Creative Sharebook

Recently, I have started a small group on Facebook focused on getting inspired to use our sketchbooks more often!
My sister, mom and I used to take a colored pencil class together. Now everyone is in different states but miss the creative activity we enjoyed together.
Creative Sharebook is my way of still being artsy together. It's not the huge commitment of an actual piece; just some sketches and playing around with ideas - about anything and everything!
We're almost through our first week. I'm enjoying it so far! And I hope it continues to go wel!
If you would like to join us, find us on Facebook!

Bon Voyage Friends

There are a few dogs at work that are moving away. One being an absolute favorite of mine, Razor. My day got brighter just seeing his face waiting for me in the play area! I've known him for a few years now and it's going to be so weird not seeing him every week at work. I am so very sad about it.
I wanted to make him a going away card...although he can't read. I wanted his parents to know how awesome of a dog they have, that he made an impact on us and that we are going to miss him dearly!
Same with another Camper of ours, Tucker. He's such a sweet boy...I'll be sad to see him leave Camp as well.
After making these, I got into a groove of card making! I made a few others as well!
They are all made on watercolor paper. I used a Papermate Liquid Expresso pen and watercolor pencils.

Ride it like you stole it!

Finished a new piece yesterday. A co-worker has a paralyzed dog named Megan. Megan's back legs do not work. Her momma does everything she can for this little girl! She has a wheelchair and is clinical trials too. (If you'd like to learn more about their story, here's the link to a lovely article on them!)
Megan is a little speed demon in her chair!

Elvis

Finished Elvis' pet portrait the other day. It turned out really well! His mom really like it!! :)

I met Elvis 5 years ago, when I first started working at Camp Ruff It. He is such a special dog to me. Helping take care of a dog a lot throughout 5 years is one of the best parts of my job. I get to see them grow up, get to know their personality, bond with and love them like they are my own. I love it.

Next up: I have so many ideas for new projects!! I just don't know which to choose first! :D I'll get back to you on that one!

Bookmarks

A somewhat recent project of mine....These were my place cards for my wedding in August. I made bookmarks using some pink textured paper. I stamped them in acrylic paint with stamps that I have made. I love the way they turned out!

Currently, I'm working on a pet portrait of a Westie named Elvis! Should be done soon!

Been a while

So, it's been a long time since I posted anything. I haven't been drawing much lately. Of course, life has to get in the way. It's hard to drag that inspiration out when I'm constantly exhausted. My day job takes a lot out of me. I love it, but it leaves little time for much else. Hell, I don't even get to see family and friends often. Let alone take on other projects.
With the holidays coming up, I do have 3 requests for pet portraits so far. It'll be nice to do a few again.
Maybe some day soon I can actually concentrate on my art for a while. I'd like to see what happens if it's the only thing I have going on!
For now, I will hang on to my ideas, do what pet portraits I can and see where things lead!

Pictures of...

The Japanese Chin is ChiChi, another dog that has passed. I love how hers turned out. And her parents absolutely loved it.
The horse is Autumn. A former coworkers horse. This is one of my favorite portraits that I have done. I love it! The bottom drawing is Koukla! :)

Time to Create!

Working on some projects today. Thanks to 

http://shelbynycole.blogspot.com/2011/05/create.html?m=1 for this piece of inspiration! 

I am working on an 11x14 pet portrait of a black lab named Gracie. I am just about done with it, just doing the finishing touches today! I will be selling it next week. And then I can move onto my big job and work o n some of the other smaller stuff on the side!

Busy bee time! ♡

Looking Good!

I've gotten a few pet portraits done recently! I will have to post pictures soon.

I also made an unexpected sale! A while back, I did a pet portrait of this dog that passed named J.D. His dad came into work with his new puppy (who is too stinkin' cute by the way!). I tried to give him the portrait as a gift, but he insisted on paying for it! That was not my intention at all, but it was so nice of him. He's such a sweet guy that loves his dogs so much! I am glad I was finally able to give him the portrait and I hope his family enjoys it!

I also walked into work one day and found out that I had 3 inquiries about pet portraits that day!

