Artwork in the Family

Zazzle is a fantastic print-on-demand shop for anyone to upload their photos and artwork to it. Many people have uploaded their "not so famous" artwork on Zazzle. Seeing your child's artwork on these products gives your child a boost of self confidence and makes some fine looking Zazzle products too. To name a few products that these look good on are: kids t-shirts, kitchen magnets and tote bags.

What about your own drawings or paintings that only your friends and family have had the privilege of seeing?

Zazzle is the place to share to the world. And who knows, maybe you won't be "not so famous" after all.

Talented Artist

In Preschool when the other children were drawing stick figures of people, our daughter, Brittany was much more advance. We knew then that she had talent. In second grade she designed and painted a picture of an owl with a mouse in its mouth. She was upset that the watercolors bled. Even so, the school board chose to add it to their gallery. This is a privilege that only few children get. The owl artwork shown in the introduction picture was returned right before our daughter graduated from High School.

Brittany loved art and talked about becoming an artist. We encouraged her to further her talent. She even uploaded some drawings online. We lost the site that they were on. Then in Middle School, there was a conflict with her art teacher. From then on, she refused to continue with art. It was such a disappointment, because of her raw talent.

In College, Brittany needed an art credit. So she took an art class. Only two people (including her) were not Art Majors. This class involved drawing with pencil and charcoal. The final was to draw something with conflict that others can debate on. She drew a gigantic smiling teddy bear with holocaust victims lying below to the sides of the bear. (She is a bit warped like me). Even before this final project, most of her drawings were about happy characters with something morbid. She assured us that she was keeping within a theme and did not to need a therapist.

At the end of the class, the art professor gave her a compliment that her art was better than half the class. Now she regrets that she didn’t continue with art in school. If she hadn’t stopped drawing when she did, where would her artwork be today?

Brittany is One of a Kind and a Bit Strange, Weird, Off Beat...Not Sure Where She Gets That

This is a charcoal pencil drawing done by Brittany. She likes to combine cute with a little bit of disturbing. Colored background can be added and shirt types and sizes can be changed from baby to adult. This design is on several different products.

Go to Sandyspider Gift: Not So Famous Artist product line to see more.

Click on the link above to make a purchase.

Upon request, this dog drawing was modified without the hand. Now you can have it either way. This other way is cute for children's t-shirts and other gift products.

See this entire product line on Sandyspider Gift: Not So Famous Artist with the link shown above.

One of the assignments in Brittany's art class was to make a self portrait charcoal drawing.

Sandy Mertens 3DRose - See Here

Known as Sandyspider on Zazzle and CafePress. Also known as Sandyspider and ReviewsfromSandy in other HubPages accounts.

I have some cousins who are professional artists. My Aunt Alice was an art teacher in High School and ran a basement art studio. Not only was she a professional artist, she was creative in many crafts.

I love art and have always had the desire, to be one. I am as talented as my daughter or Aunt, but I am creative. I have drawn several showcase homes and can create my own sewing designs. My Halloween space outfit shown on In Case of Fire What Would We Save was my own creation. When it comes to crafts, I'm not too bad at that either.

Am I an artist? No way! But I did receive a $10 prize for drawing "Winky the Dog" for a home study art school. Along with the $10, they offered enrollment. But my parents said, "No!"

When I was 12, I sat in a class of my Aunt's. She was teaching a group of 5 to 7 year old children. The project was to create a design for our own greeting cards. I managed to make a half-way decent looking puppy with big eyes on the front of the card. My Aunt said to the group, "Look everyone isn't that a nice picture that Sandy made?" You can imagine how I felt, looking around at these gifted children with their creative designs and my pathetic puppy card in comparison.

When I was around 15, I took some lessons during the summer from a lady in our church. I didn't really learn too much other than how to draw basic shapes. Her class also included constant lecturing on how to be a good girl. I'm not sure why she felt that she needed to teach me that.

In this class, I created a comic strip. I was proud that the same characters looked liked themselves each time. The comic strip (at least I thought) was funny too.

Then I designed and painted a frog on a t-shirt. I wore this t-shirt for years until it became holey. My daughter found it when we were going through rummage sale items. She told me it was good. So I decided to put my "not so famous" frog on Zazzle.

See this entire product line on Sandyspider Gift: Not So Famous Artist shown near the top of this page with the link.

Because this came from artwork that I made on a yellow tee shirt, I kept part of the shirt outline within the frog design.

To get my frog on products I needed a camera to take the photo of the shirt and then upload the photo to the computer. If you have a photo of something that you have taken a scanner is a good electronic item to own.

Specializes in Portraits and Nature

My aunt Alice Moon is the eldest of my father's two other siblings, with my father being the middle child. Their paternal grandmother raised them from the early ages of six years old, three years old and six months old. According to the records, it seemed my father's mother died from complications of appendicitis. They only saw their father a few months out of the year, when he returned from his job on the road.

To help make ends meet, the children were sent off to family farms where they worked long hours in the summer. Aunt Alice said it was a hard childhood. Yet they were together as much as a family could be and loved each other.

Their childhood may not have been the best, but they all grew up, had careers and family.

Aunt Alice was an art teacher until she retired. She also ran art classes in her home. Moreover, she sold many of her paintings. Alice's talent includes the use of all types of media, though mainly oil paintings. Her house was full of paintings of her family and nature scenes. I am fortunate to have some of her paintings in my home.

Born in 1923, Alice stayed mentally sharp, though no longer able to paint or work on one of her many crafts because of arthritis in her hands, and diminishing eyesight.

She was very talented and a special woman, who had inspired both my daughter and me to enjoy art. Alice Moon died just short of her 90th birthday on March 21, 2012. She spent her life in service of others and volunteered to help raise funding for the American Cancer Society.

More on Alice at Long Distance Mother's Day.

Go to Sandyspider Gift: Not So Famous Artist gift line to see more.

Sandy Mertens Botanical Garden mouse pads

During the late spring, my husband and I went through our local botanical garden. Not all the flowers were in bloom. It was mainly tulips and a few other types of flowers had blossomed and showed their beauty.

I had taken many photos. Above are two of these photographs that are featured in 3DRose and Amazon on various products.

The first one is the FrogBridge. This is a little wooden bridge with metal lily pads and frogs on the railing. The second one is of the orange daylilies.

See more on Gifts and Network Directory by Sandy