She’s a Crazy Angel…

12 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Mixed Media

Tags

Art Journal, Dyan Reaveley, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Luminarte, Splash of Color, The Crafter's Workshop

This is the latest Art Journal page I’ve been working on – lots of shimmer as I continue my ~~obsession~~ love affair with Luminarte products.

For my angel’s background I painted several colours of Silks and slightly blended them. I wasn’t sure where I was going with it but now it looks like an ocean to me – and I love her floating in it! I have to go back and do some more blending of the colours, make the transitions more seamless between the colours.

Once that dried, I pressed InkaGold and Perfect Medium through some stencils, pressed down the negatives, then dusted Perfect Pearls powder over the medium. My love of shimmer crosses manufacturer lines, I don’t mind cheating a little!

Finally,I stamped one of the Dyan Reaveley girls on vintage book pages and fussy cut it all out, along with some wings. She got painted in with more Silks, though I used Twinkling H2O’s for her crazy hair – love her eyes and blue they turned out! And I really love the gold shimmer in the orange Twinks!

Lots more left to do with this page, but I’m loving it’s beginning!

What have you been working on lately? Any fun shimmery things? 🙂

Crop Circles Blog Hop and Giveaway! | April

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Blog Hop, Giveaway

≈ 62 Comments

Tags

Blog Hop, Crop Circles, Giveaway, spring project

Welcome to the April blog hop for Crop Circles! If you’re hopping along you should have come here from Cathy’s blog and her fabulous project. The theme this month is Spring – just right to get us all in the mood for warmer weather and less snow (as if we weren’t already itching for that!).

I had originally done a canvas for this but since I decided to try to submit it, and because it’s for a class I’m teaching at The Paperie retreat the end of this month, I chose to hang onto it and make something else instead.

I’ve been into decorating my front door this year – Christmas, Valentine’s, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter….

The problem is that once Easter was over I was at a loss as to what to hang there next. Well, a spring wreath sounds good to me!

I was lucky enough to get the wreath on sale for less than $2 and then, while watching The Voice last night, I die cut and rolled the flowers from Papertrey Ink 100% wool felt.

Once they were adhered, I thought the wreath was missing something so I went poking through my stash where I found some soft yellow sheer ribbon – perfect for the pastels I had going on!

At the last minute I added a blingy gem to the bow and finally considered it done.

The great thing about this project? It was quick, super easy, and looks fabulous! I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to have to actually buy one like this already made – have you seen what they cost?!?! And let’s be honest, now I have bragging rights to the fact that I actually made it! 🙂

I do have to credit my mom for this idea. She is constantly saying she’s not crafty but at Christmas time she took a wreath like this, painted it white and then added rolled cream felt flowers and a wide red satin ribbon. It was as gorgeous as it sounds, really beautiful!

If you’ve made it this far congrats! Your reward is…. (drum roll)… I’m going to draw for a little Maya Road Prize package! Leave a comment on this post by midnight Newfoundland time, April 12, and you’ll be eligible for this prize plus the grand prize. The more comments you leave along the hop, the more chances you have to win!

Next on the hop is Michelle so head on over there, give her love, and enjoy some more Spring! And if you get lost along the way or encounter a broken link, here’s the full list – enjoy!

Cathy
Sara <– you’re here!
Michelle
Kymberley
Natasha
Cheryl
Catherine
Rhea
Darlene
Lori

Well, Hello There…

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Family, ScrapBook

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Family, Midway, October Afternoon

A while back I took part in another tag LO – love those! – and since I was number 1 on a long list of people, I kind of forgot about posting it here once the tag part was done.

This actually turned out to be one of my fave LO’s ever. The picture cracks me up, the kit from The Paperie is my favourite one from them since they started, and the way it all came together worked better than I envisioned. A rare, rare occurrence!

The picture of Gabe was taken at the cabin last year and as soon as I saw the expression on his face all I could think of was my grandfather, Edgar Case – he had the same look many times! The thing is, Pop had glasses and a moustache and well, Gabe is only 3, the moustache is not something happening on his face right now!

Enter the kit. It had some October Afternoon Midway paper, including strips that had glasses with moustaches. And by some fluke of the universe, they were the right size for the picture that had been printed for months. It was just all meant to be!

How seriously funny are those glasses?!?! Can you even believe how perfect they are?

I added a bunch of banners and some flair at the top:

And cut out one of the “LOVE” words on the bottom to make it stand out more:

When I finished this one, I showed my dad and the first thing he said was, “You really need to show this to my siblings.” Yes, he actually said siblings, it’s just his way! But really, it’s uncanny how much Gabe looks like his great-grandfather here – I wish they could have met.

Back tomorrow with an awesome blog hop full of projects to get you in the spring mood – I know I’m ready for a warmer season!

Things on Thursday…

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Cards, Mixed Media, Things on Thursday...

