Finding inspiration:

with blues

and golds


outdoors


and in




with my eyes

Susan Tuttle

and with my ears

"The Prayer"

inviting you to visit my shop and to watch for angels all about you

"LOOKING BEYOND" - gel transfers
I have completed a video which is about my experiences with using gel transfers. It is a tutorial of sorts. Please find it here:



If you are not able to view the video and would like the tutorial in a typed format please contact me through flickr mail or you can leave a comment here telling me you are trying to contact me through my profile here. I believe you can access it.
I would also love to receive your comments so that I know about future videos, future tutorials. If you do not have an account with youtube then please comment here or at my flickr site.

Here's a photo of the art journal page in the nearly complete form.


The final page is at the top of the post. I did learn that ink on stamps does not necessarily work well on Tim Holz crackle paint. Always learning - that's a good thing, I think. I do want to give credit to Misty Mawn and Claudine Hellmuth, both of whom are mentioned in the video. They have taught me much. I love both of their abilities as artists. I could look at Misty's blog and art for a long time. Well - but when would I get my own art created? Please take a moment to look at their blogs and be inspired.

I also must mention Loreena McKennitt who has very kindly given me permission to use her music. As I say by the video - the magic of the video (if there is any) would not be apparent if not for the music.

Please also take a moment to check my etsy shop at your earliest possible convenience. I will be adding a number of items over the next couple of days.

Angels be with you.

Postcards: newly introduced to my shop:







I'm hoping you'll stop by my shop and fave it if you've not already done so. I will readily return the favour (:
And please check my most recent post if you've not seen it yet.

Later,
Wendy

I am following the lead of the lovely Karen who gave the idea of putting the little photos at the beginning of sections. And as I'm always thinking of angels I thought what an appropriate way to embellish my posts. I have also been sent so many angels I wanted to share some of them with you.

I am in a place where I have so many works in progress at the moment and I am feeling uncertain of where to turn. I think I will begin by showing you my latest creation from the weekend. That is a new carved stamp. I had borrowed Ruth Issett's book from the library. Through her book Print, Pattern and Colour, together with various articles from Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines I have drawn so much inspiration.

And since I started this post yesterday morning I decided to do a tutorial video about making stamps.











I've also completed three postcards using the recent stamp and have posted them in my shop. YES! I'll show photos of them tomorrow. It's getting too late now. (PHEW! THANK GOODNESS daughter's Home Ec. project is done. There was much turmoil today after school.)

Unfortunately the planning was just a bit slow in that I learned the dear Karen had advertised my blog and shop in a post she did yesterday. Oh well, there is only so much I can accomplish at one time and my left eye wants to keep twittering at me - take time to rest, take time to rest.

I have also learned that my dear friend Elena has started her very own blog. ***YAY ELENA*** I hope you'll take time to visit her and comment. I also hope to be stopping by some of the fabulous blogs she has introduced to me and putting links to hers AND numerous of these others in the near future.

Getting very late so I will have to be back with you all tomorrow.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

Getting excited:
The first good news is our daughter did a complete (for the time being anyway) turnaround. This was Wednesday. Cat also sees Naomi and had just seen her last Saturday. It takes a few days sometimes to notice positive effects. Also the proper consequences set in place make a world of difference. Prayer probably had a huge impact too. Thanks if you were one of the many people offering those up.

Just a couple more days until I will have so much more time for art and networking. Lots of my time will be spent networking for etsy but I also hope to visit more of your blogs soon. It probably helps that I received two awards this week and have to find - hmmm - 15 bloggers to present awards to. That's a good thing :D I think I'll be announcing some give aways soon also. Maybe the two can compliment each other.

There's some bit of exciting news with my etsy. Check my shop announcement and recent additions. Once I get networking I may not be able to keep up with it all. HA! I wish. Here are a couple of the places I hope to be networking - etsy groups on facebook and etsy groups on flickr. I've shown my face a bit already on the flickr groups. I'm still a bit uncertain about this whole facebook piece. Sigh. Wish me luck. Also let me know if you are there and I don't have you marked as a friend. You can find me there as Wendy Burton.





Above are a couple of pictures of a beautiful, thin vintage handkerchief I found in the past week. I love the picture on it and thought it so appropriate for this time of year.

Almost forgot to mention I made my first etsy purchase a little while ago. I so wish I could buy something from each of you but I first have to make more sales myself :D If you can't buy anything from my shop right now I'd truly appreciate if you faved anything you at least like a little bit. I'll be doing the same for you if I know where to find you.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

PEACE GARDEN art quilt:



I've posted a new video and a new item to my etsy shop. The quilt is not actually new but perhaps new to you.

Stay tuned. Hopefully I'll have another video and more items for etsy in next day or two.
Please see yesterday's post where I mention More cheerful things

Bits and pieces:
If you haven't already, please take a moment to check the pink artist doll. I believe this is a spectacular project to raise funds for breast cancer. Love Squared, as she is known, has been a wonderful collaborative project of Monica and many artists. Thanks Monica. I have chosen to put my blog in pink for a few days to honour those who have lost loved ones to this painful entity of cancer. Also I want to recognize those who are survivors. Interestingly, I have a cousin whose name is Monica, that is a survivor.

