{creative soul}

Mojo Monday - She Art, jewelry & movies!

Hello! I hope you had a great weekend wherever you are! This week is filled with deadlines and tax preparation, but in the midst of everything I'm trying to find time to relax and enjoy. Sometimes in the hustle and bustle I forget just how blessed I am and so today I am spending time with my sweet daughter, Ellie. We're headed out to lunch & the movies... she is off for Winter Break.

I had a great weekend! I spent most of it sleeping in and painting LOL! This past weekend I spent about 3 days cleaning out my basement and reorganizing my little "studio". It has made such a difference in how I approach my art time. I used to hate going down there because it was so messy and cramped, but now my space feels more open and organized. Even though the cat litter box and spiders still exist alongside me while I create, I do love it! (I'd show you a picture, but you might still be horrified! LOL)

Yesterday I created my very first SheArt Canvas!! Christy Tomlinson teaches this workshop, along with many other great classes at her website, scarletlime.com. I love Christy's teaching style because she just explores as she goes and inspires you to do the same. There is no fear - just PLAYTIME! It's perfect because that is just what I need. I feel like a little girl playing with my paper dolls... so much FUN! If you haven't heard of these, go check them out! The price is nominal compared to the sheer amount of video tutorials and encouragement you get from Christy.

Here she is in all her glory! I just love her... I think she is me! And the message is one I need to remind myself of. She is hanging in my office directly about my computer, to remind me to explore!

Lastly, Friday night I went to a Patera jewelry class at Found, in Ann Arbor. My friend, Gail, went with me! It was amazing. The jewelry and art is already pre-made so you just have to add the resin, which makes it look like glass and put on a few jump rings. SO EASY and the jewelry turns out beautifully. I made earrings (not pictured) and a ring too!

I hope that you are finding time to enjoy and just play too! It can be fun and very healing...
Hugs!
N

 

 

Frosty Fun Gift Tag Tutorial

Supplies:

- Frosty Fun Brushset and/or Frosty Fun gift tag freebie
- Watercolor crayons (or any kind of water colors)
- Inktense Pencils (or watercolor pencils)
- Faber Castell Gel Sticks (optional)
- Brush & Water (or refillable watercolor brush)
- Chalk accent inks (optional)
- Glitter (optional)

My new Frosty Fun photoshop brushes are the perfect accent to any winter scrapbook layout... but the possibilities for other uses are endless. You can make holiday cards, home decor projects (see my Halloween Decal tutorial from last year for a fun idea), or gift tags. If you want to get really creative, you can also print them out onto watercolor or acrylic paper and use them in your mixed media or paper crafting and painting projects. Today I'm going to show you how to make some sweet little gift tags using your painting supplies. Want to play along with me? Let's go!

To follow along with this tutorial, I've created a little set of gift tags for you using my Frosty Fun brushes. Go ahead and print them onto watercolor paper or heavy cardstock. For my tags, I used a heavy weight, laid cardstock in camel. The tags held the watercolor okay, but I think next time I would run some watercolor paper through my printer instead. Because towards the end the tags were buckling... but they still turned out okay.

Next, using your watercolor paints, add color to your tags. Get creative and have fun! If you goof up, you can always paint over it or just print another set out. Experiment with different mediums. For my tags, I primarily used my Inktense pencils which add a beautiful vivid color when you apply water. I also accented with my Faber-Castell gel sticks and my watercolor crayons.

Once you are done, cut out the tag shapes. For added depth and texture, I went over the edges of mine with some distressing chalk inks in various colors. You could also add some glitter. I didn't have any on hand, but may try that next time.

I added one of my finished tags to a gift  I'm giving tomorrow for the hostess of our annual Christmas party for the Hot Lunch Mamas! (a group of us that volunteer to serve lunch on Thursdays at Ellie's school!) She is an art teacher, so I think she'll like it....

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial to add color to my photoshop brushes and to play outside of the "digital" world. It is so much fun and I find it deeply satisfying to be able to mix these two worlds.

Hugs!
N.

 

A New Art Single and some Painty Stuff!

I am really excited about my new Art Single, up today at CatScrap! It is a bit different for me stylistically, but I have to say I love it! I got out my paints and mediums and collaged the background, then painted the coffee cup separately, in gouache paints. I love these paints because they are water based and easy to work with, but also very vibrant and more opaque than watercolors. Then I put it together digitally, so it truly is Mixed Media! (if you think of your computer as a medium, which I truly do). You can print it and frame it as art, use it in card making or other paper crafts or anything your mind can dream up!

I also have some new brush strokes for you, made from those gouache paints. They are perfect to add some accents on your pages for journaling or titles, or to use in your digital Art Journaling projects!

Happy Creating!
N.

Greetje Feenstra

Good morning! I am off to my weekly torture at the gym, but I was surfing through Art.com today for some inspiration and came across this amazing artist that I had to share with you!

Greetje Feenstra's painting are so ethereal and gorgeous. I love the way she crops her painting in so tight and all the wonderful texture and softness, don't you?

My favorite painting is this one because if you look closely she is using gold leaf! LOVE IT!

But check out her other work at Art.com

 

Sigh.

xoxo

N.

Create a Painted Dreambox & win some FancyPants goodies!

I made this little "Dream Box" using my new paints and some of my FancyPants Roadshow rubons. I just started a mixed media class with Claudine Hellmuth at BPS and it is amazing! She has several video tutorials each week and some extra class projects which inspired me to create this box.

My creative juices started yesterday when I got this box from UPS with all my goodies for Claudine's class!

Next I went to Michael's and got this little wooden treasure box to work with. I got all my painting supplies out, including my Roadshow Rubons from Fancy Pants.

I covered the box with gesso, letting it dry for a few hours. This is not necessary but just like priming when you paint a wall, it gives you better coverage with the color.

Next, I watched Claudine's video on beginning paint mixing and downloaded her PDF paint mixing chart. I mixed up two colors... a bright green and a soft blue...

I painted the bottom part of the box with the green and the top with the blue, letting it dry overnight.

This morning, I got out my rubons and cut them out with scissors. Using a wooden stick, I transferred the rubons onto my box on the sides and top...

The trick with using rubons, especially on wood, is to go slowly and hold them in place. You can tell that the image has been transferred because it will appear lighter (as it does on the right side of this rub)....

When I was all done, I picked a goldish brown chalk ink and went around the edges of the box to give it a slightly aged look.

And that's, it! The possibilities are endless with paint...and that's why I love it!

If you would like to try your hand at this technique, post here over on the ScrapArtist Blog with a link to your project by next Friday (midnight). I'll send ONE lucky random winner my Roadshow rub-ons as well as a few other Fancy Pants Roadshow goodies.

Have a great weekend!
Nancie

My Thursday night meditation...

Tonight was the second week of my oil painting class at a local studio — D&M Studios. The class is like a meditation to me... painting and talking with my friend Laura, the class is timeless. Before I know it,  it's over and time to clean up!

Sharon Dillenback, our instructor is an amazing and prolific artist, but the thing about this lady and what makes her so special is her ability to TEACH painting. She knows just the right balance between teaching and keeping the fear at bay. You just want to jump in and get started and all the worry about "not being good enough" fades away. An incredible woman. She is also my daughter's art teacher at school and is fantastic at getting the best out of our kids.

Here is my still life, in oil, of some tulips... I still want to add some more color next week, msome more shading and perhaps change up the background color so the vase doesn't blend so much with the blue background.

xoxo

N.

Art

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. H. Beecher

Thanks Lisa for inspiring me everyday!