Dreams of Summer::Just a Note

Today's card is an all occasion card inspired by the colors of Tsukineko Kaleidacolor five-color ink pad appropriately named "Tomato Vine".  Since we are still in the dead of winter here in New England these colors are those of summer, a distant dream.

Every year on June 1st, a magical date here, I plant my garden.  That garden usually includes at least six to ten varieties of tomatoes, mostly Heirlooms, all of which are reflected in the colors found in this ink pad.  Memento's Peanut Brittle, Morocco, Love Letters, Espresso Truffle and Bamboo Leaves are a beautiful combination of colors, just like my tomatoes.  I actually made several cards using my new ink pad but the one for today is my favorite.

This card starts with a 4" by 6" piece of 90 lb. watercolor paper to which I have applied a light coating of gesso.  With a little help from my heat gun the gesso dries pretty quickly.  Next I used a brayer to apply ink from the new Tomato Vine pad.  Kaleidacolor's innovative sliding palette clicks together when in use and then apart to keep the colors from bleeding together when not in use.  Pretty clever!

After the ink was applied in both directions I sprayed a light mist of water on it and allowed the inks to blend.  I dried the damp paper with a heat gun again to set the colors.

To make a banner across the panel I used gesso and a stencil.  I applied the gesso with an old credit card, lifted the stencil gently and allowed it to dry.

 After the gessoed banner dried the sentiment from Rubber Stampede was stamped in the left lower corner with Tsukineko StazOn Jet Black ink .  The finished "watercolor" panel was matted onto black card stock and then glued onto a card made from a piece of folded white card stock measuring 4 3/4" by 6 3/4".  A large butterfly from K & Co. was affixed to the upper right hand corner.  What would summer be without butterflies? 

 Here is a list of the supplies that I used to make this card.

Materials

Tsukineko Tomato Vine Kaleidacolor five-color ink pad

Tsukineko StazOn Jet Black ink

4" by 6"  90 lb watercolor paper

4 1/2" by 6 1/2" piece of black card stock

4 3/4" by 6 3/4" blank white card

Gesso

Self adhesive butterfly by K & Co

Stamp by Rubber Stampede

Tools

Old credit card

Paper cutter

Brayer

Spray bottle filled with water

Adhesive

 Stencil

Thank you for stopping by today.  Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them.  If you have time I'd like to invite you to stop by tomorrow to see another card created with the new Tomato Vine Kaleidacolor ink pad.  If you want to see any of the other beautiful colors made by Tsukineko just check out their website www.imaginecrafts.com.  I hope to see you tomorrow!

 :

Balance::Still working on it!

My word for the year 2013 is "Balance".  I have a feeling this will be a constant thing to strive for this year.  To keep the thought foremost in my mind I made myself a sign that is hanging on my studio door so it is the first thing I see in the morning and usually the last thing I see at night.  I used clowns as the focal point of the sign since I usually think of the circus and clowns with all their juggling acts, etc when I think of balance.  (Or the girl standing up on the horse's back or the tight rope walker........it could go on and on.)  And so I continue my quest.  At least I've started watching my diet.  I became a gluten free vegetarian a couple of months ago and have cut out most of the refined sugary things in my diet.  People ask if I'm a Vegan but when I heard they don't wear leather I decided I'd rather be a good vegetarian than a naughty Vegan.  Enough about food already!

The sign starts with my big art crush right now:  watercolor paper 140 lb coated lightly with gesso and allowed to dry.  Imagine Crafts very generously sent me their newest addition to their Kaleidacolor family collection of five-ink color pads, Tomato Vine and the individual Memento colors that are in that pad.  These colors include Morocco, Love Letter, Bamboo Leaves, Espresso Truffle and  Peanut Brittle.  I took a brayer and inked it up with the Kaleidacolor pad then ran it across the dried prepared watercolor paper.  Time to spritz with my little water bottle sprayer.  I allowed the colors to run together and blotted them just a  little not too much or you risk removing all the color.  Now for the Fireworks!  That would be Tsukineko Fireworks! Dandelion yellow spray ink.  I allowed this to run and then blotted off the excess.

The clowns are digital images called "Euro Clowns" by Rick St. Dennis.  He has the most amazing clip art on his site.  I started coloring them in with Memento Markers and then fancy cut out the images.  For their faces I used copic markers, then added a little glitter with my Gelly Roll Starz pen through out.  The letters for my word were stamped on a plain, scrap piece of watercolor paper using StazOn Black ink.  I used a Julie Balzer Honeycomb stencil and a dauber to lay some Espresso Truffle lightly onto the surface.  To attach the word and the image firmly to the paper Matte Medium seems to be the best adhesive.

