Audrey is available for sale on etsy!

My little Audry is up for sale on my chelmorning etsy shop. I've also found Oskar. I think he decided he was going to do a bit of traveling. I couldn't find him for awhile. I looked EVERYWHERE for him in all my sales boxes and storage. I don't know where he had gone off to but he was gone for two years! So here he is again, back up for sale.

Today's Featured Blog: Create To Feel Great

Welcome to Create To Feel Great's blog. This blog makes me happy just from the introduction paragraph. I mean, who doesn't want to finish something creative week for a year! I am amazing at the amount of creativity and range of project she has here! Check this kindle case! Not only are the projects she's doing amazing, the amount of openness on the blog is wonderful. She's sharing thought processes not just pictures of what she's doing now. Don't get me wrong, I like the next person love those swoony blogs with ethereal pictures of lovely things..but where's the meat people! This has it! Thanks for sharing DeeDee! Feeling inspired by DeeDee's blog? need a good creativity coach? See DeeDee here!

Today's featured blog: Deidre's Amazing Blog

Today I'm over at Deidre's Amazing Blog and the title couldn't be more fitting. Deidre has a knack with pottery. I love the newer post with the pottery with the lace patterned edges! Click through the photos! I love the pattern work. She's also got a cute tutorial for a squeaky dog toy. These would never survive with the beasty dogs in my life. They'd have it shredded in seconds..but if you have a dog who loves their toys rather than destroys, you might try this tutorial. These sgrafitto pieces are stunning and make me swoon! I can't imagine the time she put into getting these carved so lovely. Stop by to see Deidre's blog, and you can also find her etsy shop here if you're into pottery.

Today's featured blog: Vintage Terrace "2"

Today's featured crafting blog is from the lovely Vintage Terrace 2 This beautiful blog is full of inspiration. She does beautiful atcs with an eye to layering, but she also fills her blog with inspiring tutorials, or inspirational links and videos. It's one of those blogs you can get lost in! I love the little hits of her home life in the Ukraine and views from her location. This little butterfly makes me long for summer and working in the garden. I cannot believe her eye for color. It shows well in this lovely art journal. Scroll down to see the art journal page. It's amazing! So stop by and take the time to check out her blog, you just might get lost for awhile.

Today's featured blog: Bone-Needle Arts and Crafts

Today's blog is Bone-Needle Arts and Crafts. Do not let the art behind the blog fool you or make you move on! This blog is full of amazing arts and crafts based on antiquity! Her embroidery is swoon worthy, and so wonderful. I love the patch in this post! Her atcs mostly sit within the historical or ancient arts. I love the renaissance fashion atcs in this post! You really need to stop by and check her out.

Today's featured blog CRAFTING WITH BLUE

Rhonda @ Crafting with Blue This lovely little blog is full of wonderous paper crafts and scrapbook layouts. She's got an eye for layouts that aren't overly fussy or busy, with just the right amount of color and design. I love the current Valentine card she's got posted along with the link to where she found the pattern for the cute little card. Check out the ASL I love you sign card she did! I LOVE IT! She's also got a yardsellr account where you can find some really fun things! Check it out! Take a minute and check out her lovely blog!

Barely hanging on....

I've been away from creating for far too long. The last few fairies I did have been packaged and sent without so much as a photo taken of them. That's not like me at all, but finding time to do such things with a near 2 year old running around the house making messes, and fitting in my actual job, and then fitting in even more of my actual job once he goes to bed is a bit of an impossibility.

I've been finding time to do small things, quick on the dawn things. I wanted to have a lot of Valentine things to offer in my shops this year. All I have so far is this:
My little lovey whale. I've got four more square pieces like this penciled in, but haven't had a chance to sit and add color of any kind.

Custom Rainbow Fairy

Custom Rainbow Fairy, a photo by Chel Morning on Flickr.

My latest custom fairy. People are gearing up for Christmas and starting to place orders for gifts now. I'm so excited. I'll be making a large batch to take to the gallery soon. I know they're probably out. I haven't taken any in since Val was about 3 months old. I was hoping to be able to get more time in to do them, but he was not much of a scheduled sleeper and wanted to learn too many things to sleep longer than half an hour at a time. I can barely pull out my art supplies in that time let alone make fairies. It'll be nice to get back into selling at the gallery. Val's on a nice sleeping schedule which frees up time for me to work during the day and that allows for me to do some much needed crafting time at night! YAY! My brain has been in need of some creative outlet for awhile.

