October Creations

In Defense of Clutter----Stacker not a Slacker

In further support of Seth Apter's Studio Table Reveals, I wanted to post this article In Defense of Clutter-- I had it on my fridge for probably 14-years.  It was given to me by a friend so I don't have the original source material to site- no copyright infringement is intended.  Celebrate our curiously cluttered tables and optimism of ideas laying around to be started or finished.

Seth Apter's Studio Table: The Reveal Challenge

I love Seth Apter's challenge.  It is so incredible to see people's creative spaces in the real world.  Magazines offer up pristine interior designer quality spaces- and though I wish I had some aspects of a space from a magazine this will do.  I was surprised how easily my inner critic came up after I took the photos of my space.  Initially I took them in the evening and found them to look too dim even with lights. It felt a bit sad.  This surprised me because I see my creative space as a happy space within my home.  I took more pictures in the morning when there was more natural light.  I try to keep everything within arms reach.  Before I start a project lots of bins are displaced to get materials needed and then laid not the floor or stacked nearby.  The table is usually full of something- one conner for upholstery project, one corner for bills/mail, one corner for mainstay supplies that are never put away and one corner for work surface.

My craft corner - outside looking in---  

The past 2-3 years I've been radically growing my crafting stash---embossing folders, spellbinder's dies, sentiment stamps, background stamps, distress everything, gelli plate printing, stencils, watercoloring, and SoulCollage® materials I must admit I love shopping for craft supplies and love all the things colorful and sparkly and have symbolic meaning. Its a bit of retail therapy coping with some life losses- but at least they get transformed  into creative inspirations for others.

Doubles as my computer station when not crafting.

Happy Stash- I love vertical storage-- I hope someday to have some more customizable built-ins that I can organize to my hearts content.

My craft station doubles a my computer station when not crafting.  

I must admit I love having stamps border the periphery of my work space.  As quickly as I index them and get them into containers- I relish being able to find more symbols of inspiration.  I have an article on my fridge called "In Defense of Clutter" and basically it is viewed as an optimistic outlook on life and creating possibilities.  I like that.  I love seeing peek-a-boo images  of my stamps as their cascading sizes decorate the edges of my craft sheet.  They remind me of all the projects yet to be made :)

Last night Halloween card draft.

Ongoing project- index and catalog all my stamps

My view across from my work table is a painting an artist friend did of me playing cello, souvenirs from my honeymoon trip to Italy, a wedding photo, paint swatches (I'm planning on painting an accent wall to warm the view and move from the neutral color palate zone).

View from my craft table

 One of the features of my creativity area is a mobile that hangs over the table.  Our place is a bit boxy so I like the bit of whimsy it adds to the space and I can change up cards and ideas that I hang from it.  I mix it up with cards received from other crafting friends and technique ideas I've tried or want to continue to experiment with.

Inspiration mobile overhead

For anyone else whose inner critic came out when sharing their space, I recalled a fb post of a woman who posted some pictures of her kitchen and had received tons of negative feedback and how she should do this or that.  I loved her response--- she went around the room and expressed gratitudes for all she did have.  Likewise, I am grateful to have a space prioritized for creating and to have time and resources with which to create. I'm grateful for the friends and family I make projects.  I'm thankful for all things sparkly- stickles, distress glitter, Elizabeth Craft microfine glitters, Twinklin' H2Os, shimmery acrylics and more. I'm thankful for the variety of storage solutions- so I can keep my resources organized and safe from the elements.  I love being able to be inspired by all the innovators and artists I've discovered not his journey.  Thanks for stopping by.

CASE Study 4th Anniversary Week #2

Happy Anniversary CASE!  Assignment was to take an inspiration from the blog hop and create our own piece.  I chose Tasnim Ahmed and Jennifer McGuire's inspiration pieces for mine.  I love the pearlization and monochromatic color palate. I used Ranger Liquid Platinum since I didn't have the Wow Pearlized Silver powered.  I thought it was a close second for a similar look.  The Magenta Stamped Image was colorized with Twinkling H2Os in sky blue, blue grass, and heavenly white.  I used WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello for my sentiment.  The border on the bottom edge of my card was created using score-tape covered in the Ranger Liquid Platinum Powder and heat embossed.  Hope you like it.  Happy Anniversary CASE!

Watercolor for Card Makers- Day 5 & 6

I am in love with this Hero Arts Looped Flower Stamp.  Shari Carroll with the onlinecardclasses.com demonstrated a watercolor technique with stamp that I adore.  I love monochromatic projects but couldn't decide on a color palate to try first so I found a way to incorporate them all into a sampler project.  I'm not thrilled with my label- it got a bit mud die- but I see myself making many more projects with this stamp.  Coloring with this stamp is a very mindful exercise and is quite relaxing.  I'll post more to this link when I finish the other versions I'm working on.  

I had to add a few more using this stamp technique- I'm having so much fun with it.  This time I stamped a central image and then masked it off and ten stamped with the looped flowers background stamp.  On the fully white version, I added the embossing powder before the central image ink had dried to everything ended up white.  I think it was a happy accident.  Send in the Clowns!

I think my next creative notion to try with this style is using silver or gold embossing powder and to try to make the monochromatic color segments do a spiral/pinwheel… oh the possibilities.

