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Do you remember the Ladybug day?

I love this story, don't you?  I love how it has helped me to see the good in all of life's silly situations.

You can now be a proud owner of an original, limited edition book.

Here on etsy.

What's new on Esty?

Hey, check it out...I feel so professional now.

Time for another artist

This is an amazing company that hand prints all of their own textiles to create beautiful furniture, lighting, rugs and other home accessories.  I fell in love with their work not only because the prints are incredible, but because each is hand printed with precision.  As an artist who has worked in the medium of printmaking, it was simply inspiring.  

Thanks to their great web page that shows the process they use to create their exquisite textiles and each of the patterns with hundreds of possibilities! 

After Monet's "Field of Poppies"

My first commissioned shoes: Ninja Turtles

I painted these shoes for a fundraiser for a little baby who just received a heart transplant, Mia McDonald.  They were some of the funnest I think I have done :)

Mt. Rainier

I painted these last week for my mother-in-law's birthday.  On a clear day, they can see Mt. Rainier from their house and have often enjoyed family outings at Mt. Rainier National Park.

Finished shoes.

still in the process....

(Above is the entrance gate to the park).

Today's Special: homemade Christmas decorations

Every year when I lived at home with my parents, I loved putting up Christmas decorations with my mom.  There were two things in particular that I loved putting up, the mistletoe and all of her nativity sets.  I love the tree and the other things like wreathes and garlands, but for some reason those two were my favorite.  I guess it is no surprise to me that for some of our decorations, this is what I found myself making this year:    

Anyone on a tight budget for the holidays could have fun making decorations like this for their house/apartment.  As you can see below, all of the supplies are things that you could almost just find around your house, or pick up for just cents... :)

Supplies needed:

Nativity: (I made this my freshman year at BYU...and I still have it)

marshmallows

pipe-cleaners

Holly berries/Mistletoe :

green and red construction paper

green paint

scissors

hershy's kiss rappers (provided with love by our neighbors' Christmas present)

ribbon (also from the present)

Star:

yellow construction paper

Anyway, the point of all of this for me wasn't really to give a tutorial, I just wanted to share a little of what I have been up to lately.  I am so happy with the way the mistletoe turned out especially, it reminds me a little of one of my favorite children's book illustrators, Eric Carle.  He uses the same technique of painting paper different colors and then cuts it up to make images.  

The History of Creativity

Many of you may be familiar with the class "History of Creativity" at BYU, and may know that at the end of the semester, each student is required to complete a project that demonstrates creativity.  I am not exact on all of the details, but this is what Dane came up with for his project:  (His class was studying the history of time through 1500 A.D....which includes the Greeks.)

I helped him mix the colors and a little with the sketching, but he did most of the painting himself, and it was all his idea.  I am so proud of my little painter, husband!

Springville Museum of Art: Educators of Utah Show

Hey, just wanted to let you know about some of my work that is up in a show right now at the Springville Museum of Art.  The show is a juried collection of works done by Utah educators.  This is what I have in:

   

I have had a thing for pandas lately...

Featuring Some of My MOST Favorite Artists:

For those of you wondering how student teaching is going, I thought i would give you a little fill-in.  I am having a great time, and have just started working at my second school this week - and it's JR HIGH...!  I will miss the elementary students, but I think that jr. high is going to be a lot of fun.  Here are some of the masterpieces that my first graders created:  self-portraits :)

Afternoon Activity

Some of you may have seen the shoes I painted a few weeks ago for Dane.  I have been trying to figure out a design for me.  This idea was inspired by Joanne and her boys.  (Although she doesn't know that.)  I am just going to try and build up a portfolio for now and think I will paint myself another, less batman-y pair.  Oh yeah, and I am no where near charging the price Dane listed before.  Anyway, these were kinda fun.  

p.s. these shoes were a much cheaper alternative to Vans:  $5.99 at Rite-Aid.

Figure Sculpture

Hey, so these are a few of the pieces that I made this last term in my figure sculpture class.  They both came from molds that I made after sculpting a model in clay.  I then filled the molds with french fries, a tape measure (as you can see above) and resin, a kind of plastic.  They are both dealing with issues of self image, (they are two separate pieces) and all that fun stuff, and I am entering them into a show here in provo.  

Stained Glass

Here are some of the finished products from my stained-glass class. To be honest it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The piece below was my final window project. I just finished the frame yesterday, and it is going up in a show on campus tomorrow. So if anyone is in town, or wants to be in town, there will be a show of my class's work in the HFAC (5th floor, I think) for the next month or so. (Everything in the show will be glass work, so that should make it pretty easy to find, if anyone is looking:) . )

Paper-case Binding and Clamb-shell Box

Spring term is over, summer is well underway and I have a little catching up to do as far as posting my books... Above is my "paper-case" bound book. On this project, I learned to make a rounded spine, and a few other pretty old school techniques. Each of the signatures were folded from single pieces of paper (some of the edges have yet to be torn, and are still folded.) I don't know if that makes any of sense...hmmm. Have any of you ever been to the press building in Palmyra where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed? There you learn that 16 pages were printed at a time on one sheet, then that sheet was folded, the folded sections were sewn together, and then the edged were cut or trimmed. That is the same process here, just pre-trimming.
This book also has a hand sewn endband, but is a different style than my last book. It is secured by a leather strap that has been fed through the cover, and is covered with handmade paper (instead of a covered board) giving it a soft feeling.

The fore-edges of the cover come well over the end and bend around the text-block for protection. (I forget what it is called....grrr...that is driving me crazy!) I went pretty traditional with this book, and wanted to make it just like it would have been made hundreds of years ago. I am pretty happy with it.:)

Our next project was to make a clam-shell box. This is a box made for to hold books, portfolios, or anything that needs a special place to keep it safe. It is most often used as a conservation item in libraries and special collections for books with old bindings. Here is my box; I made it to fit my paper-case book: