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!

Mixed Media for kids!

Hi all!

Happy Monday - BLAH!  Though I DO like the time change.  I operate better with this time schedule.  Pezza has today and tomorrow off so the teachers can have parent conferences.  Parenting has not been stellar this weekend either let me tell ya.  MAN this shit's hard!  And grown kids are not easier sometimes.  Harder in some ways.  It is hard to let them "write their own stories" when I have the benefit of so much hindsight.  But then I sure didn't listen to a thing my parents said either - honestly, I still don't so there ya go!  Yesterday I liked 1 out of 3 kids :P  hahha!  Today Pezza is off of school - teacher work days today and tomorrow.  We went out and ran errands together and she was perfectly enjoyable.  However I remember why I don't take her on errands - every place we went I needed 1-2 things and she got 8 or 10 :P

I caved and decided to teach my kids' mixed media class after school again at Pezza's school.  This time I left out the Kindergartners.  I had a couple repeat students and lots of new ones!  11 kids total!  I came up with 3 projects again but this time very different ones.  Our last class is this week and pretty much all of my creative time has been spent on prep for the classes each week.  Last week they finished one of their projects so I thought I would share it with y'all.  Here is my prototype/sample:

 Each student decorated their initial! 

We started with big wooden initials and they put crumpled tissue paper on with Mod Podge.  Then I gave them a variety of chipboard items to glue on plus a big cardboard shape.  I had some pre-cut chipboard pieces plus some pieces I cut myself from cereal boxes using sizzix dies.  I showed them how to peel off the top layer of cardboard to reveal the stripe-y texture underneath

Next they painted them one solid color - complete coverage.  Then I brought in my Viva Colour Inka Gold and let them each choose a color and showed them how to spread it on thinly with their finger tips to reveal the texture and detail of all the things they glued onto the letters.

For the final layer I brought in a great mix of beads, sequins and glitter.  I went with clear and white so it matched with all of them as I had limited funds to spend and couldn't get a different mix for each and estimate how much was needed, etc.

Again they used Mod Podge and added the bead mix however they wanted - some were more free-wheeling like I did with mine and others were more controlled.  The Mod Podge is still wet in these pics so it looks white but of course will dry clear!

I think all the kids did such a great job!  They really seemed to enjoy the work and were pleased with their projects.

I had two boys in my class and the boys are a bit more challenging.  Girls are easy - it's all hearts, flowers, glitter and bling.  So for the boys I had brought in gear shapes and stars.  Then instead of beads, sequins and glitter they got crushed shells and sand from my trip to Myrtle Beach - they were quite pleased!  This week however will be another challenge.  We are finishing little boxes.  The girls will be gluing jewels to the tops of theirs.  What on earth can I give the boys??????

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?

cats - man's best friend!

hello!

Have you been to the coloring challenge over on Color Me Creative this week?  Suzanne has challenged us to color texture - like fur, wood, dirt.  I will admit it is not one of my strong suits but I gave it a shot with an adorable kitty (of course) in my art journal:

 I am working again in my new Stillman & Birn journal - it did NOT disappoint!  This thing is AMAZING!

The loads of shimmer are from Luminarte paints of course - Silks actually.  To get them to move and blend I misted my page with water first and then loaded on the Silks - NO problem for this journal!

Next I added some texture using Viva Decor crystal gel and a Crafter's Workshop stencil - more wet media and still no buckling and warping.  AND it was easier to do this than it is on other journal papers because despite the wet Silks the paper was still laying flat!

Once dry I sponged over everything with more Silks in Gold.  It has been overcast here and I have had a terrible time capturing the Luminarte sparkle for you!  In addition the Crystal Gel also has sparkle - love that stuff!  I added some finishing touches with a black pen and a gold Viva Decor Paper Pen.

My little image is from Stamp Fairy.  Stamp Fairy is also the sponsor for the CMC challenge so join in and you might win a $10 gift certificate for some of their cute images!

I have been working in the Stillman & Birn BETA series wirebound journal which is the best one for working with wet media.  They have 5 different Series or types of books in both wire bound and hardbound as well as various sizes.  In addition, a Zeta series will be released this month which will be even better for the wet media techniques I love.  If you want to learn more about them and decide which one(s) are right for you check out all the info on their website - Stillman & Birn.  I also have a Gamma Series hardbound book which is wonderful for sketching and drawing.  I don't actually work for them!  My brother caught a demo of them in his local art store and encouraged me to try them out and he was right about them - I have been hooked ever since!  You can find them in your local art stores OR if you are like me and have no art store for hundreds of miles you can order them online at Dick Blick!

