mixed media

Imagine That: Interstellar Greetings

In The Studio

So it’s really tough for me to think about this project without thinking about the following, so let’s just get it out of the way:

via GIPHY

So how did we get here? Imagine’s color of the month was Pebble Grey, and I was noodling around a few ideas concentrating on shadows and monochrome, etc. Until the moment I made a note in my planner where I just wrote “greys” and suddenly I couldn’t think of anything beyond aliens.

I had so much fun with this project, even when I screwed something up (but then fixed!) and I love my little aliens. They might have to become a digital stamp set once I get the Halloween set released.

At any rate, make sure you head over to the Imagine blog to check out the video on how this card gets put together.

Imagine That: We’ll Always Have Paris

In The Studio

Or, if not, we can make a memento of it in about an hour and a half!

Longtime readers may have a sense they’ve seen this project before, but that’s because the inspiration came from one of the pieces I did as decorations for my 40th birthday party. I used the same basic techniques, this time in a smaller (8″x8″) format with strictly Imagine products and, of course, filmed the process so that you can follow along and see exactly how I used the wash tape to “draw” the figures.

Head over to the Imagine Blog for the full supply list and the video of the project. Enjoy!

Strut Your Stuff with Stencil Girl and Imagine

In The Studio

It’s Blog-Hop time! This month Imagine teamed up with Stencil Girl for a product/design team collab as well as a giveaway (more details below–make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom!).

I had a lot of fun working with my new tools from Stencil Girl and used them to put together a mixed-media canvas. It started with an acrylic paint base and then–why I don’t I show you, instead.

Strut Your Stuff Process Video

As you can probably guess, I took my biggest inspiration from the peacock feather stencil and chose colors that worked with that idea. I was more amused than I necessarily should be that I turned the dancing figure into a fan dancer, but it worked (I think?).

Once I had all the basic layers in place, I ended up leaving it on my work table for almost a week, trying to decide how to finish it. The overall look was really bright, which is not my usual goal, and I wanted to add a stamped phrase but I wasn’t sure of the best way to do that at first.

I ended up adding a couple layers of ink buffed over the creative medium bits to highlight the textures and then stamped the message onto vellum, applied it with the Shimmer Artist’s Medium, and called it done!

Here’s the full product list for this project
(any amazon links are affiliate links, thank you for supporting this blog!)

Imagine Products:

Stencil Girl Products:

Other Products:

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Imagine Crafts! Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! (One comment per blog please.) You have until Sunday, July 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl’s Facebook page and Imagine Crafts’s Facebook page
on Monday, July 24th.

July 19th

July 20

July 21

 

Imagine That: Anything But Cardstock Art Journal Seascape

In The Studio

While I haven’t managed an art journal page every week the way I’d planned, I haven’t completely forgotten about the project, either. The “Anything But Cardstock” challenge this month seemed like a great reason to pull the journal out and create something!

While my art journal layouts do not routinely use cardstock to begin with, in the spirit of the challenge, I avoided all paper other than what was already in the journal. My major supply, then, were wet wipes that I’d used to clean up from previous stamping projects and then let dry. They end up being this stretchable, tearable, art-able fabric that can be very fun to play with.

Make sure you head over to Imagine’s blog to see how I “painted” with these leftovers and maybe you won’t look at trash the same way again!

My Mixed Media Christmas Tree

In The Studio
My mini-tree is the most decorated part of our home, so far.

My mini-tree is the most decorated part of our home, so far.

For this month’s Gauche Alchemy project I finally dug into the awesomeness that is the kawaii, Japanese-themed Kokeshi kit to decorate a silver tinsel tree for my office (head over to the Gauche blog to see how I put it all together). Not only does it add some festivity to my recently re-organized space, it’s the perfect size to pose with 1:6 scale dolls, of which I’ve acquired a few in the last couple of months, and as soon as I finish a couple more props I’ll be setting up a little photo-shoot.

Yes, I’m 37 years old and I’m totally reverting to childhood and playing with dolls again.

I’ve actually been interested in miniatures and dollhouses since I was young, but we never had space or money for the big fancy dollhouses I lusted after. I had Barbies as a kid, of course, but I wasn’t as enamoured with them as some of my friends were. I would make dioramas, sometimes, but mostly I just wished.

And what’s the fun in being a responsible adult with a full-time job if you can’t make some wishes come true now and then, right?

Is there anything you wished for as a child that you still want as an adult?
How can you make that happen–if not for Christmas, then in 2014?