Spring is in the Air

I squeezed in art time wherever I could find it this past week. I wanted to create so I made sure I found the time.

I played some more in my Dina Wakely Media journal. And I do mean play. I am having so much fun in this book! Something about all the different paper types is freeing me to just put paint to paper and I am loving every minute of it.

This is on a watercolor page. I used Dylusion Sprays to create the background. I was grabbing whatever looked blue or blue-ish from the pile so I know there are blues, purples and teals in the sky. The ground is a mix of greens and yellows and maybe orange. I was just spraying paint and water until I got a look that I liked.

After letting it dry for a day or so I added the rabbit. He was painted with acrylics, a random mix of whites, creams and browns with a touch of black to create gray and the eyes.

And again we wait lol

When I found time to return I added the tulips. These are entirely done with Scribble Sticks, magenta, white, and blackberry for the flowers. Lemon, lime and night for the leaves and stems. 

I created the pattern on the ground using a Dina Wakely stencil that looks like leaves or feathers and also a Dyan Reavely stencil that is leafy branches. I used Distress Inks in browns and greens, again randomly dabbing into whatever pad I thought might work to get the look I wanted.

My brother in laws birthday is next week.I got the card mailed out in time! I am doing really well this year!

The frame and embellishments are from the Magic Slider die set, Kit137, from LDRS creative. 
This is such a fun set to play with. My only issue is finding stamps that are small enough to fit in the frame yet large enough to color. This basic, uncolored image is stamped on a piece of acetate.

Here is the slider halfway up revealing a colored layer below.

And here it is fully open. The cards are fun to make and to receive. 
This is one of the mini Crazy Dogs from Tim Holtz. He fits perfectly in the frame along with his fancy party hat and balloons from the Mini Bird Crazy and Things set.

And my last project of the week, a giraffe tag. Yes, I am still obsessed with giraffes. I just love them!

I created the background by laying down layers of Distress Inks and Oxides in browns, reds and golds. I then used stencils to apply the squiggles, triangles and dots. I outlined the triangles with a black Sharpie pen.

The background giraffe, from Rubber Stampede, was stamped 3 times using Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. I then used a water brush to soften the image.

I stamped the giraffe head, from Impression Obsession, onto white cardstock again using my Distress Walnut Stain ink pad. I colored him in with Spectrum Noir alcohol pens. And used my black Sharpie pen to make his eyes black.

I rubbed some Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Walnut Stain to create a drop shadow behind him. The giraffe was added to the tag with double sided foam tape to lift him up off the surface. He didn't stand out as much as I wanted so I added more ink to the tag, Candied Apple to the upper right, Peeled Paint to the lower left. Both are Distress Oxides. 

I am going out of town next week for my job. Hubby is wondering what I am going to wear because so far my suitcase is packed with mostly art supplies lol  It could get very interesting when I try to explain my attire at my meetings :-)

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Buzz Buzz Buzz

I woke up bright and early at 6:30 am on a Saturday. It was not entirely my idea, the cats were demanding breakfast. But that’s ok, I had been trying to find time to get back to my Dina Wakely Media journal.

I knew I wanted to work on the kraft paper and bees kept coming to mind.

I put down a layer of color using Gelatos (Butter Cream, Kiwi, and Aqua Dolce) and Scribble Sticks (Tangerine, Ruby, and Night) I blended these with a Gelatos blending stump.

I then stamped a honeycomb design randomly over the page using KaiserCraft’s Honeycomb clear stamp and Distress Ink, Walnut Stain.  I thought I took pictures of just the background with the stamps but I can't find them in my files. :-(

My next step was to spray a layer of Krylon’s Workable Fixatif. My hope was that this would keep the Distress Ink and Gelatos from fading away when I added my layer of gel medium. (it worked pretty well, I had very minimal bleed/fade in the Distress Ink and no noticeable color change in the Gelatos)

I applied Golden’s Gel Medium (soft gel, semi gloss) with a palette knife and set it aside to dry. It can take several hours for the gel to dry completely. Let it set and dry on it’s own and it dries clear. Dry it with a heat tool and it dries with a milky cast.

