Something Special for Sweet Baby James

27 Tuesday Jan 2015

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My best and oldest friend had a baby this past year – I posted pics of him when he was born – and for his first Christmas I knew I had to do something super special.

I’m very glad his name wasn’t Michael John, or something else just as long – not sure where I would have gotten a frame/canvas big enough!

I started with basic wooden letters and added a little something to each one:

I love these boy themed flair, the dude one made me laugh!

I also added blue stars to every letter – even boys need some shine, right?

The only problem I ran into was at the end when I went looking for a frame. I have these made for my own kiddies and they fit perfectly in a shadowbox. Do you think I could find one when I needed it? Not a chance.

I scoured the stores and finally ended up at Walmart with my fingers crossed.

Nothing.

As I turned to leave I noticed premade canvas pictures. And one was long and skinny – woohoo!

I grabbed and ran. I simply painted it over (sorry existing picture!) then added some paper and adhered my letters. Not exactly what I originally had in mind but I love how it turned out. Even better, so did James’ mom. 🙂

Cheers!

Seasonal Canvas | A Year of Mixed Media

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 4 Comments

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Canvas, Home Decor, Mixed media, Seasons

A while ago I posted that I taught my last Seasonal Canvas class – the fall one – and so now I have a full set of four. I have to say, this might be one of my favourite classes ever! The finished product of each canvas is beautiful but to have all four together is just awesome.

Don’t they look great? I did a little kitchen rearranging to fit them in on a wall that doesn’t get direct sunlight. I used Luminarte Silks for the paint on each of these and unfortunately, they’re not light stable. 😦

That being said, it was ok in this case because they fit perfectly here just above my scrapbooking island in the corner of my kitchen.

If you want closeups all the canvases are in my Flickr gallery and your can also check out the blog posts for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.

Cheers!

Seasonal Canvas | Fall

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 3 Comments

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Canvas, Classes, Fall, Mixed media

Last night was the final in the Seasonal Canvas series – those people who did them all now have a gorgeous collection of four 6×6 canvases to display!

I have to admit, this fall one is my favourite – I love how it turned out!

A closer look at the quote most of us used:

And look at that shine! That’s pearlized Stampendous Mica Fragments with some fall colour added – isn’t it fabulous?!?

And that’s it – all the seasons done! Now, I just have to find somewhere in my house that will fit all four of them!

Cheers!

P.S. Missed some of the canvas posts? You see them all here: Winter, Spring, Summer

Seasonal Canvas | Summer

17 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 6 Comments

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Canvas, Classes, Mixed media

We’re heading into the finals of the Seasonal Canvas Class – only Fall left to do! If you want to check out the others we’ve done, there’s Winter and Spring.

For summer I did a clothesline, with a pretty common Newfoundland phrase, “Good day on clothes!” That’s what you’d say to neighbour over the clothesline when there’s a nice day for hanging out the wash.

Of course, since Molly’s favourite thing is Feel Bunny, I had to add her to the line – she smells so good after we hang her up by the ears!

The clothes are traced through a stencil by Nathalie Kalbach and then I added details to each piece:

The sun is made by rubbing Inca Gold Old Silver into the texture made by the molding paste through a stencil:

The seagulls have a bit of dimension so it looks like they’re flying off the canvas:

For me, the best part of these canvas classes is seeing how people look at what I made and then change it to fit their style – I love seeing their completed canvases!

I’m working on a new two layout page kit for the Paperie – Back to School – and I’m hoping to have that to show you in the next day or so. We’re hoping to get you several of these page kits over the year and they’re awesome! Everything you need to complete two full LO’s and maybe a couple of cards as well. Of course, they come with full colour instructions too – they’re the perfect thing to take to a friend’s house or crop if you don’t want to drag all your gear with you!

I’m a Superstar!

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Classes

≈ 4 Comments

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Canvas, Classes, Mixed media, The Paperie

I love making canvases. Love. It.

And, not surprisingly, my kids love to paint canvases too. The combination of both lead me to design a new kids class for The Paperie – a junior edition of my canvas classes!

This is a beginner one, we won’t be using molding paste for example, but it still has lots of texture and interest. Truth be told, I will probably add molding paste if we do another one but I left it out this time to challenge myself and because it takes a long time to dry, especially in a class setting.

See the textures of the paper collaging and canvas? I love how the base layers turned out!

I used gold and silver mist and gold paint for shimmer:

And I added a phrase with alpha stickers:

The fun part? You get a sheet of alphas so you can make any phrase! This would be awesome as a Girl Power canvas, or Boys Rule. Why not even a teacher gift – I’m sure they’d like it more than another mug! 🙂 And it would make an awesome gift for mom or dad, a real keepsake for sure!

Call The Paperie for details and to sign up. This class is for kids of all ages so don’t be left out if you’re a more “mature” one!

Seasonal Canvas | Winter

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Mixed Media

≈ 4 Comments

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Canvas, Classes, Mixed media

At the last Paperie Spring retreat I taught a canvas class where we made a Spring canvas. It was a hit and so for in store classes this year the owners and I decided I would teach a set of four seasonal classes. The first one was this past Saturday.

We had a great group, about 6 of us, which is a nice size for a mixed media canvas class. This time the canvas was winter so of course, I needed a snowman:

One of the problems most people had to work through was covering the layers. One person, after we had the first layers of items down said, “I love it! I’m done.” And then we added about 5 more layers on top of that! The number one thing I tell students in canvas and mixed media classes is this: Don’t get attached to it – we’re covering it up!

