Stitching ... good for my soul

A bit ago I received the most thoughtful gift from my "She Matters Soul Sister" Michelle - in her little package of original little art pieces she made - was this little stitched pouch with these Brave Girl River stones inside.  I have been enchanted with this little pouch ... there was a time where I did a bit of embroidery and seeing this little piece of work had me digging into my supplies to find my embroidery floss and felt.  :)

One of my new Instagram friends Sandra @sandieloves2art put out a call to her instagram friends to help her fill her beautiful big canvas full of hearts #igheartcanvas  - What a cool idea and as the hearts are only 3' big - not a big time commitment - I decided I wanted to send Sandie some hearts too!
But what?  The possibilities were really endless but then I thought since I want to do some stitching what better idea than to start with doing some little hearts, and then maybe send Sandie a couple of those!  :)

So I started with felt hearts and have started to do a little flower pattern on them - so far some of my finished ones.  :)

Tried adding a ribbon flower to this last one and actually really pleased with the finished look.  :)

Having fun doing something a little different - very portable and can sit and stitch easily while watching my shows or chatting with my guys.

****
Oh and Sandra has posted another swap on Instagram with the hash tag #happyIGheartswap where we will start to get some hearts back for our own little project.  So excited because I am going to participate in this one also, and maybe start on my own studio heart canvas.  :)  So cool.

thanks for looking,
Sherri :)

Inspired - a little Art Journal layout

One of the Artists I follow is Dina Wakely - I love the loose and free style of her art journaling and her vibrant colours - she recently has come out with her new Mixed Media Line that includes: New Heavy Body Acrylic Paints, Brushes, Stamps, Stencils and mediums and there will be much more I imagine.  :)

I love her new heavy body paints - the creamy thick consistency and the amazing yummy vibrant colours - the local stores here just started carrying them last week or so and I almost have them all by now I believe ha ha, and have enjoyed using them in my latest projects. 

The colours are just as bright and beautiful as the dots on the packaging which is cool and they dry staying that way - which is amazing!

The other night I just wanted to use some of these paints and get some colour down, so decided to pull out my Dylusion Journal and do a little creating.  I was fortunate also to have recently printed out a free and generous PDF by Terri Kahrs of Pringle Hill Studios another inspiring artist who gets the most gorgeous saturation of colours in her work.  I love looking at her pages in her Documented Life Project Planner - every week is just a burst of colour-y goodness - oh yes I made that up ha ha. :)

This was also in a time where inspiring poet and author Maya Angelou passed away at 86 years old - often her quotes have inspired me, she was and is an amazing woman and role model.  I spent a lot of this week reading again about her life and reading pages and pages of her most famous words and quotes. 

So what do you get when you throw the inspiration of women into your creative brain and start to create??? 

You get this:

So in love with the end result - I think this is one of my favourite art journal pages ... love the colour and the sentiment.

Feeling pretty amazing at times this year --- this is good for my soul.
Cheers
Sherri :)

P.S. thanks for looking :)

Documented Life Project - Weeks 19-21

Ok almost getting caught up on my posting for the awesome Documented Life Project Planner
I know I keep repeating this (as I imagine I will all year round ha ha) but I am so pleased that I decided to jump in and do this project - along with the other 8,100 plus thousand men and women from around the world.  It has kept my creative mojo in kick start ... I am finding I can incorporate other classes and art experiences I have learned - some I haven't used for years.  :)  And continues to keep my creative edge sharp and hungry(?) for want of a better word.  I am finding it is opening up the need to get other projects off the ground, or try new ones!  Love Love Love it!  :)

 Week 19 - Document a Random Act of Kindness from you

As I started my Danielle Donaldson's awesome - Creative Girl - Land of the Light and Shadows online course during this time, I did one of the projects so I could put it in my journal.  :)
 

 I wanted to place it face front in the week that I finished it and it fell on our RAK week, so what to do?  At first I was going to write on it but then I decided I really did not want to do that so instead I did my challenge page on the inside of the tip in page.   

I did a pocket on the Challenge page so that I could write a private note to place inside - the flowers I used on the pages were actual flower pictures I took of my garden last year.  I love taking pictures of growing things.  :)  So that made this page even more special.  Used a couple quotes on kindness and a whole bunch of little pictures documenting the week and I was done.  :)

Week 20 - Use a Rubber Stamp in a New way
I do have a lot - and I say that mildly ha ha - of rubber stamps - well stamps period - think I am kind of addicted to buying stamps just don't use them enough!  And seriously how the heck to display them so I would use them more - this is something I constantly search for ideas on.  So if you find any cool ones please pass my way haha.  :)

But when I came to this challenge I decided I wanted to "stamp in a new way" versus using a stamp - an idea came to me right away so I knew I needed to go with my gut.  So I pulled some of these chipboard pieces I had and decided to maybe try to use paint and stamp. 

