I am so happy to report that I have a new art journaling video up out on YouTube. I will not lie to you, this is the longest video I have every done! WHEW!!! Watching this is more like watching a free art journaling background class!!! I am pretty happy with it!
As promised, here is a list of supplies that I used during this video:
Dina Wakley Media Stiff Bristle 1 inch paint brush
Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Lime, Magenta, Ocean, Tangerine, Lemon, Turquoise, Fuchsia, Night, White
Book Pages – I used pages from a small dictionary
Golden’s Matte Medium
Liquitex white gesso
Palette knife – mine was plastic
3 mini Tim Holtz Stencils, Plus Signs, Dot Fade, and Schoolhouse
Ryan Reaveley Dylusions Journaling Block
Ranger Archival Ink pads: Manganese Blue, Deep Purple, Fern Green
Dina Wakley Media Stamps: Textures
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamps: Mixed Media 2, Bitty Grunge
I hope you enjoyed this video!! There will be many more to come! 🙂
Here is to have a Beautiful Creative life!
If you want a different life, you have to choose differently!
I am very happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday video #21 is up on YouTube!
The supplies I used this week were:
Gesso
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Tangerine, Magenta, Lime
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Re-inker: Peeled Paint
Alesa Baker Designs Wood Mounted Stamp: French Handwriting
Art Impressions Wood Mounted Rubber Stamp: Squiggly line (that’s what I am calling it)
Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint: White
Paper Towel that had mopped up various Dylusions sprays
Scissors
Uhu Glue Stick
Fineline Applicator filled with White Acrylic Paint
Black Pilot Multiball Pen – my new FAVE doodling pen!!!
If you watched this week’s video, you already know that I really didn’t have any kind of plan when I went into this week’s art journal spread! In all honesty, I just knew that I had to get an art journal video done for this week, but I was so tired from a week of not really taking very good care of myself sleep-wise, compounded with losing another hour of sleep due to daylight savings time, I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get this one done!
I decided to help get me into the arting mood that I would listen to some loud happy music, and it worked! Before I knew what hit me, I had found my stride, and was once again a very VERY happy girl! 😉
I had a lot of fun this week just putting down colors, doodling, and just really letting myself play! I find that when I revert back to my inner, kindergarten Chrissie, that I have a tendency to be really happy with my art journal pages!
This week was no different!!! As soon as I released my inner me, I found myself having fun, and pulling from a pile that I haven’t really played with in a while – and that was my stash of used paper towels, which may not seem like something to be proud of, but trust me, I am!!! I just LOVE finding new ways to use treasures from my stash!!
Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed watching this week’s video! I really hope that these weekly videos can, in some way, inspire you to try something new in your own art journals – that would be so AMAZING to me!!! 😉
What do you think of this week’s spread? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 🙂
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
Until next time!
Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉
If you want to have a different life, live differently!
I am very happy to report that my 21st Art Journal Thursday video out on YouTube!
The art supplies I used this week were:
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Decorative Tissue Wrap: Postale
Uhu Glue Stick
3×5 Gelli Plate
Blick Studio Acrylic Paints: Cadmium Orange Hue, Primary Red, Phthalo Green
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Brayer
Art Advantage Double Ended Stylus
5 Miscellaneous Wood Mounted Rubber Stamps: one is from Great Impressions (3 concentric circles), one is from Inkadoo (Carte postale), one is from Delafield Stamp Company (XOXOXO), one is from Hero Arts (Painted Circle), and I am not sure where the last one is from, but it is the one with small doily design
Ranger’s Black Archival Ink Pad
Black Stabilo All Pencil
Uni-Ball Signo White Broad Pen
Scissors
Scarlet Lime Black Doodling Pen
When I started this week’s layout, I was determined to try something that I had felt failed miserably last week; and that was creating a background using my 3×5 Gelli Plate.
I felt like the reason this didn’t work for me last week was the fact that I didn’t limit myself to a selection of a handful of colors. That background ended up being so busy that there was no way that anything could stood out on its own in the foreground. This time I made sure to limit my colors to just three, not counting white!
