YOU'RE INVITED

to the new home of my blog - here - http://www.shinyhappyart.com/blog/

I've rebuilt my website using Wordpress, so it makes sense to do the blog there too. (And considering I just tried to add an image and blogger wouldn't let me, perhaps I am doing the right thing!)

There's still a lot to learn, it doesn't quite feel like home yet, but come over now and help me settle in.

I've even got a FREE CHRISTMAS IMAGE over there - consider it part of your 'party bag'.

NOTE - I couldn't move the comments from some recent posts across, but thank you to everyone who said lovely things on my baby's anniversary. Every one was sincerely appreciated.

Now, I'll see you on the other side!

A little hanky panky is afoot

I've screenprinted some hankies - and I'm really happy with them.

Here is my son modelling 'hanky panky' (I didn't let him keep it - I made him have 'bless you' - because there's only so many more years that I can do that).

As you dear readers that have been following me lately know, I did this papercut a little while ago -

And a couple of days ago I turned it into this -

And then I built myself a brand new little madeit store (I'm totally over my old site and this is step one in my rebuild) to list them on.

At the moment there are two designs in these colours -

My mum (and currently my best 'customer') has already snatched up three, and has advised me to 'see how they go' (I'm prone to throwing myself into making a hundred of things before I test the market), so that's what I'm doing. If you like, please let me know.

A couple of months ago I started keeping a few hankies in my bag, mainly for wiping faces, hands and knees (moreso than tears and noses actually) and I have really enjoyed using them. So I'm hoping I'm not Robinson Crusoe here.

I also think they'd be great to pop in a card for a girlfriend, add to a personal gift, or send to someone who's sad. So if they're not a hit with you lot, I'll be using them all myself anyway.

If they are a hit, I'll happily print more and more and more... and take over the world one hanky at a time!!! Mwahhahhhahhhaaaa!!!!!

Yeah sure. I'll calm down and finish packaging them first maybe. They're not going to make my millions, but I really do love them. Hope you do too.

Angel becomes Tooth Fairy

Late last year, the lovely Kylie from 3 sheets volunteered to test out my Angel Screenprints kit.

And she made one of the little angels more angelic than I could ever have imagined.

Her embroidery is amazing, and then she decided to sew it into a tooth fairy pillow for her goddaughter in Chicago.

Thank you for putting so much time, effort and talent into this project, Kylie!

My sister (who will probably be mortified that I am also posting a pic of what she did with the kit too) used it to sew a delightful cushion for her little girl, coloured with fabric paints and appliqued to some gorgeous fabric. Yours is fantastic too, Lozzie!


I'm sure there are plenty of things you could do with this print, and I'd love to see it when you do - it's $11 and available from here. I've printed it in a couple of other colours too (maybe for t-shirt appliques or bunting?), so will load them to the shop very soon.

FREE POSTAGE on all Golden Paints, Gels and Mediums

Yep, I haven't made a big enough deal about it - until now.

Tell your friends, tell your mum, tell your artist neighbour... Golden paints are available from Shiny Happy Art and there's no postage charge 'til the end of Feb 2010.

Quite simply, I was introduced to Golden Paints a couple of years ago by my dear friend (and artist who's work features prominently in my home) Nic Hohn, and I liked them so much I didn't quite 'buy the company', but through my Shiny Happy Art business, I became a retailer of a range of Golden paints, gels and mediums.

At the time, I was opening the studio in front of my house most Sundays (there are advantages to living on a highway!) and I had Nic and Kym Breeze helping me and selling their art also.

So I bought the whole kit and kaboodle. Display racks, lovely boxes of stock, all ordered from the US and taking months to choose and have delivered... and then, as the universe usually conspires to do, it was time to have my daughter who is now 2 and a half.

I kept up the pace for quite a while. We even had a joint exhibition up in the studio when my bub was just 3 months old. But with 3 kids at home, and then my husband heading off to Afganistan for 4 months and the website taking A LOT longer to get up and running than I had originally envisaged (another long story) the studio just got too much for me, my helpers moved away and/or got full time jobs, and things changed. And then they changed even more when my latest little girl (nearly 8 months old) came along.

Now, I'm not overly worried, because these beautiful paints can wait for their discerning owners. They are neatly displayed on their racks waiting... waiting....

