Summer and Mermaids

It never fails, once summer hits, my thoughts turn to warm summer nights, cool water to swim in and mermaids. I’ve always associated mermaids with summer. I dream of them returning from the waters where they spend the winter to cooler waters, basking in the warm sun, their young splashing around, or clinging to their mothers.

 

 

 

To celebrate summer and mermaids, I created a treasury on Etsy inspired by the creatures I love.

'Summer Mermaids' by kmichelecreations

Treasury tool by StylishHome.

Technorati Tags: art,etsy,water,mermaid,summer,art journal,mermaid treasury

Even the shy dream big…

 

I was a shy kid. Almost painfully so. I was the one who was happiest sitting in the back of the class and never raising my hand, even if I did know the answer. Sure I had my small handful of friends that I love dearly and had my moments of being the funny one, or the loud one. But when I wasn’t around those friends, I remained invisible. And for the most part, I liked it that way.

I think a lot of it had to do with moving around a lot as a kid. I remember plenty of school years being interrupted because Dad got a new job somewhere and we had to move..again.

But that shyness came with a cost. Sitting aside, quiet, longing to be part of the larger group. Wishing to be included, to be asked to join in. Wishing just once to have the courage to jump right in.

Shyness is something I struggle with even today. And it’s something that affects everyone around me, especially my son.

It affects all aspects of my life. Even the aspects I never thought it would. It’s has wrapped it’s little tendrils around everything. It’s so hard to try and break those old habits of remaining invisible.

 

available in my Etsy shop

But it’s something that I am trying to work on. Especially when it comes to my dreams and what I want to accomplish.

 

 

In the meantime, I make art. I make art to cope with things that I am dealing with. I make art that I’m inspired to create. I make art to help heal whatever is deep within. I make art in hopes that one day…

I will overcome and be successful.

 

 

Technorati Tags: art,life,etsy,kmichele creations,shy

Creative Inspiration Thursday!

Today’s creative inspiration comes from BeeDazzelsGifts over at Etsy.

The colors are lovely. It reminds me of autumn.

Tranquility by B. Smilanich, BeeDazzles LLC

 

Happy inspiration!

2 finished pieces!

Today the sun is shining and it's slowly warming up. I finished up my faery this morning and snapped pictures of both her and another mixed media piece I had finished a bit ago. And since I had to clean off my craft table in order to take pictures, it's the cleanest it's been in months lol. I can't wait to start work on another piece that I have kicking around in my head. But that will have to wait until after taking the dogs for a walk and doing some laundry. Both are going to be available through my Etsy. But in the mean time on to the pictures!

This is another mixed media piece that I created. It's an 8"x10" watercolor and acrylic paints on hot press watercolor paper.

And because I know you all have been dying to see how the faery turned out...

Here she is!!

She is perched among some oak moss and lavender on her base. I used Angelina film to create her wings and am really thrilled how they turned out as it was my first time working with it. I really couldn't be happier with how she turned out.

WIP ~ Tuesday on Friday

Goodness! I missed WIP Tuesday but with good reasons. This has been such a busy week. And it all started last Friday with my birthday. Tuesday was birthday present arrival day, well the start to it anyway. The portable photo studio hubby had bought me was delivered. I love it! It came with a light tent, 2 lamps and a mini tripod for my camera. And here I was going to make my own and buy some lamps lol. The nice thing about it, everything folds right up and stores in its own little bag. So you can imagine all work was set aside to take pictures, upload pictures, edit pictures, rinse and repeat.

But in the middle of all that, I did get some work done on 2 tutorials for February Fairies Event over at The Whimsical Cottage. I also was able to complete 1 of the WIP from last week. I really excited. It’ll be my first listing on my Etsy shop and hopefully won’t be the last.

What do you think? I’m excited because the photo is pretty true to color in real life. This piece remains untitled at the moment. I’ll have to think of something before I list her.

So what’s on the agenda for this weekend? Putting the final touches on a tutorial and see what I can do about finishing up another WIP from last week. I have some new Caran d’Ache watercolor crayons (also for my birthday) that I am just dying to work with.