ARTFUL BLOGGING!

It HAs ArriVed!
My contributor's copy of the Feb 1st issue of Artful Blogging! I'm so happy to see my work and words in a magazine. I'm very pleased with what I wrote and the collection of photos. I can't wait for you all to read my story & what the blog world has taught me this past year. I can't help but think a year ago on Jan. 29th. What was I doing? I'm sure I wasn't thinking I'd be in Artful Blogging this time next year. It's so amazing what can be accomplished in just a short amount of time. Instead of taking my ultimate goals & trying to figure out a very precise plan to make it to the ultimate goal. I went day by day. Every e-mail or person that came into my life I dealt with that day and that week. What followed was my aspirations unfolding in front of me. I've met many people and done many things I didn't actually plan on but I'm enjoying every wonderful opportunity that is coming my way. I pray that God keeps me focused on what is important in life like spiritual connections with the ones I love and a clarity for my mind so I can get these humanly tasks done in an efficient and timely manner without loosing any meaning that life is trying to show me.
Thank you So much to everyone who supports me. I'm sending out my love and appreciation to each of you:) Okay you talked me into it. Just a tiny peek!

As I was talking about meeting new people and having exciting e-mails every day. So, also happened yesterday when Cassandra Russel asked me to fill out this interview questionnaire about myself and my artwork. Here is a bit of what I answered.

who the artist is: ANGELA HARRIS ~Any Art~ Missouri~ 23 year old Stay at Home Mom of 3 children (Ages 4,3 & 2)

what's your story: I'm guessing my Angel Grandma who passed away when I was 4 handed down art to me as a gift knowing she wouldn't be here with me long. I feel everything comes pretty natural about art. It just makes sense. As a teenager I decorated my room and made myself an art desk out of two small columns and a piece of wood for the top. I used an overstuffed pillow as a seat. Had a little Jelly Cabinet and kept all of my craft supplies in there. The glue gun was always plugged in and there was always a project on my desk.

My husband & I went straight from High School to working full time to support our growing family. Now I still have a craft room in our home I've gone from working full time at Michaels Arts & Crafts for 6 years to being a Full time Stay at home Mom ~ Part time Artist.

See the full Post with photos and all through this link. Make sure to come back and see me on Feb 1st right after you go get your Artful blogging Magazine to see me announce my celebratory GiVeAwAy.

New Member of MOPS!

It's a busy month of New memberships for me:) So far I've joined Picnik, Lollishops & MOPS.
This program is for Mothers of Preschoolers. Although I'm pretty sure they are not strict on that. I saw some woman who think they qualified b/c their teenagers Act like preschoolers. Hehe The above picture is the Front of my Mops binder. It's the most wonderful digital artwork printed on old ledger paper. I got this print from a friend but it wouldn't fit in my binder so I had to shrink it down a size. I'm going to put the real copy in a frame and put it in my Master Bath. anyways get these prints from her Etsy shop here
This is the art collage I threw together for the back of my Mops Binder. The kids first meeting in their Moppets class they painted on coffee filters so I thought that would be a cute background that fits into the Mops theme. I used my Crepe paper frills and some velour ribbon on top of that for the bottom of the page. The Wings on Valoria are the beautiful Pink Dresden foil wings that jenny sent me in that beautiful Silver Bella package. I've seen some beautiful wings sold here in Marilyn Healey's shop here. The Wings on Valencia are wings she's actually wearing:)
Oh I must tell you about the most beautiful hearts I've ever seen! The little red & black heart drawings and "MOM" is a beautiful little piece that my 4 year old Jaedin makes me. He writes his hearts and writes "Mom" and then cuts it out. (He just learned to use his "safety scissors" as he calls them) Then he brings it to me and says "I made hearts for you" Ohhh and then my actual heart melts Awwww
My second meeting with Mops was lots of Fun. I packed a bag with craft goodies of the Valentine variety and my glue gun(of course) and our craft this time was what we called a "Love Dare" box. The idea I believe is based off of the movie "Fireproof" which I rented last night and now I just have to find a straight jacket of some sort to make my husband watch it :)


I think this is going to be a wonderful gift to all of the special couples in my life for Valentines Day.
All they have to do is rent Fireproof for $1 and make some dinner and what do you know. An easy Valentine Day Date! Try it!
You can get the 40 Love Dare challenges Here...


