Happy New Word for 2018

hope

1. This time of year I begin thinking of my word for the year and this year I have chosen the word hope. I usually create an art journal page to remember it, just in case I should forget, lol 
2. It's also nice to look back at my previous words I've chosen over the years. 

I love angels

I admit I've never been good with New Year's Resolutions so I began choosing a single word to guide me for the new year instead. A single word that will sum up the essence and focus for the next 365 days of my life. 

Dresden trim, washi tape and stencils...my oh my!

I like to do an art journal page on my WOTY. 

It helps me to keep seeing my word.

How do you display your word? Or do you?

Don't box yourself into only choosing one word if multiple words or a phrase resonates with you. There is no word limit on this, so choose something that resonates with you! Write journal your word down!

I love all the shimmer!

Don't box yourself into only choosing one word if multiple words or a phrase resonate with you. There is no word limit on this portion, so choose something that resonates with you! 

Do you choose a WOTY?

I would love to hear what yours is if you do.

Supplies:

Gwen Lafleur Studios

Khadi Papers Sketchbook

Vintage Vibe - German & English Scrap

German Dresden Trim

Decorative Filigree Ornament stencil

Decorative Folk Flower Screen stencil

StencilGirl

Layers stencil 

Crowns and Scepters stencil

ColourArte

Buttercup

DecoArt

Americana Acrylic - Lamp (Ebony) Black

Dazzling Metallic - Splendid Gold

You still have time!

Linking up to Paint Party Friday

Happy New Year to everyone!

Believe

German Dresden trim

Vintage Vibe - German & English Scrap

Angels & Cherubs Double Sheet

Children with Signs

In December, Gwen's Artist Tribe is focusing on creative ways to use Dresden Trim and English/German Scrap. You can save 15% when you order any Dresden or Scrap during December. Details are on the coupon below.

Here is my box that I painted along with Kae Pea in her Let’s Get Makey Premium club using DecoArt paints, Rubbermoon stamps and Gwen Lafleur's

German Dresden trim

Vintage Vibe - German & English Scrap

I fell in love with the Children with Signs  (Vintage Vibe - German & English Scrap) because I have these small sentiment stamps from Rubbermoon which I immediately envisioned using with the pieces.

Embossed foil paper trims, also known as Victorian Scrap or recently as "Dresdens"
They are made of embossed, die-cut metallic foil paper.

These old-fashion styled Dresden trims are sooooooooo cool to work with. They have a fabulous metal look to them but in reality are easily bendable and mold around corners like butter!

And I am still crushing on this silk from Darn Good Yarn, love the colors, love the little frayed bits and bobs and especially love the feel of silk! I also adore the bronze Hamsa charm to the paint brush handle. According to Aristotle, the hand is the "tool of tools" so I figured it would be a perfect addition to the paint brush. 

I popped her up with some glue dots and added a small old and broken paint brush and then painted doodles along the edges.

It was easy to cut the background paper after stamping to fit the inside of the box and then glue a word bead along with a teeny tiny butterfly from the collage sheet just for fun.

Adding my painted box to the Paint Party Friday link up!

Winter Wreath to chase away the "blahs"

This year I'm gonna' chase away the winter blahs 

 with my beautiful, brightly colored Sari ribbon wreath.

It was very easy to do, I just wrapped the ribbon around a styrofoam wreath base and used straight pins to hold it in place. The peacock feather quill was slipped in between the wrapped Sari trim and the flower stem was simply pushed into the styrofoam base. Voilà, color me done!

This Sari ribbon has so many uses! The possibilities are endless, I bet you can think of some wonderful ways to use it!

 I could see using this trim to use as garland on your Christmas trees!

Or to decorate a table runner for a Holiday dinner party!

It makes my eyes light up every time I see it, although it won't be "officially" hung up for display until after Christmas.
 I do hope it brings a smile to all that pass through my door!

Check HERE to see what your front door says about you.
Even though I can't paint my front door a color I applied their results
to my wreath.

