Orders going out!

After the long Postal Strike here in Canada, it is nice to have my packages flowing out again. I made a trip to the post office and bought a bunch of different stamps for my packages - it feels more like I'm decorating them than posting them...look at all the lovely designs Canada Post has out for stamps:



My US and International orders tend to get the most stamps (simply because they cost more to ship). I won't lie, I do choose some of the lower value stamps so that I can stick more on. Also, with the stamps being stickers, it's not like I'm stuck licking all these stamps...just peel and stick and they're on their way!

And, here's Oreo supervising as always...

Finally getting settled!

I'm finally getting settled down in my new apartment, in my new city...and with my new job. Things were a little hectic for awhile with getting everything sorted out, but all is well now! I'm officially a "grown up" with a "grown up job" hehe.

I will have some pictures of my apartment in a little while, but I must warn you it looks a little bare - when you go from moving from a house you were sharing, thus having most of your stuff in a single bedroom, to an entire apartment to yourself, where you can 'dump' things where you'd like: you start to realize that you never really did own an overly large amount (although, when moving it still seems like you own too much stuff lol).

I'm going to try with some regular blog posts again. With shift work, I may not be able to post as often as I was for a little while, but I'll try my best to at least keep you all in the loop, especially with creative processes blogs. I missed writing on here - I'll keep in touch with you all more :)

New! Family Tree Prints!

Fill-in Family Tree

I've been pretty excited about this idea - I just needed to create all the painted elements, put them together and fill one out for myself :)

I had been pondering this idea for awhile - trying to decide how to go about it. I wanted to create an affordable way to offer a family tree to those who may not want an original painting. As well, with my new job ( Yippie!! - Medical Radiation Technologist at Grey Bruce Health Services...Eeee!) I won't have the time to accept as many custom orders as well.

So I created a series of trees, with spaces for families ranging from 4-8 persons. This is a great gift idea for family members and weddings. As well - make it a family activity: get each person in the family to write in their own name. Right now, I'm only offering the one design - with various numbers of 'name places'. I will create more as time permits and as needed. You can find them in my online shop on Etsy: http://jellybeans.etsy.com

Original Paintings on Sale!

You read that right!! The Oil and Acrylic paintings in my shop are on sale - 25% off or more!! Now's the perfect time to get some new colour into your house - just in time for all those summer and spring parties!

Just go to my shop: http://jellybeans.etsy.com, and go to the 'Original Paintings on Sale' section - they are all there, and all ready for new homes!

Herb Gardens, Jungles, Pink Forest and Bunnies

"Pink Forest" - Watercolor, 7x10"

Just a little painting update to share with everyone :) I've been working on integrating animals into my paintings more, trying to create some more realistic watercolour paintings and lastly using some light collage techniques in my work. "In the Jungle" - 12x16" watercolour

I've always wanted to put some jungle animals into my trees - it was just trying to figure out the best tree to put them in. I think the trunk here works well. "Thyme" - 7x10" watercolor

Here was my attempt to work with the 'botanical' sort of watercolour piece. It's not completely 100% realistic, but it still has some artistic expression in it, which I think is important in a piece."Spring Bunnies" - 7x10" watercolor

This will be my favourite of this update. I think the collaged piece of paper is just so different from my other pieces, and fully represents spring perfectly! Plus, you have to love sleeping bunnies.

Sunday Shopping

Just some things that I heart on Etsy:

Ruby Lace Bird Bowels - PrinceDesignUK

Miss Flirty Floral Headband - ChloeANDMaddie

Rose Gold-Plated Intial Ring - meltemsem

...if only it weren't just online-window shopping ....

My Creative Space:

As mentioned before, I've been painting tons. I think it's all of the fresh spring air that I'm getting. It's just so inspiring! The painting above is one that I had started, it's of some herbs (thyme to be more specific). I was thinking of doing a series of a few of them, but I'll first see how this one turns out to be sure.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

I love, love and love that they are making a movie based on Little Red Riding Hood. I cannot wait to go see it!

My painting, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, was inspired by this movie. In my painting I wanted to illustrate the sensitive an vulnerable side of the wolf. Here is dear Little Red walking through the forest on a dark evening, with a full moon, and she stumbles across the 'big bad' wolf as he's sleeping.

I really enjoyed creating this piece, and in creating it, bringing to attention the softness of the wolf and a twist to the classic fairy tale.

A book of many portraitures...

I wanted to work on my drawing skills more, and obviously trying to make a habit of posting a sketch every week just wasnt' working out for me - if you're not in the mood to draw, I just can't do it. Oh well, C'est la vie!

I do know that I most definitely wanted to work on portraits (of people and animals)...so I bought a sketchbook dedicated to those things...enter my title page...:My first portraiture is of my dear feline, Oreo. Here he is looking all fierce and mighty:
So here I begin, hopefully the first portraits of many!

My Creative Space:

My creative space has been packed with paintings and commissions, but I have not forgotten about the Fiction Project.

Here are some of my newer pages:

Pgs. 5-6, unfinished

Pgs. 7 (finished) and 8 (unfinished)

I think my favourite in the book so far is page 7. It was the first page that I thought of to incorporate collage, and I'm so happy that I did. The paper I used has gold accents that you can't see well from the scan. I will most definitely be putting more bits of patterned paper throughout this project.

To make the pages better for paint, collage and heavy marker I've either i) stuck two pages together, or ii) apply a thin sheet of watercolor paper - depending on what I'm doing on the pages. For both, I use double sided tape - that way I don't get a 'bubbling' of paper while it dries.

This part of my submission will only take 4-6 more pages. And then I can start on the 'dabblings'. Although I'm enjoying creating this little children's story, I am looking forward to less-planned applications in the book.

You can see more creative spaces over at kootoyoo.