Dillywink aka Dilly Boy has arrived!

A new family member arrived at the house today!  His name is Dillywink (aka Dilly Boy) and he is one of the "Lollipop Munchkins" created especially for the "Celebrate Oz 2012" Blog Party by the extremely talented and wonderfully generous Maddy Rose!   It was announced in her blog that one lucky winner would receive the ultimate gift of Dillywink in a random drawing ... I am giddy with delight that out of all the entries ... my name was drawn and I am now Dilly Boy's new Mom!

Be sure to visit her blog/store "Santa and the Mrs." to check out all the amazing character figures that Maddy Rose has created.  In fact, Maddy Rose is now having a "Christmas In July" BOGO Sale that you just might want to take advantage of!  Be prepared to be amazed!  The photo images of her creations do not even begin to do justice to her magnificent abilities ... be sure to visit!

Dilly Boy (as we have nick named him) is beyond a normal doll ... he is an artistic creation with exquisite detailing and, quite honestly, is a wonderful example of three dimensional fine art!   My husband and I are dumb struck by all of the love, care, creativity, imagination and attention to the smallest details that Maddy Rose puts into her OOAK creations ...

Once we opened up the package containing our youngest member, he jumped up and gave me one of the biggest, warmest hugs I have ever received!  Then we went on to introduce him to some of the members of our Brady Bunch Menagerie ....

The first to meet and enjoy a long visit with Dilly Boy were the "Hopscotch Hill" girls ...
they were ecstatic over his arrival ...

 

Dilly Boy began telling them of his adventures at Maddy Rose's and all of the friends he left behind ...  he didn't mind leaving behind the Wicked Witch ... she had scared him a bit even though he knew she cared about him.  But he is determined to keep them in his life through pictures and sharing with them his new family and friends!

Next, the Humming Belles and Beau (our resident fairies) flew in to give a warm greeting to Dilly Boy ... but they quickly had to depart ... they want to spread the word throughout the land about "Maddy Rose's Christmas in July Sale".   They promised they'd be back soon to get to know and play with Dilly Boy once they had accomplished their chosen mission....

You can see they were serious ... they are all dressed up in their Christmas attire to help promote Maddy Rose's Oz-picious Christmas in July sale!

Dilly Boy was so excited about sharing his new digs with everyone that he even jumped up and began helping me out with photo-editing some of the pictures we had been taking ... here is Dilly Boy getting right into the swing of things!

His knowledge of photo-editing is quite Oz-mazing!   He must have learned that whilst he was still residing in Munchkinville?  I'm sure I will find out later ... right now I have to go help the girls lay out a welcome lunch for dear Dilly Boy ...

Dilly Boy will be sharing more of his new adventures with the Brady Bunch in the days and weeks and months and years to come!

Happy Day everyone!
Karen Anne and Dilly Boy

"Dancing Dragonflies"

"Dancing Dragonflies" is my latest illustration.  This drawing was inspired by a couple who are getting married in October, their theme is dragonflies and their colors are deep violet and cranberry red.  For some reason I kept seeing two dragonflies in my mind and just had to get the design down on paper ... and the color combination of violet and red was a great plus!

The dragonflies took about two days to complete, during which time I kept mulling over in my mind what should I do with the background?  Leaves kept popping up ... so, once I had completed the two dragonflies I made a copy and began experimenting ...since leaves predominated my mind, I started there, grabbed a green art pen and started randomly putting them down on paper.  I liked the effect it was having and grabbed the original and spent the next two days drawing green leaves!

I think this drawing really turned out quite nice and am happy to share it with you today, so... here is

"Dancing Dragonflies"

This illustration is now available in my Etsy Shop as an authorized art print (your choice of print size up to 8.5" x 11") and as an open edition ACEO (size 2.5" x 3.5").

I was really surprised when I made my first print of the original ... the print actually looked better than the original!  That's a first and quite a nice surprise!

Happy Day All!

Karen Anne

And The Winners for the "Celebrate Oz" Blog Party Drawing Are ....

As promised, shortly after Noon today, I put all 14 names of the persons who commented on my "Celebrate Oz 2012" Blog Party posting into my pointy witch hat and as I drew them out I numbered each folded entry. 

The fun part?  Opening each little folded piece of paper to find the name of the winner revealed!  So, here are the winners in the order their names were drawn from my black witchy hat:

1st Place:  Magaly - winner of an original Oz Series ACEO of her choice (which turns out to be "The Wicked Witch Is Dead!").

2nd Place:  Sammie - winner of an entire Open Edition Oz ACEO Series (18 in all)!

3rd Place:  Debbie of Craftymoose Crafts fame - winner of 2 group 8" x 10" open edition prints featuring all 18 of the Oz characters.

4th Place:  Kitty, the Hockman Girl - winner of the ruby red hand crocheted book marker.

5th Place:  Lise - winner of one of the emerald green hand crocheted amulet necklaces.

6th Place:  Gloria of New End Studio - winner of the other emerald green hand crocheted amulet necklace.

Congratulations to all of the "Celebrate Oz 2012" winners!

