a peek of shimmer...

hi everyone!

we have had a fun weekend with our highs barely reaching 20 degrees YIKES!  my dad has been here on a surprise visit and i have been enjoying that.  he lives in utah and we rarely get an opportunity to see each other.  I got a call from my stepmom saying my dad was in miami and had just found out he had to be on the Hill next week for meetings so he was considering coming out here early straight from miami to see us for the weekend.  next thing i know UPS dropped off a giant box containing a suitcase full of suits so we figured the visit was on!  sure enough he's here!  he hung out for the day yesterday and then took us all out to dinner for Trev's birthday last night.  i officially have two children in their twenties - seems unreal to me!  how on earth did my babies get so big?  and how did i get so OLD?!??!?  having grown kids is turning out to be harder than i thought it would be.  a real struggle for me - having the benefit of past mistakes, hindsight, whatever you want to call it i have ideas of what they SHOULD do and of course they don't listen!  i am also second guessing my parenting - i should have done this differently or i could have done that differently - none of which is productive!  i am usually pretty good about leaving the past alone but this been a struggle.  like many other moments of parenthood! 

with that thought in mind i made the following journal page:

i began by covering my page in shimmering Luminarte mists - watermelon mist, lime squeeze and golden jade to be exact.  i made my own using water, Luminarte Primary Elements and Luminarte Bind & Resist powder in a mini mister of water.  however you can buy them pre-mixed as well - they are called Radiant Rain and they are luscious!

Once the page was dry I wanted to tone it down a bit so I sponged on some cream and light pink acrylic paints across the page - do this very lightly - you don't want to completely cover your shimmering base!  Next I used the same Primary Elements colors and this time I mixed them with a different medium - Clear Acrylic Glaze Medium - to make a glaze paint.  You can also buy this type of Luminarte paint pre-mixed as well - Luminarte Silks Glaze - to DIE for!  I applied my glazes with crumpled Saran Wrap across the entire page - again LIGHTLY! Once dry I stamped over the layers using brilliance ink - see all the lovely glimmers of shimmer peeking through?  notice also that the glaze resists the stamped ink and shimmers through - LOVE that!

My punched borders are a combination of glaze and mists and I misted my quote pieces as well.  By using the same three primary elements but mixing them with different mediums I created variety in the project while still maintaining some coherence.

My image is a Sherri Baldy image - i just love these little girls!  I colored her with colored pencils - learn how in my colored pencil classes on Color Me Creative!

CMC challenge with the skins!

hello all!

so what did y'all think of the skins?  anyone going to try it out?  as promised i have a little project for ya - my first one.  i am over the top in LOVE with this technique!  i did not think it would be cool at all really - but oh it is!  our challenge for Color Me Creative is to use our fave image and our fave color combo and this fits the bill with my new fave technique to boot!  and the prize up for grabs this time - 1 free class on CMC - winner can choose from either one of Suzanne's copic classes, 1 of my colored pencil classes or one of my mixed media classes!

my CMC challenge DT project is a journal page featuring the skins today:

 

the intense shimmer makes photography a little tough sometimes but LOOK at those flowers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The background is a wash of Luminarte Primary Elements too - i mixed them with a fluid glazing medium and brushed them across my background.  then i used bubble wrap and the same puddle of Primary Elements and glazing medium to stamp some messy circles here and there.  seriously y'all - the versatility of Primary Elements - can't be beat!

next i cut out my shapes - just freehand, low stress.  i adhered them to the background with gel medium.  you can see in the flower centers that when i made the skins for this piece i sprinkled micro beads on to part of it while wet.  as good as these look in the photos in real life they are phenom!  want to start your own collection of PE powders or add to what you already have then visit leslie at Dreaming In Color and tell her i sent you!

my page started with this adorable image from Sherri Baldy - i just LOVE these - i only came across them recently.  i colored her up using prisma colored pencils and gave her some added pizzazz with an orange spica glitter pen.  i am really into turquoise and terra cotta lately so she covers both my fave image and my fave color combo.

i am also entering my page in the following challenges:

• Besties - anything goes
• everybody art - girl
• card mania - girly
• crafty bloggers network - flowers

color combos are an interesting thing - one of the first rules of the color wheel is that complementary colors look good - one of those is blue and orange:

not terribly awesome...but when you sort of "grow them up" and use shades slightly off from the true blue and orange - like turquoise and terra cotta - they can really play off of each other amazingly well and give your piece alot of power and wow!

thanks so much for stopping in and seeing what i am up to - i really appreciate it!  now be sure to join in on the challenge - YOUR fave image in YOUR fave color combo - and see if you are chosen (at random) to win a free class!