Take Control of Your Plans

Each time school starts back up I am always shopping for a really good planner.  There is always so much going on once school starts, the holidays, different appointments, specific shopping lists, and this year wedding plans!  Finding the right planner is always so difficult!  I am never happy with the one I buy because the set up is never exactly the way I wanted it and the planners are always so boring!  When I was in high school, we used to cover our school planners and even our notebooks with picture collages, just to make them more interesting.

This year I am deciding to take control of it!  I am making my own planner that fits me and my needs.

First, I found paper that was a little bit thicker than regular white printer paper and cut each page into the size I wanted.  I always end up keeping my planner in my pocketbook and the size is very important.  If I make it too small, I will feel that there is no room to write anything.  If I make it too big, it'll feel like I am carrying a big notebook with me wherever I go.  The next thing I did was organize how I would like the pages to be set up and start drawing the monthly calendar pages.  I enjoy making collages and to scrapbook.  I used some of my scrapbook pages and collaged some newspaper pieces together to make my planner more interesting to look at.

 The cover is not done, however I may leave it blank so I can doodle.

 I left room to draw something related to each month.  For September I drew a tree that I am going to paint.

 At the bottom of October I drew pumpkins (of course!)  I started to paint the stems and I think I am going to use color pencils for the rest.

This planner suits me, each month is written in a different color, there is room for me to sketch ideas, and I left blank pages in between some of the months.  I didn't leave blank pages between all of the months because I know I won't need that many, they are really for random to do lists.  Each month does have it's own note section just in case I have something specific.  The months closest to my wedding I left more blank pages because I'm assuming I am going to have more to do, more to write and more to plan when the time gets closer.  The blank pages are sometimes more useful then lined paper because I am a post-it note writer and this way I can stick the post-it any where on the page.  I also tend not to write on lines, I write upside down, in corners and around anything I need to.  Wherever I can fit it, I write it!

If you are able to take the time to make your own planner, I encourage it!  It is a lot of fun and you are able to make your planner for exactly what you need.

xoxo Savannah

Fall In My Art World

Summer is always so much fun to go to the beach, lay outside in the sun, play in the pool, and enjoy summer vacation.  For me personally, this is all fun but summer gets too hot.  It's always a little sad to see summer go but....with September first basically here, that means Fall is approaching!!! If you hadn't read any of my blog posts from last Fall, this is my favorite time of year!!  The Patriots have already started their preseason games with their first season game on September 9th, my favorite coffee stop in New Hampshire, Aroma Joes, has already had my pumpkin chai for a few weeks, Starbucks will have their pumpkin spice chai next week, and I already saw pumpkin muffins at Dunkin Donuts this morning :)
I AM SO EXCITED!!
The past few weeks I have already started to paint some Fall pieces.  This time of year is my favorite, not just for the weather, football, food, and drinks, but also because the darker Fall colors are so pretty!  The leaves all turn these colors and there is orange everywhere!  I love drawing and painting pumpkins and right now is the time to start.  Here are a few I did last year:

 These 2 pumpkin pictures are drawn with pastels.  These 2 drawings are available on my etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SavvieDesigns

 These 2 pictures are painted with acrylic paint.

 Charcoal acorns:

 Acrylic paint:

 And graphite pencil.  This picture is one of my favorites around Halloween.

I have only just begun this years fun!!  Here is what I have so far:

 White acrylic single pumpkin.

 Fall colorful leaves on this tree.

 Acrylic painted sunflowers:

 Not quite sure if I am going to like the charcoal sunflowers on this leaf but I figured I would give it a shot.

I will keep you posted with these finished projects and many new ones to come!!  Be on the look out for these and many more on my etsy shop, after all you will need Fall decorations in the next few weeks ;)
xoxo Savannah

Ribbons In Jars Simple As That

When I was in 8th grade, I remember learning how to shade for the first time.  Our art teacher had us draw a ribbon and with our pencil we would press hard near the small corners where the ribbon would twist and then lighten up, by loosening our grip on the pencil as we get further from that point.  I fell in love with that!  I would draw it every where!  I still do to this day and I use it as a mini lesson when I substitute teach.  Especially if I see a student who likes to draw.  If we have extra time during the day and all the work is done I will teach the students a quick shading ribbon lesson.  They love it as much I as I did when I first learned how to do it!
When I first started painting in college, one of the first things I wanted to paint was a ribbon.  It was more difficult because now I had to mix the colors instead of just loosening my grip on my pencil.  For my first large product I did just that and had the ribbon coming out of glass jar, my professor really liked that idea and complimented me on it many times.

