I’d like to be….

04 Thursday Jul 2013

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….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!

ICAD 2013 | June 23: infinity

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media, Techniques

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ICAD, Index card, Mixed media

A while back I made this card and said that the back was so cool I was going to make another one and use the back as the front.

So I did!

Once again I used the Aboriginal Stencil but I pulled out the 6×6 this time. I stuck with the Graphite Ferro and used different colours of mist. Here’s the back:

Yes. Gorgeous and yummy and sparkly, though you can’t see that very well in the pics. And here’s the front:

Isn’t that the coolest? Love how this technique works; I think it’s going to have to be part of a class sometime soon.

I printed the sentiment on Sticky Back Canvas then stapled it to the card, the texture is awesome:

Basically, you need molding paste, water reactive mist, and lots & lots of water. Another upside of this card? Fabulous paper towels to use on upcoming cards!

ICAD 2013 | June 22: boom!

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

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ICAD, Index card, Mixed media

This card was the outcome of a total creative blank. I seriously looked at the card and had no clue where to even start. So I grabbed the first thing on my craft island – gold chevron washi tape – and stuck it down to cover the card. It’s always better when the space staring back at you isn’t plain white!

A mist with new colours of Dylusions Ink Spray was next. And that was actually pretty cool because they resisted the gold chevron in the washi but not the white part in between. I added some molding paste over a stencil but didn’t like it so I scraped it off, making it purple as it picked up the ink beneath. I tried again over the circle explosion stencil and liked it a lot better.

Then I blanked again. So I left the card, did another one instead with the leftover molding paste, and when I finally came back to this one I decided to go with the explosion idea of the stencil. I pulled out my Idea-ology Alpha Parts, covered some letters with Rose Inka Gold and stuck them on. I finished it off by doodling with my trusty Pitt Pens.

Pretty blah, but they can’t all be masterpieces.

As always, I do love the shine in the Inka Gold:

At least it’s shiny blah, right? 🙂

ICAD 2013 | June 21: go your own way

22 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

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ICAD, Index card, Mixed media

This started out with a scrap of paper I had left from the Paperie June/July card kit. Trust me when I say I loved all the paper so much that there wasn’t a whole lot leftover See my LO’s here, here, and here)! And this piece had to be used – it’s by Allison Kreft for Webster’s Pages and it’s really just too cute.

I adhered it to an index card with matte medium, and added a piece of Studio Calico Fabrips that I had lying around – another scrap from designing with the kit, it was the binding of my mini album. I then scraped used molding paste (hence the purple colour) over the Chevron Arrow stencil and put it aside.

I wasn’t a big fan of this card, was really just trying not to throw away my scraps, so I had no idea where to go with it. Coming back to it a while later, these lyrics popped into my head – that’s what my mind saw with the mix of arrows and birds, I guess.

Anyway, I printed them on kraft sticky labels, stuck them down and doodled with my Pitt pen. A little Graphite Inka Gold around the edges and I called it done.

A weird mix for me but that’s what I like about this project – anything and everything goes, even the weird stuff!

ICAD 2013 | June 19: yesterday

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

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ICAD, Inca Gold, Index card, Mixed media

I guess I’ve moved onto the feather stencil but I promise it won’t be on the next dozen cards!

I put down a strip of drywall mesh, misted with bronze Perfect Pearls mist, sprayed some Mister Huey’s and peeled off the mesh – I love the texture it gives without the dimension!

I then rubbed Inca Gold over the peacock feather stencil, blending the Old Silver and the Rose – this card has a ton of shimmer!

Another Donna Downey stamp and some distressing on the edges finished it off.

I’ll do my best not to use that stencil tomorrow – I have an idea for the Yearlong class I want to try out so wish me luck!

ICAD 2013 | June 18: everything’s perfect

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

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ICAD, Index card, Mixed media

I’m sorry. It’s another paper towel one but I promise to move on after this one. For a while, anyway!

The sentiment was stamped on a previously ruined index card (I keep them for sentiments) and I highlighted the word “perfect” by stamping that word with some larger alpha stamps and then outlined everything with my Pitt pens:

I smeared some molding paste through the peacock feathers stencil – on loan from Marg but I definitely have to get my own – and the dimension is fab!

As a matter of fact, I think molding paste might be the next go-to item for my index cards!

ICAD 2013 | June 16: to travel hopefully

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD

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ICAD, Index card, Mixed media

This was done for father’s day because my dad has a sailboat and this is the quote he has on the wall:

“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” Robert Louis Stevenson

I adhered a layer of tinfoil then painted over it with Golden Fluid Acrylics. Once they were dry I sanded the surface to bring out the shine of the foil again. The blue looked like water and whitecaps to me so adhered a wood veneer boat and the sentiment, then added gold Embossing Paste over a Dylusions stencil for the stars.

The embossing paste is interesting because it goes on really cloudy, then turns metallic once it’s dry:

And I love the idea of texture that came ffrom sanding the paint off the foil:

It’s actually really smooth in real life.

Still working my way through and pretty much on track – and still loving this project!

ICAD 2013 | June 11: I am perfect

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

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ICAD, Mixed media, The Crafter's Workshop

I wanted to play with my Distress Paints a little and so had some fun blending, spraying, drying, adding – until I liked what I had. So then what?

I pulled out a stencil at random, an awesome Dina Wakley one, and smeared light molding paste over it. Since the paint had a couple of not-quite-dry spots, I ended up with this gorgeous tint in the paste. Much better than the stark white would have been!

A few flicks of a darker shade in mist and then I was stuck for a sentiment. As I looked around I found a scrap of sewing pattern tissue and that worked perfectly once it was adhered with multimedium. Just a hint of colour but still super translucent.

And the texture of the hearts once the molding paste dried is awesome sauce:

Ah, molding paste, I really love you – I think you’ll be showing up on a lot of cards this year!

Drawer of Memories

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, Techniques

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7 Gypsies Library Drawer, Class, Mixed media

I’m teaching a class tomorrow night (UPDATE: We’ve had to move the class night to June 4 so you still have time to sign up!) and I think this is going to be one of my favourite projects yet!

I’m calling it the Drawer of Memories:

We’ll be using the 7 Gypsies Library drawer with monthly dividers plus adding additional 4×6 tabs and cards. Everyone will go home with a beautiful drawer ready to fill with pictures and snippets of journaling plus I’ll be sending along the .pdf of journaling cards so you can add to it for several years!

The main part of the drawer that we’ll be working on are the seasonal dividers:

Each one uses a different technique and product so if you’re looking to learn more about the supplies you already own or if you want to try some new ones before you buy, this is the class for you.

Luminarte Radiant Rain Mist

Dylusions Ink Spray and Heidi Swapp ColorShine

Distress Stain & Multimedium

Luminarte Primary Elements

Although the original idea was to use this drawer to write a single journal line each night and continue that for several years, I can really see it being a different type of mini album.

The first year of your baby’s life? Your first married year maybe? Or a way to document a first or last year of school? A few words, a bunch of pictures and you have the perfect display piece for family and friends to look through.

The ideas for this drawer really are endless and I’m so excited to see what you are all going to do with them!

Hope to see some of you at class – it’s going to be a memorable one!

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

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal

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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!