Angel in the Window Coaster Collage – Stencil Test Drive

My dear friend, Jessica Sporn, did a post on her blog this week about angels.  I was inspired.  So, when she asked me to test drive her new stencil from Stencil Girl Products called Windows & Doors, I said to myself, “self, you need to do something with an angel”…. and so I did.

As most of you who follow me know,  I love to collect coasters from restaurants.  Sometimes, our server is nice enough to give me a stash of them.. .but I do ask beg them nicely.  I love working small sometimes.  It’s just such a nice little piece of art.  The coaster surface is really great; it absorbs wonderfully and has the right thickness.

First, let me show you the stencil I”ll be working with… I’m going to use the top right church window. Seems appropriate for an angel, don’t you think?  Jessica really created a beautiful stencil here.

I picked out a 4″x4″ rounded corner coaster and started to apply gesso.   Let dry. Then I applied some random colors and smooshed with my fingers.

I pulled off some of the paint with another piece of paper.. this tip came from Jane Davies; simple and effective.  Then used a brayer to blend the colors.

          

When I started to dry the paint with my heat gun, I started to get bubbles which is a very cool effect.  If you hold the heat gun very close, the paint starts to bubble.  Once I got the colors the way I wanted, I brushed a loose wash of acrylic teal paint with water on top and spritzed some alcohol on it to let the paint separate.  Can you see the texture it created?

  

  

Now, I know I wanted to put an angel on my coaster, but I needed her face to show through, so I put a light coat of Titan Buff fluid acrylic paint (from Golden) in the section where her face would show.

Now, it’s time to transfer my image onto the coaster. I printed off the angel image on the rough side of a transparency film (ink jet printer). I took gel medium and with my finger, rubbed some along the section where I wanted my angel.  I also put some on the image itself.  Laid down the image and gently rubbed with a soft cloth.  Wait a couple of minutes, then gently lift it off. There you go… I like that it’s NOT perfect.. it has a worn/vintage look to it.  Now, let her dry.. doesn’t take too long; about 5 minutes.

  

Oh boy.. I get to play with pastes.  I used the Viva Decor Modeling Cream in gold for the window.
I placed it over the angel’s face, taped it down on one side.  Using my palette knife, I scraped the cream over the stencil and lifted it up… Beautiful window.

Now, one of the panes was covering my angel’s face.. I had to gently scrape it off.  There she is.. so purdy.

I added my spiral lace paper in the corner and used a pen tube as a stamp for some small circles.  Added gold ribbon lace to the bottom of the window.

  

I found an old earring that I cut up with a wire cutter to make a window top.  When I cut the metal, it creates tiny rough metal edges; so I filed them down with a Chizzel-it.  I’ve had this for years.  I used it for engraving baked polymer clay.  Oh, who am I kidding.. it was just a fun toy.  You can also use 200 grit sand paper to file down the sharp edges.

I added some glitter and painted around the edges with a Gold Leafing Pen. I love this pen.  It’s puts the best finishing touches on your work.

 

I added a “believe” metal tag to the bottom.  After all, we DO believe in angels, don’t we?  Then I added some red lines of acrylic paint with my credit card that I changed to white in the end result… you’ll see why.

To the right of the coaster, I added handmade polymer clay flowers in red with turquoise (what else) rhinestone centers. Then teenie tiny flowers to the bottom of the stems.  The leaves are made with music paper. I thought the dragonfly was a cute touch, too.

 

Here is the final piece and a close up of window.

Now, it’s your turn to go visit my art sisters to see what they did with Jessica’s new stencil… go now!

Jessica Sporn, our leader in this drive.
Carolyn Dube  (by the way, Carolyn has a new Gelli Plate Workshop starting on April 1st… what fun; I can’t wait!)
Maria McGuire
Corrine Gilman (Corrine is going to be teaching at Lucky Star Art Camp this Fall… they are so “lucky” to have her join their team).

AND…Thank you, Jessica for another amazing stencil creation.  What else to you have up your sleeve?  Hmmm?

Well, there you have it.  So, grab some coasters next time you go out (or have a friend grab one for you) and get creative with them.  Then, send me a picture and I’ll feature on my blog.  OR.. create it, put photo on your blog, then comment on my blog with your link back to your blog… Huh?  What the hell did she just say?  Go on… you can do it… I know you can.

Alert… Alert… Up Next:  Giveaways !!

Thank you for stopping by.  Share the love.