Once the gel medium was dry, I rubbed on some Snow Cone and Watermelon Gelatos on top. I then brushed these places with water to make the color move down between the gel medium hexagons. I then, while still wet, wiped the excess color off the gel medium areas.

You can see the base colors and stamped lines under the clear hexagons.

I applied some more gel medium ‘honeycombs’ to capture a bit of these new colors. The gel is partially dry in the picture below.

I drew the queen with Prismacolor pencils (Dark Brown, Peach, Light Peach, Black, White, Tuscan Red and Violet) the highlight in her eye is white acrylic paint. Her hair is a mixture of Prismacolor pencils (Black and Dark Brown) and Scribble Sticks (Black and Lemon). Her crown is Scribble Sticks (Lemon, Tangerine and Black). I ended up going back over her crown with Prismacolor pencils (Black, Canary Yellow and Spanish Orange) to make is show up a bit more. I colored in between the gel hexagons that overlap her face, with black Prismacolor, to make them stand out.

I found a photo of a honey bee online. I resized it and added 3 of them to my page. The largest is about ¾ of an inch. I then colored the edges with Dark Brown Prismacolor to tone down the brightness of the body and the whiteness of the wings.

I am debating back and forth as to whether it is finished. Part of me wants text or scribbles along the left side. Part of me says don’t mess this up lol

Thanks for stopping by!

**Update

I added bits of text using Distress Ink, Walnut Stain and a rubber stamp from Non Sequitur from a stamp plate that I bought maybe 20 years ago. If you have a choice, always by red rubber stamps! They will last a life time!!! 

As always...Happy Crafting!

I love long weekends!

I got off work early on Friday and being Presidents Day weekend I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday!  I've had a lot of fun!

Did you know that February 16th was Chinese New Year? I did but I forgot that when I made my blog post on Friday. 

They had a local parade and celebration here on Saturday. The hubby and I debated about going and opted to stay home....mostly because I had been up since 6 working on a spread in my journal and didn't want to leave lol

This is in Dina Wakely's Media journal. 

I first put down some gel medium through a stencil. I then used acrylic paints in reds, yellows and oranges. I also added  Dina's paints in Turquoise and Cheddar. I wiped the wet paint off the stenciled areas.

There are some bits of newspaper (in Chinese) from a Sunday paper I picked in San Francisco over 10 years ago. It comes in handy when I need Chinese text (although I have no idea what it says....these bits are from the ad section)

The rubber stamp is from, I believe, StoneHouseStamps. I colored her with alcohol markers. The shadow on her right side was done with black Scribble Stick.

I drew and painted the lanterns. I tried to make them look like they are glowing.

I then borrowed a technique I saw in a video from Kristin Van Valkenburgh. Spread some gel medium on the page, let it start to set up and get tacky then lay down some foil. (The foil you use in the Minc.) When the gel medium is dry, pull up the foil and bits of it are stuck to the gel. I used it on the lanterns quite a bit and then little bits all over. I love how it turned out!



Today I was able to get back to my journal again.

I have been wanting to draw one of these Slender Horned Gazelles ever since I saw them on an episode of The Zoo a couple weeks ago.  

This is on a kraft paper page in my journal. I drew and colored the gazelle with Prismacolor pencils.

I painted yellow and brown acrylics on the right side and stenciled over top with DW media paints Turquoise and Cheddar.

I rubbed Distress Inks on the left and stenciled again with Turquoise and Cheddar.

I used Scribble Sticks for the sky in Night, Blackberry and Magenta. I brushed it with water to blend then stenciled dark blue acrylic over top.

In case you are wondering, there are less than 2500 Slender Horned Gazelles left in the wild. :-(

And I also finally had time to work in my Bullet Journal. Continuing with the March theme of ... In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb ... I drew Mufasa from Disney's The Lion King. I printed the images of Simba because I just couldn't draw him that small.

