Winter Wonderland Art

As the holiday season fast approaches I decided I should share some of my holiday and winter themed art pieces. A few of the items I am displaying here have been sold, but I will gladly recreate any design. They won't be exact, but they will be close to the original.

Here is one of my smaller winter themed pieces...this little
Winter Wonderland wood burning was burned and then painted.

Many of you may remember burning pieces of wood in art class at school. Or perhaps your parents bought you a wood burning kit when you were younger...I know I had one! This is the same type of tool. The only difference for me now is I played around with it long enough to find my own style. I like using the straight line bit, but I also figured out how to use some of the other bits. I like to add some shadowing to the wood burning designs I create so the flat tool bits help me add dimension to my pieces.

Here's a good example of one of my wood burnings that has lots of shadowing...

And finally...these are my favorites!! All of these Woodland Animal Wood Burnings have been sold but I will gladly recreate any one of them for you...

I hope you enjoyed these simple wood burned designs. I love creating them! More sharing to come soon...until then,

Sharing My 'Sunshine' Art

Summer is here and the sunshine is fantastic! Sunny days have inspired me to share some of my artwork that features the warm beautiful sun...my sunshine art!

Here are a few of my creations that celebrate summer...

This first creation is actually a mixed media type of collage. I began by painting the sky in a bright blue as well as the water at the bottom of the painting. Next the house, sun, clouds, tree and flowers are all pieces of paper I cut from a worn out old geography book I bought at a local flea market. Once I arranged and adhered the papers in my inspired design I painted everything with acrylic paints. I chose to paint the house pink because when we vacation at the beach in North Carolina I see lots of houses painted in this vibrant color. These little pink houses always make me feel happy and summery! I have yet to add this painting to my website, but I hope to get to that soon. I also plan to offer prints of this design.

The next creation I am shaing is one of my favorites...it's my 'Sailing at Sunrise' foot stool. I have this item displayed on my website as Beach or Cottage Décor since it is actually a piece of home décor. The top of this little stool is wood burned then painted with a wash of acrylic paint. I currently have it displayed for sale in a local gallery. I've gotten lots of positive feedback on this item at art festivals. There's a huge part of our local population that loves the beach so this design resonates with many. I also offer prints of the design--only the top of the footstool so if you like the artwork but would rather have something to hang on your wall you can do so with this little beauty!

And finally, I like to call this little painting 'Sundance' but my official name for it as it is displayed on my website is 'Purple Daisy Painting'. I painted this sweet 8"x8" darling a few years ago and had it displayed for sale in a local gallery. I am happy to report it was sold a few months ago. Although the original is gone I still have prints of this painting available on my website. Yay!

As I share a few pieces of my sunshine filled art the skies are gray and the rain is falling. But looking at these paintings helps me to be grateful that this is the sunshine season and the nasty, cold winter weather is long gone! I hope I've been able to spread a little sunshine into your day!

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!

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,

I don't share this area of my work life often...

I don't share my portrait work on my blog much. I don't know why...I guess it's because this area of my artwork world is the oldest part of my business and I sort of fried myself on it a few years back.

Prior to the housing market decline I was overwhelmingly busy creating house portraits. I sold my renderings to realtors as closing gifts for their clients and to a handful of mortgage companies as well. And then of course my largest customer base was the average everyday customer who was either buying their dream home or selling the home in which they lived for many years and raised their family.

I still get a large number of house portrait orders during the holiday season. And in the spring and summer some of my devoted realtor customers still use my services since that's their busy season. But overall that area of my business has slowed a bit. But I'm okay with that...as I said doing so many house portraits over the years really did become overwhelming and I lost my appeal for that genre of my work life.

Well...that is until recently. A month or two back I got an order for something unusual...not a house portrait but for a vintage popcorn cart. This was something unique and out of the ordinary and it sparked my love of creating portraits again. Here's how it turned out:

Here's the photo of the actual wagon...I love it! I love anything vintage and this wagon was obviously well cared for over the years.

The customer informed me that she and her husband sold popcorn from this darling old fashioned cart at a variety of fairs and festivals during the summer months. They plan to have the drawing I created reproduced into their marketing materials, such as business cards, flyers and letter head. A very interesting idea. I hope to get a chance to see how it works out for them.

So even though my portrait work has been slow I'm hoping it picks up a bit with the warmer weather on the way. That coupled with the positive news that the housing market is improving will (fingers crossed) bring more orders my way!

