Thank you Carol and Stampers Corner for an awesome day Saturday! Love the new classroom. Here are the ladies working away! You all did such a great job! Thanks for hanging in there and staying late with me. This is the outside cover complete with a super cute bunny! The inside cover... ...and the inside. Look at all the Tim goodness! In fact the only thing that's not a Tim product are the vintage buttons and a little moss. Have a great week! Richele Don't forget to leave a comment before the end of the day on March 22nd on the Tattered Floral Post. You could win a Tattered Floral die from Tim.

That little cupid is me.....

Recycling has made me realize how much material I was wasting, it`s amazing! Wonderful opportunities are now being discovered and I hope you are inspired with all this too! Now I turned to cardboard packages, it`s becoming an obsession to identify this reusable stuff and I keep pushing my creativity out of my comfort zone and it`s challenging to change the mind about trash becoming art! This will take time to become part of our lives but I assure you , this feels good! I am certain that you will have plenty of material to collect at home and create many, many different cute embellishments for cards, invitations, gifts, tags, and also art to be hanged, given and for your art journals, altered books and even scrapbook pages! This will make exercise your creativity! I used my collection of punches and die cuts to cut the packages, probably you want to sand them first on the paint side, you can also paint the whole cardboard first to save time or paint them later like I did so I can go as I feel! Punches are a lot of fun and they can be easily found! I can`t believe how many of them I made! Soon I will have to give them away to friends! What I like is that what was left of the boxes was reduced to very, very little waste! You will have the shapes and also some stencils to use in your mixed media projects! Here you can see I saved the sides of the boxes to make my beautiful book marks which I really wanted one to use in a new book I `m reading now! Beautiful flowers, I love how they look without paint, just like that is a beautiful color! I had to find how to store them... The best of this... it feels like I didn`t have to spend any money! I am saving lots of money doing this! Lol! They actually look great just with the sand step but of course I love painting so I added guesso to prepare them for it! Here are the book marks on their make over! Care free painting, playing and with nothing in mind but to enjoy the process of this! I love my cropadile! After using a transparent laminated sheet to protect them after finished and dried, I made the hole to attach the ribbons... Aren`t they lovely? Who would say this came from a box that was meant to be thrown away? They all have a special quote on the back to get inspired! This can be beautiful gifts! Remember the toilet rolls? Lately I`ve been covering them with vintage music sheets, my favorite! This is an example of using the die cuts to make mixed media paintings, grown ups and children will love this! Some tags for my future presents, having them ready can be handy! This is a lot of fun! Ready to give with some cookies! :D To end, I am leaving you with the cutest flower on the block! All this was made with the card boards shown at the beginning, I find it awesome! I will be adding more creative projects with the idea of recycling so stay tuned for more! I hope you are inspired to create ! :D

Learn how to make DIY mixed media ornaments!

hello friends! wow that last two weeks have been the most amazing adventure! Ben and I, and two of our kids (preston and allie), just got back from a two weeks teaching trip to Australia (with a stop in fiji...

I recently rediscovered the charm of little paper flexagons, known in the cardmaking world as never-ending or infinity cards. I find it fascinating to unfold each page, revealing the card maker’s vision beneath, until I magically end up back where I started. Infinity cards also make an ideal mixed-media substrate. I use them to make…

