Restoration

I began painting in 2006 and I began with garden stepping stones.  If you have ever looked at my blog Obedience Stones, you know that when asking God what on earth I was to do with all of my photographs of flowers He clearly said, "Paint a Stone."  And I did!  No I'm not always that obedient, but that was too clear to ignore and I had always wanted to paint, so my journey began.

My first stone was a very sad sunflower, but you could tell that's what it was.  It's still in my yard.  I soon turned toward hibiscus and they became my favorite flower to paint, but at the request of friends I branched out to many other flowers.

But as I said that was 2006 and although I have given away and sold many stones, I have kept a lot too and some have seen their better day!  But after all what did I expect?  Few garden items really last more than a few years in our heat and a weed-eater plays havoc, so I'm surprised they look as good as they do, after seven years and so I decided to do some restoration.  Wish I could offer this to everyone I've gifted, but unless they bring them to me, well I digress!  On to my restorations!

This first one was a pink and yellow hibiscus in it's first life - two colors that fade the fastest in the sun! And so this time I kept the shape, but totally changed the color - all new and fresh for the yard, well, as soon as I finish the stamen!

The second one is refreshed in just about it's original colors, but now it's a bright show piece for the yard.

I have several more to bring in for restoration and I'm so glad I can do this.
So fun to be back painting stones - the joy of obedience never goes away!

Creative Juices and Big Messes

It always amazes me how my  creative juices flow or suddenly dry up!  And even more amazing is how they seem to work opposite of what I need!  For instance - I sit down to make a card I need right then and nothing flows!  Why is this?

Huge mess - tiny amount of space!

Then yesterday when I needed to be cleaning and straightening my craft room I couldn't stop creating!  Every time I walked into the room something popped into my head and wanted to be drawn and I mean right that minute.  Not today or even later last night, but right then! So I sat among a huge mess and painted!  Simple little watercolor/marker card fronts but ideas I didn't want to lose.  Once I've drawn something, I can always repeat it, but if I have an idea and don't get it down on paper, it just might never happen.  So while I should have been putting paints away and sorting through paper scraps and making room to scrapbook later this week, I sat and painted little flowers.

I need to head back up today and work some more, but I am almost afraid of the room now!  I saw so many projects that I've got ready to start that I just want to lock myself in the room and create!  Not what I need to do today! The one thing I know for sure, I don't need to order anything or shop in my favorite craft stores for a very, very long time.

I found more things that I couldn't live without (when I bought them) and more things I had just stuffed away for another day than I can shake a stick at and I honestly believe that if I worked every day on a project I couldn't make a dent in all of my supplies in a year, ugh, maybe even longer and yet I can't wait to get to market at the quilt show this year!  I have a problem!

I am confessing right now that I appear to like to shop more than I like to create!  Everything I see looks like fun! As an example, I want to sew (no, I really don't) but show me a cute pattern for a purse/bag and I will buy it!  I won't ever make it, but I will buy the pattern and the fabric and I will envision a completed purse!  Start to get rid of it and oh, no, my brains stops me with you'll do that some day!  Will I?  Will I even live long enough to do all the things that have accumulated in my craft room?!  When we moved to this house a couple of years ago, my new craft room looked huge!  I had storage cabinets, closets, room for two tables so multiple activities could go on at the same time and now?  It's just full!  Small spaces keep you grounded!  Well, me grounded!  And now things are just out of control!!!!!

This week my grand daughter and I will do some scrapbooking while she visits and then I must, do you hear me, I MUST get in to that room and sort out all of my different crafts and choose which to keep and which to admit aren't going to ever be used!  After all, I need room for new things this fall!  And right now, I must just go make room for us to work!

I hope I'm not the only person with this problem and I don't think I am, so I hope some of you who have conquered this problem will share with me your ideas for organizing my room.

Until later!

Watercolor Flowers and Lavender Scented Paper

Good Morning!  I love Fridays - I thought I might need to take my car in for service today, but no appointment available until Monday morning, so I get to play! I want to share some of my newest cards and or card fronts. I used to stamp all of my cards and I still do occasionally, but mostly I now draw and watercolor them.

 I've recently become the worst card sender ever and I really must change back to the sender extraordinaire. With this in mind I've begun to watercolor some card fronts so I will have them ready to go when Facebook or my calendar suddenly remind me of a birthday!  For those of you who didn't get a card recently, I'm sorry!  Hopefully, next year you'll be at the top of my list!

Just this week I've completed several and mailed them and I'm going to share them today before I go up and start to play. 

The one on the right is my go to hibiscus.  I've painted a lot of other flowers, but always seem to go back to my comfort zone!  I did two different ones this week and forgot to take a picture of one so only the recipient gets to see it.  I'm really good about snapping pix, but occasionally one gets away from me.  That's ok - after all, I'm painting to share, not to keep.  And that's the problem with my stamped cards.  I have boxes of cards I stamped and never sent.  I must do something with them, any ideas?

