Mixed Media Art Canvas with Butterflies

Here's the canvas we'll be making at my March 21 Mixed Media Art Canvas class.  I loved making this one!  I cannot begin to tell you how much I have enjoyed taking time to really get into working with Mixed Media Art.  I love it so much.  It is easy.  It is fun.  It is fulfilling my need to work in new creative ways as an artist.  And, yes, it may be addictive.  The only difficult thing about it is deciding that you need to stop and call the project finished.  I can't wait to start another canvas.

In my next post, I'll share more details about my canvas.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Hello Honey Spring Card

Hey, Spring, meet Hello Honey... a beautiful color to coax Spring to come ahead and get here.  I'm trying everything I can think of to get Spring to arrive.  Today's card features a beautiful background.

The background is layers of colors on watercolor paper.  I've spritzed water on images to mute them, then stamped over them with contrasting images.  The lined image is actually embossed with silver EP.  The butterfly is a double layer of vellum over Lost Lagoon CS.  The card base is Hello Honey.  These are my 2 favorites from our newest In Colors. 

The envelope has embossed images in silver EP.

 - Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Vellum Butterfly Card

Here's another card today using the beautiful butterfly die again ... this time with vellum.  It works beautifully with the dies.  We just had another fresh snowfall last night, so I'm glad I'm working on Spring cards.  I thought I mentioned that I was ready for Spring ... not more snow:)  Oh well, time to stamp while the puppies sleep.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Longing for Spring with a Pear Pizzaz Butterfly Card ... And More Good News

I am so, so, so very much longing for Spring!  What to do?  How about I share a beautiful Spring-like card with you?  I love and adore our new Butterfly Thinlits Dies.  What could be more beautiful than a delicate, lacy butterfly?  Check this out.

The color story is a beautiful Pear Pizzazz and Whisper White.  I have a double gold metallic button embellishment and some seam binding ribbon.  By adding an embossed layer of CS over the card base, the card has more texture and layers --- something I must do:)  It just bumps up the elegance.

Alright now... did I make you feel like you had a tiny touch of Spring added to your day?  Have a good one!

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

4 New Goodies to Love ... AND Some Good News for Card Makers

Look what's coming in March!  This looks like Fun X 4!  Stampin' Up! has added 4 new delicious offerings for SAB choices ... during the month of March.   I think you'll agree that these are worth sharing with you.

There will be 2 new stamp sets, a new accessories bundle and a stack of vellum papers.  I can't wait to make the 'Thanks' card shown here.

I don't often make a big deal about posting new products from Stampin' Up! ... because I want my blog to be a place for you to come and enjoy creative inspirations that I share with you.  I don't want to turn it into a commercial or an advertisement.  I really think these 4 new products look like a ton of fun and felt it would be wrong to not share the info with you.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Perpetual Birthday Calendar

I had so much fun making my new calendar!  This one is to remind me of upcoming birthdays.  We're going to be making one together at my April 14 Scraps and Prayers class.  This should be a ton of fun to work on it together and see what creative touches each person adds to their own calendar.  Here's a sneak peek.

This shows how I decorated the chipboard base for the calendar pages.
Here's a tip for using a streamer like row of sequins:
Remove 3 or 4 sequins from the bottom of the string.  Separate the string into 2 equal parts and tie a knot.  Now, your sequins won't keep falling off all over your house:)

Here's a tip to save you time: 
Place all your labels for the 12 months on a large block and stamp just once.  Then you can punch out each month separately.  It saves a ton of time.  I have already stamped the months for each class participant, so they can spend all their class time creatively decorating each page.
Another tip: 
Sort out your sheets ahead of time, to be sure you have the right number of days you'll need for each month.

Here's everything you get in the kit.  I still have a lot of pieces left over that I can use on some other project.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

We had a great time at my Project Life Retreat yesterday.  Everyone was very productive!  We're already looking forward to the April 25 retreat... all new, with a new collection of cards, new color story and more inspiration on ways to use Project Life.   Now, here's some Sunday relaxing fun for you... proof that you should let sleeping dogs lie...

