Craft Fair Season is Coming!!!!!!

Just a little post. I bought these cute 3x4 paper mache lined notebooks and thought they would be perfect to sell during the upcoming craft fair season. I got them at JoAnn's and took all they had. I am really happy with the way they came out and I had an absolute blast making them.

Journal Junkies Month 3

Yesterday was month 3 of the art journaling class I teach in my home. My students made some beautiful pages and we all had so much fun in the process. I get so much enjoyment out of seeing people make things that they didn't think they could make and the smiles on their faces are priceless.

There are 12 pages in our journal and each month I have them create and journal something that they can share about themselves. In the end, I want them to have a complete journal all about their own thoughts and feelings that they can pass down to their children or grandchildren.

This month was their favorite quote or Bible verse.

 I made silhouette stencils of the ladies from magazine photos. You can buy sheets of plastic and make your own stencils. I bought a sheet of 3 from Wal Mart for about $2-3 dollars. I will have to do a tutorial on how to make them. It was really easy.

They all said this was their favorite page so far. Now the pressure is on for me to think of something they will love as much for the next meeting. :)

Have a great week!
Shonna 

Encaustics

I took a two day Encaustics class this week and it was so much fun. It was at The Charity Wings Art Center in San Marcos, Ca. and the Instructor was Jess Greene. I have been really intrigued lately with Encaustics (painting with hot colored wax). I love using hot Beeswax on top of some of my paintings, but I know there is so much more to painting with wax. I had a great time and learned so much. Here are my final pieces.

Here is our main table, but we took over about 5 tables total.
                                 


Here is the was on a pancake griddle.

 My works in progress

Some other beautiful Student work

 The beautiful work of Jess Green.

What Nourishes Your Soul?

I am so happy to finally announce Soul Food! A brand new online class hosted by Mystele Kirkeeng, Jeanette House and Heather Santos. Along with 35 artists (including me), who will be contributing one lesson each. The theme for the class is nourishment of the soul with 26 weeks of art projects and the body with accompanying food recipes to go along with each lesson. You can find out all about it here!

I feel so blessed to be a contributing artist for this wonderful class!

And Monthly Give-Aways! Meet some of the

Soul Food Sponsors!

It's super exciting and it's waiting for you to Come Join Us and nourish your Creative Soul!

You'll find the SOUL FOOD kitchen at Community Thrive, which you'll need to join in order to access the classroom. The community is free to join and you can sign up here: http://communitythrive.com/

Click Here for the Soul Food Facebook page:  Soul Food Facebook Page

Playing Around with Joint Compound

I decided that I wanted to experiment with joint compound and created this abstract piece. I am practicing more with it and have one that I am working on in my journal. That one will have a face painted on it. I will try and post progress pictures.

Image Transfers

I love this drawing of a butterfly girl that I sketched the other day, so I decided to make a print of the image and make another painting out of it.

I used PicMonkey to change the image to black and white and then I printed it out on my printer (I also added different wings using book pages). I spread crackle paste on a wood cradled board and then laid the image face down and gently rubbed. I let it dry overnight, sprayed water on the image and gently rubbed the paper away. Once the paper was completely removed, I painted it and added hot beeswax over the top to seal it. Here is the end result.

Where Do I Begin...

I can't believe how much has been going on lately, but I will try and keep it short. First my family and I went to Maui for 8 days in the beginning of June. We had a blast and were sad to come home. I have been there before and just love it. Then we went beach camping right after that for a few days. This is something we always do every year. I'm not a big camper, but I like camping at the beach.
Next was my very first Art Show in San Diego. It was through RAW Artists, which is a group that promotes local artists. My work along with several other visual artists, photographers, fashion designers, bands, makeup artists etc. were represented. I didn't sell much, but overall it was a really great experience. Having people come up and compliment my work, gave me a little more confidence. I never thought in a million years that I would have enough courage to submit my work for a show.

I started a Art Journal club and it is held at my house once a month. We just had our second session and I am really enjoying teaching. I love sharing all of the different art journaling techniques I have learned over the years. The absolute best part is seeing someone who really doesn't consider themselves an artist, complete a page and be really proud of what they did.

Here are some photos from the past month (or so):

                                Art Show in San Diego (Photographs by Justin Novak)

 My husband Dan and I at the show. He showed off his Macgyver skills by hanging all of my work on the fence Raw gave me to display my work.

Journal Junkies First meeting in May.

                                         Journal Junkies Second meeting in June.

Some new work I finished recently

 xoxo
Shonna