While I’m Waiting to Get Back to My Drawing Board

Hello and Merry Christmas..Happy Holidays…Happy New Year!!!

I had promised a post back that I would be working on my Mary and Laura Ingalls painting, when a creative block hit me along with “Christmas Overload” and I haven’t been at my desk for awhile. The painting is a little farther ahead than you see in the previous post, but it’s still sitting on my desk and I feel so bad it’s not finished. I will be back at it though in a day or so, as my Etsy Shop opens back up as well. Hopefully this means more fresh ideas and better paintings…it usually does! So…I’m hopeful.

Anyway, while I wait for that to happen, I will show you what I have worked on lately. I had taken a couple of my paintings and turned them into Christmas cards this year, and I did it all on Ribbet..which I love! It is a free online photo editing site which is simpler to use and learn than photoshop. I could never seem to find the time needed to learn all about photoshop, I just couldn’t get it down. Then I came across Ribbet and loved how easy it was to use and it had just enough editing techniques I would need for my work. I use the premium version now, which offers more, and I think its worth it for me.

Sooooo, while I was having my creative block, I figured I would just try playing around with paintings already created and change them up a bit with Ribbet and get back into creative mode while I was doing it…and it worked!

For example: I created this angel painting awhile back and wanted to add to this image to make it comforting to someone who lost someone dear to them. A special card they might be able to carry with them and feel better when they just read it or looked at it. Finding a nice, comforting text about angels, I personalized it by adding the loved one’s name and the date when they passed, then making the card small enough to keep it in a wallet or purse. A little prayer card of sorts. I had given a card like this to a friend who just recently lost someone close to her, and I believe it helped her. She messaged me and was very comforted by the image and the saying, so I was happy.

Then again, I also made a Christmas card out of the same Angel image, creating it for my religious friends and relatives, and this also worked out well.

There is a bird painting I have created which I also changed up by adding some extra snow effects to with text, which also became a Christmas card this year. Of course, it always helps adding a touch of glitter to the cards, too!

So, if you are an artist and are having a dry spell, just try playing around with images you have already created, change them up a bit and share to someone special. It gets the creative juices flowing again and makes people happy all at the same time. It’s a win win!

Hope you enjoyed this post and I will try and have that Laura and Mary Ingalls painting done soon! Stay Safe!

The Paper Star, A Watercolor Painting

This is another Christmas picture done in watercolor.  I had previously done this picture in colored pencil, but never really cared for it.  So, I decided I would change a few things and try it in bright watercolors, and I must say, it does makes a difference.

This is a design I created that is dear to my heart.  It’s about Christmas and the excitement and wonder it brings about, especially in a child.  I remember to this day creating tissue paper and styrofoam trees for Christmas in school.  Remember cutting paper snowflakes?  Just doing these projects in school made you all the more excited for Christmas to arrive!

School wasn’t even hard work about two weeks before you got out for that “long” vacation. There were movies and christmas music in class. There were also parties with cut out cookies, candy canes and card-giving.  It was constant chatter and laughing. I can still remember the big foil covered box in front of the classroom.  It was for holding all the cards that everyone made out to the kids in the classroom. And the special card just for the teacher.

The little girl here is proud as ever just to place that simple star on her tree.  It’s not a special glittery, plastic one from Target or Wal-mart.  She made it herself and that’s all that matters. It was in the creating of it that made it special.  Anything homemade or handmade for that matter, usually is.  It’s from the heart.

So here’s to all those paper stars and tissue paper trees, and even the hand-cut, glitter-sprinkled, paper snowflakes. Hope we see more of you this holiday season than ever before.  We need you! 

The Paper Star