Small things ...

I was asked to head up the PreK class gift for our big school-wide auction [our biggest fundraiser of the year]. I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with 'the perfect gift'. I think there is already pressure there knowing that the item you create & present is supposed to raise a lot of money. So then it just snowballs from there. There's pressure to come up with an item that would appeal to a lot of people [the parents of the PreK]. Pressure to come up with something that someone would want to put in their home / somewhere. Pressure to come up with something that was worthy of taking up room in someone's home; in this case worthy of taking up precious wall space. Our school is in an old part of Kansas City where most of us have sacrificed indoor & outdoor space for being in a beautiful, established, historic part of town. So again, space is an issue ... at least it is for most of the people I know that live around here! :)

Last year, this grade submitted framed artwork made with the children's thumbprints. It was so darling & perfect for that age. But now that they are getting older, I wanted them to be able to do something themselves. But not too difficult. Which is a very fine line. [And which is why I was stumped for months]

So after months of stressing out & drawing a blank, it f.i.n.a.l.l.y came together. I got a package of 100 4x6 white [acid free, etc] paper, 2 sets of 50 washable [PreK, hello] Crayola thin markers, a package of multi-colored [acid free, etc] paper for mounting, used an acid free Elmer's glue stick & then got 2 approx. 14" x 19" 'multipurpose floating' frames. Originally $35 a piece, I got them when they were on sale 1/2 off. I got thin markers knowing the space they'd be coloring in would be smaller than they were used to & I was hoping it would still give them a chance to get more detailed. I was happy to find the 'floating' frame [meaning what you frame is floating between 2 sheets of glass, you can see through it] because that way you don't have to worry about a mat & there's a better chance that it'll work with someone's decor since their own wall color shows through.

I traced a heart on all the white card stock before taking them into the classrooms. Additionally, I found out how many tables there were & tried to divide up the markers ahead of time, giving each table a good range of colors. I made a few examples to show the kids because as I have learned ... a little guidance is good. So I made a few ahead of time with easy ideas: stripes, flowers, a 'self-portrait', stars, etc. Then I also listed off some ideas to get the kids thinking about what they were going to do before they began.

Above are some of the hearts from one of the classes. I left the teachers with some of the supplies because there are some kids that don't go to school certain days of the week or were absent.

[side note: The one on the bottom left with the stick figures ... that boy told me it was himself & a friend, and 2 people were jumping over them. :) The one above it is of a black dog. After I brought up the idea of drawing your favorite animal or your pet ... a little girl came up to me & shared the story about how she had a black dog that died. Looks like she decided to make her heart a tribute to her pet. :) Sweet ... but definitely one of those 'oh boy why did I have to go there :( sad' moments.]

I played around with different arrangements, trying to separate ones that were similar in color or in design.

Then I picked out a coordinating color on which to mount them.  I'm glad I decided to do this step after all. It definitely finishes off the piece. And it gave me a nice visible spot to put their names on the back. Which ... because it's a 'floating frame' you can see through. I like that the front has some anonymity; they all have a similar shape & size, but the designs make them unique. But for those that want to know whose is whose, they can still see on the back.

This quote came to mind as the idea formed ... all the kids would be doing their own thing. And by itself it might be small & insignificant, but I knew if we grouped them together it would make a nice piece. The uniqueness & individuality all grouped together is what makes it beautiful & makes a statement. Originally, I wanted enough space for all of the quote:

“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do.

The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things.

But we can all do small things, with great love,

and together we can do something wonderful.” - Mother Teresa

But in the end due to the lack of space, I had to settle on the condensed version. It still means the same thing. :) [fonts I used were 'butterbrotpaper' & 'commercial script'] I mounted it on green because it is our school's color.

Above is Libby's class. Libby's is 4th row, 2nd column ... she called it "rainbow tic tac toe". :)

And here is the other PreK class. I turned it on the horizontal because there were so many, it worked better [again, space became an issue].

Total cost for materials comes to about $25 a piece.