Judy ♥

Gelli Prints – Recycled Box

Well, I’ve been waiting for this week to come for about 4 months now. This marks the end of very long days, and sometimes nights, preparing for a very big customer event at work.  So, mission completed and have sent all the executives off on their trip. I promised myself once this week came, I would take some time off and enjoy some time in the studio….

…. and that’s exactly what I did this morning…… follow me, will you?

I recently purchased something that was contained in this long box.  I decided to recycle it … I could do something with it… right.. something for the art studio???  I think so.            CLICK ANY PICTURE FOR A CLOSER LOOK.

I gessoed all over.  If I were to do it again, I would sand the sheen off. But, a couple of coats; wait til each coat dries.  Tip: sand the box first.

  

Then, I used up my Gelli Prints I had done over the past couple of months.  See my posts/videos HERE and HERE.  Measured, cut and glued.

I used Martha Stewart’s Decoupage Glue and Sealer.  I had it in the studio, so I do not favor it, really.

One the sides were glued down well, I scraped the edges with a scissors blade to get rid of the excess paper coming over the edges.

Then I used Pan Pastels to fill in any white spaces.

 

It’s coming along.

 

Took a rubber coaster and used it as a stamp (dots) with some Staz On black ink.  Then I used Distress Ink (walnut stain) to rub along the edges of the box to stain it or vintage-ize it (I made up that word).

 

Not shown here, but I added some stamping around with black ink.  Painted a text stamp with white acrylic paint and stamped all over.  I also took some brown and orange paint mixed and filled in some of the corners of the box.

Ok.. now I must put some “buttons n’bellishments” on there, don’t ya think?  What to choose, what to choose.

 

Then on the back.. I think a big face.  Yes?

I put a coat of the Martha Stewart sealer on one side and Liquid Laminate on the other.  The MS sealer had tiny bubbles and dried that way.  No big deal, but wasn’t crazy about it.  The Liquid Laminate was, as always, great.  Nice thin coat that dries fast.

 

 

Ok, now it’s done.. what shall I use it for?  It won’t take anything to heavy, I had to think light.  I decided to use it for my smaller stencils and Gelli Print bookmarks I made. I LOVE! I LOVE!

   

I love what embellishments do for an art piece.  My online “Buttons n’bellishments” workshop is over and I’ll be sharing the student results very soon, along with a Flickr group.

If you want to see what else you can alter/recycle with your Gelli Prints.. Check out Carolyn’s Heart Boxes and Corrine’s binder along with Jessica’s pasta box recycle.

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Leave some love.. I love hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Collage from a Post It Pad

I had so much fun creating my Post it flip chart paper collage.

It was hours of filming and editing, and would have been too long and I would bore all of you.. but here is a video of my process… sped up.  I would have kept it really time with my hand dancing, grooving to the music and talking, but it went on forever.  So…………

…. it started with my flip chart pad that I keep under my work surface.  An idea I got from Autumn Hathaway.. thank you Autumn.

Here we go…

Close ups. Click for larger view.

     

Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you.

Judy♥

More Gelli Plate Fun & a Gelli Journal Give-a-way!!!

Hey, I’m back with another video on some gelli’ing.  It’s now the end of the Gelli Print Party with Carolyn Dube, but I’m just loving the prints and making some cool art from them.  Go check out Carolyn’s blog and see her videos, then check out her linkys to see what others are doing. 

Now, check out my latest video.

In my last video, I took some of my favorite prints and made nice strips with them.  Maybe bookmarks? Click picture for close up.

   

As much as I love my prints, what am I going to do with them all?  I’m going to make a journal with them and give it away, that’s what.  Yahoo!!!

First, let me be clear…. I am NOT, I repeat AM NOT a journal maker.  So, I am just taking the pages and sewing them together.  Nothing fancy.  Make one signature, sew it to a cover and then they can be journaled on with backgrounds already for you.  Thanks to my friend, Raine, for showing me how to do this a long time ago.  She makes amazing journals.  I don’t even know the name of the stitch I’m using, that’s how much of an non-journaler I am.  In and out, that’s what it’s called.. the “in and out” stitch.  No, not really.  I kid, I kid.

So, here is the journal I stitched together.  Simple, not fancy and ready for your mixed media fun and journaling, collaging or whatever you want to do with it.  You could glue a blank page to an inside page and journal on that OR paint some squares of lighter paint to write on.  So many ideas.

