work in progress...art journal spread

I tried to snap photos of this art journal page in progress, but realized after the fact that I really missed a few steps. That's what happens when you get into a creative groove and just go with it :)

 Started with a generous coat of gesso and used emboss folders to imprint patterns in it before it was dry. 

 Decided I wanted to do vibrant sunset like colors with acrylic paints. A combination of Golden Fluid Acrylics and Liquitex Soft Body. Also decided that I wanted to a sunshine with rays extending out from the upper left corner so I sketched a rough outline of where it would be.

 This is where I forgot to take photos. There was a whole lot of misting, stippling, stenciling and painting in between the last photo and this one. I outlined the sunshine a little more and added some text to the page using some small letter stickers. I have a seriously large horde of these that I'm trying to use up in my art journal since I very rarely use them on paper scrap layouts.

 The text is layered on top of tissue tape that has been lightly covered with yellow tinted gesso. I sealed it with Mod Podge because those dang stickers never want to stick permanently.

 When I thought I was almost done, I decided it needed a little something in the center so I decided add a touch of purple and some floral rub-ons. Also have a huge stash of those that I'm whittling :)

I am so in love with the colors on this spread. And the text is a good reminder to look at once in awhile when I need it :)

monday muse... peacock inspiration

I thought it was about time I started posting Monday Muse boards again... I created this inspiration board a while back and never got around to posting it. I even have a project in progress that was inspired by this board. Maybe I'll try to give myself a kick in the butt to get it finished and post it tomorrow :) 

Seriously though, aren't peacocks one of the most amazing animals on this planet?

my life...or something like it!

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things now that baby is here and my six weeks recovery time is over. So back to creating and blogging is at the top of my priority list. Because that's what keeps mama happy and sane, right?!

So wow. All those people who said that having a third child really made no difference to how busy they are - were lying. Or else they are far more capable than I am. Or maybe they have a fantastic support system of people who actually live somewhere in their vicinity.

I'm not going to lie to you, my life is barely organized chaos at the moment. 

On February 25th, we welcomed sweet little Arya into our family. Like the pregnancy, the delivery (a c-section, 4 weeks early) was complicated and we were very, very lucky that everything turned out well. We have our fantastic doctor to thank for that, without him, I wouldn't be here. 

Anyway, because I had not one, but two major surgeries in less than 24 hours, my road to recovery was a little rocky. I came home from the hospital after having several blood transfusions with my red blood cell count still only about half what it should be. Which meant I was tired from the start, even before we got into the routine of middle of the night feedings and being up all night with a fussy baby every three or four nights. 

About three weeks ago, I felt like I was going to crash and burn. But I couldn't, because hubby was having back surgery that week and I was going to be on my own with all three kiddos for a while. So I put on my big girl panties and sucked it up and somehow made it through.  

Now we are struggling through the recovery phase after hubby's surgery. He's not even allowed to lift Arya for the next six weeks, so it's all me at the moment. And somehow I'm managing. I don't even feel like pulling my hair out. Yet. 

The house is clean. Most of the time anyway. Not right now, because I'm choosing to ignore that pile of dirty dishes and blog instead :) The kids are fed. Not the whole, natural foods they usually eat though, which is the next thing on my list of things to do, I need to get back on our food prep schedule. Because several days last week, my kids had store bought boxed waffles for breakfast. Normal for lots of people, horrifying for me. But I'm trying not to sweat the small stuff right now. I've been reminded by a couple of my good friends at the magazine that this is just a blip in time and before I know, things will be back to normal and the kids won't even remember that they had to eat boxed waffles, lol. Truthfully, I don't think they mind too much.

But the biggest struggle for me has been sacrificing a lot of my creative time. That has been painful. So slowly but surely, I'm trying hard to carve out a little bit of time here and there for me. I'm trying to reorganize things and find ways to get into the studio during the day because quite honestly, I'm too exhausted by the time the kids are bed to even open a jar of paint. I've vegetated on the couch and watched more television in the evenings in the past seven weeks than I have in my life. 

It's a struggle, but I'm determined and you can be sure that I'll be posting loads of creative goodness in the near future. 

inspired by patchwork... card trio

Earlier this week, over at the SNR blog, we had an inspiration piece that featured a beautiful pink patchwork armchair. With a baby girl on the way and Valentine's Day right around the corner, I'm on pink overload these days and it happens to be my least favourite colour. So I decided to take inspiration from the patchwork in the photo and designed this first card for the blog post over at the magazine. And then I loved the way it turned out and the colours so much that I decided to make it part of a set to go in my etsy shop.

 I'm longing for spring and summer... can you tell? I'm tired of having to be cautious of every step because of slippery conditions. And well, I know that by the time spring is here, I won't be in this constant pain that I'm now experiencing in this pregnancy. We are down to six weeks and counting until a scheduled C-Section - believe me I'd do anything to be able to give birth naturally but it isn't a possibility for me so we are waiting anxiously for March and hoping that everything stays stable until then. Anyway... creating with bright, cheerful colours has definitely been picking up my spirit!  

