SHOP GIFTS

Desert Dwellers Flash Cards Barnes & Noble On Saturday morning Moms, Dads, and their adorable kids came to Barnes & Noble to spend time learning about desert animals! We started with interactive games using Desert Dwellers Flash Cards Barnes & Noble. A kid would pick a colorful card and we all act or sound like […]

A quick way to add color to your child’s room is to hang art or flash cards on their door or wall. My friend, Whitney, did this on her daughters closet using some ribbon and clothes pins. It takes less than five minutes to cut the ribbon, tie a bow and add the flash cards. […]

P is also for Phew! The Desert Dwellers Flash Cards are done. From Anna’s Hummingbird to Zebra-tailed Lizard – my Southwest Animal flash cards are ready to launch! I am having an all out bash to celebrate. If you’re in Tucson – I hope you can come! Thursday December 13th 2012 Create Cafe at 4660 […]

These “Desert Dwellers” have formed a superpower team  –“The Fab Flying Five”. Each creature is so beautiful and unique they each have their own greeting card now. Here’s a breakdown of this cast of characters. QUAIL – I see these guys walk more than fly, but I’ve heard they can;) And you can’t get any […]

U is for Unicorn. Really?! What part of the planet do Unicorns live on? Definitely not in the southwest. I am surprised to find so many alphabet books for children use fairly common animals and then use a Unicorn for the letter “U”! Finding an animal that starts with a “U” is pretty tough, especially […]

Roadrunner, Scorpion, Diamondback, Kangaroo Rat, Ornate Box Turtle, and Northern Mockingbird by Julie Rustad “Design Without Computers”… Not only was it my first blog post, but it was the start to making a huge change in my life! Although I have always loved to draw and paint, I wasn’t making it a priority. Instead I […]

I showed my 16 month old son this painting and he started doing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. That cracked me up! He’s at the age where he recognizes a lot of animals and either makes gestures or mimics their noises. I am having a blast painting southwest animals and loves that he finds them so […]

I have to be honest, I think scorpions are creepy. I’d rather paint another bird, but how could I leave out this notorious little guy from my series of Southwest Animals paintings? Not only are scorpions said to be 400 million years old, but there are 30 different species living in Arizona. With my kitty helper, […]

The roadrunner is one of my favorite southwest animals in Tucson. I consider them good luck when they cross my path. In this painting, I captured one running. Here’s a behind the scenes look at my design decisions during the painting process: STEP 1: I used a bright orange hue for the background which works […]

Although I wasn’t able to paint 26 Animal Paintings in 31 Days, I am happy to report that I’ve painted 17 southwest animals in the past three months! This week I painted a Quail – here’s how: STEP 1. Like my previous animal paintings, I use a wash of color across the canvas to begin. […]