       

I gathered all the Gelli papers together and ripped them down to size with a metal ruler and just pulling strips off so they would have torn edges.  A few pages are smaller than the others, just for fun.  Then I made a cover page and coated with Liquid Laminate (love that stuff) to seal.  I made 3 holes in the binder and used wax thread and an upholstry needle to sew all the pages together.  Again, in one hole, out the other until I used up the thread and the pages were nice and snug.  Strung some fabric beads I had made on the binder edge and added one of my “buttons n’bellishments” to the cover.  If you want to learn how to make one of these embellishements, take a look at my online class and join us.

I hope you enjoyed our party.  Thank you, Carolyn, for a great Gelli Print Party!!!

If you want to win this Gelli Journal, leave me a comment here and then if you have a Facebook page, like and share my post there.   I’ll pick a winner this Friday, 1/11.

Thank you for stopping by, as always.  I love to hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Gelli Plate Party

Happy New Year, everyone.  New Year’s Day is a family day for us.  The holiday craze rush is over and it’s time to chill and enjoy the final day of my vacation.

Boy, what a great week I had.  I tried to get in my studio as much as I could.  I did manage to finish up my online class, “Buttons n’bellishments” and have it ready for Joggles in February to start the workshop.  Please check it out and join us.

Now, I don’ t know a better way to start off the year than by having a party.  A Gelli Plate Party, that is. Carolyn Dube is the instigator on this one.  Go to her blog to find out the deets and check out her video HERE.  She’s already on Day 2.

This is my first take on the Gelli Plate.  I got myself one for Christmas. Thank you, Judy!  Lots of fun ideas rolling through my head.  I mean, really, where does it end?   I had to cut down the video a bit, cuz I just couldn’t stop my self.  So, I took some still shots to show you my results at the end.  Carolyn warned me.  But, I’m safe now.

Wasn’t that fun?  I hope you enjoyed that.  I can only imagine even getting more creative the more you play.  I love the imperfections.  I tried to use my already printed sheets to create more layers instead of always using a new one.  I was groovin to Bruno Mars in the beginning, so that’s the reason for my dancing papers.

So, I had a pile of Wausau paper and many craft paints that were just sitting around my studio for years.  Wondered what I was going to do with them eventually.  And then they invented the Gelli Plate.   See that, I had them sitting there for a reason.  Love when that happens.

Love to hear back from you.  Let us know if you’ve “gellied” lately.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Stencil Test Drive – on your mark…get set….goooooooooooooo

   

It’s time to commence the Stencil Test Drive. I’m honored to be part of this group of great artists and to be one of the firsts to kick it off.

It’s really exciting to see what each of us will do with each stencil.  I hope you have visited Stencil Girl Products and chosen a stencil to play along with us.  We’d love to see what you do.

My first stencil is the Hebrew Calligraphy.  I admit, I am a bit ignorant about the Jewish religion.   The creations that Jessica makes with her Judaic art is amazing.  And that’s just her Judaic art, the rest is so fun, eclectic and meaningful.  I, myself, have always loved the Catholic art.  The paintings of the saints and the colors are so incredibly beautiful.  So, I approached this page from an art perspective and I hope I did it justice.

There I go again, with my chit chat… sigh.  Now, let’s get to it.

I started on an Bristol paper, 11″x7″.

Fluid acrylic Ultramarine Blue scraped down with old gift card.  Dreamy.

  

Then I scraped some translucent yellow liquid acrylics, then squirted some air brush white paint on the page, then sprayed some water and alcohol on it and let it spread.  Blotted with paper towel.  Getting better.

  

Now, here is where the stencil comes in.  I pushed some  gold Viva Decor Modeling Cream through the stencil in sections.

  

  

I thought it would be cool to add some transparency image transfers.  I went on Google Images and grabbed some Jewish clip art.  I put in a Hamsa hand.  Then some of my yummy favorite paper.. lace paper.  Can you stand it?

  

Another transfer, but on muslin this time; clip art of a Jewish Synagogue.  Added some final touches of wrinkled gold paper, my handmade polymer clay piece and a few old paper doily sections.  Smudged some Portfolio oil pastels (black) around the edges and in some areas.  Dabbed some white paint through some dry wall tape with a make up sponge. Brushed a couple of areas with red acrylic paint to even out the collage and called it a day.

.  

The gold calligraphy really shines and stands out when you see it live.

I hope you enjoyed the first test drive.  Don’t forget to visit the other artists doing this same stencil this week.. Carolyn Dube and Michelle Rydell and… keep this list handy of the rest of us doing the test drive and follow along.

