Mother-Daughter Art Day

Hello friends!  I hope you are all enjoying your holidays.  We had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas with family, and are having a fun week.  Ever since I went to a weekend with Donna Downey at her studio near Charlotte, NC, I've been wanting to try my hand at a canvas, a la Donna's Inspiration Wednesday videos.  My daughter really wanted to join in the fun, so we bought ourselves some blank, pre-gessoed canvases, watched some videos, and played for the entire afternoon in my craft room.  I just love her style - vintage, shabby chic, but with bright colors to fit her personality and match her blue-with-big-colored-polka-dots walls in her bedroom.

Some details, Meghan's first....

As soon as Meghan spied my Golden's gold paint, she had to use it!  Here, she has accented some of the images on some stamped tissue paper that she tore and gelled onto the painted canvas.  She also used a splatter technique with the gold.  A bit of Tim's tissue tape and some K and Co. keys keep the vintage vibe going.

Meghan is becoming a fan of anything French, so the chipboard Eiffel tower, spritzed with golden glimmer mist, was a natural choice for her.  More stamped tissue in the background, and a little bit of a resist, sprayed "breathless LOVE" panel behind the star.

Aren't all tween girls dreamers?  This stamp from Unity was a natural choice for her. ;)

I adored *this technique* that Donna demonstrated in her video.  I tore pieces of vintage sheet music, text, and patterned papers to create my background.  A bit of tinted gesso, then lots of different paints, stains, splatters, and crayons over the top.

I had found a vintage book of poetry that was written on in the margins.... in pencil.  When I adhered this page to my canvas using gel medium, the pencil writing turned purple!  Oh happy day - love when that kind of stuff happens!  A little birdy over the top of the poem (To the Skylark), spritzed with glimmer mist and outlined in Neo Color crayon.

And speaking of Caran D'Arche NeoColor II crayons..... I. am. in. love.  Oh! Yes!  I had purchased a few at Donna's studio just to try them and see if they were worth the considerable expense.  I fell for them - hard - and just bought a bunch more individual colors from Dick Blick (they were having a free shipping special, and they always have great prices).  I decided to buy them individually, rather than in a set, because I know that I love the soft muted tones rather than the brights.  Better to spend a little more and get exactly what I want.  Anyway, back to the canvas..... I stamped the peony onto pale pink tissue paper and adhered it to the canvas with gel medium.  I used Golden paint to paint in the stems and spritz on some brown speckles.  Then I went to work with my as-of-then very limited NeoColor crayon palette (I think I had 6 at the time).  A bit of brightening of the flower, some shading all around - so easy, so simple, so worth it (to me, anyway, tee hee)!

I hope you get time to play during this busy season - especially if you can play with family and friends!  We are switching gears for the long holiday weekend - it's volleyball 24/7, with my daughter in her first big tournament of the season.  I'm hoping to be able to get some downtime on the ol' iPad to vist all of your lovely blogs.  Until then.... Happy New Year!

Sail Away

Edited to add: I had a question about what kind of watercolor crayons I used.  Funny thing, that.  I am a total newbie at this, but I'll tell you what I've experienced so far.  Just a few weeks ago I purchased a small, cheap Staedtler set to see whether I liked them and if I would use them.  12 colors, mostly primary.  They are fun, and I figured I could get by for the near future with that.  When I went to Donna Downey's, however, she had Caran d'Ache Neocolor IIs in her shop, by the set, and *individually*!  I couldn't resist buying a few luscious shades individually (rust, coral, turquoise, olive... stuff like that).  So... the comparison:  both have beautiful, vivid colors.  Both are easy for me to work with.  However.... the Neocolors are definitely creamier, and blend more readily than the Staedtlers (that is, it doesn't take much "scrubbing" to have them blend beautifully).  If you have access to individual Neocolors, I'd say buy a couple.  (Although this is not "cost efficient" compared to the sets, it makes sense if you are unsure about what you want or how much you'll use them.  This way you've only invested a few bucks.  Try getting a few colors that are not in the smaller sets, that way you won't have overlap if you decide to invest in a set.)  But if you don't have Neocolors nearby and you want to try out watercolor crayons for the first time, the less expensive versions are still very nice, too.  So that's the long answer, LOL! Hope that helps.

Happy Friday. :)  Today I have a little clean and simple card featuring images from a brand new plate from Rogue Redhead Designs called "Beach Babes."  I decided that this little boat image, border design, and sentiment would go along perfectly over at the Less Is More Challenge, which this week is to use the colors of your nation's flag.  A little send-off to summer with the Red White and Blue.  I wanted to play with some new watercolor crayons I purchased, so I stamped the boat a bit off-center and filled in the sea and sky with crayons.  The boat is paper pieced, with a little crayon color added.  I scratched out some splashing waves with an Xacto knife.  The greek key border is embossed in dark blue, the sentiment stamped in a deep red.  The hardest part about this card was photographing it!  You can click for a larger view.... something went wonky in my photo processing efforts and I think I've ended up with a bit of a blurry image in the regular sized version.  I've also been having trouble uploading images to blogger again..... anyone?

I've got a few more pics of projects from my classes with Donna Downey.  Here are a few album pages from the Heart and Soul class......

Masking, glimmer misting, inking..... fun stuff.  Here's to a happy weekend for all! :)

Good Times and Happy Mail!

Well, it seems I've gone from having nothing to share to having so much to share that I've got to split it over a few posts!  I have returned from an amazing, inspiring, fun, and fab-u-lous weekend at Donna Downey Studios.  The journal above was made in her "Butterfly Moments" class, and is a canvas mini album.  We did lots of fun distressing with papers, inks, and paints.  The main butterfly portion is from a 12x12 canvas sheet available here.  We ripped and distressed it, then painted over it with Shimmerz, which is paint infused with mica.  Loooove it!  Here's a close-up:

Canvas letters, Prima flowers, book text.... so many of my favorite things were included in this class!  Here's a peek at an inside page, done by applying distress inks and spritzing them with water:

Okay, so enough about me...... the most fabulous surprise was waiting for me when I got home, from the lovely Linda at My Happy Place blog:

How awesomely gorgeous is this?????  A beautiful layered mini canvas, a gorgeous coordinating card, an adorable little tag, and... hello!...... the envelope was even stamped and painted to coordinate! Wow!  I am so, so very grateful that Linda shared this with me - Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!  I love each and every piece.  How wonderful are blog friends?!?!  I am in awe.

Hope everyone has been having a wonderful summer.  It's been busy around here, I haven't been to your beautiful blogs nearly as much as I would like.  Hoping the pace will slow a little in these last, sweltering days of summer.  I've still got more to post.... but it will have to wait a bit.... ;)