We had fun last night, Matt & I played Mario Party 8 a lot (my dad got me that for Christmas!!), and ate a lot of tasty food & drank champagne.
Now it's back to work =P
All orders placed & paid for while I was gone will be shipping out as soon as the Post Office opens tomorrow morning, yay!
Tonight I have one of my fun "Custom Painting" auctions, Zodiac prints of Pisces & Aquarius on SALE, and also a fun new product - a rubber stamper set!
First off is the new CUSTOM painting - these are SO much fun, both for me and for the customer! Basically I have a 9"x12" painting just started - the beginnings of a big eyed beautiful face and shoulders. The winner of this auction will get to tell me how to finish their painting! It is your painting - you can choose if she will be a fairy, an angel, a mermaid, a Halloween witch, an elf, a cute big eyed girl, etc. You can choose her clothing, her eye colour, her hair colour, her skintone, her hairstyle, and her makeup! If she is a fairy, you can tell me what type of wings to paint and what colour. If you want her to be a mermaid, you can tell me how you'd like her tail to look, hehe. These are a blast! She is up for sale on eBay - a seven day auction starting at ONE PENNY with no reserve (typically when commissioned normally, my custom paintings start at $2000, so you may get a bargain!)- ending on the evening of Tuesday, January 8th at 6:15 PM Central Time and you can see her here:
And then finally - the rubber stamp company "Bunch Of Fun" has licensed several of my designs for their rubber stamp/stamper sets. These are WAY cool, I recently saw the samples and they are gorgeous. Each set comes with several stampers, ink, little greeting cards to stamp on, and little pencils to colour them in. Too neat!: I don't stock them myself (running out of room in my house, hehe) - but they are available at their website here:
Enjoy! I have some truly magnificent paintings and some other very exciting merchandise & book news coming soon, so be on the lookout! Happy New Year!
I have a beautiful, very special painting for you - another simply amazing collaboration between myself (the artist) and my husband Matt (the framer/woodcrafter) - a stunning Renaissance altarpiece-style wooden triptych! This is definitely one of my most magnificent creations to date, so you are in for another treat! I'm visiting my family in Kansas City for the holidays, but will be back home by New Year, and in plenty of time to ship this latest creation with no delay - so bid with confidence!
This almost looks like something you'd see in a Renaissance or Medieval art museum - much like an old altar piece. It is a "triptych" - which means that it is actually three paintings - actually I guess this is a polyptych - as it is technically FOUR paitings - divided by copper/patina painted mouldings/frames (I painted them myself!) - a sort of "4 in 1" type of piece. It is called "Absinthe" - (aka the Green Fairy) - a mysterious drink appreciated by artists for centuries - a brilliant green, haunting colour - I've incorporated the absinthe-green colour into all panels of this painting (four panels in all!). The center panel features the mysterious goth fairy creature, holding a bottle of absinthe - with painted art nouveau type designs. The left panel features a glass of absinthe and a green luna moth. The right panel features a painting of a tradional absinthe spoon. The bottom-most panel features a scrolling design with a grinning skull at its center, swimming in absinthe green. I am so happy I am able to start creating works like these, and by collaborating with my husband and his workshop, I truly have made my dream a reality. I am very proud of this painting. It really has to be seen in person to appreciate it! My husband Matty handcrafted the panel & frame out of wood! I then hand painted all of the copper & patina details on mouldings/framing myself - it is so cool! Yes the "frame" (attached to the panel to form the border & triptych is included!). It is READY TO HANG and is really stunning, finished with a glossy varnish. It is about 24" wide by 27" tall in the center - original acrylic painting on wood (lightweight, easy to hang, around .5" - 1" thick with the framing). She is up for a 10-day auction on eBay starting at just a penny with NO reserve - the auction will be ending on the afternoon/evening of Wednesday, January 2nd at 4:58 PM Central Time. Click below on the sneak preview picture to see the whole painting:
Please note - while I'm out of town, most of my eBay store items (all 950 or so of them) are currently on "pause," but they will re-appear upon my return (around New Year). None of my other auctions will be affected as I will be home in time for them to end, so bid with confidence! All email correspondence will resume as well upon my return. Orders placed through www.strangeling.com can be placed as normal, but will be processed & shipped upon my return.
If anybody needs to contact me and it is an emergency, email me at my JasmineToad email address with "URGENT" in the subject line. I won't have much computer access while I'm away, but I will have my I-Phone and I can check my email a couple of times (kinda) on that.
Thank you - ALL of you who sent Christmas & Holiday Cards! Wow! That always brightens my day. Next year I will be sure to return the favour, the season just snuck up on my this year, hehe. Thank you all so much!
(And thank you Robyn for the Balto picture, he's smiling from our refrigerator right now) =) =)
Now onto the art.... I have a brand new, beautiful original ZODIAC painting for you tonight - the LAST of my Zodiac, "Pisces"! Also a bunch of new ACEOs from my latest paintings!
