More She Art Canvases

I made some more 6x6 She Art canvases for gifts awhile ago and realized I never shared them here.  I tried to make each one as personalized as possible for the friend who was receiving it.  I love how they all ended up having their own personalities!

"CANDI"

I love the little boots!

"KATHY"

 I had some problems with Kathy's hair to start with.  It turned out WAY too big!  It was actually quite comical.  Thank goodness for paint.  I just covered it up and started over.  :)

"AMMIE"

Did you know you can sign up at any time for Christy Tomlinson's She Art Classes?  Check out all her workshops here.

My 2nd Class for Cindy's SB Conference

I finished designing the layout for my 2nd class for Cindy's Scrapbooking Conference coming up on May 18-19.  I used papers from Crate Paper's "Farmhouse" Collection and a little bit from Simple Stories' "Year-o-graphy" line.

I'm teaching the people in my class how to make "Lolli" or Accordion Folded Flowers using a Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  I also made a tutorial here.  I have decided that using hot glue to secure them is a lot easier than waiting for liquid glue to dry.

Cindy's Scrapbooking Conference

Cindy's scrapbooking conference is coming up May 18th & 19th.  It will be held at the Red Lion in Pocatello.  You can find all the info here.

I haven't scrapped too much lately, because I have been spending time painting, drawing, and watercoloring.  I have been taking the "Art of Wild Abandonment" class, which is taught by Junelle Jacobson and sponsored by Christy Tomlinson.  Can I just say F-U-N!!!!  But that's a whole different story for another day...

It was fun to pull out my scrapping supplies and use them on a layout instead of on a canvas or in my art journal.  I have to say it was hard not to drag out the Mod Podge, though.  It is so much easier, and messier, and fun to play with Mod Podge than it is photo squares.  ;)

I finished one of my classes that I'm teaching at Cindy's.  This is a doodling class that will be taught on Friday evening.  Love these new papers from My Mind's Eye!

I'm in love with rolled paper flowers!  They can add the perfect embellishment anywhere on a card or layout.

I have one more layout to design for Cindy's conference.  Then I might post some pictures of She Art canvases and art journaling I have been doing over the past several months.  (I know...my poor neglected blog)!  See you soon!

Charity Auction for Stone Family

On February 6th, Melissa Stone, along with her baby boy and 2-year-old daughter, were in a horrible car accident in Utah.  Melissa sustained critical injuries; Baby Edward only had a couple of cuts on his head; but 2-year-old Ethne didn't survive.

Lawrence Stone, Melissa's husband, grew up in my neighborhood.  His sister is currently running a charity auction on Facebook to help raise funds for their medical and funeral expenses.  If you are interested and can help, please go to Facebook and take a look at all the wonderful items people have donated for the auction.  She is taking bids until Wednesday, February 22nd.


Here are some of the items I donated through Lucky Lark Designs, but there are so many other items as well, including hair bows, inspirational posters, gift baskets, Mary Kay and Avon products, handmade hats, aprons, socks, and jewelry.  The list goes on and on.  If you aren't interested in the auction, or don't have a Facebook page, you can still donate money on the family's blog here.

"Baby's First Year" Auction Link

 "Family Ties" Auction Link.

 "Love" Auction Link

"Family Favorite Recipes" Auction Link

Thanks for your help and prayers in behalf of this wonderful little family! 

A New She Art Canvas

Remember the She Art Workshop I took a few month's ago?  Well I finally got around to making a girl.  (So far I've only made one boy canvas). This one is for a friend who helped us out with our youth conference and girl's camp this summer.  It's a small canvas (6"x6") and a super fun size to work with!  

I basically copied one of Christy's girls from class.  I loved the layered skirt she taught us to make and I wanted to give it a try.  I love all the dimension you can see on the actual canvas.  It makes you want to reach out and touch it!

