New Journal!

I recently bought Dyan Reavley's new Journal by Ranger. It is huge & awesome with an inside pocket, different papers inside including manila card which I want to work with. I have had it for a few months but was scared to start working in it. May be not scared but it is so pretty naked and pristine I wasn't sure about adding my inkiness. A tip someone gave me - it could even be Dyan is to make starting in a journal less daunting start on an inside page not the first page. So that is what I have done-made a start. I had to start her new book  using Dylusions-it only seemed fair.

The colors are bold, rich & vibrant. I added some stamping & Stampotiques lovely happy rain lady along with her spider friends. I felt she needed some rain so using the Crafter's Workshop stencil with modeling paste seemed like a good place to go. She is definitely not finished but I have officially started in my book. Next step is to leave it near me while I work as a wipe off book to get some more background going! Now go do some art!

A Quote Favorite

 Here is another of my Stampotique creations that I posted on their blog this month.

 

"When I saw this cute monster hugging the owl (my little hoo hoo by Kira Nichols) I had to have it! Of course I also had to have her owl tree. I started this page in my re-purposed book so the background is book print. This art journal is home to my favorite quotes. For the page acrylic paint is used as the background. The leaves at the top of the page are stenciled with archival. When stamping on acrylic it is best to use archival ink, the paint makes a slippery surface causing other inks to smear easily. I randomly stamped the mushrooms at the bottom of the page.  Tissue paper was stamped with more mushrooms (black ink) which were then cut out & carefully adhered with decoupage glue. This helped to create depth on the page. After stamping the cute monster and coloring him in he was pop-doted on the page adding even more depth. I put the saying that comes with him on an inked tag. The owl branch stamp and quote finished the page off. What I like about this page is the depth created. The monster cutie looks like he is standing in a field of mushrooms. What is your favorite cutie monster?

Challenge Time-SDC76

Hi there! My last post for the month is up at Stampotique. We are wrapping! My directions for this cool gift wrap along with more photos, are on the site so check it out here. If you want to do the challenge you can go to the designer challenge site here.

Smushasha

This was an art journal background page that I had done ages ago & it was just waiting for something to come along. It was waiting for the "Smushasha" stamp by Daniel Torrente over at Stampotique. She is awesome & creepy-love her! Reminds me of the mermaid creatures from Harry Potter. I had done layers of paint on top of a dictionary paper & added cheesecloth with some mica bits-making it look like a fishing net. My octopus friend (another of Daniels) is stamped on glossy card stock and actually painted with alcohol inks-he looks pretty cool in real life. A bit of random stamping & some splashes of crackle paint, the page is done! I have a layout up (under the sea) using the same stamps at Stampotique designers challenge today if you want to check it out here.

Project Life Journal Cards

 I was playing with my Stampotique stamps & decided to make some journal cards. Super easy-paper, some stenciling & a stamp.

  I have a stack of these ready to go when I need them. This is also a fun way to play with new stamps when you get them home.

I use them for scrapbook layouts & now project life- also a quick way to customize my journal cards. Imagine all the possibilities!

Stampotique Design #1

I am thrilled to be the designer of the month over on the Stampotique blog. Here is my first project I did for them. My next one will be up on the 14th of November.

For step by step directions go to the my Stampotique post here.

Collage Attempt

I want to do more magazine collage. Mainly because my students have a real interest in it so I need to practice! Here we go. My background was mainly a wipe off page that I added stamping to. I picked my images (love the gecko) and assembled them. Added some doodling and my saying. I used the sharpie poster markers for the doodles which work great on the slick magazine prints. I definitely think I need more practice!