As I plod along my artful path I have chosen to share this video which contains one of my favourite songs. It's a little bit of a unique presentation.



And finally I'll share a self portrait from this morning. I did it mostly in preparation for some of the videos with which I'm working. I've written words to go with that speak a bit to where I am at the moment:



relax?
WHO? ME?
I don't remember
what that means
maybe
I could
try

I'll just take a moment to show this Easter arrangement I set up in my studio last Friday. I'm making great progress with it's organization. Note I've decided to call it a studio after all. Should mention the little yellow outfit belonged to baby Wendy :D

I hope you all had a happy easter. Ours was lovely followed by major busyness. I'll take a moment to share another day.

Busy day again tomorrow - my creative space will open hugely in next few days though. YES!!!! I can hardly wait to get back to it AND get some NEW art on my etsy.

Angels be with you

For those who love etsy and those who love art: I just got this link in one of the etsy newsletters which I have been receiving on a regular basis. It leaves me drooling just looking at the post. I can hardly wait to visit the shops. I am familiar already with a couple of them.
I am also left chomping at the bit to get much more creating done and to think seriously about what I might do for my banner. I love playing with the banners but that too has to take time.
Don't miss my yesterday's post. She smiles.


Angels be with you as you create.

eyes and voice:

I'll only take a few minutes now to introduce a couple of new links. I have decided to start a new blog which contains only my photos and slideshows of my art. I'll get a link in the sidebar shortly. Take a peek and let me know what you think - windyangelsEyEs.

You can find a link to St. Peter's Chorus, the group with which I have been singing for many years, at this site. It is a work in progress by one of our group members. I think he's been doing a terrific job with this and other creating for the Chorus. Thanks Manny.

I may not have time to be with you here until late March, early April. Please remember to stop by for a visit at my etsy shop if you have a spare moment. I am having very little time for creating now and adding to my shop but your visits are so heartwarming. I am investigating professional printing of my photos. This is being a challenge added to many other challenges right now. Hopefully I'll learn something soon. I also feel up lifted when I get extra views on any of my videos. Thanks to everyone for your support.

May angels be with you as you traverse through this Holy Week. If you are a friend that celebrates the Passover I understand that is not celebrated until April. I will hope to think of you at that time.

As spring and Easter approach I wish many angels to be with you,

Wendy XO

Dreaming for spring: Over the past days I have put together these journal pages as well as doing a video surrounding them and the idea of waiting for spring. One of the pictures on the video actually shows the journal on top of snow. I fear we may have snow for many weeks yet. If we are fortunate it will disappear sooner. If not, well, I'll just keep dreaming.




I had so much fun with these journal pages. I look forward to creating many more. And the next step will of course be canvases. I've one started, a flat canvas. I must see where I might take that.








I have also been adding items slowly to my etsy shop. Between writing descriptions, taking pictures, listing items, putting together videos, and trying to do my regular routine, sigh, there's little room for creating. Ah, creating. I will get to it, all in good time.


Thanks to everyone for the support through these times when I've had little room for visiting your lives. I do intend to get back to that. And thanks for any prayers that might be coming our way. They are so greatly appreciated.

Please remember to stop by my etsy at angelsdreams.

Now it's back to investigating - a place where I might get my photos enlarged. I hope to put many more photos on my etsy shortly.

Angels be with you in all your endeavours.
Wendy

angelsdreams.etsy.com is open for business. Amidst all the March madness (yuck, I kind of hate this month) I have managed to put some items in the shop. Please stop by for a visit and bolster my self esteem by hearting me and viewing the items :-) I have many shops bookmarked and will get around to hearting you as soon as I can, hopefully even ordering some items. Please be patient as my circus of a life rolls on. Once we have my folks house emptied and cleaned, mid-April, I will have much more time hopefully to create and share. Spring will also help my energy levels. Send me sunshine if you have any to spare. Send your snow and cold weather in other directions if that is the challenge you are facing now.

Oh, about the sixteen year old - I think prayers for my patience and peace of mind are probably the only things that will help there. Actually today was a reasonably calm day with her. I'll hope for the same tomorrow.

One of the items I've listed in my shop:



Hopefully able to bring you another video tomorrow and some current art through it.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

Angelsdreams: I suspect you're probably getting tired of me talking about an etsy shop and not seeing any action. Sigh. I'm REALLY working on it. One of the things right now that I'm needing to investigate really soon and decide about is copyright. because I put a majority of my images on flickr and I know there has been a major problem with people's images being stolen I'm trying to protect myself from that. This is not a final decision but for now I'm using "angelsdreams" for copyright.
I've been playing lots with my photopaint program which I now believe does pretty much the same things that photoshop does. This is just a much older version. and I believe the angels have been with me. I cannot make heads nor tails of the instruction book LOL. I don't actually know exactly where it is. No one has taught me. I have taken no classes. Everything just seems to happen by chance - angels I'm thinking.

I also have decided to break away from windyangels. As I've said, I've encountered some snags along the way. I was actually about ready to go with "pixydreams" for my shop and even had the banner and made the image with photopaint.



