Oil Pastel Techniques

Chicago in the summer is about as challenging as Chicago in the winter.  The only difference is that I do not have to shovel snow but instead haul around the hose to keep the gardens watered!

It has been HOT! HOT! HOT! here  so I thought I would give you all a COOL little present today and post my "OIL Pastel Tips and Techniques" so that you can play in your air conditioned craft rooms and have some indoor summer fun.

ENJOY!

1.  Let's start out with the BABY OIL TECHNIQUE - Use 3 of the softer lighter colors and color in your background and even one of the bugs if you like - REMEMBER to color in ALL areas HEAVILY for best results.

2.  Now take a cotton ball and use 2 drops of baby oil on it - this will take a little elbow grease - but wipe off ALL the oil pastel you just put down.  (We don't want to saturate the card, just remove the excess oil pastel.) 

3.  REwipe with a clean cotton ball and you will be left with a nice soft colored card.

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1. The CREDIT CARD TECHNIQUE is easy once you get the right hold on the credit card.

2.  Matte cardstock - Lay down three colors (friendly colors - those that live next door to one another on the color wheel work the best for this technique)  Lightest color get put down heavily from the upper left hand corner of the cardstock to the lower right hand corner.

3.  Second mid-tone color goes on either side of the lightest color.

4. Darkest color (third color chosen) will go at the very outer edges of the card stock filling in all the white.

5.  Take the credit card, hold it taught at a 45 degree angel and pull up a small section (1/8th) of oil pastel.

Spread it down somewhere else on the card. Repeat this procedure until the entire card is to your liking.

6. Heat set.

7. Stamp with permanent ink over the oil pastel background and heat set again.

Wishing you all a colorful day in a cool place!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

Life is a Celebration!

July is here and the warm summer days have turned into melting pools of humanity as we see the temps here in Chicago, IL creep into the triple digits on a daily basis.  We are doing all we can here at Bugawumps to keep cool and limit the drool.

Still, we find time to celebrate all that is good and right with the world.

Independence Day is America's way of celebrating freedom - the freedom of man, the freedom of speech, the freedom of liberty, and right to create our own life.

These two little men are just beginning to explore the world as only they will know it.  They touch the lives of everyone they have met.  They are loved beyond words by many gruncles and grants (great aunts and uncles), one great grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, cousins once removed, their parents and of course their grandparents (all 4 of us are still here to share in these two miracles.)

I dream of the day when I can put a crayon in their hands much less a stamp and see what colors they choose to create their world.  Will they be writers; will they be scientists or mathmaticians; will they be singers or songwriters; will they be electronic innovators?  Most of all I ask myself, will they be able to find their happiness in this world as they find their way as well as make it a happier place for others?

In three weeks, a third little bundle of joy will join these two munchkins and also spend time with Grandma on a bi-weekly basis.  My eagerness to meet this little one is filled with the same joy I experienced with these two.  I wonder what this little one will bring to the world and where it will take me on my creative journey....I have lots of ideas, now just to find the time to implement them!

So as I embark on the journey of being a grandma - an hopefully a good one - I will listen to their wishes, their dreams, and help them to choose the colors that suit who they are at any given moment that will help them to express themselves in a creative, kind, and loving manner.

Today will be colored red, white and blue.  Today will be colored with the freedom to be who we are and color our world a happier, safer, more creative place.  Today the ideals that I believe in and dream of are wished for every one in every corner of the world.

Color me happy!

Color yourself wonderful!

Laura Anne and the most famous puppy ever, Bella Boo



Abra Ca Dabra

Well, here it is June already and I am no further along than I was two months ago in all the plans I had to paint, draw, clean ( really who even wants to do that ), cyle, you get the picture!

Instead, what I have been doing here at Bugawumps is playing with babies, giving showers (for babies), feeding babies, and feeding my soul with the breath of milky smiles.  It is a wonderfully sweet time in the lives of my family right now as we watch these two little angels grow and await the arrival of their cousin in a few short weeks.

Aside from my annual trek to Kauai for a little R & R which is the inspiration for many of my drawings and cards, my husband  and I went to Cleveland this past weekend for his 50th college reunion.

Under hazy warm June skies we walked the "Quad" with his friends and their wives as a stain glassed moon shed its light over us from the college chapel. While the stars did not twinkle this weekend, the eyes of many did as the men shared their stories. The glasses clinked in cheers and the harmony of the laughter made for the most wonderful symphony of friendship of I have ever experienced.

Just like the "Bugawumps" if you listen close enough and watch carefully you will see more magic than you ever dreamt possible.  No wands, no tricks, just pure magic for 2 days and nights and it was everywhere;

in the eyes of the son who loving came with his father and helped him seek out a list of old roommates,

in the husband who handed his glasses over to his wife of 50 years so she could see someone's photos,

in the slaps on the back as one schoolmate recognized another,

in the story teller who not only made us laugh, but continues to help the next generation get jobs with  phone calls to classmates who make it possible,

to the adult children who flew in from San Diego to share the weekend with their dad and meet the classmates they have heard so much about,

to the daughter whose college reunion was the same weekend on the same campus at the same time who kept coming over to share her experience and still be a part of her father's reunion,

to the goodness of a friend who made sure another had a golf cart available to her all weekend to get to from one function to the other easily,

need I say more...

