One down, one to go...

We're set up for the opening of the Holiday Festival of the Arts tomorrow, and I'm pooped. The show runs from November 14th through December 24th.
It's interesting how the set up works one way  at home in the "trial run" and another when actually setting up on location. :)

Here's a shot of the booth, which will morph after the show next weekend when more goodies will be moved over. Unless of course, I sell out next weekend. Ha!

And since I've been so busy getting ready for the two shows, I haven't done any regular artwork. Well, I guess I've worked on some ornaments, but it's too dark to get a photo now. I'll try to remember to do it tomorrow for posterity.

Happy Friday!

Holiday Festival of the Arts opens Friday!

The Holiday Festival of the Arts opens this coming Friday, November 14th and runs through December 24th!

We set up on Wednesday... and I'm nearly ready, but it's interesting the little things you realize aren't quite ready as you do the final set up run through. :)

If you're in the area, do stop by! You'll find a variety of art, both original and prints, greeting cards and ornaments in our booth and many lovely local artisans work to browse.

Happy Monday!

Quiet week

I've been quiet on the blog front. It's been a busy week of doing too many things at once. One month away from the Holiday shows!

We've been working on the set up for the vintage booth at Home for the Holidays, and pricing and putting in boxes in an "orderly fashion" so set up is easier, we hope. This is the first time we've done a vintage booth, and it will be great fun!

Tweaking the booth for Holiday Festival of the Arts, although that set up will be easy. It's always easier when you've done it before... have you noticed?

Happy Sunday! 

Holiday Festivals

Our local Etsy sellers group, Bellingham Etsy Rain, is having it's first Handmade Holiday Market Dec 13th! I'll be there with several other local Etsy artists, offering last minute gift ideas as well as champagne and munchies.  If you're in the area, I hope you stop by! 

Just a reminder, I'm also at the Holiday Festival of the Arts through December 24th. 

What's in my Studio..

What's in my studio this week? A messy work area! Oh my! I got started tidying this weekend, but started a few more projects so the mess continues. Ah well!

The Holiday Festival of the Arts booth did get set up, although I'll be rearranging slightly tomorrow. This post shows the initial set up.

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the messy work area, so what I'll show you today is the sort of tidy table where I'm finishing up some more matting of prints for the Holiday Festival. I'm also participating in a Handmade Holiday Market with other local Etsy sellers on Dec 13th, so making sure I have enough to tempt buyers.

You can see my trusty ATG gun. I just changed the tape, and need to put a backup refill on my shopping list. Also have some framed ACEO prints showing.

And lest you think I'm not getting any art done, I started these wood watercolor gesso abstract paintings. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to figure out what will appear in the random patterns the watercolor and gesso mix created. These wood pieces were leftover bits from other projects.

4 1/4 x 3 3/4 wood abstract WIP

8 1/2 x 5 1/2 wood abstract WIP

Have a wonderful week!

Sharing with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and  Artist Studio Day.

Holiday Festival!

The Holiday Booth is set up and ready for the next six weeks of sales.(YAY!) The Holiday Festival of the Arts runs from Nov 15 through Dec 24th. I'll be busy restocking as I go along. I plan to sell out. :)

Here the booth is all set up ready for goodies. We have a 6 x 3 foot space.The booth next to the Christmas tree was not set up when we were done, so I have no clue how it's going to look yet. It will be blocking out the space behind the tree. 

Here's the stocked booth ready for the first weekend. The lights will be working tomorrow, so we'll go back to make sure things are looking okay. We weren't allowed in today to check things out.  I will also be propping a few things up with the easels I forgot to take when we were setting up. O.o 

More goodies are being priced and will show up over the weekend - pendants, heart ornaments and a few more small canvases. So much to do, so little time! Ha! 

I'm cheating a bit for Paint Party Friday... I didn't actually paint anything new this week, (well, a couple of beginning backgrounds) however I do have paintings up in my booth, and a bunch of prints and cards from my paintings ready for folks to take home with them.  Wish me luck! 

Have a wonderful weekend! 

Linking with Paint Party Friday hosted by Eva and Kristin, and 

Artist Showcase hosted by Robin at TheSmartestArtist.

What's in my studio...

A quick hi to all the WOYWW folks! I'll be by to see what you're doing late tomorrow or Thursday... I'm still mid-set up of the Holiday Festival booth and busy busy for the next several hours!

