JOY in the Post GIVEAWAY!

So now that you've seen the book my friends and I made together, I want to celebrate by having a giveaway!  One of the most exciting parts of doing this exchange was the freedom it gave me as an artist!  I was able to "get out of my box", move around and PLAY....and that's just what I did!

So, my gift to you is your choice of any two hand signed prints from the art I created for my friends

1. Kim

 

2. Tammy

 

3. Kim

 

4. Lisa (the Wright one)

 

5. Lisa (the Wright one)

 

6. Lisa (the Wright one)

7. Kat

8. Kat

 

9. Angie

 

10. Maggie

 

11. Maggie

 

12. Lisa (the Priti one)

 

13. Lisa (the Priti one)

 

14. Tammy

 

All you have to do to enter my giveaway is go visit my round robin friends, leave them a comment and then leave me a comment letting me know which two images you'd like prints of. 

YES a few hoops, but come on, aren't they FUN hoops? 

And you'll find a few more giveaways to enter as you do visit my friends!

For now, xx oo

Stephanie
P.S. I'll announce the winner towards the end of next week~ good luck!

JOY in the POST- Round Robin Reveal......and a give-away!

 

Hooray, as promised, here is all the beautiful art in my traveling journal! It came home to me last fall and I've been dying to share it ever since!

So, without further ado (drum roll please....)

Here's my "Eight Degrees of Inspiration"

Here's my book in place of pride on my mantel where it lives

peek inside for a taste of the magic to come....

And the inside pages with everyone's tag filled out:

 The first person to create in my book was Maggie of The Fanciful Magpie.  I LOVE her paintings and the way she incorporates words into her art- just gorgeous!  

I was lucky enough to have her to do a mermaid in my book!

To see the rest of the pages Maggie did in our group's books, click HERE

Next, my book traveled to Priti Lisa of Priti Studios.  Lisa was the creator of our Round Robin. We've all known each other for years, but she brought us together to share our art in one another's books.  

I am SO grateful for this experience- thank you Lisa!  She feature's Frida Kahlo in her art often, and here for me too!  Funny the quote she used for me, was the one I almost used for her!

HERE'S the write up she did about my pages

Next, my book traveled over seas to Angie of Artangel.  Angie creates the most wonderful mixed media work with a combination of found objects, original and stamped painting and much more.  Many of her pieces are about secrets or hidden objects.

She writes in detail about her pages for me HERE 

And next, my book found it's way to Kat of Write Story.  Kat creates the most intricate mandalas in many different ways.  The one she made for me was tiny, tiny pieces of paper cut out and then assembled into place and she added beautiful words to go with it

HERE'S her post about my pages

Next onward to Lisa of All The Write Stuff.  We both share a love of painting women and she did one of her lovely layered ladies for me accompanied with beautiful words.

Her post about my pages is HERE

Then my book traveled back across the ocean to Tammy  of Art and Inspirations in Charleston (getting closer to home ;)) Tammy and I both LOVE gardening- it finds its way into our art on regular occasions.  For me, she created a dragonfly swirling through a page filled with words about creating, both as an artist and a gardener in my two favorite colors; purple and green

HERE are Tammy's thoughts about my pages

My books final destination before flying home to me was with Kim of IM Girl Kim does some really beautiful mixed media work combining collage with painting and drawing- 

she uses bright and bold colors full of joy

HERE is her post about my pages

To complete my book, I created a kind of "year book" sign in spread and all the ladies kindly wrote about what inspires them:

  So that's my book- I am totally, and complete in love with it!  I hope other ladies like what I made for them too.  And SOON (March 1 to be exact) we'll be sending new books out on a NEW round robin journey- I can't WAIT!

Be sure to check out my giveaway to be posted after this (rather LONG entry) I'm offering the winner their choice of two prints from the art I made for this round robin- all you have to do to enter is leave a comment!

Just look how wonderful all our books look together!

