Stencil Test Drive – Cascading Leaves & Winner of 3rd Journal

Well, hello again. We have an amazing week of weather here.  I’m taking advantage of it a little (ok, a lot) by doing some garage door painting outside and even doing a little art in my garage, where all my art supplies sit.  Well, that’s a lie, really… I’m looking at my art supplies and apologizing to them for not giving them any attention.  Must be Catholic guilt.

This week, another stencil by Jessica Sporn is being tested.  Offered by Stencil Girl Products.  I’m joined by other great artists (links below) to test out the “cascading leaves”.  Stay with me here.

So, I’m trying to figure what I want to do with the stencil.  My art supplies are way back “there” in the garage.. so what can I get to and make this simple?  I was cleaning windows and I noticed that my paper towels had a very cool, and somewhat similar design to the stencil I was testing.  Crazy, right?  or serendipity?  I love the texture of paper towels in my art.

Here’s my garage with my supplies and stuff  Now, look at all that?  That’s what I’m keeping.  Am I crazy?  Ok Ok.. Let’s not go there again.

(Oh, and p.s. if you are local, I will be selling some arts and crafts along with couches, chairs, kitchen table, bookcases… send me an email if you are interested.)

Sorry….back to art…here is the paper towel..

I grabbed my bag of lace and paper stuff, a bottle of red paint, portfolio crayons, Collage Pauge and a paint brush… oh yes and a journal book.

Started by taking a teal crayon (what? where you expecting a different color?)  and rubbed it all over the towel, then I rubbed it with a damp paper towel to blend it a bit.  Then, I drew in each stencil leave openings with a black crayon.  Smooshed around a little.  Did it randomly. Glue it down on journal page.

 

Now, what.. oh yes.. pack another box to bring downstairs.. move some furniture around.. my dog (Dixie) needs to tinkle.. make travel arrangements for my executive… ok, back to arting on my kitchen table.  Move my dinner plate over to the side and collage a little more.. and don’t get any medium in your chicken. Wait, that might explain something.  No, I kid I kid.

What did I have in my bag that I grabbed?  C’mon Judy, get creative here.  What can I do with only a few supplies?  Ugh… a challenge.  Or as “Inspector Clouseau” would say  ”a shallaaaaange”.

I really had a hard time with this one because I have so much more on my mind other than art.  I felt the deadline approaching, but was committed to the stencil drive.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m worrying about something, I have a hard time focusing on other things.  So, I had a talk with myself and said “self… what is your problem.. art should be good for stress.. get your act together, will ya.. chop chop”?  I had to be a little tough on myself.. geesh.  Can anyone relate??

In processs…

Final…

I will be honest here.. I am not in love with the collage; I’ve done better, in my opinion… but I am in love with Jessica’s stencil.  I can’t wait to use it again and again.

So, go check out the other Stencil Drive artists and see what they did with the stencil.

Jessica Sporn
Nathalie Kalbach
Michelle Rydell
Roben-Marie Smith 

Thank you, Jessica, for inviting me on this stencil journey with you and so many other amazing artists. I’m honored.

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WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

NOW………for the winner of my long, skinny journal….. Congratulations Gloria Zucaro!!!  Yay!!!!  I’ll contact you via email to get your address.

Happy Spring!!!  And thank you for your patience while I get through this massive purge/move. Don’t give up on me.  I”ll keep up my art and post as much as I can.  Your support means the world to me.   I’ll also be on Facebook if you want to follow me.

Judy ♥

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 ♥

Mixed Media Mail Updo

Hey there… I know I know….I’ve been gone for about 3 weeks.  Life/work, once again, gets in my art way.  But no fear, I’m here now.

I’ve been working on this video for a few weeks. I finally found the time to finish it.  I started out as a large pamphlet I got in the mail.  I thought it would be neat to alter it with some mixed media magic. Once I finished filming, this sucker was about 45 min long.  So, had to cut it down a little and fast forward a lot.  I put some comments in so you would know what I was doing.   Let me know what you think.

If you have any questions about my process, give me a shout.. glad to help.

Now… enjoy!

Here are some close ups.

          

  

If you  live in New England or even Massachusetts, you probably are ready for Spring like the rest of us. We’ve had enough snow this winter and I’m ready for a nice long walk… I don’t know… Maybe late April?

I hope you enjoyed the video.  Love to hear back 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♥

Stencil Test Drive – Starry Night – Stencil Girl Products

Well, it’s my turn again to test out one of Jessica Sporn’s new stencils called Starry Night by Stencil Girl Products. This time around, I used the stencil creating two pieces.  I didn’t start out thinking I would do two, but it just seemed to fall into place that way.

