i have been super busy around here but with stuff i can't tell/show yet SO that leads to a serious lack of blog postings!!!
it's also summer time/pezza is home ALL day EVERY day with mommy time which leads to alot less work time for mommy :) we spent yesterday morning watching the olympic gymnast trials - i took gymnastics as a kid but not the train for competition kind. our elementary pe coach owned a gymnastics training gym and he did a serious gymnastics course every year at school which i LOVED. he was forever trying to get me into his team at the gym but i was not allowed to take classes full time. however i DO love to watch it! and pezza did too. she spent the rest of the day dancing and rolling and flipping across the house and we now have a makeshift duct tape balance beam across the living room floor. she is going to start classes in the fall.
we have had unbearable heat and humidity here which makes it tough to get out and do much. even the pool sounds bad :P but we may venture out to swim today. i am hoping the crowds won't make it unbearable!
i have been doing a lot of filming lately and of course pezza wanted to get in on it too so i am posting her latest video for y'all. she has a couple good lines in this one :)
this is a no big plans weekend for us. which really just means we aren't going out of town but i don't think we ever have nothing to do on the weekends! Today we are going to my newlywed brother in laws for an open house type party AND my poor broke little son is coming over to help me with some stuff here to earn some money. Tops on the agenda - moving my entire studio up TWO flights of stairs ACK! i sure hope i like the new arrangement! i am also going to use his brute strength to help me with some things in the yard.
My tiny babies came home yesterday from getting fixed and guess what - poor little taffy has pneumonia AGAIN. Sweet little thing just wanted me to hold and cuddle her when she got home. she has a little swelling at the incision too. the other two are doing well. especially the boy - he is completely unphased as surgery for the males is so minor in comparison to the females. so i have to pick up a nebulizer for taffy and give her more antibiotics.
as i was thinking about sitting down to write todays post i thought i should start by apologizing - i think i have some sort of split crafting personality disorder or maybe crafting multiple personality disorder. i probably have a hard time keeping followers because no one knows what i might post next from traditional papercrafting to crazy mixed media stuff to jewelry to crochet to cake making YIKES! i am a bit of a mess!
so today we are taking a break from crazy mixed media adventures for some traditional scrapbooking. i am SOOOO far behind! i do videos for FaveCrafts and have a slew of them lined up and this is the first installment of my most recent list.
i ALWAYS use sketches when i scrapbook. ALWAYS. i love them! i love them for two main reasons - without them i would spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to lay out my pages and all of my pages would end up looking the same. this layout uses a sketch from Page Maps - my all time fave place for sketches.
i used my Cricut machine for the diecuts - a bit of a frustrating experience after using my Black Cat cutter so much but alas the blade is dull and so i switched to the cricut. i DO love the cuts i can make but i have gotten use to doing ALL of the designing and sizing on my computer and then just cutting all at once. i could do that on my cricut IF i could ever figure out how to get the cricut craft room to work! i have yet to get it to communicate with either of my machines and customer service has not been much help :( BUT now that i have a new computer i may re-visit and try to get it to work because i really like all of the cartridges i have!
i jazzed up my die cuts by inking the edges and adding stickles and ice stickles!
i loves buttons!!!!
i didn't have as many pictures as the sketch called for so i added a stamped image - this is an ANCIENT stamping bella stamp i colored with my colored pencils. how i love my colored pencils!
my video shows how you can take a sketch, interpret it and make it your own - hope you like it!
i am SOOO excited! because today is the second day i have not had a headache! pain free all day yesterday! woohoo! even dragged myself downstairs to work out again with hubby (hating every minute of it but something has got to be done...) one thing we did that i believe has helped tremendously is set up a better work space for me and my laptop. i still need something to set the laptop up on to lift it more to eye level but i found the perfect thing at amazon. also got a separate mouse and keyboard and am sitting in a more comfortable chair.
hubby was nice enough to let me take the day off yesterday - meaning he was on the frontlines with little miss insanity including taking her to a birthday party. it was my last taste of freedom for awhile :P he will be at a porsche something or other most of today, working all day monday and then out of town again for the rest of the week. pezza has been back on good behavior after the unfortunate biting incident at school and subsequent insane temper tantrum.
