Welcome!

Thank you for visiting artful embellishments. This is the third year for this blog and I am so happy to keep publishing. I started in 2011 and began with a quilt of the week, this lead to the leaf of the week for my newly designed paper tree that is located on the wall of my garage in 2012.......2013 is going to bring a lot of excitement and positive change. As a personal challenge for 2013, I plan on designing a artist trading card each week to be featured on the blog.
With so many interests, there will be quilting, art quilting, leaves (and more leaves), as well as experiments in thermofax screen printing, fabric dying, and tons of DIY recycle projects. I may even enter that altered fashion scene. To a happy and healthy 2013, may we all find happiness in those things we create....thank you for stoping by artful embellishments.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Painting II

 Well, although my life is still full of small speed bumps, I must say the funnest of them is Painting II. I just love this class. There are lots of struggles for me in this class. We have decided I paint best sleep deprived. As crazy as that sounds, I am much more intuitive and less precise when I am tired. So embracing this new sleep deprived phase of my life.  Here are some of my paintings.



The painting on the left is done on unstretched canvas. Duck cloth to be precise. I had hoped to actually quilt this painting. This picture was taken on Mackinac Island in August of 2011. I happened to be waiting outside of a store and saw this precious little girl looking at the art. I just had to paint it!

 Matt worked for the DNR. My good friend Tim Kaufman allowed me to use his photograph to paint from. He took this photograph using his 800 mm lens. This happens every spring when the DNR bands the baby eagles. The DNR agents climb the tress and pull the eagles down to get banded. The eagles are then put back into the nest. Apparently the parents just circle, but do not attack. This little guy gave matt quite the talking too. This photograph has been published in the National Audubon Society Publication.


This picture was also taken by Tim Kaufman (www.timkaufmanphoto.com). It is a Pileated Woodpecker in his hole. I just love this picture. Again Tim graciously agreed to let me paint his work! This was also done on unstretched canvas. Although I have a lot of room for growth, this is by far my favorite class. It is 6 hours long on a friday and I can't think of a better way to spend the day.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Recycle 4 ATC 136-140

So in an effort to continue my recycled art I made some more ATC cards. These are all made on the back of recycled card board.  Some of the images and backgrounds are from recycled paper.  Even some of the trim and ribbon are recycled from old clothing.  Old dictionary, maps, and book text are added for background. New items include decorative tape, 3D elements from ARTChix, images, and thread mingle with the old.


ATC 136 House I have got to say my favorite element is the 3D house. Love the wood laser cuts. Thank you ARTChix!

ATC 137 Trip

Love the Trip Suitcase! Check out the recycled bias tape that looks like pink lace!


 ATC 138 I love Paris. The image is just perfect. The Eiffel tower hat is the best. The Paris Washi tape graces the recycled, painted cardboard!
 ATC 139 The boot--Another ArtChix laser wood die cut.  Added to maps, and other fun images, this one doesn't have any text but is full of spunk.
ATC 140 Paris
I do love these laser wood cuts so! I combined my favorite stamp of music notes with the wood cut of the Eiffel tower. Combined with my vintage and yellowed dictionary definition of Paris, it is pure ATC addiction!

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Recycle 3 - Drawing II The Self Portrait

Drawing II is turing out to be a very fun class. Great assignments and creative freedom.  The class is also full of very talented and super fun artists.  For this project I used acrylic paint, water color paint, stencils, and old dictionary/book pages. Although I am falling behind in my quest to produce a recycled project a week, I will not quit. This project I used recycled book pages...


To the right is Katie. I love her simplistic line drawing full of beautiful, bright springlike flowers!


Tom's has a unique appearance. He did the entire self portrait out of pen strokes.
I truly enjoyed the blue and yellow color.  To the right is Kendra.  I love her non-traditional use of text and the fact that she was able to use two separated pages for her composition.
 Melinda was able to make black and white pop!
Chelsea did such an amazing rendition of herself. You have got to love the cheetah!  How would you draw yourself???