Category Archives: how-to

Fun with sprays

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I’ve been a fan of the color mists and sprays for several years, so I was thrilled to see Pink Paislee release their Mistables line last year. This past weekend, while at a creative retreat, I started really playing with them and I had a ton of fun.


This was my first layout. I used the Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on the background, alternating between spraying really close to the paper and a little further away. That caused it to pool in certain areas, but because of the embossed pattern, it stayed within the shape. I wish you could see it up close & personal because in the light, it really shimmers.

I didn’t really know what else I wanted to do with this page, so I just started putting some things on it. The picture of Barbie is timeless and when I think of her, I think BLING. I decided to go to Gaudytown and flirt with the possibility of going overboard. I created a little sequin confetti border around the image, and decided to match it with a shiny, shimmery ribbon. I added a foldy from Sasafrass but it seemed like it needed some glam so I went over the design with some Stickles.


Notice this one: I used the same paper but with the opaque Mr. Huey’s mists. I started with custard and then layered on the darker colors to create this hombre effect. I’ll have a video demo up within the next few weeks because I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how I did it. I love the look and it was so much fun!

After I got that rolling, I just splattered a little paint on the top right to try and balance out the black, put my photos down on some American Crafts POW paper, added a strip of washi, strip of paper, label & year plus my Remarks letter stickers. I finished the page with a ROCK rub on at the top left and part of a ticket at the top right. Excellent.

Did I blow your mind? Get out there and play with some of the new Heidi Swapp papers, or make your own and play with the mists. Have fun!!!

Being different isn’t so bad

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I’ve always been like the square peg in a round hole: never really seemed to fit in. Until one day in college, when I decided to embrace it. That’s when, of course, I found my kindred spirits among my fellow art majors. Since then I’ve been doing what I do best, standing out from the crowd & bringing a new perspective to work, friends and life.

So why should I be surprised that I watercolor unlike most others?
A number of crafters have been showcasing their styles, tools & techniques lately and I love seeing them as a reminder of how different I am, which isn’t such a bad thing.


This is my trusty watercolor palette. We’ve been together since 1999.

It has a lid and over 14 years’ worth of custom color remnants, cracks and memories. While not always the most travel-friendly, it certainly is helpful in a pinch when I want to do some painting. I haven’t seen another of these outside of my college art classes.


These are my paints. They generally make me very happy.

I also don’t usually use those dry compound paint pots. I get myself bonafide artist’s water colour tubes from art supply stores & occasionally from Michaels. If you have the cash and the time, I recommend playing with them. Vibrant colors & fun to mix!

This is what the paint looks like out of the tube.

I really cannot say enough about the Grumbacher paints. For a so-called “color guru” these are fantastic because I can mix my own custom color shades. If you’re worried about what happens when they dry on the palette, don’t be: the nature of watercolors allow them to be used over and over by re-wetting them, so you can come back to your paints days or months later and use them again. Brilliant, right? 


Look at that saturation. LOVE IT.

Another brilliant thing about the palette is that each compartment is sloped, which allows me to grab my colors on the side or in the bottom of it at whatever saturation I desire. Any extra water runs down to the bottom and catches there. I usually mix my colors on the middle palette so they don’t ruin the principle color, but sometimes I mix on the slope, too. There’s a lot of versatility in this little plastic palette and I love it!


A great tool for keeping your colors pure: spray bottle. Works like a charm!

I also really love my basic spray bottle that I keep with my palette. I keep it empty (one too many accidents during travel) and fill it when I get to my destination. I spray my palette to activate the paints & it keeps my water bowl cleaner longer plus it protects my paints & helps to keep them pure. When I want some striation or other paint effects on my paper, I spray it with the water bottle to make everything easier. Excellence.


The Prang set I received in 1996. Thanks, Ms. Bethune!

Sometimes I just want a quick wash or a bold, pre-mixed color. In those cases I go to my trusty Prang case & use those color pots. My super awesome, amazing art teacher in HS (Ms. Bethune) let me have the pots that were slated to be trashed way back when. As a result, I have a big bag of partially used color pots just waiting to be popped in. <3

And of course, I can’t work without my loyal sidekick and trusty muse looking over my shoulder. Finn loves to jump onto the back of my chair while I work. Adorable!

If you have any questions about the paints I use or my methods, feel free to comment here or drop me a line. I’ll be back another time with some of my techniques. Cheers.

 

Irish Love – March 2

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For day 2 of Irish Love, I wanted to share a favorite little snack with you. We all know about the Girl Scout Cookies that have invaded America in the past month or so, and this treat is inspired by those girls in green.

Make your own thin mint-y cookies with a few simple ingredients.