This card on the left I made for a new friend in Minnesota.  I met Sue online in one of my stamping groups.  She was looking for a stamp set and I happened to have it and now it's hers.  I included this card in her package along with a couple of my bookmarks.

I have been explaining to her that my direction in cards has changed and that's why I'm selling so many of my stamp sets, so thought I should give her a real example.





And this leads to my last two pictures.  The one on the left is the front made out of my own freshly made paper and die cut with the Top Note die from Stampin' Up! using the Sizzix BigShot.  The picture on the right includes still another handmade paper.  The lavender colored paper backing the picture actually includes lavender buds in it and has such a nice scent.  Sure wish you could scratch and sniff! This card is for a very special cousin who shares my love for creating.  I started my paper making while she was visiting and we talked about making paper with lavender buds, so only right that she should receive the first card using this paper.  I was really pleased with how easy it was to use this paper for drawing.  It's a different texture from my usual watercolor paper, but worked like a dream and making lavender scented paper is so easy!  I hope she enjoys the fruit of my labor.

Those of you who know me personally, know I could sit here and talk for ever, but that doesn't get pictures on paper, so I'm closing and heading up to my studio, pulling out some paint and paper.

Oh, by the way, I've changed my Etsy shop name to BevAnn's Mixed Bag - the link is www.etsy.com/shop/bevannsmixedbag.  I did this for consistency, now my blog, my FB Page, my physical shop in Katy and now my Etsy shop all have the same name! Right now the Etsy shop is mostly stamp sets, but keep it on your list and check back often as I add more vintage items and some of my art cards, bookmarks and maybe even a foot or two!

Now, I'm really gone - later,

Rainy Day

Back side yard - trees are about to float!

I love my life!  And that's even when it doesn't go as expected!  My sweet husband had a cold over the weekend and then last night I felt kind of lousy, so thought I would sleep in this morning and nip this possible cold in the bud.  Sleeping in, to me, means, get up fix our breakfast and send him off to work and then my little dog, Jack, and I go back to bed.  Well, that's just what we did this morning - we were back in bed by about 6:30 and then the emergency weather radio went off!  And then it went off again, and again, and well, you know the rest.  I just finally got up and watched it rain.  I can thankfully say that we got lots of rain and our back field and then our front yard were full of water (most of it's gone or at least receded now) but we didn't have the severe wind and no tornadoes, so a little rain just seems fine to me!  But, sleeping in just didn't happen!

As I walked around the house this morning looking out the windows, I paused by a shelf and looked at some of the small stones I've painted.  I don't know about you, but ever since I was a little girl I have loved rocks!  I still love all rocks, large and small, but now I seem to focus on stones that have been tumbled around in a river and are now smooth so I can paint on them.  Most of these are just the right size for a paper weight and have a single flower on them, but now I seem to have a magnet in my eye that spots rocks shaped like feet!


My foot rocks never
come as "feet" rocks, I mean like a somewhat matching pair,  but I see feet (singular) every where!  And I paint toes, and toenails in pretty colors and sometimes add a flip flop and I must admit, some of them look like they just might hurt and I'm glad I don't have to walk on them.  Heehee!  But I love to paint them.  So as I paused and looked at the ones I have done right now and I suddenly was engulfed by just how much I love to paint!  Once again, I'm reminded that I need to concentrate on what I love!   I love to paint!  I love watercolors, and acrylics.  I love painting on stones, on wood, on paper and fabric!  You notice I didn't mention canvas, well, I've done it, but it's just not me!

 For those of you who have followed my Obedience Stones blog you know that I began with a very simple flower on a round stepping stone fresh from my garden.  My flowers are still simple, but they give me such joy.  In my case, it's the journey, not the destination that makes me happy!  I love how many stones tell me what they should be!  For one, it just screamed that it had to be a pear and a pear it became.  Most of them just say paint me!  I actually have a stone somewhere, I'll have to find it, that looked to me exactly like a sheep!  I've never painted it, it looks good just like it is, but maybe someday I'll embellish it too.


One little stone said I'm Mary and baby Jesus and soon it was my interpretation of just that. I love that God has given us so many canvases to fill.  I went down to the rock (stone) yard down the highway from us and ask if I could pick out some to paint.  They looked at me like I was crazy but sent me back into a heavenly area to find my treasures.  I'm so blessed to find joy in such simple things!

And so, I'm going to do just that - I'm going to go do a few watercolors for some card fronts.  Later, I will post some I've made recently and hopefully some I do today.  I also need nome more bookmarks, so that's got to be added to my agenda too.  Oh, my goodness, so much to paint and so little thyme!

Now, you tell me - what do you love to do?