Stefanie Lin- Artist and Momma

Oh sweetheart

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:05:00 +0000

Thanks to an extra long nap from both of the boys I was able to get some hoop gals finished up and loaded on to my studio. Each time I make these I seem to change it up a bit. The newest thing for me is to use my over the top stash of fabric as the background. I am also creating the shirts for the gals with paint and gesso.

If you would love a made for you piece (a quote, hair color, combo color) I love to do custom orders just send me an email and we will get all the details down and get it made for you! Normally it is a 1-2 week lead time but if you contact me within the next day or two I could get a specially made one for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day! (limit 3 customers)

Let the hue talk

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:12:00 +0000

Odd thing happen yesterday... I went into an art store to get a pastel or two and out walked with a small bag of things. While that in itself isn't odd what is odd is that my color choice heavily leaned towards red and I am not typically drawn towards reds! Maybe with valentines day quickly approaching I have a soft spot towards the color of love!

What about you? Drawn to a particular color lately?

What's been going on

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:12:00 +0000

This past weekend Kenson turned 3! Boy time is not on my side as it keeps flying by!

This last years has been an up and down roller coaster mainly due to your lack of talking and doing everything we can do to help you communicate.

Kenson at this moment:

You love anything with wheels in particular trains you have more trains than one little boy needs but my how your face lights up!

What lack of words you have you make up for in huge character and facial expressions, you crack me up like no other!

Words...a lot if focus on your talking or rather you not talking...we have faith that what is meant to be will be

Love -you have it and love to share it! you have became a great big brother even though you don't shy away from showing your unhappiness with your baby brother either. Your sister on the other hand you look up to her with stars in your eyes unfortunately your sister doesn't share the same love but I know one day she will.

What a year it has been baby boy I don't know about you but I am so excited to see the little guy you are growing to be and 3 is gonna be such a fun adventure!

Love you Ken-Ken

Happy happy

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:08:00 +0000

Have a great weekend! You will find us either

A) building snowman
B) curled on the couch watching a movie

Enjoy your weekend whatever you chose to do!!!

Cheesecake cup cakes

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Photo by Kat Johnston

I had a huge craving for cupcakes the other day but was out of milk. So instead of scrapping the idea I made my own recipe.

And the frosting YUM!! Have you ever noticed that if you pipe on frosting on a cupcake it looks so much more yummy!

On to the recipe!

Cheesecake Batter:
1 Cup of Sugar
1/2 Cup of room temp butter
2 Eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 package of room temp cream cheese
1/2 cup water

Heat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium bowl cream sugar and butter. Once smooth beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in the cream cheese.

In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add to the cream mixture a little at a time and mix well. At this point it will get really thick. Add your water to loosen up the batter. Go slowly you don't want it to become soup!

Bake for 20-25 minutes. makes about 18 cupcakes.

Note: This is a heavy batter, it will not be a light and fluffy type cake.

Frosting:

1/4 cup of room temp butter
5 Tbsp of coffee creamer (I went with a holiday flavor of sugar cookies. You can be creative or use your favorite coffee creamer)
2 cups of confectioners (powder) sugar

cream the butter and coffee creamer together, slowly add in the confectioners sugar. This is a thick creamy frosting. You can add a little water to thin it out.

I love this new to me frosting recipe!!! I am so excited to try it with all types of new coffee creamer flavors, can you say yum!!!!

(I'm a little over the moon with a sugar high if you couldn't tell from all of the exclamation points throughout this post *smile*)

Today I....

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:35:00 +0000

A new series to remind me all that happens in a single day and to remind myself (especially on those yucky days) how thankful I am for all that I have!

Today I....

Shook more hands in one hour than I do in a week.

Was reminded to turn from temptation and trust in the journey I am meant to live no matter how difficult.

Made homemade baby wipes!

Vacuumed at least three times

Laundry...there's always laundry

Cuddled lots (with all 3 kiddos at some point today)

Played in the snow

Had my football loving heart broken over my packers :(

Started reorganizing my art area

Uploaded new images on my website (more on that later)

Started working on a custom order

Realized I had even more fabric than I remembered....now I have to sort and only allow myself one tote (out of 8+!)