December 20: Medieval Leaves

Carolyn Dube, Corrine Gilman, Maria McGuire and Ronda Palazzari

January 10: Starry Night

Maggie Nemetz, Judy Shea and Revlie Schuit

January 23: Random Squares

Seth Apter, Kristin Dudish,  Corrine Gilman, and Diana Trout

February 27: Fun Borders

Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Christy Tomlinson

March 14: Retro Flowers & Circles

Nataša May and Maria McGuire

April 2: Embrace the Rain

Carolyn Dube, Marjie Kemper, Nataša May, Michelle Rydell, and Revlie Schuit

April 18: Flying Tulips

Kristin Dudish and Carol Merveille

May 2: Cascading Leaves

Nathalie Kalbach,  Michelle Rydell, Judy Shea, and Roben-Marie Smith

May 16: Apples & Pomegranates

Carolyn Dube and Revlie Schuit

June 6: Dots & Dashes

Jane Davies, Maria McGuire and Carol Merveille

Would love to hear from you. How was my test drive? In this kind of test drive, accidents are encouraged.

I want to thank Jessica for coordinating this test drive and gathering an amazing group of creative souls to join in. Congratulations on your new line of stencils and working with Mary Beth Shaw.

Now, off to see what Carolyn and Michelle have done with their stencil.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Vroom Vroom

Judy ♥

Faux or No Batik?

Recently, my friend, Jessica, did a post about how she was feeling in one word…she chose the word “glum”. I loved how she turned her feelings around; read about it HERE.

If I were to think of a word for me, I would sum it up to be “blah”.  After dealing with a sinus infection for over a week then to get a flare up of tendonitis in my right arm  because of work and being on the computer for hours on end, well, that is how I feel.  Enough.  I have work to do and a blog to write.  I’ve switched my mouse hand to the left and that is quite a challenge.  So, I’m trying to kick back on the typing until things are a bit calmer.  Ok, that was my 5 minutes of whining.  Thanks for listening.  But, before I go, let me show you some fun art play I’ve managed to sneak in.

Recently, I came across 3 heavy book boards measuring about 4×6 inches.  Holes were already in them to prepare for binding.  I bought this long ago, so I don’t know where it came from. Sorry.

Loving the Dylusions ink sprays, I decided to use them on the boards, on each side.  Man, I love they way they settle on to their new surface.

      

  

Purdy, huh?  The teal background behind the boards is tissue paper that I spread gel medium on, let dry then stenciled with white acrylic paint. FUN!

Because the Dylusions are water soluble, they bleed when you put acrylic paint on them.  Even if I use PYM, they still bleed, which baffled me. I thought it would seal the ink.  But, it did not.  If anyone knows how to seal the ink, let me know.

Once the ink was dry, I stenciled on top of them with white acrylic paint.  The paint was a fainter color because the white took on a little of the color beneath it.  It reminded me of Batik.

What do you think?  I’m loving this effect.

  

I used a make up sponge to pounce the paint through the stencil.

  

  

When I’m done putting this little book together, I’ll be back to show you the end result.

I hope you all have a great rest of week.

.. and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Coaster & Watercolor Collages & Stencil Girl Products

When I was at Art is You this month, I grabbed a few of the cardboard coasters from the bathroom.  Ok Art is You’ers.. didn’t you?  I was secretly hoping that Jessica would not take hers.  But, she did… and believe me.. I have plenty at home.

And speaking of Jessica, check out her blog.. she has amazing journal work and is co-running the Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge with Carolyn Dube, another amazing journal artist.

Back to the coasters…

Coasters are such a great little size to collage on.  There are many different sizes and shapes, they are small enough to work on while your watching tv or you just want to collage on a smaller scale.  And, for jounalers, just glue it into your journal after you’re done.  As a matter of fact, I have been known to ask the servers at restaurants for a few more, after I’ve confiscated the ones under my family’s glasses.  No. Really. I have a drawer full.  I have a problem.

So, I grabbed my 3 1/2″ square coaster and smeared some paint all over it with my old credit card.  One color then another, then some scribbling.. no plan.  I used one of my fabric transfers of a vintage angel.  Then, you look at it and say.. “wow, that’s cool.. how did I even make that effect”.  Right?   Been there?  So I wrote the colors I used what I did on the back, cuz I really liked the background effect.

Here is my result and my steps on the back of the coaster.  Just jot down what you did, cuz you never know what you’ll end up with.  The black scratches I used by dipping the edge of my credit card in back paint and making the marks.  I also used a diamond stencil with gold paint and pounced white paint through some drywall joint tape.

