Celebrating RGR Designs Blog Post No. 250

August 30, 2007 was the birthday of this blog.  At the time, I had considered creating a blog to help promote my jewelry creations in my Esty store, but I was intimidated by the process of setting one up.  Hubby and I had attended local art festival that summer with the intent of researching ways I could display my work at my first outdoor festival.

In July, we met Brandie Butcher Isely of Little Pieces of Art at the Marshalltown Art Fest.  She is a wonderfully sweet artist who encouraged me, and she gave me concrete advise for setting up my own blog.  I started following Brandie's blog and those of some she had highlighted on her blog.  I was astounded by the generousity and depth of sharing of the artists I discovered in Blogland.  So I launched my own blog.

Now it is three years later and I am writing my 250th post! That is an average of about 1.6 posts per week.  Whew!  I've kept to a goal of posting at least once per week.  Well.  Sort of.  There have been times when I participated with a blogger challenge of posting each day and followed through pretty well.  Then there were the times when energy is low and life is busy and no blogging. We all go through that. 

Experimentation has been a driving force for my art, but being part of the art blog community has pushed me to extend my boundaries by trying even more techniques than I would have come up on my own.  I also have a frugal streak.  These traits can cause inner conflict, but there is a way to reconcile them. 

While working on my "serious" (HA!) art, there is alway extra paint left on the brush, palette, or tool.  One way to use it up is by applying the paint to a sheet of art paper.  I recently created the "master" sheet pictured below.

Once the page was mostly covered with paint, I added layers of stenciling and monoprinting to add texture to the page.  Next I cut the paper to the standard ATC size (2.5 x 3.5 inches).  Then I looked at each card as a separate art piece and embellished it.

Sampling of ATCs

Stamps, stencils, ephemera, gesso, pens, ink and paint were used to embellish the cards.

To celebrate my 250th post, I will be giving away some of my ATCs.  Please comment by 9/23/10 to be put in a drawing for the give away.  Be sure your comment has a way for me to contact you if you are a winner!

Being a blogger has been a journey that has helped me grow as an artist. Communicating with other artists across the globe has been a thrill.  I am SO GRATEFUL for all the encouragement that comes from your comments. Thank you!