Snowman Door Decoration - Snowman Decoration - Snowman Home Decor

I am honored and happy to see one of my wood burnings getting so much attention on Pinterest!

My sweet snowman wood burning has a high number of repins and this number is growing daily!

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/156148312052337490/

In actuality this snowman was made last year and sold. But I still have it listed on my website because I am willing to remake most my home decor designs. I've seen an interest in this piece on Pinterest throughout the year. However, because this is the season for winter decorating the interest in my pin has exploded. I get notifications from Pinterest every time one of my pins gets repined. This one is shared several times a day. I am now at the point where if I see one of these notifications I know it will be my snowman!

I am thrilled and happy at the popularity of my design and have remade a few for reorders. There are only a couple left in inventory so if you plan to buy one you might have to wait for me to make you another! They are going quickly!

More fun to come...until then,

Wood Burned Jewelry

A few years ago I began playing around with my wood burning tool and, through my 'playtime', I ended up designing some unique woodburned necklace pendants. While it took some time to get my style worked out, things began to come together for me last Christmas after my sister bought a few of these pendants from me to give to her co-workers as holiday gifts. I was a bit nervous to hear what everyone thought, but--THANKFULLY--they were very warmly received by her friends so I took this as a sign that I should forge ahead with more designs.

I made a few wood burned pendants and pins with a springtime theme and took them with me to a few art shows that I attended. Lots of positive feedback and compliments were shared by my customers so I was pleased by the response.

But lately I've been infatuated with the Chevron print pattern. I'm sure you've seen it in fashion, home decor and everywhere. If you aren't familiar here's a sample of the design that I found online:

My infatuation began when I had a customer order a name sign with this pattern. I blogged about designing this name sign on my Creative Name Signs Blog. In a nutshell, I was very nervous to create a design with this pattern. I never thought I'd be able to do it. But after some thought and planning it worked out. I was so happy with the outcome I began figuring out other items I could create with this pattern. Of course creating wood burned jewelry came to mind and I'm happy to report I've gotten a few pendant orders featuring this design! Yay! Here are a few photos:

So I'm happy that my infatuation with this design is paying off for me. And with the holiday shopping season just around the corner more sales are coming my way!

Okay...it's time to run...lots to do on this busy morning! More fun topics to share soon...until then,

Zebra Print Nursery Room Decor

As I'm sure you're aware animal prints are super popular in home decor styles as well as clothing, jewelry and more. I recently painted a really fun name sign for a customer that had the zebra print pattern on it.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me back track...

Several years ago I painted a room sign that had a border with zebra print but the design ended up being very small and wasn't very prominent on the sign at all. Take a look...

See what I mean? I like the color combination, I LOVE the quote and the details are perfect for the theme. But in looking back it just doesn't get me excited. As a matter of fact, after painting that sign the thought of painting a zebra pattern made me nervous.

So when this recent order came up I got a bit on the jittery side. But I was upfront and honest with my customer. I shared the photo with her explained how tiny the pattern ended up. She understood my point and after a few emails discussing this design we figured out a way to make the zebra print stand out. Now I can't wait for someone to order this pattern! I LOVED PAINTING IT!

This sign was created for a newborn baby and the customer wanted the little zebras on there to fill in the space. But if you don't want the zebras on there I could leave them out. In the empty space I could paint some flowers, trees, stars or just about anything will work. Or we could just leave it be with the name. Then the sign would be sure to 'grow' with your little girl. Picture it...this design without the zebras. Wouldn't it still work well for a teenager? I certainly think so!

While custom artwork can be frustrating at times I do love it! I enjoy the fact that any piece of my artwork can be tweaked to suit your needs. This 'tweaking' opens up a whole new world for satisfying your room décor needs. What may be perfect for a newborn girl could also be perfect for a tween girl as long as you're in tune with your imagination and you're up for me making a few small changes.

Fun, fun, fun! My work is almost always fun! And I am blessed!

More sharing coming soon...until then,

"The Dragon King" - Book Review

I recently read a wonderful children's book called "The Dragon King" by Vivian Slade.

