Art Journal and Class at Prairie ART Stamps and Supplies

First of all, let me tell you what I used to do for a living.....I started out as a Long Distance Operator YEARS ago.

You've seen the old cord boards in pictures, where the operator has on a headset, and a bunch of cords in front of her with all kinds of lights and plug in spots???

Well, that was me, working nights and trying to stay awake....yawn...so I doodled to occupy my time.

I was usually in trouble for it, but back then, you were in trouble for not sitting properly or chewing gum. Now you can pretty much do anything at work....I won't go there!

So Doodling is right up my alley. And dear Kaz said it would be addicting, and she was right.

THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!!

I started with Watercolor Crayons. Then Julie Balzer stencils, ink, stamps, pens, paint....the sky is the limit!!!!

And it was Sarah Greer that said it's "colouring for grownups".

So true!

NOW, the fun news is I'll be teaching again at Prairie Art  in Springfield, IL on Apr. 21st from 10:30am till 2pm. And this is the class.

It has 4 mini canvas works of ART with embossed metal. They're on a canvas board that is easily slipped into a frame from Wal-Mart....seriously.

We'll explore Metal Embossing, Alcohol Inks, Tissue Tape, UTEE on Metal, and create an heirloom treasure in the end.

So give them a call and come and have a fun time with us in April.

Linda

Vintaj and Embossing Enamel

BOY! Am I having fun today. 

I got on Jess Italia's blog for Vintaj and followed along with the directions and this is what I got! Click on the link and check it out!


 Now this was my 3rd piece....practice always makes things better. I LOVE the Bronze and Gold!!!!!

It's hard to take a picture without glare. This on is straight on, over the top, so you can't see the last layer of UTEE as well, but you can see the gorgeous colors better.

This was my 2nd piece. The little flower is laid in before the top layer of clear UTEE.

Love the metallic colors of Gold and Bronze with the the Verdigris Antiquities and a touch of Lettuce.

And this was my 1st try. Not so cool, but I decided to show you it because it proves things do get better with practice, and so don't give up.

I have no clue where the white came from. I used Lettuce, Fired Brick, and some very fine black I had from somewhere.


I messed with it too much, and that's when the white appeared. I'm sure someone will know out there and tell me.

And I got around to organizing ONE little corner today. That made me happy. Put away a bunch of old wood mounted stamps and made room for easier access to my supplies.

Oldest granddaughter Brit still maintains I should knock out the wall between the 2 bedrooms and make my studio 2 open rooms. She is brilliant. Could not live with the mess during the redo!


Products used:
Vintaj - Flying Bird West, Artisan Heart, Blossom Bead Cap, Altered Blank Rectangle, Scarab Charm, T-Shirt Altered Blank.

Ranger - Melting Pot, small piece of Non-Stick Craft Sheet, Clear UTEE, Bronze UTEE, Gold UTEE, Tim Holtz Fired Brick Distress EP, Lettuce Adirondack EP, Antiquities Verdigris


So, have a great weekend.

Stay safe and be good to each other!

Linda

Let's Get Caught Up!!!

First I'll start with the Precious Metal Clay class I took. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a very soft clay that comes in little tiny, weighed packages. You roll it, mold it, carve it, and sometimes (twice for me) break it, before you fire it in a kiln and it magically becomes pure silver!

Now, I thought, hey, I've played with Polymer clay. It can't be THAT difficult to make a ring! Ha! Boy, was I, and everyone else in the "beginners" class, totally wrong. This stuff dries out very quickly, cracks and breaks very easily, and is soft enough to make it difficult to make it into a completely even ring.

BUT, it was a real learning experience, and I'll go back for more. Teresa Kodatt the owner, taught the class, and she is AMAZINGLY talented as well as patient. Boy is she patient!!!

She fired the rings. Then we dropped it into Liver of Sulphur to add the etched color, polished it, and off I went.

It's a bit crude. But I love it. The texture is pretty cool, I think. Not at all what I envisioned, but really, really a fun piece.

Moving on......Tutorial on UTEE Embossed Metal Numbers!!! Yay!!! No, I didn't forget that I promised. (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)

1. Take a Numeral and push into embossing pad.

2. Using tweezers or just holding onto the sides, drop it into a jar of UTEE. Here I used Gold. Push it down all around to adhere UTEE.

