YLA2013 | Wrapup

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

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

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

So this past Sunday I taught the final class of the 2013 Yearlong Album. It was bittersweet: I loved the class peeps and we had a blast getting messy and playing with mixed media this year but by this point in the process I’m a little tired of looking at the same paper and am excited and ready for the new year to start! We have some amazing new product ordered for 2014 and a new concept – exclusive sketches! If you want more details, or to sign up, contact The Paperie.

Onto the final LO’s….

This a was a jam packed class because we made 5, yes FIVE, LO’s! I was so impressed with everyone when we actually got them all done!

November was all about Primary Elements, medium transfer, Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE), and Wendy Vecchi Translucent Embossing Paste:

I love the rugged, distressed look of the transferred frame.

And the paste over a stencil is fabulous. My favourite part though, is the shine and texture:

So cool!

The December LO’s had the fun element of used paper towel collage. It looks great as a background photo mat:

And even better cut into shapes and used as embellishments:

Seriously, isn’t that colour and texture awesome?

Finally, we did the last page of the album.

I wanted to keep it simple and picture free but many people in the class added a pic and they looked great!

Most of the LO’s from past year are at my Flickr gallery under the Yearlong Album 2013 set. The ones that are missing are the couple of months where I didn’t finish adding pictures to the LO’s. I’m hoping to get those done in the next couple of weeks and then I’ll update the set with the completed album. In the meantime, enjoy the rest!

Yearlong Album Class | 2013

19 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, Yearlong Album

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Scrapbook Layout, YLA2013

I promised the students in my YLA2013 class that I would post all the LO’s we’ve done so far. Except for the most recent class (October LO – UTEE resist) they are all now posted on my Flickr account, in the Yearlong Album 2013 set.

July – happy boy

And class peeps, just drop me a line if you have any questions!

YLA2013 | September 2013

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by Sara in Mixed Media, Yearlong Album

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, YLA2013

A couple of weeks ago we had another Yearlong Album class and made the September LO’s – and had some fun with Ranger Distress paint!

The first LO uses warm colours of paint and Distress Ink that matched perfectly with one of Molly’s dresses:

Layers and layers of colour and different mediums, plus some shimmery wood veneer and stickers for dimension:

The second LO has the same techniques, done in a slightly different way, and uses some cooler colours:

Love the look of water flicked over Distress Ink; it gives such great texture and interest:

And of course, I needed some fun embellies!

Once again, it was incredible to see what the class came up with as they used the techniques and made them fit with their own style. There were some amazing pages being turned out for sure!

Some ideas are starting to come together for next year’s class and I’m getting excited at the new direction. That being said, I’m also excited to bring back some of the older things from past classes that worked as well. The new Yearlong Album is going to be a fun mix!

YLA2013 | Album Cover (sarathings.com)
YLA2013 | August (sarathings.com)

YLA2013 | August

07 Monday Oct 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, YLA2013

I taught another session of the Year Long Album a week or so ago and we made our August LO’s. These might be among my favourites ever!

We broke out the Twinkling H2O’s, everyone got new stencils and some fun wood veneer, and we played with crayons – it was a good day!

The first LO used a gel medium resist under the photo:

After spraying our confetti with a bunch of mist colours, we added those for a little extra dimension:

A few flicks of contrasting Twinks and the base was done:

The second one used crayons for a more subtle (or more vibrant, depending on the brand of crayon used) resist:

The crayon I used above gave more of a colour difference while the one I demoed in class was a true resist:

Again, we misted and added confetti, this time in a less random pattern:

And, with the extra flicks of Twinks, it was finished:

They’re pretty simple but the techniques can be used for super cool backgrounds and the shimmer of the Twinks just adds to the awesomeness – have I mentioned my love for Twinks? 😉

It’s already October which means I’m thinking about next year’s class and sign ups will be coming sooner than later. We always have the best bunch of people, a ton of fun, and great products so if you’re interested in knowing more or signing up, call the Paperie and get put on the list!

YLA2013 | May class, part 2

29 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, Mixed Media, ScrapBook

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, The Crafter's Workshop, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

Sorry it’s so late – today had some unexpected happenings and news – but here is the second finished LO from this past Sunday’s class.

With this one, I layered a couple of mist colours and let them drip, plus I spattered shimmer mist to create sparkly water drops. I also smeared modeling paste over the stencil in such a way that most of the words/paste picked up colour and blended into the background. I did this on purpose so that the word “happy” stood out in white on the photo itself.

Finally, I layered stickers, paper scraps, circles, and stamps under the picture.

Lots of colour and movement here – perfect for a busy four-year-old boy!

YLA2013 | May class, part 1

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Techniques, Yearlong Album

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Mixed Media Layout, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

This past Sunday was another Yearlong Album class and we played with gesso, Dylusions Ink Spray, and modeling paste.

It was fun to see how much the gesso could change not only the look of the background page but also how it reacted to and played with inks.

I also showed how fun certain mists are when they interact with molding paste:

Mine was very subtle but I love how the paste picks up the mist colour as it dries! And look at the shimmery spots – Luminarte Radiant Rain mist is *so* shiny!

Of course, to finish it all off I used lots of layers of tissue, book print, stickers, stamping, and buttons – love the dimension!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the second page – I started it in the class as a demo of sorts so even the class peeps haven’t seen this one completed yet!

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!

Here we go again!

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by Sara in Classes, ScrapBook, Yearlong Album

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Classes, The Paperie, Yearlong Album, YLA2013

Another year of the Yearlong Album class is about to start and I’m super pumped about this one! It’s going to be less monthly themed than in the past, though it will still work perfectly for documenting each month, and it’s going to be a fun mixed media journey!

For a teaser, I thought I’d show the cover page we’ll be doing for the album. I won’t get into all the details, I’ll keep those for class right now, but I love how it turned out!

Most of the pages we make this year will be adhered to or made directly on the page protector itself, giving us the page protector as a large pocket to house memorabilia.

As you can see, the cover page is on canvas, not paper!

We’ll be using stencils along with fun and different media…

There will be some great shimmer and layering…

And awesome texture!

The only thing not included in the class are all the wood veneer pieces since I really want people to personalize this LO. So, if you’re signed up, start hunting for bits and bobs that you want to add to make the cover page really you!

I’ve also just learned that there may be a kit or two left! We upped the numbers this year to make sure everyone who wanted to could take part and there’s still time to sign up! I’d love to see you there – it’s going to be an amazing, messy, creative, and wickedly fun year! Trust me, you don’t want to miss out on this one!

We’ll also be doing our first two page spread for the year and it’s a very cool one – follow me on twitter or instagram or search #YLA2013 to see the peeks I post while creating.