And for a chance to win lots of beautiful goodies to start your own traveling journal, please visit my friends blogs and leave them comments:

 Lisa Wright

Tammy Sprinkle

 Maggie Nemetz

 Katina Wright

 Kim Collister

Lisa DiNunzio

Angela Hogan

 I hope this has inspired you to start your own round robin or become part of one- it has been such an incredible experience for me!
Joy in the Post 
TTFN
xx
Stephanie

Maggie's Journal Spread- DONE!

First, to all those affected by Sandy whether through worrying about loved ones or being personally affected- you're in my thoughts and prayers.  What a terrible, terrible storm!

I finished my spread for Maggie's journal yesterday, now all I need to do is a tag and then it's on it's way HOME to her!  Yep, mine was the last entry in her book!

 I've never done a mermaid before, or rather, I've never finished one!  I've started them before and they've morphed into other things....so I really had fun with her.  In the nature of Halloween, 

I felt compelled to give her a mask!

 Today will be quite busy around here, I have the market this afternoon, so lots of baking in preparation, plus I need to finish my portrait and then of course, it's Halloween.  My daughter's having a party, so I need to get ready for that too!

Happy Halloween!

xx

Stephanie

Works in Progress.....

Hello- I'm back to share some WIP's I have going on.  First up, is my final journal entry for my round robin  This one is for Maggie of The Fanciful Magpie -she and I share of love of all things fantastical.  She did a mermaid for my book (which I got back last week- eeee- more on that later!) and I decided to do one for her as well.  I wanted my mermaid to be sitting on the moon, not sure why, but that's what the muse demanded so I listened...

 

 this is the left side of my two page spread- and tho I still have a good bit to do, hopefully you can get the general idea of where I'm going with this!  

The other side will sport a quote:

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail"  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The other project I'm working on is a commissioned graphite portrait- I'm almost done getting the groundwork in and then I'll lay in the shading and be done!  I find it so helpful to put photos of my WIP's up on the monitor like this, because I always see things that need to be fixed and whatnot- here, I noticed that hers eyes and mouth aren't quite lined up....but SO much easier to fix now than when I have all those layers of shading in! 

side note: I know my drawing doesn't match the photos- my client wanted the "hand pose" but with more of a smiling face, but looking straight- that's the main challenge here- good thing I LOVE drawing babies!

Have a wonderful Monday, and for all my friends in the path of Sandy- STAY SAFE!
xx
Stephanie

Homage to Frida~ Finished

Happy Monday, sorry my posts have been so few and far between.  It's been crazy busy around here and most of it not art related!  Anyway, I finished my Frida pages in Priti Lisa's book last week, in fact Maggie should be getting them today!  Only one book left and then all the books head home- I can't WAIT to see mine in real life- what an amazing treasure!

So here is the first page where I cut it so the Frida quote peeks through.  Thank you, Cheryl of Healing Woman for the quote- I thought it was the perfect choice of words!

 Then it opens to the second spread of a Frida shrine amongst moon flowers and the quote......

 

 Some close ups; believe it or not Frida's face is about the size of a dime and I had a REALLY hard time with it, but I'm pretty pleased with it now!

That's all for now, it's gonna be another busy week for me, I have two days of art class plus the Farmer's Market, and I'm thinking of starting a small canvas based on these Fridas I just did, I've got a little Frida obsession going I think!
Have a wonderful day!
xx
Stephanie

Frida Progress.....

Happy Tuesday!  The kids had their Fall break last week, so I did very little in the way of painting.  But today and yesterday, I managed to get Lisa's pages for our traveling books almost done.

 Here's a detail of the page I'm working on now- It will be a "Frida Shrine" surrounded with moon flowers and grounded with a quote- I haven't chosen the quote yet- any thoughts, suggestions?

  Overview of how this page looks with a moth from the piece before it peeking through....

 And the page I shared before with the brown of this page showing through- 

this is where you'll get peeks of the quote...

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish this in time to be part of Paint Party Friday- fingers crossed!
xx
Stephanie

New Round Robin pages in the works!

