A traveling journal page!

Hi all!

I have finished up the last two traveling journals I have been working on this year with a group of friends from Ireland - this means mine should be making it's return to me soon!

The focus of this journal is the color yellow.  I began similar to a previous post and used sequin waste as a stencil with a Viva Decor product called crystal gel - it is a shimmering gel with iridescent flakes in it.  I also sponged on Oyster Silks through a plant - like stencil.

Next I mixed up some shimmering mists - I prefer to make my own using Luminarte Primary Elements Artist Pigment Powders.  I like the ease of choosing my colors on a whim and the fact that is less expensive to buy the color & shimmer ONCE in the form of a powder and then use that to make a variety of different mediums.  For this piece I mmixed up a yellow of course and then I also used a blue.  You can see the way the two different stenciled designs show through by resisting the spray and making it pool around the designs.

I wanted to add a bit more to it so I took the same plant-like stencil and sponged on one of the newest Silks colors - Moss Green.  I like to mimic and repeat colors and elements to bring some of the chaos together - since I get a little chaotic - in art AND in life!  I felt like it needed a bit of a punch at the end so I grabbed my Heavy Gel Medium and some Apple Blossom Primary Elements and mixed well (see what I mean folks?  This stuff is so versatile!)  I smoothed it on through another stencil - the Harlequin - in a few spots.  The stencils I used here are from Crafter's Workshop.

Just look at that shimmer - the Apple Blossom gel medium GLOWS and the shimmering mists I used as my base just shimmer along with the Moss Green Silks plant stenciled on.  LOVE this stuff.

Stencils are one of my favorite things - I am toying with making some of my own but I am also really coveting Stencil Girl stencils right now.  I swear I could probably easily spend $100 or more!  Great stuff!  Y'all need to check them out!

Art Journal Tutorial for you!

Hi all!

It has been a whirlwind of activity around here these days!  Tuesday I had lunch with my buddy Suzanne (Scrap Bitz) and then went junk hunting around town.  I didn't find anything - I am on the hunt for old fence, old doors and a desk.  She found a couple cool things though and it was really nice to sit and catch up.  we don't get to hang out nearly as much as we did when we were running the magazine (Through the Craft Room Door.)  That morning I went to a gifted & Talented info meeting as the school is wanting to do some testing on Hollyn - I have to say I am much happier with the program in this school district than any of the ones the boys were in.  So we'll see where that leads.  Then I ended the night with a meeting for the Special Education Advisory Council - I was asked to be the rep for our school and while the meeting was interesting - we heard  our Superintendent speak and then covered the general business of the committee - I am not sure it is the right fit for me since I have had zero experience with special education other than Pezza's very minor IEP and wouldn't know the first thing about what is needed or best practices or current research.  So I may have to step down from that.  Then off to Petsmart first thing this morning for my turn taking care of the kitties the Rescue I work with has there.  Two very cute calicos greeted me today - no babies though - we are nearing the end of kitten season.  I think my day is clear tomorrow though other than a bit of house cleaning so I am really hoping to sit and sew.  What's on my sewing plate?  A purse for my step mom - got some CUTE fabrics, TWO quilts I would really like to make and Fall/Halloween table linens - so yea, I need to fit quite a few sewing days in!

But today I have art journaling for ya!  I have not been very good about reading blogs for some time now and I really miss it.  I get most of my faves in my email and every now and then I will take a minute to check one out and see what's going on - or i may see a post on Facebook and go have a look.  At this moment I have 1637 unread emails so you see what I am up against.....Anyway, I just happened to click on Tim Holtz's blog when he posted the tutorial for this month's 12 tags and I really thought it was quite good.  However, I have not purchased much of anything new in years and that includes none of the mass amount of products Tim has released.  SO I was lacking several of the thing she used but I decided I would just make do with what I had and see how it turned out.  (Frankly I have been skeptical for some time as to whether or not I REALLY need his specific brand of stuff or if I can substitute.) ONE day I will have time to do some real tests but for now here is my version broken out into steps for you.

