Today I thought I'd share a Make It Artsy segment where I demonstrate how to use tube watercolors and Grafix monoprint plates to create super cool monoprints: And here is what some of the monoprints look like: This is a fun process and really easy to do. I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what you think! Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Last week I posted about my Palm Leaf quilt in progress. I had made the blocks, but couldn't decide on an arrangement. I appreciate all of the advice I received on how to set up a design wall and tools to use to help make the decision easier. In the end, I picked this arrangement: I surprised even myself with this choice. It wasn't anything I had in mind when I made the blocks, but looking at the photos I decided that it was the most pleasing to my eye. In putting the quilt top together, I made another shocking... Read more →

Hello, friends! Here's a little bit about life right now: What are you wearing? Maternity Jeans. I have reached the point where my pants no longer fit. What have you bought? An antique lighting fixture for the living room in our new home. Our house was built in 1890 and this fixture is from 1910. So, not exactly the same, but close enough. What are you reading? "This is Marketing" by Seth Godin. Meh. After reading "Building a Story Brand," I wanted more! So, I decided to try some other marketing books. This one is such a disappointment after Story... Read more →

I was in the Target craft aisle last week (big surprise) and I discovered that they have released some heavy bodied tube paints under their house brand, "Hand Made Modern." I previously reviewed their craft paints (not a big fan) in June 2016. Keeping an open mind, I decided to buy a few tubes of this new paint and give it a test drive. I videotaped my experiments: And here are some of the experiments from the video: (The stencils I used are called Number Scramble and Tangled Vine.) You know there's a lot of brown in this color mixing... Read more →

I worked on new mixed media collage portrait last week. I didn't set out to create a portrait. I thought it might be an abstract painting, at first. This is how it started: I didn't love it, so I cut it in half (one of the benefits of working on paper): And then I decided to add some collage: It just felt like a big mess to me at this point. So, I decided to paint a face on it: I didn't like the face, so I scrubbed it off as best as I could. And then I painted a... Read more →

I have to confess to having a pretty rough last few months. I've been sick and exhausted and stressed and dealing with a lot of body image stuff. But it has all been for a good cause, so I can't be that upset about it. After all, I've been growing a human being -- which is a totally amazing thing. Baby Boy is due in November and I'm pretty sure that my life will never be the same again. Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

Back in April, a woman named Gladi Porsche was the speaker at the monthly meeting for the Quilters Connection Quilt Guild. She brought tons of gorgeous quilts. They were not the kind of quilt I usually make, but I found them inspiring and breathtaking nonetheless. I was particularly fascinated by a series of quilts she had brought featuring an old traditional block called the "Palm Leaf." You can see that by simple rearranging how the blocks relate to each other, you get incredibly different looks! Swoon! I decided that although I am not a traditional quilter, I wanted to make... Read more →

Creating wall art for your home is so easy when you’ve got a ScanNCut. In this tutorial I show you how to create two different stencils – one in CanvasWorkspace Online and one in CanvasWorkspace for Mac. We then use the two stencils in conjunction with a gelatin plate to create a sunny piece of art for your home! Watch the video for the how-to: Here's the brief version in photos: I hope you'll give this project a try. Cutting stencils is one of my favorite things to do with my ScanNCut! Thanks for stopping by! --- P.S. I am... Read more →

I don't know what it is about neon pink. I'm not even a pink girl! But I am oddly attracted to neon pink. As you may know, neon paint colors tend to be transparent. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to take my tube of neon pink paint and see how I could incorporate it into a print. Here's what I came up with: I particularly love the section of the print (above) where you can really see how the neon pink is interacting with the other colors in the print. It's easy to get into a color rut.... Read more →

Before I get to today's blog post, thanks for all your good advice on my stamp block. I'm taking a few days to think about what I want to do about that flaw and I'll be sure to let you know! --- I'm teaching a class all about mark making at The Ink Pad in NYC on June 22. So, what is mark making? I'm so glad that you asked! Mark making is one of those art skill basics that we often skip over to get to the "more fun" making the picture part of the process. However, if you... Read more →