It's Giveaway Time...

I made this just for you. Isn't it pretty?

A mixed media collage painting on an 8X10 Artist's Canvas Panel

sealed with Mod Podge. I love this fabric so much that I just had to share

it before it's all used up. With fall soon to be upon us and then the cold winter months

ahead I thought just about anyone could use a bit of flower power for indoor inspiration.

I think this painting would look great in a 60's themed room or a teen room or...

I love the vibrant colors in this painting. It reminds me of the 60's,

"Peace, Love and Rock and Roll".

It reminds me of sunshine, bright and crisp, with not a cloud in the sky.

It reminds me of friends, of you...

Remember the post about the Moving Sale I went to? I decided I should share some of my thrifty buys along with the painting. I'll include these elegant pieces of lace pictured below.

Bits and pieces in pretty shades of cream, pinks, peach and lavender.

And these bits of lace trim too. These pictures are scans and the first scan with all of this pretty white lace was awful.I placed a large piece of black lace over the white pieces and it worked wonders. New thing learned, for me anyway.

And I wish you could feel these silky soft ribbons. Again in wonderful pinks and lavenders. There are a few pieces of silver and gold trim too.

I wish to send all of this and more to one of my friends, new or old.

Remember the saying:

One is silver and the other is gold.

I don't want to show everything here. A nice surprise for the winner of this

giveaway will be the little extras I will send.

I just ask one thing of you. I ask that you go to my Associated Content page and read a few of my poems. Pick a favorite and then leave a comment here

and tell me why it is your favorite.

Deadline will be midnight on Monday, August 31st.

I will pick a winner on Tuesday, September 1st.

Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you.

Many Blessings,

Tess

Abby's Lesson

I sketched this in the middle of the night this past week. I decided to bring her to life (so to speak). She is becoming a collaged painting on wood. I've been gluing and painting like mad. I've searched through magazines and cut out hands and feet. I've changed up this and that from the original sketch. I wasn't happy with the background I had started with and redid the top portion after having already glued some buttons down. Using mod podge to glue a button to wood is an excellent idea, but only if you don't want it to come off. Compromise. A new idea forms. My every free moment is being consumed by this piece. I took today off from my day job to work on her. Why?! I have no idea...but it feels good to see her take on color and shape. I have learned many lessons and grabbed the wrong bottle a couple times. And I've found my fingers often work much better than a paint brush. I am having so much fun with "Abby's Lesson". I have no idea what I will do iwth her. Any suggestions?

Remember This...It Became This...

Remember this journal page?

Well, over the weekend it became this mixed media painting. I had so much fun playing with this. I have to admit the color pencils in my journal was easier than the painting was. I used so many things, acrylic paint, paper, markers, crayons, highlighters, my fingers and just played and played.
Then I did something else...
I put it up for sale in my etsy shop. Oh My Gosh, I think I'm hyperventilating! Ok, ok, enough of that.

The snow is almost gone here after our sudden snow storm Friday afternoon and night. It was still snowing some on Saturday morning too. So what is the saying, "In like a lion and out like a lamb", well we got it backwards. Our winter and spring sure have been mixed up here so far this year.

I hope all others that were facing bad weather over the weekend have fared well.

Well I'm off to watch 24. I just love Keifer Sutherland. This season has been pretty predictable, almost disappointing, but I love the show.

Have a good night,
Tess

Who Says Grass and Trees Have To Be Green?

Leftover paint ~ Not enough to save and too much to just throw away.

Remember that fish drawing I did? I'm painting something similar on canvas board with acrylic paints. I mixed a small amount of orange acrylic paint for one of the fish I'm painting and I guess it wasn't small enough. So I used it to paint a picture in my journal. What do you do with leftover paint?

Healing Rays of Sunshine

This drawing from a past post .............

Became this painting. It is acrylic paint, glitter gel pens and Pilot Ball Ink Pen on a 9" X 12" artists canvas board. I am pretty happy with how it has turned out. I need to seal it still and maybe tweak the tree trunks a bit but other than that I think it is done. This will go to Bobbie.
I am now doing the same on water color paper with watercolor pencils. I forgot to do the background first so it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out. I refuse to start over as it is almost completely drawn in and I've already started adding some water. It's the sky part that I forgot to do. The sun and grassy hill is done and most of the flowers and I started the trees already when I realized the background is still white. Maybe I'll just add a bit of blue here and there and it will look a bit like clouds. Hmmm!

Bobbie had a good day today. She woke energetic and talkative and my son-in-law needed to study for a test so after a bit of visiting with her he took her to visit a friend and I picked her up and took her home when I got off work. She was still doing good so I took her with me to run an errand and then home to see her little one (the sitter was with her doing homework). It's nice to have a good day, I hope she has more of them between now and the surgery date. It is still Feb. 24th. Robert is at work and the sitter is going to fix supper and feed her before she completely tires out. She'll call Robert at work if she needs to go to sleep before he gets home from work to say goodnight.

"Always kiss me goodnight or at the least tell me you love me." I have no idea who said that but it's a great quote.

Remember to hug your loved ones real tight before you say goodnight,

Tess

I'm using my new fabric journal.

Praise God the washing machine is fixed and drain problem has been solved for now so that I can wash laundry at home. It's hard to double task at the laundromat when there are so many other things needing to be done at home.

I've been working on the healing rays of sunshine painting now and then. No picture yet though.

Anne at Gaale Creative posted about wordles and I found them interesting. I made one for Bobbie. Link is below....

title="Wordle: Bobbie wordle"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/520447/Bobbie_wordle"
alt="Wordle: Bobbie wordle"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

I found that Wordle site a fun distraction.

Bobbie has fallen twice so far this weekend. She seems to get weaker every day. The 24th seems like an eternity away. And of course now there are Non-insurance issues my son-in-law is dealing with. Ugh!!

Thank you all for praying for Bobbie, please continue.

Tess

Did I mention I'm a Winner yet?

I've been meaning to get this posted for some time now and with all of the holiday preparations it kept getting put off. On December 8th Jodi over at sweetrepeats did a "40 is the new 20 Giveaway" to celebrate her birthday. (Guess how old she is!) Of course I had to enter as I love the artwork Jodi creates and sells in her lucysweetlucy etsy shop. I never expected to win as I am forever entering giveaways and sweepstakes and never win a thing. Jodi's giveaway to the winner is a $40.00 shopping spree at her etsy shop. Well I won for a change. I found out Dec. 14th that I was chosen. After browsing at all of the wonderful "eye candy" in her shop I chose to put the $40.00 prize toward purchasing an original artwork. I chose this one:
"Hers and His" reminds me of how good my husband is. He sets up the coffee pot every night so that coffee is ready and waiting for us when we wake up in the morning. Isn't that sweet of him? My new painting won't be here in time for Christmas but that's OK. I have just the right place already picked out to hang it.

If you have never viewed Jodi's blog you absolutely must, she is a wonderful mixed media artist, mom and blogger. She keeps it real and admits to often feeling overwhelmed with it all; children, work and leading a creative life. She also displays wonderful photos of new pieces she is working on. Jodi was featured in the Nov/Dec issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, you'll find her on page 40. I love that magazine! I'd say she is doing great including creativity in her life. So have any of you won anything lately? Oh, and a big thank you to Jodi and a wish for much success in the future.

Happy Holidays,

Tess