I've Found a New Weakness!!!!

I am notorious for starting online courses and never finishing them. Can't stand to waste my money like that so towards the end of the course I'm frantically downloading course materials and instructions. A few months ago one of my favorite online instruction sites, My Creative Classroom, made a change so that courses are available forever instead of just a few weeks beyond the end of the course. Bad news for this procrastinator. Now I can take longer to finish and I don't have to use up my paper to print instructions or computer memory to save the files. Win, win all around for me.

My most recent class will be closing the end of this week. No biggie, I can access it anytime, but here's where my weakness came in. I realized the first part of this week that if I finished the course and posted my projects that I could get a free course at some time in the future. FREE? Did I read that right? Yes, FREE! Do you have any idea what I've been doing the past couple days? I'm sure you can guess. I've been finishing up watching and reading the course content as well as making my projects. Finished them yesterday and got them all posted today and I thought I would share them with you. 

This was a mixed media class. Even though I consider myself a mixed media artist I don't think I can ever learn enough. I soaked these techniques up like I'm a sponge and I'm continually looking for new mediums, textures, and techniques to apply to my projects. MM is something I am truly passionate about.

I am not at all pleased with the results of this project but I did learn somethings about beading and was introduced to using fabric in my MM projects.

A music themed collage on canvas. I used many leftover embellies on this project and tried something new with the canvas; black gesso. I've used black gesso in the past to achieve a completely black background but this time I intended to use it for it's contrasting quality against the sheet music and book text. Turns out that canvas primed with black gesso looks really aged when you take the sanding block to it. I LOVED the results.

Guess what I learned from this project? Always press your fabric before creating your layout. The wrinkles look great to the naked eye but when photographed, it just looks like a bunch of shadows. By the way, the pictures and title in this layout are printed on muslin. Never printed on fabric before. Will definitely be doing it again. Loved the results. Canvas duck is the substrate for this layout.

Look at how awesome the print looks on the muslin. Fun stuff!

And here's my favorite. This substrate is just plain ole' cardboard with the covering removed from one side. The picture is from a trip to the Outer Banks a few years back. The chair and fishing rods were cut out from some other photos from that same trip. I will be using cardboard more in my projects. I just love the tattered look it gives the project. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. I always appreciate the company and I love to read your comments.

Happy Creating.

Susan

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It's Still Here!

It's been so long since I've posted that I wasn't sure my blog would still be here. I half expected it to have been absorbed into some blogger abyss. (Like that could happen. Well, maybe it could).

Anyhoo, if you are reading this, my thanks to you for returning after my long hiatus. I appreciate your loyalty and I hope to have a more regular plan for posting in the future. Yes, I have a plan, (work with me on this please), a plan that includes getting some things that I've been working on posted to the blog. Even though I've been MIA from the blog, I've been having a blast in my Playroom, (It's really a mess too. If my children's playroom ever looked this bad I would have had a cow on them). 

So, real quick, I want to share my new found fun pastime. It's called Zentangle. I used to call it doodling but someone, (obviously a smarter someone than me), came up with a nifty name, published a few "how to" books on the subject, certified educators, started teaching classes, and is probably making a tiddly little sum from this ancient art form, (why oh why can't I think of these things). 

Here are my first two attempts, (in order of completion), at Zentangle. 

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. And, even though, I made some off handed comments above, I do plan to take a class next month at my favorite LSS, A Scrapbook Store and More. It appears there are many, many more techniques that I have yet to learn and as an art form, Zentangle is in a class all by itself.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

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Making Lists and Web Surfing

For the past week I have battled a nasty respiratory infection. I’ve had no energy or desire to do anything crafty or otherwise. I am feeling better today but still have very little energy. To get back into the grove of daily life though I must do something and blogging is about the easiest thing I can come up with. That means my friends that you are about to hear all about what I did with my lazy self while I wasn’t spending time crafting, cooking, or doing housework. That is, if you choose to stick around after that inviting introduction.

Web surfing is sometimes the most inspiring and thought provoking activities I do. I visit my favorite sites and make notes, create lists, Pin some awesome pictures, share my finds with my friends, get lost by clicking links, and just basically get cyberspace overloaded. It’s a blast and I would love to share with you some of the wonderfulness

I’ve discovered this past week.

Nathalie Kalbach’s

Creative Jump Start Summit 2012

Nathalie has created an inspirational kick off to 2012 with the help of many of her talented friends. Through the use of videos, Nathalie has brought admired and well respected artist right to your home to share with you their secrets for finding artistic inspiration. This is a free series and I highly recommend it.

at Julie Fei-Fan Balzer I found

This event shared tons of tips and ideas from many artist on how to create storage, rearrange,  restructure, and make a variety of low cost storage containers as well as great ways to set up our studios to make them more user friendly.

While I was catching up on a week’s worth of unread mail in my Google Reader, I came across this gem from

Michelle Ward.

Michelle hosts the

GPP Street Team’s monthly creativity challenge.

The current challenge,

Crusade 59

is all about making

Ta-Da Lists.

It’s her alternative to making and breaking resolutions. With the Ta-Da, we can look back on our accomplishments instead of frowning over our failed resolutions. I LOVE this. I have added the Ta-Da to my To-Do. I encourage you to check out the site. Michelle has the lists already designed and ready for downloading and printing along with ideas for creating journals using your lists. She suggests working backward but I’m not one for looking to the past. I’m starting mine and working forward.

I also found this extremely fun site where you can create your own Subway type signage.

Wordle

Just type the words you want to use, adjust the layout to your liking, pick a font, select your colors, and WOW! Your creation can be printed out for whatever use you choose or added to your website or blog.

Look what I made. Using the list of “Labels” from my blog. I simply copied and pasted them in at the site and did my tweaking and TA-DA, (oh, that’s the other site).

