Dragonfly ornaments

I've finally finished the last of the Christmas pet portraits. I'll post them all after Christmas. Resting this afternoon, then will tackle my own Christmas.

A couple weeks ago I did a little experimenting with rubber stamp carving making little ornaments. I carved a dragonfly in stamping rubber with lino carving tools and used it as a basis for my ornaments, stamping cardstock or heavy watercolor paper, then paint the cards individually.  The little stars/snowflakes I carved into an eraser on the end of a pencil with an exacto knife. I had to get permenant stamping ink because the regular ink kept smudging when I tried to paint them. I used metallic ink to border them. Then I added eyelets, ribbon and fancy swirl hooks. Each are 2 1/2 inches square. These are personal gifts, so I script Christmas messages on the back.  I may make a version of these next year to sell at shows. 

Let me know what you think.

Butterfly Experiment

Trying some mixed media today - watercolor, ink & colored pencil. Not sure how I feel about it yet. May need more practice to be able to bring the different mediums together the way I like it. Any thoughts?

5x7 using reference photo I took of Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in my garden

Dragonflies hold your place until you come back

I had created some bubble paint background for bookmarks a while ago. I used one to make a bookmark for my mother for her birthday. I thought dragonflies would be appropriate since the bubble background kinda looks like water. I didn't want the background to show through the watercolor, so I sketched them with ink and painted them on watercolor paper, then cut them out and attached them to the background. I found the watercolor paper to be almost too thick to cut out such small intricate shapes. I may have to use thinner paper next time. I attached the bookmark to card stock and inserted it into a plastic sleeve to protect it.

Dragonfly Collage bookmark for Mom

Giant Mantis

I was startled saturday morning by this thing on the bathroom window! It has to be the biggest praying mantis I've seen!

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UGH! STINK BUG!

While, from what I've heard, my invasion of Stink Bugs isn't as bad as some, we have had our fair share sneaking into our house. Usually if we get 1 or 2 all year it's a lot, I usually see them on my tomatoes in the middle of the summer.
This past weekend, I've had to dispose of at least 2 dozen or so I've found in the darnedest  places (in the window blinds, behind the flour next to the stove, in the cabinet, in a blister pack of pills, in the refrigerator) Plus open the garage door, and they come swarming out of the garage.
I sketched this little guy today on a sticky note with pencil and sharpie. Scanned him in and applied several layers of filters and color modifications in photoshop to create this illustration.