During this month's Member Livestream, I taught a section on mixing neutral paint colors to coordinate with your palette. I swished the colors all around on a page in my sketchbook (to show how they looked together) and ended up with this mess: Well, I took a few minutes this week to clean up the mess and turn it into a composition. And I looooove how it turned out: Simple patterns will always be on my love list. If you'd like to learn more about composition, check out the upcoming season of Design Boot Camp. Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

I do a lot of teaching. And I love it! But I know it can get confusing as to what your options are. You can always visit the Event Calendar to get an easy visual of what events are on the horizon. This is a screenshot of what the Event Calendar looks like. You can even directly add events to your own calendar from it! How cool is that?! Here's the scoop for October: PRINT•INKTOBER LIVE You don't have to be a stamp carver to love this class. I'm sharing lots of techniques and ideas that work for rubber, foam,... Read more →

I am so grateful to all of the folks who have become Monthly Members. Thank you! I appreciate your patronage and I hope that you enjoy all the benefits of membership. :) There are three levels of membership to choose from and you can switch between levels as you wish. Member Maker Member - all the benefits of the Member level + more! Super Learner Member - all the benefits of the Member level + Maker level + more! All members have access to the monthly livestream. So what goes on during the livestream? I'm so glad that you asked!... Read more →

As you may know, each month I host a live online hour of art demos and answers to questions for monthly members. The demos are 100% based on the questions that members ask. Sometimes the demos are done without a finished product in mind and sometimes I end up creating finished projects, like these: August's livestream boasted two projects that I wanted to share. Here is the art journal spread that I started during the August member livestream: I love how it turned out -- somewhere between abstract and representational. Plus look at all that yummy texture! Hard to believe... Read more →

I am so grateful to all of the folks who have become Monthly Members. Thank you! I appreciate your patronage and I hope that you enjoy all the benefits of membership. :) There are three levels of membership to choose from and you can switch between levels as you wish. Member Maker Member - all the benefits of the Member level + more! Super Learner Member - all the benefits of the Member level + Maker level + more! Here's a quick round-up of member perks this month: Available Now: The Member Real Time Video, is the full two-hour process... Read more →

I finished up the piece I started during April's Member Livestream by adding a bit of hand stitching. I guess the stitching on my small quilt pieces is "catching." ;) In all seriousness, I think it makes sense that all the different projects I work on influence each other. Why wouldn't they?! You can see that I added both french knots and simple running stitches. I used one of my favorite stencils, Cut Outs... ...and you can see that it looks like a lovely botanical here: I also used my "Croquet" Art Foamie... ...for some subtle visual texture. In fact,... Read more →

My friend Nathalie Kalbach hosts monthly FREE webinars on a variety of art-related topics. I will be part of the panel this Friday, April 30th, at 12PM EST. Here's the official description: Join artists Nat Kalbach, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Iris Fritschi-Cussens, and Jimmy Leslie as they discuss the ups and downs, ins and outs, and the good, bad, and ugly of using social media as artists. We'll talk about balancing privacy and sharing, potential benefits and downsides, and how participating can change your practice. Metrics, negative comments, and thoughts on how to get started will also be touched on. Let's... Read more →

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, the concept is simple: It's a commitment to take ten minutes each day to do something in your art journal. No need to finish anything or even like it. It's about making the time to nourish your creativity every day! If you have the time to flip through your phone, you have the time to Art Journal Every Day. If you'd like to share what you make, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek. You can find new Art Journal Every Day posts here on the blog... Read more →

I had a very busy weekend packed with people, which is certainly an amazing thing to be able to say in these days of quarantine. But, don't worry, it was all from the comfort of my own home. On Friday I taught my live online class "Friday Night Art Journaling: Let's Make Faces." Here are some of the demo faces I created as part of that class: My next Friday Night Art Journaling class is on March 5. It's all about hand cutting lace pages in your art journal, like this one: On Saturday I taught my "ScanNCut DX: Super... Read more →

I sometimes get asked about how to find certain things in the membership classroom, so I wanted to put together a video that shows you exactly how to navigate the monthly membership: I hope you found that video helpful! If you need to find it on a later date, it's on the membership page of my website. Here's a peek at a few items from recent monthly livestream demos: Honeycomb Christmas Ornaments: Water-Soluble Crayon Performance Comparison: Here is a screen shot of a demo I did in November on how to use watercolors with Art Foamies (all livestreams are recorded):... Read more →