This lil cutie Continue reading

This is my Dad and brother, I believe it was Father's Day 2009. The journaling reads: "I took this picture when we went out to dinner. Dan always does this thing where he takes his glasses off very dramatically and says "My God... I can't see a thing." It still makes me laugh. This is my favorite picture of Dad and Dan." The background paper and gentleman are from Graphic 45's Le Romantique collection and the blue flourish is from a Pink Paislee paper called "Fascinating." The letters are painted chipboard and hand written with white gel pen. Continue reading

Friday I watched 9-year old Emily for the day because she stayed home sick from school. Watching the news, we discovered that it was National Blueberry Pancake Day so naturally we decided to celebrate! We added cinnamon and these caramel sprinkles to the pancake mix for a touch of sweetness. They were the BEST pancakes ever! Continue reading

Today is the one year anniversary since I started this art blog and defined my life as an artist! It has been a wonderful experience sharing all of my work and telling my story. I am now starting a new adventure, the creation of my own freelance photography business called Cakewalk Photography that will operate out of Brooklyn, but also I am doing location shoots anywhere in New York City or Long Island. I am lucky enough to have the biggest dining room in Brooklyn and today I'm turning it into a portrait studio! I am so excited! Over the... Continue reading

I ride trains a lot. As an exercise in creativity and a way to entertain myself while traveling, I will bring with me a couple of random art supplies and try to create something using only those. I made this collage on the train this past Tuesday, while dreaming about having a red convertible. Mixed media on cardstock. Continue reading

Paper boat made with Graphic 45 scrapbooking paper. <3 Continue reading

This work was inspired by characters in the children's book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It's a fun book to read and has a lot of linguistic puns- for example, there is an island called "Conclusions" and you can only get there by jumping to it. The main character is trying to rescue two princesses named Princess Rhyme and Princess Reason because their banishment has left all of the Kingdom of Wisdom in dischord and disharmony. I liked this concept because in the story, the princesses would confer and solve problems that the people would bring them, they acted... Continue reading

This started out as a page in my art journal and ended up being a scrapbook layout of unusual size (s.l.o.u.s.). The background is a piece of vintage magazine paper glued over a piece of notebook paper. Then I attached the photo. Next I drew with Glossy Accents, I wrote the words and doodled the hearts so that they would resist the black paint. I then painted the border around the image. I used a wet paper towel to carefully wipe the paint off the places where I wrote with Glossy Accents. The effect was not as contrasted as I... Continue reading

Two days ago I was waiting for a subway train. Everywhere I looked were people in love and a man was playing "O Holy Night" on the steel drums and I felt truly happy in that moment. Sometimes it's things you don't see that I want to remember most! Mixed media on black foamboard. Happy New Year, make 2011 yours! shannon Continue reading

This layout is built on a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock and created by layering ripped pieces of scrapbook paper and Sassafrass playing cards. The red letters are glitter thickers and the white are handpainted with white paint, then doodled over. The flowers are from the Dear Lizzy line for American Crafts. Continue reading

Here on the east coast we had a tremendous blizzard just after Christmas and many people were snowed in this past Sunday. I was at my boyfriend's house when the storm began. These are some photographs I took around his house early in the morning when the snow started falling. He was at the store getting food for us because we didn't know when we'd be able to leave the house again. Inside it was dark and cozy and very very quiet. Continue reading

This is the cover of the holiday card I gave out this year to all my friends and family. Vintage photo, with words from a public domain image of the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas." The "sugarplums" are handcut circles with painted stars dusted with white glitter. Hope your holidays were lovely :) <3 shannon Continue reading

This is my first handmade book and I am very proud of it! I was experimenting with 4x6 mini-collages on paper which I intended to hang in frames on a wall, but I've been thinking a lot about sequential book art so I decided to put these images into a book together so that they might tell a story. It folds open accordion-style. The front and back covers are made of grungeboard, which has been painted and sprayed with blue glimmer mist. The paper itself is very heavy watercolor paper cut into two sheets and painstakingly folded. Each page displays... Continue reading

This is the holiday window display I made for PortraitBug! Sticks collected from the Hippo Park on Riverside Drive hold samples of our holiday cards as well as paper ornaments from Basic Grey's ornament kit and silver snowflakes. On top perch birds I cut out of scrapbooking papers attached with paper clips. The words and design in the window are painted directly on using acrylic white paint. Continue reading

