COLOR-MAD MONDAY: INSTANT GRATIFICATION

I love doing my travel journals or one of my torn-paper-collages, but they take a lot of thinking and prepping and planning and painting and ripping and gluing. Once I get into the flow of it, I can keep at it indefinitely. However, once I've been pulled out of the flow - by weddings or birthings or vacations or holiday seasons -- it can be very, very hard to get back into it! That's when I need something quick and simple that says "Aw come on, you can finish me in a day!" I need some instant gratification -- anything that will get me to put paintbrush to paper. That's when I turn to this little jewel.

Sometimes, I just have to allow myself to take the easy way out -- to start with one of her designs, instead of coming up with one of my own, and just play with my cheapo craft paints and whatever markers are at hand, instead of creating hand-painted papers, then tearing them up to be glued down as collage. Which is how I finally managed to pick up a paint brush for the first time since I got back from art camp in early November! The result was this happy little teapot house, that makes me smile each time I see it.

Now, finally, I'm ready and eager to move on to a bit of my own folk art fusion -- perhaps something inspired by one of the little vignettes scattered around my house.

I'll let you know how it goes!