Live Awake on the ColourArte blog

Hi all!
I have a piece on the ColourArte blog today!  Live Awake - with a complete step by step tutorial!  I would love if you stop by!

Altered Bluebird

Hi all!

What a month!  Is April really over?  I planned on using April to sew as I am behind on a lot of projects but I did not get as much done as I would have liked!  We found out last week we have another grandSON on the way!  He is due in September.  We are quite excited to meet him.  They live in New Hampshire so not quite as far away as Brennan who is all the way in San Diego now.  We had hoped to see Brennan this summer but that is all up in the air now.

I have a project and tutorial up on the ColourArte blog today:

We are featuring Silks Acrylic Glazes in May - love these paints!  Come check out my Altered Bluebird as well as all of the other incredible projects by my fellow DTs!

Birthday Layout

Hi all!

We are on Spring Break over here this week.  And so begins the tug of war with Pezza over how much time she will be able to spend on the computer and how much time she will spend being forced into activities that will develop her brain appropriately :P  I DID get her to spend some time in the studio painting with me yesterday and she made a great background.  She always makes great backgrounds but then she doesn't want to develop them into anything because she doesn't want to cover up the background.  But at least she's painting!

Today I have a 2 page layout to show you:

This is Pezza's 5th birthday party.  I really had fun with this layout.  I was chatting about papercrafting with my buddy Amy (the amazing talent of Pickled Paper Designs) and we were talking about how I had quit making cards and gone back to scrapping because I just did not feel like cards were a useful endeavor for me.

She was saying she has thought about going back to scrapping but after the small size and instant gratification of card making the large pages would be intimidating and I agreed.

But then I told her I had been getting really interested in the grid style of project life type layouts but instead of buying all the little card sets I could make my own and she had thought the same thing so I finally got around to doing that for this layout and I LOVED it!  SO fun!

It started with this little piece and Splitcoast Stampers.  This month has a fifth week and I am the Hostess for the 5th Week Scrapbook Challenge and my challenge is to use one of the card challenges from the month and incorporate it into a layout.  This is last week's SCS card sketch.  Everything was designed and cut with my Cricut Explore - Oh how I love doing it that way!  I know others have been doing it since the Gypsy but I guess I am slow to adapt new ways :P

I even got to color!  Pezza chose this little stamp - I pulled out a variety of cupcake stamps and of course the kitty stamp won!  I have had it forever and have no clue where it came from.  I colored it with colored pencil (I love colored pencils and gave up my Copics ages ago but boy those new Chameleon Markers sure do tempt me....)  The "icing" is Liquid Pearls and the "sprinkles" are micro beads - love me some micro beads!  I Stickled the "5th" cut and put it all together.

I even remembered to get out my embossing folders!

Another great thing about doing it this way - 6 x 6 paper pads can be used instead of needing the full 12 x 12 sheets of paper when trying to design the entire page....

These papers came from Doodlebug Designs Sugar Shoppe collection.  The stamped border is a little Studio G $1 stamp, also colored with colored pencils.

Her party request that year was rainbows and gold & silver stars so I wanted to be sure to get some gold & silver stars on the layout.  Rather than trying to dig up some gold & silver paper (which I am sure I have SOMEwhere) I just cut them from white paper and then sponged on Emperor's Gold & Silver Bells Silks Acrylic Glaze.  Perfect!

I also included lots of my glittered skittles I created back when I had my store - I still love them as the perfect little finishing touches!

Finally, the little tiny squares I alternated with bits of leftover patterned papers and tiny stamped images.  I have ALOT of different ink pads but my go to ones are the little Tsukineko Dew Drops - hands down my favorite ink pads for so many reasons.  In this particular case the tiny pointed shape makes it super easy to ink up your stamps with multiple colors.

SO what do y'all think?  Have you tried this?  I do hope you will all come join the challenge on Splitcoast Stampers - it's a great site if you don't already frequent it!  I am behind (WAY behind) on some sewing projects so I may not get anymore scrapping done in April but I plan to do more layouts like this, especially when there are a lot of pictures.

Caffeine!!!!

Hi all!

I bet some of you are feeling the first hints (or more) of Spring in the air!  Pezza has been getting quite a bit of outdoor playtime which I am happy about.  We have even fired up the grill a couple times.

My little grandson turned 3 months this weekend - I don't know if I posted it here or not but a few weeks ago his daddy (my son) took off for San Diego with Brennan and Jess quite suddenly.  Just about broke my heart in a million pieces and Pezza and Kevin's too.  We have slowly been adjusting to it but I sure don't like it one bit.  So now both boys live far away :(  Not ideal but they can't stay home forever I suppose.

I have been occupying myself with some studio time to take my mind off it and I am super pleased with the piece I have for you today!  This has been rattling around in my head for several years now and to be honest, having the Cricut Explore to custom cut my chipboard pieces for it really got me itching to get it out of my head and onto a board!  The huge mug and giant steam swirls are cut from an old cereal box using my Cricut Explore - amazing!  I love it!  This box was a little sturdier than the usual smaller boxes so I just had to choose the heavier cardstock setting when I cut it.  Simple!  Even the thin ends of the swirls!  The whole piece measures 12" x 10" and is done on a piece of MDF.