Here is the end result in an art journal I was working in:

 And here it is step by step.

Now Tim started with embossing paste by Wendi Vechi which I don't have BUT I do have loads of other embossing stuff.  Nor do I have his stencils but they are too small for me anyway so I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil I already own and used Viva Decor Crystal Gel to emboss with.  Now right away I know this is going to react differently because I am pretty sure Wendi's paste is a matte white and the one I used was a clear gloss but whatevs - it sure is purty!  And of course it worked like a DREAM with the stencil as EVERY Viva Decor (Viva Colour) product always does.  HMMMM  not sure you can actually get this crystal gel so lemme look for a link.......YES of course Susana has it at SCACD!  So there ya go if you are wanting some.  Ok let that dry.

NEXT we take another stencil - again Crafter's Workshop - and acrylic paint - in this case I used Luminarte Silks in Ice - you can barely see it on the bottom left and upper right corners.  I just used a sponge to pounce a small bit of paint across the stencil - if you use too much paint it will seep underneath and that is no good!  Again let it dry.

NOW we want to drench it in color.  I used Luminarte Radiant Rain mists.  I began by misting the pages with water and then with Radiant Rains in Lemon Drop (old style bottle - been using this stuff for AGES), Fern, Teal Zircon and Apple Blossom - GORGEOUS!!!!  Now one real important point here - page prep.  I am not using gesso'ed pages.  If I had gesso on here it would sort of resisit the sprays and I want them to soak in so I have not "sealed" the paper with gesso.  I know there are some mixed media artists who insist you MUST MUST MUST always start with gesso - NOT the case.  It depends on what mediums (Products) you are using and the effect you want.  Now notice how we have two different effects with our two different types of stenciling - the Silks has taken on some of the color so it is a faint image and the Crystal Gel has resisted it PLUS because it is raised the color has pooled around the stenciled bits and on top.

Now we are using ANOTHER stencil and some brown Distress Ink - which I do have since it came out like a hundred years ago - all the new seasonal colors - not so much.  BUT I do have a few.  Ok now we are going to add yet another stencil layer using our brown distress ink and a foam blender - Walnut Stain and I layered it in a few areas.  Next I used a smaller design stencil - in this case very small sized sequin waste - to add yet another layer using a colored Distress Ink - Broken China here and layered yet again.  I noticed a really coll thing happens when you do this - the blue ink reacts with the brown ink and almost moves it out of the way.  It also shows up differently where it is used over the Silks image so the Silks image shows through. 

FUN stuff!  And we're still not done!

Now some stamping with Black Soot Distress Ink.  I used some stamps I carved myself - SO easy to do!  See my previous post about carving them.  I LOVE these leaves I drew so I used them.

We're ready for the final steps!  I LOVE to put quotes on my pages but you could use anything - stamped images, printed clip art, colored images...  I inked the edges and used my handy dandy edge distresser - the crazy Distrezz All or whatever it's called is too much for me :P  

Adhere them to the page and then I used a charcoal pencil to go around the edges and smeared it with a paper blending stump and my finger to really set them off.

The journal I was working in was not actually mine - it is one of the Circle Journals I am participating in.  I did two of them in this session:

I carved the stamp used on this page from a Dover Pictura image - A tutorial for that will be coming next week!  So whadda ya think?

Dance First

Hey y'all!

We are in pollen hell here in northern VA.  Despite waking up to wet and soggy mornings, by afternoon it is difficult to breathe!  Hubby and I both used to have blue cars but right now we have yellow cars.  :P  It's ridic.  And poor Pezza is an allergic stuffy sniffly disaster!  I am guessing it is all coming from the massive amounts of gorgeous flowering trees we have all over the place so I don't think I would trade it but wow.

