospital bed. A friend and artist who has Muscular Dystrophy and is involved in our ladies Bible study suggested I take up watercolor painting. She loaned me everything I needed... paint, paper, brushes, books and even a large wood board so I could paint in bed! I would paint and the next week she would offer her critique.

One thing she said really stuck with me and began to change the way I painted...

"Grass is not green, there are countless colors in the grass".

WOW, that concept opened my eyes to see beyond the ordinary surface of things. I created a series of miniatures called "Ribbons of Grass" and brought them to a brand new art gallery in a little town in Wisconsin. The gallery owner said they were like "little jewels". Only one of the series is left, the others are in private collections and I recently created a mixed media collage with it. After watercolors, I began trying my hand at pastels and lino block printing and loved them as well.

Alas, life and it's problems intervened and I had to put art to the side for several years.
When I remarried and moved to Vermont, our place was way too small to allow me to bring out all my art supplies so I began making jewelry and selling it in the local shops. A few years I later began selling my jewelry on Etsy but making jewelry really wasn't totally satisfying anymore. My heart was yearning to paint again and with my nephew's and husband's encouragement, I embarked on my journey back to art.

(Diane paired her last "Ribbons of Grass" piece with Henry Miller's quote...

"The moment one gives attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious awesome indescribably magnificent world in itself."

I think Diane's mixed media collage was an inspired mash up of poetic words and beautiful artwork.)

Jenn: Do you sell your work? where?

Diane: Yes, my Etsy Shop is "The Expressive Palette", easy to remember as it's the same name as my blog!

Jenn: What is your process in creation? (do you like plein air best or use of a photograph, or your own imagination, or follow where the art supplies take you?)

Diane: Quite honestly I feel a bit inadequate in answering this as I'm still learning and trying to find my voice. I tend to think & think & think a lot about a piece. In the back of my mind I usually have two or three different pieces whispering through my thoughts. I'm mulling over what I'd like to do next or what the next step might be for a piece in process.

I've discovered I'm a serial painter, I paint in series. :o) If I like the subject, I'll do it again and again with slight variations, sometimes simplifying, sometimes with more detail or in a different color palette. I just work to my heart's content.


Title: "Dancing Ferns 3"	Title: "Dancing Ferns 5"	Title: "Dancing Ferns 2"

Title: "Abstract, Life"

Just recently I've been doing abstracts and I love the freedom of it! With my abstract pieces I begin with just playing with color, putting down a stroke or two, looking at it, then adding another, usually by the third stroke I know where I want the piece to go. I absolutely LOVE the spontaneity of it!

Title: "Sunset Road"

My landscapes, often, are a combination of memory, photography and imagination. I am in awe of God's wonderful creation and I strive to paint the "feel" of the scene. Sometimes that requires a bit of editing or an addition of something. I love landscapes, but quite honestly they can be difficult for me because I want them to be recognizable. But if I put all my emotion into it, they can look rather "out there" for most people. I usually make a loose sketch in my journal of the landscape then mark in where I want the shadows and check to see if I like the composition. If I don't, I adjust it until I love the scene. Then I begin my painting. I don't use transfer paper, I just dig in & do it.

Title: "Abstract Landscape"

The traditional collages are the most time consuming and so messy, but so much fun! When I start I have a theme in mind and I spend a lot of time layering different papers & things, seeing what's pleasing to the eye. I place those layers on the side in order and then begin. Most recently I began collage painting & I love that! It's more forgiving than a paper collage and allows me more freedom of expression.

Oh, and here are a couple of tips I've learned about making a successful piece of artwork...

I hold my pieces up to the mirror & upside down to study composition and balance. It's tricky doing this with collage but worth it. :o)
I used to really struggle with the question "Is this piece finished?" Now I stop when my piece captures the feeling I have inside for it.

Jenn: What are your favorite art supplies?

Diane: Arches 140lb cold pressed art blocks, Holbein watercolors, Sennelier and the Quinacridone colors by Daniel Smith, Faber-Castell Pitt Art Pens, and THE coolest thing ever.. my heart skips a beat... the FreshWater "Rinse Well" that I found on line at Jerry's Artarama. Instead of two or three water containers, I just need this one which dispenses fresh water as you need it!(this product can be purchased for around $13 at Dick Blick, you can click through from my sidebar!) Also, I LOVE fabulous handmade papers and Golden acrylics & mediums for collage.

Jenn: How does a spectacular piece make you feel?

Diane: Oh, all sorts of emotions! From pride "I am an Artist!" to incredulity "I painted this, really??!?". I feel total happiness and humility that God has given me such a gift.

