Surface Magic a.k.a. day one of Art and Soul Hampton 2010

With the guidance and experience of our instructor Marie Otero we played with Golden Digital Grounds today. I had heard about them but for some reason thought it was more cumbersome than it was. Basically there are three similar but different products. One is clear gloss, one is white matte and one is for non-porous surfaces. If you can only afford one get the non-porous since it also works on porous surfaces. Find something to print on and prepare your surface by painting on it or just using the grounds. We used two coats of the grounds (drying in between each coat) and then attached it to a carrier sheet (we used cardstock). Set your printer settings for basic color and the type paper you are using and then print. We kept our setting at either plain or semi gloss.

Throughout the day I printed on magazine paper, tyvek, wall paper, joss paper, foil wrapping paper, handmade paper and a clear digital skin. Marie created the clear skins ahead for us by using multiple coats of the grounds on a plastic sheet without any paper. It creates a dreamy type look and worked well with a high contrast image with some white space.

Here's a photo at the end of the day of Marie and I with a photo of the inside of Bath Abbey in the UK that I printed on a magazine photo. Before printing I painted the surface with a bit of acrylic paint to push the magazine photo a bit into the background. Marie is a great teacher and her work is fabulous.

Until my next post,
Diane

Setting up Collage...East Coast

Last Monday before everyone else arrived for Art and Soul in Hampton I helped Maria and her gang set up her on-site store. I arrived at 11a.m. and worked until about 6:30p.m. or so. Emily (Glenny's assistant for the rest of the convention), Jovencio and Diane (Maria's employees) and I unpacked boxes and arranged items into the tables. Jovencio and Diane made sure the orders were correct and priced the items then we set up the tables (and kept asking for more tables!) by similar items. We had all the inks together and all the tools together and all the glues and adhesives together and so on. It was a lot of organizing and arranging for a short few days but it makes it easier on the customer to just point to the 4th table and say "all the XXX is over there".

I had asked Maria last year about helping her "work for product". She paid me an hourly wage in cool stuff. It was my little experience in the retail world and hope to be able to do it again next year. It's one of the perks of living within 15 minutes of the venue.

The gang had already started when I arrived but you can see there are a lot of unopened boxes on the back table.

The magazines were already laid out but there were still a bunch of books to be added to these tables.

Here's Jovencio setting up the ink pads and refills.

We put items on these back tables to be priced then grouped them together by function.

Emily is unpacking one of the cash registers and credit card readers and trying to keep the packing "popcorn" from going all over the place.

Diane and Jovencio are pricing items and then I'll arrange them on a table.

Maria is checking to see if the wireless internet connection is working...or is she checking her Facebook account?

Diane, Jovencio and Emily are doing inventory and pricing some more items.

Here's what everything looked like when I left.

We got so much done that first day that all there was left to do was some more pricing, setting up signs and making sure the cash registers were working properly.

I wasn't needed on Tuesday so I returned on Wednesday for registration and to pick up the goodies I'd set aside.

I didn't get this photo of Maria and I until the last day...for some reason I forgot and wanted to make sure I got a shot of the two of us.

Here's a shot of Maria's set up crew. I was heading home on Sunday and saw the gang taking a break so we asked another attendee to take our photo.

Until my next post,

Diane

I dreamed... card

A while back I showed you how I made this background paper, this one uses Rangers new Distress Ink Rusty Hinge. I decided to use it with some Anne Taintor playing cards that I bought about 2 years ago. When I bought them I knew I'd be using them in crafts and I just needed to find the right project. Well here it is with my new background paper and a design element that I cut from my Silhouette. There are loads of cool free designs on the web so I haven't bought any yet and hope to continue to be frugal. The stamp I used is by Stampers Anonymous.

Until my next post,
Diane

Glad and Sad...Art and Soul 2010 is history

Five full day classes in a row has me burned out. There is so much creative energy that after the class is over you have so many ideas in your head about doing more of the same thing or how to apply what you learned to your particular style. I've met some wonderful folks over the past four years of attending.

My first experience was only one class. I was skeptical about something that was so cool being so close to me. After that one class I knew I was very fortunate to be within daily driving distance to such a unique event.

My thanks to all the folks that do the background work for an event like this.

I know I promised photos and they'll be coming but right now I have to unwind a bit so I have posts scheduled to fill in the gaps.

Here's a link if you'd like to learn more and possibly join this wonderful experience of what is called Art and Soul.

Until my next post,
Diane

Art and Soul 2010 Day Five - last day

Today is the fifth and final day of Art and Soul for 2010 in Hampton. I'm taking another class by Albie Smith (no, I'm not a stalker just a fan of her techniques and easy going style). This class is called Paste Paper Extravaganza and here's the description from the Art and Soul website:

Let’s have fun, get messy, learn something about mixing color and pattern and create lots of extraordinary papers. From the simple yet elegant, to refreshingly complex, you will create a stack of unique paste paper. Playing with a variety of papers we’ll use stamps and stencils from my extensive collection, and lots of junk to create one of a kind and print-offs to frame, to use for books, cards, collages and other art projects, or just to touch and admire. It’s a wonderful thing to have a pile of gorgeous and interesting patterned paper infused with your creative touch in your stash to inspire your next work of art.

