2014 holiday recap

Doodling for this year's family card

Blue winter night settling in over the studio

Granddaughter Eliää practicing her twirls after The Nutcracker,

Kennedy Center Opera House

Studio holiday decor

Christmas lights on Guernsey

Westminster Abbey at dusk

Stage set for The Phantom of the Opera,

Her Majesty's Theatre, London

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Hope your holidays are filled with family, friends, and the fullness of good spirit, 

and that your new year will be equally blessed!  

♥

StencilGirl and Eileen Hull Inspiration Team Blog Hop

Welcome to the last day of the week-long StencilGirl and Eileen Hull Blog Hop!

All this week members of both design teams have been sharing their creative projects 

using the wonderful products from the StencilGirl and Eileen Hull brand items.

Please click on ALL the blogs on the hop list at the end of this post

to see their inspiring projects and to leave comments for the grand prize drawing!

If you have been following all week, you are here at the last project.

But if you're starting here at the end, please go back and catch up on all the great fun earlier this week.

For my project, I made a cute little art journal with Eileen's fabulous

  Sizzix Mini Album die, a favorite of mine.

Click here to see the steps for constructing this quick and simple album, 

using wallpaper and baker's twine, made while I was enduring this last fast-paced month of construction in my new painting studio.

The journal pages in the mini album were cut from white Bristol paper 

with Eileen's album die to be the same size as the journal cover. 

On these pages, I used two StencilGirl stencils in layers:

the 6" square Leaves 6 Stencil and the larger Garden Swirl Stencil.

 

Happily, the 6" leaves stencil is just a little larger than the 5+1/2" die-cut page,

allowing the design to float gently off the edges.

Using a Copic marker (YG03), I filled in the leaves with quick strokes

to allow for some natural shading.

It's really easy to fit the Copic brush tip in the small areas of the stencil.

Then, keeping the stencil in place, I highlighted with more Copic markers 

(YG61, B00, and Y17) on the tips of the leaves.

Next, to add some depth to the overall leaf pattern, 

I laid the leafy areas of the Garden Swirl Stencil over top, 

outlining the stencil shapes with a Derwent Metallic colored pencil 

(Green 91- looks blue), then lightly coloring in where the stencil itself was solid.

Because this was to be a background for writing,

I faded the colored pencil more by slightly erasing it, leaving the faint metallic imprint.

I know, erasing is not much fun.  But if you listen to some blues guitar, you can better 

get in the rhythm of this little life challenge. :)

Now the pages were ready for doodling and writing encouraging reminders to myself as I slowly move into my new studio space.

I used a waterproof black pen to letter and the same Copics to fill in the doodled border.

You may have to enlarge the photos to better see the effect of the penciled stencil in the background.

To see another mini album made using Eileen's Craffiti barn wood and flower wreath stamps, which I sampled when they were first released, please click here.

GIVEAWAY

Such a great prize package awaits one lucky commenter on this blog hop.

Leave a comment on this blog to be entered to win.

All comments left for the entire week August 18-22 on all blogs in the hop

will be eligible for the grand giveaway prize.

One comment per blog post.

Comments will close Sunday, August 24, at midnight Central Time.

Winner will be announced on Tuesday, August 26.

Today's Blog Hop Order

StencilGirl Talk (see days 1-5)

Janet Joehlin

Maria McGuire

Beth Watson

Pam Keravuori (you are here)

wishing you merry!

Since we're having record high temperatures for December 

and lots of rain instead of snow,  

the gigantic blue tarp remains over the structure of my new studio to protect it 

while it waits for periodic sunny weather.  

At least the construction crew are enjoying being home with their families for the holidays.

And I'm wishing you the same,

a very merry and blessed Christmas with those you love!

Don't forget to keep your name on the "nice" list throughout the new year! :)

time to start making your holiday wish box

Ho, ho, ho!  Once again the fabulous Eileen Hull and I are teaming up to teach a class using Eileen's awesome dies for Sizzix.  This time we'll be using her XL Square Box Scoreboard die to create a trio of holiday projects.   Starting with the box shape, we'll make a glittery hanging ornament, a photo box for any season, and a fun chunky book for all your holiday lists.

By the way, check out Eileen's blog to see her stop-animation video showing her 3-D Artist Trading Blocks, the new trend being introduced at CHA this January, using her new block dies!!

And then, come join Eileen and me at Angela's Happy Stamper in Reston on Saturday, December 7th, from 1-4 pm!  We'll be busy little elves all afternoon!

autumn doodle days

.
I'm so grateful for another beautiful autumn day!

Between a house full of family visiting here for several months  

(including my sweet youngest granddaughter who is a bundle of energy) 

and my studio construction plans running into delay after delay at the county level 

(where there is a reputation for unenergetic mire ... to be nice about it), 

I need to be coddled by the weather for as long as possible! :)

Not much time for doodling lately, 

although I bought a new Strathmore toned journal 

and briefly tried lettering something every couple days ... yay me!  