I know I'm biased, but I think they turned out cute. My goal was to have something that could be hung just about anywhere. I thought if I could achieve that, then it would appeal to more people increasing the chances of getting a bigger bid during the live auction! :) I could see this in a hallway, a child's room, play room, entry way, doctor's office, waiting room, etc. Regardless of where they go or how they do in the auction, they're done. The weight has been lifted. My mind is free to put creative thought towards other things. And they turned out pretty darn cute. *phew*

[UPDATE: One of these was bought before the auction began for $500! The other was bought during the live auction & went for $425! Woo hoo! Way to go, little Picassos! :)]

Pencil & Paper ...

... and an eraser & a tortillon.  :) I totally had to look up what that rolled paper blending tool was called. Couldn't remember for the life of me. But I've had it since my last art class in college. Good for it, having its own Wikipedia page!

Anyway, I did this sketch for a friend. I was asked to participate in a scrapbook project & this was what made up one of my pages. I put a copy of it in the book, then mailed her the original.

This sweet face, is still on the other side of the world waiting to come home to the mommy & daddy that God has chosen for him. And that time can't come soon enough. :) My nephew is adopted & 4 years ago tomorrow they brought him home as a 22 month old. That means that for 22 months ... there was no photographing his every milestone, every funny thing, every sweet smile - like doting parents tend to do. They got photos, when they got them. And it's usually so systematic. Not a lot of thought goes into the photos. There's no "let's try that again so we can capture that cute biiiiig smile!" Nope.  :( But as a parent-in-waiting, you hold on dearly & treasure that photo, more than anything. You take the time to study every feature, their posture, their expression ... because that's all you have to tide you over until the next one. Or until they are placed in your arms.

So I selected this photo from this sweet boy's 1 year check up visit. A special keepsake to mark when he was just 1 year old. No doctor's office in the background .. just a chance to concentrate on him. And his features. In the sweet polo that his parents had mailed over to him in a care package. It's just simple. But hopefully a nice keepsake celebrating a special time in his life, before there was the chance to have that amazingly creative birthday celebration thrown by his doting parents ... like I know his 2nd birthday will be! :) Sending up some prayers that he is home SOON!

The Latest ...

 11x14 custom order [SOLD]. 

 new 11x14 quote canvas [SOLD].

 5x5 Mark Twain,  found here in my shop. 

5x5 Irish Blessing found here in my shop.

I'm here! :) Just busy ... February flew by. Extremely fast. The bathroom project wore me out. I also have had other little projects pop up like hanging up all of Kyle's military memorabilia in his office finally [will post a pic soon] & also framing our new 16x20 family photo to go above the mantle [ditto]. Besides those projects, I've been planning Libby's 5th Birthday. I've been brainstorming for Libby's PreK class auction gift. My own school auction gift. What to do for Autism Awareness month. Davis's Birthday's around the corner [same day as Easter]. This is our busiest time of year - SPRING. But I'm thrilled it's on arrival. BRING IT ON. With warmer weather & some sunshine, I can handle just about anything. :)

Bathroom Redo ...

I'm not saying the new bathroom is better. The previous owners of this house put up the wallpaper. The upstairs bathroom has similar paper in a red, pink & green color scheme. I loved BOTH. But, since we gave our 5 month old daughter [in 2007] the master bedroom upstairs, we got one of the bedrooms downstairs which means we use the downstairs bathroom on a daily basis. And there's no vent fan in there. Which means the wallpaper had steamed itself off. Every seam was split open. So it was time for a redo. When I took it down, whole sheets came down. :( That's how bad it was.

I spent 2 days scrubbing the glue off.  Not the most fun part of the process. I picked out a shade of gray that was lighter than the tile - "Whispering Smoke". I already had gray enamel paint that was dyed to match the original tile [from when we remodeled our basement & the plumber had to bust through the wall behind the sink in this bathroom to get to a pipe]. So I just painted over the trim tile that had previously been painted a dark blue [original trim color was a 1950's peachy pink]. It's not a perfect match ... but I think it's good enough. I love that the bathroom as a whole now is neutral ... all gray & white.  I think since we got the opportunity for a change, I just wanted to take a break from "busy". The wallpaper, although pretty, was busy. So I'm liking the change.

