She Who Stamps & Scraps

It's in the Stars

I broke in my new Donna Downey stamps while art journaling over the weekend. The new DD stamps are huge, and Kim has them all in the Eclectic Paperie store. I hope we see more XL stamps in the future... I really love having images sized for larger projects.  The words are 4" long and the flowers are 8" tall!

This was a loose piece of Ranger Manila cardstock that I fit into my book with washi tape. It's colored with Dylusions Ink Sprays, Ranger Archival Inks, and loads of stamps and stencils. I used the hollyhocks stamp on this page and added clear embossing powder over the black ink:

Simon Says Stamp has a star theme going, and I used a star punch to jazz up my page border. I'll also link to Creative Every Day. Thanks for the visit!

Marjie

 

 

Classes at Great American Stamp Store (Jan & Feb)

 

A show of hands at the Great American Stamp Store in Westport, CT:

Aren't those inky fingers fabulous!?!?  I taught 14 people in two art journaling classes on Saturday, and we had a great time. Most people were new to art journaling and everyone came away wanting to do more of it.  I met so many creative people... it was a great day!  Here are some pics from the morning class:  

Me, Susan, Betsy, Patty, Debbie  

Amy from Plucking Daisies

Betsy from Just a Pharmgirl

Paula ~ brand new to art journaling, and totally hooked!

Suzanne (sorry your eyes are closed but your smile is as bright as your creations)

Debbie (such gorgeous pages ~ but check out her water misting bottle ~ we were scared!)

Evelyn (rocking out on Dyan's ghosting technique)

 

Me with Amy and Leslie

And some shots from the afternoon class:

Loretta, Maria, me, Alison, Kerry and Susan

  Alison (a member of the All Things Tim yahoo group!)

    Loretta (love those layers!)

Kerry (that tag positively glowed!)

I forgot to take a picture with Judy, the gracious and lovely owner of the Great American Stamp Store ~~ but I'll have another chance when I return to teach an all-day class on Saturday, February 23rd.  We'll spend the whole day creating pages that reflect your mood, style, and feelings.  We’ll work with layered pages, create spaces for hidden and private journaling, and learns ways to increase the appearance of depth and dimension in your book.

Seating is limited and several seats were booked on Saturday when those classes ended, so please call the store to register.  Thanks!

Wishing you a wonderful week with time to be creative, however you wish that to be...

Marjie 

 

 

 

 

 

Chipboard & Metal, Part 2

This week has flown by as I'm learning technical stuff about website design and how to make and edit videos. What a learning curve!  

Today I am sharing a page I made a  few months ago when I hosted a challenge using chipboard & metal at Frilly and Funkie.  This was meant to be my piece at the time, but at the last moment I decided to splatter some black paint on the page and it just didn't sit well with me.  I wrote myself a little mellow mojo stuff... hey, it's okay, it's just a page, etc... but at the time it didn't fly. I ended up making a neat and clean card for that challenge. Today, having nothing in my back pocket... it's on the blog!

I used glass bead gel colored with Dylusions, mitered and stamped chipboard pieces, lace dyed with Dylusions and some of Tim's Idea-ology.  I used waxed paper to tone down his license plate stickers, and painted some chipboard letters.

Linking to Art Journal Every Day. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Marjie

Art Journal ~ Imagination

Joining in with Simon Says Stamp this week as they ask to see what you're known for... seems like my glee in using both Dylusions and stencils has become a bit identifiable. I made this page with some new goodies I picked up when visiting The Ink Pad with Louise Nelson last week. I had the good fortune to spend the day with Louise, a lovely person and talented mixed media artist from Australia. She'd come to the USA for the Craft & Hobby Association show, and as long as she was in California, she extended her stay and came to New York.  

I sure love meeting blogging friends in real life! We met at the famous clock tower in Grand Cental Station, then navigated our way by subway to Greenwich Village. Our first stop was The Ink Pad, and we did our part to help keep the stamping industry sound.

I came home with a lot of new stamps and some gorgeous new stencils. I'd had this page inked up with Dylusions for ages (here it is last summer, drying on my railing):

This small (6X9) journal fits in my Vagabond, and I cut the heart with the Sizzix Movers & Shapers die. I stamped script on the following page and spritzed with an orange spray.

I added Acrylic Ground through a Prima stencil down the right side of the page and colored it with Pan Pastels, and then used a new stamp by a French company called Aladine all over the left side. It's a gorgeous script stamp with lots of variations. I finished the page stamping a few favorites in Jet Black Archival ink and heat embossed them with clear powder.

Thanks so much for visiting today. Pop by Louise's blog if you're not already a follower... she's really inspirational and has a unique and funky style.  

I hope she makes it home all right without needing an extra suitcase!

Marjie

eTeam Picks Challenge - Altered Boxes

Hello, friends. Today it's my pleasure to host the first eTeam Picks challenge at Eclectic Paperie! I've chosen ALTERED BOXES as the theme, and I altered a plain white tissue box cover.

 

As you can see, I went heavy with my Dylusions Ink Sprays and used loads of stamps and stencils. I used three of my favorite Dyan Reaveley stamp sets - Around the Edge, Bordering on the Edge, and Background Love.

   

If you've been by before, you know I'm a huge fan of Dyan's Ink Sprays. I like to "Commit to the mist!" (as Dyan says) and let whatever will be, be.  Sometimes, though, I want to control the color application, like when inking my leaves below.  I used a Water Brush to make those leaves pop.

You can use one Water Brush for all the colors (spritzing ink on your craft mat and picking it up with the brush, then cleaning before switching colors) or you can go hard core and make a designated brush for each of your favorite colors. I love having the separate brushes - it's a huge time saver if you use these a lot (and if you don't... give them a go... they're addicting.)

