Let's Face it ...

Can I tell you ... I'm very glad to have some down time from work over the next few days. I generally am OK with my job - I've been an Ultrasound Tech for 23 years. I am a bit burnt out with it which happens easily in the medical field. Most days I'm ok - I put my time in and then enjoy my time after work. Some days, as with any job, it it's extremely frustrating. Yesterday was one of those days! Luckily I have a great support team - on the home front and on the friends front! I'm also thankful for my furry friends - even when they puke on the wall-to-wall carpeting and miss the litter box!

I'm most thankful for my creative hobby - without which I'd lose it more often! The creative outlet is so wonderful and relaxing and just plain FUN! This past weekend I took a class with a friend offered by one of my favorite mixed media artists Dina Wakley! This is my second class with her and definitely not the last! We learned the fundamentals of drawing faces - a plunge I've been wanting to take for quite some time! We started by quickly drawing a face on our own and then applied fundamental techniques. The contrast from the first to the last face was AMAZING!! I have shared several pics already on Instagram/Facebook and I'm eager to keep practicing. Here's my first face. We were asked to quickly draw a face in 30 seconds... (I'm actually surprised I'm sharing this one LOL!!)

 

 

Then we learned fundamentals of drawing face ...

 

 

...she's still a bit creepy but already a HUGE improvement ...

Then we played with Dina's paints, some stamps and stencils and created backgrounds. We added faces to the painted backgrounds which created a very cool effect.

 

 

The face above was drawn with a palette knife and India Ink. Then we painted in one of the faces by creating our own "foundation" ... she ended up being my favorite of the day.

 

 

Speaking of favorites, this is my fav photo of Dina - so cute and it shows her incredible talent which comes effortlessly to her!!

 

 

Thanks again Dina for an amazing class! I learned so much and I'm off to pins some references!!! See you soon with a new mixed media layout!

Summer Classes

Happy Sunday! I'm in class mode now - both teaching and taking! The best part of this is ... NO TESTS ... just FUN!

Today I'm teaching a Technique Tags class at Right at Home Scrapbooking. If you're in the area, stop by and join us. Click on the link above for details.

Next Saturday August 24th at 1:00pm I will be teaching an Art Journal Class and here's a peek at what we'll be creating ...

We'll being using Ranger's Distress Paints to create this page on watercolor paper! It's fun,easy and a bit messy! Come join us - it's a great way to get started with art journaling.

I finished some Beachy ATC's last night for my ATC Swap next Sunday - pics coming soon!! I'm also taking a project life class this Thursday and looking forward to getting started. I've done some homework - getting ideas from pinterest, bought an album and page protectors. Now to get started .... so happy to have this class to get the ball rolling!!

Well, off to teach. Enjoy your Sunday and I'll be back soon!

 

An Arty Weekend!!

This has been a busy week... work has been busy and it has been an even busier crafty week as well.

Thursday night I was part of a F U N class with Dina Wakley as she guided us through her process of creating silhouettes - one of my new art addictions! We created several pages and a mini book. I posted my pages on FB today and the colors are gorgeous! My creative journay with the lovely Dina continues tomorrow with an all day class and more techniques - I will post pics tomorrow!!! I now have great ideas for some of the background pages in my art journals waiting to be completed!!

I am also teaching my first art journal class this Sunday May 19th at my LSS Right at Home Scrapbooking and we should have fun gettin' quite inky!! Looking forward to it!! After teaching, I have an ATC class where our theme is our FAV movie and I'll share what I created.

I am also lucky to have a layout featured in this month's Scrapbooking and Beyond magazine featuring my favorite layout from CHA Winter 2013 using Christine Adolph's "Cherish" collection. Here's the layout ...

Well, I'm off to pack up for tomorrow's arty class with Dina and I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

 

 

Happy Sunday and an Art Journal Page

Happy Sunday!! After a busy work week and a fun but busy day with my parents yesterday I have a bit of down time today to catch up. I also have an ATC class this afternoon at Right at Home Scrapbooking and our theme is our favorite color. I will post my ATC here on my blog tomorrow. I can wait to see what everyone has created!!