I HAVE been getting on the treadmill.  I KNOW.  Shocks me too!  So yesterday I stepped it up a bit.  I like the rolling hills cycle so I put it to go as fast as 4 and as steep as 9.  Thought I was going to die!  OR fly off the back and get sucked underneath.  I don't think that would go as well as it does when it happens to George Jetson.....I set it for 40 minutes because that is how long it takes to watch my DVR'ed soap opera (Y&R junkie yo!)  After 5 minutes I had to slow down to 3 :(  Then it would switch inclines and go back up to 4 and try to kill me again.  In the end I could only do the speed 4 for about 2 minutes at a time before kicking it back down to 3.  Hubby suggested I not overdo it but I figure I don't have a lot of time to get a bit more weight loss in because I have a short attention span :P  I am also a HUGE fan of instant gratification.

I think I would like running outside with better scenery but first I need some sort of gadget to track it because I really NEED to see those numbers.  Calories burned and such.  How else will I know what I accomplished?????  I am also adding more water to my diet:

I wanted to drink the whole pitcher but I think to do that I would have to do NOTHING else in my day but drink water!  I managed half of it.  Plus my 2 cups of green tea - ICED.

Then last night we went out for ice cream.  DOH!!!!!  But I had decided last week I needed a waffle cone and you know what happens when I get something in my head.  I don't even LIKE waffle cones!!!!!  But I think hubby finally got tired of listening to me whine about it so off we went.  That should do me on the waffle cone front for at least another 2 years :P

Hubby is also wanting to get into the habit of a better lifestyle - he was an exercise FREAK when I met him.  I don't know HOW he ended up with my lazy butt!  haha!  Anyway, he suggested we start a blog together about it so we may do that and then I won't bore y'all with it all!  Cuz you're here for the art right???

And luckily I do have some!  Another 2 page journal piece in a circle journal I am participating in.

I swear I can't get enough of this color combo!  It's so in your face too!  I took about 37 zillion photos trying to grab the full effect of the shimmer but no dice.  Basically, anywhere that looks like it is GLOWING - that's shimmer peeps!  I began the page with gel medium and a clock pieces stencil.  Then I sprayed liberally with Luminarte Radiant Rain Shimmering Mists - LOVE that stuff!  I used Ocean Wave, Teal Zircon and Sunburst - YUMMINESS!

It settles nicely around the stenciled images and pools up and looks really cool too - see the number 2?   And the edges of the clock?  I used more bubble wrap and acrylic paint to tone down the brightness just a bit - I have some pale blue and a medium grayed out green.

My last layer was gel medium mixed with Sunburst Primary Elements Powder applied through sequin waste.  Because of the semi-transparency of the medium the layers underneath change the look of the surface.  You can see the pooling shimmery goodness on the left too!  I sure hope the journal owner likes it....

Have you tried any of the Luminarte products???

Stenciled Silks

hi folks!

last week marked a very exciting moment in my life......we got some grown up furniture in our bedroom! yep that's right.  our bedroom turned all grown up.  1. - it all matches.  2. headboard AAAANNND footboard.  3. mirror over the dresser - not completely sure i like the mirror thing but pezza on the other hand loves it.  it is directly across from the bed/stage and she prances around up there striking poses and i even caught her watching herself throwing a fit the other day when she was in trouble.  back to the bed - it is SUPER DUPER high.  like i can barely get into it high!  i am loving it!  of course after it was delivered and set up i told hubby we can't bring all our crap back in because it is so not right for the grown up furniture.  so right now it is very bare in there.  kinda like my naked mantle i have not figured out what to do with...

i have another project from class with Dion Dior today.  i have started her Silks class and playing with those.  Luminarte came out with new colors too and they are dee-LISH!  Susana has them all at SCACD and she ships super fast!

Dion included a bonus project in lesson 1 using Silks to make a modeling paste for stenciling - one of my fave things to do with stencils.  i swear it never gets old!

i began by covering my page in Harvest Sol Silks and let it dry.

