CALENDAR AND ART WORKS

Hello There!

I've been working towards my goals of changing my blog posting schedule to include bi-weekly posts on a consistent basis.  This week's feature is Art Works.

Art Works will include paper, collage and paint. I thought I'd show you what's up on my work surface: a mini collage of papers and paint ink. 

I found these great Post It notes with tabs at Office Depot with lined space for notes and a tab on the edge to mark your place or label a section of notes.  Also, I love the Grid Post It! With the Grid Post It I can keep track of developing ideas before committing them to the calendar. I also purchased a pack of clear page holders and dividers.  I LOVE calendars and LOVE LOVE LOVE office supplies!!!

 One of the new features I wanted to share with you is my hand painted calendar for the upcoming month of February.  

There's lots happening February....please join me to see what's new each week!

Bee Creative!
Suzy

OVER THE BRIDGE AT ARTPRIZE

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to the ARTPRIZE adventure!

Last week we were in downtown Grand Rapids, MI at ARTPRIZE, a month long international art competition displayed in venues within the city.

Today we are crossing the bridge to see what's on the other side.

Temperature was in the high 50's to lower 60 degrees, it was overcast with the threat of rain and the wind was blowing pretty hard as we crossed over the river, you can see the artful display of flags in the river were flapping  in the wind.

Crossing over and walking under the bridge to get to the Gerald R. Ford 

Presidential Museum, we saw Earth Giant by Benjamin Gazsi. Made from found natural materials within a grapevine and wire armature. He was massive in size, as was the crowd that wanted to view him!  It was tough to get a good angle on him with the crowds.  Won 6th place.

UP Lifting by Andy Sacksteder: A stunningly beautiful bronze sculpture water feature of Native Americans.  3rd prize winner! 

Dancing with Mother Nature by Paul Baliker a fourteen foot sculpture from cedar wood. Won 4th Place. 

Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore by Ann Loveless.  A four panel landscape art quilt using a collage of fabrics and machine applique.  Grand Prize Winner!!!

If you would like to see a complete listing and photos of the ART PRIZE winners work, please click HERE. 

Being a quilter myself I was delighted to see the landscape win the Grand Prize!  Was it my favorite?  Stay tuned for that answer......

Please join me again next Thursday and we travel back to town and visit the GRAM (Grand Rapids Art Museum) for more ART PRIZE and I'll reveal my favorite work of art.   
 

PEEK INSIDE STUDIO INTRO

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by and joining me for a new series of posts on Inside The Studio.  Maybe a little bit of background will help prepare you for The Studio.

I say, PREPARE because what you will see in the coming weeks may be a bit disturbing to some. The studio is NOT a very NEAT or TIDY area,  it is a place where I go to be creative and yes, messy. MESSY...that's right, I have my most used supplies out which enables me to work intuitively, but it does cause a great deal of mess and a bit of chaotic look to the space (and for an occasional visitor).  So, close your eyes to the chaos if you can't bear an untidy space and just focus on the other creative interests; there are many and they all live in this room called Brees Mimi Design Studio.


Here's a little sneak preview Inside The the Studio:

BMDS is where I work play with paint

work out designs

 sew

craft

collage and journal

And, Oh yeah, there WILL be plenty to see in this room that we will explore each week.  

So looking forward to sharing my creatively (and messy) space with you each week! Hope you will stop by often and join me for Inside The Studio.

Till then BEE Creative! 
Suzy

ICAD WEEK 2

Hi Everyone!

Happy Weekend! Happy Saturday! 

Time for the ICAD (Index Card A Day) reveal for Week 2.  This week was even more fun than the second week because I've learned a few lessons:

• go with the flow
• don't over think it
• have fun

Check out the entire week's ICAD by clicking the tab on the right side bar to read more. 

Here's a peek.

Thank you for stopping by! 

Happy Doodles,
Suzy

Linking to : Daisy Yellow; Paint Party Friday; Art Journal Everyday

ICAD Challenge Week 1

Hi Everyone! 

Last Saturday was the beginning of the Daisy Yellow Index Card A Day challenge. I thought you might enjoy seeing the weeks work as a collection rather than individually, beginning next week I will be posting them under the ICAD tab on the right.  Just click on the tab and you'll get to see the entire collection each week with the "behind the card" commentary on how they were made. Today I have posted them below. 

DAY 1: Rainbows

My first index card I used an opaque watercolor (gouache) by dabbing a bit of each color on the edges. Just a little water to disperse the paint, making a wash and learning about the stability of index card. When the colors were completely dry, I doodled around the borders, drew the flowers and little angels. I added the black and white stripes in the flower stems and the text.  

