Colorado Road Trip 2014 Mini Album....the supplies

My family + 3 other families are headed to Colorado soon for a fun Summer vacation. I've got the making of a mini album in progress so I thought I'd share my supplies that I have set aside for this project. 

The Gossamer Blue July kits were packed full of products that were simply perfect for the look I was going for.  Our vacation will include lots of ATV trails, road side stops by flowing creeks, white water rafting, picnics and nature hikes.  I wanted lots of florals, nature and fun prints + some road trip embellishments.  Here's what I selected....

First up was this beautiful assortment of patterned papers.  These come from all the various kits + the 6 x 6 Open Road Crate Paper pad from the July Bits & Pieces Kit. 

 The sticker embellishments were right on track for my mini album.  The chipboard alpha and October Afternoon label sheet is from the July Main Kit.  The Open Road stickers from Crate Paper are in the July Main Add-On Kit.  The Studio Calico phrase sticker sheet is from the July Bits & Pieces Kit and the Pink Paislee Switchboard alpha is from the July Life Pages Add-On 3 Kit.

 I dug through my stash of Gossamer Blue stamps, choosing sets that had travel and foodie images.

 I have lots of little tins packed full of travel, floral and label images.  These are tucked into the various July Gossamer Blue Kits.

 For my mini album, the Studio Calico Handbooks are becoming a favorite.  I'll be using the Chocolate Handbook this time along with different size page protectors. A fun discovery is that the We R Memory Keepers 2 x 2 Photo Sleeves and the 4 x 4 Photo Sleeves fit the rings of the Hand Books. I'll also be trimming some other Project Life page protectors down I'm sure.  I love mini albums to have lots of different size page protectors and things like pockets, etc.

 I really love the Crate Paper Open Road Journaling Cards that are included in the July Gossamer Blue Life Pages Main Add-On Kit.  I'll pair them with other GB journaling cards and ones that I create on my own for some fun title cards.  You can see a peek of some title cards I created in advance.  I love the feel of this album....lots of muted nature colors, some quirky alphabets like what you might see on old hotel signs with the big arrows pointing to the hotels and snippets of road trip and nature themed embellishments.

 Totally fun and I can't wait to add in my vacation photos & journaling.

 I packed up a few vintage storage items with my kit supplies.

 When I return from our road trip I'll have everything waiting for me.  If I have enough space I'm hoping that I can fit our 2013 Colorado trip photos into this album too and just divide the two events with index labels or title pages.

I'll be updating the blog with progress photos of my mini album so stay tuned.  Be sure to shop the Gossamer Blue kits this month if you like the feel of this album.  I'm so pleased with the selections in this month's kits. So, so perfect for my album theme.  Are you headed out for vacation soon?  I'd love to hear your plans for documenting your Summer trips.  

Holiday Cards..

Thought I would share a few of the holiday cards I made this year.  Just a small stash to send out to family mostly....and definitely a few thank you cards.  Those are still a must for my girls. 

 I used some papers I had in my stash + some new Crate Paper Bundle Up paper and chipboard.

 I stamped all the sentiments on Medium Manila Tags and used some Gold Foil Doilies for accents.

 Red and white baker's twine finished of the cards.

 I packaged the cards in Gold Shimmer Envelopes.

 A special card using my friend Heather's Papertrey Ink stamp set.

 Love the wreath and need to get the coordinating die.

 A special get well card for a relative who had surgery right before Christmas.  I typed the sentiment.

 Another piece of the gold doily + some wood veneer and gold stitching.

 I added a few wrapped candy bars in with a few cards.

 I tied them up with baker's twine, a sparkly spring and stamped tag.

 The thank you notes which have stamped tags and chipboard accents.

 Lots of baker's twine and some typed sentiments too.

 Love all the dimension on these.

Hope you enjoy!  A little late in sharing but that seemed to be the name of the game this holiday season.

Now....
I must go prepare for 20 kids and 12 adults to be here on New Year's Eve.  So it sounds like a great time to take a redhead to the city for some gift exchanges and a Sonic run.  Our stove caught fire on Christmas Eve so it's all going to be simple crock pot appetizers and a swipe of the dust rag.  No pressure!

