Dabbling in Digital Art

Recently I wanted to try some new ways of doing art while my art supplies were all boxed up.  I am using a very basic online program to create art, but I'm loving being creative once again.  I'm loving how much fun it is!  Best of all, I'm really enjoying how the art is coming out, I totally want to print my digital art onto some canvas and hang them in my house.  I went with very abstract art, which seems to fit me better.  So I'm just going to post them here.  Let me know what you think.

Canyon

Focus

Nature

Sun Rays

Water Fall

City Scape

Emotions

Elements

Cave of Wonder

Star Sparkle

Blue Jelly

Holiday Custom Paintings

Happy Holidays!  Happy Thanksgiving! Merry Christmas!  Peace and Joy to one and all!

It's that time again, when we all look for perfect gifts for those we love.  Have you ever wanted to get a very special gift for that person who is so hard to shop for?  We have a solution to this problem.  Custom paintings.  Below is our list of paintings we are willing to customize just for you and your loved ones.  We can change the colors, and for the floral paintings we can change the type of flowers.
Enjoy!

Boy Scouts and Art

On November 13th and 14th, I was able to work with the Boy Scouts of America, in our local area, and be a volunteer Art Merit Badge counselor.  Let me tell you, I had known about this awesome opportunity for about 3 months, and had slowly been preparing as much as I could before moving, but there was so little I could do before registration began for my class.  So it wasn't until the week before my class that I was able to buy all the supplies, and then I also finished my power point presentation.

Here is what I offered the boys as art tools to use:

• Graphite pencils
• Colored pencils (Prisma Color)
• Charcoal in both the compressed stick form and the charcoal pencils
• Soft Chalk Pastels
• Acrylic paint
• Water Color in both pellet and pencil form
• And also the Batik art form using wax crayons, water color paint and printer paper

With 3 classes, 3 hours long each, I had a total of 17 students (with a few last minute cancellations) all of which earned and completed their Art Merit Badge so they could continue on their journey towards their Eagle Scout Award.  The boys had a blast, and it was so fun to teach art to youth other than my own children.  I would love to do more teaching and instructing with art!  The favorite art media was the water color pencils, chalk pastels, and graphite pencils.

Example of Charcoal from one of the Boy Scouts

Example of Chalk Pastel from one of the Boy Scouts

Example I gave the Boys, I painted this in 10 minutes from a
Still Life I provided the Boy Scouts.

The Example of a Sunset, my 8 year old son painted for the Boy Scout to follow

Breaks, Moving and Time

Hi all!

Thanks so much for being such awesome fans.  We're so glad you have been enjoying our hard work and talents.  It's September and big things are coming my way.  Let's just say full plates is an understatement.  In the late summer we found out that my wonderful partner and Sister-In-Law is pregnant with their first!  We're totally excited and can't wait to know what it is, and can't wait to see the baby in February.  Also, come the end of October our apartment lease is up, and we'll have to move out.  We're going to buy our first house, but know that we're not going to have one ready to move into before our lease is up, so now for the not so happy news.

Because I personally have to move 2 times, will have all our belongings in storage for who knows how long.  I am going to put our Etsy shop on vacation until everything is settled down.  I'm going to make our Facebook page private until then too, because I won't have as much time to be online either.
Thanks for understanding and we will all see you again probably after the new year!

Wedding Lace

Here is a beautiful work of art.  The perfect accessory for any Bride-to-be.  A lace bracelet cuff: hand beaded with silver, pearls, shell beads, and gems.  

Row Boat, Oars, and an Anchor

This past Sunday at church during our Relief Society class lesson (which is the Women's studies class), our teacher gave her lesson from a General Conference talk from 2014 by Dieter F. Uchtdorf titled Receiving a Testimony of Truth and Light (follow link to read).  It was beautiful!  It spoke to me so much that I felt the need to paint once again.  Come with me as I take you on a journey into my ever filling, slightly chaotic, vast abyss of a mind.

The talk is about having truth, and seeing it as light, and taking that light and sharing it with others once we are strong enough to do so.  This talk helps us learn how to be strong, what we need to have light and truth in our lives.  But this quote is what started my painting gears cranking.

"It seems to be a trait of humanity to assume that we are right even when we are wrong. And if that is the case, what hope is there for any of us? Are we destined to drift aimlessly on an ocean of conflicting information, stranded on a raft we have poorly pieced together from our own biases?

