Take a Word...numbers

Take a word challenge for this week...numbers..what an easy challenge when one ya love to create on a bingo card canvas...anything goes! This little piece is now part of my butter and cream collection on etsy, come visit my shop to see more butter and cream pieces with my little baldy babies!

I was at a yard sale....ha, so many of my art   that way...anywho, like I was sayin'...I was at a yard sale and found this box...big ole' box of vintage sturdy- chipboard-like  bingo cards and got them for a song and a ...I believe a dollar because, after all...it was getting late in the mornin' they probably figured get rid of 'em or we'll have to haul 'em back in and store 'em in the garage.

  Well, 'tis the season for giving...so I want to give ya some bingo cards!!

To the first 10 of ya to become new followers of my blog...

I will send 2 free bingo cards in the mail :)!!

  If you are on facebook, like my sundappled nest page 

and I will throw in an extra bingo card! 

Favorite my sundappled nest etsy store and...

you guessed it, I will add another card!

You can email me your address, and I will get them to ya in time for holiday creating! C'mon, it'll be fun! Whatcha got to loose?

I am at 40 followers to start...help me reach the big 5-0!!

And PS...if you didn't make the 10..please follow my blog, like my fb page, and favorite my store anyway!!! I plan to make giveaways a regular fun practice, along with altered art tips...and more fun stuff...for my followers, likers and favoriters...so you won't miss out!!!

Merry Creative Christmas Everybody!!

SPA Christmas Fairy

just one more artistic endeavor before I go off to dream land.... Sunday Postcard Art's challenge "Christmas Fairy". Fairies are a tried and true altered art favorite :) cannot wait to see all the other creations...you can look too... click here to be inspired and enchanted by many Christmas Fairies! Also may be adding this tiny work  to my butter and cream collection on my etsy page...loving the winter whites! Merry Creative Christmas my sweet art friends!

Butter and Cream Art

Hmmm,  sooooo many shades of white, so little time! I think maybe my favorite color this season is white. I have a new little section of my etsy store...butter and cream...please come visit! sweet, soft, rich, warm and yummy shades of white, butter and creams for the winter.

Please post any comments and links to your own art in your favorite shade/s of white!

My pieces pictured feature my new little baldy baby heads and are available in my etsy shop! And more butter and cream art to follow!

Shades of white
Anti-flash white	Antique white	Beige	Blond	Cornsilk	Cosmic latte	Cream	Eggshell	Floral white	Ghost white
Honeydew	Isabelline	Ivory	Lavender blush	Lemon chiffon	Linen	Magnolia	Mint cream	Munsell	Navajo white
Old lace	Papaya whip	Pearl	Seashell	Snow	Splashed white	Vanilla	White	White smoke

uPCyCLed CHriStMAs!!!!!

candy coated Christmas altered art handmade  upcycled bottles....say that 3 times fast!!For Christmas this year I announced to my fam that I wanted to have a hadmade Christmas this year...my knit-a-holic daughter thought it was a wonderful idea!! In fact, she started knitting away.... The other kiddo's, not so much. Maybe not too concerned w/ what to give as they were what they would or wouldn't get...biggest hang up- electronics- you cannot knit an ipod, you cannot carve a ps3 out of pine. sooo, we shall cOmProMIse!! Mom and dad buy gifts for kiddos, and kid to kid= handmade.

Do me a fun favor and leave a comment with your favorite upcycles and or handmade gift idea!

ps..my Christmas altered bottle now in my etsy shop!!

Have yourself a merry handmade upcycled Christmas!

Candle, Christmas, and a baldy baby ;)

a favorite challenge...Sunday postcard art (this week-candles), a favorite Christmas song, and my new favorite things to create...baldy babies...stay tuned for more!

me...published...yay!!

Here it is.... my very own little corner of a Somerset Studio Magazine... Page 46 of Somerset Studio Gallery Winter 2012! I have loved Somerset Studio publications for years, I save issues and look at them over and over! One day last April I recieved an email form Jennifer Jackson, one of the editors. She had visited my sundappled etsy shop and asked me to submit 2 pieces for publication....and here they are page 46! Giddy as a school girl am I...about my little corner...page 46!!

oh..and PS! I have similar pieces to these listed in my sundappled etsy shop, and much more...please come visit!!
oh...and PPS! Please visit...and like if you would like ;) my sun dappled nest page on facebook!