I love to add rub-ons to my canvases and the Tim Holtz remnant rubs worked great for this one, especially to spruce up the top of the snowman’s hat:

My favourite part of this canvas is the texture of the snowman himself:

I think he turned out just right!

To make this class even better, we had an awesome mix of people who all had great ideas and fun products. One person had fabulous shimmery stuff that we all added to our snowbank to make it sparkle. Someone else had a swirl stencil to mimic the look of swirling snow. And yet another person had a bunch of different quotes to share. I love classes that gel like that so thank you to all the canvas peeps!

Next up, a new spring canvas – want to join us? 🙂

Paperie Card Kit | January 2014: Part 2

16 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Sara in Card Kit, Mixed Media

≈ 3 Comments

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Canvas, Mixed media, The Paperie Card Kit

I’m back to show you the rest of my projects from the Paperie’s January Card Kit (see the others here and here).

First up is a card that would hold a gift card. I used the 7 Gypsies tag included in the kit for the focal point – I think t his would make an awesome gift for those people you’re a little stumped about when it comes to gift giving times, like the postal carrier, or garbage man.

I simply folded one of the 6×6 pieces of patterned paper in half, keeping the top strip attached. This gave me a half circle on one side so I punched another on the other side and had a perfect place to rest my ribbon.

I then cut another piece of patterned paper to fit inside, cut a couple of notches for a gift card, and stamped a sentiment. Easy, quick, and done!

Another quick project were the lunch box notes. I just cut small pieces of patterned paper, folded them to resemble a matchbook, and stapled the bottom to keep the flap tucked in.

A fun heat embossed stamp inside and they’re perfect for Molly’s lunch!

Finally, my favourite, a canvas.

As I mentioned before, I love the stamp set that came with the kit and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make this canvas. Pretty much everything came from the kit except the basics – the canvas, multimedium, paint, mist, and vintage book paper. I love the shine from the mix of gold, silver, and gold glitter embossing paper:

And of course, the title rocks!

And that’s it – lots of projects and I still have lots of product left to play with! There may still be one or two kits left if you want to pick one up, just give the Paperie a call to reserve it!

I’d like to be….

04 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media

≈ 2 Comments

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Canvas, Luminarte, Mixed media

….under the sea.

One of my favourite projects from the April Paperie Retreat – actually, one of my favourite projects ever – was a canvas I did just as we were gearing down to go home. I had the base done, had demoed on it for previous canvas classes, and it needed to be finished.

I painted the base texture with Silks and Primary Elements with no idea of where I was heading. Once the colour was on all I could see was the ocean.

So I stole a bit of moss from Tina, an old compass transparency from Cathie, stuck on a bit of cheesecloth (a personal texture making fave!) and played around with Dyan Reaveley’s Ruby Rainbow set to make myself a mermaid in the sea.

Ruby has crazy hair in the stamp set so I cut it off, moved it all around, then painted it, and some cheesecloth, with Orange Peel Twinks. And made her hair even a bit more crazy than before!

Her tail is a shimmery bit of awesomeness made possible by Primary Elements mixed into Old Silver Inka Gold. I then etched the scales with a pencil. It’s hard to photograph but the colour starts pink and fades into purple – it’s just gorgeous:

I printed the words on some Martha Stewart Avery labels (love those kraft self-adhesive labels for quotes like this!) and stuck them down:

I wish you could all see this in person because the shimmer and dimension and texture and subtle colour variation is fab! Yes, I’m patting my own back! 🙂

I hope you like her as much as I do, she sits on the wall over my computer where I can enjoy her everyday:

I’m offline for a few days now; I have a very special wedding to attend this weekend (the card and hopefully some pics to come next week) and then fingers are crossed for a day at the cabin on the Sands. I also have ICAD’s to catch up on, some special guest blog posts to write, and an exciting scrapbook project to dive into. I’ll be back when I can come up for air!

Things on Thursday…

04 Thursday Apr 2013

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

≈ 3 Comments

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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.

Mini tutorial for the kiddies! | photo frame

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Sara in Kid's Crafts, ScrapBook, Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials, Tutorials

≈ 7 Comments

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birthday gift, Canvas, kid's crafts, Tuesday Tutorials

I have a home daycare. That means kiddies running around and kiddies mean parents with birthdays. And we always try to do something about birthdays around here!

Last week, one of the moms had a birthday and so her daughter (she’s two) and I sat down to make a gift. And I think it’s one of my faves so far!

Years ago I bought some great frames, I think they’re by EK Success, and of course, I forgot all about them. Such is the life of a crafter, hey? Anyway, I rediscovered them a couple of weeks ago and thought they would be perfect for this type of project. They’re actually primed canvas board frames, ready to alter, and I bought two different sizes – one has a 3.5×5 opening and the other, the one we used, has a 4×6 opening.

I sat Miss I down with some crayons and said, “Have at it!.” And she coloured up a storm, loving every minute of it! While she was doing that, I looked for a picture of her and couldn’t find quite what I wanted.

So we took a break and had a little photo shoot to get the pic I was wanting for the frame. Then she went back to colouring and I sat down to edit her picture and although I tried not to, I just had to add an Ali Edwards overlay from Designer Digitals. Love those overlays just a bit too much!

Once the frame was coloured, I printed and added the photo and we were done! It was super easy, meaningful for the mom, and a great project for a two-year-old.

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? Love her.

If you want to re-create this and can’t find frames, I’d suggest a primed canvas. All you would have to do is mount the picture to the top after the colouring or painting is done and you have a fabulous gift for aunts, uncles, grandparents – something that would mean so much for those hard to buy people!

Let me know what you do for gifts from kids – I need more ideas!

And remember – today is 12onTwelve and Pancake Day – yummy!