Did a lot more than I realized on what I thought was a bust of a day!!

Do you feel it?

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:48:00 +0000

My wave of creativity is back!!!
New original paintings added to my site.
Stay tuned: hoop gals and inspired art girls are next up!

My gift to me!

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:31:00 +0000

I have a few (ok a lot) artist crushes (which we can go over in better detail later). This year I vowed I would buy myself a piece of art from an artist I am crushing on. I have been crushing on Danielle Daniel from Her Painted Word for awhile now. This last year she has grown leaps and bounds professionally and she has been sharing her journey. I look up to her as an artist, woman, and mama.

She is doing this great series for the new year of tiny paintings that have a secret word/phrase in each painting, a fortune if you will. I am all about the calling of the universe and I figured, I have been crushing on her work for a year, the packaging was ubber cute, and tie in a universal positive message.... Im in!
My message says: You must give your own story to the world. Which for me means and in my world it is time to stop focusing so much on how other's artwork looks like and keep embracing who I am and how my soul portrays my art. So thank you Danielle and thank you universe *smile*
Besides the one painting I bought another itty bitty painting. Just for size comparison the painting on the right is one I finished up last night, (which plug: up on my site: www.stefanielinstudio.com) which is an 8x8 painting.

I love these little paintings, Ken just brought home some 4x4 chipboard for me.... I think I may have to try a tiny painting soon. 8x8 has always been my comfort zone... just the right size. Not too big so I am scared I am not filling in the space enough, not too small that I have to be good with details so to speak. But new year... new challenges right? 4x4 originals are on the "to-do list" for this year!

Do you have an artist crush? Show them some love, by a piece of art! And share in the comments who you crush on, I am always looking to lengthen my art crush list!

What makes you happy?

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:11:00 +0000

This guy, his brother, sister, and daddy are on the top of my happiness list.

I am working on a new project about happiness.... so I ask you.... what makes you happy?

Me?

living room dance parties
happy tears
hearing the words mom (or mum in Kenson's case)
kitten whiskers
new paint
full belly laughs
green soft grass
knitting needles
coffee (can never forget coffee)

and so on and so forth. So go on tell me, I really truly want to know!

How do you do it?

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:24:00 +0000

(it should be noted I have been trying to get this post up for a week now...thanks to a crappy internet connection it has been an undertaking..just had to get that off my chest!!)

The biggest question I get asked when people find out I have three little ones all under the age of 5 is.... How do you find the time to paint?!?!?!

First off I make it a priority and because of that I have a mountain high pile of clean and dirty laundry, dishes stay in the sink longer than my hubby would like, and dinner may burn
everyonce and awhile *smile*

Now for a lot of creative mamas I know that the wee hours of the night are prime making time but for me it is a different story. All of my kiddos have never been great sleepers and really use me as a comfort device. Especially Valen who once I get down for the night if I am not by his side (we are co-sleepers) in about 30 minutes he wakes up screaming and upset that he has been left alone and figures I am gone forever.

Because of that I have gotten much more creative with my art time and the kids are all involved now in the art.

So somedays if the older two are entertaining each other I put the baby in the sling and paint away.

But a lot of the time I paint with the kids. So here are my tips to make creative art time a fun and stress free one for both mama and kiddo. Remember.... art is meant to be fun.... if its not, sorry to say but you are doing it wrong!

Tip #1

Buy a super cheap plastic tablecloth and use it for creative play time. This is one that if paint spills all over you wont get upset about it. Afraid to spill some paint.... paint on the table cloth mess it up and the tension will magically leave! Plus this makes for a quick clean up... once done painting fold it back up put it in your art storage and pull it out for the next creative play time.

Tip #2

Trust in the mess. Dont fear it. Let the kids enjoy playing. I let my kids use my cheap acrylic paints. They wash out of skin, hair and clothes in my experience.

Tip#3

Want to spark their creativity. Get a handful of cars, trucks, etc. I get mine from a thrift store, what you want to focus on is the wheels the cooler the "tread marks" the better.

Let them roll them in the paint and marvel in the cool textures they create!

And this is why I suggest getting a few cars from a thrift store for "painting only". Because this will almost always happen....Painted Cars!!!