I love late 1800's and early 1900's paper dolls; especially "mechanical" paper dolls. These are paper dolls that come in "parts" that you piece together with brads, eyelets or other fastening techniques. They can be called a variety of names by collectors such as: "jumping jacks", articulated, mechanical, jointed, movable, dancing... paper dolls. I personally collect the German made L&B articulated ballerina an prima donna dolls and in my search for those I keep locating images of Pantins from France. Vintage Sheet of French "Jumping-Jack" Pantin - Paper Dolls There were a series of Pantin "Dancing-Jack-Puppet" dolls produced in France in the mid-late 1800's by d'Epinal that I keep running across that have an interesting look to them. Assembled correctly, these dolls would "dance" - it required both the used of attaching the limbs of each figure and then a process of attaching string between the limbs so they could then be put in motion. See more about Jumping-Jacks HERE and on string assembly HERE ***** Update 10-09-12 I've created a basic "Pantin" assembly sheet. I hope you find it helpful in making your figures "dance" Remember - If you are going to make a "dancing" version you need to make sure your doll is on very sturdy materal like a light weight chip board so that the parts don't rip or tear when you work it. Basic Assembly instructions for making a Pantin paper doll "dance" ***** I can't say that many of vintage pantins intrigue me enough to collect the originals; however there are a variety of different ones out on the web to look at. Some of them are of a nice enough quality that you can use them for art projects; while others are only sufficient for reference like several of the sheets I'm posting today. Here are a few of the sheets I've found over the years on the Internet. French Pantins - Pierrot, Chinese, Turkish, Harlequin Depending on where and when they were published these dolls can appear individually or in sets. The Turkish man seen on the lower left is not a figure I've run across very often so I found this sheet interesting due to his appearance on it. Pantins - Pierrot & Columbine The Pierrot is a standard French pantomime character and I've seen him in several versions. I'm not a big fan of clowns or pantomime so this image usually "creeps" me out a bit. Columbine - a standard character in the Commedia dell'Arte. She is Harlequin's mistress. These characters have been produced in many different versions so if you choose to become a collector there is more then one of each character to chase down. This is a different version of Columbine and is numbered #1344 in the d'Epinal line This image has recently been offered on eBay as have the two Pierrot's that are posted below. I believe the seller is asking for a starting bid of @ $80 on each. Pierrot #1345 by d'Epinal Female Pierrot #1346 by d'Epinal I find the female Pierrot to be less "creepy" in appearance than the males. Pierrot & Pierrette - Chinese Dancers This sheet shows both a male and female Pierrot on the top portion and a pair of Chinese dancers below. For some reason it is more common to see the male and less common to see the female but in this sheet we get to see them both. I have seen the Chinese dancers in a few slightly different color version and if you look at the sheet I listed towards the top of this post you will see a slightly different version of the Chinese Man. I think these two images are very attractive and have even been so luck as to purchase them in rubber stamp form from Mad Rat Rubber. Mad Rat Rubber has all four of these vintage "Pantins" from the above shown sheet in rubber at - HERE They also have the male and female Spanish dancer and Cavalier from the sheet shown below. Titi - Spanish Dancers - Mousquetaire - Bobeche - Menetrier #1371 by d'Epinal Not only did d'Epinal produce their characters individually and in sets they reproduced them a variety of times over the years they were in production. The above sheet shows #1371 while the exact same set below shows them to be #845 Titi - Spanish Dancers - Mousquetaire - Bobeche - Menetrier #845 by d'Epinal I believe this to be one of the more attractive sets of Pantins from d'Epinal mainly due to the female Spanish dancer in the set. She's just too cute. Polichinelle and Harlequin - this one was found HERE Polichinelle - French for the Commedia dell'Arte character Pulcinella aka "Punch" He is a popular in French theater - a mocking and comical hunchback; that is easily spotted by his big hooked nose and his protruding belly. The Pantins I've seen of him, usually show him playing an instrument of some kind. Harlequin - comic servant characters from the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte". D'Epinal made several version of this character as they did with many others and he is most easily spotted by the diamond pattern on his outfits and usually wears a mask. The Columbine character is his mistress. Pantins - Jocrisse & Pere Cassandre - Dancing Indians d'Epinal #1362 Jocrisse - the "loon" is a a harmless but stupid character in theater. Cassandre - I'm unsure of who this character "Father Cassandre" is The bottom two are "Dancing Indians" another version of Jocrisse and Pere Cassandre This is a different printing version of the Pantins - Jocrisse and Pere Cassandre from what was seen int the sheet posted above this one. I believe most of these printed sheets to be from later in the 1800's and the printing technique seems to fairly "rough" with smeared colors and a low grade quality of paper and processing. Some are of better quality then others; such as the images that are printed one to a page; however occasionally I discover sheets that really stand out from the others. Here are two examples of Epinal Pantins that are of a much higher artistic quality. I discovered them - HERE (A search for "Pantin" should pull these up if the link does not take you directly to the images.) Pantins - Danseurs Bretons (British Dancers) Pantins Danseurs Chinois et Turcs- Dancers Chinese and Turks This is probably my favorite sheet of "Pantins" discovered so far. I would not mind having a high resolution version or even an original sheet for my collection. Considering this and the sheet above it are located at the French National Library it may be a tall order to fill but one never knows what will appear on the web. I think these would be great ornaments on a Christmas tree, don't you? Although I don't have this lovely set of Chinese and Turkish dancers in a quality that would make for good crafting, I do have several others that I was able to "clean up" and I will be bringing those to you in the near future. Be on the look out for fun "Jumping- Jack" dolls coming soon.

