Good Morning Sunshine! Upcycled Mixed Media Collage

I have been swamped with my day job and my little ones so I have had ZERO time to create anything for about the past five to six months.  A sweet co-worker of my totally deserved a special piece of art to show her how much I appreciate her efforts with coordinating various aspects of my business.  I am a total thrifter so I have taken a new approach to my art which I am super excited about.  It's really fun to see how my work has evolved over time.  Upcycling precious vintage treasures is such a fun and environmentally responsible way to create!  I started with a vintage metal ivy tray to use as the foundation.  The silver portion of the flowers are mini vintage tart molds.  The cardboard letters are from two 1950's Scrabble games.  Aren't they just such colorful and darling little tiles? I am thrilled with the way this one turned out and she was too!

My first Sister/Brother custom canvas!

I was hired to create a special Sister/Brother canvas for someone.  Her daughter is five and her son is two and she gave me this quote to use.  A lot of the little details I added were things that she shared about their likes, nicknames etc.  It was really fun to do something new but the boy hair was definitely challenging for me.  I do this as a hobby and I don't consider myself a professional artist.  I have never taken a class (maybe I should!) but she was beyond thrilled with the final product!!

Self-acceptance frees you from being a beautiful flower stuck amongst the weeds

Wow, this quote is so amazingly powerful and it is one you can really stop and think a lot about. I have so many favorite quotes that it's so tough to decide which ones to use each time I create a new canvas.  I tried a different font, and it's honestly not my favorite for this canvas but I love how the flowers turned out.

Sunshine!

I wanted to do something with this cute piece of wood that I have had lying around.  I have been taking all of the pictures of my art with my iphone so the quality isn't that great.  It's so much more vibrant in person and I just LOVE it. I brought it to my office and hung it next to my desk.  It definitley brightens up the space and is a great reminder to have close by.

Summer Swim Team!

My two girls' summer swim team season just wrapped up and I wanted to create a fun canvas for their head swim team coach.  We have a community pool in our neighborhood so the head coach is also a neighbor. She is so amazing and spoken words wouldn't have been able to express my gratitude for all she has done.  I was really excited once I put the finishing touches on this canvas and couldn't wait to give it to her.  Our team name is the "Monarchs" which is why I made sure to include some butterflies.  My girls and I gave it to her after the awards banquet and she seemed to really like it.

Happiness comes from within

I wanted to branch out and create some new flowers and am excited with the way this turned out!

A collage inspired by Emily Dickinson

Teacher gift!

A gift for my daughter's third grade teacher.  I added some yellow dots to this but I guess I forgot to take a picture before I sent it off.

Happy Summer!

A tribute to all of you strong ladies out there

This canvas is simple and comforting.  The end.

5th grade graduation gift!

My daughter just graduated from 5th grade and got "promoted" to middle school.  I cannot believe this year is over and my baby is no longer in elementary school.  I made this 12x12 canvas as a thank you for her 5th grade teacher.  I have been trying to branch out and not use my favorite paint colors for ALL of my canvases.  Turns out she loves these colors so it worked out great!

Do the best you can...

This is one of my all-time favorite quotes.  I have been meaning to pull a canvas together to use this quote for some time.  A few weeks ago, Maya Angelou passed away and I knew I should get it done sooner than later.  This is a small canvas and I tried something new.  Pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Blooming with thanks!

My toddler goes to a wonderful Montessori school and the office staff is awesome.  I wanted to give the principal and the office manager a canvas to thank them for a great school year.   This is an 8x8 canvas and is a lot more colorful in person.

This is a canvas sponsored by the letter "F"

My FABULOUS FRIEND turned FORTY.  So, I made this for her and now this canvas is my all-time FAVORITE!

I could have added more to this and I still might...I feel like some yellow or blue raised circles might look nice on the bottom left to balance out the pink ones on the right. I added the blue dots and I love how it made everything POP.

I was excited I found some sheet music that said "forty years" for her face.  Also. I cut out the definition of "forty" from an old dictionary so it's one of the buntings at the top.  I love this so much.  I need to learn how to do hair, it's so hard to do when people have highlights!

I hope you enjoy!

One of my all time favorite canvases and a very TRUE quote!

Rise to your example

Not a lot of time to put a lot of information on this canvas but wanted to get it up.  I love the quote!

12 x 12 canvas for a sweet girl

My niece turned 13 and we needed to make a special gift to commemorate her birthday.  I made her a canvas to match the invitations for her party...Here is what I came up with.

"Call me maybe" 12 x 12 phone canvas

I made this canvas as a gift for my manager.  It is a 12 x 12 canvas and is dedicated to the fact that my current role is dependent upon being on the phones with clients a lot of my work day. I love the vintage /"girl Friday" feel to it.  Most of the products that I used is from a discontinued line from, "October Afternoon" and I fell in LOVE with it.  I bought as much as I could when I decided that I wanted to a phone inspired collage.  I hope you like it!!

Preschool Pinwheels!

My little man just transitioned from one classroom to another at his preschool. I really love his teachers because...well, they really love him.  I wanted to create something special to let them know how much I appreciated the way they cared for and truly loved my son.  I came up with these fun pinwheels on a 12 x 12 canvas.  I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  However, I kind of went crazy with the canceled stamps underneath the paint and I think I will go a little lighter on my future creations.  I think part of the fun of collage is to have all of those unique elements of surprise. On the other hand, sometimes they can make the end-product look a little busier than I would have preferred.

Once again, I used my favorite paint, "spa blue".  I just can't get away from it.  I really do try and experiment with other colors but I never end up liking the way they turn out as much as I do the ones I create using, "spa blue".  And, in all honesty, who really cares?  If I am making them for different people, it's unique to them, right?  :)

Flowers for a dear, sweet friend!

I created a 12 x 12 canvas for one of my dear friends who also happens to be a co-worker. We met about two and a half years ago when I moved into a different position within my company.  We have one of those friendships where we almost can finish each other's sentences. We are each other's go-to girl whenever we need to get something off our chest's.  I have a lot of great friends of course but there is something different about this friendship.

Sometimes we just need to have the kind of chat, where we just are there to listen to the other without giving advice.  And, of course, like any good friend would (or would not) do, we never judge the other.  I wanted to make her a special canvas to let her know just how much I love her to pieces. I started looking for a quote on friendship and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this one. It was perfect.  This has to be one of my all-time favorite canvases to date.  I hope you like it too!!