Hello out there! Here's a little bit about life right now: This is me right now: The freckles on my nose get stronger every summer. All the time spent in the sun in Spain is showing in those freckles! My current art obsession is: Machine Embroidery. As you know from yesterday's post, I got a new fancy machine and I'm having a lot of fun! My current life obsession is: Trader Joe's Savory Thin Rice Crackers Super tasty! And if you're a Weight Watcher, they're only 3 Points for 1 oz (which is a lot of crackers). I'm loving: giving... Read more →

True Confession: I've had this really cool sewing machine that also does embroidery for more than a year. But, the machine embroidery part always intimidated me. I tried it a few times and things didn't work out perfectly, so I kind of gave up. This weekend I decided that it was time to get over myself and read the manual. That's right. I'm such an egomaniac that I thought I'd "just figure it out." I had never even tried to read the manual. (Insert embarrassed face here.) Well, I read the manual and followed it step-by-step and HOLY MOLY! It... Read more →

Here we are at week five of the #RANZAmade series. Today I'll take you through the Franken Tag technique, using two tags at once. Spray paint will be the main medium for a change and no makeup wedges! Let's go! Spray paint and tags are the real necessities needed, for this. I used a bit of tape on the stencil just to align a little bit, but, if you want to live on the wild side, rock on with your bad self! Lay your stencil on top of your tag. I added the tape as shown, that lines up with... Read more →

While we went to the Whitney specifically to see the Calder exhibit, we certainly weren't going to skip the rest of the museum! Take a peek at just a little bit of what we saw: Anyone else get Benedict Cumberbatch vibes from this guy? I think it's the nose. This is definitely the most interesting stairwell in the world. I don't always volunteer to take the stairs, but I did at this museum! The Whitney is a stunning building, nevermind the art. The views from their outside terraces are awesome. It turns the whole of New York City into art!... 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. 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, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek. Even if you're not on social media, you can see everything (from twitter, pinterest, instagram, and facebook) that uses that hashtag here. Today I've got some more art journal pages from December 2016 to share... Read more →

I have just returned from 10 days in Europe (lucky me!). I am currently gathering all of my photos for lots of blog posts to share with you. But in the meantime, I thought you might enjoy a quick peek of what I've been up to and what's to come (museums and more) via my vlog -- last week and this week: Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Several weeks ago I visited the The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City to see the Alexander Calder Hypermobility exhibit on the top floor. You may remember that I posted about wanting to go and see it back in June. I'm so glad that I was able to make the trip to NYC to do it! What is this huge crowd staring at? Each day a curator comes to "activate" several of the sculptures -- different ones each time. Sometimes you'll see people standing in front of a Calder mobile or sculpture and blowing on it as... Read more →

Welcome to the fourth week of #RANZAmade stencil techniques. This week I'll show you a unique to use open and detailed stencils together. This is like the sister version of the Stamp on Stamp Action post Julie featured many moons ago (eclipse humor, sorry). I omitted a product picture, but the links will be at the end as always. After testing this out a few ways, I decided it looked best painting the tag first. I wanted a pop of contrast for this, so I grabbed Hansa Yellow Opaque. Let it dry for best results. Now we revisit the pouncing... 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. 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, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek. Even if you're not on social media, you can see everything (from twitter, pinterest, instagram, and facebook) that uses that hashtag here. Today I've got some art journal pages from the end of December 2016... Read more →

This is a long overdue follow-up on my previous two posts about filming Season 3 of Make It Artsy (part one and part two). Today I'm sharing some of the projects that I made for the show. You saw this Bullet Journal spread back in May when I shared my burgeoning Bullet Journal obsession. After it are two worksheets giving step-by-step directions for creating some decorative designs in your Bullet Journal. They will be downloadable from the Make It Artsy website once the show goes live. Next up, you can see some jewelry I made using paper clay and Art... Read more →