Source As a fairy-maker myself (and maker of lots of other things besides!), I find it easy to appreciate the work of other artists, designers and craftspeople, knowing the time and energy that goes into producing the end result. When I can, its always nice to buy a treat for myself, knowing that I'm supporting a talented person, as well as becoming the owner of a special one-off piece. Last week a present to me arrived from Lynn Barron of Sea Angels. Wrapped in a sheet of printed sugar paper was a hand decorated A4 box... A sprinkling of fairy dust on the lid gives a clue as to what's hidden inside... Lift the lid and another lovely layer... Black chiffon ribbon tied in a bow around polka dotted tissue, with a special handmade paper rosette with vintage trims. Lift the tissue and all is revealed... Lynn's words: vintage style fabric/card fairy with sparkly butterfly wings and a vintage layered dress. Her beautiful dress is layers of vintage French softest old turquoise, vintage gold raggedy crushed , and silver twinkly tulle and a tiny diamante head dress....that will bring her magical sparkle to the dark Winter months. Her wings are twinkly with glass glitter that will vintage and tarnish naturally. Here's my winter fairy in our home, hanging from an old French mirror. Lynn tells me "she's all twinkly and has been bathing under the last full moon, she loves chocolate and is a little shy but will be most happy living in your beautiful home.." What more can I say?! Except it's wonderful to own something handmade when it reflects its creator's passion and love for their work and materials. Niki x

Explore stephanie rubiano's 566 photos on Flickr!

Si vous ne nous suivez pas sur les réseaux sociaux (page Facebook animée par Ronan, compte Twitter sublimé par Nostromo, ou page Google+ propulsée par Burnain), déjà on ne vous félicite pas. Mais surt...

I have wanted to try making a St. Brigid's cross for years, but never got around to it until now. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and we had a lot

Fabric and paper. Not for trade

Valentine Freebies

I'm skipping ahead and posting again today because I want to share with you what I think is the GREATEST art project ever. WOW, that is a big, bold statement isn't it??? Well, you be the judge! Our letter last week was "M" so this just seemed perfect. We are reaching for the moon and the stars. YES, with the exception of cutting out the moon and the children's bodies), these were all done completely by the students themselves! I saw a similar art project on a children's museum website last year. I'm sorry that I don't have the original art piece (it was done by an adult artist) but if you do, please let me know and I will give them credit. NOTE: A big thank you to Katy Mitchell! She lead me to the original picture I saw. Here it is Artsonia. THANK YOU so much Katy!!! This project was really very simple but the children were all so proud of themselves. I loved watching each child finish their art and look at it. They were so happy. I hope you will try something like this with your class and if you do, please send me a picture, I would love to see it! Thanks for dropping by!

Collage for my friend's birthday. The faces are our high school pics.

Have a happy National Grandparent's Day this year with this list of 101 gifts, ideas, and activities! We can't wait to see their smiles!