In Process

I'm in fairy mode again. Something's in the air and the fairies are appearing left and right. This one will shortly be up for grabs in my shop for personalization. I think she's turning out ultra cute! She's got a lotus style crown (don't know where that came from, it just appeared) and an adorable face. She''l be holding a sign, and the grass will be colored in. I just couldn't wait to share her though!

I think I'll be starting some watercolor fairies soon too. Watercolor is a lot easier to pick up and put down while chasing an adventurous little boy. Those are the kinds of things I need right now. I need a bit of creativity. I'm starting to feel lost and aimless. The sewing machine has been calling me for about three months now. Unfortunately it's buried in the craft explosion in my craft room. It's so far buried that I can only see a peek of it behind some canvases and other crafting debris. Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to start digging out. I need to get started on stock for the Art and Things Nice event in the end of October. That's not too far off in terms of crafting time.

I've got to spend some time in the coming week updating photos of all my ACEO pieces. I've got images of them but I mistakenly thought putting them on a beautiful cabled knit was a good idea. Not so much! They washed out the images and colors or just made them all look sad and depressing. I want the vibrancy to show through and really pop! So I'll be spending time resetting the photos and taking much better images so I can post and sell them.

My new custom fairy names

Here's the new design idea for the custom fairy names. I think they're really nice! I liked the old style with the block lettering, but think this is ultra cute. It also affords me the ability to make a piece of art to sell and then customize at the customers request. I can build up stock and not have to worry about people not buying because they're unsure of how the fairy will look when completed. These two will be off to their new homes on Tuesday.This one is one of the open custom pieces. It's the first one I've made with the sign blank and will be the very first listed on artfire or etsy.
We'll be heading out to Charlotte in the coming week and I hope to have a chance to take some paper to work on more. I'm still working on a boys version of this idea. Haven't quite nailed it down yet. I'd better get to work! I feel bad not having an outlet for boy names (especially having a boy myself)

I'd love to hear ideas on what kind of art you'd like to see next! I love taking suggestions and seeing what happens when I put pencil to paper! It starts getting the creative juices flowing and I usually end up with four or five pieces based on the original idea. Leave me a comment and tell me what YOU'D like to see!

New fairies going to be listed

I've had a few new fairies for awhile now, but just haven't had time to list them on the websites. I've got a box of about 30 that just need dressed out and finished, but I just haven't had time. We're still digging out from under the estate stuff from my mother-in- law's passing and when I'm not on baby duty, or doing my actual money making job, I'm doing packing and clean up.

So without any further whimping and whining on my part.... here are the fairies.This is Amelia,
AudreyTrulie,

I've got a few more, but don't have good shots of them. I've got to get my last two fairy names scanned and send off. Then I'll be all caught up. I've been itching to do a good amigurumi (crocheted toy) project. I was going to dolls for all my girl nieces for Easter, but missed that deadline. I think I might post some questions to the Viridian Muse Designs Facebook page and see what people are looking for in Ami. I'd love to try something new and interesting.

So slow in getting new art out there.

So here's my latest pieces...not very exciting, but it's a start. Little atc size Kawaii Little Red and Big Bad....

I've been working on more fairy names as of late. I haven't got new images yet, but they'll be coming shortly. I've changed up the format a bit and will offer both options in my shops. The one I'm currently doing will be a bit easier to sell I think. I'm starting with the fairy image, and then leaving a sign blank that I can fill with the requested name. This way, the person knows the fairy they are getting and won't have to worry about getting a fairy they might not like as well. I think this will be a lot better in shows rather than just taking special orders. Then I can pop the name in right on the spot and just have a back up of fairies to choose from. I think I'll look for a nice flip book to store them all. They'll be protected and people can flip through them to choose. I'm looking for a few new shows to do this fall and winter. I've only done one show regularly in the past, and need to start broadening it out a bit. I'm going to do a few word fairies with words like "Love" "Peace" "Courage" but I'm not sure if they'll be a good seller or not. I really need to get more of my artwork selling. Granted I don't have a lot of free time currently to do a lot of custom orders, but I need to start doing more art. I feel so disconnected if I'm not doing some kind of art project at least once a week.