This stuff is all priced and ready to go to the Holiday Festival. The booth is all set up, and tomorrow morning I'll go fill it with my wares. If I'd been more organized, I'd have finished pricing before today so I could be done now... but I was not and did not, so that's what I'm doing right now.

Boxes of ornaments and cards

Framed art for the walls

Prints in the process of being framed 

On a side note, this little fella hit the kitchen window rather hard a few days ago. Once I figured out what had made the noise, I was quite concerned. He just lay on his side for a long time and I was afraid he was not going to make it. After awhile he sat himself up and sat here for about an hour. When I went to check on him he startled when I opened the door and flew into a tree in the back yard. Sat there for another hour before he finally flew away. I hope he made it okay.
He's a Northern Pigmy owl, by the way. Only about 6 inches long. Cute as could be.

Northern Pigmy Owl

Sharing with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and  Artist Studio Day.

One week!

I'm almost ready to go! You believe that, don't you? Ha!

No new paintings to show this week, as I've been busy putting prints and paintings in mats and frames and pricing things for next weeks set up and opening of the craft show. Oh, and tweaking how the booth will be set up.

I will show you a couple of the original pieces that will be available at the Holiday Festival:

Autumn Mountain 8x8 wrapped canvas

Grateful Heart Wren 4x4 wrapped canvas

Looking forward to checking out what you have all been up to this past week. 

Happy Friday! 

Linking with Paint Party Friday hosted by Eva and Kristin, and 

Artist Showcase hosted by Robin at TheSmartestArtist.

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween, All Hallows Eve, Samhain! Whichever you observe. 

And here I am on Halloween with the December Holidays on my brain!

I've been busy finishing up things for the Holiday Festival of the Arts, and don't have photos of paintings in progress.  However I am able to share a couple of the not-quite-finished canvas ornaments awaiting their hanging bits...

2x2 Canvas Map Bird Ornament

3x3 Canvas Hope Heart Ornament

3x3 Canvas Peace Star Ornament

Cheers! 

Linking with Paint Party Friday hosted by Eva and Kristin, and 

Showcase Your Art Friday hosted by Robin at TheSmartestArtist.

Winner! And a peek at What's in My Studio

The lucky winner of this 5x7 print (matted to 8x10) is Christine! Congratulations, Christine!  Check out "Christine's Blog".

Echinacea Trio 5x7 Print

Two weeks until we set up for the Holiday Show, and I'm in crunch time. Putting on final details of unfinished work and figuring out silly things like the best way to put the price tags on the ornaments. 

Ah, gotta love deadline stress. Helps you know you're alive. 

Tiny Canvases getting their final touches - WIP

Some of the 2x2 beeswax nature ornaments - ready to price

Sharing with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and Artist Studio Day. 

Just Ducky!

Still time to enter the Giveaway, click here.

From my archives... an Artist Trading Card watercolor painting I created of a Mama Duck and her baby. I came across it while cleaning up and storing digital files and it made me smile. An aside... I really really really wanna take a water color class. Perhaps in the spring.

Still working like a crazy thing on filling my booth at the Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts. We start set up in less than a month... EEK! :)

I don't seem to get as much done early on as I wish. I've done a lot of planning and getting materials and getting started, but getting to the finalizing of all the "inventory" so it's ready to price is another thing. I have so many things nearly finished....
Add into that keeping my two Etsy shops stocked for the holidays, and sheesh! Anyone have advice on setting a yearly work schedule for the holiday season, and how to stick to it? LOL!

On another note, I'm gathering with out of town artist friends for the weekend starting Friday afternoon, and am SO EXCITED! They always inspire me and get my creative juices flowing.

Hope your weekend goes well!

Linking with Paint Party Friday hosted by Eva and Kristin, and 

Showcase Your Art Friday hosted by Robin at TheSmartestArtist.

What's in My Studio This Week

Busy working at the computer, setting up formats for cards and getting them printed. I've also creates a few prints of my artwork, which are headed for the Holiday Arts Festival and my Etsy Shop. 

I have worked on more gesso watercolor pieces... they are a lot of fun, actually. These are two of the several I have in process.