Okay...now I have to get busy wrapping up orders to be shipped. More fun to come soon...until then,

Breathing Life Back Into My Blog!

Goodness! Have I been lost in my own little world or what?!?! I'm sorry to say that I can't blame my lack of posts on being overwhelmingly busy filling orders. Oh, sure, I always have orders to process, but as of late they are trickling in since the holiday season passed. But that's okay...I'm very grateful that my little business is still moving along and not dead in the water.

However, since it's been calm and quiet regarding orders most of my attention has been directed toward getting my home life together...something that was a big necessity! We recently bought a new dishwasher and a washer and dryer. Next on our list is a new refrigerator. I never thought I'd be so excited over new appliances, but most of them were getting really old and worn out.

Along with the new appliances my husband relocated his office space right after the new year so that took my time and attention, too. But that's how life is...change...change...change, right? There's always something! Needless to say, the result of my redirected focus has left me with a very neglected blog.

But I am getting myself back in the game now and I plan to keep my nose to the grindstone regarding my business. I love to create and share things on my blog and I plan to get posts out on a much more regular basis. Fingers crossed that I can keep my word!

Meanwhile, I've decided to share a painting I created a few years ago that reminds me of someone 'living in their own little world'! I call this little story book house painting 'Curly's House'...



Okay...on my way to do some laundry in my new washer and dryer! Woohoo! More sharing to come soon...until then,

Wearable Art Jewelry and Pendants

October is always a slow month for me so the last week or so I've been spending time making wearable art pendants. Creating things that are outide of my normal work--i.e. the items I sell from Creative Name Signs and Images of Home--is fun for me because I can just let myself go and see what my imagination comes up with.

My art pendants are made of a variety of craft supplies most of which I have sitting around my art room. Some pendants are made of wood scraps that I have leftover from my name signs. Sometimes I use a small piece of wood or a small glass tile that I purchase at my local craft store. Using a heavy glue and sealant I incorporate a print of my artwork onto a pendant. Another way I make my art pendants is to use my wood burning tool where I burn a design into a small piece of wood. It really all depends on what mood I'm in on any particular day.

This is my favorite wooden pendant necklace...

Then I made this one (not listed anywhere yet) which is somewhat personalized for me. The background of the pendant was taken from a print of my painting that I call "Colorful Spirals". The three tiny hearts represent each one of my children...

Since my art pendants are new and not anything I've sold as of yet I decided to try out this new website called Fiverr.com. I found it a few months ago and finally had the time last week to really delve into it and see what I can do. I listed a few of my pendants there as well as a few holiday ornaments that I painted. It is pretty fun and I've had some inquiries already.

Here's a link to my listings...Jane Loedding Art on Fiverr.com.

I'd love it if you'd take some time to check out my work. And if you see something you like...then what the heck...it's only $5.00!!

Okay...it's getting late in the morning and I need to shower. I know very soon my son will be calling for me to go pick him up from his fiend's house. More fun to come...until then,

My 'Sugar Skull' Art

I just learned how out of it I am. Up until about a week or so ago I had never heard the term 'sugar skull'. I had the TV on for background noise...as usual. I overheard the term sugar skull and I wondered what it was. The term floated around in my brain for a few days and finally I decided to look it up. This is what I learned:

"The Sugar Skull is one of the main symbols or images seen during the Day of the Dead festivities and represents the past ancestors of Mexico. The reason they are called "sugar skulls" is because the authentic sugar skulls were made out of clay molded sugar."

Then I went on to do a search for images of sugar skulls. I was fascinated with how colorful, ornate and pretty they were. I love to paint with color and last night I sat down to paint my first sugar skull...

The realization of how out of it I really am materialized when I showed the painting to my daughter and husband. They both already knew what a sugar skull was. My daughter rolled her eyes and informed me that she learned all about this stuff in school in Spanish class. DUH! Apparently I've been hiding under a rock for far too long! Oh well, I'll have to get over it!

Meanwhile, I had a great time painting it and I hope to be able to paint more!

Okay...got more orders to fulfill so I'd better get off this computer and get to work!

More sharing to come soon...until then,

Invitations for Birthdays

Right now I am enjoying a much needed family vacation at the beach in North Carolina. My family comes down here every year and because my kids are still in high school...well my oldest just graduated...we have to take our yearly vacations during the summer months. For some reason it always works out that our vacation week coincides with my youngest son's birthday. We've celebrated a number of his birthdays down here and sometimes I feel bad. I often think that we should pick a different week for vacation so we can throw him a nice party at home with a bunch of his friends. But other times I figure he has nothing to complain about. I'd love it if I could spend my birthdays at the ocean!

