personalized canvas

Waaay back in July (wow, is it really mid november?!!) I drew up four bird ink and watercolors for button designs to be handed out as favors. It was seriously the best project for me since the wedding theme is lovebirds! In the middle of sketches and emails being sent back and forth, the bride-to-be had an awesome idea. Instead of a boring ol traditional guest book she wanted a personalized canvas where all the guests could sign and it would be ready to hang on the wall. seriously, what a fantastic keepsake.

The canvas is 30 inches x 40 inches and features the bride and groom birds along with two smaller birds representing his daughter Lily and their son Gavin. I have to say my favorite part was doing the ink work (see last photo of the corner detail). Working with acrylic on canvas was a bit of a challenge for me, since I've recently moved on from thick textured watercolor paper to working on smooth bristol paper.  But thanks to Matt and his patience with me the canvas has been completed! Best wishes to the love birds Megan and Albert- they get married this Saturday!!!

inspiration found afterwards

Just about a month ago I cracked open a brand new sketch book. It's always so exciting but... always so intimidating to start drawing on those first few crisp white pages. I began doodling a page of fun swirly hearts. This pattern below features my favorite one!

Not much more than a couple weeks later after my page full of hearts did Matt and I make a second trip out to Longwood Gardens... where we discovered this heart pattern! I love finding things like this after I've already drawn my own version.

Here are just a few other snapshots from the gardens... and most certainly future inspiration.

I just love the leaf-like pattern on these gigantic leaves.

This chrysanthemum shield is made up from just one plant- absolutely. amazing.

These little flowers were so delicate and vibrant.

Indie Fixx download!!

So I was on a little weekend get-away to Westmoreland Virginia and I return to see that I'm up on indie fixx today! what a great surprise! (pictures from the trip to be up soon :) )

I am so honored and proud to be a part of the Indie Fixx Feed Your Soul Project! The idea behind the project is to help keep a positive mindset during these rough economic times... the artwork created solely for this project is FREE!!! and for you to download, print, and enjoy!! What an awesome deal, right?! I think it's so fantastic that even though budgets are tighter, you can still enjoy, and be inspired by these pieces of art.

My download is an autumn inspired piece (it's most certainly one of my favorite seasons!) I love most everything about the season including the smells, the weather, all the flavors, the colors... it truly feeds my soul!

Thanks again everyone at Indie Fixx, I'm so happy to be a part of this ever growing project.

go on, check out all of the lovely downloads!!

Longwood Gardens

This past weekend was a fantastic one! Matt and I made a trip to longwood gardens & then to chestnut hill's arts and crafts fest. The weekend was filled with food, walking, and of course tons of inspiration! I took over 200 pictures at longwood- there was so much to see and we only saw about half of it. unbelievable! Here's just a small amount of the pictures I took- I have a feeling I'm going to start uploading my zillions of photos to Flickr..

I imagined this overhead shot of these gorgeous red flowers as a polka-dotted pattern

I just loved the color of this flower, its big shiny petals, and the tiny flowers floating inside of it

these swirled plants were one of my favorite finds

the water lilies were absolutely stunning, look how large they are!

inside part of the conservatory were these topiary bees hanging from the ceiling

this bench reminded me of an owl

can you tell I have a thing for scrolls and swirls? I loved the simplicity of this bench

this was part of a waterfall/fountain I just loved the pattern and texture

the shape and color of this flower reminds me of a paper lantern

Illustration Friday- germs

With the wonderful season of fall comes the ever so lovely season of germs!

Here is my (super disgusting!!) pattern of these oddball germ like characters I doodled up just for fun. Please note I chose the worst colors imaginable (haha!) a pea green, a sickly yellow, week-old rotting orange, and a sea-sick on the verge of fainting green. enjoy!!

illustration Friday- pattern

Happy October!! It was quite chilly today and it definitely felt like fall. So here is a leafy pattern inspired by the season! It just so happens that this weeks illustration friday word is pattern (what are the chances?!)