Open Studio this weekend

Well it’s finally here! The weekend I’ve been excited and nervous about haha

This Saturday I invite you into my cozy home studio for some appetizers and a unique art shopping experience.

This is my creative space, a space that few people get to experience and I’m opening it up to share with you.

My art like my studio is bright and eclectic. We aren’t “fancy” people, we live a pretty low key humble life and you won’t find our house to be a show home, pristinely decorated. What you will find however is a cozy lived in space. I don’t say this to down play things I say this so that you’ll have a bit better idea of who we are and where my art evolves from.

I strive to create work that is honest and full of life and color made from moments that sparkle in the everyday using elements that are repurposed giving them a new life. My work is my expression of life and my reflection of the every day transforming moments that change the ordinary into something beautiful and extraordinary.

What I hope you’ll feel when you join us this weekend is something that we should all feel both at Christmas and year long and that is invited, welcomed and accepted.

I look forward to seeing you this Saturday.

Cheers!

Amanda

Time for an Update

Hello my poor neglected subscribers I’ve yet again abandoned you to go on a creative frenzy.

Sometimes I feel like being an Artist is like a boat on the ocean; sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the waves of creativity and other times I’m drifting on still waters.

The last few months I’ve definitely been tossed about creatively. It seems it’s all I can do to get the ideas out of my head fast enough.

So let me catch you up on a few things. I’ve of course been busy with my hand stamped Jewelry business as well as the whole art studio aspect of life.

I’ve become the secretary for the Society of Fort Saskatchewan Artists so that’s new

and I continue to be a member of CIVA Christians in the Visual Arts and am now listed in their artists guide.

I’ve also had a solo and a group exhibit at the Fort Saskatchewan City Hall Art nook Gallery.

Here’s a pic of my latest pieces on display

If you’d like to see more on the creation of these 2 check out and follow me on Instagram for daily posts at milke.amanda

So those are up on exhibit until the end of the month.

Tomorrow I am attending River fest as celebration of the North Saskatchewan River in Fort Saskatchewan. They invited me to attend the Artisan Fair so I’ve been busy prepping art for that. Including these new pieces.

And trust me that’s not everything! So as you can tell I’ve been insanely busy. If I’m not painting, I’m hand stamping and being a stay at home mom and training a new puppy

So now we have 2 munchkins and 2 poochies and a whole lot of busy daily life.

And starting Monday I’m also back to teaching some public art classes

And in all this crazy creative chaos I’ve been extra busy with my home based business growing over 300% this year and we’re only into September! My customers must think I’m doing an ok job since my business was nominated for the following awards from the Fort Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.

So now I need to go dress shopping so I can attend the Awards Gala in October and see if I bring home a trophy.

So that pretty much sums up why I’ve been so busy and why we haven’t spoken for a while.

I’m hoping to eventually even with classes running and stamping orders to slow down a bit and not be so rushed. But until then, keep me loaded of paint and caffeine 😉

Cheers for now!

Amanda

New Year, New Art, New Opportunities

Well I’m back after a longer than intended break from blogging which honestly is pretty much how all my posts start it seems *sigh* oh well, I suck at maintaining a blog we all know it and the sooner we accept it we can get on with talking about Art…

We good?
Great!

So I’ve started off the year pretty busy actually, we’re not even a full month in and I’ve already
taught two Art & Jewelry related classes through the city’s leisure guide program.
The first was “Silverware Jewelry” and the second which is a 3 session course is “Intro to Acrylic Abstract Art”, the first class was last night and we played around with types of acrylic paint and acrylic mediums.

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I’ve also been nominated for the Women in Arts award as part of a local International Women’s Day Awards Gala which funnily enough I was approached last year by the committee to create their Jewelry Trophy Awards for the Awards Gala. So I’m finishing up some hand stamped sterling silver charm bracelets with swarovski crystals.

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And on top of all that, I’ve also been busy working on hand stamped Jewelry orders and painting and experimenting with fluid paints and my enamels.

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I picked up one of these awesome panels over the weekend and had been dying to test it out but didn’t have time until today so ce I’ve been prepping things for my Art class.

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So I just finished a piece this morning. Here are the in progress pics, I’m just waiting for it to dry now 🙂

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Well that’s me, what have you all been up to 😉

Cheers,
Amanda

Stampede

Well that was unexpected!

A few weeks ago I got a custom order request to make some hand stamped guitar pick fish hooks as a Father’s Day Gift. I had been meaning to get into the Hand Stamping Scene for awhile and this gave me the opportunity/excuse to do so.
So I ordered in my supplies and did up her order.

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Then I posted the leftovers up for sale thinking I might hook 😉 a few buyers for the rest of them. They sold within seconds.
At the same time I had ordered in 10- 1.5″ round blanks to make up some keychains and did one up Friday for Hubby as part of his Father’s Day Gift from the girls.

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And again, thought it was cute and posted the other 9 up for sale for other last minute Father’s Day Gift givers…within the first 10 minutes I had 30+ orders that kept growing and growing and growing! By the time Hubby got off work I was sitting around 70 custom orders to make for Saturday night and only **9** blanks!
Off we went to Edmonton hunting for more supplies..after several stops we FINALLY found a local supplier. This meant all my maybes turned to Yes’ and also meant I was non-stop stamping all weekend!
Since Saturday, I’m now sitting at 100+ completed orders with more coming in daily…who would have thought!

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So if I go off grid again, that’s probably why hah!

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(These are just a few of the designs..)

Next week I have the Canada Day Market on Wednesday & the Farmers Market on Thursday so it’s going to be another busy week…so back to stamping up orders 😉

Cheers!
Amanda