False Hellebore

"False Hellebore" -- Pretty Poisons #6

Here is the sixth one! Just two more to go now! I hope you like her!  I liked the idea of doing green flowers. I'm trying to vary the colors of these as much as possible, though there will be two pink flowers in the series but they are very different shades. :) I'd also like to note that False Hellebores (aka Veratrum album, Veratrum Virde, Corn Lily) are a completely different species of flower than Black Hellebores (Helleborus niger) that I did as #1 in this series. Both are toxic. They have similar names, but aren't related at all.

Watercolor and white gouache. ACEO (2.5 x 3.5")

The original is for auction HERE!
Prints are available on my website.

More Holiday Sale Updates!!

TODAY ONLY! For orders from my Ebay Store, get a free open edition ACEO print for every $5 spent!! Just let me know after you make your purchase which prints you want either as a note in the checkout or contact me afterwards. Limited edition ACEO prints do not count for the free ones. You must choose from my open edition prints that have a normal price of $5 when not on sale. Limited to 20 free ACEOs per customer. Visit my store HERE!

For orders from my Etsy Shop today, take 20% off your order with the code: SMALLBIZ

My Etsy shop includes many of my prints, jewelry and original paintings!!

Visit my shop HERE!

Holiday Sales!!

It's time for my annual Holiday Sale, my largest sale of the year!! This year, I'm have sales going on at both my Ebay store and Etsy shop! At my Ebay store, EVERYTHING is on sale!! From today until the end of the month, take 25% off all prints and 15% off everything else!! This includes all original paintings listed and my jewelry, including my new cameos!

At Etsy, I'm going to have various discounts going on through the end of the month! You can check my website or the my Etsy shop to see what the latest deal is.
Starting right away is 15% off of your order with the coupon code: BLACKFRI

Did you know that if you either don't have a Paypal account or don't like using Paypal, that you can pay with a credit card on Etsy using their direct checkout? This is a newer feature of theirs so I'm sure some aren't aware of it yet. And I'm happy to say that my shop currently accepts payments using their direct checkout! They also recently started selling gift cards!

I hope that everyone has a great holiday season!! Also, if you'd like to have a little sneak peek at what I'm currently working on, click this link to see my sketch! Some people I asked on Facebook wanted to be surprised, so that's why I'm not posting a thumbnail. :)

Store Sale!!

Hi everyone! I'm having a sale in my ebay store this week! Get up to 20% off of EVERYTHING in my store. This includes all prints, jewelry, original art and more! Click the banner below to visit my store and get these great deals!

The "Bleeding Hearts" auction also has a few days left! Visit and bid on that HERE!

Big Holiday Sale!!

I have an Ebay Sale going this week!! This is my biggest sale of the year with 25% off all Prints and 15% off Everything else! This includes ORIGINALS, bookmarks, canvases, and Jewelry!! Visit my store for these great deals by clicking the banner above!

Happy Holidays, everyone!!

February news...

I need to try update my blog more regularly. This is pretty much all of February's news in one post. lol  If you want to make sure to get all my updates quickly, please follow my Facebook fanpage or subscribe to my newsletter (more about this further down).

This is my latest painting finished 1-2 weeks ago, "Absinthe" featuring, of course, the green fairy.  :)  I've wanted to do my own version of the absinthe fairy for a while.  I hope that yo like her!  Please check out the detail view on my website for a close view of her face.

The original painting has sold, but prints are available on my website.  Larger 13 x 19" prints are available in my ebay store.  I keep meaning to get those up on my website for most of my paintings, but that will be a large task and I haven't gotten a chance yet.  Feel free to contact me if you're ever interested in a print at that size and don't want to use Ebay or you don't see the image you want there.  It shouldn't be a problem for most of my artwork except for ACEOs or odd shaped ones like square paintings.  They're $29.95 each.

She's also available as a tube through Dreamscape Imaging for the taggers out there!

About my newsletter... I've recently switched mailing list providers.  I used Bravenet before, but I didn't like the ads in the emails I sent out, at least for the free service.  I also think they went to people's spam too easily.  So I found a better service with MailChimp.  For those who already subscribed to my newsletter, you've already been switched over.  For anyone else, if you'd like to join my mailing list to get my most important updates then feel free to sign up at the link in the first paragraph or at my website.  I promise I won't spam your inbox or anything.  I just alert you to newest art, special auctions, sales, products... things like that.  ;)

 I have some new bookmarks for sale!  This is a new type of bookmark for me.  These are laminated and don't come in the big vinyl sleeves.  Though the vinyl ones are still available, these aren't quite as bulky.  They're really beautiful, and available in my ebay store HERE.  Right now I just have one of each listed available. I will be continuously adding new ones as I make them, but eventually they will become a regular item of mine.  :)  I may phase the vinyl ones out and replace them with these, but for now you can get both.