To finish the project I used an old credit card to draw lines in black, white and red acrylic paints.  A chevron stencil to put a translucent design over the project randomly, Pearlescent stencil paste by Dreamweavers is my favorite paste.  The final touch is the delightful hanger to hold it in place on my door.  Here are a few photos.

In the meantime, stay balanced in all parts of your life, you get more done that way!  Great sharing with you today.  I will post my first official Imagine Crafts/Artists in Residence assignment on Sunday, Feb 3rd.  I would like to invite you to stop by and take a look at my answer to the challenge of using their new Kaleidacolor Tomato Vine ink pad.  I will have three challenges each month from them for the entire year of 2013.  If you have comments or suggestions don't hesitate to leave them in the comment section, I love to read what you think!  See you later, have a great weekend.

CHA Part Deux

Here are a few of the photos I took at CHA of projects made for the show by hundreds of crafters.  I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures but as I said yesterday I was experiencing a sensory overload from the minute I walked in the door and saw the Graphic 45 display.

From there I moved on to look at sooooo many other different displays in over 2,000 booths!  Here are a few more that caught my eye.  Here is Tsukineko's booth, I'm proud to say I had a few projects on display here.  Such a thrill.

Here are a few more of my favorites.

 I loved the work of the AMAZING Finnabar.  Her work is even more beautiful in person, if that is possible.

There were several of these chemises made of paper on display.

Of course, even bras had been "steampunked" out.

One of Dina Wakley's new silhouette stencil designs.  Love them!

Dyan Reaveley looking sassy with a serene Claudine Hellmuth in the background.  I hope this gives you a taste of what the show was like.  If I am ever invited again I promise to slow down and take more photos.  Did you enjoy your short trip to CHA Anaheim?  We will all benefit from the wonderful new things coming our way in 2013.  Can't wait.  It's gonna be fun!

Home at last!

I finally got home from Calif.  Wow, what a long trip.  I went out for winter CHA and then stayed on to take care of my 86 year old mother who had a "procedure".  She is quite well, thank you, and was running around with her walker by the time I left.  I knew it was time to leave when I kept following her around telling her to slow down, sit down and put her feet up and she was having none of it.  A nurse came by on Sunday afternoon and pronounced her just fine.  Now a little about CHA.

Where to begin.  I did a demo/make & take for ImagineCrafts (aka:Memento/Tsukineko) on Friday evening.  My daughter came to assist me.  Oh. My. Goodness!  What a time we had.  This was my first rodeo so I thought I'd have maybe 4 people or so at a time.  I walked up front to leave my daughter's name at the door and saw a line that wrapped around the corner and down the hall.  I said "are all the people lined up to come in here?"  The door monitor said "yes".  WooHoo!  Instead of 4 people at a time we were teaching 8 people at a time.  Our project was a miniature art journaling page/postcard.  It measures 4" by 6" and is done on 140 lb. watercolor paper.  Just at our table we taught over 100 people, mostly retail  store owners, how to do this and only had 5 cards left by 9:00 when the event closed.  Whew!  Here are the photos of the room and a few of the exhibitors who were demo-ing projects BEFORE everyone came in.  There are no AFTER photos but believe me it did not look the same at any of the booths. :-)  We just kept scooping all the paper towels and baby wipes onto the floor behind the tables to make room for the next person.  Holly and I were busy for 3 hours straight.  I had the time of my life!

Imagine Crafts provided this calendar so people could put each project on a page as they moved around the room and completed each one.  I thought that was a really great idea.  I was "Miss November".   (lol)

The following days spent at CHA were surreal.  Imagine walking around and seeing all the crafters you follow on-line just sitting there or walking around.  One minute we'd spot the Gentleman Crafter strolling with Shelly Hickox, the next minute Dyan Reaveley would go flying by (wearing a moustache) closely followed by Wendy Vecchi.  Tim Holtz and Mario would be sitting close by visiting with anyone who stopped by to say hello.  So many of these crafting teachers were doing demos at different booths for hours.  If you wanted to you could just sit or stand there and be taught for a couple of hours by people like Dina Wakley or Claudine Hellmuth.  And the projects!  All the latest and greatest products were on display being demoed by each company.  The projects and decorations in the over 2000 booths were incredible.  I took a few photos but I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing my photos do not do the experience justice.  Here are a few photos I had the presence of mind to take.  Tomorrow I will share the rest of the photos.

