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   :)

A bit about my recent CreativeGirl Journey with Danielle Donaldson

I have to write about one of my fun creative inspiring journey's that I embarked upon in the last bit ... that would be taking Danielle Donaldson's AWESOME online course entitled:
CreativeGirl - The Land of the Light and Shadows - hosted on the lovely Jeanne Oliver's site (which you need to sign up to first - so worth it!  Beautiful Talented lady)

I loved loved this online course for a number of reasons - but I will mention just a few here.  One: the course was short enough that I could go through the course material and watch all the videos without a huge time committment - which for me right now is so important as I never seem to have enough time to sit and watch the videos with all my online classes I have signed up for ha ha - and yet even though it was short enough it was also PACKED with information.  Two:  Danielle is a delight to learn from - she makes me chuckle as she is real and down to earth and you feel like you could spend time just sitting beside her, having a tea or coffee and creating art together.  Three: she has opened up my mind and creative thinking adding to my enjoyment of a medium I love to dabble with ... and that would be watercolours. 

I am not going to go into any description or depth about all that she taught us, the new ways to think of using watercolours ... I think if you have any interest you should go and sign up for this amazing very affordable course.  SO much fun ... I know that the community on Jeanne's site is active and there are a lot of ladies still working and connecting on the various aspects of the process - and that I have made myself some new instagram friends along the way - Bonus :).  I, myself know I have more work to do ... and looking forward to some time soon when I can make some more projects using the techniques learned.  I love her style! 

Here are a few of my finished projects:  Finished projects from the course as well as inspired by the techniques learned - SERIOUSLY so much fun!  Awesome course!  Thank you Danielle!  :)

Documented Life Project - Week 7-9

Documented Life Project - 


More and more fun this project planner is turning out ... being inspired by others, trying out new ideas and techniques ~ sharing some of my own.  I am quite pleased (a bit overwhelmed too ha ha) at how I have immersed myself in creativity this year - thanks to the Jump start on MY ART HEART that I received last year from Christy Tomlinson and being so blessed as to be able to attend one of her "She Matters Art Retreats" - honestly that experience changed me.

On to sharing a few more weeks of my take on the Weekly Challenges:

Week 7 - Draw One Shape - Repeat - Add Colour
So obviously my shape is circle - I love circles - it really is my go to shape ~ just love them.

Inspired by Roben Marie Smith - love her doodly style and she uses circles often in her work I wanted to use the idea of using my drop cloth (she uses muslin or a cloth of some kind to collect her paint spatters ect. - in my case it would by my paper towel drop cloths - I always keep my colourful drop cloths and wiping towels well because they are simply too pretty to throw away - but this was my first attempt at actually using them ha ha ... so I picked a colourful one and decided to add a bit more colour with my Tattered Angels Chalkboard ink spray, punchella and some of the stencils I got at Scarlet Lime - Christy Tomlinson's lace mask is one of my favourite stencils to use.  :)

Then I roughly cut out some circles - when I say roughly mean just that ha ha - had to do some fancy trimming on some of them because they did not look like circles lmao.   They felt a little flimsy so I took some multi medium and I put them down on a piece of cardstock - then cut out from there. 

Drop paper towel circles :)

Week 8 - Add a Flap to your Flap
Inspired by watching Roben Marie's tutorial that she posted for this week's challenge - I decided to make a background that I could cut a pop art card out of to make a flap.  So sat and on a piece of plain cardstock I used a variety of techniques and tools - credit card with paint, stencils with sprays, doodling, roller stamps ect.

 Then I cut a piece and added a flap to my tip in flap  - truth be told I haven't been entirely happy with how this week turned out, so I may just go back and redo things one day, I haven't finished the documenting I wanted to do inside the tip in pages (I have a bunch of pictures I want to yet add of my niece Carys and my dear friend Kelly-Ann - so when I do that I may just redo the flap idea.  :)  THAT'S one of the cool things about this being a year long project, and totally my own creation - I can do whatever I like ha ha.  :)

  
WEEK 9 - Collage Something you Recycled
I was totally completely INSPIRED by Lorraine Bell's Blog on this Weekly Challenge - she used Dasani water bottle labels and cut them up for water - and drew an amazing mermaid :)

I had this little mermaid card I had already made up - using the Dylusions Stamps and techniques I learned during a class at The Inked Stampers - love love how Dawn taught us to make cute little mermaids out of the Dylusion stamps!

 

So I used Lorraine's amazingly cool idea for water - I used two different water bottle labels and a gingerale pop bottle label and decided to do the whole page ... man working with those strips and the dry air caused for some static cling ha ha ... but slowly and surely I covered the page - then I took a pair of sturdy scissors and cut out my mermaid from the card as well as the fishies ;)  Re-stamped the coral and seaweed from my Dylusion Stamp set - colored in with Americana Neon Paints - fixed on my mermaid and fishes and I love love the finished product. 

 

This week I just took this finished sheet and I glued down right on top of the lined page of the Moleskin planner ... trying to do that once in a while to keep the thickness down a bit, as since this piece was thick enough on it's own.

