Inspiration Wednesday - Week 5

Hello strangers! Sorry for the long absence from my blog. I actually have a lot to share, just haven't had a lot of time to write and upload photos. Hard to find time for everything lately as I have some big news, which the quote included in my week five Inspiration Wednesday project kind of alludes to...

Get ready because it's a doozey! We're moving back to NH! That's right...our time in CT is to be short lived. We don't have a specific time frame yet as we need to find a home, but my hubby starts a new job in a few weeks.

This certainly wasn't part of our plans. I mean who moves state-to-state twice in six months?! That's craziness! And I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it, but it seems to be the way that things have worked out. (Unless there's another plot twist around the corner...oh man, I hope not!) 

Long story short, the new job here wasn't working out. My husband loved the work, but there were some other issues that were unable to be resolved. We knew that a job change was in the near future, but we didn't know how near. He was contacted by someone he interviewed with over the summer, who is now ready to hire. It's a great opportunity and I'm so excited for him! Of course this means we need to go through the entire moving process again, but I couldn't be happier! I'll dearly miss some folks we've become friends with in CT, but I feel that we're returning to our home. And I suspect that we'll be back in CT for many vacations in the coming years...

Now on to this week's project!

This was a tough week for me...I reworked these pages a bunch before I was happy. Donna had used a giant number stencil on her page, but I didn't have anything similar so I went with the heart texture stencil (from Donna Downey), which didn't work quite as well as the letters were a little small.

There are many layers of paint on these pages...paint, glazing medium, more paint, and a new product from Finnabair, Thick Modeling Paste.

Once my many layers were dry I added a hint of black by using a few Crafters Workshop stencils. My favorite part of this project are the tiny bits of teal showing through on the pages and the heart. Oh, I used a 3D Gloss Gel for the heart, which is a new Prima product. Want step-by-step instructions for creating a similar project, check out Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday videos. It's only $35 for 25 classes! Interested in supplies I used? Check out the links below:

Supplies:

-Donna Downey Art Journal

-Heart Texture Stencil

-Prima Art Basics (3D Gloss Gel and Thick Modeling Paste)

-Glazing Medium

-Golden Acrylics

-Believe Script Stencil

-Specimens Stencil

Inspiration Wednesday - Week Three

Greetings all and welcome to the next installment of Inspiration Wednesday! I have to tell you...I love when each new lesson rolls around. I love watching Donna's videos...she's a hoot...and this week we got to see her struggle with what steps to take next in her journal. Maybe some people enjoy a very polished video, I adore seeing her creative process played out on the screen. For me, it's encouraging and inspiring!

This week's lesson had us playing with lots of paint, more glazing (love that stuff), and stencils. The triple threat...some of my favorite supplies! (You can see a list of all of the products I used on my project at the end of my post)

When I first created my background, with just a yellow and blue band, I was really hesitant to add the pink, which was added using a glazing medium. However, once it was finished...swoon...love those pink accents. Totally fun!

Enter the torn tag...but the bottom part instead of the top. I think you'll see, in the lower right hand corner, where the bottom of the tag came from. *wink* All of the pink numbers and quote were created with Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste (the best out there!) and the glaze. The stencils are almost all from Donna Downey.

Isn't this a fun stencil? Like script writing, but I didn't have to do the writing myself! Love that! I used Jet Black Archival Ink to add all of the stencils. I also added some very small white splatters as a final touch. Kind of looks like the night sky...

Final page with a tag, some random numbers, lots of layers, and small words. Oh, and tiny pieces of washi tape. Another fabulous week completed! Links to where you can purchase products below. Happy crafting!

Supplies:

-Golden Fluid Acrylics (Paynes Gray)

-Distress Paint (Fossilized Amber)

-Dina Wakley Paint (Magenta)

-Liquidtex Glazing Medium

-Donna Downey Stencils - Mini Numbers Repeat, Scribble Script, Count Downey

-Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste

Inspiration Wednesday - Week One

Greeting friends and welcome to my week one Inspiration Wednesday project! If you're familiar with Donna Downey's videos then you may recall a few years ago she used to post a weekly project, titled Inspiration Wednesday. When I first starting working in an art journal, I was obsessed with her weekly videos. Last year she made the videos private and charged a modest fee, $35/year, to see the videos. While I held off on signing up last year, as I had signed up for Life Book. I adored my year with Life Book, seriously a great experience that I would highly recommend, this year I wanted to scale back on how many online classes I took so...Inspiration Wednesday to the rescue! (I like that we get two weeks to complete each project...I can manage that pace!)

This is my project for the first week...and I am crazy about it! This week Donna combined my love of embossing paste, stencils, glazing medium, and (of course) teal paint!

I am working in one of Donna's handmade journals, which are 6"x9", a perfect size for quicker projects and easy storage (or for art on the go). This is actually the last page in my journal as the first few pages already contain various completed layouts. I'm giddy over the aged pages that contain just a hint of color...dreamy. This has to be one of my all time favorite art journal pages. I'll leave you with more photos from my project along with product links, at the end of my post.

I'm not a huge "word of the year" person (see Ali Edward's blog), however, the word grateful is one that has been popping up in my head over and over again this past few weeks so I opted to highlight my word on my first IW2016 project.

My word was tucked in among a variety of papers, tickets, twine, and ribbon.

This page with just three colors dripping down the page...swoon...

This is the opposite side of the inclusion, the other side has the word grateful on it, and this might be my favorite part of the entire piece. This little snippet makes me want to create an entire page filled with embossed number, blue flowers, and orange splotty dots!

I hope you enjoyed today's project! Consider signing up for Donna's Inspiration Wednesday video series so you can see all of the specific techniques used on this, and other, projects. 