Later I learned the prompt over on Daisy Yellow was Rainbow & Zebra. Hmmm. I had the rainbow part down and guess you could consider the black & white to represent zebra....the pattern in the number 1 was inspired by a coloring book design I spotted while coloring with my two little angels, Sunshine (Lyla) and Lollipop (Brianne)!

Day 2: Candy Land 
Continuing with Rainbow colors, black and white stripes and the prompt Candy Land. This is my version of Candy Land. I drew my favorite candy corn and lollipops, candy canes and gum drops with a black Micron pen, colored in with Inktense and Twinkling H2O's to add the sparkle effect and deepen the colors. 

Day 2 Candy Land

Day 3: Vintage Love 

Found our Wedding Guest Book crumbling and falling apart in a drawer and was able to rescue a few bits from the front cover. The paper was very brittle, breaking off into small pieces which made it easy to use for collage.  We had  traditional scalloped edge cocktail napkins with golden wedding bells and our names printed on them for our wedding in 1975. I used the scalloped border on the edges of the card and our names (the are barely visible) and the wedding bells which are painted yellow with a glitter pen. Spritzed (orange & teal) Dylusion ink over the card, added black stitching to edges. 

Vintage Love

 Day 4: Mama said there'd be days like this. It's a Hair on Fire Kinda Day! 

This piece started with orange acrylic paint applied with credit card and the  image of sunglasses and checkerboard I cut from an old piece of stationary. When I laid the sunglasses down, I saw the face.  Continuing the black & white theme along the edges.

Mama said there'd be day's like this! 

Day 5: A Daisy Day
I love cutting images from magazines to use for collage. Going with a Red theme today and only natural (to me!) to add black and white. I drew the background grid of lines and stamped daisies over them and added the black and white checkerboard to mimic the red squares. 

Daisy Day

DAY 6: Dreaming of Blue Skies

After a week of rain every day I am longing for blue skies! I used leftover circles punched from scrapbook paper for the flower designs, shadowing them with circle punches of orange, purple and lime. The background is another yellow floral paper design painted with raindrops using a bit of twinkling H2o's. Rhinestones in the center of each flower for sparkle. Again, I'm continuing to use the black and white stripe them to ground the piece.

Dreaming of Blue Skies

DAY 7: Lifetime Friends
 I received a lovely Stash Giveaway from Tabitha Lenox last week and with a package of pink tissues in it among other goodness you can check it out here.  The napkin design inspired me to use a black and white photo of my grandmother (middle) and great aunt (left) and a friend taken in 1927 to super impose and give the illusion they are dreaming of a lifetime journey. I used acrylic and gouache paints for the highlights on the side of the card, added cream colored floral tape (from TL giveaway) and black and white diamond washi tape. 

Lifetime Friends

It's been a great week making index cards! Here are a few of my observations and promises I made from the week:

• They don't make index cards like they used to, they are quite thin &   rather flimsy.
• It is challenging to work in a small format.
• It is hard not to compare your work with others.
• To be honest after Day 1, I almost quit the challenge when I saw the incredible work posted.
• I'm not a quitter.

After a good talking to (as we say in the South), I promised myself I wasn't going to look and compare my work to others.

• I will be happy creating whatever each day brings. 
•  As promised, I create my daily index card and post to Facebook & Flickr before I look at any posts! 
• So far, I'm pleased with what I have done.

It is what it is and that is a good thing. 

Thanks for stopping by! Look forward to sharing more Index Cards with you soon! 

Happy Doodles!
Suzy

Linking to: Daisy Yellow; Paint Party Friday; Art Journal Everyday

MRS. PAINT JOURNAL

Hi Everyone!

When my children were little I read them a book about colors that had a character called Mr. Paint Pig. Oh how they loved this book and the colors! 
I can't remember the name of the book now but I was reminded of it when I started looking through a painted journal I found while making an attempt to clean up and clear some space around my work table. It's another journal made from a Composition Notebook.

The first journal featured scrapbook papers altered with paint, stamping, inks, etc. you can see it here.  I used a Composition Notebook again, this time I glued about 4-5 sheets of the lined paper together to create a heavier page and applied acrylic paints directly to the lined pages. 

The purpose of this journal was to use different paint color combinations and see what happened.

Using an old credit card to lay the paints on top of one another was fun too. If the colors weren't working, a smear of gesso helped me to go in another direction. 

I actually like the pages that gesso was added on better than some of the others.

