More Art Journaling

Ah, another week of paradise!  Well almost!  I spent the week at church, preparing loads of behind-the-scenes stuff for our 2012 VBS Concert in July.  I am way ahead of schedule, but there is always so much to do to prep for that.  So, since I am preparing to teach our kids about Jesus, it is almost like I really was in "paradise."

Then, in the afternoons, I spent my time going to 3 LAX games and on Wednesday, to church for Family Night and Girls Clubs.

Friday, I spent the entire day cleaning and organizing my office and my studio.   Boy, did I feel a sense of accomplishment after that feat!

Here's a pic of what my dining room now looks like:

NICE!!!

If you'd seen how full of my artsy stuff this table was last week, you'd realize why looking at it now, all shiny and clear of anything, is such a big deal.

Everything is now nicely stored in my basement studio, ready for my next thrilling project, which will probably be a continuation of Christy Tomlinson's class on Creative Color.  I'm ready for some more canvas painting!  

Oh, I am also dabbling in my Art Journal.  Thursday night, after the loss of Newark High to William Penn, I was not particularly inspired!  Strange, right?  When am I ever NOT inspired.  Anyway, I just wanted to play with paints so this is what I did:

Nothing too thrilling here.  No She Art girls.  But I did use 3 of my new cheapo "My Studio" acrylic paints.  And the blue one is my new Claudine Hellmuth NOT cheap acrylic paint.  I love the consistency of her paints.  For my mixed media, Christy says we can use the cheap stuff to create the background layers, so that's why I invested 50 cents per bottle on 6 cheapo ones.  And the Claudine paints were a steal on Blitzy--I just had to get the small 4 oz. bottle of all 15 colors.  Did you know that with the right combination of colors, I you can get 51 colors out of the 15 paints???  That is so cool.  

I'm headed down to my clean and organized studio to make some fun art.  I will share a great "find" I found in Dover today, during a later post.  I just don't have the patience to write more right now.  

TTFN!

Joyously "Arting"

Why is "arting" not a real word?  It should be.  It's my word!  It means "making art."

I had a wonderful weekend, despite the rainy start to Saturday at Elliott's LAX game, arting with my many distress inks and stamps and alcohol inks.  I am taking the brand new, Tim Holtz Chemistry 101 class and it is loads of fun to try everything he tells us about.  Now, I can't do everything because believe it or not, there are still some Ranger products that I do not yet own.  Today is day 6 of the class and it is all about those fancy, smanzy Distress markers that cost $120 to own the set.  I have a practically new set of Copic markers, which were also very expensive 2 years ago (I got them at my very first CKC in Valley Forge), and I also have a an expensive set of Big Brush pens from Faber Castell, so I won't be investing in Tim Holtz set anytime soon.  But they are really cool.

So here are 2 pics of some of the techniques I've experimented with since taking this class:

so SORRY it came out kind of blurry!

And here is pic #2:

Now Tim uses Ranger glossy paper for this, but that is one of the things I do not own, so I used glossy photo paper, and it worked beautifully.  When I do lessons 4-6 today, I will check the forum to see what others have written about that.

There's still time for you to sign up to take that class, and you get lifetime access to all the videos and pdfs, which are awesome.  Go to Tim Holtz's webpage to sign up.  I signed up the first day it was advertised cuz I knew  this was one to NOT miss! 

Soggy Saturday Sans Oranges!

Well, after last Thursday's Newark HS Boys Lacrosse game, where our boys won 11-8 over St. Georges, today was the complete reverse!  Our boys lost to AI Dupont, 9-1 and Ell didn't get to score at all, but he did start and played a huge chunk of time.  It was cold, rainy and just miserable.  To make matters worse, yesterday, I had the audacity to buy this:

I got this awesome, big box at Costco, thinking I would cut them up and bring them for the boys to have at half-time during their game today.  But being new to the team, and not knowing the lay of the land, I thought it best to write to the coach to ask if, in fact, I could bring them.  I also cc'd the Boosters president, who agreed with me that it was a fine idea but to wait to hear what the coach thought.  

When Ell got home at 6, I told him I was waiting to hear from the coach and he immediately replied with "Wait, What?!!  You're kidding, right, Mom?  You didn't really write to coach, did you?"  I was surprised and taken back by that string of questioning.  And said I was not kidding.  To that, he threw his hands up and covered his face and said, "Noooooooooooo.  The coach is always going on and on about our team NOT being the kind of team that has fun and eats oranges at half-time and loses!  He wants us to be serious and play hard and win!"  

OOOOOPPPPSSSS!

I was just trying to be nice.  Man, did I blow it.  The worst part is I don't want the coach to think badly of Elliott.  This may reflect poorly on his character!  As a junior, still green on the Varsity team, he does not need my meddling to reflect poorly on him. 

Ell said that I should have run it by him first, and he would have told me if it was ok to run by the coach! I would have saved him and me some embarrassment if I'd done so!  

I felt so bad, I cried. 

I felt so bad, I didn't even want to surf the net, or take my Tim Holtz class or talk to anyone after that!