2015 Topic 23: Christmas Cards and Gifts Hello everyone, Leandra here for the final topic of the year, but there is no challenge for this as we know you are busy enough, so think of it as eye candy! Our bloggers will still be blogging for the next 2 weeks with lots of homemade Christmas gift and card ideas to help you in the final push towards the big day! I have an amazing Christmas Pinterest page for this topic with lots of ideas, more than we are showing here, so take a look when you find that rare 5 minutes!! Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 22: Masterboards Challenge... Hi, Darcy here. Well you are all masterboard masters! You lot are a whizz with a brayer and created some luscious backgrounds before turning them into mini marvels such as cards and tags. Great to see so many people joining in right before Christmas, we know how busy you all are. The winner of Masterboards is: Jules B. Contact Darcy to claim your prize [email protected] Ok, Leandra back with you to present some fun and hopefully achievable ideas for decorating your home, gift giving and more over the seasonal period. Christmas can be such a stressful time for us all, planning food, people to stay, budgeting, all these pressures can really take the shine off the day if you don't keep it all in balance. I try to focus on enjoying the quality time spent with friends and family, and nothing says that more than a thoughtfully prepared gift. It might be a crafty make, some home cooking, a jar of sweet treats or a wreath for the door. Whenever you create something with your own hands for someone else, they do seem to appreciate the care and effort you have gone to, just for them. In this post you will find many such ideas, and often using supplies you probably have to hand. Candles.... I do love a candle, but the icicle idea is easily done with our frosting glaze, or even metallic or pearl glaze if you want a bit more sparkle - less messy than a load of glitter too! What about adding a paper-cut scene into the mix? Instructions here. Or maybe other glass ideas, these tree decorations are not too much of a challenge, and very pretty Or perhaps trees on top of glass decorations?? I do love a centerpiece, but i struggle with fitting food and centerpieces on the table at the same time, but here is a nice window ledge idea... ...and perhaps this could fit among the food with less of an issue, plus it is see-through, so you can still talk to the person opposite! So lets look at tree decorations, I always aim for a colour scheme and go from there, but it often goes awry or gets sabotaged by aquiring must-have decorations! I'm sure you are all the same, even harder when the kids were young and would bring home all kinds of colourful creations made at school that required pride of place on the tree! Now they are older, it is easier for me to be more restrictive in our colour options, and if you are making your own, even easier to stick to the plan! But how fun are these simple, yet effective critters made from cones, nuts and more! This idea we used as a make and take at Ally Pally, lace was glued onto a wooden heart with matte medium, then we base coated with a white paint, and did a patine with French Roast. of course you can use any colours of paint to suit your theme. And we added a tickle of Treasure Gold! You can buy glass decorations that are designed to be filled. Usually people use glue and glitter, but this version is adorable! Very elegant. Here is another version of a paper decoration, this time on the outside - perhaps you are changing colour scheme and have some naff baubles to paper over in the loft?? Got some spare letters floating about? how about covering them with Christmas Papers?? I cannot leave felt out of this blog post, i think at Christmas, one of the first crafts I ever did was making angels from felt and calico with twiggy legs, very shabby chic even 20 years ago! So here are some cute as a button Robins.... And trees. There are som many ways you can take this....Felt trees type 1, simple triangles with buttons - love the base idea! Trees type 2, the rolled method! Liking the grey a lot! And tree Type 3, this looks like more work, but aren't they lovely! This little angel is adorable too - all from a cork! And these are brilliant twig re-purposing!! Skinny Santas! or Snowmen ... and Christmas Angels too by Mary Jane Chadbourne. I know lots of you enjoyed Mary's tinytopia class this year, so check out her blog and website here for her class schedule. This one too...is she a grumpy angel?? Love the attitude! She cracks me up! So how about some cards? This is a Squiggly Christmas by Emma Godfrey Minimalist JoFY by Joanne Wardle... Eclectica {Lin Brown} stamps made into gorgeous Cards by Wanda... Liz Borer gets colorful with her own Winter stamps... Ellen Vargo makes Xmas trees from her flower petal stamps! See them here. And we all love Anneke's bright and cheery style! with JoFy here... And again with JoFy baubles here... And here are some cards from Jo Firth-Young herself using her newest Christmas stamps... And the cards I made last week from my masterboard video fit this topic perfectly too! Again with Jo's new Christmas stamps... Ok, as ever, I could go on, don't forget to follow my Christmas pinterest board, you will see plenty more examples there! And of course you have 2 weeks of glorious blog posts coming on this topic to enjoy! I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas! What an unusual year it has been for the world in oh so many different ways, and we sincerely hope that 2016 is prosperous and fruitful for you all! From all of us here at PaperArtsy HQ, we wish you peace, love and happy times over the festive season and beyond. We very much enjoy your compnay through all our social media platforms, share with us your seasonal pictures, we'd love to see how you all celebrate the festive season! Love and goodwill to you all Mark, Leandra, Emma and (big) munchkins xxx

