Rt 66

Super excited about the June 11th Art Walk at Art Mundo in the Orange Avenue Studios in Fort Pierce. The Route 66 theme is promising to be an energetic and fun show. I just finished my entry and I'm very pleased with the result.

I started this project with an old record

album and art ephemera gathered from several public domain sites over the internet. Most of the ephemera is fussy cut and coffee dyed, (a little coffee painted over the object and left to dry will give most paper an aged effect). I used matte gel medium to attach and seal everything. The last coat of gel medium was applied a little on the thick side then covered with a sheet of wax paper. I brayed over the wax paper and quickly lifted it off the album. The result was a little roughed up feeling and added to the aged appearance.  Currently the piece is off for framing to my lovely friend Mary Bennett. Can't wait to see the finished piece.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Canvas Heart

My workspace is still in a state of upheaval. I feel like my brain is stuck in a planning flux and it can't escape. All kidding aside, I am making lots of progress it's just slow.

One thing I can do in my limited workspace is use my laptop. This past Monday I had some time in the evening and I tuned into Helmar's weekly upstream video with Tracy Weinzapel. 

I worked right along as Tracy made her own beautiful heart canvas but, as always, something DISTRACTED me; I had a really hard time with writing the quote. It took me another three days of working on the canvas to complete it but I am really pleased with the results. Best part of this project, (ok, two best parts of this project), first, I was able to watch Tracy show the correct way to use Helmar's 2 step Crackle Medium.

Don't you just love those juicy cracks?

Second, I had all the products and didn't need to scurry out to buy anything extra or substitute a major supply. (I did make my own flowers and cut some lace to make it the size I wanted and to shabby it up).

To complete one of these projects yourself you will need:

flat panel or stretched canvas,(size is up to you)

gesso

blue acrylic paint (two different shades)

red acrylic paint

charcoal pencil

Helmar Scrapdots

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive

lace or ribbon 

flowers

letter rubons

black and white ink,(either India ink or a permanent ink pen)

Helmar Crackle Medium

about an hour to watch the video

Should you decide to make one yourself, please share a link in the comment section below. I would love to see how your heart turns out. Also, I'm sure Tracy would love to hear from you too. There's posting info for her listed in the video.

PS If your LSS doesn't carry Helmar how about introducing them to this wonderful line of products by sharing their website  http://helmarusa.com/.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Purple People Presents

Yes, ridiculous title. My daughter thought I was nuts but it suited the story of the photos, (the pictures were taken at one of our local beaches. Framed and wrapped in pretty paper my girls gave them as Christmas gifts). This is also my take on the May Project 12 sketch and my first layout using wet media, (I used watercolor paint on the stamped flowers).

I love the flower I made using a punched scalloped circle with a button for the center and trimmed with book text. Using the book text for trim is a technique I learned at one of the Donna Downey classes I took a couple of weeks back at She Scrapbooks in The Villages, FL, (yes, that's really the name of the town).

Here's the original sketch.

I didn't want to do another double page layout so I shrunk down the scaling while trying to squeeze as many elements of the original into my page. (sometimes after I finish a layout from a sketch there's very little of the original plan left and this one seems to be no exception).

Thanks for dropping by.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Art Journaling

Recently I've started an art journal. I like to write, (I'm sure you've noticed some of my wordy posts), and I love playing with all sorts of media, (especially the messy media), so this is a project tailor made for me. Something about art journaling relaxes me and, since my journal can be shared or kept private, I can create without worrying about the end result. Here's my first entry.

The mix of media used in this project includes paint, ink, fabric and rub ons. 

I owe the spark of this new passion to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Balzer Designs. She posts new journaling projects everyday at her Art Journal Everyday site.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Super Crazy Week

Nothing new to post so far this week. To meet my personal scrappin' goal I have to scrap at least one picture before the clock hits midnight so later today I'll be looking at some sketches and deciding which photos I want to work on.

I wanted to share a mixed media site I happened across. I'm really looking to forward spending some time in their community and taking a class or two. Check out the Mixed Media Workshops when you have some time.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Another She Art Girl

I am enjoying the heck out of my She Art Workshop. I love being messy and learning new techniques. Right now we are ending week three and this distracted scrapper is just about to finish week one. Par for the course with me. Something always seems to be behind.


This is my second canvas. My oldest DD suggested that I give her as a gift to my sister because angel just reminded her of her aunt, (funny how her mother doesn't remind her of an angel). I think she meant the colors of the canvas and the design of the angel are just an Aunt Reba kind of thing.

