I'm a self-taught mixed media artist and have been creating art and a positive atmosphere in my life for as long as I can remember. I live in sunny South Florida, which serves as my inspiration for my use of bright fun colors with a whimsical flair.
My goal is to inspire and empower you to find your inner happiness through creativity, as I have in my life. This website includes different tips and techniques that will hopefully inspire your inner muse to create.
Welcome and join me on a wonderful journey in creating art!
Santa’s Workshop is in full swing🎄 I’ve been busy in the studio working on new batches of ornaments in varying sizes and these are the first ones. There are a lot of layers in creating these little treasures so it takes a bit of time but they’re coming along nicely and will be ready to hang. Now I need to squeeze in the time to get them photographed so I can add them to my shop😅
If you haven’t stopped by my Etsy Shop, I encourage you to do so because holiday shoppers are already out and snatching up Christmas ornaments and paintings. So if you’re looking for an original, one of a kind gift for someone special make sure to stop by and check back periodically as I’ll be adding more.
Wishing you a lovely weekend, thank you for your support!!
You may have heard the term “encaustic art.” It gained a lot of popularity in recent years but this is actually a 2,000 year old technique which had been lost over time. Encaustic art is a process of painting with heated wax that has been colored with pigment and as a result produces luminous and transparent works.
The word “encaustic” originated from an Ancient Greek word that means “burning in or to burn.” The earliest encaustic paintings came from Ancient Egypt where they created detailed portraits to cover the clothed faces of mummified bodies during the burial ceremony (100-300 AD). The photo below of Fayum is one of those burial paintings. But it was also a common technique used in ancient Greek and Roman paintings.
However, during the 18th century encaustic art lost it’s popularity because it became too costly and was basically replaced with tempera paint. I was very interested in this technique and created the encaustic artwork below as a tribute to my parents which included bits of sheet music composed by my father.
To create this artwork I collaged my background pieces in place and then added beeswax pellets on the canvas which I carefully melted with a small mini quilting iron (available on amazon). I added bits of color and small pieces of heart confetti in between the layers of wax and mixed it in as I went. I finished it off with sheer flowers and a drawer pull at the top. As you can see the end result is a very soft and delicate, dreamy affect.
There are plenty of books available online and in the bookstore on how to create encaustic art. It was a fun learning experience creating my first piece and I plan on making a more of it. There are so many things fun ways you can incorporate this medium into your art.
I hope you enjoyed this post today, thanks for stopping by!!
I needed to take a little break so I made a few inchies. Creating these mini pieces of art is the perfect way to destress and unwind. And for some unknown reason, I find drawing the tiny little circles very calming😊
I like to paint a handful of inchies in advance so they’re completely dry and ready to use when I feel the need. I store them on my desk in a handmade ceramic bowl. The designs were made using a Sakura Micron Pen and of course I couldn’t resist adding some glitter✨
How do you destress and unwind?
Hope this inspires you to create art this weekend, thanks for stopping by!!
When you think of pandas, you’re probably visualizing the typical black and white panda. But the red panda was the first panda to be discovered almost 200 years ago and nearly 50 before the black and white panda was discovered. They can be found in the high-altitude forests of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
They’re pretty cute in appearance but their looks can be deceiving. This adorable little panda is territorial and has been known to be quite aggressive. Red Pandas weigh anywhere from 7 – 18 pounds and the length from the tip of their nose to the end of their tail can be from 36 – 43 inches making them about the size of a large house cat. They can live to about 14 years of age in the wild and are pretty quick on their feet, running at 24 miles per hour.
Red pandas are primarily nocturnal creatures and can be seen munching on bamboo leaves but sometimes eat meat including insects, lizards and bird eggs. These skillful and acrobatic pandas live primarily in trees and use their bushy tails for balance. Winter is their favorite time of year and red pandas will use their tail like a blanket to stay warm.
Sadly these precious little guys are on the endangered species list. Nearly 50% of their habitat is located in the Eastern Himalayas. As a result of deforestation their losing their nesting trees and primary food source which is bamboo and this is causing a decline in their population.