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Canvas, Christmas card, marriage equality, Mixed media, Studio Calico, Things on Thursday

Before you start reading this list, I want to say that there is no rhyme nor reason to the order of things. I write this post over the course of the week as things pop up and so sometimes the important things (see #3) end up in the middle rather than at the top. Yes, that goes against everything I ever learned in English and Writing classes but that’s just the way it is around here – my blog, my rules! 🙂 The reason I mention this now is so you all know that the list is not in order of importance or relevance, it’s just the way the week went! So enjoy and read them all – don’t skip the middle parts!

1. I signed up for this class as soon as I heard about it. I missed the first one and kicked myself over it so I’m really looking forward to this new one!

2. I’ve been given a couple of blog awards in the past week or so. I never really know what to do with those (they almost make me uncomfortable, is that weird?) but it’s exciting that people like me – they really like me! More on those next week.

3. I came across this in the WordPress Freshly Pressed blog post. Awesome post. Go read it. Now. I’ll wait! 🙂

(Musak playing, Jeopardy theme song playing…)

Did you read it yet? Good! Moving along…

4. Last November I had a card published in Create: Christmas Cards. But I haven’t submitted anything since. And because all the calls right now are for September/October that means it’s been almost a year since I’ve submitted anything. Time to get back on that horse, I think!

5. One reason I haven’t been trying to get published is that I’m doing very few scrapbook layouts or cards, apart from the ones for Simple Scrapper, and have been concentrating on canvases and mixed media. Here’s a peek of a canvas I did for a blog hop next week and for a class I’m teaching at The Paperie retreat at the end of the month. I like it so much that I might actually make something else for the blog hop and submit this – we’ll have to see.

Currently… | March 2013

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Currently...

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Cats, Currently..., kids, quilting

listening: to Molly sing. All day, everyday – sometimes she sings French songs she’s learned at school but most often they’re made up about whatever she’s playing with at the time.

feeling: sick of winter and cold weather.

weather: cold, rainy, with more and more sunny breaks all the time. Now if only it would warm up…

eating: lots of mini eggs. And I don’t even like milk chocolate. Easter chocolate is the worst…

drinking: Coco Chai tea, steeped in hot milk – it’s yummy! And more water than usual, trying to keep a glass around all the time.

needing: to share this picture of Ella. The kids were thrilled to see that these little leprechaun hats fit her though she was not a fan. Our cats put up with an awful lot around here!

thinking: about LO’s I want to do and techniques I want to try.

watching: The Voice and American Idol – terrible TV but I love it!

reading: not a whole lot. Any suggestions?

enjoying: funny Mister Gabe – he makes the craziest faces and tells silly jokes that make no sense at all!

wearing: summer shoes. I’m determined to get rid of the boots and socks.

wanting: to go see Oz the Great and Powerful in 3D, at the theatre, on the big screen.

wondering: how my quilt is going to turn out. I already have plans for at least two more so I’m crossing fingers it goes really well!

wishing: that it was summer already!

Simple Scrapper Blog Hop & HUGE GIVEAWAY! | April 2013

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Sara in Blog Hop, Giveaway, Simple Scrapper

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Blog Hop, Giveaway, Simple Scrapper, Sketch Templates

The giveaway for this month’s Simple Scrapper blog hop is amazing! Really an awesome one to win so make sure you read all the way to the end to enter for your chance to win!

This month, I made two LO’s from the same sketch so you can see how versatile they are, and one LO from the Story Starters.

All the sketches were letter size, or 8.5 x 11, this month, a size I love! Here’s the first LO I made:

The kiddies love to have stories read to them and they always want to sit on the same sofa no matter who is doing the reading.

I added a little interest to this one with a punched edge and some stapled baker’s twine, a couple of my new favourite things to do!

The second LO, as mentioned, is from the same sketch but I made a 12×12:

Seriously, same sketch! I love how flexible they are!

With this one, I layered a bunch of elements in the top corner and added metallic stitching:

Finally, I did a LO based on one of the Story Starters. This is my brother Matthew and I when we were much younger – my best guess is that this pic was taken early 1979:

Come on now, weren’t we the cutest?!?! 🙂

I added lots of dimension and texture here with both the layers of papers and the paint through the stencils:

Now, for the big giveaway!

That’s right! A full one year premium membership at Simple Scrapper! And you can win even if you’re already a member – we’ll just add it when your membership is due for renewal! Just click on the Rafflecopter link below to enter; there are three ways to enter and three winners will be selected. To be eligible, you must enter by 11:59pm CDT on Friday, April 5.

Hopefully, if you’re following the hop you will have come here from Celeste’s blog. If that’s the case I’m the final stop, so congrats on making it through and be sure you go and enter the giveaway. If you just stopped by here, I’d suggest you start at the beginning of the hop and see what the rest of the team did this month – as always, they made incredible LO’s!

Simple Scrapper (Jennifer Wilson)

Margrethe Aas Johnsen

Sara Case Strickland <- that’s me!

a Rafflecopter giveaway <- click here to enter!

As always, you can check out my gallery at 2peas for more images. See you all tomorrow with a very delayed Currently list!