I created an art journal page for Splash of Color and I can reveal it today! This is one of my favorite pages lately - it used alot of the Silks Acrylic Glazes which are acrylic paints with AMAZING shimmer effects. Here's my page and a few close-ups. There are more details on how I created the page on the Splash of Color blog ...

 

 Well, I'm off to putter around the house and my craft room until my class. Hope you have a great Sunday and I'll return tomorrow with my ATC card!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Post Holiday Reality ...

Hello to all and I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I spent the holiday with my family and all the dogs and ALL the food! It was lovely! I was also able to spend time with my favorite 7 year old - he always makes me smile and laugh! Sunday I taught a tags class at Right at Home Scrapbooking . Then ... back to reality on Monday. Luckily my last two days weren't too hectic making re-entry reasonable.

I created an art journal page for the monthly art journal feature over at Creative Imaginations. This page is a bit different - using one of my FAV CI stencils as the feature and lots of Luminarte. Here's the page and for details and close-ups check out the blog >>HERE<<

Have a great week and if you're in the area stop by Right at Home for some fun, festive Holiday activities!! I'll be teaching the second in a series of 10x10 deep edged seasonal canvases Sunday, here's a peek ...

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Art Journal Junkie

I admit it ... I'm an addict ... I can't get enough of playing in my art journals. I wanted to share my recent journal pages. I created some additional backgrounds while I was creating my last page - so i had a great head start! The left side was created by placing a stencil over my sprayed background and then I scraped modeling paste over it.

 Once dry, I applied white paint over the words with a brayer to make them stand out more.

 The right side is a combination of a magazine image that I fell in love with, Luminarte Paints, stamps, rubons, etc ...

Here's the pages together ...

The "believe" stamp is from Dyan Reaveley and the sentiment is one I'm trying to embrace in my own work.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Artful Journey

Hello bloggers! Happy Tuesday to you all!

I wanted to share an art journal page I created for our monthly feature over at Creative Imaginations. I am so in love with the journey of art journaling - I can't wait to see how mists work together and how mixed media products act on different papers ... it's amazing to see a blank page turn into something that you had no idea what direction it was going! I used a magazine image from Vogue for this page - I love the deep, dark colors of the image and matched some Luminarte Shimmering Mists and other products and ended up with this ...

 I have posted some details over on the CI Blog and some close-ups if you'd like to take a peek! Thaks for stopping by and have a great week!!

A project to share...

Happy Tuesday! I'm trying to get back in the work groove ... when is the next Holiday? LOL!!

I wanted to let you know about a new monthly feature over on the Creative Imaginations Blog! It's called "An Artful Journey" by yours truly!! Each month myself and the team will create art journal pages using all kinds of mixed media including stencils, Luminarte and ... imagination! No rules - just creative, messy art! Here's my page for the month ...

This was so much fun to create! I have included details on the CI blog! I've got my thinking cap on for next month - we will try to include a special twist each month!! Thanks for stopping by and have a good week!!

 

Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Blog Hop!!

Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft designers have teamed up for a fabulous blog hop from August 27-31st! Hop with us today for craft ideas, inspiration and tutorials!

 

 
Don’t forget to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win! Creative Imaginations and Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft will each be giving away a $50 prize pack! The blog hop will end at midnight on August 31st. The two winners will be announced on the companies blogs on September 4th.

Here's a sneak peek of my project which includes a tutorial and is featured on the Creative Imaginations Blog TODAY!!

 

Where to join the fun?

Next Stop on the Hop: Mou Saha: Click HERE

Here's the full hop list:

START AT:  Faber-Castell   

Tanisha Long      

Rita Barakat    

Shelley Hamilton

Jill Foster      

Lynne Forsythe

Tiffany Johnson  

Alicia Giess    

Jen Matott  

Donna Bryant 

Colleen McGinty

Lynn Kopas   ***YOU ARE HERE***

Mou Saha  

Jules Eickmeier

END AT: Creative Imaginations    

 

Have FUN!!