3. Remove from the jar carefully. It will look like this. Not completely covered, but NOT to WORRY!

4. Using your Heat It Tool, heat on your Craft Sheet, until it all comes together. Don't overheat too much or it just slides off the number. See it starting to melt at the top? Scrape off extra from sheet with the Craft Scraper.

5. Add sprinkles of Platinum and Bronze as shown while it's still hot. Take Heat Tool away from this process or you will blow the UTEE all over the place. TRUST ME, I know from experience!

6. Add as much or as little as you like. Remember, this is metal, and it will get VERY hot!!! So let it cool a tad before touching. Clean off the edges with your fingernail or a wooden skewer while it's still warm. It cleans off very easily.

And you are DONE!!!

We're going to use these numbers in the Embossed Metal on Canvas classes I'm teaching.

Good news from Linda at Creative Cuts and Crafts today. The classes are 1/2 to 3/4 full already!!!!! I am so excited to get to go up there and meet all you great people. Getting kits ready to go as we speak!!!

So a fun little book I found yesterday while shopping with the Watercolor Chicks. Now I won't have to call my daughter and ask what the grouping of letters on FB meant in a post. Worth every penny.

Just a few of the bits of Tim goodness I got in on the doorstep Thursday. Whoo Hoo! Fun times ahead......

And this....my dear friend Ann's husband Phil has a museum of Farm Tractors from the family farm down in Southern Illinois. He is always finding me little bits of things that just make my heart race. They both think I'm WAY too EASILY amused, but that's OK!!!

I've gotten tiny metal purses, vintage cabinet cards, vintage buttons, cattle tags, print blocks, etc, etc, etc....but I nearly dropped my teeth when she handed me this little gem from Phil!!!

Can you believe it????? Grungy and broken. It's almost identical to Tim's reproductions. The head is a little smaller, but I know Ann thought I'd lost my mind until I showed her the new ones from Tim. Strange, very strange.....

So that's all I got! Just working away making up the kits for classes. Cutting paper, Grungeboard, Grungepaper, ribbon, chipboard, and all that fun stuff!!!

It's snowing on my tulips for Pete's sake!!!

Take care and be good to each other.

Linda

Time in a Bottle Altered Book

I've had this little book for ages. It's from Zutter. I love little books and just haven't gotten around to it. So, here it is, finally, with some ephemera from Tim on it...... all OVER it. Follow all the links for product descriptions.

The paper is from Tim's Lost and Found paper stash.

Idea-ology - Hinge Clips, Charm Clips, Adornments, Accoutrements, Baubles, Film Strip, Foliage, Game Spinners, Hitch Fasteners, Ruler Ribbon, Sprocket Gears, and, Word Sticks.

Also used were Tim's Alterations - Tattered Florals, Texture Fades - Damask, and the circle from the Paper Rosette.

Ranger Alcohol Inks - Rust, Cranberry, Raisin, Lettuce, and Copper Mixatives.

Suze Weinberg's Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel Brightz - Spruce Green.

A concoction of Distress Ink Aged Mahogany Re-Inker and Fired Brick, Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold, and water in a Mini Mister.

Ranger's Glossy Accents.

Metal is from Ten Seconds Studio - Barn Red.

And other bits of ephemera, tulle, ribbon, and wire.

So, I started with spraying the entire book, inside and out with the PP and Ink mixture. Then I added the papers to all the surfaces except the outside spine.

The Ruler Ribbon was glued to the spine, and the little silver drawer pulls were added. They had been painted with several different colors of Alcohol Inks to get the mottled look that I like. Let it run and puddle.

A number is added to the bottle with micro beads and wire wrapped and curled around the top.

The metal piece is cut using the Rosette die, then embossed with the Damask Texture Fade and crinkled up to add dimension. The clock is glued to the center.

The Film Strip is added, and the Spinners are embossed with the UTEE and layered with Gears and Foliage over the clock faces.

The black and gold material was cut using the Tattered Floral die. Tulle was gathered and tied through the Accoutrement Button.

The tiniest of Tim's Pictures were used with Glossy Accents in the Charm Clips. Copper Metallic Mixatives was painted onto the Charm with a brush. And Alcohol Ink was painted onto the Foliage pieces. Add Baubles, Word Stick, and Charms with Jump Rings.

I added Hitch Fasteners to the Clips, and layered the Foliage pieces to add interest.

Stamp and decorate the rest of the book and add pages to your liking.

Explore all the "stuff" you've collected and just have FUN!

Create ART!