Please pop on over to the Eclectic Paperie blog for all the contest details.  It runs two weeks and there will be a prize, as well.

Thanks, always, for visiting!  Hope to see you enter the challenge.

Marjie

Teaching at Great American Stamp Store in Connecticut

On Saturday, January 26, I will teach an art journaling class using Dylusions Inks Sprays at Great American Stamp Store in Westport, CT.   It's a 2-hour class and we will make a page similar to the one above, using Dyan Reaveley's fabulous Ink Sprays along with lots of stamps and stencils.

I will provide a class kit with the paper and sprays.  You may also bring your own journal if you prefer to work in it. Please call the store at 203-221-1229 to register.

UPDATED 1/18: the morning class is currently sold out, but the store will offer an afternoon repeat session from 1:30-3:30 if there is interest.

Hope you can join us if you're local!

Marjie

Art Journaling with Pan Pastels (Stencil Tutorial)

Thanks so much for the incredible response to my guest spot at Sizzix... I really appreciate all of your comments and emails about that!  For today's post, I've used Pan Pastels to color this art journal page.  Kim is going to be stocking Pan Pastels over the weekend at Eclectic Paperie, and I will be teaching an online class using them early in February.

Today I'm linking to Art Journal Every Day, Frilly and Funkie, and the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group. Frilly & Funkie has a Follow Your Muse theme, and the Wendy challenge calls for at least one of Wendy's stamps and stencils. I used her large alpha background stamp all over the page, inking it randomly, then applied Pan Pastels for color.

I used the negative (frame) part of Wendy's heart stencil, and laid another stencil on top to give my heart texture. I forgot to take a picture at this stage, but here's one I took of an earlier attempt, just so you see what I mean about combining stencils:

I found that particular stencil pattern to be too large for the heart, so I saved that page for scrap and did another one using the small houndstooth pattern.  Then I cut a Sizzix Movers & Shapers heart from the scrap page, and rather than use it, I traced around the negative space of it and made a thin hollowed heart frame.  I placed it down on the bottom right and used black gelato to trace around it, and put the original piece between the left and right hearts.

Thanks so much for visiting today.  I hope you'll follow my blog and sign up for the Eclectic Paperie blog - you can subscribe by email to both to get alerts when there's new blog content.  

Class content and photos for my class will be up within the next few weeks, and I promise you, you will love what you can do with the Pan Pastels, no matter what your personal style may be!

Marjie 

Published in Somerset Studio

 

       

I love Somerset Studio, and I'm honored that they published a canvas I submitted earlier this year for their "A Touch of Aqua" Call for Art. I've used acrylic paints, stencils, and stamps by Lynne Perrella and Dyan Reaveley.

Thanks so much for the visit!

Marjie

Compendium of Curiosities Finale

For a very long time, Linda Ledbetter has led a troop of Tim Holtz fans through his two technique books, Compendium of Curiosities, Vol 1 and 2.  Linda has cheered us on with fun challenges, comraderie, and giveaways from Tim, Mario, Simon Says Stamp, and The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

This is the last challenge, and it's an ode to Tim himself, who is celebrating his birthday on Monday.  Thank you Linda, for all these wonderful challenges.  I'm sure the organizing, scheduling, etc. was a pain at times and I really appreciate your efforts!

My card is not on paper, it's actually Stampbord by Ampersand. I've been using this a lot lately because of the way it receives ink.  It's a clay board surface I first learned about in October at Art-is-You.  I used it for many of the items in my Etsy shop as it's very sturdy and you don't need to worry about corners bending or anything like that.

For Tim's birthday wishes, I went with a lot of ink blending and collage stamping and stenciling, and gave Umbrella Man a bouquet of heat-embossed balloons in place of his rain gear.  So thank you again to Linda, and to Tim, for all the inspiration.

And in case you hadn't heard, Linda Coughlin's shop is up and running again with a great Reopening Sale.  Check her out at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Thanks for the visit!

Marjie 

Artist Trading Card Packs Share your art with these Artist Trading Card size Stampbord cards. Each card is 21/2" × 31/2". Choose either a package of 5 or a Party Pack of 16.

Art Journaling with the Kitchen Sink (Tutorial)

Okay, it's not really the kitchen sink... it's paint, archival inks, a Gelli Plate, copy paper, stencils, canvas, diecuts, two embossing folders, stamps, and alphabet letters. Whew!

Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Party got me started on this page, plus I knew Eclectic Paperie was starting a canvas challenge today, and the Fall Fearless & Fly challenge includes the color yellow.

After I got the print done the way I wanted, I added some Monarch Orange archival ink with stencils, then crumpled the page into a ball for added texture:

       

Next I inserted a corner of the print into a Sizzix Texture Fade folder, folding the remaining paper around it so it would fit into my Vagabond. I dry embossed two sections of the print this way. That's a major benefit of working on a loose page, because of course you couldn't put your whole art journal in there.  

      

I did some more stenciling, then colored, stamped and applied the canvas circles. I used a different Gelli print to cut the Sizzix Washer Border die. The print didn't look like much on its own, but I love the cut from it:

I stamped Dyan Reaveley's leaves onto packaging waste and moved it around the page to see where I'd like to use it. I do that all the time to try out positioning, because once you stamp in archival ink - you'd better be sure you meant it. 

           

I set up my small word on a scrap of cardboard, to make the tiny letters easier to work with, and to pop it up off the page.  Then I did the same packaging/positioning trick to decide on placement for my letters.

             

If you'd care to see more, I did a tutorial on using the Gelli Plate last month here.

ENABLER ALERT: Dick Blick has the Gelli Arts Printing Plate on sale right now.

Hope you'll pop over to the Eclectic Paperie blog for our canvas challenge, and also be sure to visit Carolyn's Gelli Plate Party, which runs through Monday.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Marjie