The Doctor & Ms. Longstocking

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, ScrapBook

Tags

Balzer Designs, Mixed Media Layout, Prima ColorBloom, Stampendous Embossing Enamel, The Crafter's Workshop, Wink of Stella

Molly asked for almost a year to be Pippi Longstocking for Halloween and Gabe, as usual, just wore what I brought home for him and loved it!

While I was at the Paperie Retreat I just wanted to play a bit with some pastes, powders, and sprays – This was the outcome. It’s not exactly what I wanted but it was still fun to play! I do love the texture of the bubbled paste and embossing enamel, especially when mixed with Prima ColorBloom Sprays and Freckled Fawn silver puffy hearts:

And these gold Thickers are my new faves!

Plus, look at the sparkle on the wood veneer from the Wink of Stella pens – I’m a big fan of the white one, it’s so cool!

Have you had fun just playing lately? What products are you using these days – I’m always on the lookout for new ones!

Cheers!

Sweetness | My Favourite Things 2015 (& Happy Thanksgiving Canada!)

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Balzer Designs, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, Prima Color Bloom, Stampendous Embossing Enamel, The Crafter's Workshop

Back in June, a local photographer, Stacy Breen-Crane, was offering mini photo shoots with the proceeds going to charity. I jumped right on board and got some amazing pictures of Molly and Gabe at the park on one of the only nice days we had that month! They were perfect to use in our July class with lots of Prima Color Bloom sprays.

We layered mist through a stencil, then modeling paste through a large stencil, then more paste through the same, but smaller, stencil. All of that was heated in between to overdry and bubble up the paste, making lots of gorgeous texture. Then, we sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. And dripped. And tossed on some Stampendous embossing enamel while the spray was still wet. Look at the awesome texture!

As if that wasn’t enough shine, we dusted Perfect Pearls over the spray to take down the stickiness (thanks to Cathie for that fabulous tip!)

You can see there’s also gold thread under the photo, and we finished with some sticker labels and rubons:

Believe it or not, the second LO is almost identical, including the sprays. Just to show how different these colours can look depending on how much you spray and how you layer them, I used the exact same colours but in different order and intensity:

We also sprinkled the embossing enamel on the paste before we dried it, which allows it to cover a completely different area than the first LO.

There’s still tons of shimmer and texture, just done in a slightly different way:

We had a ton of messy fun doing this one, and it was incredible to see how different all the LO’s were, even when people used the same products and colours.

For my fellow Canadians, it’s Thanksgiving – enjoy, eat lots, and have fun doing your thing!

Cheers!

Snuggle Bunny | My Favourite Things 2015

02 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, My Favourite Things, ScrapBook

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Balzer Designs, Color Lab, Marion Smith Designs, Mixed Media Layout, My Favourite Things, The Crafter's Workshop

This month was packed with two Fave Things classes. The second one introduced a fun new product that I’m loving these days – Color Lab by Marion Smith Designs . If you’re new to mixed media, a fan of mists, want something easy and portable for crops or traveling or just want more colour options then this is the product for you! The class peeps loved it and had an awesome time picking out their colour recipes.

First up, we made mist and sprayed the background. Then we made coloured paste and made the layer under the photos. Next we heat embossed gold (or silver on the second LO) over Ranger Texture Paste. Finally, we added some awesome rubons and metallic thread. Layers, layers, layers!!!

Look at that texture and all the fun bits! Love it!

For a bit of a change, I went with green and silver here, with the same base mist colour.

And look at the sparkle on those alphas! I kind of liked them a lot. 🙂

I have some fun ideas for the next class – thinking cheesecloth, drywall tape, and watercolour pencils….. Should be fun!

Cheers!

Seasonal Canvas | Spring

12 Monday May 2014

Posted by Sara in Canvas, Classes, Mixed Media

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Class, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, mixed media canvas, Silks by Luminarte, The Crafter's Workshop

This week I’m teaching the second of my Seasonal Canvas Classes. I’ve already gotten Winter behind me (in canvas anyway, the weather here is another story!) and we’ll be making the Spring one Thursday night.

Isn’t is fun? I love the fun colours in the kite and, although I am definitely no sketch artist, I’m happy with my little girl silhouette. That being said, she does have what Molly called, “Crazy, wild hair!

And look at that texture! The stencils I used both happened to be by Balzer Designs for The Crafter’s Workshop and the dimension they add to a canvas is awesome!

We’re using our regular deep-edge 6×6 canvas – love these!

I think one of my favourite things about this class is that you can do all four classes and have a full set or just do one and still have a great decor piece for your home! There’s still a spot or two left so if you’re local and want to forget about all that ice we have here today, call The Paperie to sign up and join us.

P.S. I also know that you wouldn’t fly a kite by holding the tail but it’s my canvas and I can do what I want! Artistic licence, right? 😉

Art Journal pages – finally!

04 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by Sara in Art Journal, Mixed Media

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Art Journal, Dina Wakley, Mixed media, Ranger, The Crafter's Workshop

Yeah, so the posting of my Art Journal pages just didn’t happen yesterday. C’est la vie, I’ll show them to you today!

Our Art Journal night was all about colour and it was fun, fun, fun. As a side note, Dina Wakley’s book Art Journal Freedom is a fabulous reference book for colour theory – and a bunch of other things too!