This was a fun challenge ... Thank you Roben Marie and Lorraine for the AWESOME inspiration!  :)

Have a lovely fantastic Day!
Cheers
Sherri :)

Documented Life Project - Weeks 4-6

Documented Life Project - More pictures of some of the weeks I have finished the Challenges - 

Week 4 - Write a secret message then paint over all but one key word.

For this week I decided I wanted to write a message but I did not want it to be hidden from me - so the tip in is a big tag that I purchased from Scarlet Lime and I wrote a bunch of things about family - friends family and family family ... then I cut a hole in the tip in so that the word FAMILY was my One key word that showed through.

Busy busy pages ... I think coming off all the Collaging on Week 3 I was on a roll ... I added tonnes of pictures that I had just printed out on paper ... and did a lot of doodling and adding fun elements.  I am also working through an amazing on-line course called "Studying Under the Masters" hosted by Jeanne Oliver -  and this week we were studying Antonio Gaudi with Junelle Jacobsen and I seriously fell in LOVE with both of them.  Gaudi's work has me putting a trip to Barcelona on my Bucket List!  

 My little niece Cora holds a special place in my heart ... and every visit with her I so cherish ... she has me thinking it is time for Auntie to dust off the scrapbooking stuff and do up some layouts!

 This is my little family - My son Alex means the world to me - and we now share our crazy and sometimes chaotic life with my man Kevin.

Week 5 - Add a Doodled Border
Well once you start doodling it is sometimes really hard to stop ha ha ... this week was fun and colourful ... lots of doodling.  Coincidentally I was at this time reading a book by Traci Bautista - called "Doodles Unleashed" - and fell in love with her "Girlie Glam Face Girls" and her use of colour colour colour!!!!  So I decided to do my own doodly Glam girl and put her in my planner.  Fun fun.

  
Week 6 - Open your Pinterest Board and Be inspired

I love love Owls - and all things Hooter :)  So when I saw some cute little owl pictures done by Bernadette Deming on Pinterest I was inspired to paint this little hooter ... I have done owl pictures in all forms - paper collage, watercolour, paint I seem to stick to the same theme a cute little pudgy guy on a branch ... they are all similar and yet not.  Love it. 

Still at this point I find I am journalling and documenting still quite a bit ... A lot of this comes from when I sit down I sometimes then do two or three weeks at a time because I have fallen behind in the Challenges.  So enjoying the process ... and so excited to see others work and get tips and techniques every day!  Oh to have endless time to play ... darn work gets in the way ha ha ...

Have a lovely day!
Cheers
Sherri

Documented Life Project - Art to the 5th - Weeks 1-3

I need to start documenting my journey on an exciting year long project hosted by the amazing talents of 5 women  - The "Art to the 5th" FAB five :)

The "Documented Life Project" is a year long challenge done in a Weekly Planner - it is kind of a planner art journal where weekly challenges are posted every week on the blog ... ALL Details of the Project can be found HERE.  :)

As of today there are over 7,000 members from all over the world participating in the challenge ... there is an awesome FACEBOOK group where members share inspiration, advice and guidance ~ seems you ask a question and tonnes of awesome advice and thoughts come back.  It has been awesome - people of all levels of artist talent coming together to share and learn from each other.  And it is for a full YEAR!!  I have to admit I am a bit behind ... I let one of the weeks kind of stumble me - Week 10 - What makes you YOU? ... and have been a bit stuck, but I did part of that week and have now moved past and will come back and finish when I get my head around it ha ha ;)

So going to start post a few pictures of what I have done for some of the challenges each week ... starting with:

WEEK ONE - Photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door :)

On my tip in page I did the Challenge - a soft rendition of our actual Front Door at that time. :) 

ON the inside of the pages I did my ONE word (ACTION - 2014) I picked for this year and a list of  goals I would like to work on this year - great reference to have at the beginning of my planner.  I drew a quote that I saw about JOY ... I did end up coming back and recoloring this page from the original colouring because there was not enough colour for me. 

WEEK TWO - Selfie
Found another cool quote I wanted to put on these pages - I had a piece from an advertisement for something the card at the bottom of the page that I wanted to use, again I went back and added more colour and some add in after ... Now this week we were also prompted to add our ONE WORD if we had one, as I did this the week before I just added the word again. 

Week Three - Add an envelope from your mailbox.
This was an awesome challenge ... I had received mail from a couple of my far away "She Matters Art retreat" gals - from Laura in Kansas and Shirly in Israel that I so wanted to highlight and put in my planner as it was a huge highlight when I came home from work to find this "Happy Mail" in the mail box.  :)   I also had some lovely ATC cards sent to me by my friends Melanni and Lynne that I wanted to incorporate.  

Postmarks from Israel and Kansas added :)  Also some of the Art on the envelops - lovely ATC from my friend Melanni.

More Art from the envelops and its and bits sent - including an awesome ATC from Lynne

Love love how this week came together - in honesty took me a good long long while to get it started.  I used almost every lovely piece of the envelop my friend Laura painted for me - she coloured the whole thing so beautifully, so love that it is forever in my planner now! 