You can find the products I used on this project by following the links below:

-Donna Downey Stencils - Mini Numbers Repeat, Artist, and Budding Branch

-Golden Fluid Acrylics - Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Paynes Gray, Pyrrole Orange, Raw Umber, and Teal

-Glazing Liquid - Matte

-Matte Medium

-Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste

Document the Everyday

Hi friends! I'm back today with another art journal layout. This is one that I created as a sample for my Art Journaling Made Simple class, that took place at the beginning of October.

The goal of the class was to create three different backgrounds, and then work to add layers on to the pages to create finished pieces.

This spread started with a layer of Wendy Vecchi embossing paste and a circle stencil from Donna Downey, named Grunge Halftone Dots. (Click on product names to be linked to stores that sell the mentioned supplies) 

Once the paste was dry I added color with a few ink sprays and watered down paint, which I allowed to drip towards the center of the journal.

Next, I added another layer using Donna Downey's Numbers Repetitive stencil. (Side note: I have to add that I adore Donna's stencils...great designs and the perfect size for art journals. The generous 8x8 design makes it the perfect fit for most journals!) I used Jet Black Archival Ink and a blending tool to add the stencil design. The last layer, before my collage was added, was some orange spottie dots, created with Golden Liquid Acrylics and a brush. I love the pop of orange against the background.

The last step was to create the photo collage, which is really just a combination of a bunch of scraps I had sitting on my desk. The photo is from Tim's Found Relatives collection, and the Noted card is also from Tim, the Pocket Cards. All of the other pieces are just random bits of ribbon, a die cut that I painted orange, a piece of cardboard, and a manila tag with bits of stenciling and text paper. It's a lot of fun to gather together a bunch of random pieces and make them all fit together...it's like a super artsy puzzle! 

After the collage was finished, I added a quote, "Document the Everyday," using stickers from my giant alphabet sticker stash. The circle around the quote was created using a Stabilo pencil, and then tracing over the pencil with a waterbrush.

That's it for today's art journaling installment...hope you enjoyed!!

In other news...

My Art Journaling Basics class at Michaels in Epping is this Friday! Details here. We'll be making this art journal cover:

Personal news...We are moving to CT, my friends! Our house sold, after being on the market only two weeks...it's nothing short of a miracle! We're now in the process of looking for housing, starting to wrap our minds around packing (oh, how I dislike it), and trying not to think about how sad it's going to be to leave our friends and family. We're excited about new opportunities, but sure wish leaving our loved ones wasn't so hard...Stay tuned for more details! I'll only be teaching a few more classes in November and then it will be the start of a new journey!!

Hugs!

Art Journal Layout Featuring Donna Downey Stencils

Hi friends! I'm popping in today to share a sample of an art journal page that we'll be creating in this weekend's "Art Journaling Made Simple" class. (Actual class samples will vary, but the techniques used on this page will be used.)

I have a few photos to share of some of the steps taken to create this journal spread. Contact me at ksdm@comcast.net if you have an interest in signing up for the October 3rd class, where we'll explore more quick and easy steps to creating your own beautiful art journal pages.

This spread started with Tim Holtz tissue wrap and Distress Paint. I love tissue wrap! It's a great starting point in art journaling.  The tissue was applied with matte medium and then Distress Paint was added on top. Don't mind that blue peeking through...these pages contained some extra paint from another product. That will be covered by the time I'm finished.

Next, I used Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste and the Flower Bed stencil from Donna Downey to add these beautiful, textured flowers to my page. The blue paint, any paint, will be absorbed by the paste so remember that if you want your paste to be pure white. No worries on my page as I painted my flowers.

My flowers were colored with paint and then shaded with Faber Castell Big Brush Markers. (I put the stencil back over the dry paste. This protected my background and allowed me to easily color all of the flowers and leaves without worrying about paint getting on the background). I did add a bit of stamping, used a cracked glass stamp from Tim Holtz, around the edges of the page, as well as a bit of aging on the page edges, using Potting Soil Archival Ink from Wendy (love that color!) And, of course, I had to add a few white splottie-dotties using watered down white gesso. The sentiment is actually from a Donna Downey stamp set, You Are Important, but the sentiment in the set was too small for my page so I used alphabet stamps to add the saying. 

Interested in learning more? Check out the details on my Art Journaling Made Simple class, coming up on Saturday, October 3...There's still time to register!

If you've been intrigued by the idea of art journaling or have recently jumped into this wonderful form of creating, but are overwhelmed by all that's involved...this class is for you! This class is perfect for beginners and intermediate students.

During our four hour class, we'll create three different art journal pages. I'll walk you through the steps taken to create beautiful, quick and easy backgrounds using a variety of mediums, such as Distress Paint and embossing paste. We'll also discuss which tools you'll need to produce the best results, along with providing you with a quick list of some of my favorite go to products. Lastly, I'll teach you how to create beautiful collages and art in your journals. 

Also during the class, I'll demonstrate a number of techniques, such as gesso resist and coloring pastes. We'll work with ink sprays, acrylic paints, Distress products, collage, embossing pastes, and stencils. Our goal for the day is not only to experiment, learn, and have fun, but to also show you how easy it is to create beautiful art work, quickly and easily! The added bonus? The class includes an 8"x5" Dylusions journal!

The cost for this class is $50.00. Please email Kim at ksdm@comcast.net to register, an electronic invoice will be generated once your request for registration has been received. A supply list will be sent once payment has been received. Please note that class fees are non-refundable after September 28, 2015. Registration will close on October 1, 2015...

Class location: Fremont, NH

Date: October 3 - Time: 1:00-5:00 pm

Cost: $50 (includes 8"x 5" journal)