You are as happy as you choose to be...

Hellllooooo!  Me again, back with another post and some happy news!  I will be designing again for the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft design team this fall!  I'm so honoured and thankful to be picked again for this amazing team and to work with such a talented bunch of designers!  Cant wait to show you my creations!  

Here's a little 'teaser' using some Design Memory Craft Gelatos® on watercolour paper and paired with a fabulous sentiment stamp from Unity Stamps!

Such a fun and easy card to make!  The added sequins are a fun touch!  

Anyway, stay tuned for some Design Memory Craft goodness to come your way!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

No boys allowed! Hazel & Ruby stencil masks save the day again....

Sorry I've been missing in action lately.  Tennis season has started so I'm back teaching until the snow covers up the courts for another year!  But anyone who knows me knows I can't stay away from my art supplies!  I'm not going anywhere!

So my little one has been asking to make an artsy sign for her door with some of my Hazel & Ruby stencil masks.  She knew exactly what she wanted it to say:  'No boys allowed, except dads, brothers, cousins and any nice boys'.  We had to condense it a bit for the sake of space...lol...

Here's how it turned out:

We used some PPA (matte) to adhere the pretty paper

(also from Hazel & Ruby - Pretty Floral Tissue Paper roll) 

to a 12x12 canvas.  (let dry completely - we did a whole bunch the night before)

Next, we simply added our letters to the canvas.

She then painted over the entire canvas using acrylic paint.

Since acrylic paint dries pretty fast we didn't have to wait too long to peel off the letters.

(a heat gun also helps ;)  

We wanted to add a bit of distress to it so we added some strokes of Tim Holtz distress paint in Picket Fence.  We also took the bottom of paint bottle and dabbed it into some orange paint to make some random circles on the canvas.  Then I took my beloved india ink pens from Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft and added a bit of shading around the letters to help them stand out.

Such a fun project to do together with fabulous results!!!  The stencil masks from Hazel & Ruby make it super quick and easy even for kids!  Love it!!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

'Flowers' Canvas...

Hello crafty peeps!  Its time again for another project featuring some Faber-Castell products!  Today I've got a little video-slideshow-tutorial on how I created this 6" x 12" canvas.  

Take a peek over on the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog for the full tutorial!

I used lots of Gelatos & Stampers Big Brush Pens.  If you've never tried Gelatos before you MUST!  They are my fav, my go to, my can't live without...lol.  They blend effortlessly with or without water, are compact, highly pigmented acid free color sticks that glide on creamy smooth (just like butter) for maximum color and coverage.  And the Brush Pens always finish things off beautifully.  These pens are all lightfast India Ink and have a durable brush nib for a multitude of uses!  Check 'em out HERE!

Maybe these flowers will spur spring on a little faster!  I've had enough of Winter!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great week!

Supplies Used:

Gelatos	Gelatos Designer Colors - Tropical (#770162)	Gelatos Double Scoop	Gelatos	Stamper's Big Brush Pens
Gesso (#770302)	Gel Medium (#770303)	Stamper's Big White Pen (#770013)	Stamper's Big Brush Pen MAY GREEN	Stamper's Big Brush Pen LIGHT BLUE (#770007)
Textural Accents Sampler (#770301)	Heat it - Craft Tool	TH Layering Stencil Schoolhouse

InLinkz.com

You've got a friend in me canvas...

What does one do with a truck load of creative energy after returning home from CHA?  Make a canvas!  I made this piece shortly after I got home.  The amazing inspiration walking around there was so overwhelming (in a good way) I was bursting at the seams with ideas.  I had so much creativity buzzing around inside my head I just had to let it out and this was the result.  

I took a blank canvas and a piece of patterned designer paper and adhered it to the entire surface using gel medium.  After it was good and dry, I took some alphabet 'thickers' and placed them on the canvas as a 'mask', making the saying "you've got a friend in me"...(gotta love Toy Story) - oh I removed some of the 'sticky back' by pressing the stickers on my pants so they wouldn't tear the paper off when I removed them.    I added some whipped spackle around the edges to give it some texture and 'grunge'.  Then I went to work with some heavy body acrylic paint in Pink mixed with a bit of white paint and water and covered the entire canvas being careful not to saturate around the alphabet stickers too much.  Once that was completely dry I carefully removed the alphabet stickers revealing the pretty flowered background.  Then to finish it off I added some shading and dimension to the letters using gelatos and pitt pens!  