I'm also prepping to host a small art gathering here in Bellingham Oct 18-20. Some of my favorite artist friends met at atcsforall.com are coming to "visit" and we'll have a couple of days just to play art. I can't wait!


Happy Hump Day!

Work in Progress

This week I've been getting out pieces I've set aside for a variety of reasons, and tweaking a bit here and there...

This collage painting is still a work in progress, but is getting closer to making me happy. 

I'm beginning work on a variety of things to get inventory ready for the Holiday Festival of the Arts (and for my Etsy Shop.) I mentioned in an earlier post that I was accepted to be at the 5 week Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts show/sale again this coming Holiday Season. My second year! So much to do, so little time. More on what I have planned soon. 

So what have you been working on this week? 

Sharing with the artists at Paint Party Friday, hosted by Kristin and Eva

and Artists in Blogland Show and Tell Saturday.

HuMp DaY Haiku - Good News!

©2012 Helen Campbell

Now the rush is on!

How much art can I create

by mid-November?

Resurrecting a haiku from last year, as my brain is too tired this week.  My good news is that I was chosen to be part of the Allied Arts Holiday Arts Festival again this year. Yay! 

I have been creating art all along, but now it begins in earnest. I’m also considering a few other holiday weekend events, if I can get enough inventory.... O.o 

In other news, I've been busy mailing out packages from both my Art and Vintage Etsy shops the past two weeks. Added to putting in extra hours at the store with the owners out of town, I'm one pooped girl! 

Hope your week is going well! 

I have found that creating a haiku (non rhyming poem with 5 - 7 - 5 syllables per line) feeds my soul. I especially like creating them to go with my photos and art. If you'd like to share a haiku, you may include it in the comments, OR you may copy your blog post url (featuring a haiku) and add a link to your blog using Mr. Linky. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Final Weekend

The final version of my mustard field mixed media painting, (WIP originally shown here) now offered at the Holiday Festival of the Arts.

I've sold several pieces and a lot of the ornaments so far, and last weekend sold one of my larger paintings. Woot! This weekend is the last of the show, and I hope to sell out... although I'll be happy with whatever sells.  :)

8 x 8 x 1 inch Mixed Media Painting - Mustard Field in Bloom

This little owl is also at my booth...

3 x 3 Miniature Art - Red Moon Owl

Wishing all my Paint Party Friday friends a wonderfully blessed Holiday Season! 

On the Mountain

So thrilled to have sold this painting to a lovely young couple today, during the Holiday Festival of the Arts. And how awesome that they wrote to tell me how much they liked it. I'm in awe.

Thank you Bryan and Alexis! I hope you enjoy it for many years. 

Tiny bird art

Winter Chickadees

I love Chickadees! This tiny 3 x 4 inch mixed media matted art piece is now available in my Etsy shop.

Keeping busy!

Still working on little art pieces (and some bigger ones too) both for my Etsy shop, AND to keep my booth full at the Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts.  The show continues Wed - Sunday until Dec 24th.  I promise that next year I'll be more organized and have more pieces done ahead of time. I will!  :)

3 1/2 x 2 1/2 Canvas - Old Time Santa Beeswax collage

3 x 3 Canvas - Red Breast beeswax collage

Mixed media swallow ornaments

Happy Paint Party Friday! Thanks, Eva and Kristin for hosting! 

Holiday Festival of the Arts!

My booth is finally set up for the Allied Arts Holiday Festival of the Arts, which starts Nov 16th and runs through Dec 24th. I'm exhausted! 

Final booth set up, with a small ornament tree on the left side of the shelf you can almost see... 

We found these louvered doors in a free pile last summer, the same day I saw the idea on Pinterest. My husband painted them, and made the shelf and I really like how it turned out.

Here's a closer view of the some little canvases I've been working on with their copper wire "handles" attached. 

I'm a bit freaked that my art is so tiny it doesn't take up much room in the display. But at least you can easily see what I have!  I have several pieces that got their final touches today, and will go over tomorrow morning for the show opening. 

Between the inventory and tagging and setting up, I still did some art! These were finished this afternoon. 

Four 3x3 seashell canvases 

.

and a cheery cardinal beeswax collage

And on another note... this little canvas is being included in two Etsy Treasuries this week; Give Thanks with A Grateful Heart and Colors of the Season.

Sharing today with the artists at Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin. I'm eager to see what other artists have worked on this week.