In "The Dragon King", Ethan is crowned king at a very young age after the sudden death of his father. Though Ethan is very sad over the loss of his father he still has his mother, Queen Sarah, to console him. Sarah spends time every day with her young son teaching him all the values that are needed to prepare a young king for any future battles. Over the years Queen Sarah makes sure that Ethan understands that all kings will, at some point in their lives, have to rise up and fight against great demons to protect their kingdom.

As expected one day out of the clear blue a huge and dreadful fire breathing dragon appears in the sky. This fear spreading monger terrorizes all of the people in Ethan's kingdom with his fiery breath leaving nothing but charred remains in his wake. Ethan summons his knights and they set out to conquer the beast. Sadly only a very few return with horrific stories of this cunning and frightening monster.

Finally the time arrives when Ethan realizes that he can no longer let the chaos continue. He decides that only he is the one who can take on and fight the dragon. Ethan gathers up his courage and sets out to save his kingdom from this ferocious enemy. Recalling the words of his mother, Ethan knows that all just and honorable kings are faithful, courageous and wise. Armored with these values Ethan knows that he must also use his imagination when fighting a beast. He must know in his heart and soul that he can defeat this monster.

This sweet and loving story has a bit of a twist to it as you approach it's ending and I don't want to give away any surprises. I wanted to share this story with you because I sincerely enjoyed it. While it was written for children I believe it can be read by anyone of any age. No matter the battle we all need to know that we all are kings of our own lives. We all must practice faith, courage and wisdom every day. And along with these three valuable traits we also must use our imagination. We must know that when we imagine ourselves defeating our demons--and make our imaginations come alive--we can will ourselves to win any struggle that life puts in front of us.

My review and promotion of this book is two fold. Of course I loved the story. But I also wanted to point out that the author, Vivian Slade, has promised that over the next three years she will give away 1,000,000 copies of the book to help children around the world. Vivian wants kids to truly understand that with faith, courage, wisdom and imagination they can dramatically change their lives. But to reach this goal your help is necessary! You can help the author by making a direct donation to their cause. Or you can purchase the Kindle and audio version of the book

Please consider this worthy cause!

More to come soon!

Trying Out the Art Festival Scene

Years ago I set up tables at several local arts and crafts shows. The first couple of shows I did very well. But the more often I paid for a space and set up a table the less interest people had in my work. I think the biggest drawback was that my artwork was all custom made--house portraits and personalized signs and plaques. I honestly don't believe the disinterest came from lack of talent or that it wasn't good enough. My impression is that when people go to craft shows they tend to buy on impulse and they also tend to buy things that are less expensive. Believe me, I know my artwork isn't cheap but I refuse to compromise that area of my business. I work too hard to short sell myself. I feel that the issue for me was a result of trying to sell my high priced art work in a small town where the economy has been depressed for years. It's hard to get people to spend their hard earned money. So my participation in art shows went on the back burner and I concentrated all my energy on selling my products online. Thankfully that focus paid off well for my little home business.

Lately, though, I've been getting the bug to sell at art festivals. We had a beautiful event in the neighboring town last weekend and I decided to take a shot at setting up a table with my artwork. The financial results were 'fair' when you talk about the revenue generated from that day. However, I had a sample house portrait displayed along with my custom made note cards and the people were overwhelmingly interested in that product. I only took a handful of house portrait brochures with me because I didn't think that item would generate much interest. But boy was I wrong! All but two of my brochures were taken along with many, many of my business cards. I'm looking forward with hope that more money will be generated from that festival down the road.

Meanwhile, here are a few photos of my booth display along with a photos of some of my favorite items that were sold or at least generated the most interest that day...

This as the only original painting that sold that day...I love this painting and I plan to paint another one very soon!

My 'Orange Rose painting' generated loads of interest but, as I said, I don't think people go to these shows planning to spend a lot of money and, of course, my original paintings cost much more.

Here's another painting that people went crazy over. I love it, too, and a tiny part of me is glad I still have ownership of it! Sometimes my paintings feel like a child to me and I don't want to let them go! I know! Crazy, right??

My sweet little paper flowers were much adored, but I didn't sell any. I had only just made them a few days before the event and I didn't get a chance to price them. My plan was to only use them as part of my display. But people really took to them. So I'm in the process of making more for the next show. (My husband would say I'm a bit neurotic over these flowers, but I just can't help myself! They are so fun to make!)