Artful Thursday

I'm very excited to be working with Kristine Davidson in updating the look of my blog!! She is being quite patient with me as we tweek and change the layout! I am so overdo for a bloglift and I think you will LOVE it ... it's very ME of late ...

So while Kristine is tweeking and working her magic I wanted to share my latest art journal pages using more super fun Dylusions products! I definitely love this color palette and the stamps, stencils and sprays are addicting! Even spiders are fun ....

Here's a close-up of the spiders ... aren't they cute ?!?!?

Hope you are all having a lovely day and stay tuned for the new blog reveal ... Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

Beating the heat with Studio Time

It's been so hot and I have no immediate access to a pool or the beach so I've been in my studio most of the weekend! That's good and bad - good for creating, bad for the tan!

I've been working in several art journals lately and I'm still favoring the Strathmore thus far. Here's a background page using an 8.5 x 11 Canson Wirebound Sketchbook I purchased at Michael's which is ok - but the paper is on the thin side, so not the best for really wet media! I'm liking 90lb. weight or more for wet media projects. Another option is to double or triple up on the lighter weight pages - glue them together - to get a sturdier page. Anyway, here's a background using a bleaching technique I learned from the FAB Dyan Reaveley ...

Not sure where this page will go but it's ready when I am!! Thanks for stopping by and stay cool!!

 

Lovin' Art

So, my latest passion is art journaling ... I've been experimenting with different types of journals and so far I LOVE the Strathmore Mixed Media. The 5.5 x 8.5 is ideal to start as the size isn't overwhelming to fill - I do have a 8.5 x 11 but I've completed more pages in the smaller journal. This is also a great size to bring to crops. I tried Moleskin Sketch Journals but they didn't hold up to the wet media in my humble opinion - they are great books, just not as good for really wet media (just my opinion). I recently purchased a Moleskin Watercolor Journal which I haven't tried yet. Since I'm a huge Dyan Revealey fanatic I'm sure I'll be checking out her new art journal when it hits the stores!!!

So, I continued in my Strathmore yesterday and came up with these pages. I had absolutely NO idea where these pages were going ... I used several Creative Imaginations Existencils ... especially loving the angel wings in the background. I also used Dyan's Dylusions stamps and inks - so loving the inks in the water brushes - so flippin'convenient!!!!! Anyway, I found the quote for the pages AFTER I completed the pages ... that was so cool ...

For the sun I used a CI stencil and mixed modeling paste with Luminarte Silks Acrylic Glaze and scraped it over the stencil - I then toned it down with a light coat of gesso ...

 Thanks for stopping by! BTW - three days of posting in a row!! Just sayin'....  :)

More projects to share ...

OMG ... TWO days in a row ...  I'm trying to dust off the blog and get back into regular posting!

First, a few more projects for Creative Imaginations for CHA Summer 2012. The layouts below were created with IOD's Rejoice collection! As soon as I saw the sneak peeks from CI, I HAD to use this collection. The frist layout I kept kinda simple to highlight the adorable photo taken by my great photographer friend Heather Chick.

I didn't even distress or ink on this layout - just clean and simple but still layers on layers and lace and twine for some texture - and a popped up banner ...

My second layout is a bit more detailed with alot of fussy cutting to create a dimensional frame around the page. I took full advantage of all the great diecut shapes and stickers that coordinate with this gorgeous, vintagey collection.

I did distress and ink and added some fun Petaloo flowers and more doilies and a few extra angels for good measure.

My final project to share is another art journal page I finished last night. The  background of this page is a culmination of "leftovers" from prior projects - a cleaning of a stamp, left over modeling paste on a stencil that was too good to waste, inks from other stencils, etc. The background was so bold that I off-set it with a white flower created with gesso on a foam stamp. The words are very meaningful to me now as I'm trying out new mediums, journals, and just about anything new to me! Here's the page and thanks for stopping by ...