Hi everyone and welcome! Jenny Marples here, hosting the next of our 2017 challenges here at A Vintage Journey. The theme for this one is called 'Use A Quote' so unsurprisingly we need you to use a quote! Any quote! Whether it be on a stamp, a sticker, handwritten or sourced from the internet, make it the focal point of your vintage, shabby chic, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk project. Our generous sponsors this month are That's Crafty! That’s Crafty! are an online retailer and bricks and mortar shop based in the UK. They sell an extensive range of papercraft and mixed media supplies along with a large range of branded stamps & stencils. In addition they produce and sell their own stamps, stencils and surfaces. Surfaces include shrines, tags, hearts, panels, journals, uprights and stacks and come in varying materials - MDF, white/grey board and acrylic. That's Crafty! are offering a £20 voucher to their store for our randomly chosen winner.The Creative Guides will also choose three Pinworthy winners who will receive a badge to display on their blogs, as well as an invitation to be a guest designer here at A Vintage Journey for one of our future challenges. Let's get you started with some inspiration from the Creative Guides, who have each selected a That’s Crafty! surface for their project this month. Julia I just loved creating a scene inside this beautiful little Matchbox Art Shrine from That's Crafty! Being newly retired - this is how I'm looking at the next phase of my life - who knows what adventure awaits! If you'd like to see how I put my Adventure Awaits scene together - please venture over to my blog! Brenda I had an acrylic stack from 'That's Crafty!' in my supplies and decided this would be a good time to try out stamping and painting the layers. Well actually if you visit Bumblebees and Butterflies I tell you the real story lol, but I had great fun playing with the stamps and acrylic paints to get this artsy layered look and I learnt a lot along the way. Pop over to see how I did it if you have time. xxx Astrid I decided to go all out vintage with my craft surface and had great fun playing with paints and inks. These surfaces from That's Crafty! are fabulous to work with and so easy to put together. To get a quick run down of how I created this, just visit me here. Sara Emily When I first laid eyes on this beautiful Upright Arch at the That's Crafty! shop I knew I wanted to create a vintage garden. But when I actually received the surface and held it in my hands, I was so impressed with it's size and sturdiness. I knew then I had to build the hardscape before I could landscape. I hope you'll find some time to stop by sarascloset to see how this came together. Anne My craft surface from 'That's Crafty' is a very sturdy 9" x 4.1/2" MDF rectangle. I used my favourite quote and lots of other Tim Holtz products. You can see more on my blog here. Jennie I had a vision of a cascade of spring flowers flowing around this little gothic arch and just about managed to fit in one of my favourite quotes! It was great fun working with the That's Crafty! MDF surfaces and there are more detailed photos on my blog (plus a little secret!) Nikki I created this very aged piece with my That's Crafty! rounded top MDF upright - featuring Seth Apter's new Steering Wheel die, a quote from Gandhi and so many layers of paint and texture! Do hop over to Addicted to Art where I have all the details. Tracy Evans As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew which quote I wanted to use, as I am a great believer that "it's the little things that make life big". This sentiment may not take centre stage on my piece of art today but it makes a big statement! Pop by my BLOG for the step by steps. Autumn I challenged myself to create a tribute to my favorite quote of all time, thus this "tree house." I used a variety of die cuts and inking techniques to create the foliage and background in my woodland scene. That's Crafty! substrates accept ink like a dream! I hope you will visit SewPaperPaint for the inside scoop and closeups. Amanda For this challenge I have created a piece of grungy Art using a That's Crafty! 6x6 MDF Panel that allows my chosen 'Quote' (one I use often) to take centre stage. There are more details on my blog if you fancy stopping by . Deb That wonderful quote from Wendy Vecchi's Fun With Art stamp set and the shape of That's Crafty's Large House art shrine led me down a creative path that resulted in my Circus Fun art shrine. I couldn't think of anything much more fun than a circus or much more fearless than putting your head in a lion's mouth! I've some step out photos on how I created it on my blog, hope you can pop by for the how to. Annie For Jenny's fabulous challenge I am playing with a That's Crafty Surface Extra Large Art Shrine House, which is 6.16ins x 8.64ins x 2ins deep. My Quote is very true in that "Knowledge is the Key to Success" in all aspects of daily living. For project and product details please hop over to my blog by clicking HERE. Jenny As soon as I saw this clear acrylic light bulb surface on the That's Crafty! website I knew it was a match made in heaven with a brand new, as yet unreleased, A5 stamp set from IndigoBlu. Yes folks, you're getting a sneak peek of some of the images/words from the set right here first! And what encouraging wise words they are from everyone's favourite Hogwarts master. The fun bit was working out how to paint and stamp in reverse as all the colour is on the back of this once clear bulb! Find out more on my blog HERE. So that's all of the amazing inspiration from the Creative Guides for this challenge. We do hope you will join in with us and 'Use A Quote' this month - you can link up your entries below to be in with a chance of winning. (Do remember to check the Travelling Instructions to make sure you qualify for the prize draw and Pinworthy badges). Take care of yourselves and get creative! Jenny xxx An InLinkz Link-up

