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? 🙂

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!

KP Weekend!

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Sara in Cards, Classes, Techniques

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Distress Ink, distress paint, Distress Stain, Dyan Reaveley, Dylusions Ink Spray, Gesso, Kelly Purkey, Perfect Pearls, Ranger, Stencils, The Crafter's Workshop, Tim Holtz, tissue wrap

This past weekend, The Paperie hosted Kelly Purkey and we all had an awesome time!

Krista and I were lucky enough to share the teaching floor with her and do classes so there were lots of different styles and projects for participants to make. Kelly taught a LO class, plus a mini album from scratch. Krista did a completed Dear Lizzy Daybook mini and I did a tag technique workshop. Since I don’t have any pictures on LO’s or in albums yet, I’ll show you the tags I taught and be back another time with the other goodies!

First of all we played with Dylusions Ink Spray and gesso, plus the Tim Holtz Easter Blueprints stamps (CMS144):

I love the texture the gesso provides!

Then we used Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls powder to make a great background that we layered with the Vintage Things Blueprints set (CMS152):

Hello, Perfect Pearls and silver gel pen:

We did a soft background using Distress Stains, the Sewing Room Sizzix Bigz die, and some tissue wrap:

Love the dimension the tissue wrap adds:

Finally, we all played with the brand new Distress Paints! We marbleized, stenciled, and painted:

And added some amazing mirrored sheet letters to finish it off! Unfortunately, I only have this one cell phone picture of this tag but I’ll update with better pics tomorrow when I get my tag back.

It was a bit hairy at the end of class, trying to get them all done but all in all, I think we pulled it off and everyone liked their tags – whew! Plus, they all got to take home a new Distress Paint and a 6×6 Crafter’s Workshop stencil of their choice, pretty sweet!

The weekend as a whole, starting Friday night with a wine & cheese, leading into classes all day Saturday and then a crop, ending with another full class day on Sunday, was fabulous! I think everyone was pretty tired by the time it finished but it was worth every moment. Plus, we got to get a jumping picture with Kelly at Signal Hill in front of Cabot Tower – the icing on top of a very good weekend, even if we did freeze our faces off to get it!

Things on Thursday – CHA-S edition

26 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by Sara in Things on Thursday...

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

CHA, CHA-S, Dyan Reaveley, Dylusions, Ranger, Studio Calico, The Crafter's Workshop, Tim Holtz

First, a little note: I know I’ve been posting a little less here – summer is busy! If you want to see more, I post pics and life bits on Twitter and Instagram (I’m saracees), follow me there! That’s also where you’ll find sneak peeks of upcoming classes! 😉

So CHA-S (Craft and Hobby Association, Summer 2012) is over and the companies in the crafting industry released their new product, focusing mostly on Halloween and Christmas. Here are some my faves of the new goodies!

1. Dyan Reaveley – Dylusions for Ranger

You know I love Ranger and you know I love the Dylusions line. The new Christmas stuff coming out is no exception. Top of my list is this sentiment stamp set – hilarious!

2. Tim Holtz – Ranger

Finally! Rock Candy Distress Stickles in a big jar with a brush! YAY!!!!

3. Studio Calico

A new collection for SC is Yearbook. And they have polaroid frames. These will be mine!

4. Dyan Reaveley – Dylusions for Ranger

OK, so I know I said the sentiments were top of my list but this is fighting for first place too! 🙂

5. The Crafter’s Workshop

I can’t narrow these down. With new designs from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Dina Wakeley, Karen Ellis, and Jaime Echt, there are more stencils than I could hope for. And I want them all! The Bug Doily makes me laugh, and I need the Whimsical Vines, and the Spilled Hearts are awesome!

Trust me, these aren’t the only things on my want/need list – but it’s a good start!

Leave a comment letting me know what you love and need from the new releases, I have no problem adding to my list! 🙂

Something New…

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Week in the Life 2012

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Ali Edwards, Art Journal, Dyan Reaveley, Dylusion, Gesso, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Mixed media, Ranger, The Crafter's Workshop, Tim Holtz

I’m going to try my hand at Art Journaling. Not anything personal, like a daily, write your thoughts, dreams, wishes, type of art journal, just one where I get to play!

And I’m a lucky girl because I have two friends, Cathie and Tina, who are doing this with me (though they already art journal, I’m the newbie!) If we’re super lucky, we’ll actually get together once a month too!

Here are the things I have to begin my Play Art Journal:

1. A mixed media album and some watercolour paper:

The album had the most heinous cover ever so that got gessoed and moulding pasted over immediately. It already looks better! Love the dimension, can’t wait to see what happens when I get around to adding colour:

2. The Crafter’s Workshop Stencils:

These are the Dylusions by Dyan Reavely – I’ll get more of these for sure! I love the patterns, the size, and that they come with a border too!

And these ones are mostly Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Great designs, I have new ones of these already on the way!

3. Paint, Stain, Mist:

These are super cheap watercolour paints and I have some big plans for them! Also, aren’t they pretty! 🙂

I have a bunch of Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Paints, all the Adirondack ColorWash and Dylusions Ink Sprays, Distress Stains and Inks, and more. These are going to be fun!

4. Gesso, Moulding Pastes (my friend Marg gave me a couple to try out that are amazing!), and Multi Medium.

5. Stamps:

I think my faves are going to be the Tim Holtz and Dylusions from Stamper’s Anonymous, but I have some Ali Edwards ones that I know will make their way in too. And there are some Dylusions stamps with people that are going to have to be mine very soon!

6. I also have the basics – a water mister, paint brushes, Archival Ink (need more colours there too!).

To help me along my way, a few of us are doing ICAD through Daisy Yellow. This is where you make one Index Card A Day – it can be written on , or painted, or gessoed, or whatever you want. The point is to do one a day. I see this as a great place and media on which to experiment!

In the past, I have only done one thing that has mixed media stuff going on – at The Paperie Retreat in May, I had fun with my Week in the Life album:

front cover

back cover

Yes, I know I haven’t posted the album yet, that’s because it’s not quite done. Almost though, and I will post it then, promise!

Want to join in the fun? I’m planning to post my Art Journal stuff on Wednesdays, once I actually start and I’d love to see your stuff too! Even join me for ICAD, it’s easy and anyone can do it, even if you only want to doodle everyday!

See you all tomorrow, maybe with a colourful Art Journal cover in tow! 😉 And if anyone has some suggestions for this new adventure or links I should check out, please let me know!