Imagination Movers Mini Album

My daughter and I went to a concert last November (her first ever). We saw the Imagination Movers, 4 guys from one of her favorite TV shows on Disney Junior. I had found out that they were going to be playing in Brockville (a 2-hour drive from us), but thought it would totally be worth it. It was an amazing experience and one that I documented through pictures the entire concert. In June, I started working on an 8x8 mini album for her to keep in her room to look at whenever she'd like. Today I finished the last 10 pages! I am so excited that I have all the stories written down and that she will have a great souvenir of the very first concert she ever attended. The patterned papers with all the gears are "On the Go" by Bo Bunny. The colors matched everything perfectly and I painstakingly cut out lots of gears to use on each page to keep with the Movers' look:

Having Fun

While working on the canvas, I was also working on this page (the other had to dry, so no idle hands for this lady!). I wanted to use that cobblestone stencil again, but this time with molding paste. I love the texture it gave. I then decided to spray it with Squeezed Orange and Lemon Zest from the Dylusions Ink Sprays. I like how they mixed. I then dried them before moving on to the top colors. I used Bubblegum Pink, Funky Fuchsia and Crushed Grape. LOVE the bright happy colors on this page! I have a stencil of words that are all attached and I tried using the water spray technique to bring them out, but it was too subtle (the words are too intricate), so I use the White Linen spray. This is what all of that ended up giving me:

Being a girl who loves bright colors, this just makes me smile. However, I needed to make some of the elements "pop". So I decided that the cobblestones should be outlined with my Viva Gloss-gel pen (in Graphite). I then also outlined a couple of the words that I misted with my white pen (I didn't want all of them because I wanted the shadow effect too). Here is what that step led to:

I have another stamp from Stampotique (Supergirl) that I have wanted to use for something and thought I would use her in this. She finished off the page and this is what it looks like now:

I still feel like it is not completely finished. I think it needs some stamping (maybe some butterflies or something like that to fill in some of the "white" space. We'll see...

Turning a Page into a Work of Art

My last entry was from my art journal. It was the double-pager that I called "Be You-Nique". Little did I know that it was going to strike a chord with a scrapbooking friend in Arizona that I have never met in person, but we have become friends through Facebook. She liked the piece so much that she asked me to do it on a canvas and send it to her! Can I just say how incredibly humbling that was? I was shocked that something I am just learning to "play" with ended up being the first thing that anyone has ever asked me to put together for them to hang on a wall. In fact, it turns out that she wants to hang it in her classroom (she teaches 7th grade). What an honor! That is such an impressionable age and, really, what a great message to be sending out to them. In fact, I had actually been thinking about myself back in high school when I did the original. Funny, isn't it? So, I thought it might be nice to show how the piece kind of took form...

Here is the first "layer", so to speak. Using canvas is totally different from using my art journal and I was worried that the colors were not translating properly. I had to play around a bit to get to a spot where I was happy with the color mix, but once I got there it started to look how I wanted it to. You will note that I made some subtle changes: I used a diamond stencil instead of raindrops and instead of the brick stencil in the 2 bottom corners, I used a new cobblestone stencil I bought this past weekend. Even at such an early stage, I have to admit that I really like how it looks:

The next step is to start to lighten it up before I start adding the characters. Here I just added outlines with a white pen (but it mixes with the colors, so it is not a pure white color) and then added Stickles to some random diamonds (in person there is a great glitter factor from that):

Subtle, I know, but it really makes a difference when you see it in person. And now for the last touches: the characters...I kept with the bright pop of color on the girl and just stayed with the original idea I had when I did the other piece. I think that it is effective and didn't really need any changes:

I decided to use the same size for the silhouettes this time round. I used the smaller of the 3 sizes, so that the girl (Moth Fab) would stand out more prominently. I really like the finished product. The white pen allowed the colors underneath the black paint to bleed through. So, not as stark a contrast, but pretty cool, nonetheless. The final piece makes me smile and I am proud of getting it done for a friend. I even made sure to sign it ;)

Another Entry in the Art Journal

Last Friday I went to my LSS, Scrapbook Centrale, and brought my scrappy stash as well as my art journal. I have to admit that I couldn't wait to get a couple of scrapbook pages done quickly (for a mini album I am working on) so that I could play with my mixed media. Here is a what I worked on:

I used 4 different Dylusions sprays (fresh lime, cut grass, calypso teal and vibrant turquoise) for the base. I love using the "drip" technique, so you can see some of the running colors that are on the page. I then used some light modelling paste with a stencil of raindrops which I sprayed with the colors again. I also used the white spray with a brick stencil which you can see in both bottom corners. I then did all the black silhouettes (with a paint dauber) and the wording for the title (using a gel gloss pen by Viva ~ which I also used for the dot border). As you can see, I outlined some of the raindrops with a white liner pen and added Stickles to others. The last piece was the stamped image of Moth Fab by Stampotique and then I colored her in with the sprays as well (using a paintbrush). 

I have to admit that I am totally in love with these sprays and went to buy 5 more colors today that I did not already have (I think I now have 14 in total). I am also starting to build my stash of stencils as I am getting more and more ideas. This journal is going to fill up quickly I think!

A New Chapter ~ Art Journaling

I signed up for an art journaling club at Scrapbook Centrale. Today was the first get-together. I had no idea what to expect, I just wanted to learn new techniques and have fun. Mission accomplished! We were working with Dylusions sprays by Dyan Reaveley. I LOVE color, so brightness is not something that I am intimidated by. In fact, I usually have an aversion to soft and muted colors. Hmm...what does that say about me? Anyhow, this is the journal that we all had to purchase for the class:

I can tell you I was really excited to get to this class and just play. I am also looking forward to filling this journal over time. Having the club meet once a month will be a lot of fun and playing in between should be great too. Normally, I am a very linear and uncluttered kind of crafter (when scrapbooking), but with this I feel free to just get messy. It's fun to watch your creation take form as you play with it. Here is what I worked on today (the initial sprays of color):

I wanted saturated color, so just putting it everywhere was how I started. I am gonna have to buy these sprays (I feel a new addiction coming on). As you can see, the pages underneath WERE white. The finished product is not indicative of that at all:

I used water to get some dripping. I wanted to see how that looked (I will be using that technique a LOT, I think). Then I used some alpha stamps to stamp "PLAY" because that is what I was doing. I wanted my first pages to reflect what I was doing. I stamped a journaling area in the bottom left corner to explain that it was the first class and that I was having fun. Then I decided I needed a bit of dimension, so I used some stamps the store had and did the butterflies using gesso. You can also see that I used some stencils/masks for the hearts and the bubbles on the top right (all with gesso). While the gesso was still wet, I sprayed the Dylusions on them so that the color would go with the page (I wasn't interested in having them be white and have such a stark contrast). I then added on some sayings and words that were stamped on paper, sprayed them and adhered them to the pages. I went around some of the elements with a white pen to define the edges and used a black one to doodle around the edges of both pages. Voilà! My first pages in my art journal, just playing with color. I have some Stampotique stamps that I think will definitely get some use in this journal. My creative juices are flowing!!!

Falling in Love with Mixed Media...

I think I am finding a new love: mixed media! My last post was about a canvas bag I painted on and now I am posting a notebook cover I did last night. I used gesso, gelatos, modelling cream, stamps and washi tape. This would be such a great gift to give someone. I'm thinking that making nice notebooks and journals for people would be a great gift. I'm also starting to think about how nice it might be to put together some inspirational quotes on canvas or wood to hang up on the walls at home. Oh boy! My brain is going into overdrive!

I love these colors (okay, I DID choose them myself, so I should love them ~ lol). Such a versatile thing to be able to do! I am picturing all kinds of color schemes. Definitely gonna have to play a bit more with this sutff!

Playing with Paint

Ooooohhhhh, I got to play today! I had signed up for a class at Scrapbook Centrale (my LSS) because the last time I did a class was probably about 2 years ago. I was intrigued by a canvas bag they had on display and decided I should see what it was all about. I am so glad that I did! This is what my bag ended up looking like:

I love bright, bold colors, so this was right up my alley. We layered and layered and layered...and layered some more. Even doing the free hand white outlines was fun. I am totally going to work with canvas again (I am already eyeing other bags I have lying around that are plain). I may just have to use this idea for a wall hanging in each of my girls' rooms. I think that having a lot of bright colors with their name right across would look awesome on their walls. Whaddya think?