for the love of color

turning a doodle into art

Last week I shared some of my own personal art that hangs on the wall of our home and I am going to continue with that theme here and there for a couple more weeks to share a little more about what kind of art I create for my own living space.

In the midst of preparing for our new family member we have been organizing and moving things around (I'll show you our progress soon) and my office space has been relocated to our bedroom and I needed a nice big piece of art to hang above my desk to tie the rest of the room together.

I decided to take some of my line drawings of pattern and paint them really big to fit a large canvas. This is what lots of people call doodling but in my humble opinion it is simply drawing. It can be challenging, it takes lots of time, understanding of shape, how to use lines and how best to use space.

I always start with an idea- typically drawn out on a sketchbook page for practice.

And then using a small brush and acrylic paint mixed with a little water, I begin free hand painting my pattern on the canvas that I had painted with a layer of light celery green paint.

I add lots of little details.

Since I wanted more of a line drawing without color I used those tiny details and lines to establish visual interest and dimension.

It takes time, lots and lots of time to work this way with a tiny bush

and patience, lots and lots of patience to fill a large surface.

Over time things start to develop and look like an pattern on the surface.

And when it is finished it is a great piece of art to hang!

sew wild is almost here

My friends I am so excited because I just received an advance copy of my new book Sew Wild and I have been eagerly reading through it all (over and over again). Getting to hold a real copy in my hands is SO exciting because this book was a labor of love! Writing a book is hard but writing a book about sewing (even if it is about break the rules sewing) is REALLY, really labor intensive but so worth it when all is said and done.

The book looks amazing! It is shaped in a square and is 143 pages packed with all kinds of ideas and inspiration, techniques and projects.

And the best part is that is comes with a DVD of your truly demonstrating all kinds of additional concepts and techniques!

I will be sharing lots more as the release date gets closer (Aug 29th) and will also be offering some brand new online classes inspired by the book and blog tutorials that will hopefully get your inspired to start sewing wild!

For information and to order Sew Wild Visit-

Interweave Press

and of course any online book store

28 weeks

giveaway winners announced

Ok my friends, it is time to announce the winners of the three $50 shopping sprees- what a wonderful response- as always thank you for choosing to stop and read my blog :)

Below are the winners- ladies contact me at alisaburke@gmail.com and I will get you the details.

CONGRATS!

for the love of color

shop is now open and a GIVEAWAY!

It is official! The new online shop is open for business. Please note that there could be some bugs to work out at first so I appreciate your patience.

Update your bookmarks with www.shopalisaburke.com or use the shop link in the left column.

And to celebrate today's opening I am giving away 3 $50.00 shopping sprees in the shop.

Just leave me a comment below-

tell me how you started your morning

You have until Friday and then I will draw three names and announce the winners!

new online shop launches this week!

I have been working around the clock fine tuning and finishing up the last few details for my my new online shop. If you missed the news back in January I have brought my mom on board to create a brand new online shop full of our handmade goodies- handmade designs, ceramic goodies, supplies, accessories, artisan kits, art prints, greeting cards and more. Our site will be starting small and inventory will grow and change with the seasons, include limited editions of handmade items, unique kits and more!

This project has been a labor of love- especially since we have been doing everything ourselves (design, photography, production, etc.) Due to both of our insane schedules we've had to change the launch date a couple of times but looks like we are ready to go live TOMORROW!

So check back tomorrow for the new link and a fun giveaway in the meantime here is another peek at things to come....