The magic is there, the goodness of life surrounds us even in the worst of times if we sit still long enough to see it, to feel it and  then acknowledge it. 

Today I am home, rejuvenated, ready to draw, to create, to paint, maybe to clean, certainly to smile, and most importantly to thank my lucky starts and stops that I stopped long enough this time to be a part of this weekend's magic.

So make your day special, even if it's  only having a tri-colored popsicle on a stick from the fast food store down the block.  Make today yours. Make it happy, make it sweet, make it twinkle.

Abra Ca Dabra!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

Bugawumps Newest Arrivals

Matt and his boys.

On Sunday, April 15th at 9:18a our son Matt and his wife Abra were surprised with the early arrival of their twin boys, Ryan Emerson (on the left) and Colin Patrick (on the right).

What a wonderful blessing(s)!  Both boys are a bit small but a good weight for twins and Mom is doing well considering she is sleep deprived as I write this. Dad is holding his own with a big smile and a good sense of humor!

Grandma Laura, the head Bugawump, is happy it happened before she heads out for the Akron Convention the last weekend in April so she can rest easy and give all you wonderful ladies her complete attention.

This is a huge week for the new mom and dad and their boys.  They are slowly trying to get on a schedule as they get to know one another and figure out how to be the parents they want to be.  They are all "new bees"!

The learning curve is a "happening", just like when you and I started stamping and creating works of art.  Remember the struggles?  Which ink to use? (Which diaper brand?) What do I do next? (What do I do when they cry?)  Should I use Copics, markers, pencils...? (Should I breast feed, formula, schedule feedings or on demand?)

You found your way through the maze of stamping options until you found "your" style.  They will find their groove as well as the four of them become a strong family unit.

I love this time - the new "bees" - the struggles make it "the best of times and the worst of times".  The human spirit is amazing as it works it way through the problems and finds its way to a solution.  Creativity and parenting go hand in hand.  

Color it magenta, aqua, or neon green.  Make it bright and happy and fun.  Stay away from the dark side and know that by the end of the hour, the day, month or year, you will have grown as an artist, a parent, or a grandparent! The struggle makes the goodness all the more worthwhile.

I love my grandboys, I love my children and their spouses, I love my stamps and I love my ability to see all the options. Open your eyes. Open your heart. Keep it light.  Keep it bright. Make it happy. It is yours to make whatever you wish!

  

May today be as bright as your favorite ink box and tomorrow even brighter.

Bugs and Kisses!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

Words to Live By...

"Be Yourself...after all, everyone else is taken."

Have you ever wondered who you would be if you were born under a different star?  I used to wonder that all the time.  

What if...what if...what if...

I think that I wasted a lot of time wondering about all the "what ifs" and not accepting who I was as that given moment.  I realized as I got older that life is truly a journey and that sometimes I carried more baggage with me than I needed and at other times I didn't carry enough.

As we await the precious little ones and watch their parents struggle with the questions faced by all new parents I hope that I have been a good example of parenting and that it will come easy for them.  I hope they will be themselves as they are incredible adults just as they are and not get lost in the competition of parenting that may have them questioning who they are.


I used to try to be like all the ladies in the neighborhood - it is a fancy neighborhood and if anything, I am not a fancy lady.  I am just a lady that likes to make fancy things.  With that being said, my hands are always playing in the garden dirt planting flowers, digging up grass for a new garden, painting walls, painting windows, painting cards, painting my soul with colors that are bight and happy and shiny.  It is who I am.


I am rarely bored but find these fancy ladies and their painted finger nails and immaculate houses boring.  I would rather be on my bike with the wind in my hair than playing a game of bridge.  I have a clean house, but don't obsess over what the cleaning lady cleans with as I am my own cleaning lady...after all, who knows my house and my likes and dislikes better than myself.  Besides I am cheap and very capable of doing it myself!


So as I watch my children build their homes, have their babies, and build their lives, I hope they never spend as much time as I did wondering "what if..." but instead say "Thank heavens my parents were who they were so I could be what I am today....strong, capable, funny, creative, smart, athletic, or whatever they want to be that will make their lives as wonderful as I realize mine is and has been.

I hope that you have found a place inside yourself today that makes you feel good about all your accomplishments; that you can enjoy who you are, your likes, dislikes, and make friends with those who appreciate you just the way you are.

You are perfect just the way you are so get out there and be different!  Make the change in the world that you live in just by being yourself...that is more than enough!


Happy bugday!


Laura Anne and Bella Boo