Flower Bouquet from Friends

On Monday there was a terrible storm here in Baltimore and we lost power all evening. Luckily we have a generator which illuminated part of our house, so we invited our (powerless!) neighbors who have three small kids to have dinner with us. It was great fun. The next day our neighbors gave me this bouquet to say thank you. It made me so happy and it was so beautiful I felt I had to get out my watercolors and paint it.

Purple Splotched Lilies

Aren't these splotchy speckly lilies in my garden amazing?

They inspired me to paint this watercolor. I did wet on wet with plenty of splotches sprayed on with a toothbrush to give it some texture. Let me know what you think!

What are your favorite flowers to paint?

From Pooches to Parrots I'm your go to gal!

The Girls, pastel 2013

 

detail

detail

Ginger Cat, 2013

Things are busy, busy, busy. I'm working on some commissions for pet and human portraits in watercolor or pastel. Go on over to my Etsy store to find out more!! I would love to create something unique and beautiful for you!

The easiest thing for me is if you email me a few of your favorite photos of the subject and we can choose which one will work the best. The better quality the source photos, the better the portrait will be. For pets it is best to get down to their eye level to really capture their essential spirit when you click your pics.

If you are choosing to use professional photos, please make sure you have obtained the reproduction license from your photographer.  Please be nice and contact your photographer and ask for permission before sending in a photo.

Your custom portrait will arrive to you unframed and securely packaged in recycled cardboard ready for framing for yourself or as a gift.

I look forward to creating something beautiful for you. Please contact me at emmakcontact[at]yahoo.com

Happy Easter from the Chattering Duck and Friends

It's been a long snowy winter with plenty of time to get clickety-clackety with my crochet needles. And just in time for Easter I've finished three little friends. A mummy rabbit and her son plus a duck who looks like he just won't shut up [get pattern at Amirugumi to Go]

Happy Easter! Have a good one and don't eat too many Easter eggs!

Are you going away for Easter? Not me, I'm having a Staycation.

Fairytale Friday: Help! There are some bears in my dollshouse!

It's Fairytale Friday and I did notice that after I did some wierd stuff with some crochet needles and some yarn there were three critters in my house and a blonde lady with an ultrashort skirt. They were chattering up a storm too.



This is what I overheard:

Daddy Bear "Who's been eating my porridge?"

Goldilocks "I'm sorry, it was me. I've been on the Atkins diet for a few weeks and when I saw that steaming pile of carbs I just couldn't resist and just dived in."

Mummy Bear "I know how you feel - there's only so many times you can eat a pork chop for breakfast isn't there?"

Baby Bear "You can have my porridge any day of the week Goldilocks. I'm dying for some Lucky Charms but mum won't buy them."




Mummy Bear: "Who's been sleeping in my bed?"

Goldilocks: "Me, and just so you know your bed is lumpy and you could really do with a Sleepnumber Bed."

Mummy Bear: "Don't I know it! But daddy bear's too tight to buy me one. And the bed's so damn small I can barely get into it!"

Daddy Bear: "I got no spare cash for new beds. I have to spend all my money on Baby Bear and his basketball lessons not to mention his Air Jordans."

Baby Bear: "I'm gonna be the next Michael Jordan!" Throws ball in the air and knocks Goldilocks over.

Goldilocks gets up and brushes herself off. "Oh my! I think I'll be outta here. There's not enough room to swing a bear in here. Thanks for the porridge Baby Bear....and good luck!!"

What do you think of them? Have you ever crocheted a fairytale theme? What shall I do next?

Naughty Mouse Christmas Card

Tired of the same old same old Crimbo cards? Well search no more because I've got a tutorial for a fun and frisky Christmas card that'll raise a laugh in even your crotchiest relative!

Who's been nibbling on Santa's cookie that was lovingly left out for him by the kids of the house?

Open up the card and find out that this cheeky mouse has had a mouthful.

Dontcha just love it? I'm mega excited because I'm entering my Naughty Mouse Christmas Card into the Christmas Card Craft Off - so hurry over it you want to join in the fun.

So now for the tutorial. Let's get started!

1. First take some white card stock.

2. Draw two large circles on the card side by side, overlapping the edge - as you want a straight edge for the card to stand on.

3. Draw a smaller circle inside the right circle - this will form the mouse's body.

 4. Draw a smaller circle here to form the mouse's head.

5. Use a bottle cap to draw the mouse's ears. 

6. Cut out a Santa hat out of red card stock for the mouse.

7. Draw in the arms and mittens of the mouse.



8. Cut out the card.

9. Cut out a mouth in a circular piece of brown card stock and glue onto front of the card.

10. Write: 'Who's Been Nibbling Santa's Cookie?' in the mouth.

11. Cut out 'chocolate chips' from black card stock and stick onto front of cookie.

12. Cut out a mouse's nibble on the lower left hand corner of the card.

13. Sketch in mouse's face with pencil and use pink crayon to color the mouse's cheeks.

14. When you are satisfied with your sketch fill in with marker.

15. Cut out a cookie slice, add teeth marks and cookie crumbs (bits of paper) from brown card stock and adhere to the card.

16. Glue red mittens, a pompom to the hat and write 'Gotcha' on the left inside of the card.

If you enjoyed this fun card join me at the All Things Thursday Blog Hop for lots of other fun crafty ideas!

Kids + bubblewrap = Inspiration

How to make a photo collage of the kids with plenty of texture and atmosphere? I was inspired to make this picture by a bit of bubble wrap. I thought, wow, that would make a great effect when soaked with acrylic paint.

So with my creative juices up and running, first I coated a canvas with gesso. When it was still damp I pressed the photos into it and the magazine picture of birds in flight on a beach to give it a bit of atmosphere. I painted in some sections of the background with acrylic diluted with Golden Fluid Acrylic. Then I started dipping the bubble wrap in pink acrylic paint mixed with Golden. Next I dipped the bubble wrap in green.





I was pretty pleased with how it was coming along but the colors seemed too bright and pastel colored for the effect I was looking for which was wisful, romantic, nostalgic and wintery, so I decided to tone the palette down so I put some more white paint bubblewrap effect on the picture to make it look more like a winter walk on the beach.

Finally, I found some bits of 'sea glass' in the stream behind our house and stuck them on to give atmosphere. How do you like it? I think it turned out pretty well.

Ta da! The finished piece:

So remember - don't ever throw out any bits of packaging - they can make great effects in mixed media pieces!

This is part of the Monday Mantras Inspirational Link Up, so what are you waiting for? Link up your posts!

My kids are my inspiration. They inspire me to create art every day and to try and be a good mom!