Out in Blog World there are more sweet people than I probably be able to ever meet but I will sure try. Here are 2 blog friends who passed on Blog awards to me. Thank you!

This Fabulous Blog Award is from Maygreen Faires. Her collage comedy fairies are too funny not to see.
My year long buddy Sherry awarded me this cute award. Thanks so much guys for supporting my writing and living!

I've set up shop in Lollishop Land!

A few days ago I was accepted to become a Lollishop vendor. Sadie Lou who runs this site was so gracious and even featured me on the Lollishops blog. Come see!
Here is a direct link to my Lollishop here.
Fabric pouches with mesh pockets


Hair Jewelry~ Elastic crystal and pearl headbands
These are SO easy to wear and look like you've put a huge amount of time
and effort into your look

"Madame Purl"

Have you ever seen the calls for artwork in the back of a Stampington Publication before? This issues calls for Artwork too fun for me to pass. I'm going to try most all of them. Even if you decide not to send your projects in, don't you think that their challenges are really like when your in your Elementary & High school Art Classes and your teacher would write an assignment on the board every day of something for you to draw in your sketchbook like "Draw an insect with a job"

Well, I found myself writing the ones down that were interesting to me and studying them like an assignment. The "Creative Bug" struck instantly. I had to work on them now!

This little bug is convincing me the assignment is due tomorrow.

It's midnight. My eyes are squinting and taking turns closing while the other one works diligently.

Good thing I'm not behind my craft table like Martha Stewart being recorded :)

It's 1:00 a.m. now and my husband is giving me funny looks as I'm walking back and forth from my craft room to the kitchen island (my glue gun) post. Every time I'm carrying some kooky crazy concoction of a sculpture.

I'm wondering why I'm staying up to make this thing I don't even know what the point of it is. But the "Creative Bug" that first told me to get started and was so persistent is now calming and I'm wondering if maybe what I thought was a macho Mafia bug is now a delicate Jewel of a Butterfly. She's willing herself into existence through this tired body. She has a nice soft voice , she's clothed in whites and silvers. Like a Winter Wonderland Fairy. The Button Fairy?

Well here she is "Madame Purl". Guardian of her Buttons.

Has anyone ever Sleep(crafted)?
When I awoke this morning to find what kind of interesting creation (we call it fanciful) I had made I saw that these Jars of Treasures are exactly what I was wanting to create. A way that these vintage glass spice jars would be able to be used in my craft room. Not just shown. With a home that is less than 1,000 sq. feet everything in my house mus have a double purpose. It's aloud to be beautiful but it also must have a use. These alterations to these jars are enough to achieve the romantic, whimsical look for my craft room I wanted but they also will still hold glitter and buttons to be easily accessed. So I challenge you to go into your craft room and look around. close your eyes and then sketch an idea of how you can alter a storage piece in your room.

Beautifully Monocromatic

So here they are. My appearances in the newest Somerset Life Magazine!
The photographer and the Editor did such a great job with the title and description of my items. I'm very happy with the way it came to life. This was such a full filling experience & I hope there are many more articles and appearances to come. If ever I have ideas, it's now!
Just as success can energize and fill you with hope, so can discouragement. It can drive you to be better than you think you can be. You need those times of rejection and falling down to feel like you've accomplished something great. This quote below is exactly why I love to be an artist.
Artists can show there love through their art. Just like a musician through their music. I hope you all can see my romantic & hopefully fanciful style just how full of love I am and at times pure Joy for Life.

Such a HAPPY day!

