Creativeness for the Day

Well today I actually feel like I accomplished something. I made a few stamps from foam sheets, and I made a tag today.

The bird, cross, dots and heart stamp turned out great, but the hope stamp was a fail. i forgot to make it in reverse so now it stamps backwards... oh well, I still had fun doing it. 

Now, I have to figure out a reward for three of the girls in my small group in youth group. I gave them a challenge and told them if they did it I would have something special for them, and three of them did it, so now I have to find something to buy or make. I have no idea what to do right now. Anyone happen to have any ideas? I am at a loss. I'm not sure if I should make something like artsy, or if I should just buy something.  I have until Sunday to have it all figured out and done. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Also, since I'm asking for ideas, do any of you have any tips for how to keep up with blogging? I'm not absolutely horrible with it like I use to be, but I would like to do more. Is there anything you would like me to write about, or something you want me to make? Would you want a tutorial on something? Again, any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Tag Tuesday

It's been to long.... I have been horrible with actually doing what I say I want to do as far as art goes. Mixed Media Monday only happened once, and Tag Tuesday was skipped as well. So today I'm trying to get back on track.
I actually made these tags last week, but I never got around to posting them. So here they are...

I hope you enjoy them, and I'm going to try really hard to start posting more frequently. I may have to challenge myself to blog every day again, that seemed to work for me. Also please check out my facebook page, Shackle Designs. I posted a new family photo shoot we did the other day, and I'm working on some more of my sister's senior portraits so let me know what you think over there. Thanks again for reading :)

A Bit Behind

Well I haven't posted for a while. I've been a bit busy lastely. Yesterday was our first year anniversary and we stayed in STL Friday night. Saturday we went to the zoo and did some shopping at World Market (love that store so much) and then Sunday of course was church and youth group. Then yesterday we went to an apple orchard and then went to Hobby Lobby. So I haven't had much time for anything... now I'm feeling a bit ill, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done this week either, and then this weekend is really crazy. There's a youth retreat Friday-Sat. then the Folklife Festival Saturday and my little sisters birthday party at my parents house. Then sunday is church, then little sister's party at Bonkers, then youth group. So yes, very crazy. Hopefully I'll be able to make some time for art though. I'll try to at least do some tags this week, and get them posted. Next week hopefully will be back to normal and I'll be back with Mixed Media Monday and Tag Tuesday.

Well on a totally different note... I'm really struggling with the whole not having a job thing. We want to be able to get a house, and right now that's just totally not possible because with only Adam working we have no way of having any kind of down payment. If I could just get a job then we could start saving money for a down payment, and we'd be able to get a house. Why is it so hard? I really don't understand... I'd really like to make at least a little extra money from my art. If you are interested in purchases anything from me please let me know. I'm also going to start making some juice pouch crafts. I have a coin pouch that I made for myself, and I could make those and sell them for $10 each. I'm also going to explore making wallets from juice pouches. I make art journals/ sketchbooks / journals as well. If you are interested in purchasing one let me know and we can discuss options. I feel like right now I'm not contributing anything, and if I could make a little money from my art, I would feel like I'm actually doing something. So please consider helping us out with this.

oops

Sorry I didn't post yesterday or today... Yesterday was my mom's birthday and so I was at her house celebrating, and today I've had a horrible headache. I'll try to get caught up with mixed-media monday and tag tuesday and post tomorrow.

Tag Tuesday

Here's my second new thing this week. TAGS. I've never really done much with tags before, because I don't really know what to do with them. I'm still not sure, but I'm going to start making tags every Tuesday, and we'll see what happens with them. They may become part of my art journal, or maybe something else. The other day I came across an artist who creates an ACEO (art card, editions, and originals) every single day, and she is selling them for a charity. I thought that was a really cool idea. (check her out here) I think I may want to do something like that with all these tags I'll be making, but we'll see. I'm not sure what charity I would donate to, or maybe I could use it for a mission trip or something. But again let me know if you all have any ideas.
I'm still working on my pencil drawing today. It's hard, and I'm not feeling super inspired by it. So I'm not sure if this one will ever get done, but we'll see. I suppose it's still good practice.
Another thought for today. I've been getting a lot of people reading my posts and that's awesome, but please do me a favor and follow/subscribe my blog. I would really appreciate it. Right now I only have 2 followers.


so here's my first tag today. Sorry the picture isn't the greatest. I didn't feel like getting to my scanner, but I will later on so you can get a better picture. It says "Love with all that is within you"

Mixed Media Monday

Hello everyone! I decided to start something new to help me keep up with blogging. Today I want to introduce my new theme, Mixed Media Monday. Every monday I will create a mixed media piece either in my art journal, on canvas, or maybe some other crazy thing I come up with. For right now I will just post a photo of my finished piece, but in the future I may start making a video of the process. I'm not sure when that will happen because I'll have to figure out all the video stuff. I've never made videos before, so we'll see.

For now enjoy today's art journal page.

Blog Challenge Wrap Up

Well the month of September is now over, and as I look back over the month I see that I did not blog every day like I challenged myself to do, but I did blog way more than I ever have. So I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm going to think up another challenge I can do for myself to force myself out of my comfort zone, and do something I haven't done before. So I'm excited for that. If any one has any challenge ideas please let me know.
So I'm not sure if I'll do anything creative today, we'll see. I'm going to try to draw more often. I use to do it all the time, and I can't remember the last time I did a drawing instead of painting. So right now I guess that's a bit of a challenge, but more short term probably. I'll post pictures of my process as I begin my drawing. I'm a bit nervous about it for some reason.
Well I guess that's all I have to say, if I do something fun today I'll update later.