Twas the night before Christmas...

now how did it get here so fast? I'm not ready yet! On Saturday we got hit with a bad ice storm, which made going out very dangerous.I thought the roads were clear enough yesterday to do last minute things, but surprise! all my car doors have a half inch of ice, so I couldn't open them. Will have to try today using hot water. Well the good news is we finally are going to have a White Christmas after a few years of now snow. Now this is more like it!

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is taking time to watch my favorite Christmas movies, so I thought I'd mention some of them here.

First up, a new classic, Elf. It's hilarious, and something young and old can enjoy. Will Farrell plays an elf who goes to New York to search for the father he never knew he had. I've watched it every year since it came out.
(I can't seem to figure out how to put a link right on the images, I know I was able to do this when I blogged regularly..if you click on the titles though, it will take you to Amazon.
)

Another movie that's been my favorite is Prancer. This one stars a little girl who lost her mother, and lives with her father and brother. She finds an injured deer which she believes is Prancer. This movie is perfect to watch with your kids. There is a movie called Prancer returns which is also pretty good.

A classic, Miracle on 34th Street was redone a while ago, and I must say, I love the new version! I know people think the classics can't be improved on, but this one is pretty good. I'm sure everyone knows the story line, it's another great film for young and old.
Ok I will just come out and say why I prefer this version: Dylan McDermott. There, I said it.

This next one is for a more adult crowd as it's a romantic holiday movie, called The Christmas card..
It's not a well known movie and I came about it by accident, but what I love about this one is the wonderful scenery! If you love winter, snow, and log cabins, this one may be a nice surprise. It's about a woman who sends cards to the armed forces abroad. One of her cards ends up with a man who immediately is drawn to go find her.

I will leave you with 'The Christmas shoes'.  This is what I plan to watch later on today. If you haven't seen it, it's a sad story, but very well done. I'm sure you've all heard the song so you know the premise. If you haven't seen it, give it a try! The acting is good and you get caught up in the drama.

Other than watching movies, or  listening to Christmas music, I've been working on some seasonal ACEOs, my usual owl ones. It's fun to look back and see what I was painting a few years ago and how I've changed. Here are a couple of new ones that I like:

For the most part, 2013 was not a good year for me art wise, but I hope I can get my act together for 2014, and work through the times when I just don't feel like creating. No one expects to go through such a long drought when it comes to art, I guess the secret is to try and push through it, or maybe just make yourself at least work on backgrounds. I was doing this for the first few months, I just let it go too long, so needless to say I have a few dozen backgrounds in my journals for me to play with, lol!

Thank you for reading! I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, stay safe, and enjoy every moment. May santa be good to each and every one of you.

Believe it or not, I'm still around

hello blogging friends, yes it's been a long, loooong time since I posted. I had good intentions of blogging regularly, unfortunately I stopped creating art for a while, and felt like I had nothing much to say. Summer came, and there were other things to work on. Besides, it felt like everyone had disappeared and gone to Facebook.
Well I caved and joined -had to, there was an art class I wanted and it was the only way I could join.
I'm there now after swearing I'd never do it, lol! and if you want to join me there, look me up and friend me...you can search 'Pinkglitterfae Art'.

So what have I been up to? not much until the last couple of months when I started painting again. I'm working on my Christmas ACEOs , and managed to do a couple of original paintings for the holidays, including the reindeer you see up top, inspired by a workshop by Christy Tomlinson..
Below is a folk art madonna and child I finished, with lyrics from the song 'Mary did you know'.

I'm not sure about the direction of this blog, I just know that I miss it, and I will try and post my art and anything else I feel like whether it's read or not. The whole point is to create an online diary right? I also miss reading my favorite blogs, as Facebook moves so fast you can't keep up!

I hope my friends are still out there creating and trying to make the best life they can. I know the holidays can be very stressful, but I hope you are at least taking some time to nourish yourself. Everywhere around me I see people frantically running from one place to the next, trying to fit in all those errands, not really paying attention to the moment. I've also noticed some crankiness going on, lol! ah well, gotta love the holiday season right, lol?
thank you friends for reading my late night ramblings, I will be back soon with some of my fave Christmas movies to put you in the spirit.

Journal pages, and an art supply haul

hey friends, how did time get away from me again??
I love art journaling, but have had a hard time doing it over the years. I tend to want everything to be perfect.
The best thing I did to get over this, was have an journal just for backgrounds. No pressure to paint anything meaningful, it was just somewhere to throw some spray down over a stencil, drip a little ink, add some torn paper, and so on. I used to hate backgrounds, but now I look forward to them. Anything goes! and I must say, Youtube is a treasure trove of ideas! it's almost hard to pry yourself away, lol!

