Imagine That: We’ll Always Have Paris

In The Studio

Or, if not, we can make a memento of it in about an hour and a half!

Longtime readers may have a sense they’ve seen this project before, but that’s because the inspiration came from one of the pieces I did as decorations for my 40th birthday party. I used the same basic techniques, this time in a smaller (8″x8″) format with strictly Imagine products and, of course, filmed the process so that you can follow along and see exactly how I used the wash tape to “draw” the figures.

Head over to the Imagine Blog for the full supply list and the video of the project. Enjoy!

Strut Your Stuff with Stencil Girl and Imagine

In The Studio

It’s Blog-Hop time! This month Imagine teamed up with Stencil Girl for a product/design team collab as well as a giveaway (more details below–make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom!).

I had a lot of fun working with my new tools from Stencil Girl and used them to put together a mixed-media canvas. It started with an acrylic paint base and then–why I don’t I show you, instead.

Strut Your Stuff Process Video

As you can probably guess, I took my biggest inspiration from the peacock feather stencil and chose colors that worked with that idea. I was more amused than I necessarily should be that I turned the dancing figure into a fan dancer, but it worked (I think?).

Once I had all the basic layers in place, I ended up leaving it on my work table for almost a week, trying to decide how to finish it. The overall look was really bright, which is not my usual goal, and I wanted to add a stamped phrase but I wasn’t sure of the best way to do that at first.

I ended up adding a couple layers of ink buffed over the creative medium bits to highlight the textures and then stamped the message onto vellum, applied it with the Shimmer Artist’s Medium, and called it done!

Here’s the full product list for this project
(any amazon links are affiliate links, thank you for supporting this blog!)

Imagine Products:

Stencil Girl Products:

Other Products:

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Imagine Crafts! Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! (One comment per blog please.) You have until Sunday, July 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl’s Facebook page and Imagine Crafts’s Facebook page
on Monday, July 24th.

 

Project Share: Victorian Memo Frame for Helmar

In The Studio

jvanderbeek_helmar-victorian_memo_frame

Hey, guys! Today I have a new, fun, and fairly quick project up over on the Helmar Design Team blog. Apparently my interest in Victoriana has not yet waned, and probably won’t for a while, so the fussy, frilly-ness of this project is mainly due to that. But, you know, it’s kinda fun to do fussy and frilly every now and then.

jvanderbeek_feb2015_roadmapofalivedinheart_mixedmedia_canvas

Also, if you didn’t see it earlier this month, my February Gauche Alchemy project was a very texture-heavy red canvas for the love/hate-themed challenge (and you might recognize the hearts from the last Helmar project). There’s still some time to create your own project and submit it for the February challenge. Remember, anything goes as long as it’s inspired by this month’s challenge board!

February Challenge Inspiration

February Challenge Inspiration

Finally, here’s that doll sweater I mentioned in the last post. This is the first “right” prototype of the pattern. I’ve since made it a second time in a longer, oversized-cardigan style and I’ve got a third one on the needles even longer as as coat.

Tessa modeling her winter-appropriate "bookish" look.

Tessa modeling her winter-appropriate “bookish” look.

Did I mention I bought more dolls? There were some unbeatable deals on Amazon a few months ago and I got a total case of itchy spending finger and picked up two girls for less than one would normally cost (Tezca and Lipoca). Then I found a Yeolume (Pullip’s daughter from the future, serious, the “storyline” of these dolls is rather amusing) in Tuesday Morning, and finally brought home a Byul (Dal’s best friend); again from Amazon, again at a great deal. She’s the one who needs a bit of work due to a broken arm and her replacement body arrived ahead of schedule so she’ll be in the dolly O.R. before too long.

It’s the little things, folks, that make us smile, right?

I named this the ketchup & mustard vortex--after this we all made use of the hairdryers to dry the background enough to continue. And get more wine.

Artsy Play Date | Painting with a Twist

Everyday Adventures

Last Friday night a friend of mine celebrated her birthday in a very fun way: by inviting us to join her at the local Painting with a Twist studio for food, wine, and fun with paints and brushes.

What were we painting?

The fun thing about Painting with a Twist is that anyone can do it. An instructor leads you through the composition of the night, step-by-step, and everything–paints, canvas, brushes, easel, the works!–is included in your class fee. Our picture was a 2-hour class–yes, we all did this in just 2 hours-and our instructor was just the cutest thing and worked very well with our, uh, spirited group! They also let (nay, encourage!) you to bring in food and drinks to make the atmosphere that much more relaxed.

I took some photos as the painting developed, just so you could see the process

Our cute-as-a-button instructor, Laura

Step 1: Yellow surrounded by darker yellow--Laura called these two French's and Dijon

Step 1: Yellow surrounded by darker yellow–Laura called these two French’s and Dijon

I named this the ketchup & mustard vortex--after this we all made use of the hairdryers to dry the background enough to continue. And get more wine.

I named this the ketchup & mustard vortex–after this we all made use of the hairdryers to dry the background enough to continue. And get more wine.

Step 3: Adding in the dark–respect the black paint!–shadows in three of the corners.

Step 4: Adding the hill in the remailing corner

Step 5 and then some–things moved rather quickly once we started adding the tree, the orbs, the details on the tree, the centers of the orbs, our leaves and a bird. I made my bird into a wonky little peacock just because.

It was a great 2 hours (okay, we ran a smidgen long due to excessive celebration, lol) and while I didn’t exactly learn anything new or earth-shattering, many of the girls got a significant confidence boost in regards to their own creativity. Many are planning to go back for another class (each store posts a schedule of the available nights and what painting will be taught, you just sign up for the one(s) you’re interested in–and there are locations all over the country!) and I did entertain the fleeting thought of seeing if they had any instructor openings. Emphasis on fleeting, though–I could do it, but I really don’t have time. Still, it would be so much fun, like when I taught cake decorating but with WAY fewer calories.

Next week I’ll be back with a couple more creative gift-wrap solutions, and then maybe we’ll eventually get back to woodworking 😉

Have you done anything fun and creative this week?

~Scraps