Wendy Vecchi and Dyan Reaveley

Dyan with Dina Wakley

I'll see you all tomorrow and share a few photos of the new products and projects.  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a great weekend.

CHA here I come!

One last little sneak peak at what I've been working on for my next Calendar class.  It is still a work in progress and I hope to find some interesting embellishments to add to it while I'm at CHA.  I'll try to keep all of you updated with CHA new releases and photos along the way. 

Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk with you soon!

SDC 81::Stampotique Challenge/Journal Page

It is time again for a Stampotique Challenge!   the current challenge is to make a journal, calendar or diary page.  I have made a journal page that can be written on whenever the spirit moves me.  It is a reflection of the weather here right now and it is COLD outside.  The children across the street love to make snowmen every year and within a few days they normally look like the snowman on the left.

Products used:

Stampotique Stamps

Dyan Reaveley Stamps

Tim Holtz Stamps

Idea-ology Tissue Wrap 

Gesso

Brilliance Platinum Ink

Brilliance Cosmic Copper Ink

Staz-on Black ink

Faber Castell White and Blue Metallic Gelatos

Memento Markers

Gesso

Essential Glue Pad

Glitter

Snowflake Stamp

Old Book Paper

FUDE BALL black ink pen

Stay warm!  Talk to you soon.

Imagine Crafts Artists in Residence Project for 2013

The exciting news that I mentioned yesterday is that starting today I am a part of Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko's AIRs Team.  "AIR" stands for Artists in Residence.  I was invited, along with 11 others, to join this team recently.  It involves producing 3 projects each month beginning February 1st using products and themes provided to me by Imagine Crafts.  My faves at this point in time are Memento inks, Fireworks, Staz-on and so many others.  I am excited to see what types of things they introduce me to.  The first of these projects will be shown on my blog beginning on Feb. 1, 2013 and on the first of every month following that for the rest of the year.  This opportunity helps me to challenge myself by forcing me to break down my work using tutorials and listing all the products I use.  No more flying by the seat of my pants and forgetting how I get certain effects.  I believe this will work together with my OLW:  "balance".  By staying balanced I'm motivated to slow down a little and be present while I'm creating things.  There are times when I'm asked to teach a class on a project and it has taken days to figure out exactly how I did it so that I can write directions down for others to produce something similar.  I hope you will be open to trying new products and new techniques using those products along with me.
Imagine Crafts has also invited me to make samples for CHA in Anaheim this month which was a big first for me.  I can't share those with you yet but I will later this month.  I will also be attending CHA,  a really big first, and doing some demos there.  If you happen to be there please stop by and say hello.  I LOVE meeting people IRL that I have only known in Blogland.  My family lives near the Convention Center so I'll be spending some time after CHA visiting family and old friends.  January is going to be a busy month.

Lately I've been drawn to making miniature Art Journal pages to see what types of things I want to put in my Art Journal.  Yes, I have been writing the directions down on the back of each card so it can be replicated.  It is a fun project, small (4" x 6") and cute.  It isn't in a book and doesn't require a lot of time and commitment so it is not at all intimidating.  This is a sample of one of those cards.  They can be joined together with a metal binder ring and kept close by for ideas for later projects.

This one was made using Strathmore watercolor paper (140 lb), gesso, Reeves Deep Yellow Acrylic paint, a tad of Cobalt Blue paint around the edges wiped off with a baby wipe (my new best friend).  Then I sprayed a little spritz of Fireworks Dandelion and Tangelo spray ink on it and blended it with a paper towel.  The clip art is by Hidden Vintage Studios and the stencil is by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  Instead of paint I applied some Dreamweaver's Pearlescent Embossing Paste, forcing it through the stencil with an old credit card and wiped off the excess.  A few black lines with acrylic paint and circles using a lid.  The stamps are by Autumn Leaves.  The white dots and circles are drawn with a wonderful white Signo pen that one of my students, Sandy, gifted me.  I love that pen!

You can buy the pre-cut post cards or simply cut your own to whatever measurements you prefer.  It is a fun way to keep track of new ideas and colors that you might want to repeat later.  Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day, it is sunny here but not very warm, lots of snow.  Take care, I'll talk to you soon!