A bit of this, a bit of that – and some tissue wrap for good measure!

02 Thursday May 2013

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Art Journal, distress paint, Mixed media, tissue wrap

While I was at the Paperie Retreat last weekend I demoed some products for the girls who were sitting close to me. And the demoing got done in my Art Journal.

A bit of Distress Paint marbling, showing how easy it is to clean the dabber tops of said paint, a bit of mist, some primary elements, molding paste through a stencil… You get the drift.

It’s enough to say that those two pages were a disastrous mess once I was done. Seriously. I should have taken a picture, I thought there would be no redemption for them!

Then I had the brilliant thought to tone down all the vibrancy and clashing colours and chaos with some Ranger Tissue Wrap.

And it worked better than hoped. So well in fact that I don’t want to cover it up – I love it now!

Don’t you think this would make an awesome scrapbook page background? Even the random lines and squiggles add to the texture of the base when they’re pushed to the background.

For a soaking wet, colourful mess of random stuff, this ended up being an awesome success – yay for playing in Art Journals!

update: I finally finished the page and covered my beloved base layer – see it here!

The Undones aka Layouts ala KP

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Sara in ScrapBook

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Dina Wakley, Kelly Purkey, Scrapbook Layout

Today I’m channeling Cathie and posting some “Undones.”

While I was at The Paperie retreat this past weekend I finished up the LO’s we did while Kelly Purkey was here teaching in March. They’re super simple but all done!

Apart from adding some washi tape (Thanks Cathy!) this is pretty much the LO that Kelly did in class – a bit of misting through a stencil, some awesome Dear Lizzy glitter alphas, and fun beaded adhesive strips:

I completely changed up the next one because… well just because I wanted to!

I stamped the stencil after misting through it, changed the colour of the flowers and the placements of the pics, added a tear strip under the photos to ground them, and punched a border on the edges. However, I did keep the flowers centres – the dots from the i’s on the sticker sheet, pure genius:

Finally, I went kind of in between – this started out as Kelly’s LO and then I just kept adding blocks so it’s a little fuller than hers was but has the same base:

I love the clear embossed resist ampersand:

And I added the popped up “happy” diecut from the Dear Lizzy pack:

This was a super fun class and Kelly used some awesome papers, stencils, and mists. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a great weekend when she was here!

In other news, The Paperie finally announced this weekend that Dina Wakley is coming in August to teach for a whole weekend! If you live in Atlantic Canada, plan a trip to NL for mid-August because this is going to be an incredible opportunity to learn from one of the best in the industry with regards to Art Journaling and Mixed Media. To say I’m excited would be an understatement – vibrating might be more accurate!

Currently… | April 2013

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Currently...

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Currently...

listening: to Silly Songs while the kiddos dance around the kitchen

eating: lots of Greek Yogurt – especially Key Lime when I can get my hands on it

drinking: water and wine

wearing: my red spring shoes – bye bye boots!

weather: getting warmer all the time – though it’s foggy, foggy, foggy today

watching: The Facts of Life on Netflix – if you follow me on Instagram you already know how excited I was to discover this!

reading: nothing good – any recommendations?

wanting: not much – more time to be crafty maybe?

feeling: tired from the Retreat weekend and sad it’s all over again – but I got lots done to show you!

needing: to get on the ball about filling my daycare spot but enjoying this inbetween time

thinking: about classes I want to teach and am excited to teach but wondering where to fit them into The Paperie schedule. Maybe I should do some on my own – any interest from my local peeps? And any suggestions about what you’d like?

enjoying: Spring and being able to walk Molly back and forth to school again

wondering: when I can spill the beans about news that has me bursting with excitement and a little bit of envy – but it’s not mine to share 🙂

wishing: I could find some awesome new shoes. Shallow? Yes, but I really want a rocking new pair!

I was so mad….

26 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Family

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

birthday, Family, Gabe, kids

Four years ago today I was mad at my husband.

Really mad.

All my friends were at a fun scrapbooking retreat and I wasn’t there. Darrell put his foot down and said, “Absolutely not,” in no uncertain terms. To be fair, I was less than two weeks away from my due date, aka baby could come any time, and, in our labor and delivery experience, it was a pretty fast process. He didn’t want to chance me being an hour away from the hospital.

But I was still mad.

And told him in no uncertain terms that if said baby did not make an appearance during the retreat weekend he was in big trouble. Big.

And then, at 1:30 Sunday morning, 10 days before I was due, I said, “I think we should go to the hospital.”

We packed up, got my Dad to come stay with Molly, headed in to the case room, and 10 minutes after we arrived, so did Gabe, at 2:31 am. My dad didn’t even get a chance to go to sleep when we called to say, “He’s here!”

And he really was here, all 6 lbs. 13 ozs. of blond boy. I wasn’t expecting the blond (Molly was black) and I wasn’t expecting the boy (I was convinced I was having a girl).

But I wouldn’t trade this sweet face for anything.

Happy 4th birthday, my baby. We love you all the way to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, forever and ever, all the way to the stars.