 To make the modeling paste i simply added some Silks to my Liquitex extra heavy gel medium.  i began by mixing in Honey Amber and using a chicken wire stencil from crafter's workshop.  after that dried i used the large size gingko stencil and painted through it with gesso.  this lightened up the area so i could go back in with more Silks.  again i let everything dry completely.

Finally i mixed some Fern Silks into the heavy gel medium and used this wonderful bamboo stencil from Crafter's Workshop - there are lots to choose from at SCACD.  i did it over the previous stenciling designs so the fence comes through - how neat is that!  Dion is such a genius!  Summer sessions of her classes will open up so be sure and check for them!

as a result of getting the grown up furniture in our room we will be turning a spare room into an actual guest room.  up until now guests slept on the sofa bed in the basement.  at first we were going to turn trev's empty room into the guest room but i thought about it and decided it didn't make sense since we had such an amazing guest bathroom in the basement and upstairs they would have to share pezza's bathroom.  then it hit me - i also don't like my craft room in the basement because i can't send pez and her friends down there to play for fear they will get into my craft room.  so i decided i will put my craft room in trev's old room and the guest room will be down in the basement.  unfortunately this will entail moving ALL of my mountains of crafty goodness up 2 flights of stairs....yikes!  if i am not on here for awhile you know where i'll be!

a travelin' girl...

good grief!!!!!!!

did anyone miss me???  we have been on vacation - did a whirlwind tour of the south!  we hit myrtle beach for kevin's brother's wedding, pine mountain, GA, raceland, LA to see my mom, birmingham AL to see my brother, max meadow, VA and then home - all in 11 days!  fun fun fun!  i have NEVER been to any of the beaches on the east coast before - i am a west coast girl - spent my teen and young adult years on the coast just north of san diego.  of course i am also familiar with the gulf coast of louisiana as well but this was my first east coast beach trip.  i am in love!  we took the camper of course and stayed at this huge rv park RIGHT on the beach which was an amazing park.  Pezza was the flower girl in her Uncle Nate's wedding and she did a fabulous job.  the wedding was on the beach and really beautiful.  this was pezza's first beach experience and she loved it too.  she was not terribly keen on going into the water, especially since the beach was littered with jelly fish which she did NOT want to meet up with in the water.  but we did play for quite a long time in the sand.  i had now been to a beach in years and years - i forgot how much i love it.  when i lived with my dad in san diego we lived right on the beach and i went to sleep to the sound of the waves every night - forgot how nice they sound.  we will definitely be making a trip down there again next year i think!

then we loaded up and headed to my mom's - she lives just sw of new orleans.  we stopped half way to spend the night and throw pezza into the pool and onto the playground after sitting all day.  as much as she drives me nuts at home she is great on the road.  she loves seeing new things and places.  i have decided i really like this rv road tripping too.  no gas station/rest stop bathrooms.  rv parks are way better than hotels to stop in overnight and pezza can run around and play.  awesome!  i even drove it!!!!  i have come a long way from a girl who couldn't drive anything bigger than a hyundai hatchback!

we were happy to get to my mom's - hadn't been in over a year!  we brought kev's harley with us so he and i got to go riding together which hasn't happened since hollyn was born.  i set myself up in my mom's studio and did lots of artful playing which i thoroughly enjoyed and pez had her own little spot too.  here is something i did while i was down there:

i outlined first in black but then decided i liked gold better.

i painted it with twinkling H2Os and then misted more luminarte goodness through a stencil so the background wasn't so stark. 

more pics tomorrow of our trip and some other stuff i did while gone!

i am scrambling around now to get ready to teach in baltimore this weekend at the outlawz retreat - i am really looking forward to that AND to seeing my bestest crafting buddy evah - miss catherine/silly skittles! OH and most importantly - the 3 remaining kittens have survived and are now healthy and growing and doing really well!