I have a new opportunity now too! Something a little different and big! I will explain later!      

Things are starting to take off. I'm surprised and so happy that I am able to do this! It's amazing!

Procrastination will be my demise...

I have a giant to do list...and I'm not getting any of it done. There's always a distraction or a problem that arises. I've been so stressed out for the past month or so. I feel like I am stuck in a rut.
It's FINALLY beautiful out, so I need to drag myself out of this and get my butt in gear.
I don't understand how I get so off track sometimes. I always have to-do lists...everywhere. I have a schedule, for every important thing. I need to stop getting distracted! I am so disappointed in myself!
Currently I have....
The Autumn portrait - which is literally so close to done I want to cry that it isn't yet!
I have about 4 other pet portraits to do. I have to work on dad's tattoo still, and start on Sabrina's.
I have Hailey's bridesmaid book to finish and send. I have a few other art projects that I'd love to get done, but I think they are going to have to wait.
I have wedding planning that I really need to work on more - we still have to go visit and pick a venue to start with.
My house needs to be completely cleaned reorganized.
And then there is work - I've got a great summer event that I'm trying to plan, have to get employee reviews done and update some training information. Also, check ALL of our files, re-do some and organize them!
I'm going to collapse just thinking about it all!!!

The New Year So Far...

It's been crazy! I've gotten a lot done and still have a lot to do. I have finished a few pet portraits and have gotten a lot further on a couple others.
We had started art class back up for a little while and now have decided to take a little break again. Especially since I will be super busy planning a wedding!!! Joe proposed!! (don't know if I mentioned this before!) So I'm going be a busy bride to be!
I am going to make a conscious effort to post more. Now that spring break is over at work, I'll have more time to get a bunch done!

Good Experience

So the holiday market went alright on Friday. Didn't get any official orders, but I did talk with some people about potential orders. Gave out quite a few cards at least.
I ended up getting moved to a corner spot which was a little smaller. I wasn't expecting that at all. I had come prepared this time with another table and an idea of the set up. It had to be completely changed of course. The spot I was in also was kind of bad. But that's ok, it wasn't a complete loss. It was a good experience.
This week, I've got a bunch of drawings to get done!

New Experiences

I recently participated in Holidays at the Haight on Friday night. It's a holiday market with vendors of all kinds. It runs Fridays and Saturdays in December.
I only signed up for last Friday and this coming Friday, December 14th. It was kind of last minute and also my first time doing something like this, so I didn't want to overwhelm myself.
There weren't many people there but it was still a good experience. I had quite a few people interested despite that. Hopefully there will be more next Friday! I will also be setting up my space differently. At the last show, I wasn't sure how much space I was going to be working with. Now I have a much better idea of what I want to do!

Holidays at the Haight
166 Symphony Way
Elgin, IL 60120
Free admission / Free Parking

Friday, December 14th / 4-8pm

New Finished Portrait

And this time it's a person! I pretty much like how it turned out but of course I see things after that I wish I did differently. Heh heh. I'll post pictures of this later.

On another note - I am participating in HOLIDAYS at the HAIGHT! An Elgin Holiday market. It runs the next 2, possibly 3, weekends in December. It's at 166 Symphony Way, Elgin, IL 60120.

I will be there on Friday, December 7th from 4-8pm and Friday, December 14th from 4-8pm. This is my first actual craft fair type event. I'm excited and nervous!

Come see me there!

Success!

The house looks awesome! I wanted to do more but I ran out of time!

The bats turned out great. If I started sooner, it would have been easier. But even with rushing they still turned out awesome. I will definitely be using them again next year.

Super easy and relatively cheap, depending on how many/how big of a space you're working with. I went to Hobby Lobby and got a package of big sheets of black construction paper, which was around $4 for 50 sheets. It was around $2 for the tacky stuff, which worked pretty well for the most part.

