NOVEMBER RELEASE BABY!!!

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Nat n Birgit Page!

I haven't been doing much for ME lately.. and when we ran into Louise Nelson at CHA she said "You HAVE to make time to do your OWN stuff. Not for publication.. not for DTs.. for YOU"

So the day before yesterday I had a few pictures printed, and last night I got to work on putting them into my journal! I love the size of this journal, and you'll find the "style" very repetitive in it.. because the paper takes ink and gesso SO WELL. 

Here's the first of many to come! 

I started off with two bits of amazing punchinella by Gauche Alchemy. one large circle and one medium. I gessoed them onto the page with white gesso by Winsor and Newton. (You can see the circles better in the next two photos!) Then using a new technique I learned from Janna Werner during Creative Jumpstart I splattered some Glimmer Mist in Mustard Seed by TA all over my page. Rather than spraying with the bottle or splattering with the wand.. I sprayed into the cap of the bottle a couple times then splattered that.. it gave me some wonderful BIG splatters!

Then I stamped with Viva Las VegaStamps!' line of chevrons and lace fancy border in Ranger's archival ink. I added a bit of charcoal glimmer mist and then adhered my image down with Miracle Tape by VLVS!. I knew I needed some color to the right, so grabbed some start punchinella (also available from Gauche Alchemy) and inked it with four layers of distress ink. First was Shabby Shutters, then Peeled Paint, add some Mustard Seed and finish with a tiny bit of Black Soot. 

Add a bit of Washi Tape from Gauche Alchemy and stamp it with a date!

I did the tiniest bit of drawing around the edge, too. It helped wrangle everything inside the page. 

♥DeeDee

Background Tutorial

This baby has a background tutorial up on the May Arts blog today!

Mixed Media LOVE

I can't believe how much I love mixed media and the different styles associated with paints, mists, collages, found objects and anything and everything else that goes into it!!

This weekend I had the utmost pleasure of meeting one miss Anna Debrowska aka Finnabair, who taught a mixed media journal class at Treasured Memories in California. 

here we are together:

It was all I could do to not be a screaming little fan girl.. not talk her head off.. not stalk her and not just pack her up and take her home with me. I must say I was very well behaved! 

Here is the journal we made:

And here is the background for a set of pages for the inside! I've always used vintage photo distress stain for my "tea stained" look.. but anna says go straight for the tea! it's the only thing that actually LOOKS like tea. and I must say.. it was fun splattering a big bowl of tea! 

And she had the most ingenius idea of adding a pocket to the end of your journal for ephemera, bits n bobs, inspiration pieces and mementos from trips as journal page starters! In mine I've got a bit of prima paper from our kit, our beach parking stub and two embossed pennies from the trip. 

It was truly magical watching Anna work.. basking in her creative process was astounding and I'm so thoroughly happy to have been able to do it! I'm excited to gather a few more supplies from the class and get started on some of my own pieces of work!

And of course I couldn't NOT represent VLVS! --- I used the chicken wire background and the birds on a wire stamp :) They're both in Archival black.. without a block though, so that they're grungy sort of "misstamped" on purpose! 

"Us"

A recent art journal page:

Supplies used: Clairefontaine journal, spiced marmalade distress ink, charcoal tattered angels glimmer mist, Viva Las VegaStamps! chicken wire background, gesso, art blanche alphas, black memento reinker, 7gypsies file tab, woven ribbon from my friend Paula!, a star punchinella from Gauche Alchemy.