My daily 'blocks' are based on African shields. As I look at it now I may need to add some color along the edge of my left page. Hmm.

That covers my long weekend. I wish I had more art time and less work time but I guess I should be thankful since the work time pays for all the supplies I use during the art time. :-)

So, until I get more art time....Happy Crafting!

Happy Presidents Day

What does Presidents Day mean to me? A 3 day weekend!

Isn't that sad? It was originally created to honor and remember George Washington and now it is more well known as a day to get sheets and towels at half off.

Our forefathers would be so disappointed in us. Maybe I should make something George Washington related during my long weekend.

So why exactly am I posting today? Yeah, I know you are all wondering lol

Well it isn't to share the birthday card I made for my brother because I forgot to take a picture of it but it was a cute pop-up card.
And it isn't to show you the cute Valentine I gave to hubby....because I forgot to photograph that too (although I could probably go hunting around the house and find it if I was so inclined lol)

Nope, I have been playing in my Dina Wakely Media journal again. Although this is not what I normally do (art/craft-wise) I am having a lot of fun.

I watched Dina's faces tutorial again. And then changed it a bit. I wanted a rounder, younger looking face and I wanted an open mouth. I also tilted the head. Why not?

So I started this page (on the watercolor paper) by scribbling Lime Scribble Stick up the left side. I then doodled on some Magenta flowers. I added some Lemon and Turquoise scribbles on the bottom right. I brushed water over all the scribbles to soften them.

I then drew my head/face and painted her with acrylic paints.

And then I sat....and stared....and sat some more. What direction should I take?

She actually sat on my desk for a couple days as I thought of things and then dismissed them.

I then grabbed my Dyan Reaveley "Around the Edge" stamp set (which I had actually bought to use in my Bullet Journal) and stamped the leaves on the bottom right and top left using Distress Ink, Pine Needles.
I then colored the leaves with Lime and Night Scribble Sticks.

Next came the bird stamp which is part of Dina Wakely's Scribble Birds set. I colored him with alcohol markers.

And then they sat for a couple days. Every time I looked at them the word 'secrets' would pop into my head. What secrets are they sharing?

I stenciled on the leaves, down the left, using the stencil that came with the Scribble Birds stamps using Distress Oxide, Peeled Paint. I stenciled the flowers in the upper right using Tim Holtz' mini stencil that looks almost like cherry blossom branches and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink.

The text came to me at work one day (so I had to grab a post-it before I forgot it!) I typed it up, printed it, then dragged the paper through some Distress and Oxide inks It blended in beautifully with the Scribble Sticks already on the page. 

I really like how it turned out. 

And then today.....

Let me start with....I never paint realistic animals. I don't think I have EVER tried to paint a realistic animal. I will draw them. I will draw and color them. I don't paint them. So what ever possessed me to do this today I will never know.

It is supposed to be a Barred Owl. Yes I know this is a really bad looking owl! Yeah, it is BAD!!! lol

So why am I sharing? Because I did it. I have always felt like I couldn't paint a realistic living thing...and proved it lol.  But the fact that I actually, finally tried is the important thing.

There a few successes and a lot of failures in this. I should have listened to the advise I give others...when you are frustrated or feeling like it is not going well, get up and walk away, come back later. Didn't do that. Should have done that! lol

I think the paint on and around the eyes is at least 1/16" thicker than the rest of the page lol
Oh and the page is the cotton canvas which I prepped with clear gesso.

But he did look a whole lot worse! I got up to take a break. Walked out of the room, came back 2 minutes later and immediately saw some of the problems that I could fix. I made myself wait another 10 minutes and then went back in. Trust me when I tell you, the eyes were REALLY hideous before I went back in....we will just leave it at that! LOL

Will I go back and try to fix it some more? Maybe, probably not.

I love the background! That is the last thing I completed. It was a very washed out, pale green. I deepened the color with several shades of greens and a bit of brown. It looked better but really came together when I added the stencil which I did while the under paint was still wet so that it bled and softened a bit.

