Grateful

Happy Fall!

Well, at 3:02 pm! Lol (Central Time)

Mother Nature is snickering as she sends us temps bordering on the 90 degree line.

As a painter, I am never quite sure what season it really is.

Art has the Gift of transporting you to different places, different seasons, and yes, different outcomes.

It is no secret, my goal, as an artist, is to spread smiles.

I love happy colors. 

I do not like faces without smiles. 

I love whimsical. 

I have a joke going with a few friends about stepping into the "dark side."

They know I am joking, while others might not know.

I love dark colors, too.

In my opinion, there is nothing classier than black and white. It was our farm's colors, because, well, we milked black and white cows! 😁😂🤣 (Holstein)

I have been trying to learn different styles of painting my entire life. That is what helps me grow as an artist, but I do not want to abandon my style that I have worked for years to develop, because, be it good or bad, there is  something absolutely awe-inspiring to hear, "I knew that was yours!" I think it is one of the greatest compliments I have ever received.

With that being said, most every one of us started by copying patterns offered by others. I still enjoy painting the designs of others, because I learn so much! 

And, again,  this brings up 2 of my own questions:

1. Why would an Artist get angry when someone doesn't follow their pattern.

2. Why would you teach if you don't want others to duplicate your pattern and sell it??  If you sell your pattern, and IF the person bought it, then you need to let it go! No, I am not talking about stealing. I am referring to videos/patterns that are purchased or offered for free.

Yes, I know, sometimes I fail to see the big picture, BUT before you go "stormin' norman" on me, this is MY opinion, and it is absolutely fine to disagree with me.

I think it is important to add your own touches into art. My goal is simply to share some of what I know, so you can learn. I want to INSPIRE others.

We learn by imitating others--look at children.

I also believe that God has given us the skills we need to survive in life. Yes, we must hone them and learn, but the basis is there.

I also believe, with every ounce of my being, that the more we give, the more we get! I believe it applies to every part of our lives. 

I have experienced that we CANNOT outgive God.  

If I can help you, I will do my best.

Now, before I seem all high and mighty, I also think that when someone helps YOU, it is your responsibility to then, help yourself. 

We have all experienced those who keep wanting more. I have taken my time to offer help, only to be bombarded with question after question...heavy sigh

People...One word--GOOGLE!!

There are people who will push you to your edge, and sometimes you have to say, NO.

That is ok! 

Now, don't think I am saying that we can't sell our art, because, yes, that goes back to my statement about gifts God gave us to make a living, BUT if you teach it, HOW can you say it can't be sold? That is crazy! 

I think what I love about my friends, is how generous they are. They give free tutorials, ideas, line drawings, helpful hints, and on and on. It really is a community! Each offering help.

So, with all of that said, I have been updating my HOPE pattern (Pink ribbon patterns) with some new ideas, so I grabbed a 6x6 canvas that had been sitting in a spot for a few months --hmmmmm...does it count as the SAME SPOT if Charcoal and I have knocked it off about 20 times, oh, and it has inched closer down the stack of stuff to my painting table??

Sorry, to have just made many of you shutter. I have friends who will understand me. 😁😂🤣😃

I covered it with an old dictionary page--ok, two pages-- with DecouPage (Yes, use what you have or your favorite method). 

I drew a pumpkin--start with a center, and add to each side. I grabbed a darker color on my base coat brush to separate the sections--there are TONS of FREE tutorials on You Tube and Pinterest to show you how to draw a pumpkin.

Here is a link to one of my previous posts.Click here

I painted the outside then added texture with my favorite dry wall tape and some favorite colors of DecoArt Americana Acrylics.

Then I dabbed on Deco art One Step Crackle around the pumpkin. I dab it on, rather than simply brushing it. I put it on thicker than a regular coat of paint. 

When it dried, I thinned a darker color and put it on top so the cracks would appear! Then wiped the darker color off, so it remained only in the cracks.

I found a word I liked in my drawer full of stencils. Yes, I love this word and how it nudges me. 

I applied Pink Glamour Dust to the words and to the pumpkin--sparkle and cracks--story of my life! 😁😂🤣😃

Yes, you are more than welcome to make some, and to sell them!  I certainly don't own the rights to a pumpkin! 😁😂🤣😃😄

But, seriously, I am happy to try to teach others to maybe earn some money to help THEM support their families.

God has been so good to me. He has given me far better than I deserve.

For those who have "wronged" me, I pray they will get the same Grace and Mercy that has been gifted to me.

Always help others--It isn't your responsibility to make sure they say THANKS or to change.

Have a blessed Fall, and don't you dare fail to take time to enjoy It! 

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the world.

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte♡

Monday Musings about Blogging

Happy Monday!

We have had another gorgeous day in Middle Tennessee.

Charcoal and I spent 2.5 hours outside, until the sun went down.  What a WAY to spend part of a day.

He is my reminder to STOP, go outside and breathe fresh air and SEE all the beauty that God created for us.

