Tuesday's List of Favorite Art Supplies

Are you surprised? I'm writing 2 days in a row so far! Been a busy day. I bought the Caran d'Ache oil pastels I've been wanting. I went with the 12 pack and bought 2 other colors that I love. I can't wait to play with them! 

So here are today's supplies:

These are my favorite! You can see me using these often in my art and in my art videos. Those with the wooden stick handle are called Catalyst Blades. They come in 6 different blades, and in 3 sizes. They come in sizes 15mm, 30mm, and 50mm. I use 15mm and 30mm. The other items are called Catalyst Wedges. The come with 3 different shapes. You can buy them at Hobby Lobby, Dick Blick, and Amazon. I use them a lot for creating texture. It's fun to apply and scrape off paint with all of them!

These are cheap and easy to find tools. I hoard old gift cards. If I lose one, I won't be sad! :)  I use them to apply paint. The others are palette knives. The palette knife in the middles is perfect for scraping on paint or applying modeling paste. The palette knife on the right is what I like for applying collage papers with matte gel.

Last on the list for today is the glues and adhesives I use. Decoupage is a wonderful matte glue. I apply it with an older abused brush. It's perfect for collage on canvas. Collage Pauge (in the middle) is awesome because it pours/squirts out the top. It's perfect for traveling and making art on the go. I took it camping with me last fall. The jar on the right is matte gel. I use it to apply with my palette knife. It's great for working out the globs of glue when collaging.

That's all for today. I'd love to hear what your favorite art supplies are! Check back tomorrow for more supplies!

My Favorite Supplies Week

I'm trying to work on writing more often. It's something that I really use to do in other ways and all the sudden it's like I fell off the face of the planet. 

I am done homeschooling until the end of summer! Feels good to take a break and have more time and energy for making art and taking care of everything else. My first year of homeschooling went well. It was tough at first. After my boys understood my expectations and I found better ways of working with them, things got much better. 

I thought this week I would tell you a little about my favorite supplies. Every day this week I will write about a small selection of my go to tools.

These are my favorite pencils! I usually sketch with my HB Staedtler pencil or my Prismacolor Ebony pencil. I use a black Prismacolor colored pencil to outline my girls' faces and clothes. I also it to outline other things in my art. I use a medium charcoal pencil from Prismacolor for shading on my girls faces. The General's Sketch & Wash pencil for shading around quotes on washi tape.

My favorite black pen in the world is the Permaball black pen. I order mine from Scarletlime.com. The Signo Uniball white pen is the best white gel pen I've tried yet. Sharpie has pens made with water-based paint. They are my favorte. I'm not a fan of those made with oil. The sharpie posterpaint pens are great in my art journal. The Liquitex paint marker was a trial I got for free. I love it to make bands of color with the chisel nib and then write words on the lines created.

Caran d'ACHE makes the best water soluble crayons that I've tried. I've used them mostly for marks, scribbles and doodles in my art. The 7 shown are my favorite for that use. They are Payne's Grey, Prussian Blue, Lilac, Indigo Blue, Malachite Green, Toledo Brown and Greyish Black. I've also created some beautiful art in my journal with just the crayons. Sometimes I use them for shading or adding color to my girls' faces. Their possibilities are endless!

Portfolio makes some really creamy, delicious, water soluble oil pastels! I love to add these to make marks, scribbles, or doodles on my art too. They are great for art journaling too! These are my go to colors! Pink, white, yellow, slate grey, light blue, and black. You can buy them in packs of 12 or 24. They can be easily found on Amazon, as Michael's and Hobby Lobby don't carry them. Blick does carry them too.

Lastly, I'm sharing my favorite oil pastels. I use them like the other pastels, but I also use them for my girl's faces. My favorite Cray-Pas colors are pink, light blue and dark blue. I think I only have the 25 pack of those. Gallery has some awesome fluorescent oil pastels. I love the hot pinks, neon red, purple and teal-ish color. My new favorite is Caran d'ACHE! I only have a couple of color so far, but I'm hoping to get more for my birthday. The blend so beautifully, without lifting in color. 

Well, that's all for today. I'd love to hear about your favorite supplies! Check back the next 4 days for more of my favorite supplies!