Watercolor for Card Makers- Day 1 & 2 Projects

Soft Watercolor Wash Background (with Stencils)

This was THE most challenging technique to get the desired effect.  These are the results of my 6th round of trying.  I actually like more contrast than less.  I'll need to keep practicing this one.

** My own combination of Vibrant Water Color Wash and stamping through the stencil for vibrant color wash.

Vibrant Watercolor Wash Background

Using an acrylic block with distress ink to create various patterned backgrounds.  I like the shades of red best.  But I do like to challenge myself to use color combos I might not usually go to.  

Stamped Emboss Resist + Watercolor Wash-

These are my favorite for today.  The color palate suits my mood, the contrast is pleasing, and I love the  background resist images.  I'll work with these further to make cards but this is where they are for now.

Watercolor Class for Cardmakers

I can't believe how long its been since I've posted. It was the last time I took an online card class :)  Well as fate would have it work picked up and so I'm seriously behind in my postings- so now I will try  to do some catching up.

PreClass Experimentations- Perfectly Plaid-This reminds me so much of Easter and springtime.

Watercolor for Card Makers- Day 9 & 10-Watercolor Freehand

Watercolor freehand- I love how this turned out!  Jacarandas are my favorite tree so I thought I'd give it a go. Who knew splatter painting with distress inks could bring this about.

Day 4- Stenciled

Day 4 we get to explore techniques on our own.  I chose to use a metal stencil and use the embossing paste coated with distress stickles dry glitter in clear rock candy.  I like the effect- but I wish my embossing paste had been white rather than translucent.  I also did a version all in white- the texture was great but in a photo it didn't really show up as nicely as with the red.  

I made another version of this card using white on white for the paste and distress rock candy.  Its hard to see in the photo but in real life it is really beautiful.  I fussy cut around the image and then mounted on red metallic shimmer sheet to accent the image.  

Day 3 Onlinecardclasses.com - Stencils Texture and Dimension with Pastes Revisited

I loved the silver and white stars done with the paste and embossing powder- but that felt more like Christmas to me.  So, I decided to add color.  One of the fun things about designing cards is finding additional embellishments to create an appealing layout.  Below are some samples I created with die cuts from my extra's box.  The cards remind me of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris- but I think I will embossing the finalized embellishments in silver as well.

 

 

 

Day 3 Onlinecardclass.com- Stencils Course- Texture and Dimension with Pastes

Well I had fun playing with embossing paste last night but decided to wait until today to add the color factor and embellishments.  First I tried using the embossing paste and adding color- in this case it was translucent paste with silver embossing powder.  I must say its loads of fun to watch the wet paste bubble slightly when your heating the paste.  I coated a second card of wet paste design with silver embossing powder and let it set overnight before heating it.  It might be because the paste layer is thinner but I didn't notice a huge difference in the overall effect.  The course instructor had a larger difference. Its nice to have both options.

The other technique I experimented with was the Embossing Paste Resist.  For this technique I used translucent paste on white card stock and then colored over with distress inks in mowed lawn, peacock feathers, and salty ocean.  The embossing paste gives a nice glossy finish and raised texture to the card front.  I used the Julie Nutting Cling Stamp Set Merci from Prima for the sentiment "Merci Beaucoup." With all the talk of the mainland having white outs from snow I thought this was a nice bright and cheery card.

The next card used silver embossing paste to add raised color effect to the card front.  I looking forward to exploring adding colorants to white paste in the future- but I didn't have those supplies today.  

The clocks were then colored with shades of pink distress ink and frayed burlap and then spritz and flicked with water.  

Online Card Classes- Stencils Day 2 - Template Techniques

I see a lot of fun and diversity being added to stencils by pairing them with your stamps.  For stamping stencils technique choosing a more open stamps allows the stamp designs to peek through.  I chose to practice with by circles stencil and some victorian people stamps by Flonz Stamps and other designers.

 In order to not muddle other open stamp areas, its important to mask off around the space you are wanting to stamp.  I could have stamped monochromatic to the color I was filling in each circle for a water mark effect but I chose to use the black in for greater contrast due to the details of this stamps and the smaller open space on my stencil.

I really love how this card front turned out.  I chose to color the background spaces in Brushed Corduroy to continue the vintage theme.

Normally when I think of stencils and paint- I think of acrylic and use of my gelli plate.  But today I experimented with using watercolors or in this case my twinkling H2Os and the stencil template. Watercolor stencil technique gives a much softer and loose look. I love the shimmer effect the twinkling H2Os give the project.  I think I need a little more practice so I don't have color leakage underneath the stencil.

Using a black sharpie marker, I highlighted the birch trunk markings so it would seem more realistic.

Scribble stencil technique is good when your on a time crunch.  I liked the recommendation not to outline or trace the image but really either approach would create a wonderful look.  In trying this technique I realized mid project most of my stencils have very small open spaces.  Larger open spaces would work better.  I also need to find my pencil sharpener- most of my pencils were dull.
The scribble stencil technique feels very playful and light hearted at least with a vibrant color palate.

 I have one more technique to try from day 2 but it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.  Thanks for visiting my blog.  Any feedback is appreciated.