Today I will be going to my brother's house whom I have not seen in two years for a Christmas Party for the family.  We usually each give some small trinket for presents, nothing expensive but a gesture of love and so I made these snowman mixed media collages for each of my siblings.  I hope they like them.

This will be my first Christmas without  my Gary here and I'm trying to keep it together and enjoy the holiday as much as possible since it is my favorite.  I like to think he is here with me in spirit even though he never wanted to partake in any of the "decorating" for the season.  He always enjoyed it when it was done though.

A guy thing I think.

I feel a sense that my art is going to be big this year as I find myself getting back to wanting to do more and more and my blogging friends that I follow have truly inspired me to work on projects by posting their creations.  When I go to your blogs I say "Wow" all the time and just wish I was that creative, and so now you have all inspired me to "be" just that. 

Thank you all for that.  It's the best gift I could get this year.  Merry Christmas straight from my heart.

I painted this tree for an 89 year old man in a nursing home as I go to visit a few times a week and he didn't have any decorations in his room at all.  His only other visitor is his daughter but she was away on holiday for a week.  As with most older people there are so few things they need, that it's hard to know what to do for them at the holiday.  And so this tree was created and I put it on poster board and hung it in his room.  He was very pleased with it. 

Already, since I've been doing more and more art, I am feeling like the new year is going to be a great one for me.  So many things I hope to accomplish, and getting back into the art circle is one of them.

Hope you enjoy the holidays and are looking forward to the new year as well.

This is my 2010 Christmas card that I am still working on.  The picture doesn't quite show the sparkle in the embossed snowflakes or the shine of the gold embossed letters.  It was very time consuming between the PostCard Stamp on the back side, then the embossing of the snowflakes on the paper and the letters and the stamping of the bird and cutting it out and then the edges done with gold paint pen.  That doesn't even include sitting and addressing them.  Plus I still have to write the sentiment on the back side which is  poem I found and fits my mood this year.

The poem is this:

O time, that like a skillful painter stands

Before the empty easel of the year,

Call forth thereon some scene of wonderous beauty,

Paint a fair picture for my friend so dear.

Blend with the brilliant tints of joy and pleasures

Hope's fairy sunlight, falling from above.

Or, should some shadow fall athwart the canvas,

Brighten them with golden gleams of love.

I hope  you all have a wonderous holiday season  with a new year full of Creativity and Love.

Here is a Zentangle I did for one of my  little kids on the bus.   For those who don't know, I am an aide on a school bus for special needs kids.  This one little boy  is so cute but he thinks everyone is out to hurt him and I wanted to let him know that I would'nt so I wrote on the back that I would never hurt him.  He was so happy he gave me the biggest hug.  He said he would keep it forever.  Ever since then he has been so well behaved.   When he gets on the bus on Monday he tells me he missed me and so I guess he just needs a little attention to get him to behave.  There is a saying that we never know when we might impact another life.  I hope that my little gift of this Zentangle has done just that.