Just a little "Inspired"....

I have always loved and admired the work of artist Donna Downey.
She is an artist I relate to - with similar collage-y styles and philosophies - so I just knew I'd come back from taking one of her classes and end up creating something very Donna-esque. :) Look what came out of me this week. LOL

I just love it. I got to play with some of my favourite things and "roll out" a new technique or two (three stems with leaves to be exact) *smiles*. Life IS good!

I have this hanging in my studio now and it's making me happy!
Come join me in the studio to create one for yourself - with your own style, colours and adornments. You know you want to and I know you can!

A Little Character Study...

I was inspired by an article in the current issue of the "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine. The featured artist loves FONTS and created a 6x6 canvas using her favourite fonts and text. I loved the idea and broke open a 1950's Saturday Evening Post I had kicking around (doesn't everyone have one of those? hehe) and started looking for words that jumped out at me.

I've been on a bit of a self discovery journey lately and the words that popped out, interesting enough, were: Good, Better, Best, out with the old, New and woman. See a pattern? *smile* I swear the words you need (and mean the most) jump right off the page!! Now I have a theme....

The letters in the center of the canvas are my favourite letters .. . for various reasons. The font? Fiesta from Quickutz. I adhered them with Matte Medium to my wood canvas and outlined with Charcoal Pencils and used a waterbrush to smudge a shaddow. LOVE that effect. From there just collaged some elements and even used some liquid beads from Golden for a little 3D effect. The Pen Nibs: a Tim Holtz stamp stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with Fine Black Embossing Powder.

I wish I had a better photo of this. You'll just have to come to the studio to check it out in person. Look for a NEW CHARACTER STUDY WORKSHOP in the studio! I'll be posting details this week. That way you can all come in and play with WORDS and explore your own creativity!

Escape, be free!! :)

A little something I was playing around with last Friday Night at the Studio Crop with the girls.

I am submitting it for last week's Gingersnap Challenge: Wings.
This bird was created by melting UTEE on a chipboard piece and adding some found metal objects. The metal wings were embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, painted and cut to fit.

The canvas was textured with light molding paste from Golden. It's hard to see here but I love the texture IRL.

It was painted with acrylics, the words written in sepia India Ink...there's even a little pumice stone medium (also from Golden) in there too.
Thanks for looking!
Have a creative day!!!!

A House and a Home...

Houses... that's the theme of this week's SCD Challenge . This is what I created for it today!

The background collage is a vintage 1950's New Home Spec book that I snatched up in a re-sale store. The "Home" paper is all Tim Holtz and the saying is Wendy Vecchi. The tree stamp is from a Canadian Company called Harmonie (out of Quebec). A little Walnut Distress Ink and Coffee Archival Ink and you have the completed piece that was put together using Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Matte Medium - My favourite collage-ing adhesive and transfer medium!
Hope you like! Thanks for looking! BTW...loving the new month format ..."the" Skinni (3"x5")

WIN a Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine!

As you know, I was lucky enough to be published in the current issue of the Canadian Scrapbooker! My Cover Challenge Layout is found on pg 8.....

I received a complimentary copy of the magazine as a thank you for participating so ... I thought I'd share the joy and gift it to one of you!!

LINK A PICTURE of a creation that you made that reminds you of summer (this is the summer issue of the magazine after all!!) for your chance to win. That's it! That's the requirement. It can be a layout, a card, an ATC, twinchie, etc etc.... as long as it is summer related ...it's all good!!

I will have this open to everyone worldwide... just make sure I can get a hold of you if you win. I'll need your addy to send it to you.

I will randomly select a winner next Thursday (June 10) at 12pm est.... Good luck and thanks for spreading some summer cheer!! Not long now before the official start to the summer! Can't WAIT!!

Fragments, Fragments

I had a wonderful evening with the girls for our Technique of the Month Club!

This month I had a few questions about how to use Fragments from Tim Holtz's Ideaology Line so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to explore them with the girls. The picture above is of a few Ideaology Fragments that I played with last night. I showed the girls how to use Glossy Accents to attach pattern paper the the back of the Fragments and then use Rub Ons to embellish them. We also stamped on them and coloured with Alcohol Ink Pens and finally we had a lot of fun creating collage backgrounds for our Fragments and making Key Chains to take home.

Thanks for a creative night ladies! I thoroughly enjoyed having you in the studio!

The Final 2 Cards

Here they are... the final two "Man Cards" for June's Card Workshop. *smile*

These cards will be available to create during the month of June. Simply contact me at the studio to arrange a time for you to create them. If you'd like to come in during regular studio hours, you are welcome to anytime... I have a 4 person minimum to create them after hours. If you'd like to see if we can put a group together on a certain day - just let me know.

These cards are very "kit friendly" and as a result, will be available as a kit this month too! $20 for 8 cards - 2 of each (same as the workshop fee)