I slowly added color into the color scheme starting with the mustard yellow bath mat. I love gray & yellow together. But knowing the rest of the bathroom was neutral & although I'd be buying a new shower curtain I still wanted it all white, I began looking for fun fabric for the curtains. I found these beautiful tea towels at Tuesday Morning & fell in LOVE. They already had the green lace trim. All I had to do was fold the top down 2 inches & sew straight across to make a pocket. I was done & had them up in 2 minutes flat. 

The mirror came with the house. The previous owners had it painted all metallic gold, which I quickly painted all white since every metal fixture in the bathroom was silver. So for the new bathroom design, I filled in the irises [I think they're irises] & leaves with some paint to match the flowers in the curtains. 

Again, I'm not saying it's better ... it's just a change. Almost a 180 when you consider that where there was color & crazy before [all over the walls] is now solid & neutral. And where it was Plain Jane before [mirror & curtains] is now crazy & colorful. Change is good. :)

Small Things ...

Back by popular demand ... in  pink,  green  &  indigo. :) I love these little canvases. And I love my new books from the thrift store with the fabric covers. I got them just a few hours ago & already I'm putting them to work. :)

Linking Back & Looking Ahead ...

In an effort to explain my Quote Canvases to someone, I thought it was just easier to send them a link to this little FAQ-like post I did 2 years ago. :) Need to add it to my sidebar like I said I would.

In other news, I have sold 4 of these Annette Funicello Quote Canvases in less than a week! I've discussed it in great length on Facebook, but I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest. :) Lots of people apparently love this quote/canvas ... but literally thousands have repinned my artwork with the wrong links.  [Same story, different artwork here.]

BUT. My friends, family & I have done some work dropping links & asking politely for them to be corrected. And finally, slowly but surely, people are being pointed towards my Etsy Shop.

I wish I could paint faster. All the ideas I have, quotes I want to do & color schemes I want to try out, I just can't keep up. But, I am in the early stages of throwing around the idea of making prints from the Quote Canvases. There will be a lot of trial & error, but hopefully soon I will give it a go! :)

Rehab ...

The Handydandys ... proud new owners of this 2 bed / 0 bath home!

Needed a little work but they hope to be in by Christmas!

 Bedroom #1 [hope previous owners didn't need that newspaper article tacked to the bulletin board!]

 Living Room

 Bedroom #2

 Rooftop Garden

 Going over plans with their interior designer.

 Let the demolition [& 7 years of bad luck] BEGIN!

Where we're at as of today ... wood floors are in!

Some friends of ours gave us this little play house. It had come out of their basement & then it sat in our garage for 5 months while we found some wall space in Libby's room. If you recall, we played "Musical Dressers" a month ago. So, 2 dressers [1 used to be her changing table] came out of Libby's room & 1 went in, leaving an open wall space for the doll house. Perfect.

It was dirty from being in a basement & garage and I found the decor to be a little dated. I didn't know who would be "living there" ... her Strawberry Shortcake dolls? Barbies [which she only has 1]? Littlest Pet Shop animals? Wasn't sure what I was going to do for furniture either. I fell in LOVE with the Calico Critters line. It was pricey, but I was willing to suck it up because it seemed perfect for her. But then, the week of Thanksgiving, my mom & I were doing a little late night shopping at Target while she was in town. And I saw a new line, only available at Target. Lil Woodzeez ... so cute. I picked out the Mouse Family and we bought a couple furniture sets. We even went on a mad hunt to other Target locations to try & snatch up the last remaining furniture set. It was selling out quickly!  But we got it.  The Mouse Family & furniture will arrive via sleigh on Christmas morning. But the house is busy getting rehabbed here at home and she's enjoying seeing it get cleaned up & made over. I've loved being busy with my shop the past couple of weeks & getting packages on their way, but I do believe the last order intended as a last minute Christmas present will be shipped off today ... then I have the rest of the week to get the house done in time for the Mouse Family to move in!!! I can't wait! :) And neither can they! [Although I heard big brother isn't looking forward to having to share a room with baby mouse ... or having a pastel floral motif for wallpaper, but hopefully he'll get over it.] ;)

Vino, Anybody?

