Summer's End...

Hello everyone!

Summer officially ends for us tomorrow as my daughter begins her first day of FIRST grade! Wow!

It's been a great summer full of lots (and I mean lots) of activities to keep the kiddos busy and while I've enjoyed all the time together, I've missed not having as much time to play around on paper. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll soon ease into new routines and I'll find more "me" time :)

I did manage to play along with CSI case #33 and eek out a page at the last minute...

Evidence: liquid medium, woodgrain, sand like stuff, white background, metal
and metal. Testimony: journaling strips

I've always loved this photo of my oldest daughter! Whenever I see it I smile...it's full of just the right mix of happy, adventure, and magic and I really hope that is how my oldest will feel about her childhood when she someday looks back on it.

Prima flowers and sentiment tag. Washi tape from Gauch Alchemy. Dripped
ink from TA (beige) and Distress Stain (blue).

Splatters by Distress Stains.

Most of the work on this page was with the background. I started with gesso, added stamps, sprayed and dripped TA and Distress Stains and added splatters. I took scenic sand and mixed it with a gel medium until I got the desired consistency and applied it with my palette knife.

Prima paper

The one piece of background paper I embossed with a woodgrain die. I added some Ranger glossy accent drops for the "water splashes".

But wait, there's more.......

True XOXO Scrapbooking is holding their challenge of Olympic Proportions through August...that's still 6 days to go everyone! So get on over and play along! Here was my take on the challenge. I obviously used the Olympic rings as my inspiration:)

Faber Castell gelatos and washi tape by Gauche Alchemy.

I drew circles of different sizes onto watercolor paper using Faber Castell gelatos and brushed over them with liberal amounts of water. 

I made the chevron arrows from masking tape and washi tape. 

OK, now that's all for today! Thank you for your visits and comments, I always appreciate them!

Dinosaur Hunting!

Hello everyone!

One of many fun things we did on our recent trip to Southern California was to visit the Natural History Museum. My oldest daughter in really into dinosaurs and we'd heard about the awesome exhibit at the Los Angelos NHM so we had a visit and it did not disappoint! We took so many photos but I don't know that they did any justice to that collection...

I did use some of those pics, however, on a layout I made for two challenges. CSI Case #31 really pulled me in with those bright tropical colors. Yes dinos can seem so ominous and serious but how exciting and fun they are to learn about! I was inspired by Helene's wonderful tutorial over at ARTastic to use stencils to create backgrounds! Here's my page:

For my Evidence: liquid medium, repetition, circles, solid background, parallel lines.
For my Testimony: I journaled about our NHM visit during our recent vacay

 

So I have to brag just a sec...I made those fun dinos in the background using a pack of stencils from the Dollar Store! Always happy when I score a find for a great deal :) I applied Snow Tex and then painted over them with distress crackle paint to give them their "tough hide" ;) 

I also used a circle stencil I had cut out with my Silhouette.

The alphas are an old pack of Heidi Swapp mistable letters with
a resist grid pattern. Oh how I wish I had MANY packs of these! I layed out
my title on a craft sheet then sprayed my colors and flicked
on the black paint.

Very fun arrow stamps by Studio g!

More crackly dinos!

So if anyone is into dinosaurs and you're in the area, check the exhibit out! It certainly was fun "hunting" for dinos! That's it for today! Thanks for your visit and comments, always appreciated!

What a Weekend It Was!

Yes, the next weekend is almost upon us but let me tell you about my last weekend....

I had the FANTASTIC opportunity to meet Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair (!!) and take her Mixed Media class!!! And yes, it was all that I'd hoped it would be! Anna is a wonderful teacher, passionate, straight forward, challenging, encouraging and most certainly inspiring....THANK YOU Anna!

Anna and me!

Our class was sponsored by Swirlydoos, and held at Prima Marketing. Anna hand picked the yummy Prima goodies for our projects so it was a great group, great venue, and great teacher! 

Cool learning points for me:

1. When working on your layers, commit that stuff down with glue! No humming and hawing with each piece...this is art, there are no mistakes!

2. New approach...thinking in black and white and in shapes...add the colors later (a completely different way of thinking for me!)

3. You don't need gesso (gasp!) to get those bold colors over already colorful items...Lumiere acrylic paints baby! I knew I loved those paints for a reason!

  

Here's my journal...

Some close ups:

Also got to meet some cool people along the way...

Hi Jodi, Pom and Frank!

It's a pretty awesome thing when you get to meet live and in person
a fellow scrapper you've been DT and blogging friend with! Hi Frank!

It really was a memorable event and I'm promising myself it won't be my last! Have an inspired weekend!