Hoarder's Mini Book: A fun Project for Sizzix

Hello and HAPPY Sunday! Popping in today to share the link to see the fun Instagram Mini Book I made over on the Sizzix blog this month.

Click on either of the images to go over to the Sizzix blog for more pictures and a quickie how-to!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thank you for stopping by!

We Could All Learn Something from Butterflies

Helloooooo -- and TGIF!! I took a bit more time last night to relax and finish more of my Deconstructed Journal pages and thought I would share this one. It's a collaboration between one of the students (and DEAR friend) from the class, Mimi DiNatale. When I saw her original page I fell in love with the shapes and colors. It was stunning before -- I had a little bit of guilt working on it. But, I know Mimi won't mind. At the end of the class we swapped pages because this one really spoke to me. From the first moment I looked at it I saw wing shapes from the colors she applied to the page. Still not sure how she created this but it is super cool. I was so lucky that she would part with it.

To create this page I highlighted the wings with a pencil and painted the background with white. When that was dry I journaled with a pencil and added a border and detailed the butterflies with a marker.

It turned out super whimsical and the perfect combination of colors.

And really, couldn't we all learn a thing or two from those beautiful and graceful creatures?

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend!

Deconstructed Journal: Weekend ReCap

Wow, seems like forever since I blogged last. Almost a week I guess. This week I've been trying to get caught up as I've had some distractions over the last several weeks that have kept me from getting things created and classes ready to open and most importantly from creating artsy fartsy things to blog about. I did spend the last weekend away and it was a great break from the stress -- I traveled back to Kept Creations in Whitman, Massachusetts to teach a brand new fun class that I am totally in love with.

With all the things going on I've been having a hard time getting started on that to-do list. Today I was really feeling the urge to be creative, so I thought I would work on finishing a few of the demo's I created for the class.

The class was called "Deconstructed Journal" and was a painty, creative mess (in the best possible way) using the gelli plate. I loved seeing how everyone used the tools and demos to create the pages for their own journals. For this page I combined two different stencils, one from Dina Wakely and the other from Heidi Swapp. This series turned out great -- but my favorite one -- a collaboration with another student -- was swapped with one of the students. I tried to veto the swap but well, you know how that goes.

This morning, as I was spinning my wheels with the news, facebook and lots of other distractions I decided to take 20 minutes or so to simply play and finish up some of the demo pages I started in the class.

To finish this particular page, I journaled in the body of the woman with a pencil and then painted over it with watered down white gesso. I also added some black paint on the left and right to fill in some distracting white areas and used my lettering stencil to add some important information that I wanted to remember about the journaling. 

That greenish blue strip at the top totally makes me giddy. And the silver happiness that radiates out of her body -- yeah -- that's another happy part. Two great reasons to be happy right there -- greenish blue and silver happiness radiating from your body.

Well anyway enough of my silly nonsense, thanks for stopping by today -- if you feel yourself stuck in the mud -- take a few minutes out of your day to do something creative for no other reason than to make yourself happy! Have a great day.

Easy Peasy Butterfly Chain Card

I forgot to share this how-to post with you on Monday, if you want to see how I created this fun and easy card click on over to the Sizzix blog to find out how I made this fun fall inspired card!

Have a great day, thank you so much for stopping by!

Finding Inspiration in the Strangest Places

I think it's safe to say that everyone is inspired by life and the fleeting images that pass by them each day differently. What may spark something inside your heart might not spark the same thing in mine. Take for instance the image that I saw on Pinterest. A beautiful arrangement of cheese, wine. bread. olive oil. Some kinda nut. herbs. It's beautiful in every way possible.

Photo by Pratos e Travessas discovered on Pinterest

It's simply a beautiful image -- but I wasn't inspired by the food nor did it make me hungry. Now - put some chocolate truffles or cake in a photo and I'd be starving, ha ha.

What I saw in my head was a beautiful composition that I could use for an art journal page. While I have put my own flair on the design, the photograph really spoke to me in a way that I don't think the photographer intended. (If you click on the photo you'll go to her beautiful blog -- so much inspiration and gorgeous food photography there!)

Here are a few close-ups of the journaling -- because I've been feeling really angry about a lot of things that are out of my control lately I thought a different train of thought would help me not be that way.

