The Journal My Favorite Eileen Hull Die

Hello Eileen Hull fans, I am here today with my favorite die to date-the Journal. This month the Inspiration team has been playing with their favorite dies. There is some amazing projects being posted so make sure you check out Eileen's blog to see what has been going on! 

I made this wonderful Under the Sea Journal. The cover was made of fabric with Thermo*O*Web foam adhesive & the cool embellishments are 49th & Market. The book is also a new travel class for me!!!! As soon as I get my schedule up I will link it but if your local store is interested let me know. My email is karenbearse@gmail.com or the fastest way to contact me is to Facebook message (link on right hand side of blog). 

The Journal I made has the possibility to hold 4 books. The cool thing is, the books just slide in & out of the elastic binding. Let's say you are on vacation. You can slide a book out, pop it in your purse and keep notes and ephemera in it as you travel. 

The paper & wood pieces I used on the first few books is from  Kaisercraft Beach Collection. 

 I used Graphic 45 paper as the background on the 3rd book. I plan on adding to this book as it evolves using paper & ephemera from both these lines. I hope you enjoyed a brief look into this journal! Let me know if you want to be added to my class email list. More to come & I hope you have the chance to get inky!!

Experiments with Marabu Mixed Media

Hello fans of Mix Media, I am inking with Marabu products today. The Mix Media Monthly team got to play with a few of their products this month. I decided to make a few art cards while experimenting. To see how these products perform read on! If you would like to win some see the challenge at the end of this post.

Here is Art Card #1, I will be posting a few more on my Instagram over the next few days so follow me over there to see what I come up with. https://www.instagram.com/karenbearse/

These are the products I was given. A stencil called Mandala, an Art Crayon in Sunshine Yellow, an acrylic Art Spray in Sunshine Yellow & Acryl Mousse in White (pastel paste). 

Acryl Mousse

I started with, (to me) the obvious what happens when the paste is used with a stencil? The paste is a gritty yet fairly smooth consistency. It held it's shape up well when scraped through the stencil. Dry time was 15-20 minutes for a thin layer, 30-40 for a heavier stenciled layer. I love the texture it creates.

Art Crayon

The best way I would describe this is- "if a Gelato & a Distress Crayon had a baby it would be this Art Crayon". Medium softness, water reactive with a good level of pigment, works better on a gesso surface. It is also "wipe proof" in 24 hours which is nice for layering. I did a test to see how the crayon would perform & was impressed with the results. This was just on card stock, it acted similar to the other products. I like how the pigment held up when water was added.  

I mixed a bit of the crayon with the Acryl Mousse & was impressed with how easily the crayon blended into the Mousse. The color saturation was also very good, ie: the paste did not just become a pastel color even though I did not use much crayon which indicates good pigment. Great way to color your mediums.

Art Spray

Billed as an Acrylic Spray that is highly pigmented, water soluble (when wet) with colors that blend. This I was very interested to play with as most sprays are watercolor & re-activate when water is added. Thus less desirable for creating layers. I found the spray went on easily with very good coverage. The color was bright & when water was dribbled while still wet, I could create water spots. Bonus when I dried it with a heat gun the color did not budge, even with a wet paintbrush and scrubbing. 

Let's Put Them Together

What happens when we put them together? I took my stenciled image & scraped the Acryl Mousse through it, let it dry. Next I added the crayon through the stencil on another part of the art card. The crayon blended easily through the stencil which was good. Using a baby wipe definitely helps this process. However I wasn't overly fond of the design I had created. User error!

I decided to blend out the crayon which was very easy to do & using Art Spray, misted over the stencil paste image. As it is an acrylic spray it did as expected which was to completely cover the white paste. 

Deciding that the white paste looked good, it was a simple fix to put the stencil back & add another coat of the mousse. I was surprised that the mousse stayed a perfect white, normally the spray color underneath bleeds through. That is the advantage of the acrylic spray. When dry it is fixed with no bleed through-hum.... 

Overall I thought the products performed really well. Really love the acrylic spray and the texture on the paste! Remember to hop over to Mix Media Monthly & participate in the challenge & you can win a prize package from Marabu Creative!

Tag Fun at Mixed Media Monthly

Hello Inky Friends, I have a post over on the Mix Media Monthly Challenge Blog today. We continue to play with hearts & love! Come join us for a chance to win $25 from Topflight Stamps. 

 I made a tag for my on-going #the100dayproject. This is way out of my normal style but I kinda like it & did get to use up some of my stash.

Here is the inspiration this month. We are playing with lots of red & hearts for February.

I added some gesso to start, this tag was the back of a resin tag. The gesso helped to give it a good foundation. I knew I wanted to add some collage elements so this is where my process started. 

Next step was to emboss. I stamped with Distress Oxide & then covered it in emboss powder. I like using Distress Oxide, it is great for embossing & that way if the powder comes off the image is still colored. 

The Silverster Kracher emboss color by Emerald Creek is red mixed with white.

This stamp is from a set by Carabelle Studios,  Steampunk The Butterfly Effect. 
Love that Steampunk set!

I continued to build my tag. More hearts were definitely needed. I used 2 colors of Distress Ink on the hearts. Picked Raspberry & Wilted Violet. 

Side bar: as I was stamping I put too much ink on my stamp so I stamped off on my agenda. This gave me an idea, to stamp over the image in black slightly off from the 1st image. Kinda cool. 

Here is the set the heart came from, that eye is pretty cool too. This set is also from Carabelle Studio called Mirror of the Soul by Birgit Koopsen. 

