Sit and Stare

Watercolor on paper

Be Still My Heart

I went swimming about 2 weeks ago at our local sports club and found it quite bare and looking a bit lonely. I guess I got so used to seeing the place decked out in cheerful Christmas decor for the past few months, that this sudden change surprised me a little. Gone were the sparkling lights, the bright greens of Christmas wreathes and the reds and golds of bows, glitter, and poinsettias. What the sports club didn't remove though, were a few leafless, fake, white trees, that used to glow with white and blue lights. But where the lights were previously, now hung strings of red, glittery hearts. I thought it odd at first. Valentines isn't 'till February. And then I checked my phone, and realized february is less than 2 weeks away!

Time sure flies, doesn't it. January barely got here! Blogs too, are already celebrating Valentines' -- hearts, I-love-you's, and be-mine's seem to be everywhere!

So, I decided to join in the fun and create my own Valentines art. I had this idea for a while, thanks to the song Be Still My Heart by the Postal Service. :-)

Black & White

Black markers and watercolor. 

One of my earlier illustrations. :-)

Let it Snow

Yes I know, it's kind of late for a winter-y, Christmas-y post but what can I do? I've only just learned how to make a snowflake in illustrator, thanks to Alma from Nicole's Classes! The ballerina snowflakes here are actually my homework for my Ornaments and Embellishments class.

The other 3 snowflakes that look like paper cut-outs are, well, really paper cut-outs! I made for last December for our family's Christmas party decor. I used my old watercolor paintings, the ones I didn't care much for because I thought they looked awful. Well I only needed the clean side so I cut them out. Imagine my surprise after I turned them over. My paintings looked a lot cooler! It's kinda sad though that they had to have pieces of them missing to look nicer. Haha.

Anyway, there you have it! Who needs winter when you can make your own snow? :-)

Handmade gift cards

Here's an idea. Create personalized gift cards from scraps of hard paper and cardboard. We always have plenty of those lying around the house -- from 2 year old invitations to white make up boxes to those pieces of cardboard included in the packaging of store-bought clothes. There's so much material it's a shame to not put 'em to use!

All you have yo do is cut out a business card-sized rectangle (or any size you wish) and draw a pretty design on the clean side of the card. The back won't matter. You're gonna tape it on you're present anyway. Write to: and from: and you're all done!

I made these for last Christmas. (This is kind of a late post actually) And they took about 3 minutes each to make!




Not very artistic? No problem. Cut out bits of design from scraps of gift wrappers or old greeting cards and stick them on the card. Quick and simple. With this, you're recycling, saving on money, and clearing out your home, all at once! :-)

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Dream, Believe, Love

My sister's school project..

that I made!

My sister asked me to create a t-shirt design that would represent the poem she wrote for her assignment. She wanted it to be cute but cool. 

So, I came up with this -- Ed Hardy meets Oana Befort!

I'm sure it needs more fine tuning, though. I had to re-color everything several times because the pink of the heart overpowered everything else. Live paint -- which I haven't quite gotten the hang of -- was my only option, I had to lose the multiply effect on my flowers, too. I think I did ok, though :-)

From My Smartphone

I was supposed to be asleep an hour ago. I have a full schedule ahead of me, but my phone won't let me. It says I have games that need playing and new apps to try out and files that need organizing and widgets to download...

It may be quite obvious now that I'm a new smartphone user. Ever since I bought my galaxy S3, I have bern sleeping late, tinkering away the time with my new phone. Really, there's so much you can do here! I can't believe I've waited this long before getting one of my own. :-)

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