Pastel Yorkie

Next to Afghan Hounds, Yorkies are one of my favorite breeds of dogs. My friend Sue owns several  Yorkies and I used one of her dogs as the inspiration for this painting. The dog I chose to use for the painting had the most beautiful eyes and the sweetest face. The weekend before I presented her with the painting her dog suddenly become very ill and died in her arms before the Vet arrived at her house. I felt so sad about the loss of her favorite dog but she was happy to receive the painting as a remembrance of him.

I had requests to show my work in progress. Here's the working sketch and the preliminary painting on toned Canson paper.

This is the finished painting.

Art Deco Thank you Card

I really love the Art Deco period. When Cricut came out with the Art Deco cartridge, I just had to make it part of my library. For this project I started with the Killjoy and greyhound images and worked from there. Once I chose the background papers, Merci rather than Thank you seemed to be more appropriate.

Directions for Art Deco Thank you:

Cricut Art Deco Cartridge
DCWV Tres Chic mat stack, Primrose paper stack
Light grey, grey dark pink, black, brown, cream, olive green and black and white print card stock
Recollections small self adhesive rose
Recollections small clear crystals and small pale blue crystals
Martha Stewart leaf punch
Recollections pink mesh on a roll
Colored pencils
Zots  and small foam dots


1.  Cut Killjoy at 5 inches out of cream card stock. Press Killjoy and the shift keys to cut her clothes out of dark pink card stock. Press Layer and Killjoy to cut her hair and shoes out of brown card stock and repeat with black card stock. Press Layer, Shift and Killjoy to cut her hat band and scarf out of black and white print card stock.. Assemble Killjoy, replacing the brown for the black hair. Disguard the rest of the brown pieces. Use colored pencils to add highlights to Killjoy's dress, skin and facial features.

2.  Cut the Greyhound out of the grey card stock at 2 inches. Press Greyhound plus shift and cut the rest of the dog out of the light grey card stock.. Cut the collar out of dark pink.  Glue the narrow dark pink collar on top of the wider dark pink collar and embellish with three small crystals. Using grey colored pencils  add highlights to the dog's body and legs.

3. Using a card program and the half fold option print Merci on the front of the card. Fold the card in half and crease down the center.

4.  Cut a piece of harlequin paper from the Primrose stack, approximately 5 1/2 inches high by 4 7/8 inches wide. Center on the card and glue 1/4 inch from the bottom of the card.

5.  Cut the Eiffel Tower print from the Tres Chic mat stack approximately 4 1/4 inches high by 4 inches wide.  Attach Zots to the back of the print and position it 2 inches from the bottom of the harlequin paper edge and 1/2 inch from each side of the harlequin paper edge.

6.  Add foam dots to the back of Killjoy and position her along the bottom of the harlequin paper and slightly to the left of the Eiffel Tower.  Place foam dots on the back of the dog and position him slightly in front of Killjoy. Attach a string of small pale blue crystals from Killjoy's hand to the dog's collar for a leash.

7.  Place a small pink rose in the upper right corner of the mat stack. Punch 2 leaves out of olive green card stock. and glue under the rose.

8.  Cut a strip of pink metallic mesh 5 1/2 inches long and press in place 1/4 inch above Merci.

Charcoal Cheetah

Lately it seems that everything seems to take precedence over my art work. Yesterday I decided that working in my studio was my top priority. I walked into my atelier and saw the Cheetah sketch that I had made last month still lying on the corner of my drafting table along with some Strathmore grey toned paper that I had recently bought. I was anxious to work with the toned paper and had laid it on the desk hoping to find a suitable project. The Cheetah sketch was done in Pigma black ink on white paper. I decided to re-work the Cheetah on the toned grey paper with vine charcoal. The tonal greys of the charcoal and the paper give the finished drawing a softer look than the original sketch.

Beaded Scarf

Last night I started working on a beaded scarf from Knitting in the Details by Louisa Harding to try to take my mind off of my upcoming back surgery. The pattern called for a cotton/bamboo blend yarn but I substituted Grace hand dyed, a merino wool/silk blend, instead. Knitting with beads is not difficult, but it does take some extra time to string the beads onto the yarn before knitting.

I love Louisa Harding's designs and yarns, her patterns are well written and the charts are easy to read. I love how this scarf is turning out and can't wait to finish it, although I doubt it will be finished before my surgery, which has been pushed up to the end of the week.  One thing that I do have to mention is that this project eats up beads. I have already used almost one tube of beads just on this portion. The pattern calls for 290 beads. I don't know how many beads are in the tube and I had no desire to count them, so I headed off to Michaels to buy 3 more tubes of beads. Hopefully 5 tubes of beads will be enough to complete the project.

Scarf In Progress, beads have been strung on the yarn.

Bottom ruffle is completed.

First pattern repeat is completed.