I thought I'd share five of my favorite photos from Passover. Truth be told, I spent too much of my time actually laughing and enjoying myself to take good photos. I stole a few from my Mom's phone and combined them with the messy, grainy, blurry ones I had taken on my phone. And then I remembered that black & white is so very forgiving. A good reminder: I often find myself struggling with a painting that is too busy and can often solve the problem by calming down the color contrast. Art lessons are all around us, aren't they?... Read more →

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! Today we have a guest post from Sharon Evans. I found her blog... Read more →

I've been busy for the past few days putting the finishing touches on my new online class: "Getting Started with Deli Paper." Deli Paper is a wonderful and unique paper. It's translucent and very very thin as well as super strong. It's also very cheap! I use it all the time because it's just so versatile. This class is hosted on a private password protected blog and contains six video lessons. I've included two project videos in this class. One about making your own Deli Paper flowers, like the ones on this greeting card... ...and one about making your own... Read more →

Passover was on Monday night and I made the cutest place cards! This is a project that was cool in my head AND cool in reality! I love it when that happens. In any case, they're easy to make, so I thought I'd share the how-to! STEP ONE: MEASURE & MARK Start with a piece of black cardstock. Mine is 3 inches wide and 6 inches long. Mark the cardstock at the halfway point (3" in my case) on the long side. I make all my markings on the back (or non textured) side of my cardstock, but that's a... Read more →

As previously mentioned, I took a week-long "Expressionistic Figure Painting" workshop at The Art Students League with artist Barbara Yeterian. We worked on our paintings in twenty-minute increments and I took photos at each breaking point. Here's a closer look at the finished canvas: I could have used a little more time with this painting, especially in the background, but I'm going to call it done. And I think this painting really shows my growth during the week-long class. It's much freer than the first one. There's emotion and a story. Hooray! And my biggest take-away: don't do the harsh... Read more →

As previously mentioned, I took a week-long "Expressionistic Figure Painting" workshop at The Art Students League with artist Barbara Yeterian. We worked on our paintings in twenty-minute increments and I took photos at each breaking point. At this point, I went home from class really not happy with the painting. I just didn't like the pose -- the way the two models were interacting was just not interesting to me. It wasn't telling a story. So I took the photo you see above and doodled on it in Photoshop. I liked this relationship much more, so I decided that the... Read more →

This week I went on a secret crafty adventure to New Jersey. I couldn't take any photos of what I was doing, so I came home with a phone full of "boring" photos. But, you know, each one has a story. Food photos get taken at almost every single meal I eat and most of them end up in my Project Life. It's actually kind of amazing to me how looking at a photo of what I ate brings back so many memories of the moment. I hated this breakfast. Everything was gross. A big disappointment. I'm so used to... Read more →

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! Today we have a guest post from Oksana Tepp. I found her blog... Read more →

Today I'm starting a series of occassional guest posts from artists who rock. Today my guest is a serious stencil maven: Louise Nelson. Hello Hello Today I would like to chat and share a little about the ‘how what where’ using templates/masks in my scrapbooking. I have had a bit of a love affair with creating my own layout backgrounds for some time now so it has been only natural to use the wonderful array of masks and templates available on the market. Every now and again I will make my own or utilise some thing at hand. For example... Read more →

I'm delighted to bring you another episode of the Adventures in Arting Podcast! If you do not see the podcast player above, please click on this link. You can listen to a podcast anywhere and at any time. It is a recording that is available to you whenever you'd like to listen. If you'd like to download it to your iTunes library, click here. You can also pause and rewind or fast forward as you desire. I like to listen to podcasts while I'm making art. It's a little like hanging out with friends while you art. Today's guest is... Read more →