Sometimes I get so excited about color and embellishing that I forget to leave a space to journal any thoughts.  This method of painting directly over the lined pages worked great, you can still see some of the lines (not that you need to write on the lines). I like the way that looks. 

Blue + Yellow=Green

Pulling out the Dylusion Spray Inks for a bit of fun spray and play:

Spray inks with Acrylics

Here's a few pages actually journaled on and added embellishments to:

I cut the Easter Eggs from a cellophane wrapper and glued to the page.

Art project with Bree

Hope you enjoyed my little paint project! Pull out your paints and start your own Paint Journal! 

Most of all, have fun doing it! 

Bee Creative!

Suzy

P.S.
Uh, just Googled it: Richard Scarry's COLOR BOOK (Mr. Paint Pig)

Linking to: Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Everyday, Crafty Thursday Obsessions;Tabitha Lenox

The Ordinary Life

Hi Everyone! 

It's been awhile but I found myself playing in my art journal this week between working and caring for my grandchildren.  In my Monday night theology class we were discussing the spirituality of vocation and the fact that God is in everything we do, our work, our relationships, in our ordinary life. I was thinking that my vocation and ordinary life intermingle and sometimes it seems that my life is mostly the same day after day.  Maybe you feel that way too. It's not a bad thing, the ordinary and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying there is comfort in living the ordinary life. Looking around and seeing the blessings of each day, in the ordinary. So this week I suppose I was recording ordinary life in my journal pages. 
You can check out this ordinary life by clicking on the page tab above: ART JOURNAL. I'll share my personal art and stories behind the art with you. 

I

Tell me, does your art imitate your personal life, your vocation and your relationships? 

Happy Painting!
Suzy

Linking to: Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day,

NEW TRAVEL JOURNAL PAGES REVEALED!

Hi Everyone!

So this week I'm going to share something with you that I have been promising for awhile: my travel journal pages. The journal pages started as a way to avoid carrying tons of brochures and collected mementos home from vacation. With the cost of flying, baggage weight restrictions and extra cost to check baggage these were definite reasons to pair down extra goodies brought back home. Know what I mean?  This also forced me to cut down on art supplies, narrowing  down to (what I consider) the bare minimum, they fit into a pencil pouch (you can see a list HERE).  I take a journal and glue stuff into it as I go along, tearing images  from the brochures, painting or handwriting the days events onto the pages. I suppose you could relate this to a form of Smash Book if you like, only I was doing this years before that term or product was developed.

I hope you will click on the TRAVEL JOURNAL tab above and check out the first of my journal pages. I'll be sharing some with you weekly on Thursdays (OK, let's give it an official name like TRAVEL THURSDAY). You can check back each week to see what I've posted and I hope you will come often to visit and see where my journal has been. 

Happy Travels and Journaling!
Suzy

Link to: sewmanyways

CELEBRATING MILESTONES

Hi Everyone!

I'm taking a special trip soon to visit my very best friend! We are celebrating a milestone in her life of 65 years and who better to celebrate it with than family and your very best friend.  We've been friends for 38 years so that makes us family! 

 To surprise her I've been working on these little paintings.  

To Live Simply With Purpose & Gratitude

I've chosen a graphic Spoon (Knife and Fork are on the sides) to represent my friend's gourmet cooking skills. She is self taught and one of the best cooks I know! The graphics are from The Graphics Fairy.  I've included a poem written by Henry Van Dyke "A Mile With Me", you can find it here. My friend and I have walked many "miles" together in our years of friendship. And written in purple is one of my favorite quotes (so sorry, I don't know where I got this from, but if you know this quote, please let me know so I may give credit to the author).

Using the KISS (Keep It Simple Suzy) method and the Less Is More theory to paint the Live Simple design, and Yes, it is simple in design, I collaged scrap papers onto the canvas and textured the papers with random stamping and a dab or two of paint. The flowers are freehand and highlighted with Twinkling H20's to give them depth and sparkle. I love the simplicity of this canvas painting. I think my friend will like it too.  

Live Simple. 

There's a new grandson in her life too! So we are celebrating that too! I've known Brody's father since he was 4 years old and I wanted to make something special for his new baby. The inspiration for this little painting for the baby's nursery came when I saw what Ashley was doing over at Lil Blue Boo. 

You can see the multi-talented Ashley Hackshaw's adorable creations over at  http://www.lilblueboo.com/baby!   I'm also working on a quilt for baby Brody but it isn't quite done yet, I'll post pictures of it next time. 