So every year I promise him that one of these summers he'll be able to have a big birthday bash at home. (I really hope I can keep that promise!)

This summer we waited until the last minute to make our vacation plans which gave me some time to at least consider a party at home for him. I came across a website that sold a large variety of party invitations and fortunately they offer beautiful invitations for birthdays. Being that I do a large volume of printing on my own home computer I could easily print some of my own. But heck...it seems so much more fun to buy them!

They offer so many different types of invitations at Invitation Box that I was a bit overwhelmed when making my decision. After my initial searching I narrowed it down and considered my son and how he likes to spend his time. He plays a variety of sports with baseball being his favorite so I searched for a sports theme invitation. He's turning 14 and since some of the styles were for much younger boys I decided to also look into the adult themed invitations, too. Luckily I found a nice variety that suited my son's tastes.

Meanwhile, as I continued on through the website I remembered that next year my husband will be celebrating his 50th birthday. Hmmmm...I definitely have to keep this website in mind! I've never had a big bash for him and I know I could find something that would work for him.

So even though we had to celebrate my son's big day down here at the beach and we didn't have a party at home I'll definitely keep InvitationBox.com invitations for birthdays in mind for my husband's up coming big day.

Okay...I'm off to relax a bit more at the beach! I'll have more interesting things to share with you soon...until then,

My daughter's talent

Everyone thinks their kids are great and, of course, all three of my kids are the best!

But this morning I'm driven to share my daughter's talent. Elena has a beautiful singing voice plus she loves to act and take part in the school plays. But she also has incredible skills at drawing and painting...and the kicker is she doesn't even work at it! She just picks up a pen and paper and creates something beautiful!

I came out to my desk this morning and noticed a drawing she doodled on a small note pad. She used a marker that was about out of ink and to most people a marker like that is considered junk. But she used it anyway and I believe it worked to her advantage because of the soft style. This is what she came up with...

I just can't get over how good it is! Most artists know that drawing or painting the human eye is very difficult but she makes it look effortless!

Okay...enough bragging! I better get moving...I still have to shower and get my daughter up so she can get ready for work.

More fun to come...until then,

The Garden Gates - Bella Notte Linens & Bedding

My oldest son is heading off to college in about a month so I've been doing a bit of online shopping to gather all of his bedding needs along with the rest of his dorm room necessities.

I love to shop and buy things for my home and as I was surfing the web for my son I couldn't help but take a few detours and do a bit of online window shopping for myself. Along the way I found a gorgeous website called The Garden Gates that offers a large variety of luxurious home and garden decor items.

Since I was already looking for bedding I thought I'd take a look at the beautiful custom made Bella Notte Linens that are sold through their website.

Talk about gorgeous! All I kept thinking was, "Wow! Maybe someday I can get these gorgeous and luxurious bed sheets, pillow shams, window curtains and more for my bedroom!" They have 28 fabric choices in 17 different colors and each piece of bedding is made to order so you make all the decisions about how your bedding will look from start to finish. Use your imagination and create your own unique and one-of-a-kind bedding set.

And I have to mention that even though the luxurious fabrics that are used in creating each piece are linen, satin and velvet they are all machine washable. So you don't have to worry about any dry cleaning. Another huge plus for me!

Located in Louisiana the Garden Gates is a brick and mortar store that is open 7 days a week. If you're fortunate enough to live in the area you can see for yourself all the beautiful home and garden decor they offer. But if you live too far away as I do, don't fret! You can shop 24 hours a day on their website and drool over all of the stunning home decor items. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that they also offer free shipping!

If you're anything like me and you love to shop for your home then you simply must take a look at this stunning website! It's beautiful!

Now I have to get back to shopping for my son and his dorm room! Not nearly as much fun but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Okay, I'll have more to share soon...until then,

Howdy!

Wow! I've been out of the loop for a while now! So much has gone on during the past month and the time has comppletely gotten away from me. Needless to say my blogging habits have gone by the wayside. My oldest son graduated, then we had a handful of graduation parties to attend. Two weeks after his graduation we had his party which took lots of time and attention away from my so-called 'normal' life. Now it's almost the Fourth of July! Summer is flying by.