Picture to follow!

Until my next post,
Diane

Art and Soul 2010 Day Four

Today is day four of Art and Soul and I'm taking The Episodic Journal from Albie Smith.

Here's the description from the Art and Soul website: For me it's always been about color, texture, and pattern. The Episodic Journal is my answer to my trinity. Vibrant colors playfully laden with rich layers of stamps, doodles, washes and stencils. Covers so lush you can dive into them and swim around for awhile. We'll make paste paper using rich splashes of color and elegant to funky designs. Working fast, our artistic five year old is in heaven! Works of art in themselves but only the beginning of our journey into texture. We’ll color wash our pages, preparing for the future when our words and images will be more than happy to live on these sheets of delicate color combined with shimmers of copper, gold, or bronze. By combining stamps, hand carved ones or bought, our visual vocabulary is expanded as the images dance across the signature covers repeating the voice of our covers. And that rabbit stamp? Who says it's a rabbit? Let me show you how to transform stamps into something new. We put it all together with a beautiful stitch that isn't hard but does take some patience and effort. You can do it. Your finished journal may look like Monet or Warhol or it may look like you. Whatever you bring forth, it will be your voice, your art, a masterpiece of your own trinity.

Pictures cming soon!

Until my next post,
Diane

Art and Soul 2010 Day Three

Today is day three of Art and Soul and I'm taking A Vintage Metal Deck with Leighanna Light.

Here's the description from the Art and Soul website: In this workshop we will transform ordinary metal into a fabulous thick, chunky, beautifully embellished deck of cards! Each student will receive 10 flat pieces of metal, playing card size, to transform into a beautiful work of art. Each card will represent a meaningful word or theme which will be further explored in text on the back, & upon completion they will be bound together with wire & danglies. Learn several surface altering techniques using patinas, rust, gesso & wax. Join us for a fun, exciting day of creativity & inspiration!

Pictures coming soon!

Until my next post,
Diane

Art and Soul 2010 Day Two

Today is day two of Art and Soul and I'm taking a class with Albie Smith called A Bevy of Books.

Here's the description from the Art and Soul website: Come try your hand at a delightful assortment of soft covered books. These are great for documenting the events of our lives and they make wonderful gifts.


The morning will be spent exploring techniques for adding color, texture and pattern to paper. We will be exploring the possibilities of gesso, molding paste, acrylic paint and glazes for our surface design on the paper. In the afternoon we’ll assemble several small books made up of your creations.

Simple construction, easy stitching equals lots of fun and a stack of lovely books.

This is a great end of retreat workshop…very little thinking required!

Very little thinking!!!! I'm the perfect student. Pictures coming soon!

Until my next post,
Diane

Art and Soul 2010 Day One

Today is the first day of Art and Soul in Hampton, VA. I'm taking a class every day but no night classes this year. Today I'm taking a class called Surface Magic with Marie Otero.

Here's the description from the Art and Soul website: This class is focused on working with the digitally printed image, either your own photographs or your own artwork and is designed to enable artists to expand their digital printing horizons beyond the basic output of photo or fine art paper whilst still using their own home desktop printer.


Students will explore a variety of techniques for creating unique substrates for printing, with a particular focus on using common household, hardware and recycled materials. We will also experiment with prints on specialty papers, metallic surfaces and the use of transfer film. Students will also be exposed to the use of digital grounds to enhance surface preparation, learn how to create acrylic ‘skins’ and touch on the use of under-painting to give new and incredible dimension to your printed work.

The emphasis of the class is on experimentation and discovery!

I hope to post photos of my creations soon.

Until my next post,
Diane

Happy Surgery Anniversary --- another foot story

Today marks the one year anniversary of my bunion surgery. Actually it was more than just "simple" bunion surgery. I also had an osteotomy and another cut between my big and next toe to relax the tissue. You've seen (what, you haven't?!) the other posts and can get more of the details in my blog but here the synopsis.

1. Are you glad you had it done? YES
2. Any ill effects? Not really, it is easier to buy shoes since both feet are the same width not but I still go for wide shoes with a tall toe box.
3. Would you do it again? Yes, but I think the doctor matters. I used TriCare and really didn't have a choice of the doctor BUT I am glad I had an orthopedic surgeon as opposed to a Podiatrist.

Until my next post,
Diane

Does your salon contribute?

I was getting my hair done yesterday and one stylist was talking to another about a piece she saw on the new regarding the oil mess in the Gulf of Mexico. Their parent company was mentioned as one of many in my local area that is assisting the clean up by sending the hair they cut. Matter of Trust is coordinating efforts to take the hair and stuff it into nylons to make booms out of them. This is a natural way to collect the oil and help protect wildlife. Ask your salon is they participate and let them know how to if they aren't.