I have to say I like them together. The colors go well together. And they seem to have the same hair style! lol

I have 3 more days to play. I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty and working on something new....and hopefully not so scary! :-)

Until I pop in again....Happy Crafting!

Happy Valentine's Day

I like Valentine's Day or maybe I should say I like any day that makes someone buy me chocolate lol

I used to decorate for Valentine's Day and put up lots of hearts and doilies. But not any more. I am getting old and lazy lol.  But I still make cards....or try too. I am way off track this year and just finished my parent's card today. And since it is Sunday, I can't mail it until tomorrow which means they probably will not get it until the 15th. Oh well, can we really only tell people we love them on the 14th?

I made a shaker card! I used Anna Griffin's shaker card dies. And Cuttlebug's confetti dies for the 'filling'.
The patterned card stock came from a new Recollections paper pad called Girlsquad. It has lots of cute Valentine papers. 

I struggled with this one. Not in the making but in the 'do I really like this?' stage. The die set is really nice as it gives you dies to cut the window in your card base, the window in your card front and lots of embellishments. But I just wasn't feeling it until I got all the embellishment in place. I think the rose finally did it for me. That came from some freebie I got with an Anna Griffin order lol  And it had all kinds of swirls and stuff with it that I had to cut off. But I think it was worth it. I hope my parents like it.


In my last post I said I had just received my Dina Wakely Media journal. The 8x10 version came out last year (at least I think it was just last year and not earlier than that). What is cool and different about it is that it has 4 different substraights in it.....watercolor paper, canvas, kraft paper and burlap....all in one journal! 

She brought out a larger version this year at Creativation but there is no way I would have space for it or comfortably be able to fill such a large work space. (I tend to work small so the 8x10 is already going to push me outside my comfort zone)

I jumped right in with burlap! I have never worked on burlap before. I tend to avoid it at all costs due to the smell and that fact that something in it (maybe all those fibers) makes me sneeze.  So, with tissues at the ready, I dove right in. I used acrylic paints in reds, oranges and yellows to create a sunset background with white and pale yellow for the sun.

I then used Dina's Scribble Sticks in black to draw a giraffe. It is tough to get a straight line on burlap! So I have a stylized giraffe lol
I then used Scribble Sticks for the patterns around the sides but it still needed something.
I googled African postage stamps and found some I liked. I printed them on regular printer paper so they would feel more like the real thing. I cut them out and glued them down with Aleene's Tacky Glue. 

So now I need to decide my next step. I am thinking of washing a medium to dark color over the stamps, or at least part of them, to help settle them into the background a bit. But it is a work in progress so I will mull it over for a bit.

Here is a page on the watercolor paper. I watched one of Dina Wakely's YouTube videos on drawing faces. Faces are not my forte. If I spend long enough on them (like hours and hours drawing) they turn out fairly well. This was a fun way to create a face in a short amount of time. 

I tend to be very rigid in my drawing and painting. I see people all the time that freely slap paint on canvas without any obvious direction and they just let the colors and forms guide them. I have never been one of those people. I have to see it all in my mind before I can even start. I want to see if I can be more loose and free in this journal. I don't think there is anything wrong with my creative style...it's worked for me for over 50 years....but there are days lately where I desperately want to create something but don't have the time to think it all out in advance. I want to be able to open to a page and just brush on some color and then be able to walk away and come back later and apply something else...no pre-planned ideas. 

Wish me luck! lol

So that is all I have for this week. I still need to make a Valentine for hubby (not much time left for that one!). And my brother has a birthday next week so I need to get that done as well. My bullet journal did not keep me on track this week! lol

If your weather is even remotely like mine....stay warm! And Happy Crafting!

The Ground Hog Saw His Shadow

I feel bad for the rest of the country. Six more weeks of winter! Ugh!  But here in the Pacific Northwest, at least where I live, we haven't really had winter this year. It got cold (into the 20's at night) a couple times. But no snow, no freezing rain. Heck, I've only worn a coat 3 times this winter!  Maybe by having six more weeks Mother Nature might actually get around to sending us some of the white fluffy stuff....just so we can say we had some. :-)

But for the friends and family back east, I'm sorry. Bundle up, burrow in and stay safe and warm.