I have notified all of the winners prior to posting this announcement, as soon as I have received each of their full names and addresses I will mail out their respective prizes.

Thank you to all of you who participated in the "Celebrate Oz" Blog Party and for all of the wonderful comments you shared at my blog.

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

It's "Celebrate Oz 2012" Time! An "Oz-some" Event!

Wha-Hoo!  Today is Celebrate Oz 2012 Day!  I have been reading a lot about "The Wizard of Oz" on the internet in the past several weeks and I found the following post on the web that I felt to be very poignant ... its about how the name Dorothy Gale came about......

In 1898, Dorothy Louise Gage was born to the brother and sister-in-law of Maud Gage Baum, wife of author L. Frank Baum. When little Dorothy died, exactly five months later, Maud was heartbroken. Baum was just finishing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and, to comfort his wife, named his heroine after Dorothy, changing her last name to Gale in his second book. Dorothy Gage was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington, Illinois, where her grave was forgotten until 1996 when it was rediscovered. When Mickey Carroll, one of the last existing Munchkins from the movie, learned of the discovery, he was eager to replace her deteriorated grave marker with a new one created by his own monument company. The new stone was dedicated in 1997 and the children's section of the cemetery renamed the Dorothy L. Gage Memorial Garden, in the hope that bereaved families would be comforted in thinking of their lost children as being with Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz".

It was in the late 1950's that I first viewed "The Wizard of Oz" on my parents black and white television (going to a movie house was a luxury I never experienced until about 1964) ... it was awesome and it was scarey!  I was more terrified of the flying monkeys than I was of the Wicked Witch, those little beasts with their sharp little teeth and sharp nailed fingers scared the bee-jeebies out of me!  It seems, to me at least, that we viewed "The Wizard of Oz" every year after that - just around Thanksgiving time (course I may be wrong).

You know, I never realized that "The Wizard of Oz" was in color until I was married, had two children and purchased our very first color TV (as the result of three months of babysitting and saving every single dollar, that Sony TV cost $300 - but I wanted a really good reliable TV if I was gonna invest that kind of money!) in around the early 1970's.   Well, shortly thereafter one of the networks was airing "The Wizard of Oz" ... I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it because it was in black and white and I had a new "color" TV!  But, I wanted my kids to experience the wonder and magic of "The Wizard of Oz".  So we settled back and the movie began.  Black and white, just as I had always seen ... the tornado caught up Auntie Em's house and whirled away ... and then it landed ... and BAM the colorful land of the Munchkins came exploding across the screen!  I was totally stunned, amazed and excited!  Wow!  Seeing it in color made it all new and even more exciting and terrifying!  I had one child on each side of me and we all had our pillows so we could cover our faces if the terror became too horrifying for us to watch!  We screamed, we laughed, we enjoyed!  "The Wizard of Oz" in color was absolutely amazing!

Well, I am not so good at verbalizing, I most often express myself in drawing ... as many of you have seen.  I have been posting ACEOs I created as my way of participating in Oma Linda's "Celebrate Oz 2012" Blog Party.   This is new to me as well, I have never participated in a blog party ... but I have sure had a bunch of fun creating these 18 ACEO's!  And I am sooooooooo looking forward to visiting all the blogs of the bloggers who are participating!

So, Welcome to my "Celebrate Oz 2012" participation!  I want to share some give aways with those of you who are participating (whether by a participating blog or by simply visiting) .... If you would like to win one of my give aways ... just post a comment on this posting ... if you'd like to follow my blog - well, that would be an added bonus and gift to me from you.

Without further ado ... my Give Aways are .....
1st Place -  this lucky winner gets to pick their choice of one of the original (right now only open editions are listed) "Oz ACEO Series" in my Etsy Shop.
2nd Place - oh, this is a good one!  This winner gets an entire "Oz ACEO Series" Open Edition Set of the 18 ACEOs!
3rd Place -  this winner gets 2 groupings of the "Oz Series" characters 8" x 10" art prints... as seen here:

4th Place is a Red Heart Bookmarker (this is an original crochet pattern I created a few years back) as a tribute to the Tin Man's quest for a heart ...

And finally, 5th and 6th Place winners will each receive a green (a tribute to the love in the Emerald City) heart amulet necklace (in which each is held a penny from heaven for good luck) ... another variation of my heart pattern

Bottom line, have a fun day and enjoy all the bloggers and their individual ways of Celebrating Oz with Oma Linda!  To find all of the bloggers who are linked into this grand party just go over to Oma Linda's blog "Olde Baggs 'n Stuffed Shirts" and you will find the links (right hand side) to all the bloggers who are participating in this Oz-some event!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

PS  I noticed that most "Celebrate Oz 2012" participants are having their drawings on July 26th ... due to my time schedule, give away entries will be accepted up until Noon on July 20th at this blog ... I will put all the names in the hat and draw the winning entries and post them later in the day of 7/20!  Good luck to all who put their names in my Witch Hat!

Tomorrow is the day to "Celebrate Oz"!

