Mi Muñeca - The Crafter's Workshop

Hi everyone!

I've got a very easy watercolor background tutorial up at The Crafter's Workshop. Here's how my example turned out.

I'm always attracted to the soft look of watercolors and I thought that sort of background would go well with this photo of my little one. She looks like a doll here (yes, I'm inclined to be partial):), hence the title of my page. 

Again, if you're interested in how I got this effect, please go check out my tutorial here. Thanks so much and have a great day!

UmWowStudio and Susan K. Weckesser Blog Hop!

Hi everyone,

If you haven't heard yet UmWowStudio and Susan K. Weckesser are having a summer blog hop this week!

It's day two and I'm up with my page :)

It was so easy to work with the Susan K. Weckesser papers and stamps. The bright beautiful colors were seriously perfect for so many of my kid photos!  I used the papers from the Live in Color collection. And they went so well with the UmWowStudio chipboard shapes and flair!

I got my title for the page from UWS This Day Hashtag Banners. It held just the right sentiment for that photo, don't you think? I left this chippie raw and just covered the back with yellow paper.

The Chevron Confetti make such good pointers to emphasize bits and pieces on your paper. I covered mine up with gesso and dimensional paints and had the larger green chevron point towards the word "happy" (which I made with the cameo and my own script brushwork) and had the smaller yellow chevron point to the photo.

I cut out circles from SKW's paper and of course I had to add some fun flair! UWS Wood Textures flair set have these cool backgrounds that you can use by itself for splashes of yellow, teal, or grey...or you can alter them. I altered the flair with a stamp from the ABC. 123. Washi set from SKW & Unity.

Oh and I realize it's tough to see but I used the UWS Checker Board Mask in the background with Super Heavy Gloss Gel medium for more texture!

Hope that added a little happy to your day! Check back in with UmWowStudio everyday this week to see all the awesome projects the design teams have made and get the chance to win one of TWO prizes!

Supplies:
UWS This Day Hashtag Banners
UWS Chevron Confetti
UWS Checker Board Mask
UWS Wood Textures Flair

SKW Live in Color Collection
SKW ABC. 123. Washi stamp set

Little Fey - UWS

Hi everyone!

I was up over at UmWowStudio yesterday and here's the page I made. I describe how I altered the UWS chipboard and the 7Dots Studio paper so if you're interested head over to the UWS blog too!

As you probably know, I'm not a big user of flower/florals but I must admit I really had fun with those leaves from the UWS Floral Collection. They went so well with that photo and the whole look I was going for (also inspired from this month's moodboard at Scrap Around the World!). I put a bunch texture and color on them to really make them stand out.

Of course I had to use the Heart Confetti since my daughter also has hearts all over her face :) and by the way, I made part of that background using the Hexagon Confetti Mask. 

Oh, and to tie in the cluster of embellishments at the corner of my photo, I used lovely flair from the Make A Wish set altered with a little watercolor paint. I saw the blowing dandelion picture on the Scrap Around the World moodboard (see below) and had a little "ah ha!" moment. 

Here's the moodboard with the beautiful colors, florals, and blowing dandelion:

Wishing you all a creative weekend!

Supplies:

UWS Heart Confetti

UWS Hexagon Confetti Mask

UWS Make A Wish flair set

UWS Floral Collection

7Dots Studio Messy Head paper

Prima flower and chalk ink

A Little Bit About Me....

Hi everyone,

A few weeks back, my friend and super creative person, DeeDee Catron asked me to be in a blog hop of sorts. The idea is to get to know me a little better (from the creative end of things) and for me to send you over to the blogs of a few other people who I find totally inspirational/creative! Thanks DeeDee for asking, I'm honored.....

          

Questions:
1. What am I working on?

I'm currently on the design teams of UmWowStudio and The Crafter's Workshop so I'm working on projects for both those teams. Most often I make layouts but in my head I've been planning a canvas (and I do consider the thinking part "working on" a project too!).

          

2. How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

Hmmmmm, that's a tough one....maybe it differs because I designed it in my own head :) I don't think I have a specific style..what seems to be my constant is a) I make mixed media pages, b) colors are a huge part of my design, and c) I like to convey movement across the page.

