Back from CREATE event...

Well it seemed like I was gone for a long time, it was 5 days so I
guess it was:) I took a fabulous class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer,
pictured with me above. It was all about carving your own stamps,
but to make them so they were layered. Basically we made 3 stamp
blocks for the image we chose. You could then ink each one a
different colour and stamp them so they layered on top of each other.
I did do a very simple image to start with and am pleased with my
first attempt. I do have some of the carving material left over so
when things calm down around here, (soon  hopefully!), I will
definitely make more stamps. Julie was a great instructor, very
helpful and fun and I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone
to try something new.

The next day I took a class with Alisa Burke, I was really looking
forward to trying out the kind of graffiti style that she does. It was
called "Larger Than Life" as we were to paint on large canvases. It
was really down to personal choice as to what was large for each
person. I would say my canvas was in the average of what most
people did, there were some who made their's a lot bigger. I was
just worried about how I would transport it back home on the plane.
Alisa was also a great instructor, willing to come and help you
if you were unsure of what to do next, believe me I did take
advantage of that:) The piece above is one of 2 that I did. My
other piece is more finished but I like this one better. We were
supposed to add some sort of focal point and I did on my other
piece but am not 100% happy with it, I may change it up a little
and if I do I will post a photo.

This was from my final class on Sunday morning, it was again with
Alisa, this was her Doodled Surface Design class. I did this piece
in class and you would not believe that the vibrant red
background is from one of Alisa's favourite supplies, a set of
Crayola watercolours!!

Finally I got out my sketchbook to while away the 2 1/2 hours I
had to wait at the airport and tried to practice some of the things
that Alisa had talked about in class that day. I am actually quite
proud of this. I also started a Zentangle after this and one lady
came over to me twice to tell me how much she loved what I
was doing and had I drawn it myself!!

Grungy Monday #7...

This week's Grungy Monday challenge is based on a technique
from Tim Holtz that is on the Ranger Ink website go here to
check it out. This is a technique I have not done before but is so
easy and can give lots of different results. To see what I mean
go and visit Linda's blog for lots more examples.

This is definitely a technique that lets you find out which of your
ink pads need to be re-inked, lol! I found that all of the colours
I chose to begin with definitely needed to be re-inked.
Unfortunately I do not own all of the reinkers for all of the Distress
ink pads I have:(  Anyway I still made a background in similar
colours to my original choices. I did go over the dress form stamp
with my stardust gelly roll pen but I could not get it to show up in
the pictures, it looks very sparkly in real life.

Tomorrow I am heading out to California to attend the "Create"
event which is put on by Cloth,Paper,Scissors magazine. I am
so excited to be trying some new art classes with teachers I have
not had before. I will try and post from there but cannot
guarantee it. If I do it will be on my new site I just set up through
tumblr.com. If you would like to check it out then visit me here
and you can see one of the birthday gifts I received :)

Grungy Monday #6...

Seems like a long time since Grungy Monday #5, well it was an
extra special 2 week challenge as the lovely Linda was soaking
up all the goodness of Ranger U, lucky girl!

This week I decided to use my favourite stamp the umbrella man, I
love this stamp and therefore try very hard not to over use it. I
was so excited when the Umbrella Man die came out and now
I own it! I will never have to cut out around the stamp again:)

So onto the challenge, this was taken from yet another one of
Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas techniques, go here to get all the details on it.

I did actually do this technique when Tim posted it for his 12 tags,
and had a hard time then and the same problem this time. I do not
think my paint dabber has enough paint flow coming out to really
do a great job with the technique but I went ahead

and carried on anyway (kind of like my saying!).  

Art Journaling Fun...

Here is a fun page I did over the weekend. Two of my friends came
over on Saturday and we got to work on our art journals. I started
3 different pages but this was the one that got totally finished, the
others are still in progress. It is always fun to do art with your
friends,we get to share our supplies and ask for opinions on things.
The photo below shows our messy table filled with paints, stencils, glues, tape etc.

This is the second Saturday that we have been able to get together
and play in our journals. We are really hoping that we get to do
this on a regular basis. I recently got my friend Lisa started with
art journaling and she just loves it. So between the 2 of us we
converted a new friend Anjie to join us, we have a fun time
chatting and trying out new techniques. We have decided that
we need a  name for our art journal meetings/group, we haven't
come up with anything yet but we are open for suggestions...