Weebly Website: My new, revamped Artplaytoday.com website!

Artplaytoday.com

I just finished working on my new Weebly Website!

I don't know about other free website builders, but building my site with Weebly has been pretty straight forward and easy.  Weebly makes it simple with a drag and drop interface, and if you use one of their templates, it's really a no brainer!

You can even have your own storefront.  I just used my paypal account to link it to, but there are other Ecommerce options as well.

I kept mine pretty simple, but there are a lot of themes you can choose from.  You can also choose to use a third party template, but that involves a little more work.

Now I need to learn how to get my website seen!  That's a whole other story.  I will need some more time to research SEO (search engine optimization) and whatever else is involved in getting a webiste to come up in peoples searches.

I would love to get feedback from anyone who can find the time to navigate my site.  I need to know if it's easy to use, or if I need to tweak anything to make it a better experience.

And last but not least, if you think my website is worth sharing I would love if you would share with your family and friends!

Let me know what you think! I would be happy to return the favor!

xoxo
Kristen

Make your own K Cup holder

After coming home to a mess of slaughtered K cups on the kitchen floor (my dog), I needed to come up with a better storage solution! The store bought carousels take up too much counter space and are over priced, so I came up with my own low profile solution! This fits right on my window sill, out of reach of the dog, and uses NO counter space! The best part is, it's free, easy and recycles your used K Cups! You can make this bigger if you want, just add more cups, change the pattern/design to fit your needs!

How to:

1. Collect your used K Cups

2. Empty coffee grounds into your compost

3. Tear out the paper filter from inside the plastic cup and rinse and dry the plastic cup your left with. 

4. Heat up your glue gun and glue the empty cups together in a pyramid or other functional pattern!

Getting ready to do a video tutorial on using UV Curing Resin...

I'm excited about a new video tutorial I will be putting out soon! It's been a long time since I've posted one. I forgot how much work goes in to it (at least for me...video editing is not easy and very time consuming).

 In the tutorial I will be demonstrating different ways to use UV Resin in jewelry making and mixed media embellishments. Here are some experiments I've been working on! These soon to be pendants are layers of resin within a solid copper ring, with watch parts and other embellishments embedded in the layers! I think once I've perfected these they will be a hit! Pictures don't do them any justice...

And other news...

Look at this great thrift shop find that will be sure to make it into future pieces of jewelry!

Crappy old tackle box, $3.00

The contents of crappy old tackle box, PRICELESS!

I can't wait to use these old clock parts in my future artwork and jewelry!

I've been in Jewelry mode!

Here is some more jewelry I've been creating...I love creating charms and dangles and wire wrapped beads and combining them into interesting pendants, bracelets and necklaces!

A great way to get some creative time in each day!

This is what happens when I avoid housework...

Not the greatest picture, but I had a lot of fun making these beaded charms. A few days ago I had the pleasure of going to a bead warehouse called Shipwreck Beads. I used some of my stashed money from Christmas.. Wow, talk about visual stimulation overload. I was simply overwhelmed by the size of this place and the volume of beads and other jewelry making supplies. It didn't take long to spend almost $200!!! yikes, I always have buyers guilt after spending that kind of money. 

At any rate, I have plenty to keep me busy for a long while! I couldn't resist the urge to sit down as soon as the kids were off to school.  Of course I really should have been doing laundry, vacuuming, planning dinner etc... Now it's almost time for the kiddos to come home and (shameful) I'm still in my PJs! Oh well...now I have some cute new elements to add to my jewelry projects. 

Life Happens...But, I'm Back!

So first I wanted to apologize for being gone so long! As you all know, life can have a way of distracting you from your true passions.  My two beautiful girls 11 and 15 are growing in to such beautiful young ladies, and my heart and time is devoted to their lives first, before art.

I've never been good at managing my time, and as our lives have gotten busier with competitive gymnastics, select soccer, high school sports, choir practices/performances, coaching etc...my time for art and art related activities has dwindled quite a bit.

While my heart belongs to my family first, I also have realized that I can't be the best Mom/Wife/Friend to those I love, unless I make some time for art play of my own.  I miss being involved in this blogging community of creative thinkers.  I miss seeing what you all are up to, and I miss sharing my own work and techniques.  I miss the feedback and support that you are all so good at lending, and I miss giving support and feedback to others as well.

My time is still limited of course, but I am going to make every effort to get my feet wet again.  I'm hoping to complete some more video tutorials, and I have a few great ideas up my sleeve...but for now,
apologies....I've missed you.....and

I'm Back! Yay!

Glogster

This is my daughter's 5th grade presentation on Deforestation.  She did it on a really cool sight called Glogster.com.  I thought I'd share, as I know many of you have school age kids too.  But also, wouldn't this be a cool way to share an art lesson or project?  I might just have to try it out for myself!  It's basically an interactive poster! Cool!

29 Faces Challenge: Face #22

I thought she was kind of fun! "The Rebel"...

 

 

29 Faces Challenge: Face #20 and #21

Here she is, a "beautiful mess", a self portrait...I was feeling sort of defeated when I did this one. As a mother of an ODD child in her tweens, by the end of the day ( or lately, by the time she walks out the door to catch the bus in the morning) I am completely mentally and physically drained. If you don't know what ODD is, it stands for oppositional defiant disorder, and it is a moment by moment battle for me to stay calm, focused, firm, fair and consistent in my dealings with my daughter. ODD coupled with anxiety and a mood disorder make my daughter extremely hard to be around sometimes. I love her dearly and unconditionally, but sometimes I just want to lock myself in my room and bury my head under the covers and pray, cry, scream or just shut down completely...but I can't do that, because I love my girls...someone has to keep the peace and try and maintain the sanity in our household....so anyway, that is how I was feeling when I did this face.