It is near impossible to show you the full extent of the shimmer and dimension of this piece but I will try!

I have been doing mixed media pieces for several years now and I have tried to experiment and stretch myself quite a bit when working on my backgrounds but I was beginning to feel unhappy and frustrated with my work so I thought I would go back to the beginning and do it the way I did initially.  I enjoyed it a lot more and am very pleased with the result.

Here is a close up of a portion of it - the background began with several rectangles of patterned paper from a very old paper pad I found in my stash.  I used a sponge to dab on Buff Acrylic Paint and then went over it again with Nutmeg ColourArte Silks.  Once dry I layered on several more colors of Silks - Carribean Mist, Moss Green and more Nutmeg as well as a darker brown Acrylic craft paint by dry brushing and using my fingers.  You can also see the hints of purple in the upper right corner of the picture above - I sponged on a bit of Wisteria Silks through sequin waste.  I had added it to the coffee mug and needed to also incorporate it into the background for cohesiveness.  The parts of the background that look like they are glowing are a result of the magic that is Silks Acrylic Glazes!

I needed to add a hint of texture so I used a stencil and some of the amazing new Radiant Gel in Autumn Leaf.  It is the same thing I used for the coffee in the mug.  Just look at that crispness - never gets old!  Not ever and now with the Radiant Gels it is so easy to achieve this look.

Here is a better look at the mug and the coffee.  The little white foam swirl was one of the layers of this coffee cup and I embedded it right into the Radiant Gel while it was wet.

But let's talk about the MUG!  This is probably one of my favorite techniques of all time and I just knew it would be perfect for a mug.  It's a little messy but SO worth it!

You need to start with a fairly sturdy piece of chipboard for your base.  Paint the chipboard with Silks- I used Carribean Mist - a medium to dark color works best.  Next I coated it with Versamark and then several layers of UTEE - Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, melting them each and adding more UTEE until I have a nice thick coat.  Gather several colors of Primary Elements at the ready.  Now smoosh it down really good into a Versamark pad so the surface is good and sticky.  Take a small soft brush and dip it into the Primary Elements powder and brush it onto the sticky surface of your piece.  Repeat this in a random way around the surface of your piece.  DON'T cover the piece completely.  It is ok if some of the colors mix and overlap.  Once you are happy with the placement of the powders get some clear embossing powder and have it ready.  Heat the piece up again until it is melty.  Now quickly sprinkle the embossing powder into the powder areas and melt it.  It will "fall through" the powder and create a sort of crackled webby look.  Repeat this process until you are satisfied.  The powders will sort of "float around" in the clear coating of UTEE.  When hubby came in and saw it he said it looked like a real ceramic coffee mug!

And now the swirls of steam!  I mixed up a glorious batch of shimmering gel using regular gel medium, clear micro beads and Primary Elements powders in Oyster and a touch of Mocha Rose.  I painted the swirls white and then piled on the shimmery gel.  Then I embedded some coffee themed buttons and charms along with a few beads and a sprinkling of Gala Glitz which is a mixture of microbeads, shards of glass glitter and glitter.  I added a bit of the mixture here and there to the background as well....

As for the saying, everyone who knows me knows I drink coffee ALL the time.  Like all the time.  I do believe "With enough caffeine...Anything is possible!"

Be Accountable (mixed media art journal)

Hi all!

Holy snow days batman!  Pezza is finally back in school today.  I love her to pieces and we have had fun but I am glad to get back to my regular routine.  I do not get much of anything useful done while she is at home.  In fact it is the opposite of useful :P  Yesterday we had a little Minecraft Bingo party with some of her (and my) closest friends:

The kids had lots of fun!  We had little Minecraft figures for prizes.

I HAVE managed to get a bit of time in my studio.  The Mixability Mixed Media challenge last Friday was Static Electricity.  Not only did I decide to participate in the challenge and do a journal page I thought I would do a video for it too!  So if you are interested, it will appear in 2 parts at the end of this post.  I hope to do more so if you want to see them be sure and subscribe to my new youtube channel (my old one is wonderful BUT I have been locked out of it and still can't get access - BOO!)

"Let go of blaming anyone for anything, BE ACCOUNTABLE for your own life."

I think that quote is a great reminder.  It is something I have worked hard to keep in mind all of my adult life.  It was critically important to my recovery from drugs & alcohol.

This project uses a new product from ColourArte (my favorite mixed media line) called Radiant Gels.  You can see in the picture above the gorgeous shimmering textural look when I used the Radiant Gels with a stencil.  The gels are smooth and thick and buttery and the color and shimmer is amazing!  You can get them in 12 sumptuous colors!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

• Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Something New for the New Year
• Splitcoast Stampers - Static Electricity

Let me know what you think of the videos.  I am working on trying to improve my lighting somehow....