Now painting on my own, I still enjoy doing just that.  When my room was first painted a purple tone with a darker shade, I wanted to paint something to match my room.  My bed spread was a sage green so I decided to paint a purple shade as the background and the the ribbon and jar green.

It's a little crooked and I can tell buuuttt, I'll just hang the picture a lil crooked so the jar looks more up right haha.

Tonight I decided to try and paint another ribbon in a jar.  I wanted to use the blue and tan.  I had a little trouble mixing the correct color for the tan and it ended up coming our more orange (I started with way too much red).

 When I first started painting the canvas my paint brush brisels were coming out.  I switched brushes and only used it for mixing because majority of the time they come loose and get stuck on my picture.

 When I was trying to make tan, I ended up mixing more paint then I wanted.  I like the orange that came out and didn't want to waste such a great color, so I grabbed another canvas and painted that entire canvas that color.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it yet but that's the great thing about acrylic paint, you can paint over it as many times as you want.

 I'm not sure what made me think of it but even after I painted the canvas with the left over orange, there was still a little left.  I still had some of the blue left, so I decided to mix them together to see what color would come out.  It came out to be a tan/brown/gray shade.  I wanted to use it because it was pretty.  I just kept on going and started to free hand LIVE LIFE on the canvas.  I had never painted a sign before but love the way this came out!

 The letters aren't perfect because I didn't use a stencil, which makes it even more of an original.

These 2 finished pieces will be up on my Etsy shop before Sunday.  Stop by and check them out!
etsy.com - key word: savviedesigns
xoxo Savannah

Shades of Pink

Sorry I haven't posted recently, I've been hard at work finishing up some art pieces and being a proud committee member of Shades of Pink!!  What is Shades of Pink?

Our Mission is to establish an organization whose  events raise money to aid the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation  as they work to promote Breast Cancer awareness, early detection, support systems, and other various programs for patients, survivors, and their families as well..  Donating our proceeds to the GGBCRF ensures that the funds continue to aid both men and women with Breast Cancer in Rhode Island.

Our story begins with not one but two diagnoses. My mom and our cousin,two cousins who live next door to one another, were diagnosed with Breast Cancer less than one -year apart. After fighting their own battles and winning, they decided to create an organization which would help both men and women become more aware of this cancer. Having participated in events with the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation, they decided to donate all proceeds from their own fundraiser to this wonderful organization. With this idea, Shades of Pink was born.  

Over the past three years, we have raised over 28,000 dollars for this cause through our Shades of Pink annual fundraiser. This year our event will be held on September 29 at the Lusitania Club in Cumberland Rhode Island at 6:30 in the evening. The event includes a sit down dinner, raffles, a silent auction, and much more. Tickets will only be sold in advance due to limited seating. Please use our email address, shadesofpink09@yahoo.com, to request tickets. 

When Shades of Pink was born my cousin Sharyn started sketching along the lines of what she was looking for in a logo.  Her and my mom gave it to me, and asked if I could help.  This is how it started off:

From Sharyn's sketch, I kept playing with different ideas.  I kept thinking of the message and our name.  This was the initial logo that they chose as the final piece:

After the 2nd year, the fundraiser was getting much larger and we had a larger team at the Gloria Gemma 5K Race. T-shirts were created!!  The logo that was used for the past two years was then morphed into:

On the back of our T-shirt we have yearly sponsors:

This year we are not only having T-shirts with this years sponsors, but this week we just got in our brand new pins!!

 They are $3 each and all proceeds are donated.

We are so excited for this year's event and all the new things we have :)

After our event, we always participate in the Gloria Gemma 5k.  Each year Gloria Gemma produces a pin to sell.  They had asked me to draw something up for them for 2010.  They wanted a sneaker.  While I was drawing up ideas, I sketched more than just a sneaker to just give them more options.  Here are the sketches that I had given them to choose from, if they wanted to use any of my ideas:

 And the winner was.....

