Hello, friends! Here's a little bit about life right now: What are you listening to? Marissa turned me onto the "Yacht Rock" channel on Spotify. Perfect background music for happy painting. What are you wearing? Summer dresses and a smile! What have you bought? This eye mirror insisted on coming home with me from France. I think it will fit perfectly into the new house! What are you reading? My Mom e-mailed me this wonderful story from The Washington Post about the bond between a man and a crane. Who are you stalking...er, admiring from afar? Jen Hewett. She's a... Read more →

Each month I do my best to answer the ScanNCut questions I get via e-mail, instagram, facebook, etc. in video form. One question I have gotten over and over and over is: Where have the monthly free cut files gone that used to be at scanncut.com? Good news! They're still there, just in a slightly different place! Watch the video to learn how to access them: At the time of the filming of this video, this was the free cut file: Isn't it cool?! I love the way the butterfly floats off the page! If you own a wirelessly-activated ScanNCut... 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. Thank you for all of your kind wishes and congratulations on yesterday's post.... Read more →

I'm back home and will begin deluging you with museum and city photos next week. But, before I do that... Paris was pretty darn unforgettable! Steve told me that he had booked a photoshoot at the Eiffel Tower so that we would have some great photos of the two of us from the trip -- more than selfies. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the photographer had lots of props and silly suggestions and we had a great time goofing around -- and even popped a balloon by accident. At one point, Steve "hurt his knee" and so he... Read more →

I definitely create when I don't feel like it. That's the whole "job" part of this thing. But, I also get bitten by the creative bug from time to time. The other day I woke up and just *HAD* to carve a stamp. It didn't matter what else was going on, I just needed to do it. And so, I did. You can watch a video of the process here: And I carved a stamp again the next day. You can watch a video of it being carved here: stamp carving video (you have to click the arrow to get... Read more →

This is a post from the archives: August 4, 2014. So you know that I love empty toilet paper tubes. I use them all the time. But you don't have to leave them "as is." The soft cardboard is easy to form into lots of different shapes! I was super thrifty and cut my toilet paper tubes into smaller chunks in order to create six unique stamps. Well, the plain old circle probably isn't that unique...but let's keep that our little secret, okay? Once I made my stamps, I got to stamping... As you can see, I used acrylic paint... Read more →

This is a post from the archives: March 11, 2011 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. How are you... Read more →

This is a post from the archives: December 18, 2014 Happy Thursday everyone! Today I want to share a super quick and easy technique. Yesterday I shared this photo on instagram: And I got a couple of questions on how I made the print inside the print. So, I decided to put together a quick video for you! Here is the image from the video: This is a super duper easy technique that you can try with lots of different stamps and inks. Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

This is a post from the archives: September 11, 2014 A friend recently sent me a link to a great article by Luminita D. Saviuc, called "15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy." As I read down the list, I started to think about how the list was filled with things that I tell my students all the time. So here is Luminita's list, with my comments on how each one can be related to art-making! 1. Give up your need to always be right. You guys, art making should be fun! Needing to do it "right" can... Read more →

This is a post from the archives: January 23, 2014. Thanks for your enthusiasm about my Ranger Designer Challenge Project! So many of you asked for the how-to that I decided to put together this quick step-by-step tutorial. Supplies: Embossing Folders and a Die Cut Machine (not shown) Distress Paints Metal Tape (from the hardware store -- it's actual metal) Fun Foam (I like the adhesive backed kind) Black Permapaque Scissors Sandpaper Apply the metal tape to the fun foam. Slightly overlap the pieces as needed and then trim the excess tape away. Cut the foam/metal tape into smaller pieces,... Read more →