A new artistic adventure for me!

Good morning everyone!

Over the course of several years now my 

Best Online Buddy (BOLB) Heather Hudson 

has inspired me to do a few things I'd never done before.....

I can now alter images in Gimp,

I have a Silhouette Cameo 

(a Christmas present she helped nudge my husband to get for me),

and I am able to design my own pieces to cut with that Cameo...

just to name a few!

My newest adventure is painting! 

She tried steering me in that direction a while ago when I showed an interest in her wonderful roses she paints but my nervousness in jumping in on that one held me back for a while,

at least a year!

I don't know where it came from but I found some nerve the other day!

I started with a little project I painted one flower on
(I'll show you that later)

That little project worked out so well I decided to jump in and work on a wooden recipe box I've been holding on to for almost a year now.
 Unfortunately at that point it was so late I only had time to paint the base coat on the box.

The good news is that I didn't lose that nerve while I slept...

or didn't sleep but that's a whole other story!

Ok...I know...enough chattering already!

Here is my painted box.....

Taking cues from Heather I started with painting on a few leaves.....

Then I added my rose and rose buds.....

I added the leaves around the buds, stems and a few more leaves.....

Unfortunately at this point I didn't like it....

too much greenery!

So I white washed it to tone it down.

Then added a few little bitty flowers.....

I liked the addition of those little flowers and I was having so much fun I kept going.....

I added more to the front as well!

Below is the finished piece...

Thanks for the inspiration Heather! 

And the boost of confidence that kept me going!

This was so much fun!!

I hope you all have someone or something out there that inspires you to take chances...

to go beyond your normal comfort zone!

Thanks for stopping by!