Sooo... I'm at Michaels to get some satin ribbon for a custom order Wedding bouquet and I see the new Somerset Life is out! I start flipping through and as I'm gushing over the artwork I flip to page 50-51 & there are my Bread of Life ATCs! I posted about them here. And my packaging as well is on page 100-101!
I'm published & I didn't even know it! I'm so excited for all of these publications to be coming out at once.
So you can get your copy of it here, or rush to Michaels or bookstore & go see!
Thank you so much to Marilyn Healey for featuring these cards on her website and letting Jenny Doh borrow them for a while. I appreciate being in a publication with such inspiring works of art.
I'll be showing further pics of the articles when it's daylight and I get take some photos worth posting! Until then, I'm going to go try and sleep.
Goodnight:)

Now to await for my next publication! The Spring 2009 issue of Artful Blogging!

Makeup Lessons

Super cool website alert! If you haven't hear yet. Really you must make time to go to Picnik! I fell in love with PhotoShop programs freshman year of high school when taking media classes and printmaking and of course the price tag keeps it away from my comp. This amazing new website company called Picnik allows the photographer/blogger /memory creator to enhance and change photos in so many different ways you wouldn't believe. Use their free services or join for pennies a year to have access to more cool techniques. The coolest new website. I'm so excited to go through all of my unprinted photos and enhance them a bit before ordering my family photos. Let me know if you have any questions about it or contact their lovely team that will get back to you immediately with helpful answers.

Happy Picniking!!!

My Daughter the Artist:)

I think it's time for some makeup lessons!

Romantic Trim Tags

Faithful Angel Trim Tags

Finally! I made some time for my favorite items to make for my Etsy shop. I made a collection of 5 trim tags sets with cute little themes. They are all available now in my shop

A Cinderella Story Trim Tags

Love Bird Trim Tags

Juliet Trim Tags


Funky Love Trim Tags

Brrr. It's Cold! Here in Saint Louis there is an Arctic Wave blowing through and it was 0 degrees today. But at 8:00 when I looked out my kitchen window I knew I would have to bundle up and go out a photograph how beautiful it was. It sure doesn't look cold does it? The photo below I thought looked like it could be 70 degrees.

Since the kids & I are all huddled inside we've been doing alot of school work and cleaning. I did an official scrub down of the kitchen. I like to keep it perky and upbeat around here but.... I Hate scrubbing stuff! The word at the top of my list today was Yuck! and can anyone tell me why I have a cheese puff in my toaster and jelly on the side of my fridge? How do these things happen? Kid's have an unusual way of organizing.

Swimming class~ Etsy Update

Well, I've reached a new level in motherhood. The busy errand runner, we have swim classes, library story times, post office runs for etsy, grocery shopping etc. Jaedin and Valencia just started Swimming lessons and they love it. The only problem is Valencia refusing to leave the pool when class is over. Jaedin has a good time watching the other kids but doesn't like to "get wet" we'll have to talk about how this will be a problem at swim class.

Jaedin has completed Karate and Tumbling & Valencia didn't enjoy her dance class very much so we decided we would try something else. She really loves to swim so this is perfect.

The reason I wanted to start them in Swimming this winter is to get them ready for this summer. I'm sure I'm not the only mother who worries alot about her kids in the water right?

So hopefully they will know enough to be ready for Swimming pool season. Valoria was a trooper watching her brother & sister get in but she had to watch on the sidelines. She found plenty to do.
I've been working hard to get my Etsy shop stocked with new & fun items. Here are some pretty items that are available now in my Etsy shop.

*NEW* Silky Crepe Paper Frills - these rolls crepe paper are the classic sewn crepe paper with some gorgeous silky looking seam binding ribbon. It's been alot of fun to choose color combinations for these but the seam binding ribbon goes quickly with this project.

I'm keeping the Etsy shop stocked with white and cream roses because no matter your decor style, you can't go wrong with these colors.

I found a new way to package the crepe paper rolls in these supply boxes. I print cartooches on bright colored paper and personalize the tops with the persons name or shop.

This order took a while but finally I had personalized with calligraphy 500 crown tags. & packaged with funky pink pops of color.

500 Personalized crown tags.
I believe in alot of aspects in life that you will reap what you sow. Therefore I've been putting alot of thought & time into making my shop what I want it to be and the payoff is great. There are so many new products I want to offer like a line of head jewelry like in this picture

What do you think? Would you have anywhere to wear something like this?