she is finding her way

Finished a mixed media canvas today: She is Finding her Way (9"x12"). Look for her in my Etsy shop soon.

a completed project

I am currently taking an online class by Christy Tomlinson—The SheArt Workshop. I have several backgrounds completed now. They look very grungy and boy to me and I'm just not sure how to finish them yet. My first completed project is a set of magnetic alphabet letters for the refrigerator. I've been casually looking all over for one of those cheap plastic sets, but have only found a number set. So, I decided to make my own for Lucas. I found a package of plain paperboard letters at Michael's and decided to apply my mixed media skills to them. I love the way they turned out and Lucas is having fun with them too. Below is a series of photos of the different layers I added to get to the final product.

Black Friday

Please consider buying handmade this holiday season. To help you out—I'm offering a special 30% discount on everything in my Etsy store.
Coupon code is "black30"
This offer is good through Tuesday (Nov. 30).

Happy Thanksgiving!

my first gocco attempt

I successfully burned a gocco screen on the first try! I think my background in printing, specifically screen printing, seriously boosted my confidence in this task. Now when it comes to choice of ink, I failed miserably. I've been reading a lot of forums about gocco related "stuff" and someone said they successfully used versatex screen printing ink instead of gocco ink. I thought I'd give that a try since I could order it through Dick Blick and it would be here the next day. It was just way too thin. I cleaned up the screen and tried some plain old oil paint next, but I wasn't happy with the color.

Eventually after all the messing around with ink and colors the screen got clogged and I couldn't push any ink through so I gave up. I wasn't about to burn another screen and I need to get these invites in the mail, so I don't have time to find and wait for gocco ink to arrive.

I redesigned the text and printed it out on an inkjet transparency and attached it to the photo instead.

Honorable Mention

I was awarded Honorable Mention at the sixth annual Downtown Festival of the Arts in Champaign, Illinois on August 16th. The "award is reserved for those artists that have shown originality in conception and execution, high quality of workmanship, and excellence in design" (as the letter I received states). Not too bad for my fifth art show!

Downtown Festival of the Arts

Saturday I'll be in Champaign showing my art at the Downtown Festival of the Arts. Above are some new pieces I will be showing. Hope to see you there!

Spring Bloom Sneak Peek

As promised, here are two sneak peeks of two new pieces that will be for sale at the arts festival at the Bloomington Sale Barn this weekend.

Etsy Update Tonight!

New Items will finally arrive in my store tonight—sometime between 7 & 9 pm central time. But first I must mow the yard.....not fun.

Finally......

A new post!!! So I think I am officially bad at this whole blogging thing. Been thinking about posting for weeks now, but just haven't gotten around to it. It's time to showcase a couple new projects I completed for the show in Champaign back in mid-August.

More for Sugar Creek

In Progress....

Only 14 more days until Sugar Creek! Still working really hard and hoping I'm going to have enough items ready. Here's what I'm working on today. Looks like i'll be spending a lot of time at the sewing machine this afternoon.

I think I'm going to have a hard time letting this one go. Loving it already!!


I obviously have had Vero Beach on my mind lately.


Working on some new flower pins for the upcoming shows, as well.

Sneak Peek

Just thought I'd give you a sneak peek of something I have been working on for Sugar Creek. It is currently untitled. The picture isn't the greatest—please ignore the glare on the glass. I've got several other great pieces in the works that I'm really excited about.

Most Recent Work

This was created as a gift for my mother-in-law's friend, so sorry, it's sold. I'm really pleased with it, it was difficult to part with.

Spring Bloom Sneak Peek

Next weekend is the Spring Bloom Arts Festival at the Bloomington Sale Barn. The above images are a sneak peek of one of my pieces for sale entitled Beautifully Unexpected. It's a piece of cotton that has been wrapped and over-dyed numerous times in different colors to achieve the final result. I loved the resulting piece of fabric and couldn't bear to cut it up and incorporate it into something else, so I chose to embellish it instead with embroidery and beads. It's been stretched over a 12 x 16 inch frame like a piece of canvas.

I've been working really hard on new pieces and am really excited about the finished results.

Items are now for sale in my Etsy store!!!

Finally! I have uploaded items to my Etsy store. To view and/or purchase my lovely artwork, please visit voneall.etsy.com. There is also a link over to the left. I'll be uploading items all week.
Happy New Year!

After Harvest

My latest art piece created from fabric, yarn, cheese cloth, and embroidery thread. The fabric was hand-dyed by me, and I did all the embroidery by hand, as well. It has been fused to an 8"x10" canvas board. I officially feel like a farmer's wife after learning how to do fall tillage which is what inspired this piece. It's what I see outside when I look out the window. The piece will be for sale at the BHS Craft Fair next weekend, Saturday, November 3.