Soccer Moms and Angels

Crafty Blog of the Day: Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog
This has to be the most awesome blog I've ever come
across. AJ shows, through her AMAZING art,
that creativity does not come with a high cost of
supplies. She's unbelievable. You MUST go check her out
...and be sure to comment
and tell 'em Barb, the Craft Junkie sent ya!

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I am really enamored with the fabulous blog I've highlighted today. Her art is really amazing...and she does it all in el cheapo ballpoint pens. Seriously! I am totally amazed and in awe. You will be, too, I promise. Check her out and let me know what you think...If you're not amazed, I will be shocked!

As for me and my creative spirit, I have found such a good place for myself lately. I am drawing and drawing all the time...I draw and color and shade and draw some more. It is the most unbelievable feeling that it gives me.

Here are my two latest Beautiful Girls:

I call this one "Uptight Soccer Mom" since that is totally what she makes me think of when I look at her.

I mean, her lips look a little persed, her hair is just right with not a hair out of place. She's got on the preppy 3/4 length sleeves, high arch to the brows...can't ya just see her in the mini van driving 4 screaming kids to soccer practice? LOL

Anyway, that's just what she makes ME think of...what does she make you think of?

Now remember, I have never drawn a thing in my life besides stick figures...but this class, this workshop with Suzi Blu is giving me such wonderful insight and knowledge and confidence in myself and my abilities. I can trust my eyes and I can create.

I know, I'm no Rembrandt or Monet but by golly, I do have talent. I CAN do this...I am doing it, every single day, I do it.

This is my "Angel on High" which will have wings when I finish her. I love her green/gold eyes and long flowing hair. She is just a little cross-eyed but hey, that's perfectly okay...she can see just fine.

I'm just learning hair and still working on shading (all the time, I shade constantly!) and I am beginning to see my mistakes and my triumphs.

I guess one thing I'm really learning is that ART is healing. I now understand what art therapy really is all about...and it does work. I get so lost in my art that I am not panicking nor having much anxiety these days. I am still tired much of the time but not nearly as much as before beginning this adventure.

And that's exactly what this is, an adventure...a learning, growing, healing adventure.

I've also began an art journal...pages and pages of miscellaneous art and journaling that I am doing each day when I wake up. It's very freeing and helps to clear the clutter from my mind and gives me much needed peace as I use art and words to put down how I'm feeling.

I'm loving the journey these days.

I hope each of you are, too.

Until next time...Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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An Award and Creativity

I don't have as many readers here as I once did but that's okay...I write here because I enjoy it. I love sharing the things I create and writing about them...sharing the emotions behind why I create what I create. As many readers as I've lost, I do have faithful readers who've stuck with me and new readers who delight in the things I share here....

One of them is the wonderful Robyn at Robyn's Online World. In fact, she has honored me and my humble little spot here with an award. *Blushes* Her thoughtfulness and kind words make me feel so great. Thank you, Robin...I'm so glad you find creative inspiration here and I hope you'll keep coming back.

You never know what I might come up with around here...I am truly a mixed media artist...I love creating in many different medias and forms, from tshirts and wearables to painting, drawing, collages to paper crafts and sewing. I just love creating with bits and pieces of all kinds.

I just have to create; need to create...it's in my blood, it's in my soul...it is what drives me.

I often thought that I couldn't be an artist because artists have set mediums that they excel in...some are painters, some are seamstresses, writers, sketch artists, jewelers...but I couldn't be an artist, I love to create with too many things to be any good at any of them.

BUT I know better now, that's just not true.

I am an artist, I just choose to create in many different ways. I see beauty in places that might not be so apparent to others. I see beautiful things and realize that I can create them in more frugal ways or in a different way to make them uniquely mine...I just HAVE to create!

My latest creations? Well, I'm quite into paints, drawing, collaging, ATCs, and paper at the moment...so my latest bit of creativity was yesterday (since my flu had given me a little respite)...I had cards due for an ATC swap and when I sat down and began with them, the creative juices just flowed!

These were created using Brown Paper Bag as the base background (that was the Swap theme)...I decided to go with cards based on words of importance to me....Wisdom, Dream, Friendship, Memories.

Ah yes, I likey! Hope you like them, too.

Until next time...Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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I CAN do it!

Crafty Blog of the Day: Trial and Error
BlueSkySunburn is a friend from the ATC trading site I use
and she's got a great artsy blog. I hope you'll visit her...and be sure to drop a comment
and tell her Barb the Craft Junkie sent ya!

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I've been drawing and drawing and when I'm tired of drawing, I draw some more. LOL

I'm one of those people who has always said I was crafty but never artistic...I believed that only REAL artists were artistic. I've never painted anything of substance and the only people I've drawn since childhood were stick figures. I had convinced myself that was all I could draw...I just wasn't artistic.

Or so I thought.

I think, as we grow older we get these ideas in our heads, whether we put them there ourselves or we're told them by others, and we begin to believe them. "I can't draw" or "I can't paint"...or some other such nonsense. We believe these things because they're so set in our brains AND because we're afraid to let go and play. Some of us are even afraid of trying because we might fail.

All those describe me. Fear of failure, bad thoughts ingrained in my brain, and on and on.

This class I'm taking with Suzi blu is teaching me different. I CAN DO THIS! Not only can I do it but I AM doing it. Every day I practice my beautiful girl's eyes and mouths and begin working on shading. I have some that look good and some that look like crap...but that's okay, it's part of the process.

I keep trying. Over and over again, I keep trying.

This girl is my first full length girl. The assignment for the end of the week was to draw a full length girl after you had practiced the eyes and mouths and heads for a while....and this is the girl that I drew.

Me, the woman who can't draw, drew her. She is mine. A product of my hands and head and heart. Just a piece of paper (in my journal, of course), a mechanical pencil, an eraser, my hands and my imagination...that's all it took to create her.

