Creative Jumpstart 2021

Creative Jumpstart 2021
Join me for the 10th Anniversary of CJS2021

Monday, June 30

Creative Cropping for Instagram!

I know I'm not the only one that uses their iPhone exclusively for photos these days -- right now I've got 3,249 photos on my camera -- plus what is in the Photo Stream. I take A LOT of them. Today I thought I would share a few of my secrets.

First, I have a love affair with Instagram. There. I said it. Yes. I love Instagram like I love peanut butter and Chocolate. Coffee with Non-Fat Milk. Thai Food and my Dog. I don't think a day goes by where I'm not looking at photos or sharing them.


Yesterday when we were on our way home from the 4th of July BBQ that we went to the clouds in front of us were very puffy at the top and little menacing looking at the bottom. First we started seeing things in them. I see a wolfhound with his ears blown back against his head from the wind.

Anyway, in case you aren't familiar with Instagram -- it's a photo app you use with an iPhone. You can take photos right from the App or import them from your photos. I go both ways on this -- but when I want to take a lot of pictures I use the camera only option on my phone.

Portland, Maine by Catherine Scanlon cmscanlon.blogspot.com

Here you can see a NOT so great photo of the clouds. Lots of distraction with the road and cars in front of us.
Portland, Maine by Catherine Scanlon cmscanlon.blogspot.com

When I bring it into Instagram and crop it and apply a filter I can crop out all of the distracting stuff and focus on what I want to capture -- the clouds! This is the Kelvin filter -- the one I use most of the time.

Portland, Maine by Catherine Scanlon cmscanlon.blogspot.com

When we got to Portland I was happy to see the profile of a mans face at the top of the clouds -- and he's got curly hair. But, look at that awful reflection from the window at the top of the photo.

When I brought it into Instagram I adjusted the contrast and then applied the Nashville filter and it turned out like this.

Portland, Maine by Catherine Scanlon cmscanlon.blogspot.com

To me, this looks like a painting. Maybe it will be a painting I'll do in the near future. But look at how much cooler and better it looks after I did a few fancy things to it in Instagram. I love that app!

Hope you had a HAPPY and Patriotic 4th -- it's back to work for me today while the boys go camping! Thanks for stopping by -- hope you have a GREAT weekend!



Saturday, June 28

Squashing Pansies

Along time ago I was blog hopping and saw the most beautiful card -- and upon reading discovered that it was created by squashing pansies in a flower press (or something like that) on top of watercolor paper. Sadly -- I don't remember where I saw it or the name of the artist. Her card was beautiful though.
Anyway, since I don't have the patience to wait for a flower press to do the job, I ran this orange pansy through my big shot on top of a quote that I had created and printed on cardstock. The flower turned into a squishy mess, but once I had wiped away all the debris, I thought it looked amazing! I was surprised that the purple detail was in the center. I think I'll be stopping by the Greenhouse to pick up a flat of pansies when I get a minute or two to breath.

Well, even though I've got twenty million things going on, I couldn't leave this beauty sitting on my desk. So I rifled through my scrap bin and came up with this quick card. It really only took me about 15 minutes -- though that's 15 minutes that could have been spent writing instructions, LOL -- or 15 minutes more sleep. Well, sleep is over rated anyway. I'll just stay up 15 minutes later than I planned.

This was a fun creation, and exactly the creative respit I needed to be able to spend the rest of the night on the computer writing instructions!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a fabulous week so far!

Friday, June 27

Who doesn't love Paisley?

Good Morning and YAAAA to it being Friday!! Today I wanted to share with you one of my stencils -- while I might say that it's my favorite -- tomorrow I might say something else is my favorite. I really LOVE all my products from Art Gone Wild! They are really easy to work with while giving you room to add your own artsy fartsy flair. You gotta love that!

Today I wanted to share the 9x12 Journal Paisley. This stencil is really verstatile -- allowing you to use it on cards, scrapbook pages and also in your art journals!

For this page, you can see I used it as a journal page entry and then added my flair for doodling to it. I simply placed it on a piece of 9x12 Strathmore Mixed Media Paper and sprayed it with Liquitex Low Odor (I think that's what it's called) spray paint. When that was dry I did some doodling in pencil and then added color with watercolor paints, Gelli Pens, Distress Paint and some markers and colored pencils too.

When all the wet media was dry I outlined some of the areas and added details here and there with a black Multi-Liner. The journaling in the center was done with a white Gelli.

I love how this page turned out.

Journal Paisley Stencil by Catherine Scanlon for Art Gone Wild! and Friends
9” x 12” Stencil CSSTL-002 Journal Paisley

The second project I want to share with you is a 5x7 card. To create this card I placed the stencil on a piece of the same mixed media paper and t raced the lines with a pencil. Then I went in and added the color with a lot of different mediums and let it dry. Once it was dry I rounded the corners and stitch the paisley panel to a piece of black cardstock and also to the blank card base. The sentiment was created in Word and printed on cardstock and added to the card with foam tape -- and voila -- a colorful and happy card to send someone that needs a little pick me up!  
Journal Paisley Stencil by Catherine Scanlon for Art Gone Wild! and Friends
Thanks for stopping by today, have a GREAT day!

