Artists Needed For 2010 Paws For Charity Artbook

About Paws For Charity

The Paws For Charity Art Book is a collection of artwork and photographs featuring dogs and cats submitted by artists around the world. All profits from the sale of these books are donated to breast cancer charities.

If you are interested in having your image published in the 2010 Paws for Charity Art Book, please post it here, http://www.flickr.com/groups/pawsforcharity. The Art Book showcases the work of professional photographers and artists, although everyone is welcome to send submissions. You must have a website or blog to participate in the Paws for Charity Art Book. They are accepting original artwork and photographs...You must own the copyright to the images you submit. Images should include a dog and/or cat.

Suggested Themes:
1. Images showing the bond between people and their pets.
2. "Pink", the color representing breast cancer awareness.
3. Original artwork or artistic photographs (ie, not "snapshots")

If your image is chosen for the book (Feb 2010), it must be available in high resolution. You will be asked to email the image, and will need to sign an agreement stating your image can be published for this project. You will retain the copyright of your image.

Updates about the 2010 Paws For Charity Art Book will be available throughout the year on on: www.pawsforcharity.blogspot.com

If you have candids or snapshots you would like published in a book, you'll be interested in the 2009 Paws For Charity Photo Collection...to be published in October 2009. Details are available :

http://www.pawsforcharity.blogspot.com

Springtime Bouquet Mixed Media painting

Flowers are starting to bloom everywhere! I have some Daffodil's and Crocus' that are stretching toward the sun and of course the rest of the garden is just begging to be raked free of leaves. I'm behind, of course and although there are certain aspects I love about gardening, leaves and weeds aren't one of them. Some friends of ours gave us some Monkey Grass about eight years ago, without telling us it was mutant, rapidly reproducing, take over your garden with roots to China Monkey Grass, and I am still digging it up every year :] I think that's why I haven't ventured out in the garden yet. So for now, I'll enjoy these.....no weeds, leaves or monkey grass!

Mother and Child Mixed Media Painting

I LOVE Angels! I collect them and my house is full of them-all shapes and sizes. Definitely great inspiration for me. Lots of fun to paint too. I collaged the background and then painted so it has a square lined texture.




"Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings!" Maybe they're hidden under their cloaks? :]

Angel Of The Blue

Yay-got her finished! She gave me a bit of a fuss but I spent most of the day working on her. I wanted to get some pics outside but it's raining today. I usually use a satin varnish but I used semi-gloss this time and I love it. It really shows the paint and texture well.

WIP Angel of the Blue

I've had this sketch in my journal that I just couldn't wait to get on wood. Although after I started her I realized I didn't have enough room to add everything I wanted to, so she's a bit different than I intended her to be, so next time a wider piece of wood! She's just in the beginning stages so I have lots yet to do.




But she's slowly coming to life!

Fun Doll Tag Swap

I'm taking part in a doll tag swap on Nancye's Art Dolls. I think there's 16 participants and we're all making 16 tags and sending them off to Nancye and she's going to put them all together-one from each artist- and then we'll have our own doll tag book! Very cool idea. Here are my first eight that I've done. I used card stock and cut them to the right size. (well pretty close I hope!)





I painted them all different colors and added black and white images which I embellished with some paint here and there. Then I added all kinds of goodies...stamps, fabric, ribbon, other collage pieces and some super sparkly paint!
They are much shinier in person. Remember Kewpie dolls?!

Got busy this weekend!

Get your minds out of the gutter :]....creatively speaking busy that is. Since Spring is here I have flowers on the brain and I love Daisies! I put tons of texture in to this painting so it pops out at you.





My son and I went to Michael's on Friday to pick up some beeswax and just a 'few' other things. That's a dangerous place isn't it? So yesterday I did two beeswax collages. They have such a shine to them that I don't know if you can make out the images. The first one has a medieval castle with a boy and girl off to the side talking to a Magpie. I loaded it with vintage papers and text too.
The colors in this one are brighter. Sisters with their kitties.
My daughter got in on the action too. We're in the process of painting her room a turquoise color and she wanted to do a beeswax collage initially and then changed her mind(that's why I did two!)and decided to do papers on wood. She used a few stamps too and then sealed them in varnish. A for Alex!