Mixing it up with stencils this time!

hi all!

i am SO SO happy to be getting glimpses of spring here in northern VA!  yesterday pezza and i went to home depot in search of 3 pansy plants to put in the planter on our front porch and somehow came home with 3 large trees (waving hi to hubby - don't kill me).  we built our house 7 years ago and i said we should put trees in right away to they can start growing and we will eventually get some shade.  well every year we don't do it so now i look at my neighbors trees that DID go in 7 years ago and have tree envy.  oh and hubby we wanna go back for some fruit trees too but i can't get those in my truck.  i can't believe i got these 3 in my truck - it was precarious i must say.  on this same streak - after pezza got home from school we spent the entire rest of the day working in the gardens doing spring clean up.  we got a composter a couple weeks ago too so i filled that baby up yesterday and cannot wait to get my own compost out of there!  i am not overly hippy-ish but it DOES feel good to be putting all of that stuff in there plus my kitchen scraps and NOT going out and buying it.  and no my headache is not gone but i am sick of it and wanted to be out in my gardens and so i just went for it.  by the end of the day i was really hurting but i was determined :)

today pezza has an evaluation with the public school system in preparation for kindergarten.  they can help recommend what i should do with her issues as well as help navigate the public school system regarding her issues.  not sure how much it will help but i am trying everything i can make use of.  after that we are hitting my chiropractor so i am hoping he can provide some headache relief. 

i wanted to pass along something i discovered yesterday too.  i have a good friend and neighbor who is having major surgery this week and she has 3 kids pezza's age and under.  she will not only be hospitalized for at least a week but then she will be in bed for at least a month.  we all want to help her and her family and another friend set things up on a site called Lotsa Helping Hands.  what an amazing idea this website is!  it helps get everyone coordinated and scheduled with ease and tailors that help to what the person has requested they need.

so what else have i been up to (seriously right - i DO sleep....)  we have kicked off the THIRD challenge in the Mix It Up mixed media group over on Color Me Creative. this time we are using stencils!  any stencils can be used - my faves are Crafter's Workshop of course!  i have two projects done.  today i have an art journal page:

i had the background done from some playtime a couple weeks ago.  i covered part of the page with strips of book pages and then sprayed some green mist.  then i laid my stencils done and used Viva Decor modeling cream.  while it was wet i quickly sprinkled green microbeads into the modeling paste. 

once dry i doodles a bit around the shapes.  my doodling sucks but i really want to get better.  the stamped piece is done with Distress Embossing powders and a collage stamp. 

i did the lettering on my computer and printed it out.

i have several videos posted on the group showing the many ways you can use stencils.  head on over and join in!  you can make anything - tags, cards, scrapbook pages, art journal pages.  we would love to have you!

artful messes!

hi all!

i am still feeling pretty rough BUT i can say i feel better today than yesterday.  however i am still super worn out and having trouble breathing.  hubby is insisting i go to urgent care.  he doesn't trust my self-diagnosing on webMD - can't imagine why.  i love webMD - helps me figure out what's wrong AND alerts me to lots of other things i probably have but didn't even consider!  hahhahahhahhahhah!

i get a bit of energy but it wears off quickly.  which i discovered is perfect for some mixed media stuff i have been wanting to do - i am usually so impatient waiting for layers to dry but being sick i have no choice!  so pezza and i have been playing around and making HUGE messes in the studio.  messes that have even shocked her!

so today I have Flower Garden:

i really like how this one turned out but i have to admit i HATED it initially.  ever have those times when something seems so GOOD in your head but on paper well......not so much.....so i set it aside and was thinking i would trash it and then i thought hmmmmm...maybe i can save it....

SOOOOOOO i grabbed my gesso and my craft mat scraper and swiped around, rubbed off, swiped some more to tone things down.  and i liked it!  so next i pulled out my Luminarte polished pigments and mixed up a bit on my craft mat.  i LOVE pimary elements because i can custom mix it for what i am doing.  i used the medium they have for paper - it is translucent and does not dilute the color at all but the shimmer OH MY WORD!

i used some of Claudine Hellmuth's Creative Layers foam stamps for the dots in the background and the scallops along the edge.  then i painted on the stems and stamped the leaves with one of claudine's leaf stamps.  i saw claudine at cha and got a big hug and giant smile that she always has - she is SUCH a sweet person!  and her product line with ranger is amazing!  The flowers are from a recent video for FaveCrafts:

This will go into my art journal - just fun experimentation with products in a quest to find the way i want to do several canvases for my walls.