Class with Dina

 In September my best bud Suzie- My Time To Play - & I journeyed to NYC to take a class with Dina Wakely at the Ink Pad. Here is the inky fun layout I did about the class. It is taken on Hipstamatic so the quality is funky (love it). What I really like about this layout was I took photos of my background that we did in class and printed them out on paper, than lined them up on the left hand side of the layout. I also took a business card from the store, distressed it & than burned the edges-totally love this!!!! I have a feeling I will be burning more in the future. Of course being safety girl I had water at the ready so as not to burn down my scraproom! The photos were taken by Suzie. We had a great time in the class & learned how to make the cutest book. In fact my 8yr old Trinny & I have been working on another one together. Dina did a great job teaching, and Suzie got her hands covered in ink. What more could you ask for?

Purple Funk

I have been in a purple funk lately- maybe it is the weather. Fall makes me sad & overwhelmed. Add to it Hurricane Sandy and I am blablabla. In honor of my purple funk-(sometimes it is good to wallow) and because I have nothing to complain about compared to those poor folks in NJ/NY many who have had devastating losses or are suffering from the basic necessities...I am going to art my funk away with daily art in November. No extra pressure as that is not what I need but just some fun play time everyday to get me back on track. Here is my second day (my first will show up later in the month on the Stampotique blog). 

 I took already made background paper & turned it into a tag. Made me feel great to use up some stash (crazy right?).

One of the questions I get asked a lot in my art journal classes is "what do I write about?". I love quotes and often I will use a quote to prompt the journal writing. I thought today, what about journaling on a tag? What about making your tag personal? My daughter is totally obsessed with The Warriors books so that became the theme for my tag. They are about cats and conveniently Stampotique has this awesome little cat stamp. My tag is heavily painted so to help kitty show up I smeared some gesso in the space where he was going-helps the little guy stand out. 

Now maybe my tag will make it onto a scrapbook page! Have fun today & art.

Stampotique Yay!

I am thrilled to be the Stampotique designer for the month of November. I am going to be playing with their stamps & posting some fun stuff in the next couple of days! Check out the announcement here.

Boo!

Hi scrappers. I am the guest designer at ScrapbooksPlus for the month of October. Here is the project I did.

My second favorite holiday is Halloween & every year I dress up for the big night. This was a photo taken about 6 Halloween's ago- Time flies! I covered a 12x12 paper (great way to get rid of old paper you don't like) with pieces of various papers. I gave it a wash of gesso to help all the papers blend & tone it down a bit. I stamped randomly and with great enthusiasm. Next the photo was double matted & the edges distressed.  A few stickers here & there & voila done!

Happiness

You know when you have a project that nags at you & stares at you & taunts you but you just can't seem to get it done? I have been working on thinking about procrastinating on making a cover for one of my finished art journals. I like to do the cover last for a number of reasons- mainly practical as it is hard to work on a book with a tarted up cover. Also it is kind of an exciting reward and a great way to finish the book. I speak like I know what I am talking about but in truth I think this is the first book that is entirely finished that has a cover which can be altered. One day a few weeks ago I just grabbed it & knocked it out. I am so excited by this cover I can hardly stand it. For one thing I made it all from my stash. 

Those special valuables that I can't seem to put on a project because the project isn't special enough. You probably don't have that problem but I hoard these items for the Apocalypse and lets face it I will be too busy surviving to scrap...hello. Never the less these special items get pulled out & put back because the project is not worthy. Not today! I used some. It really is the simple things in life because I get so happy every time I look at the cover- mainly because it is a finished project done entirely for me. Not a class or the family or designing just mine-yay! Love it love it! I hope you do too!

Fund Raising Fun

Last Saturday I participated in a great event for a fantastic cause. My friend Suzie Bentz over at My Time To Play had a crop-fundraiser to benefit juvenile diabetes. Her son has the disease and it is a daily struggle for the family so of course I wanted to participate. First of all it was the best crop EVER! We had a ton of fun-everyone played nice and we all cropped away. There were hourly door prizes ( I won a Cricut cartridge!) and of course the grand price of a Spellbinders Grand Calibur package worth over $300. There were also make'n takes from various teacher/friends and this is the one I did- a mini canvas. I helped some non-inky folks get very inky & they had fun in the process- that is my role in life to bring people to the ink!!! It was a fun fun day & almost $1500 was raised to help find a cure.