I started out with the sky (which is Cerulean Blue Hue Liquitex Acrylic Ink) brushed across the canvas.  Can I just say how in love I am with these inks??  A little bit goes a long way and the colors are so vivid!  They do stain your hands (and anything else they touch) very badly so you'll want to be careful with them.  I had blue fingers for a week!

The grass is made from strips of green patterned paper cut with pinking shears that are layered across the bottom.  They are highlighted with Vivid Lime Green acrylic ink.

The sun is one of the funnest parts to create!  I love all the rub-ons and stamps and colors and doodling!  

I cut the flowers from patterned paper, then highlighted them with Pitt Big Brush Pens and a little doodling.

Then the entire canvas is embellished with paint and stamps and rub-ons and more doodling.  So much fun!!!

Christy Tomlinson is offering a She Art Workshop No. 2 this fall.  She will go more into depth on how to create details on your girls as well as using different mediums on canvas as well as other materials.  Both workshops are on sale for $35 each until October 1st.  After that they will be $44.95.  I'm so excited about this new class!  I needed another reason to get artsy!

Cindy's Fall Scrapbooking Conference

Wow!  I have totally neglected my blog!  I have lots of fun things to share, but today I will concentrate on my new classes for Cindy's Fall Conference.  I'm not sure if she has her full schedule of classes up yet, but keep checking for updates.

My first class is "Beautiful Life."  This summer I have kind of set my scrapbooking aside and played with art journals and mixed media instead.  It has been so much fun to explore new creative play!  I wanted to incorporate as many mixed media techniques as I could on this layout.  

  I used tinsel glitter, embossing powder, paint, mist, tulle, chipboard, and fabric.  Fun, fun!

Here are some close ups:

 Painted and doodled border.

 Glimmer Mist on a paper doily.

 Tinsel glitter on a chipboard bird.

 Handmade muslin flowers.  To see a tutorial, click here.

Heat embossed chipboard bird with tulle wings.

My second class is actually two one-page layouts.  Here's a look at the first one:

 I did not start this layout with the intention of fitting 14 photos on it.  But that's what ended up happening!  I printed each row of photos as one solid piece for a couple of different reasons.  First of all, it was a lot easier to attach 5 photos to the background instead of 14 small ones.  Secondly, it cut down on "clutter" by eliminating the gaps between each picture.

 Because the layout was filled up with photos, I didn't want to clutter it up with lots of embellishments, so I kept it simple and just added basics like die cuts and buttons.  The exposed white edge of the patterned paper also adds a little contrast.

 This star stamp reminded me of fireworks!  It is heat embossed with Zing embossing powder.

I created a little pocket for my journaling tag and added a sub-title to the front.

Now, here's a look at the last layout.  The big #1 was inspired by a layout that was in the September "My Mind's Eye" newsletter.

 There's a first time for everything and this layout is a fun way to document it.  I used a faux stitching technique that is easy and sewing-machine free! (But you will have to come to class to learn how to do it).  :)

Since this layout is flat, I didn't take any closeups of it.  

I'm excited for conference!  Hopefully I will see some of you there! 

Art Journal

After taking Christy Tomlinson's "She Art Workshop," I decided to sign up for her art journaling class.  It has been so much fun!  If you are interested, you can still sign up.  Since it's an online class, you can go at your own pace and you have three months to complete it.  Click here for more information.

I've had quite a few friends ask me what an art journal even is.  So although I'm new at this, I will try to explain.

Art journals are not a new thing.  They have been around for years.  Think of if as a diary with art in it.  Basically they can be used a few different ways.  You can use it as an outlet for trying new art mediums and techniques without worrying about messing anything up.  Some people create a page that is very symbolic to them but don't necessarily include journaling.  Others incorporate their art into a journal and record their thoughts and feelings in words and art.  There's really no right or wrong way to do it.  Just create what feels right for you.