Is it possible to find truth?

The purpose of my remarks is to proclaim the joyful message that God Himself—the Lord of Hosts who knows all truth—has given His children the promise that they can know truth for themselves."

By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The words that stuck out in my mind were "hope, drifting aimlessly on an ocean, conflict, stranded on a raft, a promise of truth".  It sounds like hope is something useful, sometimes life really does feel like an ocean of chaos, where we are confronted with conflict and opposition.  Sometimes it seems like we are stranded, and that our little vessel or raft isn't very strong or safe.  But to have a promise from God, that we can find truth that is amazing!

Again my mind started thinking, and I remembered another talk that I had recently read with my Husband.  This new talk is from our Prophet Thomas S. Monson in the August 2015 Liahona and Ensign, titled Stand as a Light (follow link to read).  There was an inspirational part of this talk that spoke to me as well.  It touched my spirit, and mind with images of what to paint.

"I would like all of the youth of the Church to know that they are children of light. As such, they have a responsibility to be “as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). They have a duty to share the truths of the gospel. They have a calling to stand as a temple beacon, reflecting gospel light to an increasingly dark world. They have a charge to keep their light aflame and burning brightly.

In order for us to be “an example of the believers” (1 Timothy 4:12), we ourselves must believe. We must develop the faith necessary to survive spiritually and to project a light for others. We must nurture our testimony until it becomes an anchor to our lives."

By President Thomas S. Monson

Please substitute the word "youth" for "people.  And you can even substitute the word "Church" for world.  When we have that light of truth we ought to share it with others.  We can only share our light if it is burning brightly.  We must have faith, and a strong testimony. 

Now for what I saw with all this.  Anchor of Hope, Vessel (boat) of Faith, Oar of Testimony.

Anchor of Hope keeps our faith from floating away on the waves of life.  Because without an anchor to keep us steady and firm, any large wave or many little waves would carry us away from our save haven.

Vessel of Faith allows us safety, and security in that big vast ocean.  Its so much nicer to think that we can be sitting in a boat, rather than swimming, or treading water.  A boat can be anchored in place so that when those waves come it is immovable, strong, safe, and secure. (More so than without a boat)

Oars of Testimony allow us to act.  There is that scripture that says "Faith without works is dead." I can't place the reference right now, but its so true.  Faith and Hope are action words, they are action principles.  And yet they only become action principles when you have the right tools to make them such.  A boat cannot go where you want it just by being in the ocean.  All that conflict and chaos will have you spinning in circles or heading the opposite way you want to go.  But with a set of oars, with our testimony we can move our boat where we want to go, to keep our faith and hope strong.  To keep our faith and hope from giving out.

So take your Oars of Testimony, Get your Vessel of Faith, and Hold tight to your Anchor of Hope and you will be a light to the world, shining of God's love for all mankind. 

~Enjoy!

Journey of Thoughts

When I first started this blog, it was going to strictly be just for my shared Etsy shop.  But after a while, I just felt that by opening up more "about the artist" you would enjoy this experience more.  I call this my Journey of Thoughts, because you may not get what I do, you may not like all my work, you may not understand my thoughts regarding my work.  Guess what?  That's okay, art is truly an expression of one's own life experiences, views, and personality attributes.  People tend to relate to art because they see something or feel something within themselves when viewing or experiencing that piece of art.

As an artist, we experience and feel and see as we create each work that we do.  Much like a doctor looking for a medical cure for the span of his or her life, or a scientist searching for that missing link to his or her research, our art is our life.  It's what we want to share, what we want to beautify the world with.  My thoughts are intimate to me, they define what comes out of my mouth, what I do, and how I feel.  Most importantly though, my thoughts are what make me "see"; see color, see texture, see sadness, see love, see tribulation, courage etc.

Welcome to my crazy, not always pertinent, not always clear, not so orderly, Journey of Thoughts.

Essential Oil Infusion Necklaces

Our newest product we are offering are Essential Oil Infusion Necklaces.  I was personally introduced to essential oils a few years ago, but wasn't super excited about them.  I just didn't understand their benefits, or even how to use them.  Recently this summer I went to a class hosted by one of my friends and learned about one essential oil company: doTERRA.  I learned how to use their oils, what benefits they have for our bodies, and why people are so interested in a more wholes-tic natural way to help with whole body wellness.