Bee Creative,
Suzy

Linking to: Paint Party Friday; lilblueboo; Sew Many Ways

Art Every Day Month

Hey Everyone!

It's been a very busy week trying to cope with the new job (and the old one) and keep up with hubs, family and the two art challenges. I'll admit it is a bit much but I am having a great time with the journal pages for both challenges!  Maybe you have been following along on Facebook or perhaps you have found the Flickr account but I promised I would post my  Art Every Day Month (AEDM) journal pages here on Tuesdays and An Attitude Of Gratitude (AOG) on Thursdays.  So here's a sneak peak of my pages for AEDM, if you want to see them up close and personal just click on the tab above for more detail.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are inspired to come join us in making art journal pages everyday!

Bee Creative!
Suzy

LINKING TO:http://creativeeveryday.com.; http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/art-j.html; www.marywalkerdesigns.com;

TWO NEW ART JOURNAL CHALLENGES BEGIN

Hi Everyone! 

I'm off on not one but two art adventures for the month of November! Yes, they both coincide this month but I'm going to give it a shot! Check them both out!  Art Every Day Month (AEDM) and is hosted by Leah over at http://creativeeveryday.com.  I hope you will join me as I start this very special challenge of making art every day! I'll be posting it on my blog once a week during November on Tuesday. An Attitude of Gratitude (AAOG) is hosted by Bernice Hopper over at http://www.anattitudeofgratitudejournal.blogspot.com. I'll be posting here on Flicker http://www.flickr.com/groups/2100586@N21/and also on my blog on Thursdays.  This is a very busy month for me between starting two new jobs, care for my grands and having family in for the holidays. Really, is this too much??? 

The process of making art is something I feel compelled to do, on a daily basis if at all possible.  We'll see how it goes during November. I need your support in cheering me on, especially as the time for the holidays starts to draw nearer! 

Thanks for your support and I appreciate each comment and read them all! I hope you will also be inspired to try a 30 day challenge yourself! It is amazing to make a series of art journal pages and to watch your creativity blossom when you step out of your norm and into a world of creativity that is within you.  I encourage you to try it! Just go for it, do your own art and find what makes your heart happy. Experiment with new colors, new ideas, try a new product and enjoy the process! Have fun! And if you are so inclined, please send me a photo of your work! I'd love to see it! 

Happy Creating (with Gratitude) Every Day! 
Suzy

Linking to: http://creativeeveryday.com;http://anattitudeofgratitudejournal.blogspot.comhttp://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/

WRAPPING UP 30 DAY CHALLENGE

Hello Everyone! 

Welcome to the final days of the Get Your Art On challenge! Here's are some journal pages I've been working on this past week. 

Day 23 Oh Happy Day 

Day 23-Oh Happy Day!  Having a great day plastering on papers and adding a bit of ink, water color pencils to this page. 

Day 24-Groovy

Day 24-Groovy:  This isn't my favorite page but it is what it is. I was out and about this day having a great day adding to my Distress Ink collection. I found acrylic paints on sale so I treated myself to a few bottles in bright tropical colors and came home and played with them. 

Day 25 Tropic Winds

Day 25-Tropic Winds: The winds began to pick up from Hurricane Sandy as it was approaching off shore near the Bahamas.  I started with scrapping pink and blue acrylic paints vertically on the page, adding spiced marmalade and mustard seed Distress ink to the mix. I cut palm branches from text and inked them, also leaves were zentangled for fun. 

Day 26 Baby Girl Loves Pink & Purple

Day 26-Baby Girl Loves Pink & Purple: Yes it is true, my 3 yr. old grand daughter is in love with these colors. She will hoard pink and purple crayons too! I threw in a bit of red gelatos and yellow acrylic paint for a bit of variation on the Pink and Purple theme. Added the zentangle scalloped border for fun. 

Day 27-Gator Chomp

Day 27-Gator Chomp: I'm a Florida Gator fan. I had this great gator stamp but thought it looked a bit weak on the background so I decided to make my own Gator from newsprint! I really like this page. GO GATORS! 

Day 28-By Grace

Day 28-Reformation:  Romans 3:23-24 "It is by grace we are saved. ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus". 

I sure had a great week experimenting/playing with my new colors! I hope you had a creative week too!  For those in the path of Hurricane Sandy in the North East, please stay safe and know that our prayers are with you! 

GO MAKE ART! 
Suzy

Linking to: Get Your Art On www.tracibunkers.com; Paint Party Friday http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/;Art Journal Everyday http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2010/12/art-journal-every-day; Show Me What You Got www.marywalkerdesigns.com

BOOK AUTHOR'S WORDS INSPIRE JOURNAL ART

Hi Everyone! 