"According to Dionysian theory, a multi-colored door wreath indicates that a person of creative happiness” lives inside." 👍 check!

and then I really had a good laugh because:

"You are: Eclectic, joyful, meticulous. 

You didn’t score well on your math SATs, 

but you were the art teacher’s pet."
😜 nailed it!  😎 

lol

Gwen has many beautiful, eclectic and colorful selections

to help you express yourself!

So go ahead, tell the world who you are...I triple dog dare you!

Kawaii cute charms!

I'm up over on Rubbermoon's Artmosphere today 

( my very first post ) I do hope you join me and leave me some love.

Kwaii charms

linking up with

Paint Party Friday

There's this and then there's that...

In case you have a problem with male nudity I am posting this double canvas that I created Monday and you can click to go here to that post to leave a comment which would be awesome if you so choose to do so.

In the meantime...

I returned back to my life drawing class which I hadn't been to since
August 1st...and I sure felt rusty.

Our session is broken down into segments of time and the model chooses his own poses. Jay likes to give us challenges...lol

These are the warm-up poses which last for 5 minutes each. I choose my  KOH-I-NOOR Woodless Colour Pencils which was the first time I used them and I liked them although I still prefer Watercolor pencils overall.

Then we get a 10-minute pose, which I sang the tune of Spiderman in my head as he looked like he was climbing a wall. He was actually just leaning against it but yeah, that's where my mind went. lol

Another 10-minute pose

A 20-minute pose, again leaning against the wall. I need to remember to go back and draw a wall line to anchor the poses.

And the final pose which was a little over 45 minutes broken down into 2 sessions so we all get a break to stretch.

linking up to

Paint Party Friday

Be Yourself

"To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it, pick yourself up and move on."

Dave Pelzer

I named the piece "Be Yourself" in honor of the one little fish going it's own way, against the flow so to speak. Sometimes art has little stories to tell quite on their own accord as if they have their own voice and like the current of the ocean I float along with their story that unfolds before me.

The current is similar to an undertow which drags me along, influencing my emotions with thoughts of how I can bring out it's message? How to further it's cause? I came up with the idea (at least I think it was me and not the fish) to stamp "It is what it is" and "Imagine" around the edges of the frame. I juxtaposed the sayings to show how the statements relate to each other. 

The same and not the same.

I just love these brightly colored handmade Boho fish made by Gwen. They truly brighten up the panels with their own one of a kind art, accented with sari scraps, fibers, trims, rhinestones and stenciled designs.

 Each one is a piece of art on it's own accord.

 Even the dangly bits of the Kuchi trims are a joy as they really helped add movement to the seaweed. I love the assortment of colors and how much texture they created, definitely making their own unique mark in my art.

November Product Spotlight

Be Merry holiday card

Welcome to the "Are you ready for the holidays?" blog hop...OK OK, it's not really called that, but seriously...

are you ready?

Well, have no fear, we have loads of inspiration waiting for you!

I love to send out personalized Christmas cards. 

I use to try and make everyone a one of a kind card but man, that's a lot of work! I've learned that I can make a unique card and then have it printed, this way they are still getting a custom card from me but with way less pressure...I mean I still have to decorate the tree, wrap presents and bake all those cookies...it's exhausting just thinking about it! So I hope this gives you the inspiration to make your cards but take some of the pressure off you!

Techniques that I used to make my card:

masking

layering different stencils

outlining

shading

accenting

reverse stenciling to get mirrored images

Check out my video so you can see how I incorporated them all!

We have a more than a dozen projects our Creative Team members made just to whet your appetite for the merriest season!

While you are busy oohing and aahing, take a moment to leave a comment on each blog and you'll be entered to win a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate!

Here are links to all the fantastic, magic, merry, holiday projects:

Karen Gaunt

Tina Walker

Torrie Gass

Cindy Gilstrap

Sherry Canino

🎄 Sandee Setliff 🎄

Kiala Givehand

Janet Joehlin

Belen Sotelo

Louise Nelson

Debi Adams

Carol Baxter

Comment by midnight CST in the USA on November 8^th and we’ll randomly choose a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate winner. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win. 
We’ll announce the winner on our Facebook Page on November 9^th.

