dot art ornaments

{The Dot Art Ornament}

I found some glass ornaments at the dollar store, first of I have to tell you how much I love the dollar store, it's the perfect place for crafters to get their creativity on. Anyways I decided to pick up a few ornaments and see what I could come up with. A few days before I found them I had actually posted about my Australian Dot Art obsession and figured I should give it a try with these ornaments. 

When I got home and started looking on Pinterest guess what I found??? ----------------------->

The woman who makes these is amazing! I would totally recommend checking out her Etsy shop.

Pearle's creations helped me gain inspiration and I couldn't wait to get started. Ok, now nice thoughts only. Keep in mind these are my first attempts so no comparing mine to Pearle's beautiful artwork ok? ;)

I first started with a base coat of a solid color

Then proceeded with the dots

After I was finished I spray-painted the tops silver

and coated the ornament with a glaze finish

Ta da! Here are the finished products:

SWIRL design

WRAPPED PRESENT design

FLOWER POWER design

It was such a fun project, I encourage everyone to give it a shot. But, in the meantime, if you feel so inclined, these and a few other designs are now available on our Etsy shop. Just click on the "Etsy" tab at the top of the page. :)

fall ball promo

Look what Sarah and RJ did!!!

My friends are legit! The "Treasure the Night" themed Fall Ball will be held on a dinner cruise this year; so RJ, Sarah, Kiram, and La Rue drew this masterpiece and with the filming expertise of L. Brent Galotera they made this amazing promo.

 Yay for Fall Ball

art tip of the week

Tip #2 

Find Quotes That Inspire You

I love words and I love when they're put together in quote form. When I find a quote that really speaks to me, I write it down and reread it often. I try and figure out why it stood out amongst everything else I had read or heard all day. Usually there's a pretty good reason. 

Here's a quote I heard on a program called The Aspen Minute from The Aspen Ideas Festival. 

"Art comes from that part of us that is without fear, prejudice, malice or any of the other things that we create to separate ourselves; one from the other. Art makes each of us whole by insisting that we use all of our senses; our heads and our hearts. That we express with our voices, our hands, our bodies, as well as with our minds. And in this modern society, art may be the only force that invites expression from the inside out, where the pure light of the wisdom of the soul is realized."

-Jessye Norman

art journal

{The Art Journal}

I was scouring Pinterest and Etsy for Thanksgiving craft ideas when this one hit me. See, my family has this notebook that we pull out every Thanksgiving called the Thankful Journal, but its just a boring old black and white speckled notebook that looks similar to this:

Whoever was spending the holiday with us that year would take time to write a little about what they were thankful for. I thought it would be nice to share this tradition with other families, in a more artistic way. I found a few ideas on how to make my own little journals, instead of buying one. 

These pins helped inspire me:

 Left: As seen on Maggie Holmes Design       Right: As seen on Wit & Whistle

Luckily I had a few things just laying around out house that I could put together. I used regular white and colored paper for the inside, a card-stock style paper for the outside, pen, sharpie, colored pencils, needle, think white thread, hemp, glue gun, and buttons. There are so many other designs that can be created. I think thats what made it so much fun.

Supplies:

 Each book is about 5.5x4.5"  

and has 16 pages

 

We'll have a few available to buy in our Etsy store soon, so don't forget to check back.  

daily doodle

"People are friends.....best friends....not food."

Drawing by Brad B, avid shark activist. Promoting shark and human harmony across the globe.

all the rowboats

I just ran across this today while watching this other video (which is art in itself... kinda).

Love Regina Spektor

Love street art

Love this

Artist, Garry Donnellan, spent 12 hours drawing this portrait of Regina to celebrate the release of her album "What We Saw From the Cheap Seats." What a creative way to promote and market her music.  

halloween town

My family decided to decorate for halloween with a twist this year. 

Painting pumpkins is a quicker and much less messy way to enjoy the Halloween season. 

 Grey Roof & Purple with Moon: Shaunessy (little sister) 
Blue House: McKae (me) 
Purple & Green Houses: Jaki (my mom)