I Brake for Leaf Flourishes!

hello all! 

my post will be quick as I have a date with my pantry - it is in desperate need of an emptying out and re-orginization!  fun and exciting life that i lead....

i have an art journal page to share with you today and it is in my brand spankin' new Stillman & Birn Beta Series journal - wowza!!!  BEST journal i have come across yet for handling loads of wetness - JUST what i needed!  the best part - they are releasing a Zeta Series which will be even better later this month!  i have done several pages in this journal over the last couple days and i am just stunned how different it is than any of the other ones i have.  grnated all my other ones came from Michaels but they SAID mixed media on them.  these pages don't bulk or warp or seep.  LOVE IT!

that being said - here is my first page:

I took a bit of a different approach with my background and began with black gesso instead of white.  Starting with a black base will give your paints and anything you put on it a very different look.

I sponged across the black with Luminarte Silks in pink and coral.  Next I stamped the Leaf Flourish LG image onto a white gesso page using the same pink Luminarte Silk paint.  I cut it into 1.5" squares.

Next I stamped the Leaf Flourish LG and the Leaf Flourish XLG using white chalk ink.  I finished the page off with a saying.  then i added a stenciled key using viva decor crystal gel and some viva decor gel pen dots. 

The detail and fanciful look of these two flourishes are just fantastic!  What would YOU create with them???  Grab them both and get 10% off with my code SAVE10MARTI!

christmas cards...CHECK!

hi all!

pezza's party was super cute yesterday.  her teacher is really good and those kids are perfectly behaved in there!  i guess that is sort of a must if you teach right?  which is why i don't teach hahahah!  i also put some more faces witth the names i hear her talk about.  one little boy i was especially curious about, ernest.  she has a love-hate going on with him.  initially she adored him but as the year has gone on she sometimes she says she doesn't like him.  the reason?  he talks alot - meaning she can't be the one doing all the talking!  cuz if anyone talks alot it's HER!  hahhahha!  so she may have met her match in little ernest!

i am happy to say i got christmas cards done and mailed out this year!  yay!  i did something a little different though. First i made three large paintings for my mantle:

then i photographed them, edited and jazzed them up a bit in photoshop and printed them out onto cards - here are the two card fronts:

 

i got an Avery pack of notecards and envelopes - like labels - so all i needed to do was pull up the right template number in word to position the images correctly.  then i printed a saying and our signatures on the inside.  i love how they turned out!  however next year i think i may start earlier (bwa hahahahaha!!!) so that once printed i can add some more artistic touches to each individual card.  OH and if you are wondering how i did the fancy edges it is easy - clipping masks.  you can get them in any digi store online.  one of my favorites is Scrap Girls - loads of goodies plus extremely good tutorials on how to use the goodies!  here i used their Grungy Stencils.

as for the paintings themselves - i started with MDF like always - sizes are 18x12, 15x9, & 12x12.

i taped of the squares and painted them with Luminarte Primary Elements mixed with a glazing medium - gorgeous shimmering amazing paint!

once dry i sponged on some white across the entire piece

Next i saran wrapped on some gold acrylic paint across the entire thing

time for ornaments!  i drew them out and cut them from sturdy posterboard. 

i covered them with wrinkly tissue paper, fancy trims and even spirals of gardening twine and let it all dry completely

I painted them using more Primary Elements and glazing medium paints.  To bring out the beautiful textures i rubbed the surfaces very lightly with Viva Decor Inka Gold.  a great big florist bow on top finished them off!

and now i am off to do the last bit of prep work for my last kids mixed media class today.  they will be bringing home their three final boards - i sure hope the parents like them!

ready for a holiday bash???

hi all!!!

it's party time on Color Me Creative!!!

The month long holiday bash is kicking off with a fun blog hop!  you should have arrived here from my sweet friend Anary's blog.  if you are stumbling into the hop on accident be sure to keep hopping until the end and then head to Suzanne's blog (the start) so you don't miss any fab projects! Suzanne has challenged us to use our coloring talents to color metallics!

i made mine an art journal page of course!  the background is my fave super textured technique using tissue paper, colored mists and viva decor inka gold.  and this time i did my lettering by hand instead of on the computer - yay!  i am intimidated by my own handwriting but this one was kinda fun!

i LOVE this jingle bell image from meljen - i have had it for several years and use it every year.  you can learn how to color metallics with your colored pencils and lots of other techniques in my Prisma Pencil classes on Color Me Creative!

so what is this holiday bash all about?  here is what Suzanne has to say:

Starting December 7th the CMC Classroom will have its annual month-long Holiday Bash Celebration! Nothing more fun then having some fun challenges, games and prizes to start the season off right!? I hope you will find time to stop in and look around, join in and just have some fun. The Holiday Bash is really my way of THANKING ALL OF YOU for your continued support, friendship and patronage to the Classroom. So a lot of fun and a way to WIN SOME HUGE prizes from our sponsor!

Details:

*Starts Dec. 7th with a Holiday Blog Hop featuring projects by the CMC DT to kick off the month-long CMC Challenge!! And another way for you to win if you hop along!

*Every week will be a NEW Challenge and Prize...think scavenger hunts, puzzles, games!

