I just had to share this incredibly gorgeous tree in my front yard that God paints bright red in Autumn. It stuns me with it’s beauty every year. Click to enlarge the photos to really capture the essence of the color. I wish you could experience it in person, the crispness of the air, the birds singing in the surrounding forest and the scent of fresh rain and hearth fires, oh, such a splendid season!

I was also inspired to create a large Autumn themed floral arrangement to put on the piano through Thanksgiving. I found the wooden bucket at a second hand store and painted it red. The scale is such that it’s the only centerpiece, ( 30″ X 42″- not including the tall twigs from my yard that I sprayed black). I love the warm abundant harvest mood it creates.

I’m wonderfully busy creating artwork with my new art stamps. We’ve had a manufacturing setback that’s delaying the new release. My hope is that our new art stamp sets will be available soon and I can share every fabulous work of art that my Design Team and I have made. Until then, enjoy God’s paintings this Autumn!

I’m busy creating artwork with my new art stamps for our new release and publications! I can’t show them to you yet, but I can share some of my photographs of the season. Enjoy this beautiful October!

When I go to a second hand shop, I head to the book section first. I look for old books about birds, the ones with the colored illustrations. Now that I have duplicates of two of them, I feel better about tearing up the pages. Today, from the pages of one book, I made two small books (each  3″ X 4″). I was inspired by Anna’s tutorial on making accordion fold books.

She clearly explained how to make this simple and easy project. I used pages from one of my bird books as front and back covers.The background is tinted with chalks and inks, stamped with Layers of Color Beaded Frames, Architectural Blocks and Gothic Crosses art stamps, and accented with opaque white gel pen.

I used textured wallpaper (also found at a second hand shop)for the signature (inside of book), which I spray painted and rubbed with colored ink pads.The paper is smooth on one side for easy writing.

After working on project after project for work, it felt great to learn something new and just create for fun with no particular purpose in mind for my artwork. I think I’ll make more books as Christmas and birthday gifts.

I enjoyed this artful experience. Thanks, Anna!

Our last theme on Layers of Color Challenge Blog was posted today. I’ve enjoyed coming up with themes, making inspiration art for the blog, commenting on every entry, and making galleries of all the fabulous artwork. But, the best memories of the last six months of hosting the blog are the friendships I’ve made around the world! What a unique way to share common passions with distant artists I otherwise would never have met. I’ve learned, I’ve been inspired, and I’ve felt accepted, encouraged and loved.

Since we’ve become birds of a feather sticking together, and I have a triple tie for the winner of the most entries, I’ve created three ATCs as gifts for my fine feathered friends.