You will need:

  • Approx 1 tsp peppermint extract
  • 1 box of Ritz Crackers or similar

    • 1 package of melting chocolate- I used the small discs from Michael’s but I’ve also made it with a big brick of chocolate bark. I always choose milk chocolate, but I’ve been told many times that it’s better with dark (I just don’t prefer it.)

Supplies:

  • Cookie sheet
  • Cooling rack or wax paper
  • Bowl for the chocolate
  • Spatula
  • Fork
Melt your chocolate as directed. Usually in the microwave for short intervals. If you’ve never used the little discs before, make sure you stir the bowl rigorously after each time- they tend to melt from the inside out, and the heat of the semi-melted discs is usually enough to melt the whole bowl. If you burn the chocolate it will get clumpy and won’t work.
Do a practice run of your dipping technique, because once you add the peppermint the chocolate will start to lose its softness. Start by dipping one Ritz Cracker into the bowl, covering it completely, and shaking the excess chocolate off of it before placing it on your cookie sheet.
Once you feel you have the hang of the dipping part, add a few drops of the peppermint extract to your bowl a little at a time and stir. Taste after each time, and continue adding small drops one at a time until you reach the flavor balance you desire. Be careful during this part- too much peppermint will render the cookies inedible.
Continue with your dipping technique until you run out of cookies, chocolate or both. Let them harden on a sheet of wax paper or a cooling rack. I will try the wax paper next time because it won’t leave the cookies with peaks on the bottom.
There you have it and there you are. Enjoy!

And for those of you who might fancy using my Irish Love graphic, here’s a simplified version to grab:

March Madness pt 1

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The other day I mentioned my March album and how excited I was to be able to get started on the base pages. Here’s a sneak peek at what to expect come March 1:

I think this chicken coop print is my favorite Hambly overlay of all time. It’s so versatile and I love it. I liked the look of it paired in front of the Studio Calico herringbone-esque pattern. I also really love these American Crafts Thickers that I’ve been hoarding, and it seemed like the perfect occasion to crack them open and finally put them to good use. I’m also slightly obsessed with the October Afternoon Mini Market letter stickers so it’s no shock that I used them on this page. Initially, I had planned to put a simple banner behind the letters and be done with it but after putting them down together it was clear I needed a little something extra. Keep in mind when you’re working with overlays that you have to make a plan for the backside, as well. In this case, I folded the teal paper in half and then cut the banner from it. If I were less lazy, I’d adhere it to both sides of the overlay but in reality, I just pasted it down and made peace with the slight notice of adhesive showing through on the backside.

Lately I’ve been pretty infatuated with this arrow banner in all of my designs:

I decided to replicate it on the cover with my washi tape. We all know how to make the banners that everyone’s been gaga over, and I just enhanced it a little to take it to another level. Here’s your how-to of it:

Enjoy, have fun and have a great time with it. I’ll be back soon with more pages from the album. Cheers.

What to do with those Hambly overlays pt 2

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You may remember my previous post about Hambly overlays and my not-so-secret addiction to them. I’m now here to offer another suggestion for using them.

This time I used the chicken coop overlay in silver, which is one of my top picks when it comes to the Hambly lines. It all happened a bit by accident. I had relocated my stash to the living room during the NLCS and subsequent race to the pennant, so I was limited in my routine– this resulted in some unintentional castoff when I used my sprays. Since the page was already dirtied, I used it as a backdrop to catch any other messes from pages I was working on.

So when I put my overlay on top of the black paper with castoff spray drips, I was surprised but thrilled to see a lovely little complementary pattern underneath.

I went to work finishing my layout, which included several Hambly rub ons, a robot cut out from my favorite Bam Pop! page, an epoxy circle sticker and a doily scrap in the upper corner to hide a blemish in the paper. I added my Instax Mini image and yellow Thickers and walah– dunzo.

I used some teeny glue dots on the four corners of the page to adhere it to the black paper.

There’s your tip for adding some pizzazz to your overlays. Have fun!

Instant Kraft

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I don’t know about you, but I love me some kraft paper in my crafting! I sometimes buy discount sheets with designs I won’t use just so I can flip it over and use the blank backside for my pages. It’s just great for all sorts of crafty ideas- so today I bring you a lovely little idea for recycling and getting some free kraft paper at the same time!

I use this material to protect my table when I stamp….

It’s great for catching all of that embossing powder after I toss it onto my project…

And then it makes an instant funnel to put it all back in the jar…

I can even emboss directly on the kraft, or punch some shapes if that’s more my style…

This time of year, it makes for some great shapes due to the holiday designs…

Have you figured out what this mystery material is yet?

You’ve got it- Diet Coke box! Seriously, I used the whole thing in one night, mostly to punch a bunch of different shapes. Even the red of the lettering makes some great designs. You can be intentional about your punching location (if you intend to use the front side) or you can punch anywhere you want (if you plan to use the kraft side). I imagine something like a cereal box would make a great base for a page layout- that’s next on the list! Not only is it crafty, but you spare a tree, to boot!

