Wednesday, July 24, 2013 at 1:00AM No matter how many times I sit and stitch these colorful hand dyed signatures, I never get tired of looking at them all stacked up like this.
Loving how my mini art journal is coming along! Almost finished and ready to share! Happy Summertime Creating!
Monday, July 22, 2013 at 1:00AM Here are a few more peeks of my mini art journal. So happy with how this coming along and I can't wait to share the finished project with you all! This journal might be mini in size, but it rocks big color!
Happy Summertime Creating!
Friday, July 19, 2013 at 1:00AM Every once in awhile do you find yourself going back to one tool over and over again? Well this is my favorite go to stencil right now. It is an upcycled piece of I don't know what from an ancient bin of scrapbook stuff I purged a few months ago...
It is started life as a heavy duty papery sort of material. Once it was inked, stained and gessoed a dozen times it built a tougher outer shell. Now it is the perfect tiny circle stencil. I love it so much that I only allow myself to use a tiny piece at a time - at least until I stumble upon some more!
Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 10:59PM With Summer in full swing my once huge blocks of art time are gone, soon to return with fall and the start of school. Until then I have mini amounts of time - so a mini journal is on the worktable.
- more peeks soon!
art journal, on the worktable, sneak peek | in On The Worktable, art journal, sneak peek | Email Article | Permalink Sunday, July 14, 2013 at 12:45PM Being absent isn't always a bad thing. A few good reasons I have been missing lately.
Week long fun with nieces, nephews and my own kiddos. Finally having time to watch my son play golf. Refinishing furniture and making baby bedding for the arrival of our first granddaughter. Putt-putt golf- rain or shine. And my personal favorite - beach days. Glorious beach days.
Thanks for sticking around in my absence. I promise to return on a more regular note. I just can't bear to let these summer days go by without clinging to the little and precious time I have with my children, both grown and not so grown. I know from experience LIFE HAPPENS and then we can't get these days back.
Enjoy your summer and CHERISH your time!
Sunday, July 7, 2013 at 1:00AM A little bit of creating going on here tonight ...
Art journal backgrounds in progress. Gelli Arts, doodling, water color pencils and book paper.
Friday, July 5, 2013 at 1:00AM I am sharing an easy tutorial today! Chalkboard Wall Art.
This pretty chalkboard is so easy you can make it in just a few hours. To start with, just shop your home for a piece of framed wall art that you are not using or are ready to change up. Tape off the frame and grab some chalkboard spray paint. I like to use Rust-Oleum because it covers so well and doesn't seem to drip.
Next I spray the glass of the wall art according to the directions on the paint you are using. The hardest part for me was waiting in between coats, but it is important to follow this step. I sprayed two coats. Once your final coat is dry you will need to season your chalkboard. To do this you simply rub the entire surface with the a piece of chalk and then erase it.
After I seasoned my chalkboard I took the painters tape off and mixed up some craft paint to spruce up my frame. I mixed white and mint green to get a pretty coppery green color. After I finished painting, I immediately sanded the entire frame lightly.
Waaalaaa- you are done! This is a super easy way to change up your wall art while only spending a few pennies on supplies.
Easy, cheap and re-purposed!
Monday, July 1, 2013 at 1:00AM Yea! Summer is in full swing! I hope that you all have been making time to learn and create! To make things fun and offer some freebies - 21 SECRETS is going to be on sale for just $49 this month! Please read all about this exciting and informative workshop, featuring myself and 20 other artists. A year long, self paced workshop, 21 Secrets is packed with new techniques, exciting projects and amazing instructors. READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE. WANT TO SIGN UP? YOU CAN DO THAT HERE!
Watch this sneak peek video to see what I am teaching! Have fun creating!
Thursday, June 27, 2013 at 1:02AM Making memories are the one most important things for a family and I love to document them. I found my way into mixed media art through good old fashioned scrapbooking. My problem with a layout was dimension. ONE doesn't cut it for me, so my pages ended up thick and expensive. Layer after layer after layer, but I loved my pages. In keeping with my budget for this year, I am trying something new that will save a bundle in money and time.
I really fell in love with the idea of assorted pocket sizes when I took Ali Edwards class One Little Word, so when I found these sleeve protectors by me & my big ideas I knew I would love this system style. I could save money without sacrificing layers because I would be working on a smaller scale.
I am loving mixing up photos with plain blocks of journaling or an oversized word that says it all. I am loving using up scraps that I haven't been able to part with because they are just too pretty! And I am loving getting a months worth of memories down and ready to read in such short bursts of time.
In an effort to make this a productive and efficient on going project I did a little reorganizing. Next I printed a few sheets of number stickers that I made using different fonts in photoshop. Now I can easily label a pocket with the day of the event or memory. I printed tags and labels for layering some journaling.
I am still experimenting and will probably tweak each "page" several times more, but I like this system so far and will continue to play around with it for the rest of 2012's photos.
As a side note - I was not in any way contacted by or paid to advertise any of the above mentioned classes or products, I just like them and so thought them worth mentioning!
on the worktable, scrapbooking | in On The Worktable, scrapbooking | Email Article | Permalink Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 1:00AM I have started a little ongoing photo project, and with it a bit of organizing. Don't you just love this thing?! It's a photo carousel - intended for displaying your favorite photos, but I needed it for something else.
Well, I am finally getting caught up on some memory keeping. That's right - good old fashioned scrapbooking. I am behind in this effort and with my budget for the year in full swing I am on a mission to get this project rolling- but more on that later. This is an image of what usually happens when I get on a "week-long-catch-up-on-this-project-roll."
This makes it tough to get things done efficiently because I am forever digging through the piles to find the perfect embellishment, letter or paper tag. So I started shopping my home for storage to organize these pretty little things. After a little digging, I found my old 7 gypsies Photo Carousel and emptied it of a summers worth of miniature layouts. After transferring these to an album I sorted all my favorite embellishments and organized them into the carousel. Now I can easily get to everything I need and waalaa! - storage worth stealing for my little things.
This is the perfect storage solution to my problem. It is small, portable, and easily revolves so I can find just what I am looking for in a matter of seconds. Now my work area looks like this - yea!
I love it - and more importantly, I re-purposed something I already owned, so I am staying on budget. Perfect!