 This was card number two of the set... a different twist on the patchwork theme. Let me just say - this is not actually stitched. I am great with stamps and paintbrushes but the sewing machine is my arch enemy and my mom wasn't around to bail me out. So a black Sharpie and some faux stitching happened on these cards :)

And here's card number three of the set. And I just finished loading two of these sets into my etsy shop. I haven't been listing too many new products these days, but I do have a whole lot of items to list that I'm trying to get done before baby arrives. I have a lot to get done before baby arrives. And not nearly enough energy and I'm not really supposed to be doing anything much. It's a bit of a pickle, but I'm confident I can get it all done. Really. Now I'm off to work on a custom canvas order that's at the top of my list to finish this week :)

Hugs, Candace

mixed media + cards

Just a quickie post this morning with some artsy inspiration to share. We had our internet gone all weekend - from about noon on Friday until about four pm yesterday afternoon. And while I panicked a little at first about not being able to blog, update my FB fan page, check emails, check in on my shop, etc., after the first little bit I realized it was nice to unplug. I spent more time with my boys, spent some time working on some new sets of greeting cards to go in my shop, worked on some magazine subs and hung out with hubby since he was off work. It was wonderful.

However, this morning it was time to plug back in for a bit and blog and check in with my online life, so here I am. But the littlest munchkin is still sitting right next to me... he's playing a Diego game on his leapster and we are enjoying a smoothie - strawberry, banana, coconut milk, chia seeds and oats = yummy!

I also logged on this morning to grab a new digi kit... still working my way through my project 365 digi scrapping personal challenge and found myself in need of a doggy themed kit. I found one that I can work with, but if anyone knows of a really awesome one, shoot me a message please :)

Anyway, about the card that is accompanying this post. Most of the time, my papercrafting and mixed media art stay in separate corners of my brain and studio, but once in a while they mingle a little bit and this card is a result of that. I drew a rough pen sketch of the birdcage and bird inside on a piece of a watercolor background I'd had lying around for a long time. Then I decided to use a background stamp over the whole thing and topped it off with some Distress Crackle Paint (vintage photo I think) randomly smeared across the main image piece. Stamped the sentiment and added it and it's actually a pretty simple card to make :)

I'll be back again tomorrow with another post...artsy and food related... what could be better?

Hugs, Candace

work in progress...poppy canvas

So as promised yesterday, I'm posting some photos of the 24x24" canvas I've been working on while in progress. I mentioned that it was a long time sitting waiting to be finished... the evidence of that is in the bright sunshine in the first two photos - I started this canvas back in July!

 A couple beautiful coats of gesso - nothing thrills me more than a fresh coat of gesso just waiting to have colour thrown at it :)

 Worked on the background that same day (gesso dries quickly in the sunshine). At this point, the background still needs some blending but I'm loving the the colours :) Since I'm constantly documenting what's happening in our life, I often take screen captures of my Facebook statuses so that I can print them and add them to my scrap layouts...check it out:

After this, the canvas sat for about a month and then I took it on holidays with us when we went to my parents to work on the house we're building. Yep, I packed a 2 foot square canvas and all my paints along with me on holidays. During our holidays I blocked out the rough images of the poppies in white gesso and it sat like that until this past weekend. 

 I was trying to decide between white, red or orange poppies and finally decided that since the white gesso on the background hadn't done it for me, white poppies were out and a paint swatch told me that orange wasn't going to do it for me either. So red it was. I got up with the munchkins one morning at five am and was surprisingly a ball of energy so I laid on a layer of red and a little bit of the green in the stems before hubby was even out of bed!

 Several layers of paint later... started in on some basic shading and details. But... eventually decided I didn't like the shading in brown so I actually went back in and took it all out and redid it in black. Yeah. Cause I'm crazy like that :)

Details, details, details. And added some texture. Because it just wouldn't be me if it wasn't a little bit messy :) Almost finished, I've got a little bit more do do with it, but it's nearly there. 

In the meantime, I've got six more canvas (small ones, thankfully) in various stages of progress that I'm going to work my way through before I start anything new.

I've also been working on some digi layouts... because of course I'm a little behind in my Project 365. Of course I am. I wouldn't be me if I wasn't.

Hugs, Candace

monday muse...in love with burlap

I am in love with natural fibres... natural cotton, muslin, burlap, jute twine...can't get enough of them :) I just love the look of natural kraft brown and cream together... add in a splash of red and it's just a perfect touch. So for this week's Monday Muse board I created a montage of burlap loveliness to inspire you. 

And in case you need further inspiration, here's a masculine birthday card I made awhile back using some frayed burlap and jute twine...

supplies: not quite navy and very vanilla cardstock; well worn patterned papers; autumn splendor and so happy for you stamp sets; cajun craze and not quite navy ink pads; fabric and twine

I didn't blog all weekend because I was busy, busy, busy designing. I'm so, so blessed that my job is not physically strenuous and that I have a hubby who knows how much I need to be able to be creative and was willing, with the help of my parents, to relocate a lot of my supplies to our spare room upstairs. Yes, my creative space has been supremely compressed, but the stairs were just too difficult for me in the pain I'm in all the time and I was afraid I might actually fall so this was the best thing to do. So I spent the weekend designing for the magazine (one of my canvases is actually in the slideshow on the landing page for SNR along with a ton of other amazing artwork). And working on a 24x24" canvas that I started back during the summer but just never found the time to get back to. And hubby even joined me in the makeshift studio for a little bit on Friday afternoon while the oldest was in school and the youngest was napping. Can you say happy wife?!

I love this boy so much :)

Anyway... happy to say after many hours of very awkward work - what possessed me to start back in at a canvas so huge when my belly is in the way?! - the majority of the canvas is finished. It's just waiting for some words to be added. And I love it :) 

Tomorrow I'll post some work in progress pics.

In the meantime, have a great Monday!

Hugs, Candace