Hi there, ....so happy you could stop by my blog today! I want to share with you today a layout I made of my oldest daughter and one of her dear friends. Summer is here and the house is busy with my kids and their friends, so I've taken the opportunity to get more pictures taken. Chloe has a collage on her wall with her friends and she wanted me to update these photos. I used a variety of papers from the 'Coffee in the Arbour' collection by Maja Design to make this mixed media style page. I used : Raspberry Lemonade, Raspberry Jam, Rose Garden (front and backside) and Let's Share a Cookie. (BTW, if you are looking for this beautiful collection pack here in North America, you can get it from Janene at The Scrapbook Diaries, I've linked her further down in this post). I embellished with some flowers that I got from Recollections (pleated pink blooms) and Tresors de Luxe (deep rose...click on the link to check out her shop!), and a new thing I like to use to finish a bloom cluster....Spanish Moss! I picked up an inexpensive pack of this stuff at a local dollar store, one package goes a long long way, but I find it adds a nice natural touch to a floral cluster. I also embellished with some of my favourite leafy chipboard pieces from Dusty Attic (Leafy Stems #2), I primed them with Gesso and then inked with some Ingvilde Bolme chalk inks (Green Moss, Branch Bark). I gave the chipboard pieces a bit of texture as well with some Glossy Accents. (If any of you are looking where to order Dusty Attic chipboard, you can find a huge selection at my friend Janene's online store The Scrapbook-Diaries and Natasha's store 'Moments of Tranquility') I also did a little stamping on around the photo area (with Bo Bunny Stamps) and added a bit of texture with texture paste and a circle stencil. And what's a mixed media layout without some fun paint effects. I used Shimmerz 'Bamboo Leaf' Spritz (green color) and some 'Plum Pudding' Shimmerz paint (I just applied the plum paint with the tip of my finger rubbing it in to get the fade out effect). You can order Shimmerz Products directly from their website, Shimmerz Paints....and don't forget....If you would like a FREE/Bonus Shimmerz product added to your order, mention my name 'Gabrielle' in the INSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT part at the end of your order and you will be shipped an extra Shimmerz product in the color of your choice! I finished the page off with the fun epoxy title stickers from Heidi Swapp. I love the fun handwriting design in these epoxy stickers! I hope you enjoyed my post today and hope that if you haven't played with this beautiful collection yet, that you will have the opportunity soon! Thanks so much for all your sweet comments, they always make my day! xo

Number 2 and 3 on my summer list are to stay on a schedule and well, make a schedule because without one, I am totally un-focused and out of balance and right now, at this very moment, as I sit...