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge:Poppies and Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Click Here Sunday Postcard Art to see more poppy & remembrance day pieces!

Swirls

Came across a wonderful challenge Crazy Amigo Challenge creating a piece of altered art with swirls. Well, how exciting for me...I am in the process of completing an entire altered book "Count it all Joy" ( taken from the book of James) and each page is decorated with..can you guess...swirls! Here is the page I have chosen to show for the challenge...and this post can double as a sneak peak of the book! Click on the crazy amigo link to see other artists swirly works!

Little Bo Peep, and her sheep...shabby chic ;)

Have not been able to do any altered art challenges for some time, so happy to get back to it! Here is my entry for two challenges, a vintage collage/ memories, shabby chic postcard for Three Muses challenge (vintage collage/memories) And SPA (shabby chic postcard). My version of childhood tale, Little Bo Peep. Have always loved the shabby chic style, pretty, pinks, but delightfully imperfect :). Please take a moment to view all the entries on these blogs,all the creativity and unique takes are wonderfully inspiring!!

kids+art+ home+autumn= happy me

back to art, etsy, and blogging after a not so brief hiatus....happy me :). listed 4 new pieces today in my etsy store...please stop by etSy sUnDappLed nEst. enjoying a Saturday at home with just my littles (Darby and Lily), love days like these. Thank you Lord.

All Joy

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:2-4

Joy in trials, bright beautiful colors w/ braided, tattered ribbon, soft fabric, vintage flowers on an old worn child's book cover. Life is imperfect and beautiful. True joy is joy that can be found in the worn and tattered times of life. it is joy that overflows form a heart and life that trust in God's goodness It is joy that comes with the wisdom and patience of age.

Do you see the cross in the middle? I wanted it is symbolizes the source, the middle of true joy, true peace and comfort!

4 1/4 in, x 6 1/2 in child's book cover, hung by a handmade "gypsy ribbon braid"
to purchase this piece and to see more of my "porch art style" little pieces, please visit my etsy shop. Thank you.

if my art were a person...

My porch art...If art were a person, maybe my art would be a sweet, wise old lady sitting peacefully on her front porch swing with a brightly colored, gently tattered quilt on her lap, on a soft rainy morning.

listed 2 little pieces today on etsy....please come and see.

clean art porch= yay :)!!!!

May 1st ?! Where did that month go?! Anywho, I happily created in my clean art studio (so, guess what I did all day yesterday....came home from my am run and spent almost the entire day cleaning my art porch!). Well worth it though! Tee hee, have to laugh because if a non media/ non altered art buff entered my porch they would not quite see the clean ;)

So today, 3 art challenges:
Theme Thursday: Vintage (woohoo!!)
Love vintage babies, this one a tiny bit steam punky...
Sunday Postcard Art theme:Weddings (went w/ the bride)
used one of my handmade doll heads, brushed it w/ beeswax
and Every Inchie Monday: hearts (used one of my fave stamps- bleeding heart.)
stack of 1" squares of vintage paper, brushed w/ beeswax.

Click on any of those challenge links to see many other artist's creative takes on those same challenges!

Stop back soon! I feel a creative month of May coming on!!

pOrch aRt

I create my art on my enclosed front porch, it is my humble (truly HUMBLE) art studio. Our, um, shabby chic (emphasis on the shabby) Maine farm house rental came complete with a long, narrow closed in porch, with a wall of windows across the front (most of them still have the panes!) My favorite decor feature- A set of white Christmas lights I have across the ceiling...creating a warm, magical, vintage glow in the evening, and early morning too.

The more objects I collected on my antique market ventures, and the more art that I created with these finds, the more I noticed that my art was beginning to resemble my porch! The backdrop unashamedly old, weathered, gray, chipped, scratched, dented, faded...then here and there tiny random bursts of color, like the few yellow, pink and blue buttons in a jar of weathered grey and white ones...or my gypsy braids...ripped strips of bright vintage floral fabric, wrapped around a stack of antique grey and brown school books.

There is freedom in creating porch art. Stain spots, rips, tattered edges, all featured and loved for their age and beauty! random pencil jottings I have discovered inside antique book covers...thoughtful words ALMOST lost and forgotten, now featured as treasured writings adorned with bright flowers, birds, and butterflies.

There is lovely truth in porch art. Life is not precise (I hate measuring), perfect, or pristine. The grey and the colorful coexist in beautiful, honest, reality. The dark moments and the bright moments of our lives make us who we are. Porch art is a simple honest extension of the life I love- my life, my porch, grey and bright and beautiful.

spring quilt and art sampler

...found an old quilt..in the corner of a booth ..at an antique market...discounted 50%. Yes I bought it, and am now using it in my art. Lovely colors and fabrics! What a find- 1" x 1"...perfect for my new found love of making assemblage samplers as seen above and unique inchies. Never tried inchies before, check out my inchie w/ my handmade doll head a few posts down.


This piece pictured in this post is for the monthly Creative Paper Artists (CPA) blog, please check out the rest of the design team's take the spring color palette pictured. I love color challenges! It is always fun to go on a scavenger hunt through my art drawers, tins, bins, and boxes to find fabric, found objects, & paper ephemera that match the color challenge!

The best part is, that you can join the challenge too! So hop on over and check out the CPA blog and create some art with us!

I am now offering this piece on my etsy shop page sun dappled nest, please stop by to see this and other pieces from previous posts!

my favorite gypsy

One more challenge...then I am goin' ta bed. If I don't go, the challenge will be getting up early for work tomorrow! Anywho, the Crazy Amigo challenge,this week- Fave stamp. Well, I had to go back to my lovely lady stamp for this one.With this stamp I created a whole set of gypsy tags for a shop down in Texas, gained entry onto the MPTS design team, and well, just have had lots of fun. So here she is once again. Never wearin' the same tattered ribbon skirt twice though ;) God bless ya'all and good-night!

ps..please don't say goodbye w/ out checking out the rest of my blog :) Thanks!

my winged inchie

ooooh, found yet another challenge...a very tiny challenge at that. Every inchie Monday- this week: a winged inchie. Well, I decided to use the vintage 1" x1" quilt squares as my background for inchies. A little odd, but well, that is me ;) This little inchie is one of my handmade faces, and wings I scanned form a real butterfly wing I found on a window sill last summer...yes, I do save everything.And I have glazed the piece with a generous brushing of beeswax.

Thanks for looking, please visit my previous posts...and follow me if you would like...you never know what I am going to glaze in beeswax tomorrow ;)

Baby bLooM

I love the theme for this week's "Take a Word" challenge...BLOOM. Since I use millinery flowers, dried flowers, floral print A LOT in my art...it was an easy challenge for me!

I just began creating a series of pieces- spring samplers I am calling them. Bought a vintage quilt for a song and a dance at a sweet antique market down in Scarborough, Maine and yes...I was finally brave (or stupid) enough the other day to start cutting it up! And yes, I HAD to incorporate beeswax in this piece. The texture is sooo fun -and the scent is wonderful!

This piece is available on my etsy sight too, along w/ a few others.

Angel sampler

Having fun creating altered art samplers, small pieces of art featuring treasured finds ...here is an all white postcard for the Sunday Postcard art challenge.Love Love Love creating with all white! And a piece is not complete w/ a brushing of creamy beeswax.

Abide with me

This piece was inspired by the song Abide with me, and the theme Thursday's weekly challenge...this week Orange. Smiling, my Darby's favorite color. please take a moment to listen to the words of this song and my they bless your soul today.

farm front porch art

Ha ha... gotta love this week's theme for Crazy Amigo challenge...chickens. Here is the piece I created..calling this style farm front porch art...if you haven't seen pics of my farm front porch "studio" click and visit! Thanks for stopping by :)

Oh, then I came across this wonderful art challenge Inspiration Avenue. Their theme this week is spring...so here is my spring chicken offering :)!!

There ya go, 2 birds...chickens...challenges w/ one stone.

Blue challenge

Think Monday Think ATC. This weeks challenge was a blue ATC. Having too much fun with my new brown bag faces!! And thinking spring of course!! Did I mention... we are having a snow storm here in Turner Maine on the first day of spring...too funny. Oh well. Cup of coffee, warm wood stove fire, and art supplies at the kitchen table...loving it ! I am not blue ;) but my ATC is ...haha...