The Premium Membership at Simple Scrapper provides skills and shortcuts to help you simplify and find more meaning in your memory keeping. Each month members receive a new collection of sketch templates and Story Starters, story-focused prompts for pages and projects.

Something exciting….

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Yearlong Album

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Ronda Palazzari, Stencils, The Crafter's Workshop, Yearlong Album

…happened to me about a week and a half ago.

I tweeted sneak peek pics of the Yearlong album cover for the class participants to get an idea of what we would be doing in class.

Ronda Palazzari, who designed the awesome Confetti stencil I used, saw the pics and sent me a direct message through Twitter, saying she loved it and could she please include it in a blog post about her stencils?

Umm, let me think about that, YES!

So today the post is up on her blog and to be included with artists such as May Flaum and Marjie Kemper is a total thrill!

And thanks Ronda, I’m so glad you like the album!

By the way, Ronda also teased me, saying that her new stencils (coming in July) were even better than this past release! I offered to give them a test run, make sure they worked ok and all, but I don’t think she’s going for it – sigh. 🙂

Be BOLD.

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Mixed Media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Art Journal, Dina Wakley, Donna Downey, Dylusions, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Mixed media, The Crafter's Workshop, Unity Stamp Co.

As soon as The Paperie received the Sally Carly stencils by Dina Wakley for The Crafter’s Workshop, I had to give them a test run – along with the Tiny Circles and Pie Chart stencils designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Ronda Palazzari, and a couple of Dylusions ones too.

To begin, I re-enforced my journal seam with gold chevron washi tape and I love, love, love how it resisted the mist on the gold parts! That was completely unexpected because I just grabbed the first washi tape at hand and stuck it on – awesome surprise!

I used both the positive and negative pieces of the stencil to get different layers of colour with Dylusions Ink Sprays and black gesso. I also did a lot of outlining with my white Uniball Signo Gel Pen, some stamping in black archival ink, and layers of white gesso, Inka Gold, and shimmer mist through the other stencils.

I love how all the layers turned out , especially the Tiny Circles on the head of the first girl:

And the Perfect Pearls Mist through a Dylusions stencil on the second:

Finally, I added Donna Downey phrases from her Art & Possibility set, available through Unity Stamp Co. This may be my new favourite stamp set – the sentiments are fabulous!

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results – and I really love all the stencils and media that came into play!

What fun things have you done this week? Link me up in the comments – I’d love to see it!

Summer Life

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Martha Stewart, Scrapbook Layout, Simple Stories, Tim Holtz

I was doing some organizing – or attempting it anyway! – when I came across this LO and I’m pretty sure I’ve never shared it here. Plus, it’s a sunny and warm picture and I could cry right now I want warm weather so badly!

Most of this came from a Paperie kit – the snippets of Simple Stories paper, the Dear Lizzie tag, the alphas stickers, but I added the gold Martha Stewart doily:

the Ali Edward’s for Technique Tuesday stamp:

and some awesome Teal Silks and Tim Holtz filmstrip ribbon:

Love the white space in this one, empty of even mist spatters. Sometimes, it just needs to be a little cleaner than usual!

Hoping to get my YLA2013 LO’s done this week so I can post what I’ve done with them. I’m also working on finishing up the February LO’s of Krista’s Keeping Track of Life (KTOL) class. I have the main one finished off with silver thread, now I just need to do the pocket pages and they’ll be ready to share as well!

Cross your fingers you see something completed and posted in the next couple of days!

I saw the moon more clearly….

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Mixed Media

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Art Journal, Dyan Reaveley, Dylusion Ink Sprays, Dylusions, Gesso, Mixed media, Ranger, stamping, Stencil, The Crafter's Workshop

I have to say, this art journal page didn’t turn out as I envisioned. Probably because it started out all wrong, and then got covered up, and then…… You know, everything snowballed and the end product was vastly different from what I had originally been going for.

However, I did get to play a lot and what’s not fun about that? 🙂

The original page had a lot of Dylusions Ink Sprays, which I love, but it just went all wrong. So I covered it all in gesso, played with the texture a bit – ran a fork through, that type of thing – and then let the gesso work its magic as it dried:

And I ended up with the same colours I started with, just much more subtle and with a lot more interest and texture.

I added some Viva Decor Ferro, which my kiddies say is like mud, so they love it, through a Dylusions Letter Jumble stencil:

And I used a Pearl paint dabber sprayed with gold mist for the moon and quote:

I also stamped some of my favourite leaves, added some more mist through the Dotted Flowers stencil, and paper pieced some houses on vintage book paper.

All in all, I’ll live with it. After all, isn’t experimenting the main thing here? I also learned to put tape on my journal seams, as you can see from the colour that seeped through from a later page.

Luckily, I don’t mind the extra pop of colour here but I won’t be taking that chance any more and am having fun now playing with different washi tapes. You’ll see some of that next week!

What have you done this week? Any fun things to link me up to and show me? You know I’d love to see it!