{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.

 

Creating your own Subway Art (and other new things!)

I am super excited to share a new downloadable workshop that I have today at CatScrap — SubWay Art! I have been taking a mixed media course with the amazing Christy Tomlinson. In her She Had Three Hearts art journaling course, she teaches so many techniques in that class that it would blow your mind! LOL!

One of the techniques she teaches is Image Transfer. It has a really cool effect, in that parts of the image that you are transferring will tear off in places and it gives it a perfectly distressed look. I've been wanting to make my own subway art for a while and I thought that image transfer would be the way to go. It's super messy but fun and in the end you have a really unique piece of art to hang in your home.

Here is my finished artwork. I've set it up on a shelf in my living room and it makes the perfect accent!

 

You can get this workshop today at CatScrap for 20% off!

In addition, last week I created a new set of Dreamy Photo Accents.

This set is number 4 and it's all about florals! Check out what our amazing creative team did with them...

I had some fun with these photo accents as well! I used them to create Thankfully Yours  art cards. You can print these out and frame them, use them as gift tags or place cards or even affix them to a bottle of wine for a fun gift. The possibilities are endless!

Hope you are having a great day whereever you are!
N.

 

Halloween Decal Fun!

I recently found a website that sells paper that you run through your inkjet or laser printer to make clear decals to use on glassware, candles, soap, wood, etc. The possibilities for making cool crafts and home decor projects are endless! The website is called DecalPaper.Com. They even sell waterslide tatoo paper  — I think I see a handcrafted "tat" in my future... tee hee

I ordered their Inkjet Clear Waterslide Decal Paper and today created some fun Halloween candles and treat jars for the house using my Oct. 31 brushset. It's alot easier than it looks, come on I'll show you how I did it...

First print out your decals on the waterslide paper, making sure your print is on the glossy side of the paper. Then using Acrylic Crystal Clear High Gloss spray, spray your decals with about 2-3 coats. Allow to dry for about an hour before the next step.

Cut out your designs and for each project, soak your decal in a tub of water for about a minute, or until the decal begins to slide off the backing on the paper. Take the decal and put it on your glassware or candle. Use a clean, dry cloth to gently get all the air bubbles out. If it begins to dry and tear, wet the cloth slightly and go back over it.

Make sure you don't put the decal on anything that touches food. These dried completely pretty quickly - about an hour. I am not sure about putting the glassware in the dishwasher - I think I'll just wash them by hand. Also, I think to be safe, I may not burn the candles! LOL! I will have to check the DecalPaper site to see if this is okay.

Have fun!

 

Paper Heaven....

My favorite place to go when I'm in Ann Arbor, besides Zingermans (for the BEST turkey reuben you'll ever eat!), is Hollanders. They are a paper arts store and besides having everything paper (stationary, scrapbooking, cards, clip art books, crafting and arts books), they also hold classes in altered art, mixed media art journals, book-binding and even letterpress. Of course, I've taken many of these classes! LOL! But that was years ago. I just picked up their workshop schedule and may head back for a class or two this fall.

Anyway, the other day when I visited Hollanders, I took pictures of their papers for inspiration both in color and design combinations. Here they are in all their iPhone photo glory for you! Some are kinda blurry but they are all so gorgeous, aren't they?

 

Enjoy!
xoxo
N.

New FancyPants Line: Lilac House

I'm very excited to give you a sneak peek of my new scrapbooking line from FancyPants, called Lilac House. I love the soft and textured quality of this line - it's filled with florals and paislies and some vintage designs — perhaps some of the fabrics you'd find in a tiny seaside cottage or country home. It will debut next week at the Summer CHA show.

Here are some layouts I saw from the Fancy Pants Blog from their very talented design team!

Sweet Little You by Amy Peterman

 

Style by Kay Rogers

Nan

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

Little Light Studios

I am so excited about this new website called Little Light Studios! The brainchild of Kayla Aimee Terrell and Wilna Furstenberg, the site offers online classes and inspiration for scrapping, paperarts and photography!

This month, I've created a companion brush set for Kayla's Photo Editing class as well as a tutorial on how to use my Polaroid Transfer Masks. You can check it all out here!

I have been on such a class-taking kick lately. I just finished up Kayla's  Bling Your Blog workshop and it was amazing. I learned so much and even did a little coding on my blog. I am not done "blinging" it yet but I like the overall result so far.

Right now, I am taking Kelly Rae Robert's Flying Lessons online seminar and I love it! She is covering all the ways artists can and should be promoting themselves. This weeks's lesson is about time management, which I really need!

Next month, I'm getting out my paint brushes and acrylics to take a mixed media class with Claudine Helmuth over at Big Picture Scrapbooking! I can't wait for it!! It starts July 1.

We just got back from vacation and my little Ellie is sick, so I'm not sure how much class taking I'll be doing today....

xoxo
N.