Michael's Madness

I went to Michael's, the Arts and Crafts Store last night with a one hundred dollar gift certificate burning in my pocket. I was totally giddy. I had a long list of tools for drawing, painting and scrapbook that have been on my wish list for a long time. Of course, when I got there I realized that my one hundred dollars wouldn't go very far. Art supplies are so expensive! I ended up eliminating all the painting items from my wish list and only getting scrapbook stuff. My key purchases were a paper cutter, paper with new colors and designs, and a brand new scrapbook. I also got some cool paper scraps for making cards, wide page covers to replace the ones that make my pages bend, and some pretty stickers.

When I got home I showed off all my new toys to my husband, who was mildly amused, and then ripped open all the packaging and organized everything into neat piles. I spent the rest of the evening replacing the page covers of my wedding scrapbook, which looks much better now. I had wanted to start my thank-you cards, but I didn't get around to it before bedtime.

So thank-you cards were my project for today. I got to go home early (yay!), so I spent the afternoon making these cards.

Making cards for people is kind of a silly thing to do, because I know that most of them will end up in the trash. But at least the person I give it to knows, for the short moment they hold the card in their hands, that I was thinking about them and cared enough to spend the time to make them a card. At least, that's what I hope they think. Plus, they are pretty and I enjoy making them. These pictures don't really do them justice. There's something about the texture, weight, and dimensions of the different papers that makes them really homey.

What do you think? Are they too simple? What do you use when you make cards?

Psalm 150

I drew this picture the other day in a fit of creative frenzy. I have a hard time with cray-pas as a medium. I feel like I am drawing with my thumbs--I have very little control over detail.

Also, I always over-estimate their blending capacity. There is probably at least five layers on the sky. I dismayed that I would ever make the sky look uniform in just the right color, but then it magically turned out. I'm thinking about taking it out of my sketch book and framing it. What do you think, a black frame with white matting?

Christmas Day

Justacoolcat made this blog for me about a year ago, and it has taken me this long to create my first post. I have spent the last year deliberating about how I would use a blog if I ever got around to it. I would like to use this blog to display my art projects and dialogue with potential readers about my art, their art, and art in general. I am not a professional artist by any means, but I enjoy drawing, painting, scrapbooking, and making music. I'm hoping that these discussions will help generate ideas and stimulate the creative process.

A note on my creative process: I tend to be creative in spurts. This week, for instance, I have had the drawing itch. I've done a little drawing almost every day. I made the drawing above with my two-year-old nephew while we waited for Christmas dinner, using his glitter glue and construction paper. Another week I might be really into my scrapbook and think of nothing else. But then I might go a month or two without feeling very creative at all. A lot of it has to do with what's going on in my life at the time. I don't want to develop a guilt complex about my blog when I neglect it for a while, so for now I'm just going to say that I will post when I have something valuable to add to the Internets, otherwise I will leave it be.

Like most of my projects, this blog will probably develop a life of its own as it progresses. My ideas rarely turn out the way I expect them to, but usually I like the finished product just as well. The important thing is to keep at it until it's done.

Wifey

Smooth