And when you are done I clean up the wheels as best as I can dry and set aside for our next creative project.

Do you have any tips for making art with kids? I would love to hear them!!

Word of the Year 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

shine (shn)

v.intr.

1. To emit light.

2. To reflect light; glint or glisten.

3. To distinguish oneself in an activity or a field; excel.

4. To be immediately apparent: Delight shone in her eyes.

2012 boy did you creep up on me fast! And I promise I wont let you go to waste. This year is all about shining. To trust in myself and my abilities. To be positive and keep putting myself out there. To keep finding new opportunities and throwing my name in the hat.

By the end of this year I will promise myself to:

-Submit my artwork for publication
-apply to new craft shows
-Introduce my art to at least 5 new stores
-keep my online store stocked and fresh
-have an art show

This is the year for me to keep finding my artistic voice. To find my momma hood balance. To be the wife my husband deserves.

This my friends in all it ways is my year to shine. I hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Year end wrap up 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:11:00 +0000

So the word for 2011 was creativity. I didnt give myself goals or a real definition of the word. I just knew I wanted to keep my creativity and keep chasing my artistic dreams.

Creativity this year was about finding my groove. Finding my voice and keep growing with my painting.

I really found my voice this year in inspirational sayings and creepy big eyed girls! The end of the year was a huge I got a website up and going. I started advertising, in a month time of going live I got two sales (which was huge for me!) I have had a handful of commission pieces, I sold a large amount of my original artwork at local indie craft shows.

I failed though in otherways. My temper was too short some times with the kids, housework was laid dormant as I chased my dreams, life sped by so fast and I feel I have truly weakened some strong connections with those I love. I dont live with regrets but I do look forward to recommit to every one I love. Because in the end they are the ones that truly matter the most.

So good bye 2011 it has been a wild ride of the highest highs and the lowest lows. I cant wait to see what 2012 will hold!

Come and say hi.... pretty please?

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:12:00 +0000

(Photo taken by Laurie Marie)

Ok everyone so I have been blogging for 5 years now have over 700 posts logged and have made amazing friends through this little ol blog. But you know what? Lately I feel like I am talking to myself so here's the deal....I want you to say hi.

How will I get you to say hi, I'm gonna bribe you! *smile* I will send out a card to every person who sends me a comment and one lucky commenter will get a piece of art.

So heres the deal.... leave a comment (make sure to leave your email address so I can message you to get your mailing address) tell me a little bit about yourself, how long you have been reading, what you enjoy reading about on my blog, you know that sorta thing. And for the few minutes of your time I will send you an inspired art greeting card that you can keep or pass along to someone else who you wanna say hi to!

This will be open through the end of the year (2011).... come on say hi, you know you want to!!!

Oh My! Handmade Goodness Contest Entry

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Oh My! Handmade Goodness is running an amazing contest for a New Year New Biz. Below is my video entry. Along with the movie here are a few other main bullet points of my business:

-My main focus has been craft shows and consignment
- After years of a fairly bare Etsy storefront I set up my own site a little over a month ago (www.stefanielinstudio.com)
-Besides having a workshop at the end of January I have two other stores that have shown interest in having me teach workshops at their stores.
-An art show is in the works right now at a local venue, details are being hashed out
-Just over the weekend I may have found a studio space to move all my art supplies out of my home and into a space to call my own (super big eek!)

Finally, all of this would never had been possible without my amazing husband. He has been my biggest supporter throughout this crazy ride. He is the one that keeps the house from failing apart, the kids happy, and makes sure I eat every once and awhile when I have a deadline to meet and can only focus on paper and paint. I am so lucky that I have found someone who loves me for me (flaws and all), who sees my dreams and helps chase them right beside me!

Putting it out there

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:02:00 +0000

This blog, this little blog that has been around for over five years. It has documented my kids growing up, my never ending quest to be a smidge like Martha Stewart, and my growing passion for art and creating.

The blog has been about that a lot more lately here's hoping you all don't mind! Today is about my art but with a twist... I don't want you to buy I want to give to a good cause!

I have been given the opportunity to donate my art for a silent auction a few months ago and now yesterday as a gift to those who have little to call their own.