She's got a little birdie

It's funny because I kept on working on this painting yesterday after I posted WIP pics, and kept adding and adding! You're right Becky, she would have looked sweet with a bunny or a basket! I was thinking at the time that the little yellow bird on the left needed to have a feathered friend too. I've been working a lot in my sketch book lately and I can't wait to get some more of these ideas on to wood. I just signed up for Jane DesRosier's creative texture workshop too so I will be trying out some new techniques-exciting!
Don't pigtails just make you smile?

WIP Mixed Media Painting

Gosh, I feel like I've been lazy! I do have a cloth and clay doll drying AND I finally got some wood yesterday so it felt good to break out the paints. I'm not sure what she wants to hold just yet...maybe a heart or a little birdie?
I'm waiting for her to tell me.

Thank you Sweet Michelle!

From The Studio At Crow Haven Farm.
One of my favorite places to visit! It is a magical place and I love the characters there and, of course, to see the new kids on the block. You are a constant source of inspiration! Thank you for this lovely award. I'm gonna have to create an Energizer Bunny award just for you!

Challenge/Purpose Doll

I did this little pink lady for a March challenge doll in JoAnna's Moss Hill workshop. The challenge being to make a doll with the theme "What is your purpose?" So here's one of my purposes...




She's bedazzled in vintage lace and lots of costume jewelry and gold sparkle!
Love....
And be Loved

Finished my BIG collage Added Beeswax

Whew, I don't think I've ever used so much Modge Podge before! It's funny how different this piece looks at a distance and then up close. When you get up close you can see all the elements. I used lots of papers and text. I used "Amazing Grace" for the tree and then added a brown stain and heart shaped leaves from different papers. I wanted to leave the bird black and white so I just added three different shades of blue to the background and finished it off with beeswax.
Doing this piece gave me lots of ideas for future works!

Award and Photo Tag!

Thank you Suzi from Art with a touch of whimsy! for this lovely award and Caroline from Carolines Crafts for this photo tag. For the award I'm supposed to list seven things that I love and pass it on to seven lovelies. For the pic I'm supposed to pick the sixth picture from my sixth folder and then do some tagging myself. I'm gonna hold off on that part since I just did that recently but I wanted to say thank you ladies!
This pic was taken on our vacation to Fripp Island, South Carolina two summers ago. This was looking right off our balcony. The deer are protected there and they are not afraid of people in the least. We got in trouble a few times for feeding them bread!

Have you ever seen a bag like this?

I received this beautiful altered gift bag from Melanie during the OWOH giveaway. It is truly a piece of art! I wish I could take a decent picture because they are much lighter than the bag actually is but I wanted to show off some of the goodies on it.



The color is actually silver with some hues of blue and gold and she added stamps and these wonderful images of pretty ladies that sparkle with gold and red. There's lace and flowers and these tiny seashells and text.

It's just loaded with goodies and it truly is beautiful. She has some better pics on her blog than mine are along with some yummy cards and other goodness. Thank you Melanie-Love it!

Happy to be participating in Paws For Charity!

I'm delighted and honored to be participating in the 2009 Art Book Project for Paws For Charity. I found out about this charity from Sara Harley,
who lost her mom when she was 21 to breast cancer. This disease is very personal to me as well. My grandmother had a double masectomy when I was a child and I saw her struggles and battles with this disease. I feel lucky to be able to help!
So, a little bit about this project:

What is "Paws for Charity"?

Paws for Charity was created several years ago by four women who ran dog businesses and used their businesses to raise money for breast cancer charity. When the group was started, Sara ran a dog biscuit business and sold a package called "Crunch for a Cure". One hundred percent of her proceeds was donated to breast cancer charity. Last year, she sold her dog biscuit business and Paws for Charity languished. This year, she decided to focus on fund raising through Paws for Charity through two projects. Two of the other Paws for Charity founders continue to sell their products to raise funds, and this year will be raising funds for different charities. Paws for Charity is not a registered charity, but we do raise funds for registered charities.

What is the "Art Book Project"?

2009 is the first year for this project. A 40 page book is being created using donated art and photograph images from the US, UK, and Canada. The book features dogs and cats (and one teddy bear!) (the PAWS part of the project) and all proceeds raised will be donated to breast cancer charities (the FOR CHARITY part of the project).

