January's Journal Challenge Days 23 and 24

Greetings all, We woke to a light dusting of snow and colder temperatures this morning. I was so glad to be home when I got off work yesterday and to know that we could actually have a decent meal for supper. Chuck grilled steaks even though it was cold outside and I baked us a potato. We usually have a salad or vegetable too but decided not this time. Then after supper we played dominoes until bedtime. No crafting or journaling or painting happened yesterday I sadly admit. But, sometimes our spouses need our attention and our creativity needs a break. I woke feeling refreshed today and even though I have a mound or two or three of laundry to do as I am doing my daughter and her families laundry also this weekend I felt great and like it would be a nice slow day. So far I've started a pot of soup, washed and dried several loads of the laundry and I made this:

I revisited the earlier watercolor drawing I had done on regular paper and decided to try it on watercolor paper and to change it up a bit. In honor of Valentines Day I decided to paint blossoms of "Hearts and Soul". I used watercolor pencils and drew on watercolor paper this time. I found a small brush works good for me to wet the colors with. The butterflies are stamps painted with water and then rubbed with the watercolor pencils. The stamp design is from a set of stamps I bought from the Unity Stamp Co. 's August Kit of the Month called "remember happiness". All of the designs from this set were created by JessiLynn of Vol.25. She is a wonderful artist and designer and has a great blog and etsy shop. Check her out.

Yesterdays challenge from Misty was to create something inspired by your favorite artists. I kept this in mind when creating the painting above. Two artists came to mind, Jodi Ohl of sweet repeats and Jessi Lynn of vol25. Jodi loves hearts as does Jessi. I wanted to use one of the stamps I had bought that Jessi created . I chose the title "Hearts and Soul" because I truly believe that both Jodi and Jessi pour their hearts and souls into everything they create. OMG, I could say this about every one of the wonderful artists I have found here in blog land. Here are some links to some of my other favorite artists that seem to inspire me everyday:

Misty Mawn

Nina Bagley at Ornamental

Jude at Spirit Cloth

Red Velvet Art (Four of the loveliest and most talented young ladies I've ever come across.)

Sweet Repeats

Art du Jour

elvie studio

and so, so, so many more.

Of course there are those other artists, the ones long gone that inspire us all. Such as da Vinci , Picasso, Renoir and Monet. And I can't leave out Andy Warhol.

Today's challenge from Mist is to create a piece of art and give it away. I'm not sure how to do this but I do know what I want to do. I would like to give this watercolor painting away to someone here that continually comments and encourages me. I will gather some surprises; papers, artist trading card, cloth and maybe even some upholstery fabric swatches to send with this little painting to this person. The painting is rather smallish. It measures approx. 5 1/2" X 9" and is Staedtler Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils on Canso 90 lb. watercolor paper. I used Sobo Premium Craft & Fabric Glue to attach the dictionary word. I will put all commenters (to this post) names in a bowl and have my husband pick a winner on this coming Monday evening, 6PM CST. The winner will then just need to send me an address and wait for their surprise to arrive. Good Luck!

(I must admit I feel foolish as I am thinking right now, "Who will want this?" But I worked hard on it and giving of oneself is a good and postive thing so here goes....)

Tess