Have My Cake and Paint It Too...

One of my most recent journal pages started out with a sweet theme and just got sweeter from there! With cake as the subject matter... can I really go wrong?

If you know me, any form of pink and teal or blue can be a predictable starting point. This time I thought I'd add a little brown and cream for good measure (a baking reference...get it!).

I had actually painted the cake on the page before the girl was there... part of my brave new strategy of just doing something and not worrying about how it will end up in the final composition. But, I have to confess that I liked it so much, I didn't want to cover it up.

So, of course when I added the girl, she had to be eyeing up that slice of chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. Mmmmmmm. I see that little smirk on her face! She's totally thinking.... MINE!

When I create these pages, I like to alternate painting, drawing, embellishing and pasting stuff on. I kinda sorta randomly pick from my ephemera pieces that just look good on the page... like this number 5 from a flash card. I think I chose this because the nicely aged cardstock went well with the polka-dotted scrapbook page next to it. And because 5-year-olds like cake!

But then i found this cute little spanish language flash card that had a 5 on it... and so I added that to the piece as well. And I just love sounding out (say it with me now...) OO-nah moó-CHA-chah.

Even more delightfully delicious ephemera kept finding its way to my cakey journal page and this one was probably my favorite. The celebratory birthday girl and boy were precisely placed over top of the music page so that the words "be good" appeared between them.

It's funny how when I'm working on a page, it feels like I'm on auto pilot. Not in a bad way. But I just make moves and then work with what's there. Then I make more moves and add more, tweak more and play more until the layout is pleasing to the eye.

But when I look back at all my detail photos, I see dozens upon dozens of carefully calculated decisions... a warm wash of paint here... some extra glitter there... a pencil scratch here... a candy wrapper there.... or the smallest of elements that really felt good at the time. And then I remember what a joy it is to create in the moment... even though my goal is a finished page.

So I guess I can have my cake and paint it too!

Prints Now Available...

Well, I finally photographed a bunch of my original whimsically weird art and had prints made, which are now available in a special section of my Etsy Shop! Seeing them all together was quite exciting and I plan to be painting more and more as the Fall season turns to Winter. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed painting them. Happy browsing!

Sweet Little Sweet Cake

I'm not sure what possessed me... my love of sweets? My recent vacation doodles? My restricted sugar diet? But whatever it was, I certainly was possessed! My desire to fill an entire 16"x20" canvas with cupcakes... and cotton candy... and donuts... and ice cream... and candy apples... and more... simply overtook me.

In fact, I was so in-the-zone that I never replaced the lightbulb directly over my work table. I was practically painting in the dark! I just didn't want to waste one moment. And, all along I knew I wanted to photograph the background before drawing out the cake shape... but I finished that part in the evening (when there's no good light for photography) and just couldn't wait to move forward. The curiosity was killing me!

So, I just did it. I kept drawing and painting and painting and smearing... and loving every single second of it! Masking the outer area with a light seafoam green acrylic just made me giddy with success.

Then for the inside. I wasn't sure if I was going to leave the colors graduated, but I stared at it for a while and felt an obnoxiously bright pink would tie it all together and make the candy pop! And when all was said and done (around 11:30pm!), I sat back and reveled in my sweet little creation. And that was the icing on the cake.

Okay... what's next?