Here is my contribution!
Don't we love our babies?

What is the book going to look like?

The book is a soft cover book, 7 inches square and 40 pages long. It features the artwork and photography of 37 artists from the US, UK, and Canada. It will be published by an online, on demand company. This means that the books are printed one by one as they are ordered, and shipped out to the purchaser directly by the online printing company.

How can my friends order this book and how much will it cost?

Once it's available (likely in early April), I'll send you the link for online ordering.

We will make a difference!

To Catch A Shooting Heart....

Hearts abound when these two are around! They were a bit late for the shooting stars, but hearts are just as nice don't you think?

"Of all the music that reached farthest into heaven, it is the beating of a loving heart."
	Henry Ward Beecher

What shape is your sunset?

If you're lucky enough one day you just may catch one that's shaped like a big beautiful heart with swirly white clouds. A beautiful place where flowers grow in the shapes of hearts and the grass is always green. Where little birdies grace you with garlands of love.

Mixed Media Collage WIP

I've had this huge canvas sitting around for awhile so I thought I'd do something a bit different than my norm. I did an image transfer of the bird and the long angel wings and I'm in the process of collaging the rest. I'm using 'Amazing Grace' music to collage a big tree and I've got lots of lovely paper that I won from OWOH from Brenda and I have bits of newspaper and an old book.
Trying to work on it at night when all is quiet and I feel like breaking out the ModPodge!

Ever seen a Potato with hair?

Being the mom of a seven year old boy I've come to the realization that there are certain words of the male species that become a part of their daily vocabulary. So, when my son comes home from school with a new 'vocabulary word' I've learned not to act like someone just set my hair on fire. A special thanks goes to one of the kids in our neighborhood for introducing 'nuts' in to his vocabulary. And of course, we're not talking Planters. (Aloha, this kid has since moved to Hawaii) The newest one as of about two weeks ago is 'balls', again we're not talking sports here. So I can add that to the list of fart(I hate that word), toot(just as bad),poop, dweeb, geek, etc. I know I'm leaving some out. I can handle these words occasionally and he knows he's not to give a shout out to a teacher or a parent with any of these words.

K, on to taters! The kids were off from school yesterday because we got about six inches of snow the night before. My son wanted to go out and play so I got him all bundled up but I couldn't find his gloves. After we had done the search downstairs, I told him to go up and ask his Dad if he knew where his gloves were. So off he goes and comes back down a few seconds later giggling his head off. "Dads getting ready to get in the shower." he said. "And?" I asked. Now I have to tell you I had an idea what was coming at this point. "I saw his balls in the mirror!" (I'm telling you I can write that now and only cringe a little bit.) And he did have the decency to kind of whisper it. So, I could have let it go I supposed, but I bit...."What did they look like?" I whispered back. And without hesitation he said....














"Like a tater with hair!"

XO Your Art Blog Award

Thank you Caroline!
Sorry it took me so long to get this lovely award up. I think it's just beautiful! Thank you. Now in turn, I'm to list 7 things I love-very easy, and pick 7 other recipients-not so easy to pick just 7. So not in any particular order, except for my family, here goes...


1. My family. Those are my babies!
2. My pets. I have 4 of them. Would have more but my husband gets this pinched look on his face when I mention it.
3. Music-gotta have it
4. Christmastime-Peace on Earth-Lights and sparkle!
5. Art-creating, playing, making dolls, painting
6. I love to read and learn new things....

And now for number 7!
7. I love this pic of Robert Pant! Hmmm.... (pic by www.stars-celebrites.com)

And the Award goes to:
1. Zan from wildatheartart
2. Michelle from Michelleperkett
3. Hilary from Goldbuttonstudio
4. Flor from FlorLariosArt
5. Benedetta from Benedetta-treasures-of-life
6. Kecia from Lemoncholy's
7. Jacqui from OddDollz

Yay-Got something finished!

This young lady has just been hanging around patiently waiting for me to fix her up and make her a pretty dress. I could not for the life of me go to sleep last night so I stayed up late and gave her a makeover.


Don't you feel good when you're all dressed up and have a little color on your face?
Welcome Miss Lacey!