You can use many different types of books  and any size to create your art journal in.  Here are a few suggestions:

• Artist's sketch book (hardbound or spiral bound).
• A mini album with paper, chipboard, or canvas pages.
• An actual book (like an old novel or something from the thrift store).  You can glue 2 or 3 pages together to create a stronger "canvas" to work on.  Then you can paint, mod podge, and layer over them so you never really end up seeing the words on the pages of the book (unless you want to). Some people have actually glued several pages together, then cut the center out to create a "window" of sorts.  
• Again, there's no right or wrong...just get creative!

The thing I've loved about this leap into art journaling is how imperfect my pages can be.  As a scrapbooker, I'm a huge perfectionist and sometimes agonize over a small detail here or there that I feel is going to make or break the whole page.  But with Christy's art journaling class, I feel like I have been given "permission" to just get messy and creative.  It's so much fun and I'm having a blast NOT being a perfectionist.

In Christy's class, I have also learned how to use many, many art mediums (some I had never even heard of before).  For example, she has demonstrated water color pencils and crayons, different acrylic paints, pan pastels, liquid acrylic inks, distressing inks and stains, gelatos, paintsticks, pens, brushes, sprays, etc., etc. 

OK...enough talking about it.  Here are a few examples that hopefully will give you a visual of what art journaling can be.  Keep in mind, I'm very new at this and am definitely not an expert.

My first page was very simple.  I used watercolor crayons for the background, then used paint and glimmer mist over a few different Crafter's Workshop templates for the background:

 I didn't do any journaling on this page, but it's symbolic of the relationship between my husband and I.  Our initials in the center of the heart were clipped from a magazine.  I stamped 4 birds on a wire representing our family.  I stamped a "friend" definition in a couple of the corners since he is my best friend.  

By the way, that huge heart stamp is by Donna Downey and quickly becoming one of my favorites!

 I clipped the word "Perfect" from a magazine.  Although my husband and I are total opposites, he is perfect for me.  :)

The blue heart is cut from an old book.  I painted liquid acrylic ink over it with my finger, then stamped white ink over the top with bubble wrap.

I found a whole stack of these tickets at the dollar store.  I highlighted the "Keep this Coupon" part to symbolize our eternal marriage.  Kind of fun, huh?  :)

OK...next:

On this page, I used a lot more mixed media stuff.  The background consists of various patterned papers, a dictionary page, a piece of piano music (I purchased a piano book at the dollar store), and some leftover butterfly squares from another project I made earlier this year (glass tile pendants for my Young Women's group).

 The tree trunk was cut from a magazine.  The tree top is a paper doily I sprayed with Glimmer Mist.  I painted around the edge of the page with watered down acrylic paint.  When everything was finished, I stamped some texture around the edges.

 I purchased an old dictionary at the thrift store for $3.  It was kind of hard to tear it up, but that's what I did for the "Faith" definition.

Again, the hearts were cut from book paper.  I also found the phrase in the book which I cut into strips and layered along the edge of the tree trunk.  As a side note, I love how mod podge crinkles up magazine paper.  I think the texture is cool!

Here's a page I did tonight.  I love how it turned out!

 The paper with the clocks was pulled from a magazine as well as the piece with the birds.  I mod podged those in along with a piece of music and a Webster's Pages journaling card (the one that has "Listen" on it).  I printed the "Time Flies" phrase on my computer and highlighted the edges with paint, Glimmer Mist, and a border stamp.

 I stippled over a piece of puncinella to create the dots.

I cut a heart from a piece of cardboard and peeled the top layer away.  Then I painted the edges and sprayed some glimmer mist on it.  The acrylic wings are some old Heidi Swapp ones I had in my scrapbooking stash.  The yellow heart is cut from patterned paper and highlighted with a Faber Castell Pitt pen.

I stamped over the corner of the bird picture with a foam stamp from Michael's and white acrylic paint.

I made this a two-page layout so I could journal on the left side.  Once the journaling is done, I might end up adding a few more things...we will see.  :)

I hope this helps those of you who were asking me questions about art journaling.  I'm really loving it and have tons of ideas floating around in my head!