I always have a hard time getting back into the crafting groove after the holidays but this year, since I started Bullet Journaling, I seem to be more on track. I guess that is kind of the point of the Bullet Journal lol.

I have a couple more spreads to share with you today.

Here is my Valentine week spread. I wrote "Love Notes" in a Mickey style font and then created day spaces to mimic notes and cards tacked onto a bulletin board.

The mailbox holds my To Do list.

I drew Mickey, Minnie and Pluto with a Sharpie pen and colored them with Inktense pencils.

I've started setting up my March pages. Here is my title page and the first (partial) week of March.

I drew and colored the lion with Prismacolor pencils. I stamped "March" with my Kelly Creates month stamps and added the geometric boarders with Prismacolor pencils.

I continued the geometric theme on the daily page.

Here is a close up of the lion. I just noticed that I never went in and added the white highlight dots to his eyes (I use white acrylic paint to do that). 

And now to projects that my journal helped me get done on time...

My niece has a birthday coming up. Due to my post holiday funk I am always late mailing it out (just like my nephew's cards in January)

Not this year, card done and mailed! WooHoo!

I used a base card from a set of cards I picked up at Michaels. I got the idea from Ken at Ken's Kreations.  Michaels sells sets of cards, 80 cards with envelopes. 4.25 x 5.5. They come in patterns or plain and a multitude of colors. They go on sale all the time for something like $3 for a box. $3 for 80 cards and 80 envelopes! I can't make them for that! They make a great base. All I need to do is add the goodies on top. 

The trellis background is a die from Anna Griffin's heart die set from a couple years ago. 

The stamp is Winnie from Polkadoodles called Teacup full of wishes. 
I colored her with alcohol markers then used dip dotted white acrylic paint to highlight the ruffle on her collar and hem of her dress. The cupcake wrapper is colored with copper and gold gel pens.

My college roommate just had a birthday (ok, so I didn't get this made in time but I did get it made lol)

I convinced her to start virtual racing with me. She has already completed two 5k races and has started a 77 mile race!  Go Helen!  

I made her this sign to display her medals. After the photo, hubby added hooks across the bottom and hangers on the back. :-)

I used vinyl as my stencil to paint the lettering and mermaids. I painted the edges then wiped off the paint while still wet to give the edge a beachy, faded paint feel.

I really like how this turned out. I think it is my favorite sign so far. I was tempted to keep it and make another one for her.....but I didn't. I mailed it. I hope she likes it as much as I do.


And lastly...

I wanted a new sleep shirt but I also wanted to play with HTV (heat transfer vinyl)
I purchased a blank t-shirt at Walmart for around $4.

I thought the saying was so appropriate for me lol

That wraps up this blog post. I received my Dina Wakely Media journal the other day and have been playing around with one of the burlap pages. I will share that with you next time.

Until then stay warm and Happy Crafting!

Happy New Year!

I think I am finally all caught up! All the Christmas cards and boxes were mailed (and received) before Christmas which is always a good thing.

I have completed all the January birthday cards which is really a shocker because I usually forget my nephew's birthday (which is tomorrow) and end up sending his card at least a week late. He should have received it earlier this week.

My best friend Helen's card is done but now I am making her a gift (a last minute decision) so she may not get hers on time but I think she will forgive me.

Here is a picture of my nephew's card.

What do you put on a card for a 25 year old? I put minions lol

The minion was an SVG that I downloaded years ago. I can't even figure out from where which is sad because it is a set of 3 and very well done. I will keep looking and will add a link if I can find the source.

The background was embossed with the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder.

So, are you asking yourself, how on earth is she keeping herself on track when she is normally very scatter brained this time of year?  

Bullet Journaling!

I'm not sure how I missed the start of this trend (I think it started a few years ago) but it is blowing up big now. Planners and Bullet Journals are becoming a huge thing which is rather amazing considering how almost everything else in the world has moved to paperless online tech.