I am not here to sell Essential Oils.  But I am here to offer necklaces that use essential oils to help benefit our bodies, in a fun, creative fashion statement.  If you are interested in learning more about essential oils, want to know how to buy them at a wholesale price with the option of getting 10-30% more off on the wholesale price.  Follow this LINK to a local doTERRA rep, who helps share essential oils from the doTERRA company.  Or you can find them on Facebook HERE.

My necklaces come in 2 sizes: Small for topical/ aromatic uses.  Large for aromatic uses only.
The necklaces take 4-6 drops of oil for a 12 hour application.  Then reapply.  Some oils are stronger/ have more heat which means they will last 12-24 hours before needing to be reapplied.  I am still experimenting with which oils last for what amounts of time.  So here is a short list of what I have learned so far.

Lemon: 12 hours, 4-6 drops 

Lavender: 12 hours, 4-6 drops

Peppermint: 16 hours, 4 drops

Wild Orange: 16 hours, 4-6 drops

Item # EOIN 0002

A Show, a Shot, a Future

What an incredible weekend!  It was awesome!  So, we went to the Wake Forest Bazaar, got a really good spot in the parking lot, set up quickly, and were all ready for customers at a good hour Saturday morning.  For this, our first ever out door show, we created a super fun sign letting everyone know who we are, and help bring people in to the craft show.

 It is a hand painted canvas sign, with a light weight plastic wood frame, that we were able to hang from our canopy.  I love the sunglasses on our sign!  I thought about hot gluing shells onto the corners of the canvas, but it was so hot outside that I'm sure the hot glue would have melted.

This was a really fun experience being outside for once.  We learned that we can set up and take down pretty fast.  We also have a few new items to add to our wish list for when we start doing outdoor craft shows more often.  In fact, we thought it would be fun for you all to see what our wish list is, so we created a whole new page just for that.  That way if you want to donate for our cause we'd love your support!  Or you can see what the money we bring in goes towards, aside from supplies to create beautiful works of art!

We had 3 tables set up this craft show, which was really great.  That allowed us to dedicate one table for jewelry, one table for paintings, and one table for our essential oil necklaces with the oils as a draw people in with.  The oil raffle was the biggest hit on Saturday!  In fact, everyone kept asking why we weren't selling our jewelry, art, and necklaces in The Cotton Company.  So hopefully we'll be able to get in there eventually.  We asked and all the booths are full for the next few months.  So for now we'll continue sharing, and gifting, and selling online!

While at our craft show, we met a famous local Artist, who gave us a special invitation only, ticket to get our hand crafted jewelry into our local community better than we are now!  So excited for this wonderful opportunity.  It is a shot in the dark to see what and how it will happen.  But it is also a huge blessing for the future of Sand Glasses Design!

Local Gig and a Birthday

Super excited that we have another gig coming up.  We have so much product this time around, I don't think we'll need to make any or much to get ready for this gig.  We have 2 weeks, and that day is going to be a busy one with work, a dinner party, and our gig.  I think we'll need to start prepping everything now!

So on July 18 we're doing a gig at the Wake Forest Bazaar in Historic down town Wake Forest.  Totally excited, because its also my Mother's birthday.  She has been a huge support, in helping me throughout my whole life.  Its awesome to have such a great Mother!  So in honor of her, we will run a special sale, and do another awesome raffle!

How do you honor your Mother?  What memories of her and you together stick out in your mind?  What type of jewelry does she love most?  What type of jewelry do you love?  Do you feel like she influences your fashion?

~Enjoy~ we're off to start an organized plan of prepping!

‪#‎wfb‬ ‪#‎wakeforestbazaar‬ ‪#‎selllocal‬ ‪#‎buylocal‬ ‪#‎shopsmall‬

Big Summer Blow Out 1

We're hosting a "Big Summer Blow Out Sale"  all earrings in our shop will be $8.  You can pay with pay pal here directly, or buy on Etsy.  We have the rainbow in colors.  All earrings are One-Of-A-Kind!! so snag them as soon as you want them!!

Come enjoy the beauty of the rainbow, the vibrant, shy, rich, hidden colors that God has created for all to enjoy.  Come enjoy the creativity of two awesome Sister's in Law, our passion for fashion, and our love of sharing our talents with you!  We truly believe in "Bringing a Bit of Beauty to Your Lives" because this world needs a little bit more beauty every day!

Here are some samples:

Item # W

Item # A

Item # E

Item # M

Item # O

Item # Y

Item # II