Here are some modest results of that short-lived endeavor, some still in progress.  

And since I've been been asked frequently, some info on pens I've used
(pretty simple, as doodling can be).

"Afternoon sun" handmade journal page:

Fabriano hot-press w/c paper with acrylic wash background

(leftover paint from previous project added quickly to the blank page 

during clean-up), with

black Pitt pen doodles (india ink dries quickly, is then permanent), 

Copic markers (because of the acrylic wash, the Copics don't bleed into the paper)

Emily Dickinson poem in lettering journal:

Strathmore toned sketch journal, 

Faber-Castell Pitt pens black #199 (S),  opaque white #101 (big marker),

gold #250 (1.5), plus red pencil

Flourish doodles in lettering journal:

 Strathmore toned sketch journal, 

Pitt pens black #199 (S),  opaque white #101 (big marker),  gold #250 (1.5), 

plus neon red and rose gel pens on special at Target

Project Life cards:

PL-sized cards cut from Strathmore Bristol smooth tablet, Pitt pen black (S), Copics

"Art is the magic and hope of an awesome life" in lettering journal:

Strathmore toned sketch journal, 

Faber-Castell Pitt pens black #199 (S),  opaque white #101 (large marker),

Faber-Castell pencil and magazine words

the interrupted practice of art journaling

I so wish I could make the practice of art journaling a daily or even weekly routine. It's such an enjoyable, relaxing, and imaginative outlet.  But the truth is I seldom have that kind of time.  So my pages remain an exploration seldom finished.

Even so, I'm finding out what I like as I try out different approaches and different tools. Since I like to paint and draw and doodle and letter, that's what usually appears on my pages.  Collage can be lots of fun, but I don't much like being held hostage to a pile of paper.  It's just easier for me to draw whatever happens to come along in my bits of time.  And although I love to write, I'm not much of a self-confessional journaler, so for me the pages are all about opportunities for line and color.  I might start with the line and add color, or the reverse.

Sometimes it's a long while before I get back to a journal page in progress.  Often, I don't remember where I meant to go with the page.  No matter.  I just enjoy adding another layer in the time I have, leaving it to finish when I can.  The painted page above eventually became the doodled page below.  It may change again when I have ten minutes.  It's all good.

doodled song lyrics

Spent an afternoon warming up for a lettering project 

by listening to some favorite songs and doodling the lyrics.

recent journal pages

It's been a while since I've photographed and shared any of my art journaling pages. Life keeps happening, trips keep popping up, and I think I do more suitcase-packing than anything else.  But today, while sweet little Eliää is having a sick day with a tummy upset, our out-and-about-Oxford plans are on hold.  So I've looked back through my camera roll to find a few photos I'd posted somewhere but not here on my blog. Here's a little recap of pages, some still in progress, with the spring-like colors I'm craving right now:

heartfelt box with eileen hull

Although I ran out of time to post this before Valentine's Day, I wanted to share a version of a project I'm currently working on.  Just arriving in stores now is the new line of "From My Heart" dies by my creative designer friend Eileen Hull with Sizzix.  

Eileen and I are super excited to be teaching another class together in April, 

using this really cool heart box she designed.

Eileen's Scoreboard Dies are innovative designs for cutting thicker materials like matboard.  For my sweetly simple Valentine version, first I painted 

a sheet of 140-pound Fabriano watercolor paper with a soft wash of 

Golden's Light Magenta acrylic paint.  Then I used Eileen's heart-box die to cut two heart shapes for the top and bottom of the box, running the top heart through a texture plate.  Using another die from her new line, I also cut several sizes of flowers with heart-shaped petals from the same painted paper.

For a little glitz, I doodled on the flowers and outlined the heart-box top with Ranger's Liquid Pearls in Platinum.  After the Liquid Pearls dried, I stacked my flower layers, cutting into some of the flowers to fluff the petals. 

Next I die-cut a second set of two hearts and box sides from heavy Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and assembled the box.  To make the white paper blend better with my painted paper, I dabbed the edges with Tim Holtz's Distress Stain in Spun Sugar.  Then I adhered the textured heart to the top of the box and added the layered flower.

Thinking it would be fun to add a Valentine sentiment to the box, I die-cut a banner from Bristol paper using an old Sizzix banner die (which I couldn't find online anymore).  With a Pitt black ink pen, I doodled the word "heartfelt" and filled it in with a Prismacolor watercolor pencil, also shading the tag ends.  Using adhesive only on the tag ends, I shaped the banner into a slight curve.

This heart box will be so easy to tailor to many occasions, including Mother's Day.  

I'll definitely be making more boxes as Eileen and I prepare to teach our class together.

(Our Sentiment Box class will be held at Angela's Happy Stamper in Reston

on April 9th (6 pm) and April 13th (1 pm).  Come join us. :)