*Charity Raffle - I'm giving away a NEW Silhouette Cameo machine to a lucky someone! How can you win it? Everytime you participate in a challenge during the month you get an entry for it. Also for every $3 you donate to the Charity (TBA) you get an entry. Every year I pick a different Charity to help...so far we've raised $3200 over the years..and to me the season is all about GIVING so that's why I always include this.

so go to the Holiday Bash and have some fun!  but first check out what the rest of my DT sisters have done - head to Mel's blog next

art journalabella & tutorial

T minus 2 days and counting!  i made my last grocery run for turkey day cooking yesterday.  today - massive housecleaning and wednesday the cooking begins!  today is also pezza's last day of school and hubby's last day of work before a 5 day weekend.

we had Daisies yesterday and i discovered that a number of the girls in her troop actually live in our neighborhood!  i see future playdates!  our neighborhood is huge and has a shocking number of kids in it - we have 4 school buses for our neighborhood alone :P

i have a fun post for you today - at least i hope you'll think it's fun!  i mentioned yesterday i would be doing an art journal tutorial for my stamping bella challenge journal page.  i based my page on a meme floating around on facebook recently that is so totally where i am at on most days:

the stamping bella stamp is an oldie but goodie - stamping bellas were some of the very first stamps i ever got!

i stamped the image on a page in my sketchbook and colored it with Prisma pencils.  i added some final sparkly touches with my Spica pens because Bellas simply MUST sparkle 

My background includes layers of yummy sparkle too - so lets see how to do this page!

The key to art journal/mixed media is in the layering.  but staring at a blank page can be intimidating!  so i started with some pages from a music book and a french book

I use matte medium as a glue and i love it.  i put some on my journal page, lay the book page down and then brush another thin layer over the top.  this also helps seal your page so wet media doesn't soak through.  whether you completely cover the whole page with matte medium or not is up to you.  if your page was gesso'd first then it is already sealed.  but know that your next layer of color will look different over the matte medium covered areas and the areas with none.  and that can be perfectly fine - just adds interest!  i covered mine completely for this page.

next we need to add some color - but what colors?  color choice is critical because it can make or break your page.  i have some color scheme references in another journal so i referred to those.  a FABULOUS place for color scheme ideas - Design Seeds.  I will often print out ones I like and then experiment with different mediums to replicate the colors for future reference.  Another great source - your patterned papers which is what I used here

my sample splotches were done with Twinks but in this piece i decided to use something kinda new to me - Neocolor II artist's crayons - i grabbed a bunch that looked like they would work for my color scheme and then scribbled a bit on scratch paper to make my final choices

then i simply scribbled big patches of color over my book pages

 they are water soluable and some are even metallic.  they are a quick easy way to get some color onto your page.  Next i just dipped my finger tip in a bit of water and smeared the color (Em's challenge on stamping bella was to use your fingers!) 

 
i did each color seperately and just blended the edges a bit - otherwise i would have ended up with a page that was all one color and quite possibly the color would have been mud

so we now have TWO layers on our page!  but we need more!

I have added TWO more layers here.  I like a page with a bit of texture BUT anything you do after that will be lumpy and bumpy so on this page i did one more flat layer first - the larger sort of glowing circles.  SUPER easy - bubble wrap stamping with Nutmeg Silks acrylic glaze.  to do this I just cut a piece of bubble wrap about the size i want.  then i put a bit of Silks glaze right on my craft sheet and spread it out a bit - you want a thin layer, not to thick.  now press your bubble wrap into the paint - you may need to press, lift, move a couple times to get it on all the areas you want.  then just lay it onto your page and press gently then lift off.

My final layer is the raised burgandy metallic tiny dots.

i NEVER get tired of that!  it is Viva Decor Modeling Cream in burgandy.  those crisp raised edges just make me happy!  so how do you use it?  easy actually!  in this case i wanted tinier dots than my bubble wrap so i dug up some sequin waste and used it as a stencil but ANY stencil will work.  Next I placed the sequin waste on my project and used a plastic pallette knife (or you can use an old gift card) to smooth on the modeling cream.  this can be a bit tricky at first so you may want to practice but you will pick it up in NO time!  really the less you mess with it during the smoothing on process the better!  i did place my image and wording on the paper before doing the modeling cream so i could be sure i did not put it where i was going to glue those things on or they would be lumpy and difficult to glue.

I edged the pieces with distress ink so they wouldn't be stark white against the backgroun but distress ink is water soluable so when i used the matte medium to glue them down i had to be careful not to get it on the front.  of course i could have also sprayed them with Workable Fixative which would have sealed them and that is a great trick to use anytime you have a water soluable layer and you want to work on top of it without messing it up!  i wanted to set the image and words off a bit more so i used a black pen and just drew lines around the wording and doodles around the image.

so what do y'all think?  who is ready to dive into their art journal?  and though I don't have any (yet) Em at Stamping Bella has added some great art journaling stamps to her vast array of stamps - you should check them out!