2013 Holiday Planners

Last week I had a fun crafting day with a friend.  We love to make notebooks together to give out to family and friends.  We worked on 2013 Holiday Planners, something I particularly love to create each year. 

We used papers and embellishments from Crate Paper's Bundle Up collection.

Buttons, enamel dots, twine and little tidbits were sprinkled on here and there.  The sentiments were from Avery Elle's Winter Wreath set.  The "making a list" stamp was from Gossamer Blue's 2013 December Memories Kit.

I create my notebooks with 2 Papertrey Ink lined notepads.  For the covers, I score and wrap cardstock around the front and back so that I create a booklet of sorts. No measuring, just marking lines as I go with my thumbnail, then I trim and/or score.  This little notebook is the one I kept for myself.  The circle stamp is from Papertrey Ink and I used a 1.75" circle punch to punch out the image.

You know those large chipboard sheets you see but you might hesitate to use them because they're bulky and dimensional?  They're perfect for notebooks.  I love the 3-dimensional look.

For packaging I use Large Kraft Sacks and Medium Manila Parcel Tags with more of the Crate Paper patterned paper and Avery Elle stamps.  

Such fun little gifts for making shopping lists for the holiday season.  I plan to tuck in a wrapped candy bar and candy cane, tied up with more baker's twine.  Enjoy!

A few new items are trickling into my shop, including some vintage storage items + these fun mini Instagram photos.  I plan to use them on gift tags and cards and will have some ideas here on the blog soon.  I also have a fun snowflake packaging kit and woodland deer kit coming soon.  

Introducing Sweet Summertime...

Hey everyone, I'm very excited to announce my first class coming up with Gossamer Blue.  It's called Sweet Summertime and it's going to be jam packed full of Summer crafty goodness. 

Here's a peek at some of the items we'll be making in the class.  I've got an awesome double banner that will be perfect for displaying front and center in your home.  It's homespun and cute and just full of eye candy and unique crafty items.  Then I'll be showing you how to make some sweet cards, gift sacks and tags.  I know you all love to get new recipes so I'll be sharing some of my new favorites, packaged up with the packaging we create in class.  To top it all off, I'll be sharing some inspiring Pinterest finds for ideas on how to display your banner + you'll be the first to see the progression of my chalkboard wall which is where I plan to display my Sweet Summertime banner and Summer Bucket List. 

The concept for this class is so great, here's how the classroom works........

First, you will be able to purchase all the supplies needed for the class in the Complete Sweet Summertime Class Kit.  The kit is on sale now at this link. You can see a photo of the kit contents + there is a listing of the kit contents below the photo.  When I say jam packed, it's really jam packed full of goodies from Basic Grey, Crate Paper and some fun items from my shop + a few vintage finds.  The kits are in limited quantities so act quickly if you want the exact items that I'll be showing in class.  

Next you can purchase the Sweet Summertime Class at this link.  This gets you private access to  a special blog which becomes the classroom.  The class will open July 5th with a welcome message and full class syllabus.  Class begins on July 8th and will updated by me every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with fresh content.  The class will run for 4 entire weeks so we will be able to have a lot of fun in July!  There will be detailed instructions on how to assemble the banner, the cards, the gift sacks and tags.  Plus there will be a message board and gallery so that participants can connect, ask questions and share creations and display ideas.  You can see the full course outline at this link. 

So you can purchase the class and the kit and you'll be all set for July.  If you think you'd rather use your own supplies but would love the ideas, you can certainly just purchase the class and have access to the private blog.  Or you can just purchase the kit and use the supplies as you'd like. It's all up to you.

I hope you'll join me in class.....I promise this won't be your typical Summer school. No math, no hot class rooms, no research papers....just pure fun!

But wait....I'm giving away 3 spots to just the classroom (no kit).  If you'd like a chance to join me in class in July, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me an item on your Summer to do list.  You must leave your name and email address so that I can contact you if you're a winner.  I'll select the 3 free class spots on Sunday evening at 6pm Central Time.  Winners will be announced on Monday, June 24th here on the blog.  

Flower card...mixed media + Pan Pastels

So in my last post I showed you how I have been experimenting with adding some mixed media to my projects.  I used items from the Pink Flower Kit which includes some more products I'll be using today. I reached for the dictionary page which has Gesso and modeling past on it + a manila tag, a small white tag, a paper doily and one of the floral Instagram photos.  I also pulled a few of my favorite papers from the March Gossamer Blue kits.  

