Creative Jumpstart 2021

Creative Jumpstart 2021
Join me for the 10th Anniversary of CJS2021

Friday, September 30

What I did on my Summer Vacation #1

I did a lot of flower and vegetable gardening. At first things weren't going so well,  but after a while the tables turned and everything started producing. I was able to make lots of tomato sauce, salsa, V8 juice for my kiddo and some yummy pickles. You can see some of my pretty flower gardens in a previous post, look for it here.
One of my favorite things to do with fresh tomato sauce is to make it quite juicy with lots of juicy fresh tomatoes and bring it to a boil. When it's boiling -- drop the temp on the burner down to medium or so and drop some eggs in the yummy sauce. When the eggs are done sprinkle fresh chopped cilantro on top for a delicious topping -- and enjoy!!
I also made my way down to NYC at the end of the summer for a couple of day long meetings at EK Success. My room mate and a couple other friends and I made the short trek into the city to go to Magnolia Bakery. It was fun -- even if it was raining and I stepped in a pot hole -- thankfully I could walk back to the train station!
My boy played the drums with the Merrymeeting Community Band for the entire summer and ended a great learning and fun experience with a parade in a local town. While we were waiting for the parade to start we took a few moments to walk around to enjoy some of the vendors selling their wares. I really loved this display of Chinese Lanterns. You can see a cool display my friend Tara made with her Chinese Lanterns here.
We also went to the beach -- though not as many times as we wanted. At least we made it! This particular day was a little  breezy and overcast so we just enjoyed the sand and stayed out of the water.

Thanks for stopping by -- I'd love to know what fun things did you do over the summer that took you away from blogging and the internet?

Thursday, September 29

Mixed Media Workshop Two


If I haven't convinced you to sign up for this fun class over at My Creative Classroom yet -- maybe this will send you over the edge, LOL! This is a sneak peak (yes -- the project this week is much bigger than this) from the project for week two -- each week you will also find a fun art journal presentation, handouts, some images, a high quality presentation and more!

This class is jam packed with 5 weeks of great information you don't want to miss. Enrollment will be open for another few days!

Hope to see you there, thanks for stopping by -- enjoy your weekend!

I love Gesso

I was editing some photos for my class this week and this one kept jumping out at me.....I love the perspective, color and light.


However, I don't love that the jar is almost empty now that the project is complete and I need to order a new one! Have a great day -- it's almost Friday -- thanks for stopping by. I'm hoping for a headache free day today!

Wednesday, September 28

Mixed Media Workshop Two



It's not too late to sign up for this course!! It's a 5 week course over at My Creative Classroom -- you can find the details on it here. See all the courses I'm teaching this semester here!

Thanks for stopping by....enjoy the rest of your day!


Hobby Lobby Magazine

Before I borage you with photos and things from my summer away from blogging I thought I'd share some happy mail I got yesterday -- thanks Shane ;-)

I don't have a Hobby Lobby near me -- but recently -- well last spring -- I designed some projects for a magazine they have for sale in their store. It's funny how far ahead designers have to work to get print advertising projects completed. It seems normal to me now since I've been working in this industry for so long -- but my friends and family will say -- what -- you are working on Christmas and it's only Memorial Day?? They just don't get it. Maybe that's one of the reasons I feel out of sync...well, that's another blog post..but anyway.

I was happy to get this little tidbit in the mail from my pal Shane Hershey EK Success yesterday. He's so funny, we have the same weird sense of humor! ha ha. At first I didn't know why they sent it.....I thought maybe they were treating us to a magazine subscription to make sure we were up on the latest trends......



......and then I started flipping through the pages and came to this two page spread!

and saw this. I had so much fun making these package decorations, cards and banner. The packages were definitely a lot of fun! Made from scraps of papers and fun trendy embellishments.


And then I remembered I had made some Thanksgiving projects too....and flipped through some more pages and found these fun place settings and napkin rings. Fun fact about me -- I'm a lefty and always flip through magazines from the back to the front. I like that the title is Home is Where the Heart is -- though maybe it should be Art from the Heart, ha ha!

Well, that's it for today. I've got to get to work on my latest new class at My Creative Classroom -- Mixed Media Workshop Two. It started last week but you have some time to sign up if you want. Thanks for stopping by -- have an artful day!

Monday, September 12

Making some changes...

I'll be making some changes to my blog in the next week or so - and then I'll be back with regular posts!