Here's a photo of a seaside themed step stool top that I wood burned and painted and had for sale. The step stool was my highest priced item and while it generated load and loads of interest I again believe the price was too high for an art festival in our area of the country.

And last, but certainly not least, my sweet watermelons! We had cut down a tree in our yard that I blogged about it recently. My husband unintentionally cut a few pieces of wood into a wedge shape. As soon as I picked them up to move to the huge wood pile I saw a piece of watermelon! So I went out one day after we got done cutting down the tree, grabbed these two wedges and went to my little imaginary world of Jane Loedding Art and...voila! They are so doggone cute! These two little wedges got more attention and love than almost any other item on display. I love them and ended up selling one of them. Yahoo!

So all in all, I'm glad I decided to take this leap. I will be going to another local art festival in a few weeks and I plan to take a large variety of art prints to that show since they can be sold for much less that my original paintings. I'll be sure to let you know how that one goes.

Okay...it's time for me to get moving to today's work schedule! I'll be sharing more fun soon! Until then,

Watermelon anyone??

We recently had to cut down a very large tree in our back yard. I was really bothered by this decision, but we really didn't have a choice. There was a huge branch on the tree that began to split over the past couple of years and we constantly worried that a bad storm could easily blow it down and our beloved deck would be smashed and power lines would be pulled. Look how bad it was getting...

It was definitely something that needed to be addressed. I felt so bad because it was a very old tree and I felt it had witnessed so many generations of families living on our property. Man, how I'd love to talk to that tree and listen to it's stories!

Meanwhile, we made the decision to have the tree cut down and within 3 hours it was gone. What took Mother Nature nearly 100 years to grow someone came and cut it down in less that 3 hours! It was a sad moment for me.

But...there has been one small silver lining...

We kept lots of the wood from the tree to use for our summer and fall bonfires. My husband spent lots of time cutting up the large branches while the kids and I moved the cut pieces to the back part of our yard.

At one point I noticed that my husband cut a couple pieces of the branches into wedge shapes. I help them up and immediately exclaimed, "These can be painted like watermelon slices!"

Lo and behold the other day I went out to the wood pile and grabbed these pieces and did my thing...and voila!

These are pretty big and I'll most likely keep them for my deck. But we have a variety of smaller branches that I plan to cut into similar shapes and then paint them similarly. When I'm done I'll add them to my website! Yay!

Okay...more interesting things on the way...until then,

Having Fun With ACEOs

I've been taking some fun online art classes and I recently learned from one of my teachers that you can use a deck of playing cards as your canvas. Now being an artist I know that a canvas can be anything...believe me I've painted on so many different surfaces over the years it's crazy! But the idea of using playing cards has never crossed my mind.

One big thing I realized--and perhaps the teacher already knew this fact--is that a playing card has the exact same dimensions as an ACEO.

What is an ACEO you may ask? ACEO is an acronym for "Art Cards, Editions and Originals". An ACEO is a miniature piece of art that measures 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". If you make a small piece of art and it measures any other size then it can not be considered an ACEO. That is pretty much the only rule for making an art card. You can make your art card with any material you choose--wood, paper, canvas, glass, styrofoam or whatever you can think of! It just has to measure 2-1/2" x 3-1/2". ACEOs can be very fun and it's a great way to collect art from a variety of artists. If you'd like to read more about the history of ACEOs check out this website - http://www.aceo.org/.

Meanwhile, since my recent realization I began playing around with a deck of cards we had sitting in a drawer for many years. I shared one of my ACEOs on my blog a few weeks ago.

Then the other day I had a little bit of time on my hands so I began to dabble again with a few art cards I started a couple weeks ago. Here's how the set turned out...

I chose to write the words 'Quite Contrary' on the one because of the color scheme I chose. I had been in a mood to paint roses the last several days. But on this particular day for some reason orange and brown were my colors of choice. Not the colors that come to mind when you think of roses. But whatever...I must have been in a 'contrary' mood that day!

I have a nice variety of ACEOs in my stash and I plan to add them to my website in the near future so stay tuned.

Okay, I have lots of work to do so I best get moving along here. More fun on the way...until then,