After the holidays....

I always feel a little sad after the holiday hoopla...does anyone else feel this way?

I'm glad that the shopping is done...everyone has opened gifts...all of the food and drink has been merrily consumed. I think I am just sad that there is not any more major reasons to get together as a huge family for awhile. I see my grandparents and my aunts and uncles now and then but everyone including myself is so busy during the rest of the year it is hard to see everyone as a group except on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Anyways...I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! The husband and I went back and forth between our families for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Luckily our parents do not live far from each other so it wasn't bad at all!

Both the husband and I ate our way through Christmas so starting tomorrow (or the next day!) we are eating healthy! That means no more Christmas cookies!



I have also taken a break these past few days from art but tomorrow I am going to get back into the swing of things and start making some spring collages to put in my etsy store. I am already excited for warm weather!

Well have a good one and I hope to post some new art tomorrow!

Christmas Ornaments

Christmas is nearly upon us! I don't know about you but this year I am all about the handmade gift! I am getting sick of how Christmas is becoming all about buying people "stuff" that has no meaning whatsoever.

Recently I went to Michael's craft/art store and purchased these lovely little ornaments to decorate.




I painted the ornaments first with acrylic paint and then collaged images I cut out from my hand-painted papers. Next I added some details with payne's gray and white colored paint. I am going to try to finish some more today- I still need to loop a pretty ribbon through the top so I can hang them.

Little red bird



This one was inspired by some of Henri Matisse's paper cut- outs:


Another little red bird


What are you making this holiday season?

Meaningful Christmas Present

I teach at a pretty large high school and have a great group of about six teachers that I hang out with regularly. Last year for Christmas we each picked a name out of a hat and bought a $20 present for that person. This year with money being tight for everyone we decided to do something different. My friend Karen got this idea from Oprah and I just had so much fun doing it and also felt like I was making meaningful presents for my friends! This is what we did...it is so simple!

Karen put six colorful index cards (the large ones) into each of our mailboxes at school. We were to write meaningful letters to each of our friends and decorate the cards (if we wanted to!) and then return them to Karen on a specific day. We were then to bring in a box and Karen would deliver our letters to us...kind of Valentine's Dayish also!

Well I have been working on mine and I just finished tonight! Here is what I did:

First I painted each of the cards with acrylic paint:





Then using some paper that I had previously hand-painted, I cut out flower shapes and glued them on using matte medium and a paint brush. I then went over the flowers with some more acrylic paint and added decorative details in the background. Next I layered the collage with gloss medium to make it shine! Here are some of my final products! I wrote the letter to each friend on the back of the collage-so fun:)











I am so excited to give them to my friends on Friday! That is our last day of school and then we get Winter Break! Yay:)

Have a great evening!

Christmas in October?

Just wanted to pop in and say hello! I have been so crazy busy with things lately, I have barely been able to get online! I just wanted to post some Holiday collages I just completed this weekend. They are up on my etsy site and hopefully will be Christmas cards also! It is weird to think Christmas is 2 months away! Where does the time go?!