I had a couple of people ask me about Blogging—yes 2 people!

I thought I would share some of my thoughts.

I realize that some of you will not enjoy reading this, but it is ok.  Try the next post.

I am in no way an expert, and most of what I do is by trial and error.

Does my blog make a difference in the world?  Probably not, but I enjoy it on most days and some others do too, so it makes a difference for me and that other person!  That, my friends, is success.

I guess I need to start at the beginning and in reading, perhaps you will get the answers that you wanted by digging through my words. You didn’t think I would make this EASY for you, did you?

I joined Facebook because someone told me I needed to join to help my business grow. So I joined FB.  I had 9 FRIENDS for a long time.  I had no clue what in the world it was about.  When my mother died in March of 2012, I got a few more friends when people looked for me to send condolences.   At that time, I saw a little of the possibility of FB.  The day of Mother’s death, I got the link to a website I had designed for me, and so, I started adding to it and launched the website on the anniversary of my Daddy’s death, because I have tried to do something POSITIVE on special dates or to do something for someone else on those days, and I KNOW that my parents would not want me in a perpetual state of sadness.  Yes, I struggle…

I had in the meantime, started a FB Business Page, and struggled to find what to do with it.  I thought I would add helpful hints, but again, I had few followers.  I started playing the “games” of FB with if you like me, I will like you, and let’s have FRIENDSHIP FRIDAY, where you share your link and on and on.  I got my followers to 1500 and by this time, I had found my niche in sharing memories each morning of my life growing up on a Dairy farm with 2 brothers and I would share something I had painted.

Sadly, the web site was a bust.  I couldn’t get the lady to FIX stuff and she didn’t share my web like she said she would, and well, I was frustrated.  People kept telling me I should write a book and that I should blog, and that I should….

I wanted to design patterns and I wanted people to buy them.  That wasn’t asking too much, was it?

So, one night, while all of my friends slept, I opened an Etsy shop (May, 2013).  See—I really should NEVER be left unsupervised.  Sales were slow in coming, but they came quickly enough to keep me going.  I then discovered that I could add instant downloads to etsy, so I became more excited!

I plugged along with designing, putting things on etsy and doing my daily posts on fb.  By this time, FB had changed their “formula” and hardly anyone was seeing my posts, or they were tired of them, or, who knows what, but seeing only 10 likes on a post with over 1500 followers was sickening.

I struggled with deciding if I should start another FB page where I would share thoughts on my faith, because I KNEW that my sharing my beliefs was a “put off” to many and then that would leave a page to share only my creations, without my commentary.  I thought about it long and hard, weighing the pros and cons, but at the end of the day, I AM WHOSE I am and I can’t deny it, nor do I WANT to deny it. 

SO, again, while my friends slept, I started a blog in December of 2013—man, we have GOT to find a supervisor for me!

Well, now, I had a blog.  I had no clue, really, what that meant, and still, today, I am not certain at times.

I tried to blog each day, while I kept doing my daily posts on FB.

I have only dial-up internet, and that, in and of itself, is almost too much to overcome, but still, I persevere.  I seek solutions, but there is this horrible evil called MONEY!  MAYBE this will be the year that I solve that problem.

I blogged for a while, and lost steam.  During this time, I stopped writing a daily post on FB, because only 30 people seeing it, was just a waste of my time. I started finding a cute little post for my wall, instead.  Meanwhile, nobody was really reading my blog either, or so it seemed, because I was focusing ONLY on followers.  I didn’t know what else to do.

I tried to get “followers”, but today, I only have 79 followers on Google Plus.  I tried give-aways, but people do not follow directions at all (grrrrrrrrrrrr….) and it did nothing to gain followers, the purpose of the task.  I see blogs with hundreds of followers, and wonder what I can do to get followers~~that quest is ongoing!

I think that perhaps I have joined the circus just as the elephants are being phased out~~too late to succeed.

I lost my UMPF…again.

Days quickly passed and I suddenly realized that I had not blogged for a week, and then a month, and I was so disappointed in me!

I kept trying to keep it going, until ONE DAY, I decided that I needed a focus~~A purpose.  I didn’t want to be like so many of the bloggers that I followed—months and months of nothing!

The whole reason I wanted to have a business page was to share tips.  Then I discovered that I enjoyed sharing memories, and others liked it, too.  I also have a fascination with recipes, especially appetizers and I wanted to pass along some family recipes, since I am it!  I have no children.  I have lived through some challenges in caring for elderly parents, and while I don’t want to rehash past mistakes, I DO feel that I experienced things so I could pass them along to people.  We never know what someone is going through until we walk in their shoes, and even then, it is different.  Oh, and being POSITIVE and ENCOURAGING remain important to me, for we don’t need any more gripping!  Whew—I become more and more like my Mother with each passing day~~LOL

Recently, I developed a plan for ME~~A SIMPLE Plan.  I chose 7 witty subjects:  Serendipity Sunday, Monday Musings, Technique Tuesday, Whacky Wednesday, Tutorial Thursday, Food Friday and Smorgasbord Saturday.