I feel like the angel is looking at the cross.  I am in love with the religious images.. the “vintagy” look and the colors.  I never really noticed them for their art before, but they seem to attract me lately.

   

You can check out one of my coaster collages and tutorials HERE.

Next up is a couple of collages on watercolor paper.  These both measure 8″x6″.

I started with Portfolio Oil Pastels.  If you don’t have these, they are just great for any collage/journal work.  I randomly scribbled lines…

  

Then rubbed the colors with a damp paper towel.  I added more shadowing on the edges.

    

Here are the final results…

   

The bird cage is a transparency transfer directly on the collage and the butterfly is also a transfer, but on thin cardstock that I ripped and stained with ink.  I worked on these side by side so they looked a bit related.  Sometimes, if I think anything is too bold and needs some toning down, I take some fine grit sand paper and give it a rub to fade the area.  It gives a worn look and pushes it back a little.

Finally….. I thought I’d share with you a quick collage piece we did at Mary Beth Shaw’s “Mores Is Less” class that I took at Art is You.  She asked us to play around on paper first before we started on our wood substrates.  I actually like how this came out.

… and speaking of Mary Beth Shaw… please stop by her STENCIL GIRL PRODUCTS site for some great shopping on all the stencils she has available. Stencil love is in your future.. I just know it.  Oh, and while you are there.. pick up some Wood Icing.  You’ll never leave home without it again.

Thanks for stopping by.  I love to hear from you.

Judy ♥

Butterfly Collage with Ink Jet ImageTransfers

This week, I decided to give the Peerless Watercolors a try.  I purchased them at Art is You from Joanne Sharpe.

So, I stopped work early one night (5p.m.) (only one night, but i”m working on more of them) and I put on my jammies and sat myself down to play with the paints.  Let me just say what a great feeling it was to kick back and concentrate on my art.  Since my daughters are now both in college (help! send money), our nights have a bit more space in them.  Funny how fast the time goes and all of the sudden your here, their there and life moves on.  Screeeeeeech… halt… Sorry,  I got off track.  Continuing….

I decided to work on Strathmore Bristol paper and paint in patches all over the page like this…  Click on any image to enlarge.

Seriously, this page took me a couple of hours.  I had fun swiping colors off the “peerless” cards and onto the page. That took time and all with a small brush (water brush by Koi).  I love the puddling of the watercolors when you use more water.  They dry to a nice dark edge.

Once I was happy with the background,  I gave it a spray of PYM (Preserve Your Memories) to seal it.  You can see it deepens it a little.  I took this picture under a normal light bulb.  The top picture was taken under an Ott Lite.

So, my fine friends, I took it to my studio and scraped some gesso all over it (that’s why I had to seal the page first, otherwise the colors would have mixed), rubbed it off,  then buffed it dry.  Used black Staz On ink and a make up sponge with stencils (from Stencil Girl and Mary Beth Shaw = LOVE).  Added stamped, hand made foam stamps and of course some of my polymer clay ‘bellishments.  One of the parts I love the most, are my image transfers; the butterflies and the two women, under my teal heart..

Below, you can see some gold glitter trails it put in.

I get so lost in time when I am doing image transfers.  My favorite combination to make a perfect transfer is a transparency film and gel medium.  I did a few tests using different mediums and my best result was Golden Gel Medium.  I have not tried Liquitex, but I will someday.

I transferred on muslin  and cotton fabric, paper towel, masking tape and I did a packing tape transfer also.  I got the images from Dover Clipart which is copyright free.  You can join their mailing list and they will send you samples every week.  Click on THIS LINK and put in your email address.  You will get samples every week.  If you like them, you can save and download on your hard drive on your computer.

The technique goes like this:

Get yourself some transparency film. Maybe you know someone who might have some or you can split a box with a friend.  I had some old Lexmark ones and some I hadn’t used even after I printed on them  months or years ago.  You want to print on the matte side, not shiny.  Your best bet is to print a bunch of images on one page.  You can use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint to insert an entire page of images (please email me if you need help with that.).  This is my method. There may be other ways, for example, using a photo software would also work.

Cut your image out.

Spread some gel medium on the surface you want to transfer to and on the image itself… gently, you don’t want the ink to rub off.  Use the consistency of spreading butter on bread.  I use my finger to spread the gel, as I don’t want any brush line.