Please feel free to share the hop with your friends!

Three Trees Stencil by Jessica Sporn

Holiday Sayings 6 stencil by Mary Beth Shaw

Holly Mistletoe Repeating Stencil by Jennifer Evans

Linking up to Paint Party Friday
Ho, ho, ho!

It's Friday already?

This week flew by!

Saturday was spent with friends downtown while the auction went underway for the Bearfootin' Bears. This is a small clip which I still have more editing to do on it and you can go to the YT Channel to see Part 1 or more of my bears I've painted if you want.

Sunday was spent binge watching The Walking Dead on Netflix to get ready for this seasons premiere.

Monday we got gobsmacked with rain and the creek behind my place flooded. The water has risen a good 3', it's now coming up on the "high" ground.

Had to go out in the rain and pull back my fountain 
( which is the last gift my mother gave me right before she died) 

Needless to say, I was wet and muddy by the time I pulled it out of harms way! It stopped raining shortly thereafter with a few of my friends having lost their power so they had it worse than me.

Tuesday I reverted to being a lazy teenager...still not sure where it came from but I didn't make up my bed, ate a PB&J for lunch, ate Manwich for dinner and ice cream in bed!
What a bum!

Wednesday found me back in the craft room to make something for today so I could link up to Paint Party Friday! I don't  normally do Halloween art in my journal per se but I couldn't resist this sentiment! 

And of course, the bedazzled horns didn't show up so I had to go outside to get some sunlight on them!

Thursday was errand day which included picking up my Christmas cards from the printer... will share them on another day. :)

Which brings me full circle to Friday and I wanted to share an upcoming coupon for the most unique mixed media store ever!

Gwen's going to be having a birthday and Halloween sale in the shop next week! In celebration of her birthday, she's having a sale on the entire store on sale for two days only -
 October 30-31! 

(Coupon code required )
Pop over on Monday and I'll give you the code!

Sense of self

This post finds me in washi tape heaven!

In Japan, it's known as masking tape (マスキングテープ) and the most renowned brand of washi tape is simply called mt - which stands for "masking tape". The term "washi tape" refers to the fact that the tapes are made from Japanese rice paper and differentiates it from typical masking tape you might find in the hardware store.

Vintage Stamps, Ransom Numbers, Wide Black Calligraphy, Star Woodblock stamp, and Old Letters & DaVinci Writing

Washi tape is actually usually made from natural fibers (like bamboo or hemp) or the bark of trees native to Japan such as mulberry, mitsumata shrub or the gampi tree.

But let's start at the beginning, this is my art journal page that I created.

And this is how it began...

I had some backgrounds pre-made ages ago using the Decorative 6-Petal Flower Screen stencil by Gwen Lafleur. I loved the backgrounds so much that I could have left them as is.

But then the washi tape was whispering my name in my ear...and wow, does Gwen carry the most beautiful designs! And oh look, one of the Darn Good Sari Yarn Sample Packs jumped out to join in all the fun!

OK...so my typing skills still haven't improved but while I was pecking away I couldn't help but notice this little person hiding among the splattered paint and coaxed him/her out of hiding with a little pen work.

I then laminated the piece, punched in some holes and tied it into the journal with the Sari ribbon. Have I mentioned that silk yarn is sublime? 

I doodled with the Star stamp and some Rubbermoon stamps and used my Overstitch wheel/pricking wheel through the paint to create the star trails.

 Thanks for stopping by! I really do appreciate you and will return the favor.
I promise!

When you stop by it makes me feel like I've been crafting with friends versus being by myself and I love that sense of camaraderie between artists.

One of the Turkmen jewelry parts

See you soon, I can't wait to see what you've been up to this week!
linking up with
Paint Party Friday