Here's a close up of how to use the pens and gelatos to add more dimension to your work!  They blend so nicely over dried paint!  

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little project, I know it found a good home!  Thanks Jo  ;)

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have a great weekend!

Supplies used:  Canvas, Designer paper, gel medium, gesso, acrylic paints, alphabet stickers, whipped spackle or modelling paste, gelatos, pitt pens.

Tags tags and more tags...

Still on vacation but wanted to share a few more tags from my slowly growing collection...

Acrylic Paints

Watercolor Sticks

Mixed Media:  acrylic paints, TCW stencils, markers, designer paper, awesome glitter spray - thanks Carola!,  fabercastell pitt pens, gelatos, ppa.  This tag was made for my friend Joanne at the Scrapping Bug who so generously donated some amazing prizes for a function we recently had!
Thanks Joanne!!!
We love 'The Bug'!!!!

ARTISTS IN BLOGLAND

BALZER DESIGNS

PAINT PARTY FRIDAY

CREATIVE EVERYDAY

It takes everything to stand alone...art journal page

Here is one of my favourite pages in my art journal I thought I would share. 

I started off by spraying my pages with water then added a bunch of fun bright Dylusions Ink Sprays.  I then used my black sharpie and drew circles around all the 'blobs' of spray that I didn't like.  Keeping with the 'circular' theme, I added some green polkadots using a Crafters Workshop stencil.  I found the page to be too bright so I took out my big circle stencil and sprayed some White Linen over it to soften it up a bit.  I love this look!

I started doodling one of my favourite quotes, one I try to live by, you know, 'be your own person' kind of thing....I used a fine tip black sharpie and coloured in some of the letters with my Faber Castell Pitt pens in various colours. 

Then I pulled out my Peerless Watercolours (my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE - these are so brilliantly beautiful, so rich in colour, I use them all the time) and just painted on random circles and added some colour to the lettering and the lines underneath the lettering etc... 



I went around the perimeter of the whole page using Dyan Reaveley's cling stamps, and also added some circle word stamps from my stash!  I'm pretty happy with the outcome! 

Thanks for stopping by!

No card today but how 'bout a canvas....or two...

Hello everyone! I just couldn't resist posting this today. Yesterday my daughter wanted to have a girly girl day. So I suggested colouring or painting or shopping and she chose to paint!!! I was super excited as the night before I attended Linda's mixed media class at The Paper Pickle, so my mojo was still in full gear! I just started doing mixed media back in April/May (I started with Christy Tomlinson's She Art on-line course) and I have to tell you it is F-U-N!!! Not to mention the pure gratification of looking at your art once its done. I've done about 4 canvases, I'll have to post them for you to see. They make great gifts and they're rediculously addictive to make! Anyway, luckily my paints were easy to grab since our basement flooded and all my craft stuff is packed away until we get new carpet! Boooo! But a quick trip to the dollar store and a few new paint brushes and canvases later we were ready to roll!

I started with a plan, because my daughter (who's almost 4) needs some sort of structure at least to start out with or else there would have been paint on the walls....lol! She was a very good student. The only thing I did for her was cut the shapes for the house and the grass, stamp a few things and applied the rub-ons she chose and the rest was all her!

The minute she was done, she asked me for the 'hanger stand thingy' and marched right up to her room and found the perfect spot for her masterpiece. I must say it looks adorable in her room!

My favorite part was when she stopped (mid march) for a minute to ooogle her work. It was sooo cute I had to get a snapshot of it.

Here's her finished canvas. I have to say she looooves those Faber Castell Gelatos! You can see she went to work with the pink and red on her house! Here's my finihsed canvas I will proudly be displaying in my new office!

It was a great day and now we both have something to remind us of our special 'Girly Girl' day!

Thanks for stopping by!