Jenn: What do you do with a less than stellar piece? Do you rework it until your happy?

Diane: For the most part I keep them. Sometimes I can rework and save a piece. But most of the time I use them for reference... What was good about it? What was bad? ...and also for experiments. What would happen if i add this medium to it? What if i try this or that? I learn best by seeing and by doing, so really nothing is ever a total failure.

That's the end of our virtual interview but before I wrap up this post I must show you three series paintings that, although they didn't fit any of the paragraphs above, are my personal favorites of hers. I just love the coloration, they have Diane's distinctive simple style yet they capture an abundance of JOY within their boundaries as artwork. Don't these three pieces just make you smile?


Title: "Joyful Sunflower"	Title: "Sassy Sunflower"

Title: "Sunflower Swirls"

Thank you, Diane, for your time and patience in answering all my questions. It was a pleasure interviewing you and learning new details about how you create your art. I'm so glad we've met and become friends. What a blessing you are as a friend!

Thank you to my loyal readers for coming around and learning about another wonderfully talented and creative artist. In a month I'll post about Dion Dior, another spectacular artist, so please stay tuned. As always, if you'd like to read all the Featured Artist posts, just click on the "I've Been Featured" button in my sidebar, the button is given exclusively to the wonderfully generous artists who allow me to interview them. Thank you, Diane, for letting my readers get to know you better, we are enriched for the journey.

I'll be back soon with a new Artist's Play Room Challenge. If you haven't entered this week's, you still have time, the deadline is early morning Saturday! You can always find the latest Artist's PLAY ROOM Challenge by clicking on the APR button in my sidebar, that-a-way ---->
Or you can click here.

Best,

Inspired By Words

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:40:00 +0000

This week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue is hosted by my friend Diane. She's come up with a great theme...

Inspired By Words

I LOVE this theme! My mind whirled with all the possibilities. I have many favorite quotes, here's a few...

"It is a far, far better than than I have ever done, it is a far, far better place that I go to than I have ever known"

~A Tale Of Two Cities

"Women and Cats will do as they please, Men and Dogs should relax and get used to the idea."

~ Robert Heinlien

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

~Albert Einstein

"I'm selfish, impatient & a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control & at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

~Marilyn Monroe

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

~Oscar Wilde

Artist: angliasartjournal

I really am inspired by words everyday. When I was in high school and then University, I collected quotes and made up huge pieces of art with quotes embellished all over. I loved reading them everyday, being inspired each time. I would collect each quote in a notebook, saving them until the weekend when I could carefully pen them onto the brightly colored bristol board.

This weekend I made an abstract piece of art with colorful "ribbons" swirling over a black background. When I learned of Diane's theme for this week in IA I knew just what quote I'd add to my artwork. Here's the digitally altered piece (the first I've ever done).

This piece will be entered into:

Inspiration Avenue's "Inspired by Words" challenge
Inspire Me Monday
So Artful "Rainbow" Challenge

I'll talk to you all very soon,

Enjoy your week,

Best,

If you're looking for the latest Artist's Play Room Challenge you can ALWAYS click on the APR button in my sidebar, that-a-way ------->
Or you can click here.

A Couple Of Long Necked Pears

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 08:49:00 +0000

If you're looking for this week's APR Challenge you can always just click the Artist's Play Room Button in my sidebar... or just click here.

So here we are, past midnight, the night before my artwork is "due" at Inspiration Avenue's weekly Challenge. Normally, if I were this kind of behind I'd skip adding my art to the challenge. I mean, it's not mandatory to do every challenge that's offered on IA, even for members. Participation is always optional. The problem with just skipping this week is that I'm the hostess of this week's challenge!! Oops.

The challenge that I set for this week was...

FOLIAGE!

I'm in love with the color green and painting leaves is a real joy for me, even though they're a lot of arduous work. What I've discovered with foliage (leaves, grass, ferns etc.) is that I have a distinctive style in the way I paint them. When I discovered this it made me even more joyful to paint leaves etc. I've been trying to "find" my style for many months and I'm thrilled to say that at least when it comes to living green growing plants, I have a "way" that is absolutely recognizable.

I must admit that I also like that they don't look "real". They look real enough, lol. I tend to be a realist in my painting and drawing style, I'm a perfectionist and I can't let it go if something doesn't "look" right. This obsessiveness doesn't seem to apply to leaves! Don't ask why. My only guess is that I LIKE the way the leaves and grasses I paint look so maybe I've unconsciously somehow accepted that they're imperfect and MINE.

