12 Days of Creativity

Hello lovely blog readers,

I’m so delighted to announce that we will be delivering 12 Days of Creativity to our wonderful subscribers beginning on Dec. 12th! YES, that’s tomorrow!

This will be a 12 Day FREE email gift where you will get one email a day from me – chock full of creative inspiration! It might be a free lesson from me, a video chat regarding my favorite materials, tips and tricks, creative resources and MORE. PLUS, each day we will be featuring classes at special holiday prices! I would to have you join me for this special holiday program!

BE SURE TO SIGN UP HERE AND JOIN THE FUN!

Much love and gratitude,

 

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Happy Holidays Sale

Hello lovely blog readers!

I hope this year has been FULL of beautiful things for you. I’m sending you all so much love and best wishes for this festive season! Thank you for being the most fantastic students ever. I’m so grateful for each of you.

SHOP THE SALE NOW!

So…we figured a good SALE is always a fun way to kick off the merry days to come, so check out this amazing line up of our FANTASTIC online art classes including a couple of NEW additions.

Remember, our classes are self-paced, downloadable and all have lifetime access so they are there for you to enjoy at your leisure. Stock up now and have art classes ready to GO all year long!

Give yourself the gift of creative inspiration.

xo,

Do MORE Art in 2014

Hello everyone! How are you all? I hope you have been enjoying the Holiday season with family and friends. So…are you ready for 2014?

I think I am. I’m excited about the new possibilities and adventures ahead!

Of course, it’s always good to look back over the year and appreciate all the beautiful experiences we’ve had. To ponder all that we have learned and how we have grown. The mistakes, the regrets…it’s all part of our path so don’t focus on those too much. ;) The choices we make now are what truly matters. What will you do with your New Year? What changes will you make? How will you choose to spend your time? These are all things that are on my mind today.

One of my “resolutions” is to DO MORE ART! I am now referring to my office as my studio and I re-organized the entire thing to display all my paints, brushes and artsy stuff. Easily accessible and ready for me. I signed up for an art retreat. I hung up images that inspire me. It felt SO good to set this intention! Now, I just have to do the work (not that art ever feels like work to me). Come to think of it…doing the art isn’t the hard part. It’s moving past the fear, the doubt and the all too familiar and un-nerving sensation that once I begin it could end in a complete ugly disaster.

I adore this quote by Elizabeth Gilbert. She totally nails it.

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So here’s to a fabulous 2014 full of love, joy and creativity! Sending you all big hugs and best wishes! Thank you for all your wonderful comments and amazing encouragement!

xo,

Ivy

Pumpkin Patch Visit

Hi there my friends! How are you? I hope you are enjoying Fall. We have had a glorious, sun filled October, so of course, a visit to the local Pumpkin Patch was in order! I captured some shots of Claire among the piles of pumpkins. The autumn light has been so very pretty! Grace, thankfully, jumped into the last one too! (She was very busy visiting with all the animals on location so it was hard to pull her away!)

“I want this one!”

After a little hunting, we found four lovely pumpkins. One for each of us. Of course, we also managed to go home with fudge, fresh pumpkin donuts and homemade berry jam. Yum! I didn’t grow up going to a Pumpkin patch for Halloween but I’m happy this has become a sweet tradition for our family.

What traditions do you have in your family for this time of year?

Enjoy the rest of the week.

xo,

Ivy

P.S. I am still working on my Brené Brown homework. I will be sharing it with you soon, I promise. By the way, her book = TOTALLY life-changing!

A Creative Weekend away…

Hello there! How is life treating you this week? Besides a pesky summer cold, I’m doing quite well and I’m so thankful that last weekend I got to get away with a dear friend for a creative retreat! We stayed at the sweetest cottage in the quaint Oregon beach town of Manzanita. Here are some shots via my Instagram…

This cottage doesn’t get any cuter right? It is the perfect place for a beach getaway.

The vintage kitchen is adorable with layered personal touches and unique collections.

Mornings (sans kids) were blissfully quiet and peaceful – sipping coffee, reading magazines and writing in my journal. Here is Katie enjoying a fav cooking mag.

After we had substantial amounts of coffee we would move outside into the “garage” which is really an amazing outbuilding that my friend Candace converted into a charming dining hall. Strung with lights and adorned with artwork, old wine bottles and other beautiful objects it feels like a beachy treasure trove. The energy in this space is fantastic and you can tell many wonderful evenings have been spent at the long farmhouse table. We were immediately inspired.

It didn’t take long for us to spread out and get right into a creative zone…

After a little bit of art journaling and playing with my watercolors…

I began a small mixed media piece…

Almost done…

And finished!

It was an amazing weekend and I was sad to leave. As much as I missed my family, having some precious time to focus on art was such a gift. Katie and I agreed to do it again soon! Thank you, Candace for letting us stay at your magical home!

Do you have a favorite place to get away and create?

xo,

Ivy

Collage Cards

Hi friends,

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I know Valentine’s is over but I wanted to share the collage card project Grace and I did for her classroom. I think this simple method of creating cards is really fun and can be done for any occasion.

Grace and I have done many collages but I have discovered that the best success is found when I curate the materials. Usually sticking with a theme or color palette allows your kiddo to make choices and express themselves without being overwhelmed. There have been plenty of times when I threw down a mass amount of stickers and papers only to find the Grace got overwhelmed and upset when her finished artwork looked “messy”.  She simply had too many choices in front of her. Providing just a little framework meant that she got to be creative and enjoy her results too. Nothing  is worse than an afternoon spent crafting only to end up with a grumpy kid, a paper strewn floor and glue everywhere. A creative buzz kill.

Before Grace got home from school I had cut out and organized the elements that would be used for the Valentine cards. This made it easy for Grace to make her selections and understand the color palette.

Scrapbook paper and vintage music sheets were punched into hearts using this handy dandy punch. Scrap booking die cuts and sticky jewels make easy embellishments – we had to make 25 of these cards after all! A little glitter was used at the end for a special touch of sparkle and buttons were a fun 3D addition. K & Company has some of the prettiest supplies and are my go to for scrapbooking goodies!

We had so much fun making these! I would have pics of all of them but it was dark by the time we were finished!

Think about making some collage cards with your kids for Easter!

Have a wonderful Sunday!

xo,