Heaven and Earth Designs recently released a couple of my paintings as quick stitch cross stitch charts. Amaryllis and Sweet Pea!

JEWELRY
Though these were made in December/January I just realized that I never mentioned them in my blog.
All of these are for sale HERE

New chainmaille bracelet and necklace set (sold separately) done in the full persian weave.

A gothic necklace and earrings set (also sold separately)

And a beaded kumihimo braided bracelet!








I believe that is pretty much it for the moment.  I'm going to have a new ACEO painting done soon.  I really should have it done already, but I've been a slacker.  lol  I have it sketched and ready to go.  I just have to add color.  :)

I think that I will feel more productive once the weather gets a little nicer!  I'm so tired of winter and snow and cold... bleh!

On a more positive note... I have cute kitties to cheer me up!  They're just over 4 months old now.  :)

Pretty Storm

Holiday Sales, New Art and Kitties!

I'll start out by announcing that starting today I'm having a huge Holiday sale in my Ebay store!!  This will last until December 5th!!  You can get 25% off all prints, including a brand new size I'm now offering -- large, 13 x 19" prints!!  And get 10% off everything else -- original paintings, jewelry, bookmarks, etc...!

Also if you prefer to shop at Etsy, you won't be left out!  Enter the coupon code HOLIDAY at the checkout and get 10% off your order!!  :)

You can also get 40% off calendars at Zazzle for the rest of November by entering the coupon code: 40CLNDRS2011
I  have 3 calendars available: 

Newest Art

 "Crimson Wings"
This painting was done for the Enchanted Visions Project for the theme, crimson wings.  I took mine in a horror/fantasy direction.  I'm really pleased with how she turned out!  She's probably one of my favorites I've done in a while.
Prints and the Original Painting are available HERE

 "Pumpkin Patch"

This next one I finished JUST in time for Halloween!  I like some things about it but I think I could have improved a couple things if I'd had more time to work on it.  But for the most part, I'm happy with it.  :)
Prints are available HERE


Kitties!

Summertime, outside

In September, we took in a stray cat.  She'd been hanging around all Summer and when it was starting to get a little cooler outside she decided that she wanted to move in with us.  Yes, she decided.  She came in through a hole in our screen door and made herself at home.  LOL  Luckily we liked her so we let her stay.  Isn't she pretty!  :)

Pweese, let me in!

Of course, being a female stray... she had to be pregnant.
On October 30th, she had 3 kittens.  I knew for sure that she was pregnant maybe 2-3 week before she gave birth.  At least she and her kitties have a warm place to stay and plenty of food to eat, plus 4 humans that are pretty crazy about them!  :)  Especially Momma, Freya!  We haven't gotten to know the kittens too much yet, but they get more adorable every day.  They're currently 3 weeks old.  We probably won't be able to keep all three kittens, but plan on keeping at least one of them along with Freya.  Hopefully we can find good homes for the other 2.  :) These are some of my favorite pics of her and her kittens.  I haven't gotten many very good ones of the kittens yet since she has them under my bed!  lol

Pretty Freya

Freya

One Kitten, 2-3 days old

Nursing her babies

babies, 1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old

Store Sale!!

I'm having an Ebay store sale for the next week with 25% off all prints and 5% off Jewelry and a few originals! :)

Ebay Store Sale!

I'm having a sale in my ebay store for the next week!!




Also for those who were wondering, finally everything is settled with my contacts and glasses!! :)

EBAY Store Sale!

Everything is on sale!!

My Vision Saga Continues...

Today, I had my follow up appointment for my contacts... and I had some complaints ready. I actually liked the contacts, they were comfortable most of the the time and didn't bother me to have in my eye. I liked not having to wear glasses and the absence of reflections on the lenses. But the most important thing was lacking. I couldn't see all that much better, which was the whole point. Same thing with my new glasses too. So anyway, I told the doctor all this, and she's a different one than I had the first time. After doing some testing, it was concluded that the original prescription wasn't right (which I'd basically figured out myself) but she thinks that I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye. This would really explain a lot since sometimes I thought that the new prescription was okay, and then other times it seemed blurry or out of focus.

Unfortunately, they didn't have the new prescription in stock and had to order it. So I have to wait another week to possibly see any better. I'm just hoping that I won't get charged anything to get my glasses redone with the new prescription. I mean, it isn't my fault that it was wrong the first time. I'm quite irritated with the whole thing by now. Thankfully my eyes aren't so bad that I can't do anything without my glasses, but they do feel strained quickly and I get headaches especially if I try reading without them (one of my favorite things to do!). :( I feel bad, though, because I'm not getting a whole lot of new work done. I'm working on a commission (slowly) and I want to start a Halloween themed painting soon after I'm done. I have a neat idea for that! I even have a little concept sketch done for it. :)

I did manage to finish a necklace a couple days ago! It matches the black bracelet I made before. And this one is for SALE! :) It is available in my Etsy shop HERE! I'm planning to make another bracelet to sell too eventually. It is a fun new hobby of mine! It becomes kind of addicting!

