Designing...designing

So I started the 'redesign' for my website yesterday. It's looking very pretty :) Just a new coding things to go through, and a few design elements that I need to fix, but no biggies :)

I've also started my Christmas card line last night! There's four new cards, plus the two from last year! I didn't paint the originals of these cards on actual cards - just on watercolor paper. So, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to sell them as paintings, try to trim them down and sell them as note/postcards with an envelope....or just keep the originals for my own holiday decoration, and as gifts for family....so many decisions!

I don't have pictures of them yet, but I can tell you that two of them follow traditional colours (green and red), while the other two are not so traditional (pink and a 'candy' blue), but they're just as quite. The reason for the nontraditional colours, is because I know a good number of people who like Christmas, and all the snowy sparkly wonderfulness, but they don't like doing things traditionally, and so these cards are for them!

I'm still decided on the envelopes - normal plain Jane white? Matching colours? or nifty, ecofriendly brown-bag envelopes (they're thick and beautiful!)... and they can even - to a degree - be colour matched. There's also silvery envelopes that I could get too! Or metallic....oh, how to decide?!

As well, I'm trying to decide if I want to include stickers this year, to seal the envelopes. This of course first depends on my printers and what's available, and secondly if it would work with the system or not. I already have an idea what I would put on them if I did...

Miss. Madonna

Or is it Mrs? I definitely do not keep up with all the celebrity news, so I have no idea. But for the nature of my title, I think Miss. looks better.

Anyhow, I've recently had a Madonna craving....it's all I've been listening to at work and while painting. And so, I'm going to share Madonna craving with all my lovelies :) (That would be all who reads my blog :)

Etsy Love: prettyditty

Today I'm featuring the lovely aprons of Prettyditty from Etsy, also known as Jamie. Her wonderful aprons caught my eye while I was randomly browsing through the clothing category. Using great color and pattern combination, prettyditty's aprons are truly one of a kind and a must have for the chef / pastry-guru in your life. Or why not get one for yourself?

Prettyditty's aprons have a flattering fit, with a gorgeous design. I love that she gave enough fabric to tie in the front or back, and the thick strip creates an adorable bow. Her blog can be found at: www.prettydittyblog.com

Dawanda!

Jellybeans' products are now available on Dawanda!

http://en.dawanda.com/user/Jelybeans

Etsy Love: silverymoonart

Today, I'm featuring Silverymoonart, from Raleigh, NC. I stumbled across this whimsical artist through her Trunkt profile.


Her work is beautiful, with a modern folkart appeal. I'm especially fond of her Personalized Big Wooden Letters - you got to get them quickly, because only a few are left! They'd be a lovely addition to a craft room / area, or even for your child's bedroom door. Being a past university student, now college student, I would have loved to have one of these letters for my dorm room. Even now, it would fit great in my craft room, but alas - there are no A's left...sigh.

Silvermoonart has a variety of artworks; you bound to find something for everyone here - whether it's The World is so Full collage for a young one's bedroom, or its her Vintage Treasures box for your teenage daughter or friend, or even her Mixed media perpetual wooden calendar for yourself, to put in your work area, or to bring some love to your office - her shop is sure to please.

First Aid!

This weekend I was super busy keeping up on Etsy stuff, as well as trying to put together my new Dawanda shop. But I was also adding a very important item to my resume - First Aid!

It was the first time I took it, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. I guess there was really no reason. But I have it now, one weekend and 16 hours later.

Etsy Bloggers Feature: AKeepersJackpot

Today I'm featuring fellow Etsy Bloggers, AKeepersJackpot from New York. No wonder she was chosen as the featured Etsy blogger of the month, her jewelry work is beautiful! I'm especially fond of her jewelry pieces that include lampwork.



AKeepersJackpot also has a blog where you can read about her dabbles: http://akeepersjackpot.blogspot.com/. Right now, it's filled with lots of nature pictures from her travels - they're gorgeous!

43 Things

So I've decided that I'm going to try and do things "better" in life. Not necessarily better for everyone, but better for me.

And then I pondered, what would be the best way. Well, baby steps would probably work the best, so I thought I'd thinks of a few things and do those. Since my organizer doesn't really start until September, I needed someplace to put these goals - so I signed up for 43 things!

So I started my list off. It only has 6 things on it right now, but that's ok. I'll built as I go along - I don't want to set ridiculous goals.

I'm Jelybeanie there :)

Goals 1, 2 and 3 for this week:

• Stop drinking coffee (drink tea instead) - mostly because I don't drink "coffee", but the overly sweetened stuff.
  
• Stop biting my nails - this one will be hard, since it's been going on since I've had nails
• Run more

I know it's late-mid week, but if I put it off, then I might not ever do it!

Musical Inspiration: Foundations

My coworker told me about this song, Foundations by Kate Nash. I really like it, I'll be getting it tonight and listenting to it over and over while I'm painting tonight....it's pretty catchy, enjoy! :)

Rain Clouds

"Rain Clouds" - 12 x 12" Acrylic

I finished this painting up last week and it's now posted in my artbyangie Etsy store!

I didn't think I was going to paint rain coming in over a meadow...it just kind of happened that way. My original plan was to create a clover field. But, as glazes and layers built up - it turned into something different all on it's own.