PART 1 – First, I’ll show you my collage. I took Bristol Paper and made a paste of Super Heavy Gesso and Hansa Yellow Medium acrylic paint by Golden. Then I used the stencil to push the yellow paste through it onto the paper.  Let dry.

 

The result is below left.  Then I took Patina Green Glaze by Golden and spread it over the textured page.  

Now, let’s start collaging.  I added some lace ribbon down the left side and then did a leaf stencil with the heavy gesso on the bottom right.

 

I had put some of the same stencil on other cardstock (as you’ll see in my next project), painted it blue and ripped it, and put gold leaf pen on ripped section then put down the right side.  Now, I’m adding more papers and fabric and end with one of my polymer clay “bellishments”; I chose Mr. Moon. Here’s how it developed
I pounced some titan buff acrylic paint through some dry wall tape.  Love the dots.
Added some rhinestones on the pink paper; fabric under Mr. Moon.  Store bought embellishment on top of the gold embossed paper.  Made the embellishment a flower with lace stem and magazine paper leaves.  Added another “bellishment” at the bottom right.  I like the orange contrast with the rest of the collage.

Final collage.

If you want to learn how to make my handmade polymer clay “Buttons n’bellishments”, come join us in my online class that starts in February on Joggles.com

PART 2 – Handmade Journal

I started out with other 1/2 of the Bristol Paper from my collage. I used my palette knife and spread extra heavy gesso all over it and let it dry.  I love the texture this gesso leaves.

Then I took Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint by Golden and scraped it on the gessoed paper with a old credit card.  Just look at that texture.  It almost looks 3D.   Just beautiful for any texture queen.  Click on the pictures for a closer look.  Hard to believe it’s just a piece of paper.  My daughter thought it looked like denim.   
Then I took the same yellow paste I made above with the heavy gesso and the yellow acrylic paint and used a palette knife to push the paste through the Starry Night stencil.  Helloooo.. is this cute or what?
I took Liquid Laminate and brushed a layer over the entire page to give it a shine and strength.  You’ll notice that I only covered 1/2 of the page.  Once the laminate dried, I took some lace paper and put a few of my favorite spirals on the back then took a black sharpie pen and outlined the stars and swirls.  See the shine?  
I took Wausau paper (cardstock like) that I got at an office supply store and made one signature of 5 pages.  I ripped around the edges for two reasons.. one to make them smaller than the cover pages and two, to give them a roughed up
look.
.

Now, it’s time to sew the pages and cover together.  As I told you in my last post, I am not a journal maker. This is basic in one hole and out the other sewing.  I used black wax thread.  Then I sewed one of my polymer clay buttons to the cover.  Sprayed some Dylusions Ink to the front and back covers pounced some titan buff paint through the stencil and
called it done.   Badda Bing.. Badda Boom!

   

Front and back cover

Well, that was fun.  I’ve never been sad doing art.

Check out Jessica’s post this week test driving her stencil.  Then go check out my partners in stencil crime, Maggie Nemetz and Revlie Schuit and see what they did with the Starry Night Stencil. Here are the Stencil Test Drive players:

December 6: Hebrew Calligraphy

Carolyn Dube and Michelle Rydell

December 20: Medieval Leaves

Carolyn Dube, Corrine Gilman, Maria McGuire and Ronda Palazzari

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 MerveilleThank you, Jessica, for inviting me to be part of the drive.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear from you.
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 ♥

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 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 

Dina, Dyan and Away I go……..

Hey there… today I am heading out to Art is You in Stamford, CT.  The days of rain have passed and it’s the most beautiful Fall day.  But,…. before I go, I wanted to share with you a class I took recently at Ink About It with Dina Wakley.  Dina was fun and down to earth.  We had a messy fun time.

Dina started us off with making backgrounds on heavy paper.  A messy background.  Well, you know me.. I love a mess so I got right into it.  Then to make face portrait on top of the mess.  No thinking, just a basic face that she showed you how to do if you didn’t know how and then it took off.

Here are my two faces I made…  crazy, huh?  You can see these are not, by any means, perfect, but still striking, fast and fun.

   and  

Then, I did this one in a separate journal I got, that was created by Dyan Reaveley.  You can see this big beautiful journal HERE.

This is how I decorated the front page of the journal….

So, I’m ready for my trip to CT for a weekend of art… I made new ‘bellishments, attached my new MOO cards and I’m ready to trade.

I’ll be sure to post about the weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥ ♥ ♥