          

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Ok, I can pretend for a moment that it's all about memory keeping but if I'm being honest with myself, it's mostly about needing to create and be creative! I need to play with paints and papers and mediums and make something or I start to get a little stir crazy! It makes me happy so I must. The fact that my children/family get to be the subject of the photos is a wonderful, added benefit. :)

          

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

I find inspiration from a variety of places...seeing a color combo, a photo, wanting to try out a new technique, a sketch. Then I start planning the page in my head...I am not a fast scrapper, I wish I were but I'm not. I literally close my eyes and visualize color and movement across my page. Then I fill in the gaps... I think about the different mediums I want to work with, the embellishments. After "mentally" working the page out I get started...ironically, much of the time my pages don't turn out the way I envisioned them! But that's my process...I start in my head first.

OK, now to introduce you to some people I think are pretty darn talented!

Linda Brun : Hi, I live in Norway with my always supportive husband, one grown up son and our little puppy. I discovered paper crafting in 2009 and have never looked back since. I love to think I am creative 24/7 but it is pretty close. I’m always on the look for new techniques and I’m doing any kind of projects.I tend to use mixed media techniques but can also do clean and simple. After working full time with computers and numbers for many years I went back to school in 2011 and got my Graphic Design exam. I now work 50% for a local but well known manufacture in Norway http://www.kortoggodt.com and their shop http://www.cameliashus.no, the rest of my time I spend in my studio working on lots of different things like: mixed media craft projects, teaching classes, Graphic design projects, silk prints, collages, mixed media art, sewing and the list goes on. I love to travel, meeting people and take classes. I’m fortunate enough to be on some fantastic design teams and have been with several earlier, all this info is in my blog if interested. www.lindabrun.com

Jelissa Mei : My name is Jelissa and I come from sunny Singapore. I picked up scrapbooking when my eldest son was born. My style is a mixture of mixed media and shabby chic. 12x12 layouts are usually what I make, but recently I've tried altering everyday objects from home and is currently addicted to canvas. I love splashing colours around and creating fun textures on my backgrounds. And yes, I'm one of those who stages photos to match my papers/paints!

Thanks for stopping by to get to know me better. And if you have any more questions, ask away! These ladies will be posting their interviews next week, Monday so don't forget to stop by and get to know them!

UWS - Nature's Artistry (and a Little Page Anatomy)

Hi everyone,

And still more catching up......! On July 4 I was up on UmWowStudio with a layout.

On our recent trip to St. Maarten, we visited a butterfly farm and my daughter took one look at this butterfly and declared "an Owl Butterfly"! She was spot on and I was proud :) That's more than I knew!

I wanted to try and get a more organic feel on this page with lots of irregular lines and movement so I thought I'd do a little breakdown of how I tried to achieve that.

Yes, I am very aware that I misspelled ARTISTRY....doh!!

I started with the beautiful UWS Damask Mask all over the left side of my paper. I sprayed it, stamped with it, used molding paste over it. The mask is composed of lots of curves, little leaf like detail, really perfect for breaking up all the white on my page.

I dripped several different green mists across the paper to give the page movement. Then I used this very cool VLVS Tree Stamp to add even more movement. With all that movement, I needed balance ;) so I added a UWS Layered Circle in pink on the far right of the page to tie in with all the pink on the left, and of course a few butterflies as well. The May Arts Butterfly ribbon did just the trick.

The UWS Layered Butterfly was the perfect themed embellishment to go with this page. I covered it with Snow Tex and dabbed different Lumiere acrylic paint over it. 

I hope you found my page "dissection" helpful! Have a great day!

Art Journal Pages With The Crafter's Workshop

Hi everyone!

Just trying to get a little caught up on my blog here! I made a few art journal pages for The Crafter's Workshop along with a process video for the pink page.

There's a little story on how this page came about....back in May I had the pleasure of meeting a blogosphere friend in real life! Linda Brun (on holiday from Norway) and I had a fun day hanging out and doing some art/craft retail therapy in my neck of the woods. She is such creative, down to earth, kind, encouraging person! I certainly hope to meet up again! Well, she also gave me a very unique mixed media kit - papers with writing in different languages. There was a Russian article about fish and I got the idea to use the pictures of the fish for this page. Thanks Linda!

My second page essentially used the same background technique to get an entirely different look (that's what I love about art journals!). 

Here's the video. I've still got a steep learning curve when it comes to making videos...certainly lacking finesse but I hope you enjoy it!

Here Linda and I are, saying bye, after an awesome day of shopping,
talking art, and drinking coffee!

 TCW Stencils:

306s Dina's Mini Spilled Hearts

287s Mini Burst

438s Mini CityGrid