Time for more... I find sometimes projects go through a case of the uglies. The trick I use is to just keep adding until you find your way. In this case I added some shading & a quote. 

Then I added bling & a stacked flower. Now I may be overdoing it but of course I just kept going. 

I added some gears with star brads, and shadowing around the ephemera. Ok now I am done! Thanks for joining us at Mix Media Monthly, I hope you play along!!

Art Card with Darkroom Door Stamps

Hello Blogland! I decided to just play today but thought I would bring you along. I was lucky enough to receive some Darkroom Door Stamps & stencils at Creativation. So I decided this rainy, yuck Sunday would be a perfect time to play. 

Here is the art card I made starting with a piece of watercolor paper. I have been limping along in the #the100dayproject but have decided I need to move it and get this done before the next one starts!!  This is #59/100.

Starting off, adding some book paper randomly & topping that off with clear gesso. Next step was some paint. I just bought the latest Dina Wakley colors so let's go with those. The paint was applied using Dina's Media Tools. I just scraped on small amounts of paint all over the background. This made the paint very translucent so some of the book paper shows through.

Here are just a few of the new products Darkroom Door has. If you are in the US you can buy them at your local scrapbook store or online at Topflight Stamps.

While the background was drying I made my quote box by dry painting on a piece of card stock. Once  dry, a gesso wash was added to mute the colors. Now that the background paint was dry it was time to grab a stencil. Very exciting that Darkroom Door now has them!

I scraped texture paste through the stencil. Once that was dry randomly stamping on the raised areas seemed like a good idea. 

The quote was heat embossed with black so it would stand out. This saying is too perfect for me!

To finish the card off, took a tag from my stash and did  light wash with Peacock paint. I added a line from a poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans. 

Lastly some paint splatter & mark making. Life has been crazy busy & it was fun to take time out & just play. I hope you take some time out to get inky! 

*I am entering this card in Words & Paintery Challenge.

*Love this mood board from Mixed Media Place too, helped with the color inspiration. Love those feathers! Humm another project maybe. 

*Also fits brilliantly on A Vintage Journey challenge which is "melt it" I used black emboss on the quote stamp.

*Craft Stamper Blog has "Anything Goes" & the sponsor is Darkroom Door! 

Supplies:
Darkroom Door Stamps: Quote stamp- I am Creative, Correspondance
                                  : Stencil- Polka Dots- small.
Dina Wakley Paint- Eggplant, Marine, Peacock, Olive, Sedona, Bluff.
                            -Clear & White Gesso.
Ranger Ink- Texture Paste-Opaque
                -Emboss Ink & Powder.       

Mix Media Monthly February Challenge

Hello Blogland, I am here today with the Mix Media Monthly Challenge for February! We gals will be playing with the Love theme this month!! 

Creativation 2018 Journal Book

I decided to do another Bound Book, this little die is so addictive!! I just got back from Creativation 2018, the AFCI (Association For Creative Industries) annual trade show. Meeting up with designer & manufacturing friends from all over the world is the best part! I decided to make a book to house my pics & memories from the show. 

Here is the challenge prompt for this month, February the month of love. Please join us! The prize this month is a $25 gift certificate from Topflight Stamps.

I don't have a lot of love stamps but these Carabelle Stamps Doodle Art by Zorrotte fit the bill. I used the smaller heart stamp on the fabric background & then the larger ones were stamped & colored with Infusions. More on that later. 

Here is Part 1 of the video. 

Here is Part 2. 
*I am brand spanking new to video so please subscribe to my channel!! Very excited to make more.

I started by sandwiching fabric on both sides of DecoFoil Foam Adhesive. It comes in 6x12" or the Rebekah Meier brand comes in 9x12". Using the passport die, cut 2 pieces for the front & back covers. Next, using the Book Binding die cut the edges to create your book. The discs can be bought at Scrapbook/Hobby stores or Office Supply stores.

You can see my tutorial for this method of cutting here. My papers are a random assortment from my stash cut 4 3/4" x 3 1/4" then the corners were rounded. This is a great way to use scrap papers up!! 

Pulling out my ancient Sizzix die I cut some hearts out of corrugated cardboard. I was very happy to see that I could still use them with the Vagabond. Then pull up some of the top layer of the cardboard & paint the hearts letting the board show through. Distress the edges with wax. 

Wrap wire with beads around the hearts. Adhere with a strong glue like SuperTape. See the tucked in paper heart?

I stamped the larger hearts from the Carabelle set, with Archival Ink then cut them out. Next up, painted them in using PaperArtsy Infusions. Put a little dab of powder on the heart, activate the powder with a wet paint brush. Then it was just a matter of assembly. 

Here is a peak at the inside cover & the 1st page. You can see where I took the word Special Delivery from the fabric, it was also mounted on the foam adhesive to give it extra lift.

The numbers were painted to get the color I wanted in metallique paint. This is also a good shot of Eileen's cute Tag & Pocket die in action. Thanks for joining me today! Please hop on over to Mix Media Monthly & join in our challenge!!


Supplies:
Topflight Stamps- PaperArtsy Infusions- Sunset Beach
                         - Carabelle Doodle Art
Eileen Hull by Sizzix: Book Binding Die
                              - Passport Die
                              -Bookmark, Tag & Pocket

Therm*O*Web- DecoFoil Foam Adhesive & SuperTape 
Fabric by Tim Holtz
Prima Marketing-Art Alchemy by Finnabair-  Metallique Royal Red
                                                               - waxes-Aged Brass, Red Amber