Thankfully, I didn't have to talk to anyone.  

I did, however, take myself downstairs to the studio, and gathered up some of my beloved mixed media products, and sat myself down to create an art journal two-pager with a new She Art girl!  I love her and I love my finished product!

I was going to journal about all the above, but then I decided not to.  I knew I would blog about it so why contaminate my beautiful art with the sadness in my heart.  And how do you artistically portray poor judgement and embarrassment anyway?  So instead, my rub-on words say"Must have Hopes, Dreams, Ambitions, and Purpose." 

There's lots of other things I must have, but I didn't have rub-ons for those thoughts or emotions.  And I didn't want to "write" in my own handwriting on my art.  So I left it at that!  

And that is that for today.

Now that I am home, and my toesies have begun to warm up again, and we have no plans for today, I will probably get caught up on my online classes and maybe art journal later. 

Finally Done with Dining Room Canvas Art #1

Hey everyone, I know it's been a few weeks since my last update.  I was busy working!  I mean working at my "paid" job!  I am starting my busy time of year at church!  It runs from mid-March through the mid-August.  So hopefully I will be able to keep myself motivated to CREATE and BLOG in-between all my activities.  Oh, and did I say busy??  I am also on the AfterProm Committee  for my kid's high school, and the Treasurer for the Boys Lacrosse Team.  And Lacrosse just started!!!  It is probably more fun for me than football because my son actually plays on the LAX team and does not play football (but I really love football).  And I so love LAX, even though I don't know any of the rules.
So yesterday was Elliott's first Varsity game ever and he got to start and played almost the whole game and even scored!  I am sooooooooooooooo proud of him!  He somehow tore his brand new cleats and so today, dad and I went to Dick's and exchanged them for brand new ones since they were barely 1.5 months old.  No problem except he'll have to break them in again!  And so we bought him some blister protectors for his feet since tomorrow, Saturday, is his second varsity game!  Can't wait.

So today, I finally finished the last details on my Dining Room Art Canvas made with mixed media and I sooooooo love it.  I even took it outside in the full sun to photograph it so you could see every detail clearly:

I loved this project.  You will have to go back a few posts to see the detailed pics of how this was done.  I will now begin the second one, which will be similar in style, but NOT identical.  It will match because they will be hung in my dining room to frame the entrance into the living room.  It is a unique piece that I came up with on my own, though I used techniques learned from numerous people, including my girl Christy Tomlinson!

In a future post, I will outline my first creative venture using a wooden slate instead of canvas.  It came out beautiful too!

So I think I am ready to take on orders.  If you are interested, in this type of mixed media or some sort of other memory keeping product, email me at LucieScraps2Shine@gmail.com.  Also, don't forget that I sell for Memory Works and they just came out with their new summer line of papers and embellishments and tools, so click on my link on this blog and I will be happy to take those orders as well as any you may have for me for original pieces of artwork.

Love "Arting"

According to Lucie Halesters brand new dictionary (that she has not gotten printed yet), "arting" is the act of making art--however you do it!!

I have been having a blast arting with all sorts of mixed mediums lately.  I wanted to keep you up-to-date on the newest She Art girl, girl #3 that I actually began late yesterday evening.  As usual, I began with a brand new clean slate!

The possibilities are endless!

Here is what I completed before bedtime:

This one has a whole different feel to it.  Not quite so vintagy as the last one.  

I copied the sun straight out of Christy Tomlinson's lesson, but the rest of the canvas is all mine.  I wanted to have the house in there, so I paper-pieced one using Crate Paper Pink Plum papers.  I also re-used some vellum musical notes from 7 Gypsies.

I added a tree limb using my Crafter's Workshop mini Birds of a Feather template.  I mixed dark brown paint with some Liquitex coarse texture gel, and the results are fabulous.  The tree limb is really gritty and textured.  Perfect.  

I used my clementine packaging to add texture to lots of other spots all over the canvas-the grass, the sky, the sun.  

Then I thought I would paint one of my Sizzix embossing folders and lay that on the sun, and that turned out wonderful.  

And you can barely make out a slight harlequin area painted on the left of the canvas--I thought it would just add some nice color and texture.  So I did that using School Bus yellow FolkArt paint mixed with that coarse texture medium and my mini Harlequin Crafter's Workshops template.  Worked beautifully.  

I will continue working on this new palette tomorrow afternoon and adding pictures as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I wanted to give you the link for Christy Tomlinson's site.  She is a phenomenal teacher and I wanted to give her credit for the She Art Workshop 1 class that I am taking, which is giving me some awesome techniques and inspiration for my She Art girls.  Even if you don't sign up to take a class with her right away, at least visit her blog and start getting to know a little bit about her.  Once you get on the mailing list, you might get invited to take some of her classes for a discounted price.  That's how I jumped on board!  Her classes are loaded with videos and pdfs to get your creative juices flowing.  Out of respect for Christy as an artist, and because it would be illegal to do so, I am not allowed to teach you her techniques, because they are copyrighted.  But I do encourage you to read her blog, enter into the her world, sign up for her classed, and watch how you will personally grow as an artist. 