On the flip side, when my daughter is feeling good, she is funny, witty, creative and downright brilliant! Sort of like living with a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. She has a beautiful spirit, and a heart that is bigger than even she knows! And anyway...sorry for going off about all that, but that is the story behind this face, and now you know a little something about me that you probably didn't know before! This was my art therapy for the week!

A "beautiful Mess" is the state my heart and soul are in most of the time. I think those two words describe how I feel and where a lot of my art is created from...

This next girl was inspired by an artist named Juliette Crane. She does really cute owls and animals, but I like Juliette's faces the best! I couldn't really capture her style with the ipad, but I love her loose, painterly style and the way her art makes me feel, and she has some incredible backgrounds in her artwork as well.

So, I guess that's about it...on to some other projects for the day.

29 Faces Challenge: Face #18 and #19

These faces were both kind of works in progress...they were some of the first things I created with the ipad. Since I've been short on time, I decided to try and improve upon them. The changes are pretty subtle, but I think I accomplished an improvement in both of them.

Here Is the before...

This is the improved upon version, more shading, brighter colors...different shading in the face...

Here is the second face before.....

And here it is after improvement...again, brighter colors, more shading, deeper contrasts and more details...

29 Faces Challenge: Face #17

Today's post is all about my dog Slash...He is my Face #17 for the 29 Faces challenge. I uploaded this short video, so you could see, he is a "one of a kind" when it comes to personality.

Face #17: Slash my Dog

I am almost embarrassed to post this picture, as you can see I'm no good at dog faces...But my dog Slash has the funniest personality and I wanted to capture it...I'll need to work on that! I was inspired by another artist doing the 29 Faces Challenge Nic's Earth.  She does the most beautiful dog faces, and she captures something unique in each one.  I just love her work!

Here are a few photos of Slash...he is a German Wire-Hair Pointer, and I wish I could have 100 of him!  There really are NO words to describe him...he is a constant source of entertainment (and nuisance...) for our family.

29 Faces Challenge: Face #14, #15 and #16

Well, I wish I had been able to get this posted yesterday, but it just couldn't happen! So Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all of you! Each of these faces were created with the 53 Paper App for Ipad. All were in different stages of completion, but I finished all of them this evening while watching my daughter's 2 hour gymnastics class! I REALLY like how #14 turned out!

Face  #14

Face #15

Face #16

29 Faces Challenge: Face #13

I created this one using both an original piece of artwork and an Ipad App called Photogene
First I scanned a page from one of my art journals, then used the app to create this "stamp" effect! This is the original art that I scanned and then uploaded to my Ipad.

Original Art Journal Page Scanned

And here is what she looks like after using the ipad app...

29 Faces Challenge: Face #13

29 Faces Challenge: Face #12

Face #12...you guessed it...created on the Ipad using the 53 Paper App. It's supposed to be me and my two beautiful daughters, who I love with all of my heart. It's represents the bond we have, no matter how hard it is to be a parent ( and trust me...it's been challenging on so many levels...) I will always love them unconditionally, forever and ever!!!

The rest of these are just a very small sample of what you can do with the many Apps available for the Ipad!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

29 Faces Challenge: Face #11 and #12

This one was once again created using the 53 Paper App for ipad. I love the blended color effects you get with the water color paintbrush. I'm learning something new each time I use this app! It's still my favorite even though there are many more apps with far more versatility.

This one was created in the ipad app Procreate. I'm not happy with the face at all, but I like the background a lot!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

29 Faces Challenge: Face # 9 and 10

Hi my fellow challenge participants!, These were both done using the Paper App for ipad again. It's so satisfying to be creating something and still be able to be in the same room with the family. Using the ipad means I don't have to juggle all my art supplies in my lap or cart them back and forth between rooms...even though I don't have a " tangible" original on a canvas, I still have a digital original that I can turn in to prints, cards or use in my jewelry! This first one I painted using my finger instead of a stylus. On all of my others I have used a special pressure sensitive stylus called the "Pogo" . She turned out better than I thought she would! It's harder to create small detail without the stylus, but still a lot of fun. If you have an ipad, give this a try, the App is free and the "in App" upgrades are inexpensive and well worth the extra dollar or two. If you are really serious about using the ipad for art I would recommend the "pogo" stylus as well!

This little alpaca I created with a friend in mind who owns an alpaca farm, Alpacas from Mars. At first he had teeth on both the top and bottom, until she told me that alpacas do not actually have teeth on top! Good to know! So here he is, the "revised" and anatomically correct (sort of) version. At any rate, I think he's a cutie!

Hope everyone is having fun! I sure am!

29 Faces Challenge: #6, #7 and #8

I'm going to be pretty busy for the next couple of days, so I decided to get ahead of the game and post these three now, so I won't get behind in the challenge. All of these were created in the 53 paper App for the Ipad. Have a great week everyone, and I hope to get to everyone's blog sooner or later!

29 Faces Challenge: Face #5

These are some of my favorite colors and I found them in a napkin! I started out printing and cutting out a face from one of my art journals. Then I laid the cut-out on top of a napkin that had a color palette that I love and took a photo with my ipad.

I then imported the photo into an ipad app called Procreate and proceeded to paint and layer until I ended up with the final product below. I'm really happy with her now, although, because I love to have a word or two in most of my paintings, I may have to add some in later...we'll see...