As I was laying my color down with my Gelli Plate, I started seeing this layout as kind of a paper quilt, which made me start thinking about my mama, and my grandmother, and all of the strong women who came before me. It made me really happy to reconnect with those memories, and to understand just how blessed I am that I come from such a long line of really strong, and AMAZING women!
Thinking on the women of family, also made me think of a favorite song from my childhood, that has a way of popping up in my life at exactly the right moments. This song is called “This Little Light of Mine”. It has been showing up a LOT in my life over the past year, and it again this week. It reminds me that I need to shine my light, which is where my my sentiment came from this week. You may be the only light in the world someone sees today, make sure you shine bright!
I think this background turned out much better than my attempt last week, hands down! This week’s attempt has inspired me to try this again, but this time on an art canvas! I am thinking that this might be a really cool background for a new piece of artwork that I can hang in my new office at work!
What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
I realize this is better late than never, but I am happy to report that my Art Journal Thursday #20 has been posted out on YouTube!
The art supplies I used this week were:
3X5 Gelli Plate
Brayer
Blick Studio Acrylic Paints: Titanium White, Phthalo Green, Cadmium Orange Hue, Green Light Permanent, Primary Red, Primary Blue
Dina Wakley Stencils: Mod, Organic Shapes, Halves
Dylusions Stencils: Circles Large, Shattered Large, Triangles Large
Huey’s Mask Stencil: Bubbles
Liquitex White Gesso
Dylusions Spray Inks: White Linen, Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal, London Blue, Fresh Lime, Cut Grass
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Uhu Glue Stick
Black Stabilo Pencil
Blue Stabilo Pencil
Ranger’s Archival Black Ink Pad
If you watched the video this week, you might notice that I was really struggling to get this spread to a point that I was happy with!
I also, generally, frown on completely whiting a page out and starting over…I usually am a firm believer that every spread is salvageable in some way or another! So, when I finally hit day three, try three, and I was still feeling really stuck, I knew that whiting the spread out was going to have to be my solution this week!
Although I felt the need to completely white out my backgrounds and start over, I really had fun just playing with my Gelli Plate and playing some with a few new stencils!
My final attempt at this spread, which is the one that I was finally happy with was so much fun to create. I think the reason that I felt I was finally successful was that I finally got out of my own head, and started to really just go with the flow! I think I was having so much trouble because I was overthinking what I was trying to do…I have a tendency to do that at times! 😉
I also think that where the genius of this spread shows up is in some of the close up photographs! I can say genius, right??? Yeah! I can do that! I just LOVE all the yummily-scrumptious color combinations that unexpectantly showed up!
I also really LOVE the very textured background that was created by all of the layers that I had inadvertently created with all of my ugly background tries! It has resulted in a very tactile friendly kind of spread, which I surprisingly LOVE!
See what I mean??? This green and blue are just AMAZING together!! I love the pop that it creates!
And somehow, I ended up with a few speckles of a deep burgundy, red – I am not sure how that happened, but I am really LOVING that too!! 😉 So, all-in-all, I think that after more than a few heartbreaking tries, this page turned into something that I can be very happy about! 😉
What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
I am happy to announce that my latest Art Journal Thursday Video is post up on YouTube! Yeah!
The supplies I used were:
#2 pencil
Tim Holtz Distress Stain: Old Paper
Daler Rowney Simply Acrylic: Brown
Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint: Napthol Crimson, Maple Sugar Tan
Art Advantage Acrylic: Mars Black
Apple Barrel Gloss Acrylic Paint: White
Book pages
Distress Ink Pad: Forest Moss
Stamper’s Anonymous Stamp: Handwriting from the Reflection set CMS111
Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
Stabilo All Pencils: Black, Brown
Black Uni-Ball Signo 207 Pen
For those of you who had watched last week’s video, you might remember that I was really struggling to get a door onto my spread. After changing my mind last week, and coming up with something completely different, that I happened to have LOVED, I thought I was just going to leave it at that and do something different today too. But that door was nagging me, so I decided I would just buckle down and create my door this week!