Scrap Inky

I am inkier now than ever before & sometimes that makes it hard for me to traditionally scrapbook. This layout is inky but has traditional elements like chipboard pieces, flowers, journal box- they are all echo park. The journal box was distressed & the stencil I used dylusions spray but not as a spray I put it on an piece of foam and applied like it was ink. What I love about this technique I got the brilliant color of the sprays but the precision  of using ink. I randomly stamped on top of the stenciling like I would in my art journal.

 I think this is an original of mine-I usually write on the back if it is scraplifted...I don't want to ever not give credit etc. It was definitely inspired by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer & may be a copy so go check out her blog!

Project Life Journal Box

The challenge of project life can be coming up with photos for a spread on a week where I didn't write everything down. I always have the photos but sometimes not the details for a particular week. I started a "filler list" of stories, daily occurrence, or not date specific events to fill in if I don't have enough. Here is one of those photos. I took a picture of my sons walking home from morning swim practice. They did this almost every morning for 6 weeks so I could use it at anytime. What I love about the photo is they have no idea I am poised with my zoom lens to get a natural photo of them chatting as they make their daily journey. 
I created this journal box and used Echo Park paper "For the Record 2". I took some of the paper and added the stickers, photo and journal block-bam a daily snapshot memory.

Tim Holtz Was Here!!!!

ScrapbooksPlus Art Journal Club plus Mario, and Tim-photos by Laura and her faithful camera.

 Those of you who know me know I love Tim Holtz- heck Tim knows I love Tim Holtz. Yes I told him the last time I saw him. The art journal club I run counts the number of times I say his name in a class. This is not a crazy stalker love (well it used to be but...I've grown) it is a wow- you are awesome kinda love. Awesome teacher, awesome designer, can I just stand next to you, so some of it will rub off? I had the chance to take Tim's classes at the Queens Ink in Md in August and yes you guessed it- awesome! Aside from his classes being crazy fun, filled to the brim with great instruction (trust me I already know a ton about the ranger products but I still learned) and super entertaining. Yes that's right entertaining- stories of hilarious mishaps in crafting. Even in a class of 100 students Tim manages to be accessible. You would think you wouldn't get to say word one but he is always around to give a comment or tell a story or answer a question.  He patiently and thoroughly answered all my teaching questions, trust me there were a few.

 Here Tim is telling me my project is "perfect" that's right Tim told me I was perfect...(listen I take it where I can get it). Luckily my friend Laura immediately seized her camera and got a photo. I am sitting next to my talented friend Deborah Mahnken.  

 Mario also was there to chat and his kitting is awe inspiring. As someone who has ran the vagabond to kit 20 kits, their output of 1000's is mind boggling. Throughout the 2 days these guys were super friendly and approachable and signed countless items and took many, many photos. Tim exemplifies the kind of teacher I want to be when I grow up. Although I think that his childlike enthusiasm might have something to do with his dynamic teaching...While my projects were almost finished in class I am slowly completing them. 1 out of 3 are finished so here is the one. It was the Pandemonium Quilt- aptly named for there was a lot going on in class. Mainly cause it was so much stinking fun. This project was jammed with technique and serves as a visual reminder of "what could I do next".

Of course I had to add shrinky dink Umbrella Man!

 

 The next time you have the opportunity to take Tim's classes seize it - well worth the price of admission!