******** Also - PLEASE NOTE - my eBay store items (not the auctions, but the buy-it-now store items) - are now on "pause" since I'll be out of town for the holidays, and have to cut it off sometime, hehe. So about 900 or so of my eBay store items may seem to have "disappeared." But no worries - they will magically re-appear when I get home (shortly before New Year!). All outstanding orders that have been paid for by tomorrow night will ship out before I leave - and again no worries - those not paid until after I leave will be shipped as soon as I get back home! In the meantime, if there are prints you'd like to order, you can buy them throughout the holidays with no interruption up at my website:
http://www.strangeling.com
Please just keep in mind that new orders placed will ship when I get home around New Years. Feel free to BID on any of my eBay auctions though - those ending tonight can be shipped before I leave, and the others will be ending around when I get home, so there will be NO delays, so no worries! ********
Okay! First of all the new painting - the latest and LAST in my Zodiac series - we have "Pisces"! And she's a MERMAID! She is a 12"x16" original acrylic painting on a sheet of canvas, and is very cute! Pisces is the Zodiac sign for those born from February 19th through March 20th. There is a lot of fun astrological symbolism in this piece! In the sky see Neptune (the ruling planet of Pisces' sign) as well as the Pisces constellation in the stars. Pisces wears a head adornment of purple amethyst - that is her birthstone! I have also depicted Pisces as a little mermaid - since Pisces is often associated with fish, mermaids & the sea. Pisces' colour of sea green is used throughout the painting as well. You will also see a golden Pisces astrological symbol in her arms. She's up on eBay starting at just one penny with no reserve for a 10-Day auction ending the afternoon of Sunday, December 30th at 3:58 PM CENTRAL TIME. You can see her below:
Now for the new ACEOs - for more info about ACEO cards, how I make them & what they are (basically tiny hand embellished one of a kind canvas prints, trading card sized and highly collectable), consult the individual auction descriptions - they are each one of a kind and are awesome! All are starting at a penny, with no reserve for ten-day auctions ending on the afternoon of Sunday, December 30th between 3:40PM - 3:56PM Central Time:
To see them ALL together visit the ACEO section of my store HERE
Finally getting most of my Christmas shopping done, eek! I always leave it until the last minute, no matter what I set my mind to the year before =P
I have a new original painting - and it's one of my new book illustrations!
As you may know, I'm illustrating a book of short stories. It's a daunting task requiring dozens of illustrations, but I have just finished the fourth one and she turned out VERY pretty! I'm able to offer this piece and the subsequent paintings for sale along the way, so be on the lookout for more soon. The book will not be out for quite some time, but I will let you know when it is published, too.
Also if the links do not appear to be clickable, simply copy & paste the full link text into the URL field of your browser!
"Bijou" is the name - a French name meaning "jewel" - this is a portrait of one of the girls in the book of short stories I'm doing the illustrations for. It is a gorgeous painting - I'm very proud of her. In the book, Bijou is a dragon-like fairy, living in a cave with a red dragon. She's a little self-absorbed, vain, maybe a little haughty, but very pretty! This piece may be of particular interest to collectors, as it will be in an upcoming book featuring dozens of my illustrations. She's quite large and detailed - measuring 16"x20" - original acrylics on sheet of canvas. This piece may be of particular interest to collectors as she will be published in an upcoming book (ie, she might be famous someday, hehe!). This original painting is up on eBay starting at just ONE PENNY with no reserve for a 10-Day auction ending the evening of Saturday, December 29th at 6:00PM Central Time (in time for my return back home after Christmas, so with no delay!). You can see it below - click on the sneak preview picture to see the whole painting:
And just a reminder - I'm going to put my non-auction eBay store items "on pause" starting tomorrow afternoon - since I'm leaving town to visit family over Christmas in a few days. I'll have some other new auctions before I leave, so there will be some stuff to bid on while I'm gone next week, but if you want anything from my eBay store in the next week or so, go buy it now before I leave town, otherwise you'll need to wait until New Year!
I've been PAINTING a lot lately! (No, really?). Getting a lot done, catching up on holiday orders, that type of stuff. It's always such a madhouse around here this time of year, our house is so much more a "factory" than it is a "home."
Matt & I are really excited and planning out a lot of new triptych/altarpiece wooden creations along the lines of "Alchemy Angel". This coming year you should see some pretty fantastic stuff from us, seriously.
We're going to Kansas City to visit family for Christmas! I'll be closing up my eBay shop soon for about a week, starting on the 21st. So if you want something, go buy it before I leave =) It'll of course re-open when I get back around New Year. And of course I'll be listing a lot of original paintings, ACEOs, & canvas prints up for auction right before I go, so there will be plenty of stuff to bid on still while I'm gone =)
Guess what? Good news! I have TWO new CILM Packs to show you, and also (finally) my Aquarius Zodiac painting! Unfortunately (for you!) somebody jumped in and already bought the painting with Buy-It-Now as soon as I listed it, so the original is sold, but you can see what she looks like at least. Yes - I'll have Aquarius prints available around New Year! More good news - I'm almost done with my "Pisces" Zodiac painting as well - I'll probably have her done in the next couple of days - I will let you know as soon as she's available as well - and that means my Zodiac series will be COMPLETE! Gee - it only took me FOUR YEARS to do the series, lol - and thousands of "When you going to paint MY sign" emails, heheheh....
To see my "Aquarius" (the original, sold, but still cute!), click below:
Now - GREAT news for those of you folks who are online image/graphics hobbyists - makers of tubes, signature tags, websets, members of the groups for PSP and other image/graphics groups. I have TWO brand NEW graphics package up at CILM! This month's new packages (package "M" and "N") features some of my best & most popular paintings, with lots of my Alice in Wonderland pieces, and a whole pack of pieces with ANIMALS! Lots of my newer stuff, too! There are also the options up at CILM to buy "Custom Packs" where you can piece together your OWN package, from the different images.
If you're not familiar with online graphics as a hobby - you might want to look into it. It's a FUN way to spend time doing something creative, without the whole "having to paint something yourself" part, hehe. You get to create your own designs and graphics on the computer using my paintings, officially and with my blessing. For ANY questions regarding usage of my images as tubes or tags, this is handled by CILM (not by me myself) - you can contact them here: customerhelp@creativeimagelicensing.com or call them: Customer Service Number Call (toll-free in the USA): 1-877-264-2456
I hope that you have fun with my artwork!
I'd better go finish up on Pisces, and also on my Christmas shopping!!!