... and, before I go, here's a funny little bit for you.  He looks like he could be Toby Joe's cousin.

Coming up next... some beautiful butterfly cards.  Come back soon so you don't miss a thing.  

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

... and then there were 4 ...

Here, once again, are all 4 of my Art Journals.  I'm ready to dig in to working on some inside pages.  Which one do you like the best?   

Yesterday, I finished all of my Perpetual Birthday Calendar.  It was really fun making it.  I'll be sharing it as soon as I can find a good place to do my photo shoot.  I usually use my front porch because the light is so good.  With our recent big and beautiful snowfall, I don't know if that will work right now:)  I also have a bunch of new cards to share with you, so be sure to come back soon.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Art Journal #4... Because I Needed One More

Yes, here's another journal to share with you.  This one is full of large, blank pages... just waiting to be filled with creative goodness.  Oh the joy!  It is actually designed for using as a Mixed Media Art Journal, so I feel like I can get a bit of crazy goodness going and it can take it.  Here's the cover:

The photo does not do this one justice.  It is gorgeous in real life.  This one involves lots of paints, spritzes, sprinkled and heated EP, and lots of messy fingers work.

The elastic slips around to the spine side, when you want to open the journal.  You keep it like this and it keeps the journal closed, even if your pages get a bit bulky.  It opens up pretty flat and there are no spiral rings to work around which, after doing my other 3 journals, I really like not having to deal with them.

I used 2 sizes of our Butterfly Thinlits Dies to cut the butterflies.  I attached them with a layer of gesso and then put a couple of layers of gesso on top of them.  I absolutely love how they look on the cover.

I did not do the back cover yet on this one.  Sadly, I have to set it aside now and work on some other class prep.  I'll dive back into it soon and look forward to sharing the results with you.

 I actually got one more little journal in the mail and it has Kraft pages, so that will be an entirely different story... which may not even be mine to tell, because Aaron has his eye on it and he kind of knows how to give me that puppy dog look.  I have a hard time saying no to books or art supplies for kids.
SCRATCH THAT.  HE NOW HAS IT AND HAS FILLED UP SEVERAL PAGES ALREADY... USING MY NEW OIL PASTELS.  He is so creative.  He keeps it mostly at my house but begged to take it to school yesterday to show a friend who also has an art journal.  This makes my heart sing!

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Art Journal #3... a Journal With a Secret

This is my third Art Journal... for experimenting and just playing around, creatively.  This Art Journal has a secret!  It's our Stampin' Up! This and That Journal ('Documented') and I wanted to see how it would be to use it as an art journal.  I think this is going to be a ton of fun.  This journal will truly be a 'This and That' journal.  I'll share inside pages as I work on them.  For now, here's a look at the covers.

This cover started out with a couple layers of gesso and a sprig die cut from CS.  I used gesso to attach the sprig and then went over it with a couple more coats of gesso.  It worked beautifully.  After that dried, it was a matter of playing with spritzers until I got the look I wanted.  To make the leaf sprig stand out more, I outlined the leaves with our gold Stampin' Dazzle marker.  I added bits of shading with the marker and by dripping bits from the spritzer and then blending parts with my finger before it dried.  Talk about fun!!!  Working with your fingers can be really messy, but necessary, and just adds to the fun, really.  After I felt like it was totally finished, I added the Scrabble Tiles for a title.  I 'aged' them with some Distress (Vintage Photo) Ink.

Here's a look at both covers, front and back:

Here are all the This and That journals that Stampin' Up! has available now.

Because this journal is kind of unique, being a This and That Journal, I realize that I will still need at least one more journal... with big, blank pages... for larger projects.  No problem.  It just came in the mail a few days ago.  Yes, another project awaits me.  Life is good!  The cover is almost finished already, so I'll be sharing it very soon.

I really like how this one turned out and can't wait to share the next one.  Come back soon and check it out.

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.