Happy New Year! Bonne Année!

I have been having a great holiday season spending time with friends and family and not traveling too far away from home. Yesterday, my son and I spent some time in my studio experimenting with monoprinting techniques using a gelli plate. It was a blustery day and my husband built a cosy fire in the wood stove and we were listening to the rain drops on the roof while playing around with colors and shapes. I love collaborating on projects like this because I end up using colors outside of my usual range and expanding my technique every time. Made me realize how much I miss teaching workshops and that is something I want to start doing again this year. Here's to a fun, creative and productive new year!

Altered Book

I started this altered book with my friend Arlene in May 2013 and I am just now getting back to it. Yikes! The name of the book is "The A to Z Adventure Journal". The concept is to use one full spread per letter of the alphabet, do 2 or 3 spreads and send it around. I did the first two (Airplane and Boat) and Arlene did the following two (Compass and Desert). I decided to do EAST for the letter "e". Not sure what "f" will be yet, maybe FOG or FERRY or FOUNTAIN or even FORTUNE TELLER! Let's see what happens, it's an adventure, right?

Ornaments Gift Wrap Contest

I remember the silver tinsel Christmas tree we had when I was little. I would watch it glow at night and it would transport me to another world full of magic and fairy tales. I did believe firmly in Santa Clause and imagined the world he lived in to be all sparkly, all the time. To this day,  I love sparkly objects because they bring back that little girl in me and the magic feeling of that Christmas tree. I wish I could add a little glitter to this design for the Spoonflower Ornaments Gift Wrap contest, but if you squint a little, I bet you can see it sparkle! See all the entries for the contest and vote here!

Turn Over a New Leaf!

"Turn Over a New Leaf" is the title of my entry for the annual Spoonflower Tea Towel calendar Contest. A new year means new beginnings and is always so full of potential. To 2015, the best year ever! Vote in the contest here!

Les Parapluies de Sophie

Another Spoonflower entry, this time for the Umbrellas themed contest. I titled it "Les Parapluies de Sophie" because when I was naming my little illustrations in photoshop, they started to feel like characters: Para coeur, para fleur, para fraise, para pompom, para pois, para ligne, para froufrou and para sol. "Les malheurs de Sophie" by la comtesse de Ségur was one of my favorite books when I was young and I think Sophie would have like these cheerful little parapluies. Almost makes you wish for a rainy day! See all entries and vote here. Thank you for your vote!

Musical Chairs

Here's my entry for the latest "tables and chairs" Spoonflower contest. I drew a bunch of chairs and tables, scanned them and started playing with them to create a pattern. Somehow I couldn't fit the tables in, but I could probably fit it them in the collection somewhere on a different fabric. This design reminded me of playing musical chairs with its little row of mismatched chairs.  Are you ready to sit down when the music stops? See all entries and vote here.

Big Fat Art

Last week I took another workshop with Jane Davies at the Pacific Northwest Art School. The name of the class was "Big Fat Art" because we worked on large pieces of print making paper. I love working big because you can't get too precious about your work, you really have to use your whole arm to make wide gestures to cover the entire page, so you end up with interesting mark making techniques. We worked with color, line, shape, pattern and layering. Another super fun and inspiring class with an incredibly talented group of women! Jane is teaching again next year at the same school on Whidbey Island and I would recommend you register early if you are interested, her classes do sell out quickly.