Now go look around your house, find some non-traditional materials & get crackin!

What to do with those Hambly overlays pt 1

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Hi,

My name is Jess and I have a secret addiction:

…

I buy Hambly overlays en masse and then stockpile them in my studio. I know I’m not alone here. They’re just too pretty to use and I never know what to do with them.

Inspiration struck last month when I found a stack of overlay pieces that had been cut to around 5×7″ for something or other- clearly it never got made, for whatever reason. I played around with a few different ideas, namely placing them on my layouts as a block behind a photo or arranging them with some layers on the page, but nothing seemed to work.

Suddenly, I realized they were all the exact same size and thought they’d make an excellent mini album. On the desk I saw the stack of photos from my 30th birthday party that still haven’t been scrapped and walah! An idea was born.

I started by moving the pages around to see what designs worked best in what order. The pennant banners seemed fitting for the cover, so I wanted a dark solid to go next so the banners would pop. Once I determined the order, I set to work adding images and embellishments. I adhered the photo from the cover and the photo from page 2 back to back and then used glue dots on the corners under the pennants. I constantly went back and forth from one side to the next to be sure the elements overlapped and created a visually pleasing layout.

As I added elements, I kept toggling between pages to make sure they didn’t create any kind of undesirable effect. That is the reason for some of the oddly placed stickers — to cover up areas that would have looked weird from the other side.

I love my white galaxy marker for dark surfaces and this page was no exception. I also really love putting journaling or letter stickers right on the photo, so I did that here. I wish I hadn’t used quite so many silly little stickers/sayings but once I decided I didn’t like them, it was nearly impossible to get them off without creating damage. Oh well.

Here I tried to carry the text from the left to the right side. I also obviously decided to journal on washi tape, which works surprisingly well. The butterfly in the upper right corner was just a thought, but when I set it down to check it out it stuck and would NOT come off for anything. At least it provides a little bit of movement, eh?

I had this one blurring photo of my cousin spinning me, so I decided to use it in the end since the whole night was a blur. Get it? hahaha.

Once the pages were done, I stacked them evenly and used some binder clips to secure the stack. I painted some PVA on the spine and once it dried, secured it with linen bookbinding tape. Unfortunately, there were some gaps so the PVA got on a few of the pages, hence the washi tape in the crack of many of the pages to hide the shiny glue.

This book was a lot of fun to put together, but if I had all the money in the world, I’d buy more Hambly overlays & be intentional in which I planned to use in the album. I would be a lot more careful gluing my pages together and I would use SO many fewer stickers. So if there’s a generous soul out there willing to get me some deeply discounted overlays, I’ll have a second go at it- maybe with my Ireland photos.

Here’s the whole album put together so you can see the progression of pages (but really just so I can link to this post from Pinterest)

So there you have it! That’s my first idea on how to use your overlays. Check back soon for a few ideas on using them in your layouts. I’d love to hear your ideas for using them, as well, so if you have any good suggestions please use the contact page to drop me a line!

http://pinterest.com/

Publisher 101

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I know a lot of people have a fear of the unknown when it comes to using programs like Photoshop and Publisher. For that reason, I’ve created the first of many back-to-basics guides related to using them. Here’s the first, a beginner’s guide to using Publisher 2010. Enjoy!

PUBLISHER 101

And on another note, I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head today:

All right – I’m out for now, but I’ll be back soon with more looks at my travel album & the journal project. Cheers!

Adorable Winter Wreath

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Some of my scrappy friends told me to check out some crafting vids on YouTube and my mind was blown when I got there. Who knew there were so many tutorials and amazing ideas out there! Gotta love it!

Here’s a really awesome project I found by Danielle Flanders. This video shows you how to make an adorable winter wreath from crepe paper. Who knew it would be so easy?

 

And here’s another video that talks about one of my favorite techniques, misting. I’ve recently come to appreciate Mr.Huey’s flat/matte feel and have used him in combination with my Maya Mists and some custom-made dyes using food coloring. I also really love to use some spray paint in my misting projects. Check out this brief introduction to masking & misting by Kelly Purkey:

 

Now go out and make some magic of your own! I’m definitely inspired to go do some more misting. Until next time- peace out!

exciting times!

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Why hello!

I’m excited to report that I’ve almost finished creating a few new downloads, available very shortly. There are a few different types of banners to print and cut, some page borders and drawings, and tutorials for making tissue paper pom-poms – paper pinwheels – cupcake flags – assorted banners. It’s an exciting time!

I’ve also uploaded a Publisher 101 tutorial that will be available shortly.

Who’s excited?

Gotta love it!

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