I found a free pattern and instructions for making a dress form pin cushion from

My Craft Channel’s

DIY Dish

I’ve downloaded my pattern and can’t wait to make my own pin cushion for my stick pins.

And lastly but certainly not least is

Pinterest.

I love this site. It’s great for holding all my ideas, finding “pins” and sharing the “pins” I found. If you don’t have a Pinterest, you’ve got to get one and if you have one and haven’t used it in a while, go revisit some of the things you pinned. You might find some ideas to recharge

your batteries or get your creative juices following.

I hope I haven’t bored you too much and that you’ve picked up some ideas and projects to work on or just some new sites to visit.

Thanks for stopping by today. I’ve missed you.

Happy Creating.

Susan

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What to do When Your Project Goes South Part II

Yesterday I introduced you to my theory on Type A and B Artists. Far from an exact science but a good enough hypothesis for me to fill an entire blog entry and have enough fodder left over for today. In a nutshell I determined that feeling a need to start over is possibly the mark of a Type A and re-evaluating and changing the project could be a Type B. I admitted to being a Type B mostly because I am cheap and can't bring myself to throw out product. And, remember we established that Type A and B Artist types are not to be confused with Type A and B personality types. Enough recap.

Here's the flopped calendar that started the whole ordeal. The technique just didn't pan out for me. 

It's too dark, I can't read the numbers and there's a lot of air bubbles. I'm sure with practice, this technique using glitter, ink, and Glossy Accents, (please see Roni's post at Ink Stains for a short tutorial), would look perfect. I just wasn't happy with my results. Instead of tossing the calendar I cut it into strips and hearts. Doing this allowed me to salvage the technique and incorporate it into my project, just not as a calendar.

Here's the end results. I just printed another calendar and glued the strips from the original calendar to the edges of the house to create the framework, (now covered by the seem binding - I think that's what the pink nylon lacy stuff is called. Can you tell I'm not a sewer?), and the hearts became accents. 

And this is what was left over from the original calendar.

Just a pile of scraps ready for the garbage can. No panic, no starting over, just a change in the final outcome. 

This entire technique calendar project is really a lot of fun. I'm learning new things and incorporating some of my own technique imagination along the way.

Thanks for stopping by today and please check out Ink Stains With Roni for more info on the technique calendars.

Happy Creating.

Susan

What to do When your Project Goes South

Have you ever created an element for a project - scratch that. Have you ever created a MAIN element for a project and it looked like, well, you know, CRAP? I know you have. We all do it from time to time. I think though how we handle it defines us in some way. Do you freak at mistakes; toss it out  and start all over again? If so, I'm going to call you a Type A artist, (Not to be confused with a Type A personality. I know many Type A artist who are far from a Type A personality). Now, on the other hand' if you just kind of "piff" at the oops, turn it over a few times, re-evaluate, and find an alternative, (I call this opportunities to embellish or enhance), then you might be what I call a Type B artist, (Not to be confused with a Type B personality. I'm a Type A personality but nothing about an oops sends me into a tail spin.).

On to the point of this post. I've been working on a calendar project based on Roni's, over at Ink Stains, annual Technique Calendar. I attempted the Floating Stars technique using Glossy Accents and it just didn't turn out to my liking. What was I going to do though? The calendar itself was the technique for the month I was working on; if the calendar wouldn't work then the technique wouldn't be displayed. What should I do? Start over or look for another solution? (Type A or Type B).

I choose Type B. I think I gravitate to this type because I'm cheap. I just can't throw it out and start over again. The loss of the time and material is just too precious to me. So, to deal with my dislike of the calendar but still make use of the finished product and the technique, I decided to use the calendar in a different way. I began by cutting some stripes and hearts, (can you guess the month?), from the calendar

I hope to finish the calendar page later tonight or tomorrow. If so, it will be my blog post for Tuesday. If not, it will be my post for Wednesday, (either way, letting you know that I started it will keep me accountable to finish it).

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Inventory Day at Hydrangea Hippo

Just a quick post to share some exciting info. Jennifer over at Hydrangea Hippo is inventorying her stock and feels this would be a good time for a give-away. You can check out all the details from her blog. 

Happy Creating.

Susan

New Canvas

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday(s). Our family has enjoyed an extended holiday since my husband has been on vacation and both the girls are on break from school. On the other hand though, I will be so glad to get the Christmas tree and decorations down, (planned for tomorrow), and for my routine to return to normal, (whatever that is).

I had a little time for creating and was hit by an urge to make a canvas, (I love canvas art and plan to spend more time on this passion in 2012). This pretty little lady was made from products I found over at Vintage Street Market. 

Using pieces torn from their Dimestore Vogue Paper Sheets and Tags, I created the first layer of the background. Other layers include acrylic paint dabbed on with bubble wrap, painted lace used like and stamp and rub-ons. I even threw in a little Distress Stain in Vintage Photo. The "Mother" was created from VSM's Family Fashion Set; a collection of vintage style paper dolls featuring mom, dad, son, and daughter along with their various fashions and accessories. (I haven't played with paper dolls since I was a little girl - I cut them out much better now than when I was six). The flower was cut from a piece of a Prima Decorative Border and attached with Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots. All other papers and embellishments were applied with Golden Gel Medium in matte.

I think I enjoy canvas art so much because it allows me to combine many different art mediums, (hence mixed media), and it can be so MESSY, (I love messy). Canvas and other mixed media art forms help use up scraps and give artists the opportunity to play with art forms in an almost experimental fashion. If it doesn't work, all that's necessary to fix it is just to use another art form. No one will even know and your accident or experiment is easily covered up or maybe even enhanced by another media form.

I'm so glad you stopped by today. 

Happy Creating.

Susan