Unfortunately, because leaves and grass take so much time, I don't tend to paint them as much as I'd like to. But in this challenge I forced myself to get back to my "first love" by choosing exactly that as my theme. Now, I specified to all who participate, I don't care what kind of foliage you paint or what color you paint it... ( when I say paint, I mean make whatever art you make) ...I said I didn't even care what else was in the piece. Just make me something that's got beautiful foliage included. Please go to IA and see the amazing collection of art that was submitted this week, it's really worth a look. The wrap up showing all the pieces in one place will be up Sunday after Noon (Eastern Time).

Well, I've postponed the unfortunate news long enough... I actually didn't finish my piece. It's close to being done, but it's not complete. I sketched out the entire piece first, even adding the leaf veins so I'd know where I wanted to add paint. I then added a mottled wash of greens and turquoises with some white added to give some opaque places for contrast.

My next step is to erase many of my pencil lines because if you add translucent watercolor paint first, you then cannot erase any still visible lines. I hate pencil lines. So many artists don't mind them and on other people's work I totally don't even see them let alone mind them if I do notice extraneous pencil lines. It's that perfectionism thing again!!! I know, I really have to work on that... The number of people who have told me that (including myself several times a week!) could fill a large art studio. Anyhoo, I digress...

After all the erasing I got onto painting leaves!! Loved that part. Ok, I love ALL parts of creation, but I hadn't done leaves or grass for months! They're not finished, they still need some highlights and shadows added to give them more dimension but they're much more completed than my long necked pears!

My pears are nearly naked!! Ok, not, but they're significantly undressed. I need to first add water as they were done with my new Albrecht Durrer watercolor pencils (I was hoping they would be quicker than liquid paint... NOT, I just can't rush my artwork) So, that's why they look "sketchy", I always paint on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper, which has a "tooth" to it so the valleys of the paper don't collect pencil crayon color until water is added.

After I add water I'll then be able to see where more color is needed. I then just liquify the watercolor pencil lead with a paintbrush, making tiny bits of liquid color that I then do corrections with. Hopefully I'm only about an hour or so from completion, I just know, since it's like 1:30 in the morning and I still have to finish my wrap up of the challenge tomorrow morning (those last minute stragglers like me who submit their link only hours before deadline) so I know I won't have time to finish. This is my submission, as is. Hope you like it, lol. I'm pretty happy, so far.

I'll talk to you all later, I'm hoping to get a new "Featured Artist" post completed and up this week, so stay tuned!
Good night all...
I'm out.

Artist's Play Room #5

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:10:00 +0000

It's Play Room time again! What shall we create this week? Well I'm going to wrap up last week and keep you all in suspense for a few more minutes. These spectacular artists deserve a few kudos for all their work. Last week's challenge was "create art based on the season you're going into". We, here in Canada are just entering Spring, although you'd never know it with the weather... Here's my submission for this week and a selection of work from other superb artists who participated last week.

Also entered into Postcard Art "blossoms"
Title: "In Season"
Artist: Jenn

(Please click on the pictures to enlarge)

Artist: Laurie
Comment:
This reminds me of Girl Guide camp in the
summer of 1982. We had such fun that year
and I did learn to canoe! The perspective
and coloration is wonderful here.

Artist: Dion
Comment:
I know that Dion and her family just got
back from an Australian vacation so this
painting is depicting something she
experienced and saw there. Australia is
just going into their fall season, this is
a beautiful reminder of how bright and
lovely Australia is all year around.

Artist: Andrea
Comment:
I've never done a mandala, I don't
know how but I think they are really
pretty and the repetitive patterns
are quite meditative, which I think
is the point, lol. This one is lovely.

Artist: Debbie
Comment:
Debbie does a beautiful job of recreating
the beauty of spring flowers. These look
so delicate. Beautifully done!

Artist: Tracey
Comment:
Tracey one of the friends I mentioned
who lives in Australia, that's why
this challenge is "create your season"
instead of "create Spring". Tracey says
that hot soup always feels good as the
weather gets cold and I concur as even
though it's Spring here, it's still
bloody COLD and I LOVE soup for dinner
just to warm up! Love those bowls, Trace,
hope you find them when you're shopping!


Artist: Minnemie	Comment:Minnemie painted two spectacular submissions for my challenge. I can't get over how lovely they both are. I know how difficult it is to paint a white flower because they're not usually actually white. Great work!

Arist: Terrie
Comment:This is a lovely piece, under the tissue
the words say I am worthy. Terrie then
covered this piece with vellum and then
beaded it. I showed it this way to let
you see the exquisite detail!

Artist: Lou Anne
Comment
I absolutely love this piece, it's so
darn happy and sunshiny. I think you
did a spectacular job Lou Anne.