I trimmed the patterned papers down to a workable size then just started experimenting some more with Gesso.  I wanted my mini Instagram to be the focus of my card for today so I wanted the papers to be more muted.  I applied Gesso with my palette knife, just like you would if you were spreading frosting on a cake.  I let these dry and helped the process along with my heat tool.  When working with these mixed media products your paper may tend to warp and bend a little.  Since I like my papers to be as flat as possible I have been ironing my papers with an old cotton tea towel and a hot setting on my iron.  Works good.  

Pencil drawing was always my strong suit in art classes so I loved adding some sketching over my patterned papers.  I love a soft pencil lead and this Derwent 4B pencil works great, from Dick Blick but you can find art pencils at any craft shop.  I also got out some watercolors and added some pinks and greens around the circles.  I was careful not to let the colors bleed into each other as mixing the two complementary colors would have made brown.  The watercolor set you see on the left is a cheap set from Target. Works okay for now but I definitely want a better quality set.  

So here's the lineup of what I want to possibly use on my card for today. You can compare this photo to my first photo to see what a difference the Gesso makes.  Whatever I don't end up using will be tossed in my scrap basket to use for art journal pages, tags, or other projects.  

I then decided to add some color to the dictionary sheet.  I reached for my new Pan Pastels.  Aren't they beautiful?  I'll be doing a post dedicated all to Pan Pastels in the future but if you're wondering about them....Pan Pastels were developed by a couple of artists who wanted to make pastels easier for artists to work with.  They created these wonderful pans of ultra soft, low dust, pressed pastels that you can apply like paint with the Sofft tools which act like your paint brushes.  There are 80 colors available and the concentrated quality of the Pan Pastels is amazing.  They are super-blendable, paintable, instant dry time, erasable, mixable, and very compatible with other art mediums. You can purchase the pans individually, in small sets, in sets of 20 or the whole shabang of 80.  Now there are these wonderful plastic trays available too which can hold 20 pans.  Awesome.  I love them and can't wait to create with these more. You can find Pan Pastels at Dick Blick, Amazon and other shops if you care to google them.  There are some amazing videos out there too if you just do an online search.  

So here's a little sampling of the Pan Pastels in action.  I definitely need to experiment more but the learning process is so much fun.

Here's my card I created using all of my stash.  I kept the card very  light in nature, just adding layers that I stitched down.  

To tie in all the elements to my base card I added some more Gesso with my palette knife.  I even added a sprinkling of glitter to the wet medium.

Totally fun, totally an experiment in using my new art products.  I'm thinking I might use my this card and my previous card to place near my little vases of flowers around the house.

Thanks for stopping by.  Feel free to ask questions....although I've just barely gotten familiar with the Pan Pastels.  :)  Also, I've got some new items up in the shop.  It's junkin' season and I love it!

Grown with Love card....mixed media

Hi everyone, if you're like me and you live where it's cold & snowy outside.....but it should indeed be Spring.....welcome to the "I'm so over Winter" club.  How about some fresh and fun projects?  

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have noticed that I've been dabbling in mixed media and all things artsy lately.  Call it a mid life crisis awakening or who knows what but I have felt the need to get back to my artistic roots, however humble they may be.  My college degree was in Interior Design but I soon learned from all of the art classes I took that my true calling was more in tune with the arts.  It's seems a shame to keep all that creativity locked up so I'm listening to what my heart is telling me.....get my fingers painty, create more, experiment, be more organic in my work, take a risk, see what happens.  

So I'm gonna do it.  I've recently invested in some new art supplies and I'd love to share my ideas with you as I go along.  Some ideas will be in the form of adding a new technique (new to me I should say) to my projects and scrapbook pages.....some ideas will be in the form of just experimenting with art journal pages.  I've been researching these more and I'm totally intrigued.  I hope that by sharing my findings you'll perhaps be inspired to try something new creatively and want to join in.  I'm working on new blog posts that will kick off my "art revival" of sorts where I'll list some great references/mixed media artists and the new supplies I'm using.  Please, please leave a comment to let me know what you think. Are you in?  Have I lost it?  Are you longing to try something new with your crafts?  