 Here is her link:

http://www.scarletlime.com/workshops.html

I promise you won't walk away empty handed from this class, but loaded with fresh techniques and inspiration.  Her shop is loaded with fun products too!  And you will want some, to participate in the fun arting she does!

More posting soon!  Blessings and don't forget to go Shine it Forward!

Happy Where I Am

Yuppers, I am truly a blessed lady.  I have had such fun playing with my art mediums, and am growing by leaps and bounds with every class I take and every technique I master.  I have a long way to go, but I found myself slowing down yesterday!  Not because I ran out of steam!  But because I am savoring the process of creating and I had the whole day to enjoy it and today as well.

This is a pic of the beginning of my She Girl Art #2.  This is a bunch of layered papers on a plain white canvas.  It has yet to be texturized:

Here are the pieces I cut out for my She Art Girl #2: 

Today, I put the finishing touches on my She Art Girl #2 and framed her so she is ready for displaying.  Where, I don't know yet, but display her I will!  She is so adorable!

Here is the finshed girl's pic:

Here is a close up of the girl and the plaque, which really states where I am today in my life!  So content with my spiritual, emotional, physical, and social well-being.  I thank the Lord for all He's done for my family and me.  I am blessed with so many wonderful friends.  I have been given talents and abilities that I pray will always bless others and Him, and I lack nothing!  I still have Big Dreams and I still rejoice in the hope of my bright tomorrows!  

There she is, my little princess, a reflection of the Daughter of God that I am!

Plaque statement:  "she was happy just where she was"

The possibilities for this day are numerous:  I could finish my Dining Room art #1; begin Dining Room Art #2; begin She Art Girl #3; continue working on Ashleigh's renaissance vintage book--she arrives THIS Thursday for her spring break--yikes the year is flying by!!!; take some more Christy Tomlinson classes and create more stuff; read my blogging book; read my current NookColor book:  Run; create some birthday cards for reserves; run to Walmart to buy some mason's jars and make the Bluebird of spring home decor item I downloaded from Jenni Bowlin studios; surf the web and learn from other creative bloggers!

You see?  I can keep busy for days and days!  

Guess you'll find out next time!

Clean Slate for My She Art

Picture, if you will, a 12 inch by 12 inch white, canvas, blank slate.  That is what I started with to make my She Art Girl #2.  Below is how i wallpapered the canvas with decoupage and vellum, and beautiful patterened papers from Crate Paper Pink Plum collection, 7 Gypsies Ecriture Avignon paper (thats the white script on green background) and Orchestra Avignon paper (that's the musical notes paper). I also used a bunch of acrylic paints mixed with liquitex coarse testure gel and for added dimension, I used a couple of pieces of mesh (one came from a bag of clementines).  I made my own caged bird stamps out of thick foam run through the Vagabond and that turned out great as a background stamp.  Here's what it looked like before I added a ton of texture to it:

I have begun cutting out my Girl #2 pieces.  Here she is--just lovely!  Guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  And I see her done in my mind's eye!  I love her as much as Girl #1!

I've got company arriving in a little bit, so probably won't get much more done till tomorrow.  See you then!

Temporary Detour

My husband's father passed away last Tuesday, so he had to travel to Arkansas to meet and greet the family and help to lay him to rest.  His absence required my attention to matters here at home, that he usually takes care of, especially when it came to the doggies.  So, I did very little work on my Dining Room Art.

But here are a couple more pics:

These are some paper and burlap flowers that I made to be added to the big canvas.  I may have to hot glue them to the canvas due to their size and the burlap ones are heavy.  

This paper is from the Prima Madeline line and it is quite lovely.  I tore off strips like you see above, wet the paper with water, crumpled it up, to give it character, and then began to mold the vines for the flowers.  

Once I decoupaged the back of the paper, I rolled it up into skinny long stems and shaped them into various shapes so they look like a branch.  More pics on that soon.

IN THE MEANTIME:
This really should be another post, but I'm gonna go ahead and continue here because it is part of the detour stated in the title of this post!

I started taking an online class with Christy Tomlinson, of Scarlett Lime, and I am abolutely in love with mixed media art journaling and canvas painting.

My class is called the She Art Workshop and she teaches us how to use all sorts of mediums on canvas to create works of art with girls, hence the "She Art!"  I made my first girl in my SMASH journal, which I am treating as my art journal because it is already so much fun to use and the pages are thick and I've spent time decorating it and it is ORANGE!

I loved my first girl and now wish I had done her on canvas so I could hang her up somewhere:

You can't really tell the texture on the page with this 3-D and dark pic.  The flowers are 3d, the burlap banner and boots are awesome, the butterfly in her hair is 3d.  She is gorgeous.  No face.  There's a reason for that.  I'll tell you later! 

I am slowly getting through the classes and love repeating them.  There is so much content and so much to master.  I've begun my second girl, on a 12X12 canvas and I am loving it.  That will be the next post.