Val's starting to "draw" it's ADORABLE. Though he's more interested in eating the crayons rather than drawing with them. He's made a few "pictures" that we're sending off to people. Daddy got the first crayon piece. Grandma got the second finger painting piece. The finger painting doesn't go quite as well as the coloring does. He just wants to eat the paint, not paint with it. I'm looking forward to the days of art projects and the never empty box of creative recycled bits to play with! Patrick will think I'm nuts, and call me "Eliza" (inside joke) but I don't care. Some of my best memories are of doing art projects at home with non-artsy materials. My mom was queen of the crafty art projects.

Well it's late and I should really be in bed. Been burning the candle at both ends a bit too much lately. Thankfully it hasn't yet reared it's ugly head in sickness yet...so I'd best watch it! New art to follow this weekend.

A new multi media piece.

I might have posted this already, but I'm not sure. I did this for a swap awhile ago. I've been working on some ideas for some cute whimsical paintings, and a few more realistic paintings. Val needs some new art in his room and I figured why not paint it myself, though I've been spying on some pieces I might have to get in the future!

This peacock turned out better than I thought it would, but not quite as good as i had hoped. I should have done it all in watercolor, but ended up adding some sharpie to it to give a bit of detail. I love peacock colors.  So in the next few weeks I'll be putting together some cute whimsical animal paintings. I'll decide if I want to keep them or perhaps offer them up to the gallery. I wonder if they'll want my sort of kiddie whimsy style art? I never really asked when I've offered up other things if they'd be interested in them or not.

 

I also have a few more fairie names to work on. I'll be uploading more pictures of names as soon as I complete them. I've got a Madison and a  Christianna to do. I missed taking pictures of the Alayna fairy.

More art completed.

I've been really loving watercolors these days. I never thought I'd be able to say that so many years ago. I've had very little time to do much art, but what I have done has been in fits and starts. I really need to fit in a bit more time. I feel so much better when I've done some art for the day. It really clears my mind.

This project was called the "Magical/Miracle Hand" we had do draw a hand and decorate it and then send it as a postcard. I was inspired to trace my own hand and Val's to celebrate what my hands do as a mother. I was just going to decorate his and mine in blue and pink, but once I got his little hand decorated, I was inspired to write a message to him. I really should have copied it down though I think I can read most of it in the high resolution photo. I love the way it turned out, and I think I'm going to do this for his first birthday invites. Do another with his changed hand size. I think for the next six months, I'll be tracing our hands together so we can see how much it changes in size until he turns one.

I've got a lot of trading card projects in the works and a few handmade postcards too.

I've been missing again!

Boy! I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted last. We've been spending so much time watching Val hit baby milestones that I've been remiss in keeping my creative life updated. I've been doing a few small swaps here and there in the hopes of keeping my mailbox at least somewhat happy. I get so sick of seeing bills and junk mail.

Unfortunately with work and baby life, my creative life is almost nil. I still squeeze in a bit here and there by staying up waaaaay too late into the wee hours of morning. I seem to be doing that at the moment now. I should be in bed rather than doing an update, but if I don't do this know, come tomorrow i"ll forget all about it.

So here are a few of the things I've done in the past month swap wise.
My Barn Owl watercolor atc. I love the way this turned out. I had the intention of leaving the background completely white, but instead decided to put the green in. I think it really makes the owl pop.
This is a book mark with a crow and poppies. Also in watercolor. You know for a gal who HATED watercolor ooo so many years ago..it really seems to be my go to paint these days. I think I'm getting more used to manipulating it to my desire. I was so used to using pencil or marker that water color was just too loose and unpredictable for me. I couldn't control it enough to ease me "perfection of detail" obsession. I really like it now though.

I've got more in the wings, stay tuned for another burst of project photos. I'm getting too sleepy to stay up much longer and need to clean up the craft/art bomb that has exploded all over my kitchen table.

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More custom fairy names almost complete.

I've been back to work now for a little over a month. It's put a bit of damper on my creative mojo. I seem to be finding little snippets of time to slide in a bit here and there, but not anything link the time I'd like to be spending. Now with the holidays fast approaching, my spare time, what little I have, has dwindled down to almost nothing. Not that I haven't been trying to find time to make some art in some form or shape.

I spent most of last weekend doing cookies for a cookie exchange. I wanted to plan one for my family this year, but didn't have the where-with-all to get it under way. However I stumbled upon one someone else was hosting. Now I've got 7 or 8 dozen cookies, and only had to bake one kind, instead of the 8 different kinds. That's nice! I have other things I want to make, but don't know if I'll find the time to get them completed. I made butterscotch cheesecake bars for the cookie exchange. I didn't do them with nuts as a few of the people I was exchanging with had nut allergies in their household. So I plan to make an extra batch of them with cashews .. mmmmmm

I'll be posting a few of the last custom fairy ornament orders that went out in the next day or so. I loved the way they turned out and can't wait to have some time to make more. I've got a bunch of things to list on etsy and artfire, but I need to get some sort of prelisting file or something to get everything ready and then just drop and paste things into the upload boxes.