Well it was definitely a messy messy way to express myself ha ha, but I had fun and though it didn't give me as clear an image that I wanted - I was pretty pleased with the effect.  :)

As this was a week where I had a lot of pictures I wanted to use I knew that most of my art work would be covered in the end, so I took a picture BEFORE I finished up :) 

Week 21 -  Add embroidery or embroidery floss to your page - no floss? use thread.
This idea too came to me rather quickly so I needed to go with it ... I had received a beautiful creative gift from my friend Michelle and she did a cute little felt stitched purse and it inspired me to want to do some flowers and use embroidery floss - so an idea took shape.

In our watercolour class Danielle says what a good tool instagram is sometimes to take picture as you work through a project, it certainly was in this case.  When I looked at this picture in the light of the day the next morning after I had posted it  - I realized I had put my little center of french knots on the wrong side of the bottom flower!!!  ha ha Stuck out in this picture!  Thank goodness I found it before I put the very strong two sided tape to stick it to the page ;)  this way I just cut the french knots off and redid them.  Thank goodness for wanting to post a cool close up right?!!!

There is always a lot of discussion about the Moleskin planners thinner pages and what to do with them - I love how this watercolour background on these pages turned out, so soft and almost water like - what I did with these pages is first applied some white gesso with an old gift card and then I used my pan watercolours and did not worry about the amount of water on the pages.  Yes - the pages had a slightly wrinkled look but I don't mind that in my planner. 

thanks for looking and hope you enjoyed taking a boo at these weeks in my planner.
Cheers
Sherri :)

Documented Life Project - Weeks 16-18

I am certainly loving what a little story book, art journal, documented momento that my planner is becoming - even my son said the other day what  cool little book it is turning out to be.  It is certainly been a labour of love ... and I do think it is a grand idea and I hope the Art of 5 talented ladies decide that they have enjoyed this experience as much as the now over 8,000 members and continue the journey next year as well.  :)

Week 16 - Add a cardboard food box in a creative way

Fun fun - again this week was about my niece so I wanted something that I could incorporate into  the challenge that would be about her.  Lucky for me we had a box of Gluten Free Gorilla Munch in the cupboard with the cutest baby gorilla on the front!  PERFECT!  A tip by one of the members suggested to save a little on bulk to photocopy the box, which I did ~ Loved the finished very simple layout.   I also incorporated a second page on to the already added tip in so I could continue my photo journey of her first year.  :)

Week 17 - photograph or draw your favourite SHOES
I decided to use my slippers for my favourite shoes - I wear the all the time - as soon as I walk in the door from work or anywhere - I slip out of my shoes and slippers on and they are the last thing I take off before I put my shoes on and head out the door.  We have hard wood and tile floors through out our home and I could not live without my slippers - ALL YEAR LONG!  :)

AND I found a quote with the word slippers in it! 

A few more weeks of challenges - thanks for looking :)
Cheers
Sherri :) 

Documented Life Project - Weeks 13-15

Okay working through the weeks of my Documented Life Project - posting three weeks or so at a time as I take a few pictures and don't want to just dump all in one post.  :)


Week 13 - Ask someone ELSE to Draw on your page and Finish it 
My guy Kevin and I are big NASCAR fans - I think it was one of the things that he was attracted to me because of ha ha - as not only did I not mind if he watched the race I had my own guy that I cheered for and wanted to watch the races too!  So it was not surprising when I asked him to draw something for my week in my planner - he drew a car and driver.
Now because he drew the picture I decided to finish it with his favourite driver not mine - his is Jeff Gordon #24  - I hope I did it justice.  :)   On the inside of the Tip in pages I did end up adding pictures of both our drivers - good thing they are from the same Team ha ha - Jimmie Johnson #48 has been my fave driver for years. :)

Week 14 - Write your NAME and embellish it 
This was a fun challenge - well aren't the all???!! ha ha - I actually had sat at work one day and was just playing with doing up little cards with my Faber Castell Watercolour pencils - when it came to do my challenge of embellishing my name - I loved the little cards I made up so I ended up cutting my name out of so little pop cards.  :)  Nice bright Americana Neon paints made up my back ground.

Week 15 -  Monochromatic: use shades, tints and hues of one color!
The next two weeks I wanted to make all about my little Niece - it was her one year old birthday time - she was born 3 months premature and started off at only 2.8 pds - she has come a long way since then.  :)  So this monochromatic week of course had to be in PINK!

this was before I glued it all down and added a some details - she is so CUTE!