Upcoming Online Class

Keeping busy! I've been recording videos for an upcoming class. This is super exciting! I've been wanting to do this for a very long time. I hope to post more information soon. So far I have a few tutorial videos done, as well as ideas to get your creativity flowing. Keep checking back for more information! I hope you will join me on this journey!

http://dhawkes77.wix.com/danielladaydreams

https://www.facebook.com/danielladaydreams

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DaniellaDaydreams?ref=si_shop

The Past Two Weeks

Well, I am finally a stay home mom.  I quit work last Friday.  It still isn't quite sinking in.  Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with my blog, youtube, and facebook pages A LOT more!  Leaving work was kind of sad.  I worked there for 13 years.  I will still stop in and visit everyone there once in awhile.  On my last week, I received some great gifts.  One of my coworkers made me this sweet goodbye present.  I wanted to play with it at my desk all day. 

I said many goodbyes and cried several times.  After I got off of work, my husband surprised me!  He told me he was out of town all day.  I believed him.  He showed up at the end of my last work day, with flowers, a charm for my bracelet, and told me he was taking me out for lunch.  He took the whole day off to spend time with me.  He wanted to make my day more memorable and help through the sad parts.  He's amazing!  Here is a small collage of things from that day...

The weekend prior to quiting work, I had my first craft show.  The week before was a busy trying to get ready for it!

My business card holder!

 My banner!

I had a 6x6 area to set up.  I didn't get it set up how I wanted to.  I had more displays to use, but it would have been too cramped.  

It was really slow, but I did make some sales.  This is my Usher pose, trying to lure people in.

I tried to keep low expectations so I wouldn't get discouraged.  I am happy with how it went!  I got a little experience under my belt, met some new people, made a little more money than expected, and had lots of laughs with my hubby.  :)  I have another craft show next month.  It should be a bigger turn out.  We will see how that one goes.  

That's all for now!  I hope to blog again soon.

She Matters

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  Things sure have been busy!  :)  I've created lots of art lately.  I've loved taking a workshop from Mindy Murphy Lacefield from http://timssally.ning.com/.  I highly recommend any of her workshops.  She really helped me connect to my inner child.  So much fun!!!

So back in mid December I created this painting.

I listed it on Etsy last Sunday and it sold this week!  Here is the story that the buyer included with her purchase:  This piece has really inspired me this week. I am an urban elementary school principal and after 14 years of practice I am faced with a new challenge. One of my sixth graders (12 years old) has recently found out she is pregnant. This piece will hang in my office as a reminder that I am committed to helping this young person discover her passions, receive a world class education and prepare for her life ahead. Thank you for creating this piece, as it brings a visual reminder to the essence of my work.

Her story really touched me.  Such a sad story and a tough situation.  If only there were more principals out there like this!  I've been praying for everyone involved in that situation.  I hope you'll join me in praying!  

I'm so thankful she shared her story with me.  It's encouraging to hear how something I create really helps someone.  When I created "She Matters", I was remembering the struggles I had with my self image and I reflected on where I am now.  God has shown me that I do matter, that I am special to Him.  Just before Christmas, this is what I journaled:  "So  after I made this painting, God gave me the idea to create girl paintings with positive messages.  It reminds me of the art journaling class I want to teach, called "His Esteem".  "His Esteem" can also be the name of this art series.  God has shown me that He loves me and that I matter.  I want others to experience God's esteem for themselves.  Now to come up with sayings to have ready!"

It is so important to me to help others, in regards to how they view themselves, and for them to see how God sees them.  Our self image really plays a big role in our lives.  It impacts how we live and the decisions we make.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope to post more very soon with some of my latest artings!