So finally I thought I'd draw some of my quirky girls on them. For the one shown above, I used dylusions ink spray, added a bit of paint, some stamping, yellow washi tape, and on top, my own handmade moustache washi tape, lol!
I did a bunch one day, and they are super easy...put several rows of tape on a non stick craft mat, or even wax paper. Use markers, paint, or you can use rubber stamps to create your own patter. Here is a pic of some I did when I was bored one day. Most of the time they will be covered in your journal, so don't worry if they are not perfect, because mine are certainly not! I was just getting the hang of it, so these ones were my first tries, next time I will lay some white paint on the tape first.

You know what makes me want to create art? New supplies!! oh yes! you can never have enough, especially if you do mixed media work. Just when I think I need to slow down on spending,  something new shows up. I am excited to try the gelli plate, after hearing about it for months. I thought it was some sort of printing machine, but it is the easiest thing on the planet. I picked one up recently, along with a few other goodies, including some gelatos, more stencils, and some sprays. It was like Christmas again, lol!

 For anyone wondering if the Faber Castell Gelatos are worth it, I would say absolutely! I've got alot of the Caran d'ache water soluble crayons which I use regularly, so didn't think these would be any different, but after buying a set at Michaels with a coupon, and trying it out, I would say it feels like you are smooshing lipstick on a page. They are very soft, and easily blended, so if feel inclined, give them a try. They are awesome rubbed around the edge of a page, to give it a dreamy look.

For any Canadian gals out there looking for a reasonable place to order mixed media products, I would recommend The Art House Studio in Cambridge, Ontario, they ship Canada wide, and their shipping is reasonable. They also have alot of the specialty products that mixed media artists love. Until I found them, I was buying from Michaels, or Ebay, which can be quite expensive.

Are there any must have art supplies that you'd like to share? please feel free, it's one of my favorite subjects :-D

thanks for reading
betty

More folk art, and a great link for Health conscious people

hi folks, well I finished the second primitive style painting a few days ago. I like how she turned out even though this isn't my normal style. It's nice to try different things to keep you fresh. At one point I was ready to just give up, I had white paint on my brush and was going to eraser her, but I pressed on, until I got a face I was happy with.  So now, maybe it's time to incorporate this loose, and colorful style, with my usual big-eyed girls I am used to doing...?
I'm starting to find that I absolutely love doing backgrounds now! that used to be my weak spot, but now it's so relaxing to glue bits of paper down on a canvas, and cover it over, add more paper, add more paint, and on and on. This is the sort of thing you can always do when you are not in the mood to paint. Just put 3 - 4 canvases on your table, rip up various bits of paper, and start gluing. Then put them aside, work on them when the mood hits you, and when you finally feel the urge to do a full painting, you've got part of the work already done...no need to wait for stuff to dry either! 

I also wanted to recommend to anyone who is interested in their health, to join this free 'summit'.
You simply sign up with your email, and will be getting links to these really great interviews which you can phone in to, or what I do is listen after the event, through the internet. Each interview is available for 24 hours. I just finished listening to one by a Dr. Michael Kloper which was really fantastic, and wanted to link you all up before it's done.
this is the link to the Food Revolution Summit:
http://www.foodrevolution.org/summit#.UYJtQ8rotJQ

I've listened to many of these type of broadcasts in the past, and gain so much knowledge from each one.  Sorry I didn't get this post up yesterday when I wanted to!
thanks for reading!

My medinilla plant, and some Art

hello fellow bloggers, yes I am still around, and I feel so bad for neglecting my blog! I've wanted to update many times but felt I had nothing really to say. On top of that, I haven't been creating much art lately, in fact, this one above is the second painting in a few months. Just haven't been in the mood.  This winter has felt like the longest one ever, so depressing and dreary. For some reason, the sky has been white, overcast and grey, rather than the clear blue skies I am used to seeing.
No matter, it is almost May, and today was a gorgeous day, so here I am saying hello to my blogging friends. I am so looking forward to the warmer weather arriving.
It gets even harder to create when you want to be outside, but if I can get organized, I'd like to take my art journal outside with some supplies, and just play. I've been reading some of my fave blogs all along, and am happy that I am not the only one who has slowed down on posts, I don't feel so bad now. Hopefully I can at least be more consistent. The secret for me, is to look at this as just an online diary, rather than feel I have to be clever.
Now I would like to show you a gorgeous plant I picked up at a home show called a Medinilla. I believe it is only grown in Ontario right now, and is shipping around North America. This plant is stunning! and after it almost tipping over a couple of times I found the perfect pot. This is definitely a centerpiece among all my plants, and I do have lots, lol!

Click on the pics for a closer look.

Well folks, that's it for now. Next post I will show you some of the journal backgrounds I've done.
thanks for reading!