Love You, You Rock, You are the Best

19 Friday Apr 2013

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

Tags

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? 🙂

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.

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!

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!

YLA2013 | Album Cover

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

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

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Album cover, Luminarte, Mixed media, Ronda Palazzari, Silks, Stencil, The Crafter's Workshop, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

This may be one of my favourite projects ever. The colours, the texture, the dimension, the shine and, hello! That stencil.

Seriously people, that stencil may be my favourite of all time, maybe even edging out the Pomegranate one. Yes, it’s that good. It’s so good that I could even say I’m in love with Ronda Palazzari for designing it and Jamie at The Crafter’s Workshop for making it. I love it so much that I made sure everyone in my Yearlong class got the 12×12 one as well.

Moving along, this lovely project also happens to be the album cover we are making for the Yearlong 2013 class. Obviously, as it is a mixed media album no one will have the exact same cover but I’ll be teaching all the techniques I used and showing how I got that awesome texture (hint: teabags may have been involved!).

I also used modeling paste which made the hearts pop:

And gave fabulous dimension to the spine:

The paints I used were Luminarte Silks to give it that awesome shimmer and shine:

And for those who don’t have Silks yet (I stress the word yet, they are a necessity!) I’m working on a way to use your regular acrylics and make them into a faux shimmer glaze. If it works, I’ll do a tutorial some Tuesday soon.

If you can’t already see the reason I love the Confetti stencil, here’s why:

It’s like paint spatters, and blobs of molding paste, and quirky hearts all thrown together with great, but still imperfect, border to tie it all together.

And here’s a closeup of the front so you can really see how it all came together:

The back is very similar, but the paints blended a little differently. Plus, I still think I’m going to add a small camera stamp and my signature:

I had truly planned to do an album title and some decoration but I couldn’t bear to cover this up so… I guess we’ll have to go with Happy as an album title! 🙂

I’ll be back next week with the LO for this month, so look out for that later and keep an eye on Instagram (#YLA2013) for sneaks of it!

Weekend of Fun | Dylusions Technique Tag Album

18 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mini Album, Mixed Media, Techniques

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Archival Ink, Dylusions, Ink Spray, Mini Album, Mixed media, Ranger, Weekend of Fun

Well here it is, the last sneak peek into this weekend’s classes!

And this might be the class I’m most excited to teach – the tag mini album! I made a similar one in Orlando but amped it up and added a few more techniques especially for this class – I hope people are ready to get inky and messy!

I stuck with red, pink, orange, and yellow for mine, and added one of my favourite Dylusions sentiment stamps to the front:

Along with the main manilla Jumbo #12 tags, we are also using kraft:

and black:

And just for fun, here’s some little sneaks of a couple more pages!

We’ll be stamping, with my favourite waterproof ink, Archival:

And colouring with Ink Sprays:

Have you signed up for any (or all!) of the classes yet? You should, we’re going to have a blast! And, as a bonus, you get to go home with some great product, especially in this class! 😉

I’ll try to find time to tweet and instagram some pics over the weekend so if you’re too far away to attend or have to work all weekend (we’ll miss you Lori!) then check out my feeds to see some of the fun!

Dear January,

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Sara in Cards, Classes, Mini Album, Mixed Media, Yearlong Album

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Canvas, Classes, Impression Obsession, Mixed media, Ranger, The Paperie

Please don’t kick my ass.

I know you’re going to be a busy month.

Hugely busy.

Remember in December when I did 5 new classes in 10 days? Well January, that is kind of what you’re going to be like.

On top of the 6, count ’em, 6 new classes I’ll be teaching at The Paperie, I have my regular Design Team work for Simple Scrapper and am working on a special project for them as well.

And I still have Paperie Picks posts to write and of course, this place here.

So please be kind to me, January, I’m going to need it!

I’m looking forward to the final Yearlong 2012 class and to just being able to say goodbye to that one after a year.

2012 Album Cover (& Ella!)

I’m already planning, planning, planning for the new one and can’t wait for all the fun techniques we’re going to do in the 2013 class! I do know that brand new Crafter’s Workshop stencils and mixed media gels and gesso will be a small part of the new kit!

