Coming to life...

Another girl from my sketch book.  I just had to make her come to life!  Lots of colour and had to give her some dramatic eyes!!!  I raided my supply stash and used some copic markers, prismacolor pencils, gel ink pens, markers, tombows, jacquard dye-na-flo inks and some watercolour.  Tons of layers of colour and different medium!  

Seriously SO MUCH FUN TO DO!

Speedy mode video below!!!

Get out your stash and play!!!!  Make some art!

Thanks for stopping by.  xoxo

Merry Christmas Star with Design Memory Craft...and a little birthday wish...

Hi Everyone!  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas yesterday!  I absolutely love Christmas, have since I was a kid.  I love everything about it!  As quickly as it came, its now over in our house as we move on to another birthday celebration around here.  Wishing my sweet little boxing day baby a happy birthday!  Here's a little art project I made for her, planning on using it on the outside of one her presents all wrapped up!  Just had to share, and as you can see I used a wide array of Design Memory Craft products.  I did video tape my process but I had a hard time figuring out how to edit it on my tablet so that will probably be another post to come...

    

Its also my turn to share over at the Design Memory Craft website today.  Take a look below!

I made this little wooden block painting, you can see the full post including a tutorial over on the

Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog today!

Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday, and will see you back here in the new year!

As always, thanks for looking!

Yahoo for Yupo!!!

Hi everyone!  Summers are always super busy for me but I always manage to find some time to play around in my little studio. I know its been a while but I've got something super fun for you today!

I've been playing around with my watercolours on some Yupo paper!  Its so much fun to experiment and push the paint around the paper!  The results are super cool!

Yupo is a unique alternative to traditional art papers. It's a synthetic paper, machine-made of 100% polypropylene. It is waterproof, stain-resistant, and extremely strong and durable.  

Here are my first two attempts just playing around.  I used a wax resist technique and drew in the subject before painting.

'Poppies'

If you can get your hands on some Yupo you must try it!  It also works beautifully with alcohol inks as well as gouache.  

Until next time, happy creating!  Thanks for stopping by!

No boys allowed! Hazel & Ruby stencil masks save the day again....

Sorry I've been missing in action lately.  Tennis season has started so I'm back teaching until the snow covers up the courts for another year!  But anyone who knows me knows I can't stay away from my art supplies!  I'm not going anywhere!

So my little one has been asking to make an artsy sign for her door with some of my Hazel & Ruby stencil masks.  She knew exactly what she wanted it to say:  'No boys allowed, except dads, brothers, cousins and any nice boys'.  We had to condense it a bit for the sake of space...lol...

Here's how it turned out:

We used some PPA (matte) to adhere the pretty paper

(also from Hazel & Ruby - Pretty Floral Tissue Paper roll) 

to a 12x12 canvas.  (let dry completely - we did a whole bunch the night before)

Next, we simply added our letters to the canvas.

She then painted over the entire canvas using acrylic paint.

Since acrylic paint dries pretty fast we didn't have to wait too long to peel off the letters.

(a heat gun also helps ;)  

We wanted to add a bit of distress to it so we added some strokes of Tim Holtz distress paint in Picket Fence.  We also took the bottom of paint bottle and dabbed it into some orange paint to make some random circles on the canvas.  Then I took my beloved india ink pens from Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft and added a bit of shading around the letters to help them stand out.

Such a fun project to do together with fabulous results!!!  The stencil masks from Hazel & Ruby make it super quick and easy even for kids!  Love it!!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

Chalkboard tag with Gelatos®!

Hello Everyone!  I'm on deck again over at Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog.  I've got another little slideshow video tutorial to share on how I created the above tag.  I used some of the Textural Accents (Chalkboard Paint and Gesso) to create the chalkboard background and then discovered that drops of gelato; when dry, really 'pop' off the paint creating an amazing contrast of colours!  

Head over to the Design Memory Craft Blog and check out the video!

Thanks for stopping by my little piece of the blogosphere today!

Have a good one!

Playing along with:

Unity Stamps

Paint Party Friday

Creative Everyday

Art Journal Journey

Mix it Monthly

Dina is in da house!!!

Well, not the actual human version lol (how cool would that be?), but I finally have her amazing new stamps now so I'll settle with that!  I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd show you another one of my favourite moments from CHA, meeting Dina Wakley!  This amazingly talented and inspirational woman was one of my favourite peeps to meet walking around the floor!  Its so much fun meeting the people who's work you admire and inspires you!  I asked her if she wouldn't mind signing my art journal...She said 'absolutely', took my journal opened it to a blank page and LOOK WHAT SHE DID!  Omg I was thrilled, (and just may have gasped with excitement along with some of the other ladies at the table).  It was amazing how effortless she made it look, seriously people, she did this page in only a few minutes!  Now I have an original signed piece....wow!  Not only was she a doll to talk to she's also very down to earth, she's one cool chick!!!  Thanks Dina, you made my day!!!