Lay the film with image face down on the gelled up surface and rub it down with your finger in a circular motion, working from the center and making sure your reached all around the image.  Now wait 5 or 10 minutes or even longer.. overnight even if you need to be away.  But, if you’re like me, you ain’t going nowhere and you want instant results.

After you’ve waited and I hope you were patient, peel up the film slowly.  Check a corner and see if the ink is now transferred to the surface.  If it did, then keep slowly peeling it off.  Did it work?  It works 99% of the time for me.

Here is a few pictures of my image transfer results…

The butterflies are on paper towel, cotton fabric (old ripped t-shirt) and masking tape.  I decided to color in the black and white clip art with the “peerless watercolors” and the “Koi” watercolors…

I give the images a spray seal of the PYM so I  know they will keep their color and last a long time.

I made a bunch of image transfers on muslin fabric for my mom who loves her religious (catholic) books.  She wanted angels so she could sew them to her fabric covered books.  She was just in love with them.  I’ll be using my masking tape painted images on some other art; I wanted to use them on this page, but it didn’t seem to match.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I want you to try the image transfers and let me now how they come out.

And always… thank YOU for stopping by and leaving some blog love.

Judy ♥♥

Art is YOU…Me… and We!

I’m back from Art is You.  What  a fun time.   As you know, this was my first art retreat.  First ever.. and I went alone.  Yup, just me and my talking GPS who kept me company.  C’mon, raise your hand if you think the GPS is awesome?  Wow, one, two, three… see there are a lot of you out there.  ”Navigator” on my smartphone rocks!  Love her.

This is what we wore around our necks for the weekend.  So fun.  How could you not smile with that on you each day?  Each morning, we were greeted with a wonderful breakfast buffet and the same at lunch.  It really was a sense of community.  You can read about Art is You and about Sallianne and Ellen, it’s creators, HERE.  Thank you, ladies and anyone else involved in helping make the event a success.

Let me start by saying that as soon as I met my roommate, Jessica, I knew we were a good fit.   As soon as I walked in the room and saw that she had her journal pages and her art supplies all over the bed, I said, “ok.. now we’re talkin”.   Miss you JS.  Hey, we have the same initials.. that has to mean something, right? You can read Jessica’s blog post about AiY HERE.  I love it.

Ok Ok.. i’m getting to the fun stuff.

Saturday was a full day workshop with Serena Barton called Waxing Literacy with Charlotte.  We took an old hard cover book and used encaustic wax, creating a display piece.  Serena is such a great teacher and person.

Hi Serena.. our wax queen!

This class was so much fun.  I had never used encaustic wax before, never mind entrapping a book in it.  Serena gave us frozen chartlotte dolls that were going in a niche that we cut out of the book.  (click on any picture for larger image)

    
on right:  this is the inside of Serena’s book.. anything look familiar to you.. on the left in the center…hmmmm? She used one of my ‘bellishments.

  
This is the inside and out side of my book.

More books from the class…..

    
Far right:   I love that Nancy used a small child’s book.

    

Wasn’t that fun??  Thank you, Serena!

Getting ready for vendor night…  This place was packed.  Lots of walking around… my feet are still recovering. : (

  

Now, let’s move on the Sunday’s workshop with Mary Beth Shaw.  What can I say about Mary Beth?  We’ve exchanged emails back and forth about meeting. She’s fun, outgoing and a great teacher; making classes fun… oh and she plays some great music in class.  I’ve been wanting to meet MB and take one of her classes for about 2 years now and both were  more than what I expected.

Mary Beth’s class was called More is Less.  What a journey that was.  Making textures through stencils with paste.. my favorite thing to do.  I wish I had brought smaller substrates.  I worked too big and I think it was a bit overwhelming, to be honest.  So, I finished two.  Fair enough, let’s compromise.

Mary Beth gave me permission to take pictures of her demo.  Here’s a peek.

  
Yummy Wood Icing and pasta, yes pasta!

    

These are mine…

… and some of the rest….

          

..and here are Mary Beth’s 6″x6 boards… beautiful.

Thank you, Mary Beth!!

So, there you have it.. my two classes. Two full days and nights of just fun and camaraderie.  I made new friends and I was able to meet new artists in the mixed media world and say hello to the ones I have taken classes from before.

The ladies in my classes were so talented and fun to be with.  Just imagine being in a place where we all think about art the same, all want to learn and share.  What else could you want?  I plan on keeping in touch with many of my new friends (you know who you are).

..and… can I just say that I need a full body massage now?

Thanks for joining me in this art journey and stopping by.  I love hearing from you.

Judy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