Artist Renee Mak

Last night as the sun set and the chill got chillier, 30 women came out and created one of a kind glass pendant necklaces! Class samples by Renee Mak The class was offered as part of the West Des Moines Community Ed program. Vintage photos were provided but many students brought their own photos to use! I also brought along some vintage comic books! And some even cut up and used words or graphics from my business card! Each table had samples and written instructions . . . and while some students jumped right in, others had a hard time deciding what picture to choose! Lots of fun chit chat filled the room . . . and many creative ideas where shared! Artists made one or several fabulous pendants that I hope to see around town!  Thanks everyone for coming out and having a great time with me! Feel free to post pictures of your finished creations on the Fuss It Up! facebook wall ,  "Like" us if you haven't already and...

Happy first day of February... my birthday month! I promise to party all month long... I always do! But today, here is a peak inside my sketchbook  I finished for the Sketchbook Project! Inspiration doodles I chose the "Hope" category and so, of course, my sketchbook is all about hope and what it is to me. I also wanted to inspire people to have hope with color  and evoke a "light heartedness" with whimsical doodles! Getting started! I used some of my favorite original designs and some of  my favorite colors and just doodled my heart away! "What is Hope" page I love how the black doodle lines POP on the brightly colored pages! Hope grows! I will definitely be using some of these as doodle pages for  future projects! Hope village! I'll be sharing this sketchbook more in the future too! Cover art Have a hope filled day everyone! <3

What an amazing and fun workshop! Finished Piece Here is my finished piece from week four of Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista. Flower detail From start to finish this workshop was so much fun  and I learned new techniques that I'll use often. Collaged doodle detail Like adding doodles with gel medium and then painting over them. Marker word detail And using transparent markers for a "watermark" effect... see the word create above in blue? Fluorescent doodle detail Using fluorescent paint and markers was also new to me... but I really like how bright it made things! Flower detail This detailed shot of a flower is from the lower right hand  corner of the finished piece... I love how all the different layers show thru, don't you! Face close up Overall I have to say that taking this workshop was the best way  to begin my new year!   Traci's techniques and teaching style has both taught and inspired me in...

Here's what's inspiring me today! Colorful pieces...  Doodle pages ... Unopened supplies and almost finished projects... Heart cut-outs...  Journal page and stencils ...  Brushes... Flowers and free ~form stitches! What's inspiring you today? xoxo

Here's to my second week with Paint Party Friday !    This week I've been working on several things all at once! The most fun has been painting the assignment for week four of the free Strathmore Workshop I've been taking... I'm not quite done with it but will walk you through a quick step-by-step lesson of what I have so far...(just in case you still  haven't signed up yourself or don't have time)! The very first step is just doodling on your surface, anything at all!  I wrote about the color BLUE because I knew this piece was going to have a blue background and because I love it so much! Several layers of acrylic paint have been applied using  paint, stamps and stencils... My stencil is a recycled plastic doily and one of my stamps is the back of a Starbucks coffee sleeve! I added white for variation. After the blues dried, I stamped my piece with fluorescent  pink and orange paint using an old med...

Doodles~ Week Three! Part One... Part one of Stylized Faces was to create a colorful mixed media background. The lesson started by taking a blank piece of Strathmore Series 400 Mixed Media Paper and markers and writing a few words on the page.  It could be anything... and won't really show in the end. I wrote CREATE  LIVE  LOVE.  Then several other marks  with markers was added. After that I added paint with a brush over the entire surface, using several similar colors.  Paint and glazing gel was used to  color over the words without entirely blocking them out. Everyday items, like bubble wrap, a medicine bottle and a plastic lid where then used to stamp a complimentary color onto the painting. I also used the back of a Starbucks coffee sleeve and a handmade flower stamp to add interest and layers. This process continued until I added several more layers and felt the piece was ready for step two... a styli...