Meanwhile I thought I'd share a few photos of some of my recent work. I finally got around to setting up a Facebook page dedicated to my Creative Name Signs website. The first day of networking I got an order for a personalized plaque with this quote...

"Life is too short to wear department store jewelry."

My customer was very flexible with her color scheme choice and basically let me choose how to create the sign. I really enjoyed creating it...here's a photo:

Then I created this child room sign for another customer...this one--as you can guess--was for a little girl...

I love how the unicorn turned out. I thought using purple for the background added so much to the theme.

And my last sharing for today...I created this nursery room sign for an expectant mom of a baby boy...

I always love creating nautical theme plaques. I blame that on my love of the beach!

Okay...I've shared enough today. I have a book review to post and I hope to get to that in the next few days.

Until then...enjoy these wonderful days of summer! And Happy Fourth of July!

Quote and some catching up to do

I've been super busy the past few weeks. My kids finished up the school year and my oldest son has officially graduated from high school! Wow! The years have simply flown by.

He has done so well and is now hoping to get a summer job so he can save for when he goes away to college at the end of August. I'll miss him so much, but I know he's ready to sprout his wings and get to flying on his own. He's a fantastic person and I know he'll be successful no matter what direction he takes in life.

Meanwhile in trying to play catch up with my work world I found this wonderful quote in my Daily Guru emails:

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his
pictures."-- Henry Ward Beecher

Loving that thought this morning!

Here's a photo of  a wood burning that I created a few weeks ago. I certainly dipped my woodburning brush that day...

As you can guess I've been pining away for a trip to the ocean!

More fun and sharing on the way soon...until then,

Illustration Friday - "Faded"

Today's topic for Illustration Friday is 'Faded'.

Here's my contribution...

"As mom's memory faded I discovered a craziness in my own mind."

This is a photo of a wood burning I created a few years ago right after my mom was diagnosed with 'mild cognitive impairment'...the doctor's polite way of saying, "Your mom has dementia."

I was completely overwhelmed with how I would handle every aspect of her decline. If you look closely there are two sets of eyes--one set my mom's, the other set mine. If you have ever loved someone with this horrible disease you notice how their eyes change. As their mind goes the eyes become vacant...faded. You wonder where your loved one has gone. It's simply horrible and I am forever changed because of it.

More to come soon...until then,



Illustration Friday - 'Sight'

The topic for today's 'Illustration Friday' is 'Sight'.

Here's my contribution...

"She sees the world through rose colored glasses and it drives everyone nuts!"

More fun to come...until then,

The Ribbon Retreat Blog

I recently discovered a fun and whimsical crafting blog and as I scrolled through their many projects I got very excited and immediately thought that I have to share this site with my readers. Over at The Ribbon Retreat Blog they offer tons of tutorials which include detailed instructions on how to make a variety of items using ribbons, fabrics and many other crafting supplies and tools.

I was simply delighted by many of the project ideas they share and the fact that they list step-by-step written instructions along with photos instantly enraptured my crafty soul. Most of the tutorials are, as I just described, shown with photos and written instructions. But they also have video tutorials as well one of which features a card making kit . What a clever idea! And the tutorial narrator was so happy and her happiness was contagious!
 
They share in a few simple steps how to make some really fun items like ribbon flip flops, hair bows for little girls and babies, car seat belt covers, aprons and so much more! They even had a tutorial on how to make a ribbon organizer. Here's my ribbon stash:

Do you think maybe--just maybe--I should make one for myself??? I'm thinking "Yes!"

Okay, I'm rambling here...let me get back to these awesome crafting tutorials!

One thing I thought I'd better warn you about is that some of the projects include the use of a sewing machine. Now to some of you that's not a big deal, but to someone like me it is. Sure, I can sew on a button, patches and maybe try to hem some pants. But using a sewing machine is another story. I have--or should say 'had'--a sewing machine a few years ago. I tried to use it and just couldn't figure it out. Darn!! Then I lent it to my niece to use for a school project. Then she gave it to my mom and eventually it ended up at my sister's house. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've considered learning to sew, but time never seems to be on my side. Maybe someday.

Thankfully The Ribbon Retreat Blog has many tutorials that do not require the use of a sewing machine so I can still give many of the projects a try. If you are a crafty person and you like to try your hand at fun and whimsical craft projects then this is exactly the place to go!

More fun to come...until then,