And the studio will be open again sometime in the next couple of years! (We've just got to teach a couple of little ones that nighttime is for sleeping...)

From time to time people call or email a Golden order through, and I love having the paints here at my disposal, but I need to decide if I'm going to continue to reorder, or just sell what I have.

So, if you've ever wanted to try Golden paints, now's a great time to go for it.

• I painted the paintings at the top of this post ('A Very Special Occasion' and 'Innocence') using Golden Paints. The gold colour on the green background of 'Innocence' is Golden Iridescent Gold Fluid and it is fabulous to use (and it should be for $35 - it is also a great gift for an arty friend - you can always find a good use for gold paint!).
  

• Read glowing reviews of Golden Paints by other artists at the American Dick Blick's site here.

• And mixed media artist Kelly Rae Roberts loves Golden too (see, here's a pic of her desk!).I like what artist, Kiandra Jimenez, says of them -

- the paint will last in the tube till the last drop. if you take care of your tubes, close them up properly...your paint will not dry in the tube.

- every tube has a hand painted color swatch on the tube so that you can see the color and the translucency of the paint...this is so valuable in choosing your paint colors...you have to be educated about the paints in order to mix colors properly

- I can honestly say that using these products have made me more passionate about painting again...the possibilities...the ways they are constantly pushing the limits and boundaries of painting is astonishing.

All that and the postage is FREE (in Australia) til the end of February.

So I hope I have what you want in stock. Even if you pick your favourite colour and then just pick whether you'd prefer 'fluid' (like runny cream) or 'heavy body' (like oil paint consistency), and order it just to play with, you won't regret it.

All orders are wrapped with care and I always try to include a little extra something for you, and I also draw on the packaging - so you can really look forward to receiving your 'Golden' in the mail.

If you're a Toowoomba local, you can come and browse for yourself! Just call me and we'll make a time.

OK, gushing Golden blog post is now over.

Tomorrow I may tell you about interesting things like the bottle of olive oil I dropped in front of the fridge (pictured below being mopped up with oats because I googled it and someone suggested 'oatmeal' would help, so I tried oats instead, and it worked ok) today... and we'll resume normal programming. (I do have a Valentines Card idea to show you - and I promise it'll be interesting!)


May the creativity be with you.

My Creative Space

Once again, joining in Kootooyoo's Creative Space Thursday -

These three little ladies have just been listed in the shop and will feature in the Newsletter that I still haven't finished. Very happy with how they turned out - am experimenting with 'no necks' and simpler mouths, and the subjects have been dictated by the pages from a "Heidi" book that I've collaged in. They're painted on 16mm board and have a hole drilled in the back so they're ready to hang. The creative space that they're in is PARTICULARLY messy at the moment and I dream of having time to tidy and straighten. Until then though, I'm still feeling creative at least.

And I've finally drawn October's mailing list prize and the winner is...

Caity! Congrats Caity from www.caitymakes.com, the little magic notebook is on it's way.

If you're not on the list yet, you won't be in the next draw that will include some wonderful Golden paints and handpainted fabric... so if you're keen, just click here and opt in! I will photograph the prize tomorrow and get it up on the site.

Thanks again for reading - I've been receiving some really lovely comments lately, from near and far, and I've started really looking forward to sharing on this blog. I still plan to do the resinned coffee table project and a christmas wreath painting project before the end of the school term, so stay tuned and tutorials will be posted. In the meantime though, it's babies with snuffly noses and toddlers with bedtime denial and big boys who are scared to sleep... but this will pass.

Some art - finally!

This week I've finished two small canvases for the Downlands Art Show this weekend - I'll be exhibiting 6 paintings all up, and they used one of my paintings from last year in this year's promotions, which was nice.

And I've sketched and painted 8 new 'guardian angel' greeting cards that will hit the Shiny Happy Art online shop in the next few days. Today I photographed them all - the boys' piano teacher asked if we were renovating again - I'd turned the office upside down trying to find the best place to shoot them. Ended up doing it outside - I should have done that from the start!

And hooray, hooray, I've joined the 21st century and have a new phone! And it's costing me no more than I've been paying every month anyway. It's touchscreen and has an 8M camera with a flash - so far I love it. I feel like a grown up!