My close friend Kristen brought her daughter Alexa back to my studio for holiday pictures this weekend! These are some of my favorites: <3 <3 <3 Continue reading

Mixed media on watercolor paper. Click on any image to see it larger. The background is old music sheets glued on randomly, then covered with a wash of white mixed with gold paint. The edges are inked with Distress Ink in tea dye and the river is also Distress Ink in broken china. The paper boats are hand made from old magazine pages and the girl is from a public domain image. The words are stamped and handcut from an ad for whiskey from a 1960's issue of Look magazine. Continue reading

There is a man in Norway named David Sandum. To raise money for a children's library in his hometown, he has made a call to artists to send in postcard-sized artworks which will put on display at the library. The proceeds from the sale of these works which are being sent to Norway from artists all over the world will go towards getting new books for the library. You can see David's site here. I love this cause! The idea of supporting such a fundamental and creative aspect of growth with art from all different cultures is just beautiful. This... Continue reading

This was supposed to be the 13th post in my 13 days of Halloween for those of you keeping track, however I became horribly sick Halloween weekend and was unable to finish it in time. Like a trooper I still worked my butt off and went out after work both Saturday and Sunday, but this of course was not good for my health so I've been incapacitated. But better late than never, here is my last post! These are four coordinating scrapbook layouts about a Witch themed dinner party my friend Jackie recently hosted! The papers are Graphic 45 and... Continue reading

Last night I made these super easy Red Velvet spiderweb cupcakes for my Halloween party! Follow the directions for a regular box of Red Velvet cake. Pour batter into foil baking cups and bake as directed. After baking, let cupcakes to cool completely. Ice with vanilla icing, keeping the icing in the center of the cupcake. For the spider web pattern, squeeze 3 circles onto the top of the cupcake using chocolate decorative icing. Using a toothpick, drag a line from the center of the cupcake towards the outside. Continue drawing lines around the cupcake starting from the center and... Continue reading

I created this Day of the Dead mask by using simple scrapbooking supplies! This is a quick and easy Halloween costume, just decorate the mask with bold designs and pair with dark clothing. I started by covering a craft store plain white mask with gel medium to create a surface conducive to drawing on. I then sketched out the shapes for the eye and nose sockets and teeth. Then I used a black sharpie and paint to fill them in. From here you can use your imagination to create the rest of the designs on the mask! Use whatever tools... Continue reading

These are some shots of the window display that I did for PortraitBug. Previously, I had painted these frames on the window and put kids portraits in them, so I switched out all the pictures for ones from our Halloween party last year. Then I added spiderwebs and cracks with acrylic paint to give the effect of the frames hanging on a creepy old wall. You can paint on glass with tempera or acrylic paint and it will wash off easily! For black I used acrylic because it is thicker and show up better. I also painted black chandeliers on... Continue reading

This mixed media necklace was created using a Ranger Memory Frame, Memory Glass slide and mixed media collage materials. The frames have a tab at the top that allow the frame to open from the side making it super easy to slide in the glass and mini collage. I cut a thin piece of cardboard to the size of the frame and used that as a base for the collage. I papered the cardboard with a text scrap from a magazine, then blended Distress Ink in Black Soot over the paper in random spots. Then I added the image of... Continue reading

I just had to use this paper for a scrapbook layout- it's called Blackbird from My Mind's Eye and I looove the argyle pattern. The bingo cards are from a set of Heartwarming Vintage images, the white doily is a Hambly rub-on, I used distress ink and masking tape to create the rays coming out from the photo and also the brackets are inked on using a hand-cut mask. The small letters are from KaiserCraft and the large brown sparkly ones are Thickers. I used a white gel pen to trace the letters to make them stand out from the... Continue reading

If you’re like me, and you worship the almighty Martha Stewart, you may find it blasphemous to “alter” her cute and easy to assemble fall wreath. But I thought it needed some more craftiness. I started by tracing the different shaped leaves on various orange and Halloween-themed patterned papers, then cut each one out and inked the edges with an inking sponge and Tim Holtz’s Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I attached the leaves and some plastic spiders throughout the wreath with glue dots. For the flower centerpiece at the top of the wreath I started with some cut pieces of... Continue reading

My sister modeled for me in this horror/halloween themed photo shoot! The photos were taken digitally with a Canon Rebel T1. Click on any image to see it larger. All photos by Shannon Clyne Model: Kristin Clyne and special thanks to Kieran Mallamo for letting us do the shoot in his awesome house! Continue reading