I decided it was time to get brave and let my inner kindergartner come out and play. I gave her full reign on what the spread would look like and what materials she could use!! The sky was the limit!
Although my spread wasn’t very earth shattering, materials or techniques-wise, I was still pretty proud of myself that I did it!
Also, I have learned this week that art has a tendency to go through an “ugly phase”, and I have to confess, this spread was no different! The key to the “ugly phase” is that you need to just push through it, and let it all finish coming together!
When I had gotten to the point where I was painting the stairs, I had a moment of, “What the heck am I doing??? I am such a fraud! This page is HORRIBLE!!! I can not believe that I am trying this for the first time on camera!!! Have I lost my EVER-LOVIN’-Mind???” Yes, true story!
I am glad I pushed through because, even though this is not my favorite spread, and it is COMPLETELY different than what I normally do, I ended up having a real fondness for it! 😉
What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
I hope you all had an excellent weekend! My weekend is Sunday and Monday, so I am just now coming to the end of my weekend, and it has been pretty relaxing!
Before my weekend ends completely, and I get back into the hubbub that has been my filled-to-the-brim weeks, I wanted to share with you how my mixed-media art class, Eclectic Backgrounds, went this past Saturday!
I was very excited about this class! This was my first, for pay, class!! I was also very nervous because I knew it was going to be a small class, which actually turned out to be such a blessing!! My first students were Sharon and Lynette – they were so MUCH FUN to have some play time with!!
Because I was so nervous, I was planned to the ‘T’, however, I have a confession to make…I thought the class was supposed to be 3 hours long, and it turned out I had only scheduled it for 2, which meant we had A LOT to cover in a VERY SHORT amount of time!! Thankfully we not only got it all done in time, we all really had a GREAT time!! That is what I was hoping for most of all! 😉We learned and practiced 6 different mixed media art background techniques! We even had enough time to get all 6 of our samples turned into handmade journals that we can take with us and play with when we got home!I made sure to bring some of my art journals and some of my artwork to show how the backgrounds we had created could be added on to make completed art work either in art journal or art canvas form! These are some of my whimsical faces AKA “Long Neck Girls”, I am teaching a class on this technique in February and March of this year!I will be teaching a repeat of this Eclectic Background class, on January 21st, from 1-3 PM, at Runaway Art & Craft Studio here in Salem, Oregon. So, if you missed out on this first class, and would like to join us for the next one, please either leave a comment in this blog post below, or e-mail me at beautiful.creatives@yahoo.com to get more information!
Thank you to Sharon and Lynette for being so AWESOME! and for Kelsey at Runaway Art & Craft Studio for cheerleading me on so well, while also taking pics for us!!! This place is really becoming my home away from home!! 😉
As for this week, I am teaching another later this week for a private party! This time I will be teaching a gaggle of teenage girls, which I am sure will be a LOT of fun! I will make sure to share pictures from that fun evening too! 😉
When I set out to create this week’s layout, I knew what I wanted to do! I wanted to have a really cool door, and my sentiment was going to be, “When one door opens another one opens.” Well, that is exactly what happened this week! One door closed and another one opened!! LOL! 🙂
After giving up on my door idea, I realized I was going to have to give my background some more attention! A few spritz of Dylusions Ink Spray was not going to be enough for what I was wanting to create!
So let the fun begin! These are my favorite kind of backgrounds to do! Lots of acrylic, circles, doodling, drips, stamps!! Sign me up!! 😉
I think these pictures speak for themselves!! I just love the scrumdiddly-umptiousness of it all!! 😉
I also LOVE the colors that I used this week! I don’t normally work with blues and purples, but after seeing how this spread turned out, I may have to dabble with these more often!! 😉
I ended up ABSOLUTELY LOVING this spread! I can honestly tell you that it is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES!!!
So, what do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art journal!