I've been making these for several years [although the design has changed slightly over the years] ... but NOW, for the fist time, I've made them available in my Etsy shop. This is a trial thing. I have 2 in the shop at the moment, but before the holiday shopping season is done, I will have 4 available [if needed]. We'll see how they do. Custom artwork is always more time consuming ... but these are also some of my most popular items & the holidays are a popular time for them. Testing it out ... consider it a Wine Tasting. ;)

Leaves ...

I am knee deep in piles of leaves. Of all sorts. I attempted to clean up the yard on Thursday by mulching the leaves with the lawn mower, then going back over the lawn while bagging it all. I do believe the dust & debris from all that it put my mild head cold over the edge & turned it into a sinus infection. Seven days later and I am still sick with it, although I am feeling better as of yesterday! Thankfully.

I have a big order I am wrapping up. Had a friend contact me to paint two 11x14 canvases of a scene with a tree [which they use in their branding], then we turned them into 25 prints. All to be given away as awards. How fun is that? It was definitely an honor to be asked to do such a thing & it's been a fun little project for me. :)

Home of the Brave ...

Print found here.

I remember the first time I read this quote: "This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave"... I got chills & it made me even more proud to be a married to a man in the military.

I painted this 8 years ago while sitting in our Jacksonville, FL kitchen. Brett was about 1 1/2 years old. I spent hours on it, but finished it in 1 day [I believe in 1 sitting, too].  It was one of the 1st things I ever painted that I was truly proud of. Here is the original [size 18x24] which now hangs in our boys' room.

Funny story about this painting: the next morning I couldn't turn my head without a sharp pain shooting all the way down my neck into my shoulder. I called Kyle [who had already left for work at the squadron] because I had no idea what was wrong & I was afraid to lift sweet Brett out of his crib. :) Turns out ... all the intensity from concentration while painting this made me tense up in my shoulders. A mass had formed. Ouch. I got some muscle relaxers & a shot of something in my neck & I was good to go. Lesson learned: a few shoulder rolls while in deep concentration can go a long way. ;)

For the prints, I played around with some different shots, but in the end I had to angle it ever so slightly to fit it all into the same square. So, as I explain in the listing, the canvas pock marks [which I love having in the print to show its authenticity & that it is indeed painted] are present on the right hand side of the print's image, but get smaller as you move left [or get 'washed out' as shown in the shot of the top of the flag.

I plan on hanging the sample that I've cut down to 8x10 in Kyle's office. And yes, for those of you that are wondering, I do plan on someday painting the C-130. It is this plane's fraternal twin, flown by the Air Force [versus this one being the P-3 flown by the Navy]. Kyle flew the P-3 for 4 years while in the Navy & now that he's in the Air National Guard, he flies the C-130. There is a slight friendly rivalry between the 2 branches in case you didn't know. Slight. But we all work together. :)

Love. Frustration. Back to Love.

This is was what I found on Pinterest yesterday. :( See the source in the top right corner?

Sold in my shop last summer ... here's one similar that sold [I think its twin was part of a give-away].

We all know the internet is big. HUGE. But it must not be that big ... if I've had 2 friends in the last 3 weeks find my artwork on Pinterest. Not just my artwork, but artwork with the wrong credit given. Wrong site link. Or no site link & no credit. The positive spin on that is that I really didn't know how "original" my artwork was, or that I had a "look" until people spotted it & right away said "it's Rachel's".

