Creating...continuing along with Inspiration Wednesday

Sharing another Art Journal page today.

As the craft room is still completely packed I'm finding that my journal 

is the easiest most portable way to keep on creating.

This is another page inspired by Donna Downey's

Inspiration Wednesday series.

I am up to week 3 now and slowly catching up.

The page has layers of Golden Acrylic paint,

Lindy's Stamp Gang mist and stamping with Gesso.

The black scribbles are created with black Gesso & a toothpick 

(making do with what I could find lol)

I wrote 

"Creating is what inspires me"

along the lines of when there are days where I am stuck or in a rut just pulling out paper and paints

and creating for no reason the juices start flowing and I find 

myself inspired to continue on.

I try to do a bit each day.

It's my fuel.

There is some drywall tape added as well just for a bit of texture.

I love the little squares it creates and buy large rolls of it from

my local Lowes.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Take a chance...another Inspiration Wednesday inspired page

Continuing on my quest to catch up with all the 

Inspiration Wednesday videos,

I have created this page using the second video of the series.

With everything packed it is proving to be a challenge but one I am happy to accept.

At least while I hunt for where the next layer is coming from the current layer has a chance to dry...right?

The focal point on here, while it is small,

is a fortune from a long ago visit to a Chinese restaurant.

I found it while packing things up and kept it out knowing I wanted to use it almost immediately on something.

Closeups of the quote:

Some of the texture on the page using layers of 

paper, gesso and modeling paste.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Plan and Dream...an Inspiration Wednesday inspired art journal page

Sharing a Art Journal page created today inspired 

by Donna Downey's

Inspiration Wednesday videos.

My entire craft room is packed up awaiting the installation of new wood floors.

Spring seems to have arrived in my next of the woods as well as my mojo, which has been gone for some time.

Now when I want to do a page I'm digging and hunting and then making do with what I find.

I can't wait for it to be all done...

SO looking forward to a "new" workspace.

This page comes from the 1st video in her series.

Golden Fluid Acrylics,

Modeling Paste, several stamps and

a stencil from Club Scrap.

My thoughts for today...

the 2 are not mutually exclusive.

If you are interested in Donna's 

Inspiration Wednesday series check her out.

35$ gets you access to new videos every 2 weeks for a total of 25 videos in all.

Can't beat that price!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Children are like flowers...

Continuing on with my favorites this week.

This is a layout created while spending the weekend at Donna Downey's studio 

in Huntersville,NC.

I'm lucky to live close by and even luckier to have a group of friends who like to get together there for crafty weekends.

The base of the layout is a piece of 12x 12 canvas,

painted heavily at the top with acrylic paint and then misted, misted , and misted more to make the paint run and drip covering the wile page.

By doing this you get streaks of darker colors in spots and lighter in others.

The tags were added on in homage to Donna (she loves her brown holes) and I machine stitched a border just to keep the canvas from really fraying over time.

Plus I just love machine stitching.

The flowers are a combination of pre made and die cut ones from book text.

Ribbon was used as stems and attached with eyelets.

The leaves were cut free hand then inked and distressed before being added.

again the flowers…too fun

The photo was layered over a die cut. 

Some pop pom trim was added at the bottom just for fun.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

I love you to bits!

My May kit from Flying Unicorn came yesterday and I had to stop what I was working to play with it immediately.

My oh my is this month's kit a winner.

The background paper I used is from 7 Dots Studio. I dabbed Lake Mist acrylic paint through a Donna Downey stencil across the background. Then misted once with Jack Frost Glimmer Mist.

I decided to enter the layout in one of the Flying Unicorn's monthly challenges.This one is for FLOWERS, lots and lots of flowers.

The flowers and butterflies are both by Prima.

The banners and stars are by GCD Studios

Here is a closeup of one of the stenciled flowers.

Some of the Prima flowers, the banner & stars. You can see more stenciled flowers as well as the Glimmer mist.

Just another closeup:

I hope you are all scrapping away madly this weekend in honor of National Scrapbook Day.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Shine

Been working on this canvas for a couple of days. 

Not because it was so labor intensive but rather right now I have so many projects going around my head I'm finding myself jumping from one to the next and back.

I used techniques learned from my weekend at Donna Downey's but then went and put my own spin on it, pulling in stamping and Pan Pastels.

This one is also a bit smaller than the one we did in class. For some reason I have a HUGE stash of 11x14 canvases. I really wanted it to be bigger but I probably need to use up a bit of what I have before I go buy more.

The base....using up a ton of Crafter's Workshop stencils and homemade spray paint (acrylic paint, water, misters).

Layering tons of color and patterns until the canvas is full.

I laugh, because my oldest keeps telling me to leave it as is. She loves the look of this; I might need to do one just for her.

She grumbles when I add over it. To each his own I say.

  Next I pulled out some Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue Hue, Manganese Blue Hue, & Dioxazine Purple Golden Fluid Acrylics & mixed with Gesso to paint the background. I went light in areas so the pattern & color from the base still peeks through in spots.
  The stars are from another Crafter's Workshop stencil and painted with Gesso mixed with Gold acrylic paint.

More circles and paint through stencils once the background was dry.

I also added ink through the Art Is Stencil by CW in random spots.

The stars are outlined both inside and out with Pan Pastel in Neutral Gray Extra Dark. I love using the Pan Pastels like this, it's easy to blend and smudge the lines with either the sponge or, even better, your finger.

And here is the finished canvas.

I really need to get over the fear I have of using my own handwriting. I tried writing the word shine over and over and being so hypercritical wound up going with stencils and Black Gesso.

A white gel pen then outlined the letters and a dark shadow was added under the word using more Pan Pastel.

Below are several closeups. 