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
I am happy to announce that my weekly Art Journal Video #12 is posted out on YouTube! 🙂
Here is a list of supplies that I used in today’s layout:
Book pages
Ranger Collage Glue Stick
Golden Acrylic Paint: Teal, Naphthol Red Medium, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue
Liquitex White Gesso
Fineline Bottles: one filled with black acrylic and one filled with white acrylic
Black Sharpie, Fine Point
White Signo Pen
Archival Ink Pad
Ranger Dylusions Numbers Stamp from the Basic Backgrounds – DYR34568
Sentiment printed from computer onto regular printer paper
Scissors
When I set out to get started on this week’s spread, I really only had two things in mind, I had some pages from a specific book that I wanted to use, and I was really excited about using a new Teal acrylic paint that I had picked up from my local art supply store. The book that I had found was a 1915 encyclopedia that I had picked up for a few dollars from my local Goodwill.
Being a self-profession bibliophile, I have a very hard time ripping pages out of books, ESPECIALLY OLD books. However, this book was in such dis-repair with torn pages, a broken spine, and just an all around mess that I felt that by using the pages in some of my art projects would be a great use of this long forgotten little treasure! Plus the cover is a DIVINELY BEAUTIFUL leather that I have hopes for recreating my own art journal from.Anyway, back to today’s spread…In addition to my book pages, and my new teal paint, I really wanted to keep today’s layout quick and simple. With the busy holiday season upon us, we have so much that we are trying to do. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still make time for art journaling even when life is crazy busy hectic!
I love all of colors of this week’s spread, and I don’t usually mute my backgrounds down, but if you watched the video you might have noticed that it was done entirely on accident. I had made marks on my page using white gesso, and because I did not like it I used a heavily watered down brush to disperse the gesso, and in doing so muted the entire page down just a little. I really REALLY like how that turned out…I may have to do that more often!
On a side note, whenever I make a mistake, I like to call it an “OFI” (pronounced owe-fee). This stands for opportunity for improvement! This gesso incident was a perfect example of an OFI!! 😉
I also was having some trouble coming up with a sentiment for this week, so I started to look around my art studio and came across some “Truth Cards” that I had created a few months ago. When I came across the truth card that had these words on it,
“You already know what the answer is…Just trust it…it is right.”
I knew in a moment that that was it! I could stop looking!! I needed to hear this message in exactly that moment!!
So, what do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art journal!
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
I am happy to announce that this week’s Art Journal Video #8 is now posted on YouTube!
Here are a list of all of the materials that I used:
Black Medium Sharpie
Faber Castelle Gelatos: Red, Orange, Light Green, Dark Green, Light Blue, Dark Blue
Brush
Heidi Swapp Circle Lattice Stencil, 12 by 12-Inch
Liquitex Gesso
American Crafts Black Galaxy Marker – B
White Card Stock
Aleen’s Tacky Glue
Uhu Glue Stick
Black and White Washi Tape – I am unsure of brand
Black Stabilo pencil
Water Brush
Black Pilot Ink Pen
White Signo Pen
Fine Tipped Water-Based Sharpie
Fat #2 pencil – the kind that contractors use
Full confession…
I have been really under the weather this past week, struggling through a really bad cold! I think that the state of this spread shows that – at least to me! I really wasn’t feeling like arting at all, but I knew that I wanted to make sure that I kept this commitment, and I am learning that you may not always feel like doing something, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it just the same! So onward I pushed!
I was completely blank, so I decided to start by filling the spread with positive words! Not being a huge fan of my handwriting, I wanted to do something to hide my writing, and I thought that I could do this by covering the words with Gelatos. Gelatos are these really creamy, gel stick, acrylic paints, that when combined with water turn into a beautiful water color, but dry permanent, which I LOVE!
You may have also noticed that I was struggling with color selection, which is not something I usually struggle with, and let me just say that next week I am going to try and leave some white space on my spread! Anyway, as soon as I put down, what I thought was a dark blue, for my border, I wanted to quit this page! What a MESS!! However, I want to be able to show, not just to you, but to myself, that no matter what a mess you may run in to, there is always a way to work through it! So, I pushed through!