I used my new Caran D'Ache colored pencils for this page. This 30 pencil set has the most gorgeous colors.... LOVE it so much.

  

 I think my favorite is laugh until it hurts. We don't laugh enough some days. 

The journaling was done with my Dip Pen with a 512 Nib and black Calligraphy Ink.

While I don't sing out loud at home,  I do whenever I'm alone in the car.

I hope I have inspired you to look at your world with brand new eyes! Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Dali on Perfection

Head on over to the eclectic Paperie blog to see some more pictures and how I created this Grid of Perfection post -- and take a look around the shop to see if she has my products in stock yet!

Oh Whatever -- Maybe I Should Have Said...

Well, it's that time of the month and I'm pretty excited to share my story with you. I look forward to playing with the photos and coming up with silly stories each month. Sometimes I like combining historical facts with my characters, like I did this month. I hope you enjoy this little peak into Winston's head.

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What WOULD he tell Cordelia?

Would he start with revealing he had once worked for Allen Pinkerton of Pinkerton Government Services? Or would he start with I have two children . . . but I thought they had perished in a horrible fire. Maybe he’d start with, I was married once before, to Allen Pinkerton’s younger sister who had come to America from Scotland. We fell in love at a young age and Allen gave me a job so I could take care of my family.

Or, he could say he lived a double life, but lost track of his first life when his wife died in childbirth and his children were whisked into an orphanage to keep them safe from enemies of the Pinkerton’s.

The orphanage burned down just as he was about to bring them home to his Mother but that was a long time before he met Cordelia.

 

Instead of coming up with a solution to his dilemma, Winston couldn’t stop his mind from thinking about fishing.

 

Maybe a couple of hours at his favorite fishing hole would help him come up with an answer for his beloved Cordelia.

 

Or, maybe not.

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Take a look around  to see what everyone else came up with this month:

• Martha: http://themermaidscloset.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-whatevers-or-guess-whos-coming-for.html


• Vicki: http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-whatevers-two.html


• Cuchy: http://la-almohada.blogspot.com/2013/09/whatevers-ii-school-mates.html


• Nat: http://wp.me/p3Cnxf-32m

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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

And finally, you can share your project for September with us here:

Paisley....oh yes I love you.

Sorry for my absence, I've got some pretty crummy things I'm dealing with right now. But I wanted to share the link to my second Guest Design post over on the Eclectic Paperie blog.

THANKS for stopping by, have a great weekend. I'll be back with my post for the Whatever's on Sunday!

Guest Designer at eclectic Paperie

I'm the guest designer over at eclectic Paperie this month, so head on over to see how I created the background for this sweet little 6 x 8 Burlap Canvas from Tim Holtz!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Welcome to my NEW Website and Blog!

Hello -- and WELCOME to my new website and blog. I've been working on this all summer -- so I'm pretty excited to share it with you. I thought I'd give you a little tour, in case you haven't had a chance to look around. We all have a special place in our hearts for home, and my new website Home showcases one of my favorite images from the summer - a partially complete art journal page and my supply box.
What I am REALLY happy about is the ability to share my product catalog, a portfolio of work AND a link to my class calendar so you can see where I'll be teaching.

If you look at the tabs at the top of the page, you'll see a tab called "Resources", on this tab you will find a link to my product catalog Just Add Color at Art Gone Wild!, a video for inspiration and a link to my YouTube Page and my favorite supplies. You can download my product catalog as a PDF and see what I'm offering. There's also a tab called "See my Work". On this tab you can visit see a portfolio of my work, see a list of some places where my work has been published and links to the two books I've published.

I also added a page dedicated  to my Class Calendar -- it includes all local, away and on-line classes that I have scheduled for the rest of the year so far. I do have room for a class in November or December at your store.

You can use the Contact Me page to inquire about teaching opportunities at your store, ask about available art or commission an original piece of art! If you landed here from my blogspot blog -- you'll notice I imported all the content I had there, and it's searchable so if you were looking for something just type your key words in the Search box on the right (it's underneath the Facebook Badge) to find it.

 I've still got some things to do -- like add more pages to the Portfolio Page for Art Journal Pages, Cards, Sizzix Projects and other things -- I think it's an improvement over my old site. While I'm still learning my way around WordPress, I must say I do love the way it turned out!

THANKS for stopping by to see my new site, I hope you enjoy your day!