And I’m really excited for the 4 classes I’m teaching in one giant fun-filled weekend. Ranger, Impression Obsession, Dylusions, canvases, cards, mini albums, and more on January 19 and 20 for what I call the Orlando classes. There will be great products included, awesome techniques, and fabulous projects. I know I’m going to have a blast but boy oh boy, I have some major prep work to do!

But first, I’m teaming up with Cathie once again for a Designer Duo class in Mixed Media! She’ll being using those techniques on a LO while I’ll be teaching a canvas. This is my favourite type of project to do so I’m stoked to get everyone else loving this art form too.

Happy Memories

So yes January, I’m excited and looking forward to you but please, don’t throw anything else my way for a week or two!

You can learn more about all of my January classes at the Paperie here and call them to sign up for any or all. Sign-ups are still open for the new technique filled Yearlong Album 2013 too but call quick if you want to be part of that always sold out class!

Mixed Media Guest Post!

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

canvas, Luminarte, Mixed media, Silks, The Crafter's Workshop

I’m guest posting over at Krista’s blog today – go check out how I made this beauty!

Happy Memories

Tuesday Techniques and Tutorials aka Hello, my pretties!

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Sara in Tuesday Techniques, Tuesday Tutorials

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Claudine Hellmuth, Creative Imginations/Luminarte, Dylusions, Dylusions Ink Sprays, Mixed media, Ranger, Silks, Sticky Back Canvas

I had an awesome weekend at The Paperie Fall Retreat with all my buddies, playing, crafting, laughing, drinking, demoing…

The item I demoed is a new one for the Paperie and after my trip to Orlando in October, it was one that I knew had to be in the store! I was super excited when it showed up in time for the Retreat…

This is going to be more of a quick and simple overview introducing you to
Silks than an actual tutorial but I hope you like it anyway!

You’re going to need:

Supplies

Silks, Sticky Back Canvas, Craft sheet, paint brushes, Archival Ink, and stamps.

To begin, Silks are a Luminarte product, as in the people who make my beloved Twinks, so you know they’re going to be awesome and shimmery! They’re a water based acrylic glaze which means they’re not permanent or opaque but really fluid and translucent – and shimmery!

For the first tag (sorry there are no pictures of the process, my camera battery died and my little point and shoot just wasn’t up to the challenge, sad) I simply painted the Silks over the Sticky Back canvas, blending as I went, and let them dry, making a background. The beauty of these paints is that they don’t mix together and make mud colour – they just blend and stay gorgeous!

Once it was dry, I stamped the images in Archival Ink and then painted them in with more colours of Silks. As you will see, no muddy colours, just awesomeness! And great shine!

The second tag I made so I could show you how the Silks act as a resist. I stamped the same images in Jet Black Archival on the Sticky Back Canvas and heat set them…

…then painted them in with the same colours of Silks as the first tag:

This looks all wet and messy because I have found that on canvas the paint covers better and easier if I wet the fabric first. You do want to be careful because if you use too much water (I have 4-5 layers of paint and water on the house) you will get this wicking of the paint happening. Not an issue for this tag, I have plans to disguise it and the style of the stamp lends itself to an imperfect effect anyway.

Once the paint was dry, I misted over it with Dylusions Spray Inks and then misted lightly with water to blend them a bit.

You can already see that the Silks are resisting the sprays and keeping their intense colours – love it!

I’m impatient, so I used my cloth to blot up the excess moisture and then heat set the tag:

You can also see that the shimmer comes through and resists the mist too – so cool!

And a good black mixed media pen disguises the wicking flaws!

I didn’t do anything with the tags except add crinkle ribbon because I really just like them as they are. The ribbon for the first tag was painted with the Silks and it has awesome shimmer plus is just a little stiff – enough to hold some shape.

See the top of the tag? Easy and cool technique that I’ll try to remember to do next week!

Here’s the first tag – painting Silks over Silks on canvas:

I love the softness and overall shimmer of this one.

And the second tag – Silks resist with mist:

I think this is my favourite – I love the contrast of the shimmer paint and the matte mist and the colours are amazing!

Click on any of the pictures to make them bigger and see the shimmer a little better – I only wish I had the skills to really photograph it!

Let me know if you have played with Silks and show me what you’ve done – I’d love to see it! And if you don’t have any, go get some, really, they’re worth it!