Tim Projects

Here are the projects for theAdvantus and Idea-ology booth that I made. I have some awesome pictures of the other projects in there on my camera, but have to eat lunch and get to a class.

This is a box that has Tim's papers, using the Texture Plates , inked and embossed. The numbers have UTEE on them! I love how they turned out.

You can figure out the rest I'm sure.

Alterations from Tim, bits of metal pieces, and I showed you a sneak of this earlier.

My personal favorite is the lamp. It's small but fit in the booth nicely next to a raven. I had this in mind for a long time and really had to conjure up for quite awhile before I "put it to glue." Lots of Idea-ology here.

OK, wait, this is my personal favorite! Really, it was so much fun to put together. LOVE the vintage pictures and the papers are fabulous. And I just love all the ephemera in the box.

So, if I'm able, I'll upload some more tonight. But no promises.

I did get some great shots and they'll be up sometime....that I DO promise.

Your Friend on the Scene in ART,

Linda

What do you get.....

....when you mix UTEE BRIGHTZ, Texture Fades, Distress ink and Tissue Tape?

~I don't know....but this was sure fun!!!

I'm laying in bed after reading a sweet email from Suze. She can make my day. And it's about using the UTEE in my blog.

Well, this idea pops into my head. Bill is asleep, Emma is asleep (she had a crying jag to go to daycare and agreed if she could have a sleepover at Nana's).

Whatchagonnado?

So anyway, I thought, let's emboss some paper, rub the embossing ink over the raised part, and add some UTEE!!! Now, you're going to get a wonderful blotchy effect because the UTEE is bigger pieces of powder, and that's what makes this soooooo cool!!! Had to get up and try it, it was only 11:30PM.

Use 2 colors and add bits into each other to make great contrasting colors show up. Ink again, and drop bits of the UTEE into the mix as you heat. Then add your Distress Inks. I used Rusty Hinge, Marmalade, Vintage Photo (sparingly) and Victorian Velvet last for punch.

The UTEE colors are Green Zinnia and Spruce Green. And they are BRIGHT....hence the name. They REALLY rock together. I LOVE the Rustic-Grunge look to this!

The Spruce is what is on the hand of the clock from last post. It turned a gorgeous blue-green on the metal.... I loved it. I already had the Bingo piece done with Glossy Accents.

Take a black ATC, add some Tissue Tape, it looks great on the black, has an opaque color. And add one of Tim's great vintage shots from Lost and Found papers. These papers are the COOLEST papers EVVA! No picking and choosing, trying to decide, the whole pack is OUTSTANDING. An absolute must in my book.

Layer it up, add pieces of Idea-ology if you like, and it's done!

So, enjoy the rest of the weekend, and CREATE ART!

Ranger's Designer's Challenge

Now that the show is open, I can show you the piece I have in the Ranger booth for the Melt ART is a Hot Ticket Challenge.

This was REALLY fun, and challenging all at the same time.

I LOVE Beeswax, but had done little with the UTEE. Of course you know I love to work with the metal. So here is a combination of all those, plus the Vintage look.

I knew it would be a real treat trying to mail this thing in such extremely cold weather, but hopefully it stays together at least until it gets to California.

More photos of the other fabulous pieces here to come...Suze's, Michael Putman's, Donna Downey's, Lin Brown's....to name just a few, they are WONDERFUL!!!!

Hot....REALLY HOT!

Beeswax and UTEE are a hot item in my Studio right now. The UTEE makes the metal butterflies very sturdy and they stay bent where you put them. Good for collage. Hot, very hot!!!!

This is a little snippet of what I've been working on for CHA. Many, many trials and lots of rejects. But a learning experience along the way. WAY out of my box, but terrifically educational.


Pushing to new limits. Always good. This is from one of my very favorite cabinet cards....the child looks soooooo happy..no?

We've been backup babysitting again for a couple of days. Didn't even get much done in the way of cards before the kids hit, but we DID have a great time.

Ann did a poster for a baby who needs a heart transplant in her unit. She did a fantastic job on this for Judah.

We walked the new puppy while dad was up in Chicago so he didn't create a mess for mom when she got home from her 12 hour shift...don't know how nurses do that!!!!

And maybe, just maybe some excitement in the works!!!!I'll let you know in the next few days!!

Bought a new car for Bill today. VERY cool car...love it. A Buick Enclave. Ssstttttttt....hot, very hot!

Be well.....stay warm...and here comes the SNOW!