UPDATE: May 30, 2014 -  Just this last weekend I went back and wanted to add a bunch of pictures to the two weeks I did about her - like a picture journey of her first year - on the inside of the tip in's - but I found I did not have really enough room.  At first I was frustrated and then I decided to add another page to my tip in - so out came the colours and stencils.  Have to comment that the new Dina Wakely Mixed Media brush is now one of my favourites for stenciling.  :)
Loved how adding the extra page to this week and next let me incorporate the picture story I wanted to document.

I LOVE DLP!

Cheers
Sherri :)

Dina Wakely's New Mixed Media Line :)

Dina Wakely has a new line of delicious paints, brushes, stamps and stencils and they are simply FABULOUS!   The bold and vibrant paint colours of her new Heavy Body Acrylic Paint line are simply inspiring ... you must go over and check out her BLOG hop and all the cool and motivational projects the artists on her blog hop are coming up with. 

I had an awesome opportunity where I had to go into Dawn's new location of the Fabulous - The Inked Stampers Scrapbook and Mixed Media Boutique to pay for an upcoming class and get some supplies and I immediately fell in love with all the new Dina Wakely Line.  Of course being me I wanted to pick a few things up - I have never worked with Heavy Body Acrylics before and her colours caught my eye as they are beautiful bright.  

As I was unpacking all of my goodies in my creative space I became inspired, unpacking my new paints, stamps and stencils and then I unwrapped my new Dina Wakely Brush and I took a look at the cardboard back to the packing and an inspiration light went off in my head.  :)  It was perfect, I would create a quick project using that backing - and so I did.  Covered the piece with gesso front and back and the project I did used a bit of all the goodies I bought.  

The back of the packaging of the brush - Awesome already has a hole in it to hang.  ;)  

Gesso-ed the front and back 

My finished piece 

Dina's new Mixed Media line is sensational - looking forward to doing many projects that showcase the beautiful colours and products she put together.  Just awesome!

Cheers 

Sherri :)

Document Life Project - Weeks 10-12

We are already on Week 23 in our planners - almost to the half year point!  Wahhoo it has been such an amazing experience and I am loving it ~ I spend so much time creating lately that I am a bit behind on my blogging and not sure when this will change ha ha.  Sitting at work today and it is a quiet one so thought I would quickly post a few more pictures of the week.

This Document Lift Project Planner has been one of my favourite activities this year - I love that it has kept me feeling creative, I love seeing all the amazing and inspiring work - and seeing the love of the DLP community on Facebook and Instagram, it has been a lovely experience.  The group of men and women who are involved with this Project have gone over 8,000 members - from all around the world.  Amazing ...

We have been so busy doing outside work that I had a period of about 3 weeks where I could not work in my planner, and on top of that I was a bit behind in a couple weeks to finish up ha ha - but happy to say that there are no strict deadlines and push so everyone can work at their own pace and you never feel like it is an impossible task to keep up ... as well as I have not finished some things and go back constantly to work in my little planner and feel quite comfortable making this little project all about what I WANT it to BE!  LOVING IT!

And when I say little planner ha ha - not quite ... before I even got to my weeks I was behind on my planner looked like this:

It is getting so thick and lovely ... not sure if it will make the year though without me splitting the binding and rebinding it. (I see that a bunch of people who are using the moleskin have already done so successfully so even though the thought scares me ha ha I think it will be an option soon)  - it is already a bit of a juggle to work on the left side (date side) of the book as the thickness makes is a bit of a challenge.  :)

Okay here is a few more weeks of pictures of challenges done or in progress:

WEEK 10 - What makes you YOU? 
Truly I was a bit stuck on this week for the actual journalling of what makes me ME.  I ended up focusing on making my pages ... still going back and adding touches to the week - so not finished yet.

I decided to use one of my Christy Tomlinson Stencils - Scarlet Lime that I thought was cool and funky and I also spent some time incorporating a kind of Terri Kahrs - Pringle Hill Studios kind of back ground - using watercolour pencils and a baby wipe. 

WEEK 11 - ADD a BIRD 

During this time I was for the first time playing with my Gelli Plate and doing some gelli plate printing - this challenge was a result from that playing.  :)

WEEK 12 - Cut up a MAGAZINE
I had a lot of fun with this week ... since then the weather was still cold and snowy I decided I needed some colour and flowers in my layout ... lots of colours ;)

I did the back ground by using my pan watercolours ... saturating my brush with colour and then just swaying on to the page to kind of give the effect of water. Took out my xyron once again - haven't used that since I use to scrapbook and then had a great time cutting circles out of a flower seed magazine.  The froggies were from a Telus ad in a magazine - yeah who knew Telus could be helpful ha ha ;)  Even used strips run through my xyron to separate the days of the week.  Loved how beautiful and vibrant this challenge turned out.

 Hope you enjoyed your peak into these pages :) 
Cheers 
Sherri   :)