My goal was to post ONCE a week.  If I did more, then YAY for ME!!

So far, so good.

With this schedule, it allows me to post ANYTHING that I wish, yet it has given me a focus.  I am able to post things that I LOVE and it covers different topics so that I can reach more people.  YES, the tutorials that I give are the most viewed, and that is GREAT.  It tells me WHAT my base of people want.  That is SO GOOD to KNOW!  How many times, as crafters, have we said, “if ONLY I knew what people wanted.”  I now know what people want.  How cool is that?

I have learned about organic views vs. hits and not to dwell on the number.  I can see that by sharing on the social media that I belong to (twitter, google+, Instagram and FB), the number of followers I have isn’t the only measure of success.  For instance, while searching for stats to do this post, I found some posts with almost 500 organic views…I found some with only 16…sigh  The snowman nodder on Thursday has 279 organic views, and that means that the number is from only ONE address, whereas the hits are simply that—possibly all from one address!  LOL (yes, I can picture it now—a lone man in Timbuctoo with the only computer sitting and visiting my blog all day, every day!)

SO, now you are caught up with my struggles as a blogger.  I apologize for the length, and yet I have a few points before I wrap this up and move on to another task.

If wanting to blog, I think some questions need to be explored.

1.      Do you really want to blog?

2.      Are you willing to keep doing it and doing it consistently?

3.      What can you do to motivate yourself to be a consistent blogger?

4.      What is your reason for blogging?

5.      What are your expectations from blogging?

6.      Are you willing to put the time into the process to be successful?

7.      Are you willing to forgive yourself if you fail?

8.      Are you willing to regroup and try something different?

I can’t think my friends enough for the support I continue to get.  I HOPE that in some small way, you KNOW what you mean to me.  I fail at so many things each day, but KNOW that my heart is trying and that just like you, I am doing the best I can at the moment, and maybe, tomorrow I will be a little bit better~~baby steps, right?

Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the world.  It keeps me wanting to try harder. 

I am simply blessed to create~~charlotte♡

Art Challenge Day 4, Friday, January 30, 2015

This was Day 4 of the Art Challenge.  I was NOT going to finish this challenge because of the RUDEST comment that I saw on a fellow artist’s posting by the person who “supposedly” started this challenge saying that it SURE had morphed into something else than what SHE intended it to be...

 WELL, I PERSONALLY am thankful that things MORPH and that people see a GREATER GOOD for inspirations and how simple IDEAS can become SO MUCH MORE than we originally can fathom by OURSELVES…

I am THANKFUL for ALL who have taken the time to SHARE their ART…no matter WHAT type of ART it is~~thread, oil, acrylic, designer, painter, photographer, mixed-media…For you see, the MOMENT any of us ATTEMPTS to put OURSELVES above someone else, THEN YOU WILL ALWAYS become a failure…It is ONLY through SHARING and SUPPORTING each other that we become ARTISTS…

GOD is the MASTER CREATOR. No matter how beautifully we paint, WE ALL are mere imitators of the MASTER…NONE of us can create something that is NEW because GOD has it all covered, BUT what he has done, is to give us a DESIRE to improve…to DEVELOP the skills He has planted into our lives…whether we create or admire ART, we ALL play a part in the appreciation and the furtherance of ART, so Today, I took my friends advice and decided NOT to let ONE MEAN-SPIRITED WOMAN ruin the JOY of SHARING the gifts that I have and that are DIFFERENT from any one else because we are ALL UNIQUE BUT we are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made…

I am THANKFUL for those who have inspired me to work harder, paint longer and delve deeper into my creativity in WHATEVER form it appears on a surface! 

THANK you GOD for being MY MASTER inspiration and for giving me the GIFT of ART...it is to GOD that I give ALL GLORY and HONOR for the gifts he has bestowed on me and it is my prayer that I will be SUPPORTIVE and that I will be an ENCOURAGER for those who work diligently to get their art noticed…we ALL need each other and we have NO room for pettiness or selfishness…

SO since I am on my SOAPBOX (again…sigh), I guess it is ONLY fitting that I share a pattern that I designed for painting on SOAP! LOL (yeah…I DARE anyone to come up with a BETTER transition than THAT one…BWAH…see there I go, patting myself on the back…sigh). 

Next, is a simple sign designed as a reflection of what I believe…

and the last just about sums up my faith…we are the sheep of HIS pasture and we should LOOK UP for guidance, no…we need to look in our hearts and ASK, BELIEVE and we WILL receive…

I design QUICK and EASY designs in hopes that EVERYONE who wishes to paint can see that THEY CAN...I use BRIGHT colors and HAPPY faces because life is hard enough and I WANT to be HAPPY and to spread CHEER...

Be a SUPPORTER of Art...Be an ENCOURAGER of ART...

Be the BEST YOU that YOU can BE...Blessings to YOU...~charlotte♥