Hi all! I recently got a whole bunch of photos of my adorable little great-nieces from their sweet mom Danielle. Lots of pretty autumn photos, so I decided to scrap them using a variety of Maja design collection papers and some NEW Dusty Attic chipboard designs. Green has always been one of my favorite colors to scrap, but lately I've been scrapping a lot of pinks and purples. I thought it was high time to play with some of my old favorite green toned papers mixed with some soothing neutrals. I love the warm green in the Ska vi ta en Fika collection, so I used one as my backdrop for my layout design. I then chose one of the neutral papers from the same collection for my next layer. I wanted to play a bit with the side edges so I chose to use a chipboard Zipper design From Dusty Attic, moistened the sides of the papers and pulled back the paper in the center, creating small pleats. I then attached the zipper chipboard pieces (painted with some Bronze 3D paint (Scribbles) and glued it behind the edges of the paper. The title and the number chippies are from Dusty Attic as well. There are some tag images in the Walking in the forest collection, so I cut these out to used along the top of the photo as a page accent and a place to put a little journaling. I also cut another tag out of a Coffee In the Arbour paper and stamped one of my Signature Word stamps 'fabulous' that I recently released. These are all words I like to use on my scrapbook pages, done in my own handwriting. (My word stamps can be found at The Scrapbook Diaries, along with all my other stamp designs). The title is from a new collection of hash tag words from Dusty Attic :) I wanted to keep the page accents naturalistic so I chose a new Dusty Attic chipboard piece called Wildflowers #3 to add alongside my photo of my two little great nieces. And finally in the corner of the photo I accented with a few blooms from a tin of flowers from Recollections. I did a bit of background stamping as well with some green Moss Lawn color from Ingvild Bolme. Maja Design Products used in this project: Ska vi ta en Fika? (Smulpaj m Applen, Havrerujor, Pratstund), Walking in the Forest (Klippark, Flannel Shirt), Vintage Autumn Basics (XVI), Vintage Frost Basics (Days of December), Coffee in the Arbour (Feel the Grass Between Your Toes). Thanks so much for stopping by the Maja blog today! Hope you get a chance to play today! xo You can find Maja Design papers at The Scrapbook Diaries, Janene has a large selection of Maja Design papers in a variety of collections, including the newest Maja paper line called "A Gift for You'. She also has a nice variety of Dusty Attic Chipboard....you can find Dusty Attic Chipboard in Canada at The Scrapping Bug as well. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today, I can't thank you all enough for the kind feedback I've been receiving, you all make my day! xo xo

Hello my peeps! I'm on a bloggin' roll! It has been hard for me to consistently blog since we moved because I take care of my grand son to some degree on a daily basis. Some days I get him up, feed him, bathe him, and dress him. Then we have a very tight schedule of fort building, walking and leaf gathering, wonderful music time using pots and wooden spoons, playing with cars and singing and dancing... It is very important stuff, this! A couple days a week I may just help get him ready in the morning so he can go to his other grandma's house. But then, on his mommy or daddy's days off (because I have this uber-soft-mushy-center-filling for this little guy), I end up watching him for their "quick" 2 hour visits to the store or I keep him at home when they are in a hurry to take or pick up someone from work, or if they just need to do another of those "quick" errands... and I always have said "Yes, of course I'll watch him." I mean... who could resist a face like his? However, lately I'm doing a little better about "trying" to say "No" more often, thus, more regular blog posts and tutorials for you! And yet there has still been plenty of time for fort building, leaf gathering and singing & dancing. It's all about balance I guess. Anywho... I've got a stepped out tutorial of an art journal page for you that I made when I had a couple hours to myself. The quote is from a Dave Matthew's Band song. Here are some step outs: The background was painted with some white gesso and dried then I added some of my original Mix'd Media Inx. I began with the lightest color (Jasmine) and covered random areas of the background by bending the edges of the squishy pad back and using the rounded center to pat the Inx on, then I blended it in with my fingers. I used a stylus blender with Honey MMI around the edges. I sprayed a light mist of water and the Inx became almost "watercolor-like" so I could blend it with my fingers (you can use an ink blender but I like to get my hands dirty). I added some Patina in random areas around the edges. I misted with water and blended the Patina in as well. I LOVE the way that these Inx react when you are using them on a gessoed surface! I sprayed some Green Olive Smooch Spritz into a bowl and used a watercolor brush to add some vines and leaves. I added a bit more green on the bottom and added a tiny bit of water splatters to give the leaves water spots and make some of the Spritz run. I flicked some Ice Rink, Sea Breeze, Evergreen & River Mossy Spritz on the background, added a bit more water and let some of it drip. I added some MMI in Truffle along the bottom and sides. I then blended again with a bit of water. I misted water in a couple spots to get extra drips. I added a bit more water to the background then added more Honey MMI to the background above the vines using a stylus blender loaded up with Inx. I blended with my finders and misted with a tiny bit more water to get the Inx to drip into the vines. I used some Gloss Heavy Gel to decoupage the butterflies onto the background. I had printed the butterflies onto Crafty Chronicle pages a long time ago and finally had a use for them. I "think" I got the images as a free download on Pinterest. I used a small paintbrush to apply some Truffly MMI around the edges of the butterflies to make them stand out from the background. I blended the Inx into the background using water on the same brush. I used my Sparrow CHOX to stamp the quote because I needed the ink to dry faster. I would have used the original Inx if I was going to emboss the quote. And this is the finished page. Product used: Clearsnap/Colorbox Mix'd Media Inx (MMI) - Jasmine, Honey, Patina, Truffle Mix'd Media Inx CHOX - Sparrow Smooch Spritz - Ice Rink, Sea Breeze, River Mossy, Evergreen Liquitex White Gesso Gloss Heavy Gel Zutter Distrezz-it-All (page edges pre-made) Thanks for stopping by! Smooches ~D~ Visit the Girlie Grunge site for challenges, giveaways, tutorials, e-Classes, etc... HERE AND... don't forget to FOLLOW THIS BLOG! Just click on the Bloglovin button on the top right.

