Painting, painting, painting.... and packing?

I feel like I should change the name of the blog sometimes.  :D  Especially when my other work, freelance painting, starts taking over all my *free* time!  I just finished a commission and sent it off yesterday, and I also contracted another one, plus two tattoo designs.  Then, on top of that, I am working on making decorations for Charlie's birthday party.  It is Land Before Time themed and there isn't really a great selection of decorations for it.  So I am hand drawing/painting the dinosaurs from the movie. And I will make some treestars AND a felt stegosaurus to play a game.

Then, lets mix a move into that mess.  Oi!!!  My head hurts.  But the new house will allow more room for all the family members and move my studio back into climate controlled conditions.

There has been some mini stuff happening, and I am thinking about doing another giveaway- because I love them.  And I have started the early steps of the Creatin' Contest Build 2012 for HBS.  :)  I am eager to do that one.

Posting might slow down a bit whilst I am a headless chicken, but I promise to stop in and update.

Remember to vote for Brae!!!  Or one of the others, but I lobby for her, specifically.  :D

Vote for Brae!

My dear friend, Brae, was nominated over at About.com for:

2012 Readers' Choice Award Finalists for Best Miniature Blog!!!!

Woohooooooo!  Pop on over via this link and vote for her.  :)  You can vote once every 24 hours until March 21st.

The winner will be announced on March 30th.  

Now, go vote!!!

Inspired loneliness...

This week I started potty training my youngest son, which meant that I was bound to the house without adult contact.  Oh so sad.  He is doing well though, which is nice.  So, out of this loneliness, came two new works of art for the etsy shop.

Digging around in my craft room, I came across some watercolor pencils and thought they would be nice to play with and make some dollhouse art.  Boy howdy, did they deliver!!!  So, here is what boredom, a bit of loneliness and some mascato wine produced:

 I cut them out and decided that the brown one needed a white matte border and that the sunset and tree would look great as panel art....

After cutting out and matting, I made a frame for the brown painting.  After it was assembled, I put it painted it Slate Grey by Americana and then used a Chartpack wood crafter marker on it.  I used the Black Walnut color (my favorite) and it gave it a sort of cool brown color.  It didn't stain over all the grey, either, and I think that gives a really unique look to the frame that fits the painting really well.

As you can see in my hand, it is rather large and much bigger than what I usually do.  I intended this to be an over-the-sofa piece of art and I think it is perfectly suited for that.

Here, you can see it in my Orchid and the amount of space it takes up on the wall.  I really love this piece of art!  I think I might have to recreate it in life size for my actual house at some point.  :)

Here is the sunset and tree painting cut up into its panels.

James suggested that each piece get it's own white frame.  I really like the results of that.  The other thing I did different this time, is that I put *glass* in the frames, using thin acrylic sheeting left over from my Fling build last year.  These small panels are also *laminated* with a single piece of packing tape.

Here is the panel art with one frame, side by side.

And here they are all framed and glassed.

And this is how they would look on the wall.  I really like it!

Both paintings will be available in my etsy shop within the next 24 hours.  Look for more to come soon, as I really like the way the pencils come out in miniature.