But I was feeling totally not comfortable with the image of a pixy. I could not place myself in that unknown territory. I was reassured that angels can be angry too. I was feeling somewhat out of place with my anger in the last few weeks. Now I'm set to run, or fly as the case may be with angelsdreams.

I've also been bookmarking many folks on etsy as well as trying to learn as much as possible about the best ways. I'm not certain how much time I'll have to visit on your blogs in the next days as I try very much to establish myself "over there". I'm not quite ready yet. I have to review my paypal account and also set up to have my photos enlarged. I need photos of my art to set up for business. Keep a watch. Soon!!!

I should mention that I've got about three journal quilts also ready to fly. It's hard keeping my feet on the ground to do the stitching and fabric prep and handiwork.

A reminder that all images are clickable.

Angels be with you,
Wendy

More art in progress and another journal page to share. I'm also working on the banner for my etsy shop so hopefully in the next few months LOL.














I'm realizing now that I would have preferred without the black trim around the words from the book for the journal page. Oh well, better to learn on a journal page than on a canvas.



I remember now the difficulty I had with the face also. Because I used a pastel for the purple I got a bit of smudging where it wasn't supposed to be. Also, the face being smaller I wasn't using the right tools - mouth especially got larger than I'd planned. Like I said, oh well.

The robin started out as this crappy photo from a long time ago. I wouldn't be able to tell you how I ended with this image.



I did use my old photopaint program and I think I did lots with effects. other than that I'm not sure. You'll be seeing more of it as I don't really like using others images, if possible, even the copyright free.

And a couple of pics of the fabric I've been painting for the last few weeks.

Someone asked us recently, "Is there any limitation to the body's ability to heal?" And we said, "None, other than the belief that you hold." And he said, "Then why aren't people growing new limbs?" And we said, "Because no one believes that they can."

Abraham-Hicks Publications

Looking to more fun, more humour in my life: While I've been trying to clean up my blog a bit, preparing to forgive myself for mistakes and get that etsy shop happening I found this very cool, FUNNY video. I’ll try to post more of them over the next couple of days so I can have a bit of this humour to remind myself.

Seize the day: This will be the saying on the new cheques I ordered yesterday. Even though it will cost me $5 more I absolutely felt the need. I was looking for "angels be with you" of course. When I didn't find it I thought how devastated I would actually feel if the whole countryside started using my saying. This way I can still write it in and it is my more personal touch.
I am finding myself pushing, pushing, pushing my left brain to try to get it more in gear. I have SO many works in progress. The main one of course is my etsy shop.
I will tell you right now, and you may not be surprised, that I will not be calling it windyangels. I put some deep thought into this. It may not be the best choice for advertising purposes but it is the bet choice for me. I will probably also start a new blog that has just my art on it. Because my writing and photographs are a huge part of my art, this may be tricky but I'll let you know, for sure.

Here are just a couple of the pieces I actually completed quite recently.







This lady is Wallis Simpson, Mrs. Simpson, the lady who married King Edward.

from Inspiration Peak:
Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, or irritable, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing that is done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Creator and Sustainer in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.

Author Unknown
But Very Much Appreciated!

Listening the last few days to Andrea Bocelli. This is "the prayer" with Celine Dion.

An unusual, rainy day: The rain is not so unusual but the reason today was particularly unusual was that our hyper kitty, Blue, was being rambunctious last night by my computer and I wasn't paying close enough attention. Suddenly everything went flying and I was no longer able to get online. WAH! Typically dear Greg would be able to sort things out in his IT centered brain. WAH! He was away overnight for work. WAH! He didn't get back to this house until 5:20 p.m. And so I felt lost. Now I'm back at it with my plans to be posting and commenting more regularly.
We'll see. I just remembered I'd been waiting to bookmark an etsy shop of someone with around 2000 hearts. I hope I can find her again.
I didn't do much art today though you might think it would be a perfect opportunity. Instead I have something like six pairs of my daughter's pants to shorten - three of which are jeans. She is quite petite. Even the pants I buy that are called petite need shortening. I also had a few moments of crying in my soup but I reassured myself and my family it was allowed because of everything that has and has not been happening recently. I'm better now. YAY me.
This Neil Diamond song seemed to be coming to mind today :


Some pictures of other things I've been creating in the past weeks. I'll tell you more as the time allows and I get something completed. Though you may have to wait until my etsy shop opens.

About etsy:
I like to look at slide shows on flickr sometimes while my hands are tied up for a couple of minutes and my brain is not. Today I decided to check etsy groups and came across this fabulous pool where they were discussing etsy shops and selling. As I am "oh so close" I decided that's where I needed to look today. I came across these tutorials about etsy shops and a lady whose been very successful there. The tutorials will be extremely beneficial I'm certain. How are your etsy sales going? I'll see you there soon.

Interesting ideas for those wanting to use art as business: I just came across Arts and Crafts cooperative this evening. I was also told about hyena cart a few weeks ago. They offer "a collection of unique shops offering a variety of earth-, child- and family-friendly items".
Flickr has a number of etsy groups and vox also has some groups relating to etsy.