Make a stitched mixed media folio journal that is perfect to make as a gift for someone you care about - or just for yourself!

Sarah Gardner is a mixed media artist that creates with bright and bold colors in a playful way encouraging people to share their art.

Hello Bloggers! Hope you are all doing well. After all the rain this past weekend it has been great to see the sunshine and enjoy being outdoors! I am so glad the winter is drawing to a close and the severe cold is behind us! Welcome April! I wanted to share my "Tag of the Month" with you today. I went all mixed media this month and created an Anna Dabrowska inspired tag. The tag I used in a #10 large manila craft tag from Ranger. I prepped the entire tag with gesso first. I applied some light modeling paste through a few stencils to add some texture to the background. Then I grabbed all kinds of random embellishments from flowers, beads, old jewelry, metal gears, a paint brush tip, lace, alpha letters ... and glued them down. Once dry, I recoated the whole tag with gesso making sure to cover everything. I added a second layer of gesso in some of the more dimensional areas. This is kinda cool like it is but it's begging for color! So, next comes the fun part. I must admit, I let this sit for SEVERAL days before I added color. I was trying to decide what colors and then was afraid I would ruin it. However, learning is what allows you to grow as an artist, so I jumped in. I tried some ink sprays that have been around a long time but are new to me. Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays are the newest addition to my arsenal of ink sprays!! Lindy's Stamp Gang has four types of ink sprays as well as embossing powders and other products. I used the Starburst Sprays which are two toned dye based sprays that have gorgeous shimmer. I decided to go with pink, teal and green sprays. Now, I didn't have teal yet in Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays so I used my Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Teal. I sprayed two shades of pink for the flowered cluster, then added the teal on the right side of the tag and then added several shades of green sprays to the left and bottom of the tag. I constantly had my heat tool going to dry each color before adding the next one so they wouldn't run together. If I added too much I used a baby wipe and took it off - this is the beauty of gesso!! Here's the final result ... The textures on this tag are so cool and the shimmer sprays highlight the dimensionality of the tag. Here's some close-ups ... It's hard to see but as a final layer I pounced a Versamark ink pad on random parts of the tag, added UTEE and heated it with the heat tool. Some of the raised areas now have a waxy appearance!! I am so happy how this came out and am working on another one, applying lessons I learned from this tag. The layout is a bit different and I will share that with you soon along with some exciting news (times two)!! Thanks for letting me share this with you and I feel like this process has enhanced my love for mixed media! Hope you have a great week and I'd love to hear from you, anytime!!

Crafts to make with old sheet music and paper, upcycled book crafts.