Mama / S.

and then there was you…

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, Scrapbook Layout

This is the second LO I made at Cathie’s 7 Layer LO’s class. Loved this one right from the start – I mixed my own paint colour (using Silks, of course!) and we played with monoprinting, molding paste, gesso, and stencils.

I took this pic of Gabe when he was only a few days old – the pictures are deceiving but he was so teeny tiny here! And that white hair – it kills me.

I added InkaGold to the molding paste once it had dried and the shine is awesome sauce:

Some doodling with my black pen:

And layers of stickers and doilies and things to finish it off:

I had originally planned to have one picture of Gabe and one of Molly but the colours were both so perfect for his pics that she got left out this time. I guess that just means I’ll have to make some for her at the Retreat this weekend!

Check out the first LO from that class here!

Love You, You Rock, You are the Best

19 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Techniques, Yearlong Album

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Mixed media, YearLong Album class

This is – inadvertently – my second post today. I had scheduled my Art Journal post for yesterday but it didn’t go live. Apparently, it wasn’t scheduled after all! Oh well, it just means you get two lots of eye candy today!

For the first time, I finished the LO’s I made for the YearLong Album class. I always leave these blank so people can add their own spin – organize the pictures, add embellishments, etc. – whatever way they want. The difference this year is that the class participants are doing their own thing anyway and I love it! It’s amazing to look around and see how different everyone’s interpretations of the same instructions are.

Anyway, I made my mixed media layered backgrounds and finished them off with pics of Molly and Gabe from March. My finishing touched for Molly’s were extra paper from the starter kit, wood veneer, a doily, hidden journaling, and stickers:

I wanted Gabe’s to flow with hers, make them look like they belongs together in the album, so he has many of the same elements:

I love the technique to make this background so I will definitely be using it again. Crossing my fingers that everyone is going to love doing them on Sunday and think they’re worth the inky fingers!

be true. rise above. no regrets.

18 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Mixed Media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art Journal, Mixed media

EDIT: I set this to post (or so I thought!) yesterday. Obviously that didn’t happen so you get to enjoy two today!

While preparing for my Yearlong Album Class this weekend, I was playing in my Dylusions Journal with a background idea. Since then, the final product has changed greatly, plus I’ve added a lot of different elements to this page, but working in an Art Journal is an awesome way to test out new ideas and see how stuff reacts. And it never does what I expect it to do!

Lots of layers here – mist, paint, glue:

And I ended with some new Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs:

Not sure what else I’m going to do with this one, but hey, that’s the fun part of Art Journaling, right? 🙂

One in a Million but only 7 Layers

17 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, ScrapBook

On Saturday I took an awesome class with Cathie. I normally only use mixed media on my canvases (though I’m working on bringing it to my LO’s too) but Cathie’s a genius at the mixed media LO’s. This particular class was all about layers – 7 to be exact!

I only have one completed, due to flicking white mist all over the picture for the second LO, but I managed not to destroy the picture for this one and love the colour and movement in it.

I really love all the layers, especially the doily to pull your eye through all the layers around the picture:

And this really is One in a Million:

My Gabe, the day he was born. He came super fast so was pretty bruised and beat up in this picture, hence the darkness to his normally very pale complexion!

Cathie has blogged both LO’s from the class here, and Krista, our very clean and simple friend, also blogged her experience with the class here. I love it when we can bring another one to the dark side of messy hands!

I’ll post the other LO as soon as I get it finished, but I do have lots of other work to do this week for upcoming classes and for Simple Scrapper.

One of the things I’m finishing off is my LO for the Yearlong Class this weekend. After Cathie’s class I came home, looked at what I had done and started counting layers – 6! Think I can get another on there before Sunday? 🙂 The funny thing? They’re completely different layers than hers – isn’t mixed media fun?!?

12 on Twelve | April 2013

15 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in 12 on Twelve, Family

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12 on Twelve

Still using the Nifty Fifty lens way too much, but I don’t care – it’s my fave! And as for this 12 on Twelve project – over a year in and I’m still loving it.

1. Molly giving daddy his regular hug goodbye.

2. Gabe wanting to get in on the morning hugging action.

3. My standard monthly selfie in the porch mirror.

4. Molly playing with her giant sticker book making a princess scene – with a helper!

5. Reading a story while waiting for swimming.

6. I got to go watch this week – and he spent more time watching me than paying attention!

7. All wrapped up after his swim.

8. Field trip! At Michael’s with the boys.

9. Best fun ever – water fountains!

10. All worn out – sleeping in the car on the way home.

11. Friends over to play so making funny faces on the sofa is a must!

12. Anti-bullying day – Molly showing off her badge in her pink gear.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

14 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Blog Hop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Crop Circles, Giveaway

I always swore I would never use that title on a blog post but apparently, my hands had other ideas and insisted on typing it in. It’s pretty bad when even my hands don’t listen to me – no wonder I have such little luck with the kiddos!

Anyway, onto the news you all want to hear – the winner from last week’s Crop Circles blog hop is…..