First three weeks ... I have a lot more to post ha ha as we are on Week 16? 17? now ha ha ... and I have gotten a little behind but oh my so much fun and I will have to get caught up in sharing all the fun ...

Have a lovely day ...
I shall be back with more soon!!
Cheers
Sherri :)

Addicted to ARTSY Online Workshops ;)

Hhhhmmmm so what am I up to now???  ... about 6 online Artsy courses that I am in the midst of ... been really trying not to put another on my plate BUT COULD NOT PASS UP THIS ONE!

Jeanne Oliver is hosting an amazing new workshop by Danielle Donaldson - "CREATIVE GIRL - THE LAND OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS"   I love the watercolour effect she has on her girls and I am so pumped about taking this course at the end of April.

Am I addicted to Online Workshops? Yes, in fact I know I am ... it's crazy because I sit at a computer for over 9 hours a day at work ... and I can't really watch my workshops there very well ... and I really don't like to sit on the computer at night ~ if I do anything creative in the evenings I just want to splash colour down on something ~ lately though I have been to tired to do much after the working day and find I try and spend most of my creative studio time on the weekends ... so so many projects and so little time ... and yet I just signed up for another online workshop ... why why why do I do it???!!!

Well simply because I love love love watching these women teach ... especially Christy Tomlinson and her lovely personality and down to earth teaching style ... love love love her.  :)  I have 4 online workshops sitting in my cache to do of Christy's alone ... and I love watching her teach and she explains so much ... I have learned tonnes since started watching her last year.  So much ...And her workshops are always filled with many many videos of awesome detailed information on all the things I love about mixed media.
  
I am still working on Workshops that I signed up for last year - And so appreciate the time we are given to complete them ... usually need all that time and more.  ;)

Christy also has an exciting lovely workshop starting now:  Her 3 week BOOT SERIES WORKSHOP!!!  I will definitely be keeping this one in mind for my next run of workshops to do ;)

 
Christy is hosting an older Junelle Jacobson's Workshop  "THE ART OF WILD ABANDONMENT"  on her blog - which I signed up for last year and I am also really excited to get started!!!

And Junelle has posted this amazing online course:

Junelle has NEWLY RELEASED for SPRING 2014 her THE ART OF SPRING Workshop up on her blog that just looks delightful - full of colour and fresh all things spring goodness - will have to keep this in mind as I finish some of the others ~ I love the art of spring all times of year!  (This is also a 2 year accessible online course)

My first teaching experience with Junelle has actually been just recently when I signed up for Jeanne Oliver's 2014 "STUDYING UNDER THE MASTERS' online course - which though I have only gone through a few weeks of it is such an amazing experience.  There are many many of us that are taking the time with this workshop - the information and all the different teachers are amazing, and through their learning we get a double boost of talented inspiration!  So even though the weekly live talks are over with our teachers ~ the class is still available on a 2 year basis once you sign up and believe me worth the amazing experience.  And there are still many that connect on the Facebook page and show their work everyday.  :)  Jeanne herself is just an amazing soulful and thoughtful personality ... I have loved every minute of not only learning from her (she does the first Master - Henri Matisse in her online "Studying Under the Masters" workshop, and her beautiful videos and thoughtful guidance and advice are part of each week as she introduces a new Teacher and gives encouragement and her thoughts on this amazing learning process.  She has an amazing BLOG that has links to all sorts of good for the soul goodness. 

ALSO Margie Romney-Aslett and her daughter Meg are now doing their next awesome SPARK EVENT - SPARK YOUR SPRING !!!!!!! A 3 day workshop that is plumb full of ways to decorate your home for the spring season!  I took her awesome "Spark you Love and Home" workshop and fell in love with Margie's easy and fun teaching style and love love her cute ideas to being colour and pop into our seasons!  Awesome :)

So no shortage of creative inspiration - I just need to either win a lottery so I can stay home and create or figure out a way to clone myself ha ha.  I am going to try hard not to sign up for any more online workshops until I get at least hhhhhmmmmmm 70 percent done with the ones I have ha ha ... I think that is setting a goal that I may be able to attain.

Though don't hold me to it lmao ... so so much inspiration and so little time ... BUT having such an amazing awesome creative year!    SO ALL WORTH IT!

Cheers
Sherri  :)

How I "Sparked it UP!"

Just a few photos of how I "Sparked up" my mantle at home for the Season in between ... I wanted to use the Spark Classes of Margie's workshop to have something on my mantle between taking down the decorations of Christmas and before the decorating for Spring.  Here is what I finished up with and I love it!
 

 This was the first time for me to make garlands like these and I really loved how they turned out - I also took some inspiration from Christy Tomlinson for the cupcake garlands with the doilies - I love how this just added a crafty touch to our mantle for the in between season ... love love love :)

close up!

Filled my birdcage with cup cake pom pom flowers - Margie Style

Kevin made me a wire heart from a wire hanger and I wrapped it with burlap.