Oh, and I have 2 poster size prints for auction on ebay! They are of "The Secret Temple" and "Darkest Night"! They only have 2 days left though. Sorry for the late notice! Check those out HERE. They start at $9.99 and have free shipping! :)

I also recently wrote a little tutorial about watercolor textures. You can view the tutorial on my website. It feature a few ways of creating texture that aren't mentioned quite as often as some others and are a little more controllable. I hope some may find it helpful!

My Entertainment

I finally did some more painting tonight on the gothic angel picture. I did some extra work on the perspective of the road and actually started on her skin. I'm excited to have moved on to something different from the background, though I'll have to go back later and tweak a few things. But at least I can get a little break from it. :)

Just for fun, because I was bored one night, I played around with my sketch, "Another Ruined Cravat" in Photoshop and added some quick color. This was just for fun, and I still fully plan to paint it with watercolor like always. I may even use completely different colors. I haven't decided yet. ;)

Anyone watch True Blood on HBO? The second season started a couple weeks ago. I love that show! I loved the books by Charlaine Harris, so I was really looking forward to the show. I think that they've done a really good job with it. It kind of loosely follows the books and some characters are expanded and events changed. But I kind of like that. Having read the books, it makes it so that I don't already know exactly what's going to happen. That makes it a little more exciting. :)


I'm reading Jacqueline Carey's newest book, "Naamah's Kiss." I love all her other Kushiel's books! They're among my favorite books. This one is set in the same world as the previous ones, but some generations later with new characters. I wasn't entirely sure how it would be, but I'm only about 70 pages in and I'm already really enjoying it. I should have known better since the others were so wonderful! I definitely recommend the others, and I'll probably love this one when I'm done too. :)

That is really all for now. I've started getting feedback about my book from those who've gotten theirs, and so far all is positive! I am so relieved that everyone like it! :) Now I sort of know how authors must feel on the release dates of their books. lol

My ebay sale continues until July 6th! There's a link in my previous post and in the links column to the upper right. :)

Summer Sale!!

I'm having a sale in my Ebay Store! 25% all prints and 15% off all jewelry! Check it out HERE

Predatory -- New ACEO!!

This is my newest ACEO, "Predatory." lol I've been misspelling that word all day. Anyway, I've got it straight now. ;) This is the 5th in my animals series, of which the limited edition prints are nearly sold out. I still have some of "Fierce" which features a tiger, but the other three are sold out. So for this one, I made the edition larger, out of 27.

The Original is for auction on ebay! You can view that HERE!!

Prints available on my website here.

Store sale and more!!

I'm having a sale in my ebay store this week! 20% off all prints and jewelry! Check it out HERE

I currently have a few things in the works. I'm working on two paintings, one of which you got a peak of in my last post. The other is a commission. Hopefully, I will have those finished paintings to share very soon. I'm also working on... an art book!! It is really coming along well and I'm nearly finished with it. I have the entire main part of the book done. I just have to do the beginning intro pages and the index and the cover and it will be ready. I'll have more information about that coming up! :)

Special Hand-Embellished Print!

Once again, I'm offering a last chance, hand-embellished print of one of my sold out limited edition ACEOs! This time of "Foxy." This print is 5 x 7" and matted! You can view the auction HERE!!

Wild Vines

This one came together pretty quickly. I really like how it turned out. I knew when I started it that it was going to be green, but I didn't really plan to make it entirely monochromatic. That just sort of happened and I'm really glad that it did. It gives it a sort of soft, dreamy look. :)

Watercolor and a little white goauche. 5 x 7"

Original for Auction HERE!!

Store Sale!!

I'm having a sale in my Ebay store for the next week!!

Get 20% off all prints and 10% off jewelry! And if you spend at least $20 you'll get a free 5 x 7" "Thinking of You" print! Which is my newest Valentine's Day painting.

Visit my Store HERE!

Some One-Of-A-Kind Auctions!!

There is one last chance to own a print of the sold out ACEO, "Black Rose Immortal!" I have created a special, One-of-A-Kind hand-embellished 5 x 7" print of it. It comes matted too and will fit into any standard 8 x 10" frame! It is really beautiful and the only way to own a print of that image. Click the picture below to view the auction.

Also, I have some One-Of-A-Kind hand-Embellished ACEO prints of some of my art!! There will only be one of each of these, and I will be doing some more of other work soon. See those auctions HERE!