Wednesday, June 25

Make a Custom iPhone Case!!

Hello there, I know I've been pretty quiet here on the blog lately, but things have been busy I've not really been in the mood for blogging. The same questions I ask myself all the time. But, I'm back today -- thanks to the commitment yesterday to the Whatevers to finally blog.

But as a bonus,  due to my silence I thought I'd give you a little tutorial -- a little thanks to you for coming back to see what I've got going on.

Last week I stopped by Joann Fabrics and found this super cool CLEAR silicone iPhone case. It was on clearance for $5.00 -- and I immediately had an idea pop into my head. This would be perfect to make a custom case for my phone using my Art Gone Wild! Stamps. It was easy peasy -- and here's how I did it.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

First I cut a piece of watercolor paper the SAME SIZE as the interchangeable designs included with the case and used the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper to chomp a 1/4" corner on each corner of the watercolor paper.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

 I also made sure it fit inside the case, since the paper was a bit thicker than the included design I had to do a little trimming to make it fit.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

 When it did fit, I used a pencil to trace the camera hole on the case.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

I used a combination of an x-acto blade and fussy cutting scissors to cut the camera hole out.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

Then I stamped my black eyed susan stamp and Archival Ink to stamp my favorite flower on the watercolor paper. To add color I used my watercolor paints to paint the design -- but you could use any thing to color the design.

Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

The result is a super beautiful custom iPhone case that i can swap out with any of my favorite stamps or designs from my Just Add Color line!

 Custom iPhone Case by Catherine Scanlon

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Tuesday, June 24

Monday, June 23

Mixed Media: A FREE Book for you!

I've been super sick the last few weeks -- and also went on a teaching trip to North Carolina a few weeks before that -- AND I have Jury Duty in a few weeks -- but didn't want you to think I forgot about my little old blog. So over the next month or so I'm bringing back some older posts for you to see in case you missed them!

THANKS for understanding -- hope you have a great summer!



I wanted to remind you that the FREE eBook that Mandy Collins and I created is still available on ISSUU!
http://issuu.com/catherinescanlon/docs/mixed_media_volume_1

This is a 44 page book that contains a ton of amazing inspiration and colorful work, step-by-step tutorials for mail art and visual journaling.

We've put so much thought and effort into this book in the last 6 weeks and learned so much along the way! We have bigger and more collaborative goals in mind but this little gem was the perfect way for us to work out some of the bugs that happen when working collaboratively, internationally, with multiple platforms, photo editing software and all the challenges that go along with trying to create amazing content with multiple artists.

Feel free to share, download to your tablets -- but most importantly please be inspired by our hard work.

Thanks for stopping by -- have a great week!

Tuesday, June 17

The Whatevers Two: June




It's that time of the month --  June Whatevers Two! We have a fun photo for you to play with this month. Hope you can join in. If you are not familiar with "Whatevers" You can read more about it here. But basically my friends...Vic, Nat, Cuchy, Martha and I have committed to a full year of bringing new life to forgotten photos. Each month we create a page and give it a story using that months photo. We share the photo with you in hopes that you will play along and join in the fun.You will find more info and details at the bottom of this post.

Here are the links to the other girls blogs so you can see their creations this month.
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It's been nearly a year since Winnie and Cordelia had visited at the beach with the aunts and cousins, and Winnie realized she wanted nothing to do with this part of her family. With all of the time she'd spent at the castle in Germany and traveling with Mother and Father she had a new sense of style and confidence that her chubby, dowdy cousins didn't have. 


They insisted on wearing the old, wool boring swimsuits while she sported the new fashion in color and design. They knew nothing about Bombay, the castle or even that there was more to life than being mean and eating all the desserts first.


A lot had happened in the last year. Along with her new sense of style and fashion, Winnie also had a new confidence and worldliness the other girls didn't have.


She felt oddly out of place with these people she had known all her life and it wasn't because of the hot pink and bright green bathing suit.

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Here is how it works
  • Vicki, Cat, Cuchy (Carmen), Martha and I and I have made a one-year commitment to each other and picked twelve photos with Whatevers whom we will give a story.
  • Every month – if possible always on the 15th –  each of us will do a post with an individual story that goes along for us with the same photo.
  • If you want you can play along and we will have the photo for you to download and show us your version of The Whatevers. The photo will be posted at the end of our blogposts- not on Facebook!
  • There are no rules to the story itself- it can be funny, sad, uplifting, breathtaking- WHATEVER
    There are no rules on the length or the form of the story- it can be a short sentence, an essay, a poem or a soap opera – WHATEVER
  • There are no rules on the artform you choose – it can be a scrapbook layout, an altered art project, an artjournal page – WHATEVER
  • Here is a rule though: if you take the photo you have to link back to us and show us your story.
     
  • These pictures are from our personal stash and are for personal use for you only! If you want to use them for a publication whether a book or magazine in print or digital form please ask for permission
  • If you want to participate we’ll have a linky list for each Whatever Post.

    You can also join our The Whatevers -Facebook Page