A day to finish projects

I have had a super-busy week with packing orders (that's a good thing!), paperwork for 4 people (2 moms, us, & John's brother), and mom. After a day of mom-overload at the doc & monthly grocery shopping, I needed to get in the Happy Place. It's amazing how I can feel myself start to unwind as soon as I start moving things around in there. I felt the need to get things cleaned up in there so before I could do that, I had to finish up some projects......

This is a recipe/memo/photo holder from Unique Pages. It comes as a plain, brown, VERY thick chipboard with hardware to make a stand & attaching the clip. I found this gorgeous paper in a DCWV paper pad. You probably can't see it, but there are some clear embossed areas on the paper. I got to use my new fake Dremel to sand around the edges & remove excess paper. SOOOO much easier than a sanding block! This is a little birthday gift for a friend on Sunday......shhhhhh....don't tell!

I'm so loving making these She Girls from Christy Tomlinson's She Art workshop. They are just so much stinkin' fun!! Since I really don't have the room for canvases, I decided to get a Strathmore Art Journal notebook (thanks Marlene!). This way I can keep creating, keep them all in one place, and no worries about excess wall decor. This girl was a different take on the usual one----I painted her body instead of using paper. I added some water-soluable crayons and gelato stick to add some texture to the dress. The rest of it was done just like a regular She Art project. But I love this one for some reasno---not sure why, but I do!

This is the front of my latest wedding album custom order. This particular one has a page for just about every event in a wedding. From getting ready to the "something borrowed, something blue" to the couple driving away. I can't wait to get it in the mail & see how she likes it! I might have another order for an album done in brown & cream with touches of orange. I hope she places the order cuz it'll be fun to do one that's different than the usual black & white!

And, last but not least, I had som extra rhinestones..........figured I would bling out my flip-flops! Of course, they only cost me $5 and the individual gems are probably at least $19......but I think they're super cute! :)

Hopefully I can get some pages done in my journal over the next couple days. But first, it's the dentist with mom, a massage for me, and my friend Lisa from IL is coming in Wednesday night!

Finishing projects

Today was the day to finish working on some projects---I have two custom wedding albums to make & I wanted to clear some things off my desk. 

My dear friend, Kathie, owns a publishing company & they moved in to their new offices recently. She raved about one of the curio boxes I had made & told me she loved anything having to do with books. Needless to say, I didn't need any more encouragement than that! LOL 

It's not a very good photo since I took it with my phone......and you can't see the "books" on the top of the box along with a child's letter block that has a pair of glasses on it. But you get the idea........  It has her logo inserted into a metal piece used to label the old, big binders (I remember those!!), glitter cuz she's a crafter, a heart to remind her of me, and "books" to represent her business. Plus I love the bordello coin in the corner---she teases her hubby that they painted one of the walls in a bordello red!

Here's my latest She Art girl----although not quite finished. She still needs a good quote on her---any ideas?  I'm so loving these girls but I have no place to put them! Hmm......

While I was cleaning out, the UPS guy came to the house delivering my Dick Blick order (like I need more stuff!). I had ordered some of the hand barrier cream so paint & glue wouldn't stick to me....I pick it off for days! So far I'm really liking it!! Plus it's keeping my horrible dry Scleroderma hands a little less dry!  But the best part of the order are these paints......

What a perfect size!! It's the same size bottle as Stickles and the paints inside are AWESOME!  I dabbed a little bit of each on some white paper........OMG.......the colors & shine are fabulous! Now I'm trying to find a distributor that I can get more!!  Have you used these?? What do you think???



A better tomorrow

Week 2 of Christy's She Art Workshop had us making a scene with our girl. We could either paint or paper the sky & grass.  On my canvas, I used strips of green papers for the grass then mixed blue paint in with modeling paste to make the sky. Using a palette knife, I spread it like frosting so there's some really interesting texture but it's kind of hard to see in the photo.

After that, it was making the girl---can you see the raffia as her belt? Add a chipboard branch & some birds for the "scene" and some rubons and it's on its way! I love messing around with the different "textures" from punchinella, bubble wrap, and stamps. It's so cool how individually they don't make a huge impact, but all together they are so much fun!

I have another canvas started with paint as the sky & grass but that's as far as I've gotten.....  Even though I set my alarm at 3:30 every day to do some art, it doesn't always happen.  :(  Hopefully tomorrow!!



She Art

This month I'm taking a fun e-course called She Art Workshop by Christy Tomlinson.  This is what she says....

"... learn how to create unique and detailed  she Art girls, as seen in my art and mixed projects! I will also teach you how to create backgrounds, textures, and layering styles on canvases and other surfaces! You will walk away from this class feeling confident in creating your own personalized" She Art" pieces as well as having learned  new art techniques you can use in other mixed media projects!" 

Christy does some great artwork with her She Girl. The way she combines colors and textures is totally awesome. The first week there was 8 or 9 videos showing us what supplies she uses and how to use them. Personally, I've never used modeling paste or glass beads before. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the texture they create!

For this lesson we were supposed to make our own backgrounds with papers, paint, or anything else she covered in the videos. Then we are to add the She Girl from the template pieces Christy supplied. Add some stamps and some rub-ons and you have your very own She Girl!!

For the first girl I put down some tissue paper from a McCalls pattern and some old book pages. Then came some acrylic paints. In the corners, I mixed modeling paint with acrylic liquid (specifically the color from a dropper) and just kind of stippled it on--that's the blue portions.Then I stamped some letters and some lines before adding my girl. I actually painted the hair on---that was very scary!! LOL Afterward I added some more stamps and some rub-ons then sprayed it with some Glimmer Mist.

For my second She Girl I started the same way but after adding some paint, I mixed the acrylic liquid with some of the glass beads (tiny beads in a glue medium that dries clear) and spread it over a diamond shaped template. You can't really see the depth of it here, but I added some white paint to the peaks of the dried beads. Basically it was all the same process as before but it made such a different canvas. I think I'm going to send this one to my friend in IL---she will love it.

So far the art has been really fun---it pushes the creativity a little further than what I'm accustomed to. But because of the style, it doesn't have to be matchy-matchy or be very precise. The only problem I've had is that you have to let everything dry between the layers......and I'm not very patient!! :)  At least here in the Arizona dry & sunny climate, I can just put it on the patio table & it dries pretty quickly.

Tomorrow we have our second lesson and it's all about layering--the background and the clothing--and doing some creative writing tips for the phrases. I'm very excited & can't wait to see what Christy has in store for us!!