It was until it was almost done did I realize that it wasn't quite what I had planned for it to be - but that's ok! I think it's even better that it formed what it is all by itself; it gives it some sort of inner meaning that it was just meant to be. It reminds me of living at my parents place, in the country, when you could watch the rain coming in - it's a beautiful thing to watch, even if it's just simple nature. Unfortunatly, with all the city buildings, you can't watch the rain so much.

Well, enough of my rambling.

Collage Time!

I got some pretty paper that I had ordered on Etsy today...now what to make with it all? Collage, I think. I'll have to ponder tonight and produce this week :)

Etsy Love: BrilliantSky

Today I'm featuring the lovely artwork of BrillantSky on Etsy, also known as Sarah Boys. This artist is a fellow Canadian based in Calgary, Alberta. Getting back into acrylic and oil painting myself, I find her flowing landscape paintings remarkable and so inspirational.




BrillantSky is also newer to Etsy, just having joined about a month ago - so please say hello to her and give her work a look :)

BrillantSky also has her own personal webpage, where her portfolio and a vast collection of paintings resides: www.sarahboys.com

Circle of Friends!

"Circle of Friends" - 9 x 12" Watercolor painting

I finished this painting last night. It's based on two things: the song "Circle of Friends" by Better Than Ezra and an actual group of trees at my parents place. Those four trees have been at my parents place ever since I remember, and since there's no other around them; if trees could talk, they would have made a great friendship :)

I thought I'd try presenting it in a frame - we'll see how it goes, it's currently being critiqued in the forums :)

Family Tree

I've decided to start doing family trees :) My paintings have been used to represent family's already, but why not include the names in a semi-traditional family tree style?


This is the family tree for my family - I had to make an example :) My brother Jason is the oldest, and then me, then Justin and lastly Aaron.

The link for the custom family trees are available here: Link

A Sailor's Delight

"Sailor's Delight" - Acrylic on Stretched Canvas, 24 x 12 x 0.75"

I love the little saying, Red sky at night sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailors take warning. And so I wanted to paint the sailor's delight - and this is what I came up with!

It was made with glaze....upon glaze...upon layer...upon glaze. I worked on this one with a paint brush in one hand and a blow dryer in the other so that I could dry the layers and glazes and keep working on it hehe.




There's also some really nice texture to it as well...the square on the right of the red sky is texture, it almost looks like it was cut into the painting. As well, the yellow-ish horizon line is a little bit raised. I'm not sure why I put the square there, but it is abstract, so maybe there's a deeper meaning in my self-conscious for it that I just haven't found yet.

Available in my Artbyangie store on Etsy.

Etsy Love: StarBear

I came across StarBear through his DeviantArt profile - proof that it pays to post your work anywhere you can! Any ways, this lovely artist - also known better as Ciaran, has beautiful artwork!

His children's pieces are simply adorable with so much love and thought put into each piece. His more abstracted pieces are bright, colorful and very well composed.



StarBear sells her originals in his store, so in order to see his entire beautiful portfolio you should visit his DeviantArt webpage, where a vast amount of his artworks are displayed.

For those who don't know what DeviantArt is, it's a community where artist's post, share and encourage each other's artworks. Commenting is allowed, giving artist's the opportunity to be critiqued, offer critiques and grow as an artist. I especially love this site, since not being an art student I've missed out on the advice that helps shape and improve an artist. This site provides this - it is a great site to check out, sign up and give a shot! My deviant profile is: http://angela-vandenbogaard.deviantart.com/

Oreo? No?

I was randomly browsing on Etsy when I came across this piece, and I nearly fell off my chair:

The piece was created by catnipalley on Etsy, and it was titled accordingly, "Fat Cats Sampler". Her work is beautiful, you should definitely check out her store!

It's my Kitty, Oreo in that cross stitch! Maybe he doesn't have the little bit of strips, but he is quite round - that's me and him on the left. And I'm not going to lie, he is currently on a diet. So it's not that I don't *heart* fat cats; I just want him a little healthier so he lives longer.

But what a coincidence!

Etsy Love: Nonsuch

Today I'm featuring Nonsuch from Etsy. I found through her Flickr photostream.
This lovely little button purse is 100% adorable, called the Herringbone Button Purse. I really like how the artist kept the design clean and concise. Adding a small detail, the button, completing the piece and giving it a nice beachy, sea-breezy, summer, retro appeal. Okay, I know one of those doesn't necessarily belong with the the other two, but those are the vibes I get from it. The button defiantly completes the piece, and it adds a nice touch and interest to the purse.

New Stationary!

I love my new La Petite Forest series, so much that I decided to make a stationary set out of it!


The set includes two cards of each print, with white envelopes. Even the back of the card is really cute.And don't forget about the sale I have going on!!

Sale Time

For my special Canada Day and 4th of July Shoppers: Buy any TWO items and get the THIRD (of equal of lesser value) for free! Please purchase all three and wait for a revised invoice.


This sale is good until July 7th at Midnight. Just wait for me to send a revised invoice; if you do happen to go ahead and pay, I'll just refund the difference - Happy Shopping!