A few other special touches were paint through Punchinella and stamping with  Tsukineko ink & Prima stamps.

  Now that I've finished the canvas it's time for me to put the finishing touches on my project for the Scrapping Everyday Miracles Blog Hop happening this weekend.  So much to do so much to do.

  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

More Gelli Prints sharing

Sharing a few Gelli Print projects today.

The first is a tag. I made the background last week while at Donna Downey's Studio during a class taught by Melissa.

Ever since I've been home I have been staring at it wanting to finish it off.

A little bit of stamping, outlined with a white Gel pen and the quote and it was done.

The next bit is just a print I made yesterday.

I love how easy it is to layer color and pattern using my Gel plate. I've been playing pretty much every day since I brought it home. This one started out as layers of leftover bits and pieces as I worked on an Art Journal page. The black diamonds tied it all together.

Even if you don't like the original print you can keep adding until you are happy.

  Making these prints has become my newest addiction.  I am hoping to get even more done today before the girls soccer games start. I'm pulling out all the old paints I have (fyi even though this works fantastic with all the old paints you've collected when you open up a jar and it falls out in chunks....it might be time to trash that bottle ) and rediscovering my stash.

  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Weekend at Donna Downey's

So as I had mentioned before I was getting to spend the weekend playing at Donna Downey's Studio up in Huntersville,NC with a bunch of my artsy friends.

The weekend was an absolute blast full of stencils, Pan Pastels and flying paint.

On Friday I worked on this canvas. Crumpled tissue paper on a canvas, color provided by Pan Pastels and StazOn.

It's not finished yet, I'm still thinking on what finishing touches I want to add.

Saturday was paint day.

We worked on 16x 20 canvases. Using homemade acrylic spray paint and a ton of stencils we all created some unique art. It was neat to see how everyone's painting progressed.

First we completely covered the canvas using stencils and paint.

Personally I liked how this looked but it's not done.

Then we began finger painting. My 2 large flowers are stencils with I painted in with a mixture of Gesso and gold acrylic paint. The other colors were a combination of Golden Fluid Acrylics.

I left spots of my background showing for some visual interest.

Finally it's done (I think).

Lots of dripping, stencils and stems I have a new piece of art for my walls.

This was such a fun piece to do.

Last but most definitely not least Melissa came into the studio Saturday night and taught a Gelli Plate class.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!

Now I have done mono printing before but this was to die for.

In 2 hours I knocked out over 30 prints. I love the fact that you can use up all that cheap acrylic paint collected over the years. With just a few supplies you can create tons of layered patterns.

I'm in love.

A few of my prints...

  I can't wait to make more at home. Course I probably also need to ACTUALLY use what I make but right now I am enjoying the creating time.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend. I got some much needed mojo energizing, wonderful time spent with friends, and some great techniques I'll be using again and again.

  If you ever get the chance to stop by the studio DO SO! the place is amazing and you can't help but walk out feeling so inspired.

Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

A few more layouts to share...

I've been busy packing for my crafty weekend getaway.

I get to go spend the next 3 days at Donna Downey's studio with 12 of my scrapping besties. We travel from all over the country for our bi annual get togethers and they are always a blast.

When we get to meet at Donna's Studio....even better.

So since a lot of my stuff is packed I haven't had a chance to do much creating the last few days.

I want to share a few layouts from resent issues of Scrapbook News and Review to share with you

The first is of my little one exploring a corn maze near us. The maze itself was super easy but still it took us FOREVER to get through it. 

We had to stop and look at everything along the way. I think she is definitely the one who makes me stop and look when we are out. She enjoys every minute of every day and wonders in it all.

It's hard to be jaded when she is around.

The patterned paper is from K&Co.

The flowers are from an Etsy shop called Funtoolas. The owner sells the most wonderful handmade flowers. Just a few pearl flourishes were all that was needed to finish it off.

This is me and Dh is Paris in April. He took me for my 40th birthday. Just me and him....no kids! Was I lucky or what?

I think this picture was taken during the only sunny moment there. Most of the time it was grey and rainy, but hey it's Paris. So I wasn't complaining.

The paper is from GCD Studios.

The circle stamp is actually supposed to be a coffee stan from Club Scrap, (next time you are in a rut try using a stamp in a different way) and the rub ons are from Daisy D.

A couple pieces of Washii tape finish it off after some distressing.

Here are big girl and little girl.

The two of them are best buds and if I can find one I can usually be sure the other is close by.

I splattered some Golden Fluid Acrylic paint in spots across the background. The patterned paper is all by BoBunny.

I also created a square around the center of my page and did my journaling that way. The journaling then becomes an integral part of my overall page design.

Framing the photo AND getting the story down.

And Finally...

My oldest graduated this past June from HS.

We were so busy running here and there, keeping track of everyone and trying not to melt (it was crazy hot), that it wasn't until that evening I realized I took 1 picture the entire time.

1---- CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???????

At least I got a good one lol. Oldest & middle posing on the grass after the ceremony.

I guarantee when the middle one graduates there will be far more photos taken. I'm preparing now (hey in 6 years I should be set)

The paper is from Kaisercraft and the flowers are from Petaloo

 So that's it. Just a few layouts from the magazine. I'll be back next week with lots to share from my weekend at Donna's.

 Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Fabric making with Donna Downey

So this weekend while hanging out in Donna Downey's studio I was inspired by a piece of fabric she was working on.

I had to try my had at my own piece immediately. I pulled out a 12x12 piece of canvas not sure if I'd like it and man oh man I wish I had done more.

I stamped the Poppy flower (Unity) with StazOn, then painted them in with NeoPaque & DyeNaFlow Paints (love them!). Overstamped with a script stamp then painted in black dots with more DyeNaFlow.

I think my head may explode I have so many more fabric ideas right now.