OOAK Guest Blogger Maura Hibbitts

Hello everyone! I am excited and honored to be here with you today! I’m Maura Hibbitts and I live in upstate New York near the Adirondack Mountains, and I’ve been creating since I was a little girl sitting out under the tree in the backyard, drawing and coloring with crayons. I’m retired from teaching science, and have turned to my art passion full time, especially mixed media.

When I asked Shelley what she wanted me to do, and she said do something colorful, well that gave me free rein to use my imagination and lots and lots of color. We share a love of all things green, so of course that fit into my plan! Our local motel, The Blue Moon, always puts up great seasonal quotes on their sign, and recently since we are all waiting and waiting for spring here, this is what they have on the sign - “Live Life in Full Bloom.”

I decided to create a canvas using this idea for a friend who is retiring from teaching, and I thought this was a great quote for her next life adventure.

I built up layer upon layer of color, texture and design by using modeling paste, opaque and transparent paints, stencils and stamps. Maybe you are like me and don’t know when to stop, but I’ve learned paint can cover a multitude of things, and you can redo a layer if you need to! I change my mind a lot as I work too, and while painting the girls, I thought - hey this could be my friend and I, so I’ll make her hair pink (her fave) and mine green (my fave).

Isn’t it funny how we think we have our idea all figured out, but somewhere in our brain ideas are still working away and pop out…well, at least that seems to be how mine works, LOL!

If you would like to see the tutorial of this project, please visit me at TwoCraftingSisters.

Thanks for being our guest Maura, I love your COLORFUL design! ~Shelley