Full Moon

2 posts in one day...what is this world coming to??
4x4 Friday's art challenge for the week: Full moon. Funny, before I had seen this challenge I had already made a moon themed piece for Theme Thursday's Black and white challenge. Wasn't 4" x 4" though...so back to the drawing board... ;) too bad, so sad, I was forced to create another art piece tee hee. And THEN I came across the crazy amigo challenge and found that the challenge was your favorite fairytale...which TA DA (is that how you spell ta-da??)...
I used to read this fairytale poem to my son Kevin way back in the early days of motherhood, I have always wanted to do an art piece based on it, didn't think it would be such a tiny one though. Quite happy with my project, and the sweet memories it evoked.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (a Dutch lullaby)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe---
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea---
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish---
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam---
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea---
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

My Fair Maiden

Another day... another challenge! The Sunday Postcard Art theme this week is Fair Maidens. I had been practicing these little doll faces yesterday at the breakfast table...doodling on a paper bag. My fair maiden's lovely dress is from Moss Hill Studio and she is holding a beautiful bouquet of vintage millinery flowers. She has a tattered bow from a thrift shop dress, and her hands and feet are hand doodled in pencil.

Theme Thursday: Black and White!

Well, I have found an art challenge for each day of the week! This altered bingo card is for the Theme Thursday challenge Black and White. At some point I will sync my project creating w/ the day of the theme; right now however, I will probably try to do as many challenges as I can...all on Saturday. Decided to take a slightly different turn in my art projects...little quirkier and fun and a bit childish. I love how kids create with no fear and with such random beautifulness (new word- another heatherism). So, anyways...here is my humble offering, one of my little paper clay heads, vintage papers, trim and of course brushed with a layer of beeswax to finish.

A boy, A bird, and the bright white moon.
"My the moon is bright tonight. Lovely. and quiet."

pretty bottle, pretty birdie...

altered bottle sPriNg

From SunDappledNest

Now for sale in my etsy store!!


This piece in particular...
Using a bottle as an art canvas..how randomly wonderfully fun :)
Sooo many little things to see, please take the time to look closer... tiny hand dipped pink candles, pretty painted key, antique buttons, a nest of moss, millinery flowers, vintage fabrics and trim, collected from only the best of rummage sales ;) in my sweet little new England town! Sweet soft and bright colors, a sweet little robin.. vintage bird sticker...remember from kindergarten or Sunday School- I mean vintage bird stickers..not tequila bottles ;)


The soft texture of the bottle is a layer of sweet smelling beeswax, sealing, protecting, and beautifying all my altered bottles.

********************WeLComE SPriNg!!***********************

last minute masterpiece ;)

Well, this month's MPTS theme definitely challenged me!! Theme:Tropical w/ pearls and satin, Technique: embossing!! I honestly couldn't for the life of me figure out how to combine all these things into an altered art piece......kudos to MPTS for making me think hard on this one!!

but then...things started coming together little by little (of course on the night the project is due...oye!) and I have creating a little wall hanging piece that I decided I love ;)

Started searching for vintage pics on the internet...and finally found this beach Victorian chickie, and a little while later, this 1906 tropical pic. The satin trim is off of a fabric remnant I found at my fave antique mall last week...and had the little "pearls" in w/ my vintage buttons.

Embossing was tricky, as I don't have the tools for this sort of thing, embossed the edges of the pics using a vintage frame...didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but if ya look close you may be able to make out the tiny embossed flowers...

If ya ask me art challenges are the neatest thing since sliced bread and the funnest thing since the hula hoop ;) Click Creative Paper Artists (the MPTS blog)...Check out what the other creative gals have done w/ this same theme and JOIN IN THE FUN!!

challenge- no red or pink??!!

No red or pink?? That was our art forum's Feb challenge! To create a Valentine Day piece- Theme "Love is in the air" w/ distressing, glitter and lace...and no red or pink.

How do you make Valentine day art w/out pink or red- go vintage- sepia, black, and white!!

I got some paper clay for Christmas from my son...thanks Kev! And used the whole batch to create a bunch of these doll heads. They are sitting, piled on a plate in my *winter art studio...my daughters said they are cute but the pile of the heads on a plate is kind of freaky.

*winter art studio= the corner of my bedroom...too cold in my "art porch"

Anywho, my project is a shadowbox (vintage hankie box), homemade doll (head, cheese cloth, and lace), homemade beeswaxed hearts, feathers, and of course vintage papers..and more cheesecloth and lace!

If you like scrapbooking, stamping, altered art you should join our challenge on the CPA Blog. Check out the rest of the design teams art there too! And check out our art forum!! More fun challenges, swaps, giveaways, etc!

Happy snow day everyone!! Go create something today!!