I think the average person is figuring out what all of us crafters have know all along.....you cannot beat the feel of paper in your hands, or gripping a pen or brush in your fingers. The thrill of that first stroke on the plain page.

Most craft stores have created entire planner/journal sections in their stores with large varieties of books, pens, stamps and stickers....and who could forget washi tape!

I started a practice journal in December just to see if 1. did I like the process? 2. would I keep at it or give up after a couple days?

Turns out I like it. And I keep at it. And it keeps me on track (go figure lol)

You can find thousands of videos on YouTube to give you ideas but the bottom line is it has to work for you. A regular planner didn't do that for me. It was too rigid with no creativity.

I love the fully decorated, super fancy bullet journals but I don't have time for that (I have a full time job and craft projects to make other than just creating a journal)

Here is the article that really explained bullet journaling for me and made me think I could do this and enjoy it. 

My style is a happy medium. Functional, simple with a bit of creativity. It doesn't take me days to create a spread, usually around an hour or 2 and I can see what I need at a glance.

Want to see my journal?

This is my journal cover. Isn't it gorgeous? Do you need one this fancy? No! But for me, I did. This is important to me. I am trying to be more organized in how I do a lot of different things this year. Yes, I can use any notebook but I thought if it looks important and 'impressive' then I will feel like it is important to use it. Yeah, it is all a mental game inside my head but it works for me! lol

I purchased my journal at Oberon Designs. You might recall that I purchased a journal from them last spring that I use for sketching. I love their stuff!!!

You can find your own gorgeous leather journal here. 

This is my 2018 cover page. I drew the twig wreath and then wrote in the center (and realized my handwriting is so atrocious that I needed to cover it up! lol)

Thank goodness for my Cricut Explore!  I had it write up the sentiment, cut it out on a circle and cut another blue layer circle to go under it. 

Very simple, very clean, actually legible lol

Here is my January cover. I am practicing my handwriting but seriously, it is really bad! So my Cricut rescued me again. It is off center because it is covering my horrible handwriting lol
I drew the snowman and snowflakes :-)  My overall theme for January is basically winter (snow, cold).

This is one of my January weekly spreads. I free-handed all the boxes and 'attached' them with tape and push pins :-)
The baby polar bear is a stamp from Stampendous! I drew the his snowman companion.

As you can see, clean, simple with a tiny bit of "art".

I've started setting up my February pages. Here is my cover and that short, half-week at the beginning of the month.

I used stencils to create the boxes and little extras (arrows, diamonds, triangles) 
I purchased my stencil set on ebay but you can find them all over the internet. Just search for journal stencils.

The tiny calendar you will see on all my spreads is a stamp set. I purchased it on Amazon. 

I wanted to convey love without all the hearts and flowers.

They aren't perfect but I like them. They are colored with Inktense Pencils. The background has a blue tint. I used Pan Pastels rubbed onto the corners.

Did you know this year is the Year of the Dog? I don't think these guys did either from the looks on their faces lol

I drew all the large lanterns to use for my daily entries, To Do list and weekly quote. The tiny banners (created using stencils) at the top right are for tracking my food log and daily steps.

I printed the year of the dog image from the internet.

The confused dogs are from the Mini Cats and Dogs/Crazy Dogs set from Tim Holtz. They were colored with Prismacolor Pencils as were all the lanterns.

Here is my vacation tracker spread. 
The left page is a packing list.
The right is a savings tracker. I need to save up some big bucks so I can buy my plane ticket!

Both of these pages were drawn free hand.

And lastly...

I needed something to hold all my goodies....stencils, stamps and pens.
This was a cosmetic bag I purchased from MyVinylDirect. I was going to make some as Christmas presents. I bought 2 to practice on. Finished one. Here is the other that was still sitting blank on the shelf. 
Now it is the perfect journal supplies pouch! Cricut to the rescue again!!!

So now you are all caught up with what I've been up to!

I wish you all a fabulous 2018!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!!!