SDC64: Combining Stamps

Over on the Stampotique Designers Challenge this week, is to make something that combines 2 stamps. Of course I love this idea & the challenge immediately became well what about 3...on this back to school art journal layout. Every now & then I like to add photos (printed on paper) to my journals,back to school is the perfect time for this. This page started out with dylusions spray, random stenciling & the circle was done with texture paste. Once the paste was dry I added more spray but with a paint brush so I could control it, keeping the purple in the circle. I stamped the border with Stampotique's ribbon boarder#2 in archival ink and using my dylusions (in waterpens) colored it in. The reason I love using dylusions this way is the color is so vibrant & it builds on top of itself so the color really shows up. All you  have to do is take an empty water pen & after shaking the dylusions a bit fill the pen 3/4 of the way full-that's it done. I leave them at my desk with all the colors so I have quick access- very addicting! I added my title-stamped on paper & cut out with those old scissors we all have that we bought 10 years ago with funky edges. 

Next it was time to layer my stamps. Kitty & Mr. Stripes are from Stampotique and they are standing on the border, followed by stamp #3-an owl for kitty and a hat for spidey. I am very tempted to give owl a hat & make it 4 stamps! Head over to the Stampotique designers challenge site & see what they have cooked up over there!

Wear Teal

Today is wear teal day in awareness for ovarian cancer. I decided to honor this day with a tag. The stamps are from Stampotique and impression obsession. I was very happy to use the Prima flowers from my stash in my quest to actually use the products I own instead of "saving" them for the perfect purpose that never seems to come along. Sound familiar? My friend Suzie has done a wonderful layout with team Moxie & they are having a hop with prizes! Check out her blog at My Time To Play!

Stampotique Fun

I was playing around with my Stampotique stamps and bemoaning the end of summer-this is what I came up with. I took some craft resist paper, cut it with my tag die and spritzed with Dylusions sprays. Next came some random background stamping and than I added my cut-out "twinkie". Stampotique is having a blog hop that is going on right now. You can check out their new releases from the last 4 days as they blog hop with new stamp designs being showcased every day. You can catch the fun here. 

Stampotique Challenge SDC262

Hello blog land- This week over on Stampotique the challenge is to do a one layer card. For those of you who know me I am the layer girl, the more the better-if it doesn't look good just keep adding until it does. This was a good challenge for me. Normally I would stamp on card stock & cut out the image than add them to my piece, but this is one layer. In order to stamp this super inked card I used a mask to create the space to stamp after the mists and inks were dry. I started with printed paper to add more dimension but not extra layers-aha! Finally I added stickles on the circles and Glimmer Glam on the hexagon to bring out the glitter Enjoy!!!!

Steampunk Box

 My Moxie friend Suzie over at My Time To Play has become my submission manager-in other words she finds contests and blogs that suit my style and gives me great input on websites which I might like. This is a new site for me but I love it!!! http://snazzysdesignteamblog.blogspot.com/ they have great designs and ideas as well as a fabulous store to help my stamp addiction. Very exciting- they are having a steampunk contest so here is my submission: I hope you like it!!!!

Here is one of my fav to date, my steam punk cigar box. Lots of Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz (TH) I am going to add a handle & turn it into a purse- or have it as a wall art, still undecided. There is a whole lot of details in this which I love-tons of stamping both obvious & subtle. Here are a few details: 

I started with grunge clocks, (upper left corner) covered with decoupage glue & paper than once dry rubbed ink and stickles across them so they are sparkly fun.

 

 I hand made the flower to match the colors of my box, adding feathers and a fabric brad. The little side flowers started as plain paper that were glimmer glazed and heat embossed gold around the edges. 

Another detail is this G45 copper flower made special by stamping clocks, script & swirls in archival ink than adhering to a TH ornate plate that was colored with glaze.

In fact I feel so inspired by going through this process I may have to go make another one...

More Junk Journal

Summer is cruising along & I have less time to play. Trying to get in the family fun before school and fall sports start up. In my next post you will see the start of this vacation junk journal. Here are a few more pages. I am loving how this is just simple inky fun- getting the photos down even if sometimes they are a bit small.