So the Ranger order from CHA finally came in at The Scrapping Bug and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on them and play!  These stamps make me so happy!!!  For the giant tag below I used Dina's new Media stamp set 'Face in the Crowd'...and lots of Tim Holtz distress paint and Crafters Workshop stencils etc...

I was really just playing around with a bunch of new paints and stamps, no plan in mind, I just cut loose and had fun!  The tag below was made using a Unity Stamp, some TCW Balzer Bits and the same Face in the Crowd set by Dina and my new Silk Acrylic Glaze paints.....they are so dreamy!  I loooove them!  

The Scribbly Bird stamp set from Dina is probably one of my favourite sets....because you just have to 'put a bird on it'....lol!  

 I used some acrylic paints, glossy accents (for the branch) and just played around!  So much FUN!

Well there you have it, my Dina post!  lol...I'll post some other pics soon where I've coloured up some faces with the 'All the Gals' stamp set using copics!  These stamps are very versatile and can be used with any medium!

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great weekend!

Supplies used:

Whipped Spackle Jar 100 ml (#770318)	Gesso (#770302)	Heat it - Craft Tool	Claudine Hellmuth - Studio Paints - Modern Red
Craft Tags - Manilla Tag #5	Ranger Craft Tags #10 - Manila	Stamper's Big White Pen (#770013)	TH Layering Stencil Schoolhouse
Stamper's Big Brush Pen LIGHT BLUE (#770007)	Ranger Glossy Accents	Tim Holtz Broken China	Tim Holtz - Distress Paint Salty Ocean
Tim Holtz- Antique Linen

InLinkz.com

Watercolors...Love 'em!!!

Happy Saturday everybody!!!  I have a quick little post today showing you a fun watercolor piece I did in my watercolor journal a while ago.  The stamp is from Unity and I used my beloved Peerless watercolors!  

This panel is about 6x6 and was done by stamping the adorable image using Archival Black Ink.  Then I just had some fun with all the beautiful colours in my Peerless pack!  I drew in a little border and filled it in with some black and white acrylic paint pens.  After I trimmed it down I used the leftovers and cut out some hearts and added them to the top of the tree.  This was a fun piece to make, it can be put on a card, or in an art journal or right now its just sitting on a little easel on my desk!  Love it!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Supplies Used:

Playing along with:

Virginia's View - Watercolors

Paint Party Friday

Learn to pause....

Now that 2013 is quickly coming to a close I've promised myself to post all of the things I've created but haven't put on my blog.  This one fell through the cracks of the many 'unorganized' photos I have on my computer....

 The girl stamp is from Stamping Bella and I coloured her in with copic markers, prismacolor pencils and golden acrylic paints.  Lots of green and brown paints, inks etc...were used (which are usually not my 1st choice, but I had to challenge myself to do something different).  

I love this sentiment, (from Tim Holtz Just Thoughts stamp set)...reminds me to slow down and enjoy life!

Thanks for stopping by!

Artists in Blogland

Paint Party Friday

Creative Everyday

FACEcinating Girls....Journal Page...

Hi, I'm back again.  Starting to get caught up a bit on my art journal posts.  Here is a page I did in the early summer when I took an online class with Andrea Gomoll.  (love love love her AND her work btw)!  

It's pretty 'trippy' I know but the whole Zentangle craze gave me an idea for her hair and I just went with it.  

Supplies used:

Facecinating Girls stamps, Golden Paints, copic markers, prismacolor pencils and gamsol, faber-castell artist pitt pens & gelatos, white marker pens, Derwent Inktense pencils (love these), stardust stickles, black copic multiliner.  

There are some funky black spots on her face from dropping my markers and stamps (yes I'm very clumsy), and I have to practice my noses, but I was pretty happy for my first attempt!

Once I finish the page beside it I will post the whole thing.  At a loss as to what to do...sigh!  Thanks for stopping by!

Artists in Blogland - Numbers Scavenger hunt (#2)

Paint Party Friday

Creative Everyday

Just roll with it...& follow your heart...

 Here's another art journal page I completed a while ago. 

Supplies used:

Suzi Blu stamp, old book paper, peerless watercolors, prismacolor pencils, black sharpie, white paint pen, acrhivers ink, caran d'ashe neocolours, various background stamps...

Check out these fabulous blogs for tons of inspiration:

ARTISTS IN BLOGLAND

BALZER DESIGNS

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY

CREATIVE EVERYDAY

Tags tags and more tags...

Still on vacation but wanted to share a few more tags from my slowly growing collection...

Acrylic Paints

Watercolor Sticks

Mixed Media:  acrylic paints, TCW stencils, markers, designer paper, awesome glitter spray - thanks Carola!,  fabercastell pitt pens, gelatos, ppa.  This tag was made for my friend Joanne at the Scrapping Bug who so generously donated some amazing prizes for a function we recently had!
Thanks Joanne!!!
We love 'The Bug'!!!!

ARTISTS IN BLOGLAND

BALZER DESIGNS

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY

CREATIVE EVERYDAY