Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Mixed Media Paintings

Hello creative people!  I've been following Mimi Bondi, https://mimibondi.com, on her website and You Tube. I love how she works with color!  I bought her book "No Shenanigans!" and it is filled with glorious eye candy and really detailed instructions. If you're a beginner in mixed media or someone with experience that just wants to try some very specific techniques, I highly recommend her book. She also has a video class available.

Here's a picture of one of the lessons I completed. I added some of my own "touches", which she recommends, so it didn't look exactly like hers.

Below is another painting I've started.  Its on a 16 x 20" canvas which is a stretch for me!  I started with some of the Tim Holtz picture strips of the found relatives, the ones that come in a strip of 3.  I cut them apart and glued them randomly around the canvas.  I added paint in red, pink, turquoise with a little lime green.  I added some bubble-like stenciling with heavy gel and dried it with a heat gun causing it to bubble up even more.  I carved a new rubber stamp, a sort of wavy spiral and stamped it in black and gold randomly around the page, being sure to go off the edges of the canvas at times.   Then stencilled some birds from Dyan Reaveley's bird stencil in black archival or stazon ink and used another stencil with white modeling paste.  I also used a tree stencil with Stazon red ink in each corner.  This one isn't finished yet, but its on a break until I am duly inspired for what it needs next!


Thursday, July 7, 2016

Cards with limited supplies

Greetings!  Thought I'd share some cards I made this week!  I challenged myself by choosing a few pieces of scrapbook paper from a few different 6x6 pads, most having a vintage feel.  I had also purchased some embossed 12x12 cardstock at Tuesday Morning that I wanted to use as card bases.  I had also bought some new embossing folders and used some coated papers to test those, adding some inks to highlight the embossing.  I had some ribbon that I had temporarily stashed in a container before relegating it to its color coded container.  I added my scrap paper organizer for solid color mats and my container of bling, my ATG gun and some pop dots and voila!  If I decorated the inside of the card, I've included a picture of that as well.

Would love to hear your comments!











Monday, July 4, 2016

Horse Themed Mini Album

Hello out there!  It has been so, so long since I posted to this blog!  I could list a bunch of reasons, but I'll keep it short.  I've been dealing with some significant pain in my hip and back over the last year - hasn't been at all fun, but there have been many serendipities!  The back issues are being managed with regular exercise; I'm in the best physical shape in years which really helped my recovery from a total hip replacement and subsequent emergency surgery due to a very large hematoma under the incision (7 days in the hospital!  Yikes).  Its been several weeks now and I am well on the mend!

I just have to comment on the wonderful support I've had from friends.  One in particular who flew up from Florida to stay with me during the first surgery and take care of me and the pups (Bless you, Barbara!).  Another whose timing was so perfect she was with me when the ambulance came prior to the second surgery (Bless you, Dianne!).  And another, relatively new friend who came to my house twice a day to care for and play with Lillie and Gideon - cannot imagine what I would have done without her (Bless you, Jeri!)!  And thanks too to my family and friends who called and commented with so much support on facebook and via texts.  I have never felt so incredibly fortunate.

The last amazing serendipity is about Gideon - I'm going to do a post on the pups cuz they are so darn cute, but in a nutshell:  Gideon joined our family a year ago last March and, although unknown to us at the time, came with some fear reactivity issues.  He is on anti-anxiety meds and we have done a lot of positive reinforcement training and he is doing so much better.  However, when people would come over, he would get very concerned and bark a lot; I would usually have to put him in the bedroom where he just felt safer.  Well, upon Barb's arrival, Gideon was so smitten with her, I was afraid I would have to check her suitcase before she left!  And then Jeri sat on the floor and played with him all the days I was hospitalized.  Then there were nurses and Physical Therapists at the house in the subsequent weeks and Gideon has realized that people are usually pretty darned OK and goes up to everyone for pets and kisses!  What an incredible blessing this has all been!  We're still working on what he thinks about other dogs!

Okay, on with the creativity!  I've been working for months on a mini-album (although there isn't a whole lot "mini" about it) for my wonderful boss as a gift for her 30th anniversary with the company.  She is an amazing boss and person and I am so excited to give her this.  Here is a video of the finished product.

The inspiration for the pages came from http://jshobbiesandcrafts.com/(Designs by Shellie).  Some of the pages are identical to those in some of her videos and some I modified.  Her tutorials are excellent and she has all the parts and pieces in her online store.  I highly recommend both!

I hope you enjoy the video!