Friday, May 20, 2016

Friday Inspiration

Finally getting back into the swing of things, this cold really took it's toll on me aside from the daily grinds of life.  All is good in my world and I took time to get creative and work on some classes and just play.

I pulled out a class I signed up for over a month ago called 21 Secrets.  I really wanted something that I thought would be out of my usual realm of creativity and comfort.  I picked a doozer!

Without going into too much detail on the class itself, let's just say printing off pictures of yourself and putting them into a journal...ya, uncomfortable.  I am not used to being the center of attention.  But I will say, I thoroughly enjoyed it once I got going.

I started out in one of my Canson/Moleskine Sketch Journal and added a dictionary page to each side using Matte Medium.  Once that was done I applied some black and white images of myself again using Matte Medium in a collage style.






Once it was all dry, I used my All Stabilo pencil and (sketched) traced out the images 








Then I started to color block with some bright colors - here I decided on Prima's Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallique Paints in Rich Turquoise, Dark Velvet, Fresh Orange and Lime Peel. 



I was finding it just too bright (and shiny), so added Black Gesso in some of the blocks as well as adding some lines to break it up. 


Next, I pulled out some Faber Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pens to start coloring some of the photos





For my hair, I also added the Finnabair Art Alchemy Fresh Orange paint along with the Stamper's Big Brush Pens.





I added some doodling with the Fineline Applicator in Black.  The white doodling is a Liquitex Paint Pen.





Here is the finished spread.  So different from what I usually do, but must say a nice change and really enjoyed trying something a little different. 


The next one fro the 21 Secrets I worked on was one encouraging to open up and revisit classes you have not either finished or even looked at (yes, kind of funny)!  We are all guilty of it, I am no exception.

I used some stickers from my stash  (Heidi Swapp in this case) and built the page filled with words and thoughts that transcended from my feeling about the courses. The next part of the class, I did not take photos.  I had written out many thoughts, frustrations and feelings about classes in general and then decided to gesso over the entire process (aside from the sticker words I had put down).




Then of course I had to add some more color and thoughts on top.  This time I used either my Liquitex Paint Markers or Sharpie Chalk Markers to finish it up. Very happy with the results as again, this is something very different than I would normally do. 


To find out more about this class, please visit Dirty Footprints Studio here.

As many of you know, I have an issue with stencils...I can't get enough of them!! I have several favorite lines, but will say my biggest weakness are Stencil Girl Products.  I found them by chance a couple years ago when I was surfing Instagram and saw some really cool images by Traci Bautista (@treicdesigns) and then of course the search was on.  Once I  found out who the company was, I tried to get them in the shop but unfortunately, they are not selling to online shops at this time (bummer).  But as you can see, it hasn't stopped me from buying them!  I choose to buy directly from them as shipping is very reasonable and if you buy six (do not have to be the same, just same size), you get a 10% discount...which ends up paying for the shipping!


Needless to say, I needed to play with one last night!  I had a black gesso'd page already, so I decided to put a layer of DecoArt Media Cobalt Teal Hue Fluid Acrylic Paint.  Let it sit for about 30 seconds (yes, I am that impatient), and put the stencil down!


Took my baby wipes and started randomly wiping away the teal.  This stencil is the Maltese Mix 9x12" stencil.  


Usually I wait longer for the top coat to dry as I find otherwise you tend you peal off the layers of paint (they stick to the stencil).  In this case I am okay with it, works with what I am going for.  I repeated on the other page, flipping the stencil so it wasn't quite the same pattern.




This is how it stands right now.  I am hoping to get back at it today along with another 'secret' from the 21 Secrets Workshop.  It is still hot here, no rain, wind blowing towards the forest fires so no smoke for a change - may be a good afternoon to hit the deck and read one of those classes!!

Have a great May Long...stay safe!

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