so what do i have for ya today? luscious luminarte again! my friend susana has brought the Silks and the Primary Elements artist pigments in to her store, SCACD, and she asked me to do a couple videos for her. these are incredible for making gorgeous backgrounds like i did for this card:
i also used some on the chipboard flower - SCACD has some awesome chipboard shapes to choose from! the sheet music stamp is also available at SCACD.
mmmmmmmmm shimmery! the adorable image is a SCACD exclusive by Sylvia Zet - Veritas. Love those sylvia zet images! She is colored with colored pencils of course!
here are a few of my favorite pieces from the videos:
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!
boy oh boy have i got a packed schedule getting myself together for cha - i leave friday morning! monday pezza and i went out for big girls day out - i needed to get my hair done (buh bye gray roots) and she was off from school so they said to bring her along. we started at starbucks and sat by the fireplace with a little snack. of course she insisted she needed her hair done too and luckily they weren't busy so the girl really laid it on for her. her fave part is the "hair bath" which she giggles hysterically through. then i couldn't see her while they were doing her hair but it seemed to take a long time. well when she rounded the corner back to where i was she was not only trimmed up but blow dried AND CURLED - hot stuff i must say! oh was she pleased with herself. she colored for awhile but then got bored and started wandering until my girl came up with an idea and suggested she fold the load of towels they had just washed. well she was all over that and did great. charmed everyone in the place of course as she can be really good at that when she wants to. next we hit famous footwear - i found nothing but she ended up with tennies and boots both on clearance - sweet! then met with trev for lunch at cici's - he is struggling, trying to change jobs and general eye-opening this is life and roommates suck kind of stuff. but he is doing well and such an awesome kid! next we headed to the bare minerals store in the mall where i got a few new eyeshadows and pezza dipped her finger in all the samples and colored her hand like a rainbow. then she asked the salesgirl if she had any lipstick because she explained - her chap stick at home had no color. so the sales girl put on some lipstick and boy was pezza thrilled.
i have a pretty packed schedule - saturday morning is business seminars and then i am meeting up with a super talented long time friend and ex DT for me - sandy dunne coming all the way from ireland - i cannot WAIT to meet her! i think we may go to suzanne's copic class to heckle from the back of the room. saturday night is a mixed media workshop with basically bare albums. i am also taking another mixed media workshop and a workshop with luminarte - YAY! the MOST exciting thing is that i am helping out for crafters workshop stencils as usual and i just found out i will be helping in a workshop they are doing with julie fei-fen balzer - SHUT UP! i LOVE her stuff and her style and cannot wait - it is called collage 101 and i am betting i will be picking up some great info as i help her out! all of this will be perfect timing because i am heading up a brand new challenge group over on Color Me Creative!
This is FREE to join - not a paid class (that will be launching in early spring!) we will have a new challenge every 2 weeks as well as lots of opportunity to chat about tips and tricks, ideas, tutorials and maybe even some prizes from time to time! we will have a kick off party on the main page of color me creative on feb 8th! but head over NOW and join the group!
finally i DO have a project and video tutorial for ya today! speaking of mixed media -
yep mixed media is as simple as just using a variety of mediums when you create - so here i have created a shimmering background with perfect pearls and stamps. here is a video showing how i did it:
{hubby is making fun of me right now because i am apparently typing with much determination over here...}
next i stamped my main image with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. after melting it i painted over the image with twinkling h2os.
this was a fun card to make and pezza and i made quite a mess creating with our different supplies. i like art best when it is free and fun and MESSY!
so head on over to the group and join me - even if you have never done mixed media stuff before!
super quick post for ya - i have a video tutorial to share - my friend susana at SCACD has the fun pebbles shimmery chalk sets in stock. these are versatile and fun to play with! in addition SCACD also just released a set of cute fairies by carmen medlin - check them out:
and here is the video for ya on the chalks!
let me know how you like it and if you have any questions! tune in tomorrow for some cha thoughts/news.