Artist: Timeless Rituals
Comment
This artist said she was
thinking of both spring and
rain as she came up with this
very cool mermaid, I love how
artist's minds work! I also
love the zentangles as water,
it makes me miss them, maybe
I'll have to do some today!

Artist: Cindy
Comment
Cindy's work uses those beautiful
light ethereal colors so as she
illuminates any subject it always
feel Springlike and pretty. She
has a lovely style.

This week's challenge is Coffee & Tea! You can do anything inspired by these two drinks. Draw the beans or a botanical of your favorite tea. Paint tea/coffee cups stacked precariously on one another, or collage your favorite brands of tea onto a postcard! How about tea-staining fabric and sewing up some pot holders or staining gift tags and drawing on the back so their each an original piece of art for your birthday friend. Get out your thinking cap and get creative with your drink of choice! Here are some cool examples...


Go ahead, draw a bottle of iced tea like Tracey did (she's addicted to Arizona Iced Tea!)	This guy, Cheeming Boey, draws amazing things on styrofoam coffee cups! Love them.	I just love the cherry blossoms as background with the prominent teacup by Laurel. So pretty.


I love this sign by Ginger, make your love of tea well known!	How about inking a zentangle then tea or coffee staining it like Paula did?	You could even do a collage, as an homage to your loving a cuppa, like Madeleine did.

But then of course, you could just paint your very
favorite coffee cups, the ones you share with friends,
just like Michelle did!

So, put on your trusty tinfoil thinking cap (it looks so good on you!) and create something fabulous! Remember, you don't have to be great, just create. I waiting eagerly for your submissions, one of my favorite topics is hazelnut coffee, I could wax poetic for days, but I digress. GO, make ART. SHoo!

We'll talk later, I'll make hazelnut coffee, K? Hehehe.
You knew I would!
Hugs,

Giveaway @ Kristen Wilson Handmade!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:50:00 +0000

Kristin Wilson just launched her new blog called Kristin Wilson Handmade and she has decided that the best way to gain followers and launch her new venture is to give away a $100 gift certificate to Scrapbook.com. Wow, we all could use that!

So, go to her new blog and enter to win this fabulous giveaway! I'm crossing my fingers for myself, I'll cross my toes for you! Maybe one of us will win. See you very soon for the newest installment of Artist's Play Room. Got your paints ready? Hey, if you win I bet you could buy stuff to make projects for APR challenges. Cool. Hehehe.

You won't miss me much,
Go get a coffee and I'll be back!
Best,

City Of Nanaimo Banner Project

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:41:00 +0000

Last month I worked for weeks to come up with a cogent idea then create an interesting painting for the new banners that will be attached to the light standards in downtown Nanaimo. Every year or so the city of Nanaimo puts up newly designed banners created by a selected Canadian artist. This year they decided to do a contest and the theme was "Nanaimo, It's a Lifestyle".

Since I'm new to Nanaimo, although I've visited the city many a time, I found myself in a unique position of being able to judge how Nanaimo had changed recently. I decided that my banner art would coalesce around the idea of Nanaimo rising, improving and taking flight in the eyes of it's inhabitants. I drew out a pretty and colorful butterfly then added swirls & curlicues to represent flight. The butterfly would be on one side of the light standard and the swirls below would span both silken panels with the light standard in between. Opposite the butterfly I wrote "Nanaimo Rising".

My inked butterfly
before coloration.

I must admit I was pretty damn proud of my idea, I thought it illuminated where Nanaimo was going. The city had recently revamped the main part of the downtown core, putting in an entirely new boardwalk with boat launches for private yachts etc., akin to the incredible harbor in Victoria near the Parliament buildings and The Empress hotel. We have lovely walkways, new little shops and wonderful green space for strolling along the waterfront. I wanted my theme to suggest that we were moving in a better direction since Nanaimo has previously been known as not such a pretty city, more functional than idillic. With the new downtown core it has improved immensely.

So here's my submission to the now completed banner project, of which I didn't win, lol. No, I'm not upset in the least, I thoroughly enjoyed participating and I had a niggling feeling that I wouldn't be chosen because my theme seemed so different from the other year's picks. But one must follow one's heart and I submitted it, hoping that they would see where I was going with my idea. I am certainly happy for the winner who is a professional graphic designer and who's been working in the field of illustration and graphic design since 2007. I'm betting he's come up with a brilliant piece of art that will beautify all the light standards around town for the upcoming year, I can't wait to see them this summer. It was a a pleasure being a part of a community project, even if I didn't win. Because of my participation, I feel closer to my new city and this is such a good outcome! I'm glad to be a new member of my community, I feel a part of the people of Nanaimo instead of an interloper. Maybe this was just what I was supposed to get from doing this project.