On to today's project. One of things I've been desiring is something new to use as focal images on my cards.  I love stamped images but sometimes I just want to reach for something else.  I recently compiled a new file of photos that I've taken and I've decided to turn them into mini Instagrams.  I'll be using them on my art journal pages which I'll share soon....but today I'm using this lovely photo below of some flowers I picked last summer.  

I turned the photo above and 2 other photos into a sheet of mini Instagrams.  You can see some of the cut photos below and I'll be sharing them in a new kit also.  So here's my finished card below.  

I used the small Instagram photo of my flowers as the focal point and then there are lots of fun layers underneath.  

The beautiful floral patterned paper is from Crate Paper, stamps are from Papertrey Ink and the tags are from the Pink Flower Kit that I'll talk about a little later.  In the close up below you can see some wonderful dictionary paper that has a beautiful texture to it.  You can also see some white texture on my photo and some on the rest of the card.

I'd love to share with you how I created the textured paper.  I've been experimenting with 2 new products in my artful arsenal of supplies.  The first is Gesso.  Gesso is a thick liquid primer that is used to prepare canvas and other surfaces for paint and other mediums to go on top.  It dries with a somewhat chalky finish and accepts other mediums very well.  What I love about Gesso is that is instantly mutes and tones down whatever surface you apply it to.  You can use a brush but I have found that palette knives which have a flat blade are what I like best.  This way you can apply the Gesso like frosting or perhaps think of it like buttering a piece of bread.  Simply slather it in thin or thick coats over your paper.  Then let it dry...you can use a heat gun to speed up the drying process. You can see that I applied a swipe of Gesso to the small Instagram photo and to a few places on the card front too. Since I like a lot of white space and softer colors, this stuff is going to be used a lot I can tell already. The brand I used is from the Claudine Hellmuth line from Ranger but you can find jars of Gesso in any craft store or online art stores like Dick Blick. 

The next product I've been experimenting with is Modeling Paste.  Modeling paste is a thicker medium that works just like Spackle.  It is used to build thicker, dimensional layers and is easily applied with a palette knife.  It dries to a hard finish and is very textured.  You can apply it by itself but it's most fun to use with stencils.  Below I used a small stencil from Studio Calico.  I'll be sharing some sources for more fun stencils as I build my collection.  To use a stencil with modeling paste you simply lay your stencil down on the surface you want to use and slather the modeling paste over the stencil, filling in the holes of the stencil.  I think it's best to cover just random parts of the stencil so that small patches of the paste are left.  You can easily color your modeling paste with acrylic paints, ink droppers, etc.  Refer the above photos of the card to see the finished texture.  With both Gesso and modeling paste, you want to clean your palette knives or brushes after each use.

I've also pulled my watercolors out of the drawer too.  I added a bit to my grid cardstock and some splatters to my dictionary paper before assembling my card.  To add a little pooling of color, I like to wet the paper first with clean water.  Then I mix my watercolor with my brush and let it bleed into the clean pool of water. This creates an organic look instead of brush strokes.  You can sop up excess with paper towels.  I use my heat gun to speed the drying process.  I use the Teflon craft mats like crazy when working with mixed media products.  They are so easy to clean and you can use your heat gun over them too without damaging the surface.  Right now I'm using cheapo watercolors but I'm looking into a few brands that carry travel sets of watercolor.  I need a little better quality that mixes better.  I'll report back on what I find.

If you've made it this far, thanks for joining me today.  Up in the shop I have a fun new kit that has a sampling of the dictionary page that has Gesso and modeling paste on it.  Plus the kit contains a full 4 x 6 sheet of 6 mini floral Instagrams.  The card I created today uses the Large Manila Tag, the small white tag + dictionary page, a mini Instagram and a snippet of a paper doily from the kit.  It's a fun little kit if you want to see if you like this mixed media look on your projects.  You can try misting the dictionary page, adding some watercolor or ink droppers, etc.  It's hard to see but the kit also contains a clear card box that can be used to package up some cards as gifts. 

I have my supplies I used today still out on my work table....maybe I'll see what else I can create today. And again....let me know what you think about adding some mixed media to your projects.  Would you ever consider doing an art journal just to get the creative juices flowing?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.