Something really exciting happened the other day! I fixed my PB&J and sat down in my favorite chair to eat  and read as I normally do during lunch (unless I'm working or watching the grands)most days.  I recently downloaded some free books on my Kindle www.amazon.com.  One of the books I downloaded was Midnight Marriage by Lucinda Brant. This is a Georgian Historical Romance based on a true story and the first time I have read this author's books. 

 I was munching on my sandwich and reading along when I came to this: "She was sure if she swung higher her toes would touch the clouds".* Ok, let me ask when you are reading a book, do you have a running movie going in your head? Picturing the scenes, the characters, what they are wearing and how they look??  I do. You might remember, I've got "watercolor eyes" and so my mind immediately went into journal/painting mode. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't concentrate at all on the words, my mind keep conjuring up the images so I ran back to my art room and got busy with painting and cutting paper to make the scene in my head! 

Day 22 Touch the Clouds

Afterwards as I was writing the author's words onto the page, I thought I need to contact the author and ask permission to use this quote! (Big Gulp! First time ever contacting an author!) I immediately Googled: Lucinda Brant found her contact information and emailed her, including an attachment of my journal page with the quote on it.  I really didn't think I'd hear back but within hours, I had my answer! Lucinda had graciously said yes! I was over the moon with excitement because she said yes! AND she was asking my permission to pin this painting on her Pinterest board http://pinterest.com/lucindabrant/ for her fans to see! I hope you will all go over for a visit to Lucinda's website http://lucindabrant.com/midnight-marriage.php and download (Kindle & Nook) the story of Deb and Julian! Tell Lucinda I sent you!  

A special thank you Lucinda for inspiring me and graciously allowing your quote from Midnight Marriage to be a part of my art! And thank you for the pin on Pinterest!  

Thank you my family, friends and followers for your encouragement and kind comments each week! I look forward to hearing from you soon! 

Have a blessed weekend!

Suzy

*Quote used by permission from author.

Linking to: http://www.marywalkerdesigns.com; www.tracibunkers.com/blog; www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com;http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/;http://creativeeveryday.com/

30 Day Art Challenge

Hello Everyone! 

Here's a few pages from my GET YOUR ART ON journal. More than half way through this 30 day challenge of making art.  I'm enjoying the process and having fun making each individual piece. 

This week I pulled items from a long forgotten box of paper treasures and made this page for Day 16: A Season For Everything.  There's a seed packet cut from a card our niece sent, a vellum piece with script,text paper leaves and heart cut from a stencil, a teapot painted on needlework canvas, and circles cut from a discarded watercolor project. They all came together to make a page that speaks to the change of season here in Florida. This is our growing season.

Day 17-Let the Son Shine In. I LOVE  Pears! I actually drool when the Harry and David catalog appears in the mail box!  They have THE BEST pears I've ever eaten in my life.  Anyway, enough about that...I was feeling joyful this day so I added flowers hand cut from some book text and leaf shapes cut from recycled watercolor page and more text. There was a piece of paper in my stash that had Joy stamped on it and I thought it was perfect to go with the is piece.

Day 18-Until You Have The Courage. A prompt about quotes last week led me to make this page. I had two quotes both about the ocean and this one just needed a page. I worked it in collage with pieces of maps and sky and water then distressed inked the edges to give a feeling of an old world map. The quote : "You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Christopher Columbus. 

Day 19-She was beautiful. This page drove me crazy!  I was going for a vintage look and ended up with something entirely different! My page just didn't want to be vintage. Does that ever happen to you?  SO I changed courses but by the time this happened, the page was already over-saturated in color. 

Day 20-She is Happy.  While working on the previous page I was wiping ink onto this page and just decided to let it stand and start another page with the base of color. The design on the tag was inspiration in the center of She was Beautiful, and I wanted to include it on this page. After adding the borders to the page it looked like a party getting started and that makes me happy, so I added streamers!

Day 21-Was Your Heart Not On Fire?  "Let your heart burn with passion. As we see the glory of God in the face of Christ." We were singing this song at church this morning and it stuck in my head. I was humming this s as I started my page and soon my heart was on FIRE. I remember the scripture about the  two disciples that were walking on the road to Damascus when Jesus appeared to them.  Luke 24:32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  

Have a wonderful week! Get Your Art ON! 

Bee Creative!

Suzy

Linking to: Get Your Art On www.tracibunkers.com; Art Journal Everyday www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com