Stepping out of my comfort zone....

Hi!  Shelly here....So, if you know anything about me, you probably know I LOVE creating just about anything, but particularly, mixed media.  Though in all my years of creating and designing mixed media mini albums, I have never actually painted my own sketched drawing...I've never sketched!  I have been an admirer of those whimsical painting styles for years and Christy Tomlinson is one of my fav's.  SOOOOOOOO - when I saw that she was offering a new class called Whimsy Winter I jumped at the chance!  So here is the step-by-step process of my first painting.  Don't hold your breath - mine is nothing to write home about, but the entire learning process has been very satisfying and freeing...

This first painting happens to be of a reindeer, which I painted onto the back page (chipboard square) of the Rebel Sprout mini album. When I was practicing sketching these winter characters (owls, penguins, snowmen, etc.), the reindeer was definitely the most difficult for me.  As it turns out - I love it!  I have LOTS more to learn and skills to practice...hopefully this and the next several posts will show progress!

Whimsical Winter Workshop

SPOOKY - some Halloween fun!

I was playing around today thinking I need to replace the summery wreath on my front door, so I decided to use some Punky Playground (by Punky Sprouts) to make a Halloween sign!  I really wanted to make it mostly purple and had some Lindy's Stamp Gang mists to make it gorgeous!  I had some  paper left over from last Halloween with a white background embossed in a black Damask pattern.  I sprayed the paper with both Wicked Witch Purple and Amaryllis Burgundy mist sprays to get this deep aubergine shade....LOVE!  I cut one sheet of Punky Playground in half, making it 6" x 12" and sprayed it with Toto's Tornado black mist.  After it dried, I sprayed another coat of black mist using a mask in a diamond screen pattern and while the mist was still wet, I coated it with Lindy's Embossing powder in Midnight Copper Obsidian.  I didn't worry too much about the pattern being perfect, as I wanted it to appear old and grungy. I continued the diamond pattern embossing around the perimeter of the corrugated Playground piece.

I got out a big bin of chipboard letters than I have collected over the years and picked non-matching letters to spell "Spooky"and misted them with Red Hot Poker Orange, which is a perfect vintage orange with a gold shimmer.  When everything was dry I began to adhere to the backpiece and added some distressed black dots that I stamped onto the letters randomly.  I embellished with a spider web, spiders and glitter dots by Jolee's boutique and added black satin ribbon for hanging and inked all the edges in black. .

Here is a comprehensive list of supplies:

Surface corrugated board:  Punky Sprouts

All color/mists by Lindy's Stamp Gang: Flat Fabio's in Wicked Witch Purple and Toto's Tornado Black; Starbursts in Amaryllis Burgundy and Red Hot Poker Orange; Embossing Powder in  Midnight Copper Obsidian.

Paper:  Pink Paislee Phantom collection

Other:  Spiders/Web and accents by Jolee's Boutique, Ink: Pitt Big Brush Marker in Black; Adhesives:  Beacon 3 in 1 and Thermoweb; Chipboard letters & satin ribbon - stash.

Hood River Harvest Fest - Celebrating Autumn!

For September I made a fall mini album celebrating the amazing bounty of the Columbia River Gorge!  It's become a tradition over the past 15 years to attend the annual Hood River Harvest Festival and enjoy arts & crafts, food and a huge array of orchard fruits, nuts and veggies to fill your trunks and your tummies! Fall is my favorite season and all of the rich golds/oranges and reds and browns in the Lily Bee Autumn Spice line is absolute perfection!  The Tutu Punk mini album is a perfect choice when you have mostly horizontal photos and the wet media paper pages are so wonderful to paint!  The paper does not bleed, so I used a completely different color scheme from front to back without any problems with bleeding whatsoever!  Whoo hoo! LOVE that!  I hope you enjoy ~

Products used -

Punky Sprouts:  Tutu Punk album, Funky Punky Fiber Pack (Canvas), Lil' Petals (Canvas & Cork), Lil' Blossoms (Parchment & Lacy), Lil' Seeds (assorted). Products available here: www.GetPunkySprouts.com/store

Lily Bee:  Autumn Spice Collection pack with ABC Stickers and Mixed Stickers

Other:  Lindy's Starburst Sprays (Bayou Boogie Gold, Red Hot Poker Orange, Cajun Carnelian Red, Tainted Love Teal, Opal Sea Oats, Cattail Copper Brown, Amaryllis Burgundy); Lindy's Moonshadow Spray in Gossamer Gold; Lindy'd Flat Fabio in Witch's Purple; Fiskars edge punch; Miscellaneous chipboard letters (stash); Faber Castell Pitt pen in Black superfine.  Lindy's products available here: www.GetPunkySprouts.com/store

Evi Violet

Introducing, my newest furry love, Evi Violet.  She is a beautiful 4 mo. old British Shorthair kitten.  What little girl doesn't love tulle?   I haven't been able to get very many good pics of her face, as she is very active and blinks with the flash.  She has the prettiest copper eyes and they need to be shown...she just isn't very cooperative!  She is a sweetheart with a very loud purr and the softest fur I've ever felt.  It is fun watching her grow (though too quickly) and each week brings a new stage!  Currently, she is in the "don't touch me" stage. Who knows what next week will bring?  More pictures will surely be in the future.  I thnk she actually takes after her "sister," Lilley!  

Puppy Preppie!

This summer my daughter adopted a puppy.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love my pets and having a grandpuppy is no different!  I have taken dozens and dozens of pics of him in the 2 months she's had him and grandma gets to puppy sit on the weekends! Here is the little cutie in the first layout I've done of him.  I made this for the Punky Sprouts September blog challenge.  If you want to play along, check out the prize here http://getpunkysprouts.blogspot.com/.  So here is my "reduce, reuse, recycle or upcycle" layout using notebook paper, a pencil, thumbtacks and a piece of a plastic cup for my layout.

Here is my latest album - it's a Soul Sprout with a sprocket page added from the Sprocket Sprout.  I absolutely adore this paper by Close to My Heart called "Dotty for you."  The paper is full of bright summer colors of orange, yellow, coral & teal.  Patterns are butterflies, flowers, chevrons and of course, polka dots! To soften the colors I washed the pages with watered down white paint and added layers of more polka dots with a mask and dauber paints.  For a vintage look I added crackle paint here and there around the edges.

She Art....Soul Sprout!

With all the fabulous new Pink Paislee lines it was hard to choose a favorite!  I decided that She Art would be the perfect complement to the new Soul Sprout mini album.  I made more of an art journal rather than a "scrapbook," getting lots of inspiration from the phrases included in the Paper Dolls Bits & Pieces pack.  I honestly worked on this book for about a month, adding layers and bits & pieces as I was inspired..a little here and a little there.  The hardest part was picking out what NOT to use, because ALL the embellies are awesome but I was running out of space!  I even used quite a bit of pieces from the packaging....I love it when I can incorporate the packaging into a project!

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