Junk Travel Book

Traveling On vacation I really wanted to create some of my travel book while I was there. Part of vacation time for me is working on my personal projects & enjoying the freedom that creates. The inky goodness needs to be portable, quick and easy so I can snatch some me time in between vacay fun. I found this project on Ronda Palazzari's bloq & thought it was just perfect for my trip. Especially because I started it ahead of time, well the night before! This project has the junk book look & feel. Like Ronda, I also started with a moleskin book & covered it with the new super cool Trader Joe's recycle bag that had the perfect theme for my Florida trip! The cover will be finished last & I plan on using the handle from the bag as a wrap around closer strap. Here are the pages I have so far:

 

To print out the photos in the mixed sizes, I copied the photos to a publisher page & re-sized them and then printed them out. I tried not to get too picky about sizing & page layout just had fun slapping ink on the pages, printing in various sizes. The goal was to just have fun and get the memories on the pages!

I brought random ephemera, inks, stencils & stamps. My new favorite obsession is washi tape so I brought beachy colors & natural that I can color. You will notice the themes can be random-for example my beach page has Tim Holtz stamps on it from his bitty grunge set-not a fish in sight but I think it works as the ink colors are beachy. Same thing with my Imagine page- gears & bricks not so much association with the beach but to me it works because of the ink colors, just adds an edgy, cool feel to it. I had soooooo much fun playing in this book in fact I gotta go "spend travel recovery day" playing in it!!! Later!

This was a fun page & a great way to add some inky goodness. I started with beautiful paper from Kaisercraft & added some inky stenciling. I put together a cluster of metal, buttons, and a Kaisercraft wood butterfly. Gave it a few spritzs of glimmer mist a la Anna Dabrowska.  I added my fun hipstamatic photos. This is a cool iphone app that makes the photos you take look like good old Polaroids. Some bling & ephemera- done. Super easy but looks fabulous up close!

Happy Birthday USA

Hi there people in blog land. Today I am posting a layout I did for a class recently that featured beeswax. I love working with beeswax & finally opened my Melting Pot by Ranger. One of the challenges for me is I don't always feel like bringing out the machines, it seems like a bit of an effort when you just want to quickly add something to a page. Other times I want to work on multiple projects at once & I don't mind dragging stuff out. Sound familiar? The great thing about beeswax is all you need is your heat gun to add a touch or more. I use the ranger heat gun to start getting the beeswax to melt & move to the standard but "windier" version to move the wax around. The standard gun is trickier to melt the wax as it blows the pellets, but you just need to keep the gun further away until the wax starts to melt & gradually move it closer to the project. 

I started with corrugated cardboard & added printed paper with decoupage glue. Next step was some dylusions sprays with stencils & random stamping to create the base. I layered my objects in with wax. Heating a thin layer & embedding the objects into the wax, than fusing the wax with a bit of heat. A fun technique is the stamp. I stamped the star on the bottom layer, put a thicker layer of wax over the area & let it cool a bit. When the wax was still soft using a stylist follow the lines of the stamp to create grooves in the wax. Add layers of wax over this area with a brush. Only natural bristle brushes work in wax as the heat melts synthetic. Also your brush cannot be cleaned, only reused with wax projects. Add the wax lightly, moving the brush in the same direction. The wax will adhere to itself. When the desired depth is reached touch up the lines with your stylist if you need to. 

Another product that works well with the wax is perfect pearls powder. I dusted the powder over the cooled wax around the edges to create a nice shimmer.  It binds to the wax naturally. If the powder is not adhering well either heat the wax just a touch to warm it or swipe it with perfect medium & apply the powder. Practice makes perfect so just go play!

Journal Box

 I was working on my project life & made what I think is a super cool journal box and it was so easy! I had taken a picture of the victory page of my son's epic computer game. I  asked him about the game & wrote it out and printed it from my computer. Using a stencil and 2 of the spring distress inks decided to sponge the color on with a blending tool. The cool, cool thing about these 2 colors is they blend together to make a really pretty green color so where the colors meet I have this 3rd color. Love it!

Here is a picture of the quote on my project life page. Yay I have 6 weeks of my entire life down!!!! All forward movement counts!