Art Happenings The Past 2 Weeks

I started a workshop called The Art of Wild Abandonment last week.  I took a break from the projects in the workshop because I wanted to create a journal page of a girl with her heart on her sleeve.  I've had the words "living out loud" running through my mind.  Life is about living out loud.  When I think about living out loud, I don't mean become a loud person.  To me living out loud means sharing my life, sharing the things I'm going through or I've gone through, live authentically, and not hide who I really am.  Everyone has struggles.  If we share our struggles and be real about what is really going on in our lives, we can help each other through...we can encourage each other.  God didn't want us to go through our struggles on our own...that's why He puts people in our lives.  I think sometimes we worry about being judged by others and so we put on a mask.  There is a Scripture I'm trying to find...it's about going through things and helping others through their struggles.  I found it!  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says:  "God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.  He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.  When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

The journal page with the girl who wore her heart on her sleeve, above, has put ideas in my head of making cuff bracelets with words embroidered on hearts...words like love, compassion, forgiveness, grace, and brave.  I made a simple bracelet this weekend, but it's not finished.  It has the word "brave" embroidered on its heart.

I got back into the Wild Abondonment workshop a little.  The instructor was talking about how we can create so many things out of circles.  I thought about making a journal page with buttons into a heart shape and came up with this picture that's above.  Love does hold things together.  People who loved me and cared about me helped me through a tough time in my life.  In the end, things got better than they ever had been.  My love for God, my love for those involved in my life and those who gave me support, helped me make the right choices. 

This picture of the house is a mixed media painting I made for my dining room last week.  I've had a house fetish lately. I put little butterflies all over because it reminded me about the bushes we have in front of our house.  In September, usually there are purple that attract lots of butterflies.  My bushes are sad this year with the lack of rain.  I miss the butterflies.  There would be so many, that when I would walk up my driveway, there would be this cloud of butterflies.  It's so cool!  Hopefully the bushes will be happier next year.

So I started another workshop this week called She Had Three Hearts.  It's an art journaling workshop on the hearts we share.  I've been told several times I'm brave.  That is a part of me I didn't see, but I do understand now.  Brave is my new word that sticks out to me.

I hope you've been inspired or encouraged in some way with all my ramblings.  :)  That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by!  

Identity

People in our lives are like mirrors that we often look in.  We look to those to see who we are and how we should be treated.  Some might get a big head from all the positive images we receive, but there are those out there that put imprints on us in a negative way.  Then we take on that identity binding us to something that isn’t true. 

I grew up to believe I needed to be perfect.  I believed that I had to perfect in everyway for people to accept me.  I believed I needed to be whatever others wanted/needed me to be. I use to believe that if I messed up, I would let God down.  That is all impossible!  I use to get depressed seeing at how imperfect I really am.   I couldn't stand myself, and often felt like I was too needy, or like I was a burden to others.  Living that way caused lots of pain…emotionally and physically. 

When I was approaching my 33^rd birthday, the effects of living that way started taking a toll on me physically.  I didn’t sleep much and when I did, I didn’t sleep well.  My body started to ache…a lot and most of the time.  I would get shooting pains in my arms and legs.  Sometimes I ached like I had the flu.  My muscles in my legs, arms and back would feel stiff.  The felt like they needed to be stretched.  Lots of tests were run to figure out what was wrong.  Housework was so painful to do, but I did the best I could.  Luckily my kids helped me out some.  One doctor had me do physical therapy to treat my pain.  While I was doing physical therapy, I was really struggling to sleep more than an hour or two a night.  My doctor gave me a pill used to treat Fibromyalgia, to help me sleep.  I couldn’t believe how much better I felt physically with that medicine.  I didn’t change what I believed about myself, which more issues arose.  There were struggles in my marriage, because I tried to live up to being a perfect wife.  There were so many consequences coming at me at once.  Over time, allowing others to dictate who I was, I lost my real self.  During that time, I had a friend ask me what I needed and I didn’t have a clue. 

 

Allowing others to dictate who I was, slowing lost who I really was inside.  It was a long, painful journey trying to undo all of that, but it was worth it all.  I won’t be sharing some things on this blog, because I don’t want to hurt others and I don’t want others to judge those I love.  I do take the blame too, because I chose to live that way.

My hope in all of this is to help others.  I want you to know how special you are…God sure thinks so, and He loves you dearly.  You are unique!  My hope is for those who struggle as I did, is that you will allow God to help you change all of that.  Take some time seeking God and who He says you are.  Allowing God to tell me who I am is so freeing and I never want to go back to who I thought I was!