They Drew A Circle

We formed a small (just three of us) craft club here in Hawaii. I was told this is a "Hui" ! Cool I learned a new Hawaiian word! So fun. Yesterday in the middle of it, I was talking about working on a circle piece for this blog. My friend, Maude, said that reminded her of a quote that she thought I would like so she wrote it down for me. It was so relevant, so tender, so poignant, that I cried. I had to do it in calligraphy. I changed the middle words a little bit from the original.

PAINT!

In my last blog, I wrote about going to the totally cool Japanese treasure store. I bought the most wonderful brush so just had to try it out with some brush script. I love this quote, so amazing! And I got to throw a little paint!! Have a great week, everybody!

Calligraphy Heaven

Last week, my wonderful neighbor in Hawaii, Donna, her sweet daughter Krislyn, and I went on a field trip to this gorgeous Japanese temple called Byodo In Temple. My neighbor watched how much I enjoyed all the Asian art and architecture. So this week she suggested we visit two Japanese paper stores. I was practically drooling with excitement. The first one was called Heiko and carried Washi paper, boxes and all kinds of packaging supplies. But the second one was a Calligrapher's heaven. I bought three beautiful brushes. Especially the one on the far left is a very small pointed lettering brush for Brush Script. Just gorgeous. It has been many years since I have seen brushes like this in Spokane. I also bought a pan of gold gouache pictured above. It was hard to choose from the many gorgeous things in this store. We are down to two weeks left in our stay in Hawaii for this year but I hope to visit this store again before I leave. This store was called Hakubundo for those living here. A not to be missed treat. Thank you so much, Donna, for all the introduction to local culture and experiences; for driving me everywhere, for all the fun times and spending time with me. My bff!

Hawaiian Inspired!

I have been wanting to paint some plumeria for awhile now. They are so beautiful and the fragrance is pure Hawaii. They make the most beautiful leis but don't last very long. They smell heavenly though.

Happiness

Have a happy Monday everyone!

Create!

I saw this quote in a magazine recently and it prompted me to design this sign for my studio wall. Hoping for inspiration everyday to create something beautiful!

Card-Giveaway

Ta-Da! I am officially in the technological age now. The last time I did a give-away, I put everyone's name on a little slip 0f paper and my husband drew the name out of the bowl. Very old fashioned. My wonderful neighbor, Donna, has been teaching me how to do Random.org and then take a screen shot and show it to you. Number 23 won as you can see and that person is:

♫♥LovLivLife Reviews♥♫ Thank you all so much for joining my drawing, liking my artwork, reading my blog, being all around supporters and encouragers. Love you all!

Baby Shower

One of my friend's daughters here in Hawaii, is having a little girl. My friend asked me to design a sign for the baby shower to hang on the mailbox. The sign uses brush lettering on both sides, then laminated for outside use, and then the butterflies and ribbons were added after lamination. So feminine, I hope they like it!

New Greeting Cards

This week I made 12 new Greeting cards with these beautiful Asian coins. They were so fun, the papers in Hawaii are amazingly beautiful.

Greeting Card Give-Away!

Win five handmade cards I created recently using my Calligraphy, imported ribbons and various papers and embellishments!

Here’s how:

• Leave me a comment on this post. Be sure to include a valid e-mail address so I can inform you if you win!

Extra credit (not required, but better your chances to win). Leave a separate comment for each action you take. If you’re already following me via Google Friend Connect, Networked Blogs, or Facebook leave a comment for each network to be counted. You can follow/like me using the widgets located in the sidebar to the right:

• Follow my site via Google Friend Connect.
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If you do all of the above, you can have 4 chances to win!

Entries must be received by midnight HST March 13, 2011 to be eligible. Winner will be chosen by random number generator and will be notified by e-mail.

Acrylic See-Through Books

These are two examples of acrylic books that I am teaching this weekend in Kailua, HI. I think they are fun because they use papers that have holes in them or clear, see-though papers. You can see light through the whole book. And they use lots of ribbons and little jewels ( a girl's gotta have some bling!) Have a great weekend.