Playing with paint

I am in the thick of my Field Guide class over at Big Picture. I am having so much fun and looking forward to each new week. In week 3, we explored the use of paint on layouts. There are so many different things that one can do with the paint. I thought I would share a layout that I just completed.

In this layout, I kept the techniques really simple. I mixed some buff colored acrylic paint with some Weathered Wood Distress reinker to create a lovely gray/blue color. I laid my photo block on my page and lightly penciled marks at each corner. I removed the photo block and painted with my custom color to create a painted mat. I did this because I just had a lot going on with my papers and wanted to give a resting place. You'll notice that my coverage isn't completely opaque. I did this on purpose to all the "wood grain" the show through a bit. I painted some shipping tags with the same paint to keep the colors harmonious. Very simple and clean but still lots of fun.

Breaking out the stamps!

Week 2 is all about stamping. I used to not be a fan of stamping, but over the year have begun to really appreciate their versatility. This week is gonna be totally fun! I'm looking forward to inks and paints and all the messy goodness!

Stamps make it possible to use up some of that outdated stash. They can also alter stuff in a way that makes embellishments and letters match your layout scheme.

Yay for stamps!

Misting goodness

This first week of May Flaum's Field Guide class has been a lot of fun. The class is great. The community is wonderful, and of course, May ROCKS! We've spent the week focusing on misting and all liquid-y good inks. I've been playing with mists for quite some time. When the mists come out, everything gets coated! Well, yes, you can have too much of a good thing--but it's fun!

Here are some of the misty goodness that I have produced during the past week:

 These go together in one double layout. I created the background with mist, a stencil, a stamp, distress stain, and embossing powder. So Fun!

A little mist adds interest to plain cardstock.

Teacher Valentines with misted heart-shaped doilies.

Thanks to an order from Two Peas, I finally have a new misting box. I use a 13x13x2 box for all of my misting. It certainly keeps the after crafting clean-up down to a minimum!

Biggest lesson learned this week: Don't try to mist or use distress inks over a gesso based tag. The inks just run all over!

Inspiration Explosion!

My brain is in a whirlwind! I'm itching to create. I feel like my creative urges have been tucked away on a shelf since Christmas. February has changed all of that!

The LOAD 212 challenge started on the first of the month. While I haven't gotten a page done for each day, I've gotten loads of inspiration from the prompts and the community. Given that the theme of the month is Past Perfect, I've pulled out photos from college and am doing 8x8 layouts for an album. I'll probably just put the pages in however they flow the best and not worry about chronological accuracy. I've gotten spoiled with digital photography and metadata making it easy to know the exact date photos were taken. I've got negatives for pete's sake! I've been putting together layouts using challenges from Scrap N Chat and, more recently my new May Flaum class. Here are the few layouts I've completed as part of LOAD:



May Flaum's Field Guide for the Curious Scrapbooker class over at Big Picture Classes officially kicked off today. The classroom was made available yesterday. I got through ALL 26 A to Z videos. May, as usual, did a fantastic job with these videos. They are nice little overviews of all of the things you can do with stuff that is probably already part of most scrapbookers' stash. I can definitely see how this class is going to influence some of my LOAD layouts.

As if LOAD and Field Guide weren't enough, there are CHA winter show reviews all over the net. Talk about yummy goodness and a bounty of inspiration! I better get busy and use my stash (okay, not all of it) so I can restock with some of the fab stuff scheduled to hit the market over the next month. Yippee!

PAD, Project 365 or 52?

I am intrigued. I keep thinking about doing a Project 365. For those who may not know, a Project 365 consists of taking one photo everyday for one entire year. It sounds simple---but it's not. I've been considering it for months...and months. I've been looking at sites and reading of others' experiences with the project. I even bought an app for my iPhone (Photo365).
The first question to answer is "Why would I want to do a Project 365?" After much thought, it comes down to improving my photography and preserving life's everyday details along the way. I take photos a lot as it is, but I want better photos. I don't need prize winning photos, just BETTER photos. The only way to get there is to practice, and then practice so more. I know that my photography has improved greatly over the last year. I also know that I have much more to learn.
The second question is "What are you going to do with a P365?". I think it would be a great match up for a very hybrid Project Life. Some pages will be digital, others paper, and yet others hybrid. I'm thinking I can also post it here in my blog.
I look forward to seeing how this adventure all comes together. This year will be a P365+1 in order to accommodate leap year. If I end up missing some days, I need to be okay with that. I also need to be okay with the project becoming a Project 52. It's about fun and learning for ME.