Then I decided to hand write my sentiment out onto card stock, which was fine, but I made a mistake. The pen I used to write the words, although says it is permanent, smudged as soon as I went to smudge the light blue Gelato that I had added to the words’ card stock! WHOOPSIE!!! Always know your tools!! 😉 I just rolled with it and did the same mistake on every word, so that way it might look like it was on purpose! I’m okay with it!
At this point, I just really, REALLY wanted to get this page done, and do it so that it at least looked like it belonged with my other art jouraling pages! I think I did end up doing just that! Even though, I can honestly admit that this is not my favorite spread, I am very happy that I did not give up on it! About halfway through I was ready to gesso the entire thing and start all over again, which I guess is a legitimate fix, but I really didn’t feel like having to start all over!
I also realized that my sentiment was absolutely perfect for this week! If I keep focusing on the good, and keep searching for it, I will find it! Even in this journal spread! So, I have come to the conclusion that even though my physical body is feeling under the weather, my subconscious is still as active as ever and trying to keep me on my creative path!! That puts this tired mind at ease!! It is the simple things in life that are the most important!!
If you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
Until next time!
Here is to a FABULOUS week! 🙂
If you want to have a different life, live differently!
I am just now posting my Weekly Art Journal Thursday Video #7. I know that it is not Thursday, but I have had family visiting this week, and then have been down with a persistent bug that doesn’t seem to want to go away!
So, better late than never!! 🙂
Here is this week’s video:
Here is a complete list of materials I used:
Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paints: OJ (02649), Pop Pink (02646)
DecoArt Crafter’s acrylic paint: Tropical Blue (DCA102)
Folk Art acrylic paint: Neon Pink (2850)
Liquitex white gesso
Miscellaneous sheets of deli paper that I had Gelli plated on a few weeks ago (video is posted below)
Scissors
Golden’s Fluid Gel medium
Ranger Dyan Reaveley’s Dylusions Stencil, 5 by 8-Inch, Blocks
Punchinella
Black Stabilo pencil
Water brush
Black pilot ink pen, from Scarlet Lime
White Signo ink pen
Thick carpenter #2 pencil
Paper towels
Black thread
Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue
Letter stamps
Ranger’s Archival Black ink pad
This week, I must confess, I was a bit distracted! I had family in town, and I was going to see if I could squeeze this spread, sneakily in, without cause for disruptions, which meant I was talking to my sissy while I got this layout started! You might notice that at some point in the video my jewelry disappears and I end up with black and white striped sleeves on! Yep, jewelry was me chatting with sissy, while creating, and jewelry-less was after they left, which by that point I was struggling through a really bad cold (those are PJ sleeves!)!! I am just thankful you can not hear all of my coughing going on!! 🙂
The only real plan I had for this spread was that I wanted to use some of the Gelli plated deli papers I had created a few weeks ago.
That video is located here:
I loved the way the deli papers ended up a little bit translucent so that the background could peek through.
What I didn’t like is that, because my attention was not 100% on what I was doing when I started this layout, I realized when I went back to finish this spread after my family had left, was that this page was a mess of colors!
I wasn’t really sure if it were going to be possible to tie it all together!
I loved the idea of using used paper towels as the background to my thought for this week, and I especially love the idea of adding some stitching on my sewing machine – I am going to have to use that technique more often!
and of course doodling!! You know I love me some doodling!!
The message of “Be Free” is particularly meaningful this week. You may know that I have been on hiatus from my analytical career for the past 5 months. Well, this week, I have made the decision that until my creative career gets off the ground, I am going to have to go back to that analytical job, at least until I can get my nest egg built back up again! This is not exactly what I want to do, but I know it is what I have to do if I truly want to be free!!! and FREEDOM is the goal!!
So, big changes are a-comin’!! I will keep you posted!! In the meantime I really hope you liked the way this week’s spread turned out! It ended up making me very happy!! 🙂
If you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
Until next time!
Have a FABULOUS week! 🙂
If you want to have a different life, live differently!