 



I tried some new things with this canvas. First, I added some three dimensional embellishments. At first I was a little unsure about doing this but I really like how the little butterfly adds interest to the angel's skirt. I also completely altered this canvas. Of course it's altered but it started out with a printed napkin as the background. I thought the look was too overwhelming so I added pieces of a dollie to the mat and I love the result. I think the dollies add their own little 3-D affect.

Lastly, I made the angel wings out of a leaf from a Prima collection, (at least I think it was a Prima). I cut it in two and tucked one under each side. I think it made pretty realistic looking wings.

I've got one more to post tomorrow and then I'm moving onto week two.

Happy Creating

Susan

Canvas Art

Finally I’m getting around to posting those canvas art pieces I made around the holidays. Here again I’m going to apologize for my horrible photography skills. This picture was taken with a less than stellar camera under not so great conditions. I promise it looks much better in person.

I started this as an experiment after reading Christy Tomlinson’s tutorial on creating on canvas. (while this isn’t the same tutorial that inspired me, it is AWESOME). Honestly it scared me to death. I’ve never been one to worry over making a mistake, (I live by the motto, “it is what it is”), but this project was way far outside my box. I really shouldn’t have worried because the more I worked on it the more fun I had and the more comfortable I became.

I started by using Mod Podge on the entire top of the canvas. While it was still wet I added the paper and another coat of Mod Podge. The paper wrinkled and curled a little but I just pushed it down, wrinkles and all, and added more Mod Podge. At one point I found a huge air bubble so I sliced a small “x” over the bubble with a razor knife, pulled up the edges and added some more MP, smoothed down the cut edges and continued on.

After the sticky mess dried I put down a couple of Tim Holtz Timeworks masks and spritzed the entire canvas with some Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist in Key Lime. What a  mistake. The color was awful. No worries though, I just took Distress Ink, (Walnut Stain or maybe Vintage Photo), dabbed it here and there using my homemade ink applicator.

        

(my photography skills are greatly improved by using a better camera)

By the time I was done I had almost a patina look with the green underneath.

Next I started adding the embellies and shaded around them with some inexpensive brown craft paint. I even shaded around the pictures. After the paint dried I outlined everything with a black fine tipped Sharpie to add some dimension, (a rollerball type pen would work better for this). I put one last coat of MP on top of everything except the picture and let it all dry. Lastly I added a handmade tissue tape flower, (instructions courtesy of Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas) popped that puppy down with some glue dots and slapped on a sticker for the middle. That was it. All done and nicely so if I do say so myself.

I also made a second canvas for the other side of our family. As you can see it the same theme, layout and title but that’s ok. Why mess with perfection. This piece was easier to do because I wasn’t as scared about ruining the canvas. (Such a silly thing to worry over. It only cost a couple of bucks and anything the doesn’t look just right can always be painted over)

Through it all, I had a blast. It was like the messier it got, the more fun I was having. My inner pre-schooler jumped out and started coloring outside the lines.

I plan to make more canvas art. I’m going to try some different projects though. I’ve got a yard or so of duck canvas that I want to try some projects with.  My plan also includes continuing to work on photographing, first the thing I want to scrap and second the thing I’ve scrapped, I hope you and I will see some improvement. All that really matters though is that I stay on task and have fun doing it.

Happy Creating.

Distracted As Usual

As Usual I've gotten off track yet again. The blog design is about as done as is going to be, at least for a while. I've got it up and running and added a few touches to make it my own. That was my goal and it's wonderful to check something off the to do list.

My current project is a mini album for my oldest daughter. Months ago she asked for a mini that features her dog. I started it a couple of weeks ago but had to set it aside while I worked on an academic planner for her. Today has been all about helping her with some school assignments and now I'm sitting in my room on a self imposed time out. I just love being the grown up with the power to restrict activity. Oops, got off track there.

While I have no beautiful masterpieces to share with you today I did want to tell you about an online class I just signed up for. Christy Tomlinson over at The Scarlet Lime is launching her She Art Workshop beginning next month. Christy's work has inspired me to try new and unconventional art forms. Maybe not really unconventional but at least very nontraditional for me. Last month Christy featured a tutorial on using canvas in a mixed media project. The project sparked something in me and I made three canvas projects for Christmas presents. I absolutely love this art form and I'm incorporating my own style into the form by scrapbooking layouts on canvas using all different forms of media. I'm LOVIN' IT!

That's about all for today. Want to get back to my time out.

Hope you too can find some inspiration to get you crafting today. 

Susan