Until my next post,

Diane

Flowers ATC

Here's an ATC I made for the Altered Designs Yahoo group with the theme of Flowers. I made it three times before I finally made one that I liked enough to give away. It was either the paper or the resist technique that I didn't like. For the final result I used glossy paper and Ranger Clear Resist Ink which is now the Ranger Watermark Resist Ink and stamps by Impression Obsession. After stamping the flowers I brayered Ranger Adirondak ink over the entire surface. I wiped the surface with a towel to reveal the flowers in white. I stamped the sentiment with StazOn using a stamp positioner and then outlined the edges with a Krylon gold pen.

Until my next post,
Diane

I agree...Life is Good

Saturday I took another class at Memories Galore by Melissa Samuels. We made another version of an altered book by using multiple pages from the book for some of our pages. We used the On the Boardwalk collection of paper by Graphic 45. Melissa's design was published in Scrapbook.com magazine. She's got some great ideas and I can't wait to see what she'll be teaching with the next list of classes comes out.

Unlike the Memories Galore in Brandermill which is lucky enough to be within walking distance of a great place to eat this time we ventured off on our separate ways for lunch. I found a good Indian restaurant with a buffet and was very happy with my lunch.

Until my next post,
Diane

Kings or Queens ATC

Here's an ATC I made for the Altered Designs Yahoo Group with the theme of Kings or Queens. I had some detailed Egyptian stamps and decided to use this one of Ramses III by the Stamping Ground. I embossed it with gold detail powder to make it look more "royal". Since the stamp is so large there wasn't much else I could do. I added a smaller stamp by Non Sequitur and an embellishment by Fancifuls.

Until my next post,
Diane

Numbers ATC

I made this ATC for the Stampers Corner Yahoo Group ATC of the month club. I used a Stampers Anonymous Stamps that I embossed with clear powder on glossy paper. Next I swiped three colors of alcohol inks in diagonally. I added a bit of gold ink too. The final touch was the addition of the "believe" word.

Until my next post,
Diane

Colorful birthday card

Here's a magic card I made for a nephew. When you first look at the card there is no color in the central image but when you pull the ribbon tab the color magically appears. The stamps are by Inky Antics. I learned to make this card at a class taught by Jackie of Inky Antics at a local stamp show a few years ago. The inside of the card says "Hope your birthday is colorful".

Until my next post,
Diane

Happy Mothers Day

Here's two cards I made for Mothers Day. One is for my Mom and the other for my mother-in-law. They both use a bit of embossing. One with a Cuttlebug folder and the other usind a Spellbinders Impressability that I inked before embossing. They both use new stamps by Hero Arts. One uses a Fiskars corner punch and the other a bit of lace ribbon.

Until my next post,
Diane

Travel ATC

Here's another of my twisted humor ATC's. I made this one for the Altered Designs Yahoo Group with the theme of travel. I used paper from DCWV and then overlayed some printed (look carefully for the footprints) vellum to tone down the color. I used a stamp by 100 Proof Press and came up with this phrase. The "Are We There Stamp" is by Cloud 9. I attached the vellum using the corner brads.

Until my next post,
Diane

Rainy Day ATC

This ATC for the Altered Designs Yahoo group had the theme of Rainy Day. I used a Tim Holtz designed Stampers Anonymous stamp that I stamped on acetate with StazOn. The base of the card is glossy cardstock that I sprayed with various watercolors. I stamped and embossed with clear ink a stamp by Studio G that says April Showers and has an umbrelly (it's hard to see in the scan). I also had a rain cloud stamp by Studio G that I used on the top. The final touch was the addition of a few rain dot embellishments that we sent to me a while back as a RAK (random act of kindness) by a fellow stamper.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another Class with Claudine

This is a late posting of a class I took a few weeks ago up at Scrapdoodles with Claudine Hellmuth. It was a technique based class learning 16 different techniques that you can use with Claudine’s sticky back canvas, and her line of Studio Paints by Ranger.

It was an all day class that was pretty fast paced but in the end not only did we learn a bunch of cool things but walked away with a neat book.

This is the third class I've taken with Claudine. The other two were at Art and Soul. As always Claudine takes a great picture but I've got a strange expression on my face for some reason.

Until my next post,

Diane

Annie Oakley ATC

The theme for a recent swap at the Altered Designs Yahoo group was Clowns/Circus. I had an old book on circus stars and discovered that Annie Oakley and her husband were actually with the Sells Brothers Circus before she went to the Buffalo Bill Wild West Road Show. I used part of the book that mentions this and used some gesso on it to push the words into the background a bit. After that I used some Ranger Distress Inks to age the paper. The stamps are by TJ Designs and the embellishment by SkyBluePink completes the ATC.

Until my next post,
Diane