I'm hoping to start selling more of the custom fairy names too. I just ADORE doing them, they're so fun. I think for Valentine's day I'll be making a few special Love ones to post and sell.

Custom Fairy orders

I've been working on custom fairies like crazy these last couple of weeks. Here are a few of the ones that have gone out. Lots of pink and purple this year. I usually do a lot of different colors, but this year seems to be mostly pink and purple...and straight pink and purple...not a mix of colors. I really like how these all turned out though.
This one needed red hair. So instead of doing the typical "red" hair red..I did a lovely shocker red and russet color. It turned out LOVELY. I usually have a standard red for red-heads, but I'm really glad I mixed it up this time.

This one was all pink. I needed a bit of a break up of the color though so put on lovely crystal green shoes and some green bows in her hair. She's a pin. Not the standard ornament. I need to get the other pins I have completed listed. They're just sitting here waiting for pictures and editing.
This one was requested to look like a fairy I had made before. She liked it so well she was hoping I could recreate it almost exactly. I got pretty close. The only difference was the hair (it's impossible to do the hair exactly the same anyway) because she wanted two buns, and the color of the star on the ring on the original was purple. The other thing I did was put an overlay of pink over the melon colored shirt. It looks like a little raglan t-shirt with different colored sleeves. Other than those three differences it's pretty much the same.

I missed taking photos of a few of the others that have gone out, and have two that still need photos taken before they're shipped off.

I LOVE doing custom fairies for people. It's fun to make something special for someone. Now I'm off to do some work on the last few Custom fairy names I need to finish so I can get them out this week.

Black and White Zentangles

I've been working on Zentangles again. I love these because they're very easy for me to tote around and work on in little bits and pieces. These are a few pieces I've done for a swap recently and I found them a bit hard to pass on. I love henna/mehndi designs and was inspired by them for some of the art in these pieces.

This piece here reminds me a little bit of lace. Well the top design does, but not necessarily the rest of it. I love to do these sorts of images and then do washes of watercolor over the top. It adds that little bit of extra pop to it. I've also done things like this in the past where I've then added blended sharpie over the top. I'll have to dig through my past art files and see if I can find any of those older pieces. A lot of those are from about 14 or so years ago and I don't know if I was scanning things at the time or not.


I think this piece is a little too higgelty piggilty. Too much going on and not enough contrasting design work. It just doesn't seem to flow as well as the other pieces. I think my next attempt will be to do a larger zen piece and then dice it into atc size, or even 2x2 squares. I'll have to see how to work it out and exactly what I want. Atcs would be ideal.
I




I loved the way this one turned out. I started with the little round in the corner and was going to work it outward in shapes, but liked the round effect so just continued on with it. It reminds me of the medallions around light fixtures on ceilings, or a fancy carved wall hangings.

For the rest of the weekend I'll be working to finish up a few more custom fairy names, and a few custom fairy orders. I'm amazed at how quickly Christmas is sneaking up on me. I guess that's what happens when you go back to work. Time flies and you seem to get less and less done.

Keep watching! I'll be posting a few of the newest custom fairy ornaments and pins I've done this past few weeks. I'll also be loading a lot of new fairies in my artfire shops.

Time Flies!

Well here it is, nearly midnight again. I've been back to work now for a few weeks. Needless to say, I've got to get better at the juggling act. I once had it down, little snippets of time here and there to really make a dent in art/crafting. Now, not so much. The sad thing is I really need the creative time. My head is so much clearer after a good creative dumping of my brain. Even if it's just five minutes of mindless sketching, I feel better.

Tomorrow it's off to work in the later afternoon. I've never been one for working at night. Night is when I really come alive and want to create. If I were sleeping like a "non-mom" I'd have no problem running myself until around 3 and popping into bed for a few hours to awake and go about my day. Now I pop myself in and out of bed at two to three hour intervals as my son reverse cycles since I'm back to work.

I do have a bunch of crafty images to upload of new things and the custom fairies I've done this past week, but I need to edit the images and all that happy stuff, so instead I leave you with a few random images from my trip to our local lake this past year.