It was extremely exciting to see something I drew up for someone produced :)  If anyone is interested to sign up for the 2012 Gloria Gemma 5k let me know and you can be part of our Shades of Pink team :)

If anyone would like to learn more about Shades of Pink you can "like" us on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shades-of-Pink-for-Gloria-Gemma/205110656208415

You are also able to follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ShadesofPink009

And check out our tumblr!:
http://shadesofpink77777.tumblr.com/

You can also feel free to ask me anything at any time!!
xoxo Savannah

Multi-Tasking: Painting, Drawing, Jewelry Making Oh My!

Making earrings has become one of my favorite activities!  I made 3 more pairs, they aren't heavy but some are a little bigger than the last group I made and blogged about.  When I was making bracelets I had thin copper and silver wire that I would wrap near the center charm.  Well, I decided I wanted try some of that out on my earrings!

 I love these earrings!  I used the copper wire to string black beads on the front and twist up to the top.

 It is a little bit harder to tell in these pictures but I used the silver wire to twist at the very bottom with a pink and purple bead and twist at the top above the single purple bead.  The graphite colored diamond bead is the only bead that is not a swarovski crystal bead.  The bead in the center of the diamond shape is actually a very, very light blue swarovski crystal.

 These earrings are very simple but pretty, I love that design!

Not only have I been making new earrings, I have also been drawing and painting.

A long time ago, I had started a picture of just different colored bubbles with a brown background.  I didn't mix any colors to create the color brown and I'm disappointed I didn't.  This brown came out of a squeeze bottle ( I wanted to try it, live and learn).  It was way too watery and thin.  I have put multiple coats on and am still not done.  It is starting to look a little better though.

Since there are so many layers and the paint is so watery, you can tell that the paint in this picture is still wet.  I haven't finished painting the bubbles, but I found that I should've painted the entire background first.  When I start mixing the orange, blue, and purple I need to touch up a few areas that have brown on them and fix some of the shapes.  Some of them need to become more circular.
One of my friends has requested for me to paint another sunflower that is part orange and yellow and the background are two different shades of gray.  I am going to make 3 sizes to put up on etsy.  One will be an 8x10 and another will be a 5x7.  Those two were already sketched out, the one I sketched out tonight is a little 4x4 canvas that will stand on a little wooden easel.

I will paint all 3 of these pictures at the same time because I mix the colors together.  If I mix them on different days or sometimes at different times, I am not always guaranteed that the colors will be mixed exactly the same.  Some of the shades and tones may be a little different.
The last project I am starting to work on, are dog drawings.  Some of my friends would like me to paint their dogs.  I'm so excited they asked me!  I have never done this before so I want to try drawing them first with graphite and then I can practice painting a dog another time.  This is only a rough sketch so far, there is no detail and no shading yet:

I started drawing this with a thicker graphite stick pencil, it glides on the page a lot easier and allows me to go over some lines without getting too dark and doesn't leave an imprint on the paper incase I need to erase.  I wonder if the owner of this dog will recognize him or not haha!

This blog entry had many different topics but it was a multitasking night and I decided to share them all at once, since I did them all at once for the most part.  I was literally bouncing from one thing to the next!
I will keep you updated with each of these projects :) Hope you've enjoyed!
xoxo Savannah

New Products Up On Etsy!

My earrings are up on etsy.com!!  Check them out, all of them are $6.50 each and shipping is $3.95 within the United States.  Here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SavvieDesigns?ref=search_shop_redirect

If you are having trouble with the link you can search my shop name: savviedesigns
Be on the look out for more jewelry and paintings going up on etsy soon!
xoxo Savannah

Branching Out On Jewelry

Well, I've done it again.  I have tried another new thing.  Technically it is just an extension.  I am branching out in my jewelry making.  Earrings!!  I don't know why I didn't try that before bracelets because that is one piece of jewelry ( before my engagement ring of course :)  ), that I hate leaving the house without.
Here was the first attempt, I didn't buy too many different beads because I wanted to use what beads I already had to play around with.

 These beads are so pretty, they have so many colors in them!

 These would look really good with pink or red beads instead of the little black ones.  Maybe I'll have to make another pair :)

 Last, but not least, an orange pair :)

I am so excited about how all of them came out!  I cannot wait to make more!  I will be putting some earrings, drawings, and paintings up on etsy.com soon.  Keep your eyes out, I will post a blog about it with a link for those of you who haven't visited Etsy yet.  It's a great website!
Let me know what you think or if you have any requests on earrings!
xoxo Savannah