Still Catching Up

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Today I realized I've only posted one of my projects from my Wanderlust class.  Below are a few of my favorite art journal pages created for the class. I still have some catching up to do, but look forward a few of the techniques that are waiting to be completed.

Mixed Media with Finnabair

Wow! I can't believe March has come and gone so soon.  It was a  very busy month and I feel like I'm playing catch-up not only here, on the blog, with my art.  With that said I'm going to start at the end of the month, since the most exciting event happened then.

The last weekend in March my sister Fran and I had the privilege of being able to participate in a live class given by the talented Finnabair. She is an extremely talented artist and a great teacher, walking the class through the mixed media process step by step.

Our class was an 8 hour journey into the world of mixed media, and it felt like we used every art medium known to man. After many hours and layers of gesso, mat medium, paint, wax, and many other items the final layer was done.  It was so worth have our fingers stuck together and having to peel off the glue and paint.

This was the first step of the process. Modeling paste, laces, and burlap.

It was a long and exhausting day, but so worth it. I love the way my piece turned out. 

This is our class photo.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 5

Photo transfers. That was this week's assignment. Not good, photo transfers never work for me. I've tried this many times using different techniques and have never had success.  Leave it Donna to push us that one step further from our comfort zone.

After thinking about it, forming a plan B and scouring the internet for pictures it was time to give it a try.

Woo Hoo! It worked! I couldn't believe it. I love how these pages turned out. Thank you Donna. I will be using this technique again in my work.

Wanderlust - 2017

This year I signed up for the Wanderlust classes offered by Kasia & Jamie Avery from the UK.  Every week a new class will be posted demonstrating a new or existing technique to complete a project.  Twice a month there will be guest designers from around the world teaching the classes. I'm looking forward to the challenges this course will bring.

I've decided to use the Dylusions large art journal for the class. I fell in love with this book at first site. The paper is thick and sewn together so I won't have to worry about pages falling out during the year. At first I was intimidated by the size, but once I got the first layer of paint on the page didn't look so big.  I believe I made the right choice using this size journal.

Here's a look at my first project.  Three of the pictures, (top left - Bubble Ring, top right - Green Flash & bottom left - Solar Eclipse), were taken by my friend  Steve Mattan.

Tim Holtz Tags of 2016 - December

As 2016 comes to an end here is another last of the year.  This is my December Tim Tag. 
Sine I am not a Christmas person I didn't think this was going to turn out as nice as it did.  I found a pack of stickers in the bag of Christmas embellies and immediately knew this would work.  What love the most is it only took me about 20 minutes once I gathered all my supplies.

OK Tim, I'm ready for 2017 and lots of new techniques and ideas.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 25

This is it. The last Inspiration Wednesday of 2016.  It's been another fun year with Donna, and I cannot wait to see what's in store for 2017.

Donna kept it simple this week. Thank God, because I've been so busy something more involved would have pushed me to the edge. I got to go through my collage box for this one, and was determined to use only stuff from the box.  So here it is. I hope you enjoy.  By the way, look at all the beautiful chunkiness of my completed journal.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 24

Wow! I can't believe there's only one more Inspiration Wednesday left in the year.

For these pages I used Pan Pastels. Considering that I have a limited number of colors, and it's the first time using them it turned out better than expected.

Bye for now!

Tim Holtz Tags of 2016 - November

This month Tim paired the remnant rub resist and dimensional coloring techniques.

I love the fact that Tim's rub ons resist ink. When you use them you never have to worry that they won't show up because you used a dark ink or stain. I just sprayed my stains onto the tag after applying them, and lightly wiped the excess ink.

For the leaf I used distress markers and a water brush to blend the colors.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 23

Donna took a poll asking what media we would like to see her manipulate for this week's pages.  aluminum foil got the most votes.

We used both the positive and negative pieces of a chipboard design, covered the pages in foil and painted them.  After drying the pages I sanded them so that the foil showed through in areas.  When I started these pages I wasn't sure about the technique but as it turns out I'm really happy with the finished pages.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 22

This is week three of using what we hoard, and I must say that these pages are some of my favorites. This weeks item was used baby wipes. Unlike Donna I don't keep my baby wipes after removing the glaze from my projects, so I started by picking through the trash can in my craft room. Luckily I hadn't emptied it, and I hit the jackpot.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 21

It's week 2 of the 'Use Your Stuff' series.  I found a bag of chipboard tags from Maya Road.  I think I got them in one of their sale boxes, but I have no clue when. I added the words using word stamps that I've had for years and just recently started using. What I did find out was that I could fill a whole journal with the hoarding items.

I love the way these pages turned out. The layers, textures and the colors are what I love most about Mixed Media. You make a mistake. If you don't like how something looks just add another layer, you end up with something like this...

I hope you enjoy these pages as much as I do.  I'm off to see what I've been hoarding for Week 3 of the 'Use Your Stuff' series.

Inspiration Wednesday - Week 20

For the next three weeks we're going to be creating with "Stuff" that we've been hoarding. Yes, it's true crafters hoard everything because we might be able to use for a project. This week we're going though those stickers we have.  You know, the ones that are half used, and probably don't stick anymore because they're so old.  I found a drawer full of letter stickers, some of them were unopened and a lot of them were no longer sticky. Exactly what I was looking for.

I had fun adding the layers to these pages and love the way they turned out. I hope you enjoy them too.

Art Journaling Class

In August my sister and I had the pleasure of attending an all day class with Dina Wakley. Our mission for the day was to complete our own journal pages. This included binding the pages into a book.

For the past two years I've been art journaling with Donna Downey. Since Dina's technique is very different from Donna's it was fun to just do something different. When journaling with Donna the fatter your journal is the better. This journal is flatter with lots of layers that allow for lots of writing making your journal ever evolving as you add your words to the pages.

For this book we focused on layers using paint, texture paste, stencils, stamps, and paint pens. Since I am very messy when it comes to my art I was covered in color up to my elbows, and as you can see from the pictures below we used a lot of colors.