Continuing my obsession with whimsical little cities, I've created three more ACEOs.  I collaged the backgrounds some time ago without really knowing what I was going to do with them.  After my last ACEOs, which had little buildings, I decided I really love making houses and jumbles of buildings, which I call cities.  I drew these with paint pens onto my collaged backgrounds.  Paint pens are great because they are bright and shiny and cover almost anything!
You can click on them to enlarge them and they are all for sale in my Etys : )

Is he teasing her, or offering her his favorite treat or both?  She's just not sure about that strange red food.
This is my newest mixed media piece inspired by a photo taken at a pre-school party and the weird and wonderful world of five year olds.  I love painting on old book pages because the layers allow for all kinds of meanings and interpretations.  The painting kind of creates itself!
Also, they really did make those hats out of construction paper!  These things only happen when you are that age.

I've done a series of ACEO's for my Etsy shop. I have three more which I need to photograph, but they are slightly different.  I've always loved doodling little boxes.  Boxes protect things and create order and structure.  Our homes are like boxes and our cities are like collections of boxes.  Life can be unpredictable and bewildering, but boxes are safe and comforting.  Oh My!  Does that mean I'm an inside the box thinker?  Maybe, part of me would just like to be sometimes.

It's a little too early here to cultivate any plants, so I can spend more time cultivating my mixed media creations.  The leaves and flower were part of an old watercolor painting and the stamp of the fork and trowel I found at a garage sale last year.  I love the idea of rubber stamps and I have a large box of them, but I can never quite figure out how to fit them into my art.  The word cultivate was the perfect opportunity to dig out this gardening stamp.  Sorry about the bad pun!!

I was just finishing this mixed media painting when I saw the Illustration Friday word this week, "Stir".  It must be serendipity.  As you can see, the proverbial pot is going to be stirred.  That's what happens when you invite a pirate to tea.
I painted this from an old photo of my kids.  However, as always, it started to tell it's own story, so I let it follow it's own path. 
I will be putting it in my Etsy shop tomorrow.  I was going to do it today, but I forgot to sign it! 

I’ve done a lot of watercolor painting in my time and my pile of half finished paintings was getting rather large!  I decided that I should up-cycle some of these paintings into art journals for my store.  I use Arches 140 lb acid free watercolor paper so the quality of the paper is very good.  Some of the pages have paint and some are blank.  Unlike a store bought journal, it's rough and imperfect and will hopefully inspire creativity in the owner.
I liked the idea of using book rings because you can easily add, remove or rearrange the pages.  However, my daughter, who is a huge collector of journals, didn't like the book ring binding.  This unleashed a hole pandora's box of questions.   Will people not want journals with book rings???   What kind of binding do people like.  I got a  book out of the library which is entirely on binding journals.  There are many other types of binding! 
So my question to you is: What type of binding do you like for your journals?  Please leave a commment if you have a preference.  I'd love to hear.

This is a warning to myself.  When I start looking at the paper I made with National Geographics and Citra-Solv, I do sort of loose touch with reality.  The blobs and sploches are amazing!  You can get lost in there!
If you like this ACEO, it will be in my store tomorrow or the day after: )

I've been waiting anxiously for the latest copy of Cloth Paper Scissors.  My subscription had, by mistake, lapsed and I wasn't sure if I was going to get the March/April issue or not.  I couldn't find it anywhere in the stores and I began hearing that people had seen it!   The suspense was killing me.
Yesterday I got two copies in the mail box!  One was my subscription and the other was my complimentary copy for being an artist in the issue. Yay!
It was definitely worth waiting for.  They did a wonderful job of displaying the "All Buttoned Up" challenge, with large pictures and the full written description that I sent in.  
The work by the other challengers is amazing.  I'm a little surprised, and honored, to be included.   The issue has a lot of really beautiful work in it, so have a look!

My "Measured in Buttons" piece is now for sale in my etsy store.

Becky had them all dressed for their latest adventures in various costumes knitted by Gramma.  The Piorot  is my favorite!  They say you should paint what you know (don't they?).  I'm certainly having way too much fun painting pictures based on old photos of the kids.  This is done with acrylic on torn book pages and stretched canvas. Hope you like it because I'm planning more!


Since this piece has a lot of Chartreuse, I am entering it in the Mix it Up with Melange blog challenge.  Chartreuse is the challenge word this month.  If you like Chartreuse as much as I do, you can find more of this beautiful color from the talented mixed media artists of the Melange Etsy team!