One of my friends saw 2 pieces of my artwork on Pinterest just 4 days apart. Again, one with no credit & one with wrong credit. She was quick to mention me with a @RachelTwenter in the comment section. Then I clicked on the original pinner & left a comment as seen above.

It is frustrating to say the least. The above screen shot is just 1 example. I commented on 4 yesterday with a subtle request to change the link, if possible.

It's also frustrating to see your stuff with the title, "So easy to do! Cute idea! Have to remember to do this."  I have seen my artwork copied brush stroke for brush stroke. Each & every letter of a quote canvas [& colors were spot on] was recreated by somebody & shown off on their blog. I know it is not just happening to me. Yesterday I saw one of my friend Lindsay's canvases knocked off with the title [something like] "Look what I made after being inspired by Pinterest!" It was not inspired by "Pinterest". It was inspired by a person who made something that was put on "Pinterest".

It's a thin line ... between being inspired. And copying something that somebody made out of their own creative thought & sells. Liking something. But not giving credit. I have never done this to "make a name for myself". It's just fun for me. And after doing this for about 9 years, I have found my niche. I'm not the only one with the niche of painting quotes on canvas. But ... I worked hard to get into my little teeny pin head dot in the art world. I know it's a needle in a haystack. But if it's something I spent time on. I hand painted. I came up with the design. I scoured books & the internet for quotes. I doubled checked who said it in order to give credit. I painted it. I photographed it.

I did it. Not the person whose Tumblr site got 2,283 "likes & reblogs" on one of my quote canvases where zero credit is given.

I did it.

But then I look at what people are pinning & it's not my message. I didn't say it & I know it. In fact, on the minis that are only 4"x4", I still try & make my initials smaller than the name of the person who said it. They said it. I found the words to be inspiring, so I painted it for all to see. I am happy they like it. And I know Mother Teresa [or whoever else I am quoting] wouldn't want my blood to boil with such a sweet message [that is meant to spread LOVE] being spread like wild fire. That's what people are "repinning" anyway. The message. I just gave the message some visual aesthetics.

So then I get over it. And learn from my mistakes. And try & do what I can to keep my niche in the creative world while not bringing a negative tone to my shop with the comments on Pinterest. I tried to be 'helpful' while not sounding greedy or bossy.

I need to learn from the quote that brought me much frustration yesterday ... "do small things with great love." What I'm doing with my paintings is just one small way to spread ... love. And I need to rise above the stuff that is taking away from that.

Or at least get better at trying to rise above it. Work in progress, here. :)

Hello Dolly ...

I was given these 2 pieces to "redo" for a little 2 year old girl's Birthday that's coming up. They were being passed down from one generation to another. I was given free reign. They were in pretty good shape & already painted with a good coat of white. All I did was clean them up, give them a fresh coat of white & add this little dainty touch of personalization. I decided on this sweet & simple design. 

Remember the set I met for Libby's 3rd Birthday [pictured on the left with more of my Thrift Store loot from that day]? I think for the set I paid $8.  Because her room already had a lot of things I have painted, I went another route for hers; just wood glued the sweet little kitty cat to the head of the cradle. [side note: the baby in the high chair Libby used to call "fire baby". She thought those were flames on top of the head. So funny.]

And then a year ago, for my sweet niece's 1st Birthday, I redid a 50+ year old cradle that my sisters & I had played with when we were little. My mom had purchased it from a garage sale long ago. The sweet vintage fabric was ripped beyond repair, so for Anna's "redo" I bought some quilted fabric in a soft sage green & a little bit of lace trim. I just used the old fabric insert & followed the lines to make a new cradle liner. I kept the vintage peachy pink color because I liked it & also so that it still had a familiar look to it from when we played with it. 

I adore these little pint size makeovers. This kind of stuff is so fun for me. It's one of the reasons I go to thrift stores ... a little paint can go a long way. I think it really says something that these pieces have been around awhile. After years & years of PLAY TIME? And with a little TLC they are as good as NEW.