Big thanks to my sponsors...I'm really enjoying these weekly sponsor spotlights where their creative talents and businesses are featured. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor (includes your ad on the sidebar + ongoing spotlights), please send me an email for further information! Now taking sign-ups for the holiday season (Dec).
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Created and edited by Jennifer McGuiggan of The Word Cellar, Lanterns: A Gathering of Stories is a curated collection of prose, poetry, and photography by seven women (Darlene Kreutzer, Liz Lamoreux, Jen Lee, Rachelle Mee-Chapman, Lisa Ottman, Jena Strong, and Jennifer McGuiggan). This beautiful square gift book is handcrafted, professionally printed, and thoughtfully created, making it the perfect gift for your girlfriends, your daughters, your mothers, yourself. It is a gift of hope, inspiration, and the reminder that creativity and community walk alongside each other, hand in hand, a string of lanterns lighting the way. Lanterns is a celebration, an encouragement, an invitation. (A portion of the proceeds benefits Girls Write Now.)
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Want to receive some lovely handmade holiday ornaments for a special Holiday Ornament Swap?
Louise Gale from "Dream, Inspire, Create" is bringing back the hugely popular Creative Color Challenge for a special Ornament Swap for the holidays. She’s inviting everyone to join in here. All you have to do is follow her instructions to sign up and then create 4 wonderful handmade ornaments. 1 to keep yourself, 3 to send out into the world (this is open to all around the globe). Everyone will get to make and receive wonderful holiday ornaments to hang on your tree, your window or fireplace and post photos into the Color Challenge Flickr group. Wire, fabrics, paper, beads, cookies - you name it...you can create using any materials you wish, but wait, there is a color challenge involved, click here to get the scoop & sign up, before its posted on Louise's blog next week!
Follow Louise: Blog, Facebook, Twitter
Louise Gale from "Dream, Inspire, Create" is bringing back the hugely popular Creative Color Challenge for a special Ornament Swap for the holidays. She’s inviting everyone to join in here. All you have to do is follow her instructions to sign up and then create 4 wonderful handmade ornaments. 1 to keep yourself, 3 to send out into the world (this is open to all around the globe). Everyone will get to make and receive wonderful holiday ornaments to hang on your tree, your window or fireplace and post photos into the Color Challenge Flickr group. Wire, fabrics, paper, beads, cookies - you name it...you can create using any materials you wish, but wait, there is a color challenge involved, click here to get the scoop & sign up, before its posted on Louise's blog next week!
Follow Louise: Blog, Facebook, Twitter
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Blue Muse Jewelry is a collaboration between two sisters, Kelly Letky and Conni Bills, who, for the past five years, have used their love of handmade jewelry as a way to bond and spend lots of time together. Their favorite material is precious metal clay, and they also work with artisan glass and semi-precious stones. Creating unique, one-of-a-kind pieces is their way of adding a little beauty to life, everyday. Visit their etsy shop to see more of their work, and Kelly's blog for updates, imagery, and writing on life, art, and working as a graphic/jewelry designer.
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Do you want to find the natural artist in you? Amelia Critchlow's e-course, Experimental Art, explores a variety of art techniques - including collage and photography - in experimental ways whilst having fun with an on-line community, sharing and discussing ideas and work produced. This 6 week course is for busy people who want to take their creative inclinations to the first step, or people already practicing their art and want to try something new, getting some fresh inspiration, all from the comfort of home. The 6 week course costs £60 ($95 based on current exchange rates) and includes an extensive look at a variety of artists, with lots of pdfs, web, and book resources, as well as individual feedback from Amelia - a qualified tutor and practicing artist in the UK. The next 6 week experimental art e-course (Winter 2011) is scheduled for Monday 10th January 2011 and due to popularity and feedback, the course will be going up to £75 in 2011. However, an early bird offer is in place for people who sign up from now until December 1st 2010 - you will still get your spot for £60. So for those who've been thinking of doing the course, sign up before Dec 1st! See here. Be sure to check out Amelia's website where you can find her gallery, blog, and more. For testimonials about the course, see here.
To me, art has been the unexpected discovery of finding my passion. When I finally put paint onto paper, my heart and life exploded with a joy I hadn’t known before.