(the artwork would have been sliced down the middle to make two panels of silk banners.)

My submission to
Nanaimo's Banner Project

I thought I'd also show you where I live, it's quite beautiful with the inlet and the mountains. I'm a lucky girl. I live in a great city, don't I? :o)


Nanaimo's boardwalk	Nanaimo Harborfront

We'll talk soon, K? Yes? Good!
Best,

Artist's Play Room #4

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer McLean) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Last week's challenge was "create art from the inspiration around you". What a wonderfully successful week this was! Thank you to all my bloggy friends who submitted their lovely artwork, I really appreciate it and love going to your blogs and reading all about you and your art. I'm having so much fun getting to know you all. Here's a wrap up of the terrific pieces that graced my blog through last week, but first, here's my submission...

I ended up creating several pieces from this week's challenge, I'll be showcasing them in the weeks to come. I found myself spurred on to try more landscapes because this one was successful and I also was inspired by both Tracey Fletcher King and Dion Dior this week. I love their "ordinary things" paintings. They both know how to make anything interesting & beautiful.

Title: "The Night"
Artist: Jennifer McLean

(Go ahead, click them and make them bigger, I know you want to!)

By Cindy at Cottage Remnant
Comment:
I love this piece the most this week.
Cindy's style is so romantic, even when
she's drawing her desk! I especially
love the little notes "insert printer here"

Tracy, The Domestic Gourdess
Comment:
Don't you just love the
justaposition of the textured
tree trunk against the soft
cat's paw? Brilliant photo!

Hope at The Sinister Scribe
Comment:
These amazing Zentangle beetles
were inspired by a junebug
landing on Hope when she was
in her studio! Love them.

Dion of Dion Dior & More
Comment:
I'm always in love with Dion's pieces,
no matter what she paints. I know this
painting was inspired by her recent trip
to Australia. Extraordinary!

Debbie at Crafty Moose
Comments:
Isn't he just the cutest? Debbie has inspired
me to write a post (with art) about two ducks I
got toknow in my University days.

Minnemie at Cripple Pencil
Comment:
This piece is so fantastic!
She captured body movement
so expertly, wow,

Lou Anne at Misplaced Mermaid
Comment:
I just love Lou Anne's Shrine
of Forgotten Things. She has
captured the heart of what I
was saying, that mundane things
are beautiful too.

Simona at Timeless Rituals
Comment:
Hi Simona, nice to have you
here participating, your mask
totally brings back fond
memories of artwork in our
house when I was young.
You did a great job!

Tracey Fletcher King
Comment:
Last but never least is Tracey's great
submission Maltesers. She is one of my very
favorite new friends and her art always
inspires me. The only problem? Now I want
chocolate!

If you haven't read the rules & guidelines please go here. If you've landed here after this challenge has been completed but would like to participate in a current or future Artist's Play Room Challenge, either click on the APR button in the sidebar or click here and you'll be taken to the latest APR challenge!

Are you having trouble using the Mr. Linky to add your submissions to APR? Well here's some help! Just click on HELP and you'll be taken to my Linky Help Page. Cool, huh?
This week's challenge is paint/sketch/collage/photograph, create art themed around the New Season in which you find yourself. Now, the reason I didn't say "Create something reminiscent of Spring" is because I have several wonderful friends in Australia and there it's starting their winter season! So, make something reminiscent of the new season in which you find yourself currently. I thought I'd give you some inspiration, aren't I helpful?? hehehe.


Artist: Chantelle Wilson	Etsy Shop: Mycraftgarden	Atsy Shop:PaperAndMache


Artist: Danny Phillips	Artist: Kerrie Lightfoot	Etsy Shop: Baybeari


Artist:Kim Olszewski	Artist:Chritine Luschas	Artist: Lisa Z.

There are so many ways to go when creating art centered around the seasons. Have fun and be creative. Because you don't have to be great, just create! I look forward to seeing all your amazing ideas. Thank you in advance to all who participate, it's such a joy to see who submitted every day and go to their blog to check out their artwork.

Oh, I should mention, I would LOVE any suggestions for upcoming challenges and if I use your challenge I'll send you a handmade bookmark! So, get thinking, come up with your bestest ideas. Leave me a comment and your name/blog with your suggestions and I'll make note of it. If I use your idea, YOU get a purty bookmark. GOOD DEAL!

I'll talk to you all soon and be back with some kind of artwork,
I'm out!
Best,