This summer has been busy with the new online art stamp company, family, yard work, challenge blog, and projects. I’m on the finishing end of redecorating my youngest daughter’s room this month. She’s moving on to junior high in the Fall and desired a look in her room that was less little girl as she transitions into womanhood in the next few years. She still loves pink and so we added warm rose tones, warm golden faux finished walls, antiqued painted and distressed furniture and a sophisticated floral to the bed. Accents include teal Toile, hat boxes, crackle finish ceramic birds, silk-covered display board, a wire umbrella, beaded fringe on the lampshade, and a flower-like hanging lamp over the bed, among other lovlies. The armoire is still in progress, as is the bedspread and few small projects. But I’m out of time since August is filled with family time. So here’s a gallery of photos to share with you with some of the artwork I’ve been working on this summer. I hope it inspires you!

For My Dove

Painted furniture and decoration- by Laura Kirste Campbell (Click on photos to enlarge and read entire description.)

Storage bench that I added wood appliques to then antiqued and painted with florals and birds.

Detail of lower panel.

Detail of upper panels.

Close up of center panel.

Close up of right panel.

An old chair I painted and antiqued then added flowers and a cushion. Faux finished walls and coordinating floral painting.

Chair back.

Close up of chair front with hat boxes covered with chair cushion fabric, a light teal Toile.

Show as slideshow or click a pic to zoom

Friendship is the theme and Skinny is the game over at Layers of Color Challenge Blog!

Jessica and I are both participating with stamped gifts we created for our friends using Layers of Color stamps. Jessica created a Birthday card with her Skinny and I created a knob hanger. My Skinny says, “If Friends Were Flowers, I’d Pick You!”

Although I don’t consider myself a writer, I have two journals, and I just started a third last night. As a visual artist, I prefer art journals rather than writing journals as I tend to express myself more with images than words. I allow myself to be free with my style and honest with my emotions, since I don’t usually plan to share their contents. The majority of art I create is a celebration of color and beauty, however two of my art journals deal with the muddy aspect of life.

I use my art journal to express myself artistically and emotionally, and it helps me through difficult life experiences. I like to balance the pages that deal with the subject of pain with those pages that describe victory and healing. I use a small artist’s sketchbook, and I add embellishments, paint, decoupage, paper manipulation and whatever else works best.

My second journal is for medical purposes to keep a daily record and track my chronic migraines, medications and symptoms. It’s a school composition book decorated with Layers of Color Fleur Heart stamp enlarged on a copier then cut out. I also used decorative tape tape, vellum, Dover bird, red ink. Only the cover and a few pages are decorated, but I feel that because of the subject, it’s important for me to have a pleasant sight for my eyes when I use it.

My newest journal is an altered book. It was born last night from a large, old art book called, “The Story of Painting.” The purpose of this journal is to document in a creative, artistic style, the story of my art stamp business. I removed the pages that had pictures I’ll use another time in other projects, then painted pages with acrylic paints. I’ll decorate it with Layers of Color stamps and journal about the creative process, inspiration and the journey I travel through this art business. I created this knowing that I’d be sharing this art journal with others. In fact, it was the idea of sharing the process that prompted me to create it. I look forward to sharing it with you.

I encourage you to create an art journal for yourself. The only rule: be honest. Make it a personal space where you can express yourself without the first thought of what someone else will think. You may choose to use it as an outlet where you can work through painful and difficult life experiences like me. Or, you can fill it with things you love and delicious eye candy to enjoy any time you need inspiration. Grab a sketchbook or an old book off your shelf and journal from your heart today!

Years ago, I started designing rubber stamps for myself when I couldn’t find the stamps I desired. It became a profession when a friend suggested I offer my designs to a local rubber stamp company. My favorite personal style didn’t match the owner’s so I created The Snappy Art Stamps line which became a hit. Eventually, I decided to start my own stamp business to offer those stamp designs that I craved as a stamper. I named it, Signature Line because it’s as personal to me as my signature. Now, not only am I excited to have this business and offer them to you, but I can hardly wait to get into the studio and play with each new set that gets in my hands!

I hand draw each design that eventually becomes a stamp. My tools are a copier, reams of white copy paper, black Sharpie and Micron pens in various sizes, a small light-box and various rulers and shape templates. Reference and inspirational books are also invaluable, so there are always stacks around me as I work.

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It all begins with desire. Desire to discover a treasure among trash, to transform plain into interesting, to go on an adventure of exploring and learning. These desires are lit and fanned into flames by inspiration. For a kinesthetic and visual learner like me, I start by collecting. Bringing together ideas from other artists, gathering materials that please me by their color, pattern, texture or form. Exploring thrift stores and discovering something unusual, or a diamond in the rough.

My mind’s eye sees an object not as it is at the moment, but as what it’s potential could be. A tarnished candlestick becomes a stand for a colorful pincushion, a simple wooden bowl is painted elaborately and displayed on a stand. Sitting amongst a crowd of stuff that no one wanted is a lonely salt shaker, I see it as an embellished tassel swinging joyfully from a drawer pull in my studio. Spoons serve bible verses, wallpaper becomes a crown, a necklace is a handle on a silk purse. Oh, I see so many wonders take place before my eyes..and I haven’t even left the thrift store yet

As I place my choices one by one at the counter to buy them, for a moment I see them as the clerk would, a random pile of uninteresting objects. Does she wonder why people buy this junk? She has no idea that I’m an artist with the power to transform (more »)