It has been another hectic week around here!  Between Monday being a holiday and keeping up with assorted doctor's appointments for the kids, I had just enough time to finish planning my entry in Priti Lisa's book and begin painting it!  I almost never paint in water color anymore....but today I felt compelled to.  And then found it a challenge again and again as I'd get one part perfect and then it would dry funny so I'd fix it only to find that I'd messed up another area...needless to say- I've decided that it is finished enough to move to the next page of her book (she gave us permission to do more than one page so I'm running with it!)
Lisa is a HUGE admirer of Frida Kahlo, so I decided to use that for inspiration....

Note: at this point the ears are REALLY overworked- so that I'm scared to add anymore water color to them- I might go back over them with acrylic so the color is better, or should I just leave them alone?

 I don't know if you can tell, but I've trimmed out the bottom of this into a triangle (this was the main reason I wanted to use two pages ;))  and the page behind it will have

 a Frida quote so you can see bits and pieces of it beckoning you to turn the page.......

 Here it is with the top and bottom- at this time, I'm not planning on doing anything else with the top piece, I kind of like how simple it is right now...but of course, that could change at any time!

And one last peek at Frida before I say farewell for now- have a wonderful weekend and I'll "see" you all soon!

xx

Stephanie

Paint Party Friday (a day early ;))

I finally have it all together enough to once more be part of Paint Party Friday!  YAY!  I've missed visiting all the amazing artists and seeing what they've been up to, but I never want to comit until I know I'll be able to visit 80+ blogs!
Anyway, here I am and I have my pages for Angie's journal finished.

I ended up using two quotes instead of one- unusual for me, but what can I say?  The muse told me to, so I DID!  I extended my page so both quotes would show when the spread was first opened, but not all of the painting.

 And here it is fully open.  It probably doesn't look like I changed much from yesterday, mostly, I added more butterflies and expanded on the roots, but decided to leave them white.

Be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday tomorrow- always SO much to see there!
That's all for now,
Stephanie

Round Robin still goin' Round and Round.....

I'm almost ready to mail Angie's journal out for the round robin we've been doing.  I can't believe it only has two more stops before it will be on it's way home to her- amazing how time has flown!
Anyway, for Angie's (beautimous) boook, I wanted to feature a cherry tree with keeping on the theme of how we're all connected.  This led to the blossoms becoming butterflies (which she uses a LOT in her work) and here I am almost done!

I think I will change the roots to a dark blue-black and make them more distinctly into 8 separations to represent the 8 of us in this group.  Also still adding butterflies....but for the most part, it's almost done.

I love using quotes in my journal pages and I've been searching high and low for the right one to go with this page- I finally narrowed it down to three:

Always remember your roots, but don't forget that you were born to fly..."
Unknown

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
J.R.R. Tolkien The Fellowship of the Ring

"Like branches of a tree, we grow in different directions, yet our roots remain as one.  Each of our lives will always be a special part of the others."
Unknown 


On a side note, I have to add, that while I was on my blog travels this morning, I stopped by to "see" Cheryl at Healing Woman and she just used one of her poems in a painting that also speaks of roots and growth - I LOVE these kinds of connections!!

That's all for now, got to finish Angie's book so I can get it to Maggie on time!
Hugs,
Stephanie

Summer of Color~ Wild 'N Reckless Sherbet

My entry for this week's Summer of Color challenge and in Kat's book for our Inspiration Avenue Round Robin......  Inspired by Wild 'N Reckless Sherbet; an ice cream so full of fabulous colors of neon pinks, purples, blues and greens

 (it looks like it might be almost toxic to eat but SO much fun to admire the vibrant colors anyway)! 

So ya'll saw the background on Friday with the mandala and here it is all put together!

 with the left page turned to make for easier reading- yes, I almost missed the word "all" but was forced to creative measures because I'd already glued the page in...... 

 and the mandala with the strips of ribbon in place......the leaves and lime-y ribbon match better in real life

I'll be in and out this week, have a massive painting project going on- everyone in our house is doing a room swap- he oldest is leaving soon for college, and all the bedrooms are changing because of it....in the meantime, go see what everyone else did to be "wild and reckless" over at Summer of Color!

ttfn'

Stephanie