Pezza did several pieces right along with me which is one of my favorite parts of this free-er art form - she gets into it and loves it.  she picks her papers, stencils, colors, etc.  i just guide her on the techniques - like here use the gloss medium to stick your paper down...

Now while in Michaels awhile back Pezza insisted on getting some Iridescent medium by Golden so that is what she used as her topcoat.  this gives the overall piece a nice subtle shimmer.  then she laid a crafter's workshop stencil down and swiped paint on.  i urged her to do more but she says she is done.  she loves making backgrounds and foundations with me but she has alot of trouble covering them up in anyway so they are stand alone pieces for her.  i also re-did my previous idea a little different and this is what i have now - just not sure where i will be going with it next...

i have a few possibilities floating around in my head though...so we shall see.  our technique was heavily influenced by the workshop i helped in at CHA taught by Julie Fei-Fen Balzer!  she rocks!

do any of you have any of the Luminarte products?  mine are from BEFORE they closed down and then moved over to Creative Imaginations.  CI just announced at CHA that they are re-releasing the primary elements products and i also used the new luminarte Silks which i am looking forward to adding to my collection too!  i will have a really fun Luminarte project up next week using primary elements and twinkling H2Os which i will be TEACHING at a retreat in Baltimore in May!  so stay tuned for that!

cha stuff!

hi all!

cha is coming!  cha is coming!  oh it's better than christmas!!!!!!!  i love love love seeing all the friends i have made in blogland and getting together with them.  i also love seeing all of the wonderful vendors i have built friendships with too.  and of course all the new goodies coming out up close and personal!  but for those not going - most vendors/manufacturers release pictures leading up to cha so be sure to check your favorite ones and see what they have coming for you!  i have been using pinterest to keep track of some of mine - there is no way to remember it all!  you can see my pinterest board HERE to see what i like in addition to my most favorite items i am showing today.  for the first time i am NOT taking the ranger/tim holtz class *crying real tears*  just couldn't manage to get in.  even more so i wanted SO SO much to take the ranger/vintaj class - probably one of my fave new items are the collabs between vintaj and ranger and vintaj and sizzix - *swoon*

i DID manage to get into a Luminarte class - the makers of twinkling H20s that i am really looking forward to.  they have such an amazing array of shimmering products!

the other 2 classes i am taking are mixed media classes - so excited for those!  i have an online mixed media class coming this spring on Color Me Creative which i am really excited about - there will be two actually.  one will be mixed media for stampers - a basic class.  the other will be mixed media advanced and lean more towards art journaling and pieces you can hang on your wall.

and then i will also be helping in a class called collage 101 taught by julie fei-fan balzer!!!!!  SHUT UP!  i couldn't get into the class but this morning i was chatting with jaime echt of my beloved crafters workshop stencils about helping in her booth like i always do and she asked me to help in julie's class - turns out they are sponsoring it which i should have guessed considering julie designed some fabulous stencils for them that are just out now.  which brings me to my next fave cha thing - the new crafters workshop stencils - i LOVE these things.  they are so versatile!  doodling, spray mists, modeling cream, paint - you can even use them to emboss in your cuttlebug or other die cutting machine!  check out my videos showing you how:

victoria case also designed some new stencils for them - check them all out on the CWS blog!

i will also be working for the awesome diana crickin the scor pal booth all day on tuesday demo-ing the No Shims.

in addition there is some really neat stuff coming from my fave webster's pages, cool stuff from prima, and as always great new paper collections.  what else have you guys seen of the cha sneak peeks that i may have missed?  what is your fave thing so far?  who is going?  who wants to get together for dinner one night?