While I would love to feed my family from making art what is even better for me is to make art that touches people's hearts and helps them to give to others who cannot help themselves.

So if you have a charity auction, a donation you are gathering, etc and you think my art is a fit send me an email.

This giving thing is pretty addicting!

My cup runneth over

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:10:00 +0000

Earlier in November I had a mom get in touch with me. She had seen my work at DIY Studio and Gifts and wondered if I would be available to make a painting for her husband of her daughter. I was thrilled and excited, she was so sweet and laid back! I had told her as soon as the craft shows wrapped up for the season I would get to work. So right after Craftacular I got right to work and started sketching ideas. I was given the insight of a little girl who loved the outdoors and animals. A forest sounded like the best place for her.

A tiny bird to sit on her head, an owl to look over her, and a friendly fox to help her along the way and our forest princess was complete. I love this piece I cant even express it. Once we started getting to know each other I couldnt stop painting until I was sure she was complete. Besides this holiday I promised myself I wouldnt be stressing at the last minute standing in long lines at the post office to get a piece off to a happy new home (hello last year!) so in about 24 hours of starting her, she was packaged up tied with a bow and is on her way to her new home.

I love commission work, please email me if you are interested in our own one of a kind piece!

Oh and this little gal..... I think she is the jumping point to a new series!!! Stay tuned *smile*

Introductions (of sorts)

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Photo by Funky Monkey Photography (which I filtered with instagram)

Craftacular was a smashing success!! I wanted to say thank you to everyone who found a piece that they connected with either for themselves or a loved one. Thank you to everyone that chatted with me and had such great questions about art making. And a huge thank you to those who had a look smiled and said such beautiful things about my work.

I need to be honest here... Craft shows are the most nerve racking thing I do. Everything I do has my soul in it and when I present it to others it is my way of asking others to please like me. And so those smiles are the same as if someone came by and bought everything off my table.

So thank you to those who took a piece home and those who took the memory of one home!

Christ's birth according to my kiddos

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:35:00 +0000

Little unknown fact, puss in boots was in attendance of the birth of Christ. Wait what do you mean that is a false fact? Don't tell my 5 year old she will be heartbroken!

On a side note tomorrow (Saturday) will be my last craft show of the year. Back to semi normal blogging until the holidays!

Whirlwind and introducing

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Whew time has flown. Between eating turkey, giving thanks for all I have, a family visit, and (drum roll) a new website designed and set up I have been a busy girl!

Stefanie Lin Studio can be found here! Also to celebrate I am giving free shipping through the end of the year use the code: HELLOWORLD

And dont forget, for my local peeps, Craftacular is this weekend in Madison. I would love to see you. Lots of goodies can be found for yourself and your loved ones for this holiday season!!

Thank you

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:41:00 +0000

What a great Saturday! Thanks for everyone who stopped by, said hi, talked about art, and had a few laughs with me. Hi to all those that grabbed my business cards, I ran out of those babies which is the first time that ever happen!

Next up Craftacular on Dec 3 hope to see you there!!

Educational art

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:24:00 +0000

Dictionary gals! I made a few of these in the past but they have been updated as my painting has grown. An oldie but a goodie, besides who doesn't love a dictionary page(with a pretty face floating on it)?!?!

Food for thought

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:23:00 +0000

Inspired art girls made their debut this summer. I am excited to be bringing them back for the holidays. They are perfect for a gift for yourself or a friend, sister, daughter, or mom!

Merry and Bright

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:36:00 +0000

My vintage vibed wreaths will be making their appearance for the second year. While I love all of my wreaths equally this batch was so much fun to make and have a lot more handmade personal touches!

This weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:43:00 +0000

It's time! The kick off for my crafty holiday shows is this weekend. I will be in Oshkosh at Handmade for the Holidays. I would love if you are local to stop by and say hi!

Here are a few things I will have:
Inspired gal hoops
Original paintings
Inspired gal originals

More sneak peaks tomorrow!!

Holidays are coming

noreply@blogger.com (Artsy Momma) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:48:00 +0000

Here is another wreath that will be making its appearance at Dainty Daisies this weekend. I love me a vintage inspired Christmas, if you couldn't tell!!