Time is now simply flying by and here the last four ACEOs in the Oz ACEO Series ....

"The Wicked Witch Flying"

"Auntie Em"

"Winkie"

 "Wizard Unveiled"

Tomorrow is the day for the "Celebrate Oz 2012" Blog Party at Oma Linda's blog "Olde Baggs 'n Stuffed Shirts" 

Be sure to come by and visit all the participating bloggers in this truly unique celebration!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Five more in the Oz ACEO Series

This past week I have listed five more of the Oz ACEO Series in my Etsy Shop with only four more remaining before the "Celebrate Oz" Blog Party at Oma Linda's!  There are currently 27 participants linked to Oma Linda's Blog for this party ... but there is still time to link in!  If you'd like to participate just go over to her blog "Olde Baggs n' Stuffed Shirts"  and link in your blog!

Here are some more interesting Oz characters that have been added to the series, and I hope I have done each and everyone of them justice!  Welcome to.....

"Talking Apple Tree"

"Doorman of Oz"

"Emerald City Guard"

"The Wizard of Oz"

"Flying Monkey with Toto"

We are now on the last legs of our journey on the Yellow Brick to Oma Linda's "Celebrate Oz" Blog Party on July 19, 2012.  Even if you are not planning on participating via your blog, be sure to come and join in on the fun!   I'm quite sure all the participating Bloggers will welcome you with open arms and tons of fun!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

"Kreativ Blogger Award"

Yesterday I learned that Gloria, from New End Studio Blog, had given me the much coveted "Kreativ Blogger Award"!  THANK YOU Gloria!  You made me feel very special!

In accepting this award I am to share with you 7 random, but well thought out facts about myself .... Good lord, I have to think?     Well then, here goes ....

1. I like to be positive in all aspects of my life.
2. I am happy to be retired and finally have the time to explore and cultivate my artistic endeavors.
3. I have a wonderful husband who is always there to support me in my adventures and quests, I love him dearly (and after nearly 45 years, he better love me dearly!).
4. I am a mother to three terrific young adults (actually six, they all have wonderful spouses!); and 10 grandchildren who keep my life filled with love and happiness.
5. My constant companion is my little miniature pinscher, Danny Boy, who loves to tease and keeps me active.
6. I hate it when someone says I can't do something ... that is an immediate challenge and it sets me off on a side trip to prove to myself that I CAN!  (I can be annoying when in that mode!)
7. I love being alive and look forward to the surprises that await me with each new day.

When one receives this honor, there are a few rules they can (or not) choose to follow:
1. Post a link to the person who awarded you 
2. Share 7 well-thought out random things about yourself
3. Bestow this Award to 10 other deserving bloggers and let them know.


It is always nice to hear that others think you are special, so here are ten bloggers I would like to share this award with!
Stacy at Magic Love Crow
Oma Linda at Olde Baggs ' Stuffed Shirts and Practically Magickal and Ye Olde Crones Gazette
Magaly at Magaly Guerrero and Pagan Culture
Debbie at Every Day Paintings from Everyday Life by Debbie Shirley
Debbie at Crafty Moose Crafts
Lise at Adventures as a Musician and Visual Artist
Carol at Moore's Art Gallery 
Shelle at Sunshine Shelle's 
Seth at The Altered Page
Heather at Rose Hill Designs

If you have the time, be sure to visit the respective blogs of these extremely talented people!  You won't be sorry!

Take care and be happy!
Karen Anne

Scarecrow, Lion, Tin Man and Ruby Slippers ....

There are now nine of eighteen of the Oz ACEO Series posted in my Etsy Shop, only 9 more go ... and then comes the 19th of July and the Celebrate Oz Blog Party of 2012 hosted by Oma Linda!  If you want to participate in this Grand Oz Party, be sure to go over to http://lindaomasoldebaggsnstuftshirts.blogspot.com/2012/06/celebrate-ozgiveaways.html and add your link to your Linky Participation List!

And now for some more of my Oz ACEO's!

"Scarecrow"

"Lion"

"Tin Man"

"Ruby Slippers"

Looks like it is time to continue following the Yellow Brick Road to the "Celebrate Oz 2012" Party! 

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Building up to "Celebrate Oz" Blog Party!

As a build up to the "Celebrate Oz" blog party over at Oma Linda's blog, "Olde Baggs 'n Stuffed Shirts" , I have begun listing the 18 Oz ACEO's in my Etsy Shop.  I am listing one a day until the 19th of July (Partay Day!) and thought I'd share them here as well.

I have a bunch of giveaways planned for the fun celebration day  ....  one lucky person will win an Oz ACEO original of their choice!  Be sure to come back on July 19th for details on how to enter!

OK ... so, here are the first five Oz ACEO's that I have currently listed in my shop ....

"Hello My Pretty!"

"Dorothy and Toto"

"The Wicked Witch Is Dead!"

"Munchkins"

"Glinda"

I'm really looking forward to Oma Linda's Celebrate Oz 2012 Party and hope you will join in on the fun too!  If you would like to personally participate add your link to Oma Linda's Participants Linky List!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne