How Very Enchanting is My Room

I love swapping art, and what's not to love? You meet new people, make friends with a shared interest, have the opportunity to share your creations with others, get lots and lots of inspiration from fellow swappers, AND collect lovely pieces such as this wonderfully whimsical faerie home!

Christine Shebroe, from my Paper Whimsy Ning Group made this for me. It has such a fun feel to it. I adore the flamingo on the picket fence and the little salamander creeping about.
The exterior is equally as wonderful with the magical faerie home entrance and poem. Thank you so much Christine!

This was a fantastic swap culminating in many extremely creative assemblages. Personally, it was nice to travel a bit out of my artistic comfort zone and create my first ever assemblage piece. A great source of inspiration for many of us was the book, Mixed Media Dollhouses by Tally Oliveau and Julie Molina. Not only a visual delight; it includes clear instructions and templates, and features artwork by the talented Gale Blair (Paper Whimsy owner, aka our fearless leader/mentor) and our equally talented group member, Theresa Martin.
I highly recommend this book to anyone open to a little enchantment in their life.

Never Knew How Fond I Was of Blue

My friend Tom, upon viewing some of my recent artwork, commented that blue must be my favorite color. I never thought it was. Do I even have a favorite color?
I signed up for another Paper Whimsy Ning Group swap - My Whimsical & Enchanted Room. The challenge was to take a favorite fairytale, poem or story and create a whimsical and enchanted room. Choosing the theme was easy. I knew immediately Thumbelina was the tale I wanted to depict. I shopped the Paper Whimsy store for some new digital collage sheets, hauled out the massive art supplies and proceeded to create, and re-create, and re-create. Initially, I was working in browns and oranges. Okay, but not exactly what I envisioned. Got into some pinks and purples. That wasn't working for me at all. Blue! What about blues? It made me laugh, but it was just what I was looking for.
So, yes, for now anyway, blue is my favorite color.