I took this delightful photo (shown below) of a red panda peeking out from behind the tree in Washington DC. I didn’t know at the time they were on the endangered species list so I’m grateful I was able to see one up close. They really are beautiful animals and need to be saved. With every purchase of the photo below from my Etsy Shop, 10% of the net proceeds will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund to help save them from extinction.
I thought I’d share with you a fun art journal layout I made a while ago. I love the fall colors in this one and cupcakes are always fun!
It was a pretty simply layout that I started with collaged pieces of printed tissue paper by Tim Holtz for the background. I lightly painted over them with pink and orange acrylic paint making sure you could still the collaged papers peeking through.
I have a large cupcake stamp that I used to create the stacked cupcakes. I added a few designs to the background using white acrylic paint and then printed the quote from my computer and added it to the page:
“The more you thank life, the more life gives you to be thankful for!”
It’s fun to see where your art ends up because when I made this I started with my cupcake stamp and it grew into a stack. There wasn’t a lot of planning involved but rather going with the flow. So when you’re journaling and leery of the blank page, just start even if you only add a few scribbles. The important thing is to start and let your creative muse take over and have fun!!
Hope this inspires you to create today, thanks for stopping by!!
I ended up making this mixed media canvas a while ago which was inspired by their book. I used a page from an old recipe book for the base of the cupcakes. If you look closely, the cut pieces of the book are actually part of a cupcake recipe and I thought that was a cool factor.
The letters for “Celebrate” were cut using a die cut machine. I stamped the word “Everyday” onto premade inchies I found in a stamp store and distressed them. Plus there’s lots of texture in this piece, especially the frosting which I love.
If interested, the book is available on Amazon and I included live links (including the book image) in this post. They also have a blog: “Everyday is a Holiday.”
Hope this inspires you to create this weekend, thanks for stopping by!!
There is something magical about Autumn when she begins to show herself. The long hot days of summer slowly begin to fade and are replaced with long cool nights. Breezes begin to sweep in and the leaves change their colors and fall like brightly colored pieces of confetti.
There are many ways to bring the ever delightful scents of the outdoors into your home to create a blissful and serene ambience. One of my favorite ways is to use a mixture of essential oils in a diffuser and allow the tantalizing autumn scents to drift throughout my home.
The enchanting scents can have a calming affect on your mind which makes them that much better, plus they’re natural too. These are a few fall diffuser blends I found online at HelloGlow.co created by Stephanie Gerber. I highly recommend visiting her site which contains a wealth of information including 25 essential blends for autumn, how to make your own diffuser and what you can expect with the different blends. If you’re new to this idea, start with 1 or 2 recipes and see how you like it.
Just wanted to show you how easy journaling can be. I made these fun doodles in my Strathmore 5.5″ x 8″ Mixed Media Journal using nothing more than a ball point pen.
Most of you know I’m a bit of a color nut, so I prep pages in advance with splashes of watercolor paint and let them dry. Normally I’ll prep a handful of pages at a time so I have them ready to go.
Then when I’m on a trip or waiting for an appointment I just pull out my small journal and pen from my bag and let the fun begin. It’s easy, relaxing and calms the mind plus the supplies are minimal. Journaling doesn’t have to be complicated to make it enjoyable. Simple art is extremely fun and satisfying to create.
There are a lot of holiday sales coming up so make sure to buy a small journal and create some art!
The idea is to create ink blots on your paper and then turn them into some type of image using your imagination. My inkblots are all weird but somewhat cute little monsters and these are my new pages. I don’t know what’s more fun, creating these little monsters or coming up with the fun names for them 😂🤣
Pearl and her entourage
Fluffy Muffins and her BFF, Jams
Agnus and her eclectic brood
Hope you’re enjoying these, thanks for stopping by!!
Share the Happy💖
“You have the greatest magical power within you, it’s called imagination.” ~Nitin Namdeo
I painted this Autumn abstract a while ago but thought this beautiful poem by George Cooper fit it perfectly:
“Come, little leaves” said the Wind one day, “Come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; for summer is past, and the days grow cold.”
Hope you enjoyed this today, thanks for stopping by!
Flowing Waters Art 