We (Joe & I) made these awesome looking vines! We picked up 2 packages of long natural looking rope. We got 5 cans of spray paint (well, 2 we had leftover from last year). We used 3 browns and a dark green. Then we just sprayed the crap out of the rope! The easiest was to spray the dark green and dark brown first, since the colors are overpowering to the lighter ones, and leaving some bare spots. We went back over the rope with the lighter browns. One of the browns was a textured paint that looked great on it. Obviously there is a lot of flipping the rope around and quite a bit of drying time. Looks fantastic! We also grabbed thinner dark brown rope it intertwine  with the one we spray painted. The whole look of it was so cool.

I found an awesome glow ball idea on Pinterest that we tried. We improvised with what was easiest for us to find. We got a package of regular green balloons which we put a green glow stick in, then filled with water. We then got some white stockings (I just picked up girl sized ones), which I cut the legs off of to use, and put the water balloon in that. They weren't huge, maybe softball sized. We hung them from the trees in the backyard. They looked awesome!! I unfortunately did not get pictures of them glowing. :( Everyone said they looked alien like.

I made a super cute witches table as well. I set a skull, a crystal ball, a broom and a bunch of bottles. Some I had and the rest I picked up for really cheap at this science store. I filled a few with water and food coloring. I also set out some witch related books that I had. I loved it.

It was an awesomely fun, crafty Halloween! :)

Even at work we got in the spirit. I decorated the lobby & few of us decorated pumpkins to look like some of our doggy clients! :)

Halloween love!!

Bat Swarm!

Just had to say that the bats are looking great. The tacky stuff is not the best, but for the most part they are holding!
More decorating tomorrow!

The decorating process...

Today I started putting up my bats!
I cut out different sized bats on black construction paper and I'm using sticky putty stuff to put them up. Here's a picture of how they look so far!
We will be doing a lot of decorating and crafts tomorrow. We'll be working on the branches and I'll finish hanging the bats. I'll post an update and pictures tomorrow! :)

Halloween!

We've got a lot of Halloweeny stuff going on right now. The annual party is this Friday night, so I've been trying to get the house decorated and my costume figured out. There are not enough hours in the day!! So the portraits have gone on hold for this week.
The decoration theme this year is a haunted forest. We're working on a project to make crazy branches that will stick out from the walls everywhere. Also, I will be attaching them to our columns in the living room to turn those guys into trees!! Here's hoping it turns out the way I see it in my head. I just need some time!
This week I've closed 2 nights at work already! Gah! Such a bad week to close. I never usually have to close too much anymore, I don't mind it usually but it's just killing me this week because I have so much to do and not enough time!!!
I will post pictures as this house gets transformed. And if they branch thing turns out well, I'll post a how-to!

October!

Oh, I'm such a slacker with posting on here. I really have to work on that. :)
I have gotten another pet portrait done, Theodore. I love how this one turned out. I think it's my favorite portrait that I have done. And it's a cat, not a dog!
I'm in the process of working on a few more right now, the husky is still in progress, Spencer and Autumn. Along with my dad's tattoo sketch, which he was giving me a little shit for. I'm sorry dad, but I have a very limited  amount of free time! Especially last month and this one now, with the Halloween party & such.
I'm working on some awesome Halloween projects right now too. This year our decoration theme is a haunted forest. :) I just need to get paid so I can go get some supplies!
On another, unrelated to my art, note..I got a promotion at work. I am now a manager at the doggie daycare. :) so happy. Last month I got the opportunity to work at an animal shelter, which I loved! But then it got my bosses at the daycare to see how valuable I was there I guess. I talked with them about a manager position, which one boss was like maybe eventually. So I said, ok keep me in mind but I'm going somewhere I can advance. Next day-I'm manager! Bam. So I sadly had to leave the shelter. But I do plan on volunteering! Just have to get through this month. 

The Yorkie Rescue Yard Sale

So, the yard sale went alright. It was a weird venue for my stuff, considering it was a yard sale...but I did hand out a few cards and got a bit of interest from people there. That was all I was really expecting, so yay me! :P

I've got about 4 portraits to do right now and hopefully they will be done soon!

I'm getting my Etsy shop ready for me to start adding my pet portraits up there for sale. And now I've got a bunch of cards and framed work; maybe I'll start getting into some craft shows or something!