To say I'm proud is an understatement.

Now, is she the most gorgeous girl you've ever seen? No, probably not....but she's mine and I'm so very proud of her.

I CAN draw....I really can. And before you know it I will be painting and watercoloring, too. Oh my at the things I can do...I just didn't know I could do them.

Until next time...Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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Life is a Lesson

Crafty Blog of the Day: Suzi Blu
Suzi is quirky and fun and kind and loving but aboveeven all of that, she's creative and full of art and support.If you haven't come across her before, you really shouldcheck her out...and be sure to drop a comment
and tell her Barb the Craft Junkie sent ya!

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I am an artist. 

Wait, let me say that again, with more feeling this time...I AM AN ARTIST!  Yes, that was much better.  *smiles a happy smile*

I acknowledge that for quite some time I had lost my muse.  My creative spirit was shriveling up and drying out.  I could feel nothing but depression and gloom.  As much as I wanted to create beautiful, pretty things...as many wonderfully fantasmagoric ideas as I had flittering through my head on a daily basis...I just couldn't find the energy to do anything with them.  Ideas in your head are just a tiny part of the creative process...it's in the DOING that we create, ideas are intangible...we must have action involved in order to create.

I haven't been able, physically or mentally, to get into the action part of the creative process.  I've not been doing my part in the scheme of the creative process. 

Until now.

I found the wonderfully talented and oh so fun Suzi Blu and am currently taking one of her classes/workshops, Les Petite Dolls, and through it, I seem to be finding my creative spirit growing and blossoming again.  I have never been able to draw, it's just not been one of my creative outlets because I believed I couldn't do it.  Suzi is teaching me...wait, she's showing me quite differently...I CAN draw.  I am doing it....I am loving doing it, too.

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm just beginning the class/workshop but the things that Suzi says in her videos and her assignments are really getting to me, down deep.  Touching areas that have been trying to go dormant on me.  She's making me feel alive again, slowly but surely.

I've only began working on my first lesson (as you can see) but I'm enjoying it so much that, even with the flu (yes, I've got the dreaded flu...ick!), I ended up drawing faces and eyes and working on bodies/gesturing for over 4 hours last night.  No TV, just some beautiful music playing in my earphones and my pencil and journal in front of me.

Nothing has made me happier in a very long time.

I look forward to quiet time, with just me and my sketch journal, my pencils and erasers, my lessons and time.  Peaceful, quiet time to explore and draw and create.  Slowly but surely I will be creating pretty Les Petite Dolls of my own to share and beautify.

We should all find our happy place...that place that transcends time and space and just takes us to that realm of a Zen like state. 

I am slowly but surely finding mine.

Until next time...Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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When I Grow Up...

Crafty Blog of the Day:
Magnolia Pearl...after you watch the video,
this will be more than self explanatory.
Be sure to drop a comment
and tell her Barb the Craft Junkie sent ya!

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When I grow up, I want to be this free....


And I'm working on it right now!

Until next time...Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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The Process

I've been creating lots of ATCs lately, mostly the Zentangles but a few other kinds, too.

This one, "On Gossamer Wings", is probably my very favorite piece I've done so far. Why? Because first off, I've always said I can't draw...but I drew this...in INK! And I've never done water colors either but after I drew it, I got out the watercolors and painted it instead of using the old trusty markers.

That makes this a piece of challenged art...trying new things, going into uncharted creative territory...and looking at what came out the other side, I'm happy!

I love it!

I had no idea how it would turn out but I didn't let the outcome affect the beginning. I just started with a picture in my mind and went with the flow. Very Zen like in it's creation, just doing what felt right and not worrying about the finished piece, only about the task at hand each moment.

And, bit by bit, piece by piece, it became a wonderful piece that I am proud of. It's real and it's me.

I think I learned something about life in doing this, too. Trust the process and stop worrying about the outcome...just let go and do it.

Hope you're all creating and enjoying the process. Step out of your comfort zone and create something new and strange and different. Share it with me...I'd love to see.

Until next time....Happy Creating!!!

Peace & Love,


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Back and Rested

Crafty Blog of the Day: Unique Charm
Check out Leslie and her crafty self at Unique Charm.She's fun and full of whimsy...and be sure to drop a comment
and tell her Barb the Craft Junkie sent ya!

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Hi y'all!  I'm back from the races (where we had a great time) and finally recuperated.  As wonderful as the races were, and they were, I was heartbroken...Marty the Party wasn't there.  He had a prior business engagement and couldn't make it to the Memphis race.

*cries*

But all in all, we really did have a wonderful time.  We stayed at the Sheraton in Tunica, Mississippi (for free, thanks to comps) the first night and played blackjack for a few hours (breaking even, thankfully) and then were comped a fabulous meal at "The Steakhouse"...complete with a nice bottle of wine and some great Keylime pie for dessert.  I won't go into the jacuzzi tub with bubble bath that we shared.  *wink*

We spent some time in Memphis the next day and found that both of us really just wanted to rest instead of being on the go the entire time.  We napped and relaxed, ate a nice meal, came back to the motel and watched TV while I worked on some art journaling/ATCs (artist trading cards) and were asleep early because of the early wakeup for the race the next day.

Ah, the race.  Some fantastic drag races, good food, beautiful (but HOT) weather, and meeting drivers we hadn't met before.  I wore my Marty the Party shirt which got quite a few comments (it IS a one of a kind, dontcha know?) and had a wonderful time sharing a common passion with the hubby.  After the race, it was rest time again (we were worn out) and I got to finish some of the new artwork I have become addicted to, Zentangles.

I really am addicted to this artform and find myself doing them all the time these days.  Let me know what you think.


Happy Crafting!!!

Peace & Love,


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