Fun with Halloween Chipboard Mini Album

Hello Chipboard Fans, I have a tutorial on the Southern Ridge Trading co. blog today with a Halloween theme. 

I hope you hop on over there & check it out. It is my last post for this team as I am moving on to other adventures. I have loved being on the team, first off as it is full of Crazy Canadians & secondly cause they are just an awesome group of gals. They welcomed me from the start, have a positive & encouraging environment and great product. I will still be playing with their product so you will see it pop up here from time to time.

Let's Play with Whales Journal Page

Hi Blog Land, I have a fun whale journal page for you today on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog. SRTC has lots of wonderful sea themed chipboard pieces that are perfect for your crafting needs!

This is the first page from My Favorite Memories book that I posted last week. You can see it here with a full tutorial. There are more photos over on SRTC blog and a bit of a tour . Please hop on over there for a tour of my page! See you next time.

Eileen Hull's Journal Die- Winter Art Book

I got to play with Eileen Hull's by Sizzix brand new Journal die!!!! I had the wonderful honor of making a sample for Eileen's booth at Creativation 2017. In fact I made 3 books that were all in different booths- way too much fun! You are going to want this die as the possibilities are endless! I feel a lot of book making in my future.

My book is shimmery and cold looking & covered in yummy Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. It was displayed at the Southern Ridge Trading co. booth at Creativation. You need to go check out their shop the owner Karen Beaupre made a ton of new chippies and stencils for the show & they are awesome! 

Inside are some of my favorite winter & Christmas scrapbook paper & stamps as well as Rendr No Show Through Paper, envelopes, tags... The idea was to create a book to capture the winter months including a snap shot of the holidays. I will be putting quotes, journaling, photos and art journal fun in it. It may not just be for this year but on going. To be determined! You can check out the blog post here as well as the links for the chippies I used. 

I will be teaching this class "Winter Midori Style Book" on Feb.16, 2017 at Goldenshills Papercrafts in Clifton, VA from 10:30-3pm. You can sign up online or call 703-298-7688. I hope you join me!

Journal Your Christmas Album Cover

I have a tutorial up on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. Blog making a Journal Your Christmas - JYC album cover. I took a class years ago from a good friend of mine Deborah Mahnken, we made a mini album, book style. I had added some photos, etc to the inside but never finished decorating the cover. There is a challenge on the blog every month & this month is all about winter or Christmas- come on over you could win free chippies!!!

Here is my finished cover. I used lots of Emerald Creek embossing powder on this. Winters Mistake & Soft Fallen Snow are perfect to add those snow like elements. Creates this light fluffy emboss with glitter- too cool! I am also entering this in the Emerald Creeks Dare contest this month. Come on over & play you can find the current challenge & the chance to win a $50 gift card here.

 As you see it is my book from 2013. I will be finishing up the insides over the Christmas Holiday. Do you have unfinished projects that you would like to get done? All forward movement counts so if you need some inspiration to pull out that unfinished project... You will find a full tutorial with lots of step out photos, over on the SRTC blog. Check out the new holiday chippies. I hope to see you there!

Frilly and Funkie Guest Blogger

Hello Blogland, today I am thrilled to be a guest blogger for Frilly & Funkie. Sponsored by the Funky Junky Boutique there is great inspiration and challenges with product and design spots to be won! You can find my guest spot here. I highly recommend you stop on by and play. Pamelia is the host & the theme for this challenge is What A Mesh! The challenge this time is to use any type of mesh (crinoline, cheesecloth, tulle, burlap, canvas etc) in your vintage or shabby chic project. You can find this challenge here.

 

My art journal page was designed to go in my on going spiral bound junque journal. To see more of this journal check out my Instagram (link on the side bar) #100daysofkarensart. The fun thing about this project is I can use all kinds of substrates.

One of my favorites is Crescent medium weight Art Board. I used the backside as I wanted to use molding  paste so I saved the front side for inks. This board is perfect to hold up to heavier pastes yet The Cinch can easily punch through it for the spiral binding.  

I don't know about you but I tend to over do things. I am picturing my friends laughing at this statement as the words come out of my mouth. When I was given the challenge "what a mesh" I had an immediate thought of what mesh I wanted to use. Next came color & ideas, finally theme. As I sat down to create however it became I could use a mesh stencil, with actual mesh & oh look I have chipboard mesh!!! The wonderful places my brain goes! Ok let's go!

Start with a layer of gesso, to give the paste something to grab onto, as the backside of the board is untreated. Once dry, anchor the mesh with a thin layer of molding paste. Let this dry. I usually have multiple projects on the go at one time so I am not waiting on drying paste which can take quite a bit of time. Next layer was through my net stencil with more of the light molding paste. As this board is going in an art journal I use light so it doesn't add physical weight to my piece. I also added some crackle paste just with a spatula in random spots. I am a tad obsessed with crackle right now, love the effect in can bring to a piece. Let dry completely- do not use heat gun.