Out first page was about monochromatic colour, though mine ended up being more analogous, which was fine with me:

Some reduction stenciling ala Dina Wakley, a pop of contrast colour through a Ronda Palazzari stencil for The Crafter’s Workshop, and some awesome Dina Wakley Media stamps for Ranger. I also added a pop of colour on one of the hearts:

I also added a doodled border with my new favourite Sharpie White Paint Pen – it’s all kinds of goodness.

The second page was all about split complementary colours:

I used Silks glaze so my complementary colours are quite muted. I like it but I think I’m going to go back in and punch it up a bit. I already did that a little by flicking deep orange paint splatters but I want more. This page isn’t really finished yet, I don’t think.

I added a cut out face from Dina Wakley’s stamps and painted circles which I then journaled in.

Like it overall, but it definitely needs something more. We’ll have to see…

Also, go to Julie’s blog today – she’s got her weekly Art Journal everyday post up and you can link up and/or see lots of inspiring pages over there!

February | YLA2014

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

October Afternoon, Ranger, Studio Calico Wanderlust, The Crafter's Workshop, YLA2014

This past weekend I taught the second Yearlong Album class for 2014. More fun times with sketches and I broke out the new Tim Holtz Distress Marker Spritzer too!

Everyone was given a pack of new October Afternoon chipboard stars and hearts for this month’s class and I’m totally in love with them:

Aren’t they great?

We layered up some of the fabulous Wanderlust papers, along with some Simple Stories diecuts (stamped with my fave roller stamp):

And had fun playing with the aforementioned marker spritzer and my favourite The Crafter’s Workshop stencils to ground our photos. It all came together in a great double LO:

As always, people went their own way – used different papers, added extra photos, changed up the LO to suit them. I think that’s my favourite part of this class, everyone takes what I do and then bends it do it works for them – awesome!

I’m a busy bee again at the moment, trying to get some LO’s and canvases done for May classes so keep and eye on my Instagram and Twitter feeds for peeks of all that!

I’m planning to post some Art Journal pages tomorrow that I started in Cathie’s class last week – it was another excellent one and I love what I did! Check back tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have that ready for you.

just be.

23 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by Sara in Art Journal

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art Journal, Balzer Designs, Blazonry, Chevron Tiles, Dina Wakley, The Crafter's Workshop

While Dina Wakley was in town teaching in all her fabulousness last weekend we all got into a small conversation about Art Journaling – is it really Art *Journaling* if you don’t journal?

And I don’t journal – I play.

So I decided to push myself and start. I have actually added some journaling to almost all my pages and have enjoyed every second.

Then I took some of my unfinished pages and went to work on them. This is one of my faves – I love the background so much that it has taken me this long to cover it up! I always tell classes when I teach, “Don’t get attached,” and I got attached. It was time to bite the bullet and move on.

This is how it turned out:

I love that the background is still peeking through with some subtle colour:

And aren’t all those layers and doodles fun?

I especially like the pop of colour behind the Dina Wakley stamp – it really draws your eye to the figure and the start of the journaling:

I’m totally inspired to keep journaling now, and am more excited than ever to play and make a hot mess – after all, there’s always a way to turn it around!

ICAD 2013 | June 11: I am perfect

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD, Mixed Media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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!

ICAD 2013 | June 10:creativity

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Distress Stain, ICAD, kidart, The Crafter's Workshop

This was a fun playing around, turned out better than I had hoped card.

I started with loads of Rock Candy Crackle Paint in the middle of the card. Once that finally dried I did layers of Distress Stain. Many, many layers!

Over that I smeared Viva Modeling Creme and had to wait again while that dried. I finally stamped the sentiment and walked away – too much waiting around for this one!

I love the texture of the crackle paint mixed with the shine of the crackle paint and the Modeling Creme:

Love the final product but, since I’m not the most patient person, the waiting made me crazy!

Molly did the best card ever today:

ICAD 2013 | June 4: meow

05 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Sara in ICAD

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

ICAD, Luminarte, Stencils, The Crafter's Workshop, Twinkling H2O's

My brother was here from BC for a month and his girlfriend joined him this past week. But today they left to go home again. 😦

And for those of you who don’t know Canadian geography that well, Mount Pearl and Vancouver are about as far apart as you can possibly get. They’re waaaaaay over there on the west coast. Boo.

So, in honour of “Uncle Grayma,” I made this ICAD:

Confused? Well, if I ever find it I’ll post a link to a YouTube video of Graham, serenading a friend of his with a composition of his own. I’m assuming it’s his own, I don’t think anyone else in the world would claim it.

He simply plays his guitar and sings, “Meow, meow, meow,” over and over. Hilariously funny to me, maybe not so funny to you all but I’m going to make you suffer through anyway. As soon as I find the link….

I used some new Twinks on this one because 1. they’re new, 2. they’re shimmery, and 3. green in Graham’s favourite colour. It actually runs in the family – Matthew (my other brother), Gabe, and I all claim green as ours as well. It must be genetic!

And since I can’t seem to do anything without some dimension, I added light molding paste through one of my fave stencils (thanks again, Julie! You make the best designs!)