Time for color! Adding Glimmer Mist & Glaze in blues, purples & green seemed a good place to go. I wish I had taken a pic at this point because my project looked like a hot mess. Mix media tip: just keep adding layers. Almost all my pieces have a case of the uglies at some point. I made a glaze using paint & acrylic glaze- 50/50, covered the whole piece, waited a few minutes & wiped some of it off. This help blend my color together in a cohesive piece but still let the multiple colors show through. Then went in and added back glimmer glam on the crackle spots which most of the color had lifted off. Much better! Once that was dry I dry brushed some metallic paint on the high points. This gives amazing shine to the piece.  

Time for embellishments. I didn't take step-outs of these but rather did close ups of how they look on the finished canvas. The seahorse was die cut from corrugated cardboard with the top layer pulled off, gessoed, and painted with glimmer glam. Glitter glass & microbeads were added using decoupage glue. The metal helm looking gear was added using glossy accents. For the cattails, simply add multiple colors of glimmer glaze. Glitter glass was also added with decoupage glue.Once the canvas was assembled all that was needed, more microbeads. 

Here is a close up where you can see some of the mesh in the piece & the rusty helm. I debated adding some fishermen netting with some shells & still may try that out to see how it looks. I have to say this is one of my favorite art journal pages & I may have to turn it into a canvas. Thanks again to Frilly & Funkie for letting me be a designer for this challenge. I hope you join in the fun!   

Supplies:

Crescent Art Board 5x7

Tattered Angels- Glimmer Glam & Glaze

Southern Ridge Trading Co..- cattail bushes chipboard

Finnabair for Prima- acrylic metallic paint, Mechanicals, microbeads.

DecoArts- crackle paste, Americana acrylic paint

Sizzix -Sand & Sea Die

Netting from fruit package

Hipstamatic & RhonnaDesigns- photo editing

Winter Snowy Art Journal Page

Hello Inky Friends, I have a winter snowy art journal post up on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog. It is starting to get colder in between the heat waves we keep having here in Virginia. Today it is going up to 80 degrees & I have plans to garden-crazy! It is my turn to start the challenge this month which is Christmas & winter. I did a winter page with a hint of Christmas for my first post of the month. Did you know you can win $20 worth of chipboard lusciousness every month on the SRTC blog? You can join in the challenge here.  

 

My page is in my ongoing spiral art journal for the100daysproject. You can see all my pages on Instagram @karenbearse link on the side, under #100daysofkarensart.  This was created on the backside of another page which was made using multiple phone book pages glued together with a glue stick. A coat of gesso helped tone down the phone book but let some of the pattern show through. Painting was done with Glimmer Glam & Glaze for both the background & the chipboard pieces.

Add in some snowy looking heat embossing powder & a charm dangling from wire.

Don't forget some splatter with white acrylic paint & some sequins but just a few. 

To add in that Christmasy feel let's add a wee reindeer, some ornaments & random stars.  These Art Stones look like snowball mounds! The colors for this page were inspired from the Words & Paintery Challenge Blog. My title was cut from denim jean material which was part of this months theme. Come join in their monthly challenge!

Have a lovely inky day!

Supplies:
Southern Ridge Chipboard- Cedar Trees, Snowflakes 713
Tattered Angels: Glimmer Mist & Glimmer Glam

- Rubber Moon & Stampotique Stamps

- Emerald Creeks Charm

- Sakura pens

- Prima: Art Stones

- Sizzix: Word Play & Carnival die,

 

Butterfly Scrapbook Layout looking Rusty!

I have a post on the Southern Ridge Trading CO.. blog today and it is rusty & grungy just the way I like it! 

 Here is a sneak peak. For the full layout you can check it out here.

Playing with Chipboard & Crackle Paste

Hello Blogland, today I am playing with chipboard & crackle paste over on the Southern Ridge Trading Co.. blog We are making this cute frame that is actually very simple! I am also entering this in the Frilly & Funkie Monthly challenge. The challenge this month is "going in circles" brilliant! The big question is... is this frame funky or frilly or maybe a little of both!

I used quite a few, fun chippies on this frame which has a picture of my daughter when she was just a wee toddler. We are also playing with crackle paste & doing a fun embossing technique. I hope you come along and play! 
***Excited to report this project won the challenge at Frilly & Funky. I will be on their blog as a future guest designer. Yay. 

I Want To Ride My Bicycle DIY

Today I am up to something a little different. I was given this super cool wood decor bicycle by Southern Ridge Trading Co.. to decorate. Inspiration is a funny thing sometimes. I could not figure out what to do with this project. A trick I have learned over the years is, when faced with this dilemma, rather than sit & stare at it is to move on to other things. That way my subconscious can do the work of figuring it out while I am getting stuff done. I set the bike up in my kitchen so I would see it a lot throughout the day. It took longer than usual, over a week for my subconscious to work out an idea. 

Here is my finished project. Sadly in my rush to get it in the mail I did not take a great picture. If you are at the Great Canadian Scrapbook Carnival in Calgary this weekend it will be on display! Lots of shimmery goodness right here. Head over to the Southern Ridge Trading co.. blog to see more. Also while you are there participate in our monthly contest to win chippie$$$!

Let's make a Star Sun Catcher!

I have a tutorial up today on the Resin Craft blog, we are making Star Sun Catchers! Here is a pic of the finished project. You can use any open chipboard piece to make this project. 

You can check out the full tutorial over here.