Collage Class Parts in Process

Claudine Hellmuth tweeted on Twitter that she was offering a low cost online class for several mixed media processes. I am a hard-core fan of her work and books. I jumped at the chance to take a class from her!

The class was mostly mixed media resist techniques. The good this was that I already had most everything I needed for the class right here in my studio. I did have to order her Sticky Back Canvas and it was totally worth it. This stuff is the bomb. You can put it through your inkjet printer!! Canvas through a printer!! Did you hear that? That’s the sound my heart makes when it contains so much joy! As an added bonus it’s sticky on the back! Stick it to other canvas, stick it to itself, or paper, cardstock, the wall, anything!! The surface does not have a full coat of primer so it will absorb tea staining and glazing.

In this class, I learned how to make embossing powder resist the applied paint, how to make toner image transfers, gesso resist painting, and altering scrapbook paper to the color you want it to be. We also did some watercolor and used text from an old book.

It’s all in parts like this because it will be transformed in to a house shape when put together. And I’ll show you that when I get them all done and connected!!

(Don’t you love the suspense I’m creating here with my work? Ha!)

Etsy Twitter Team: Shop of the Week: A Cagey Bee

I like the creative name for this Etsy shop. The artist is Kris G. Brownlee – or KGB = A Cagey Bee! Very clever!

“I'm a painter, so my first love is creating the actual paintings - from sketching to swirling the paint around my canvas. But because I know a lot of us can't afford to buy original work, I try to offer a variety of lower cost reproductions: prints, notecards, and even little pendants with my characters!

I want my customers to know how much heart and soul and pure joy is poured into my work. I think most of my customers *do* know this, but it's not always easy to get a sense of who someone is via the internet. I was a very quiet, shy child and spent years creating elaborate stories for my imaginary friends. It's really no wonder that I've started to bring some of them to life in my paintings. The idea that I get to share that with my customers? That new friends from all over the world look at my girls and smile? I couldn't have dreamed up a better possibility for my life. :)”


What inspires you to create? “Everything! Favorite storybooks, movies, lyrics to songs, interesting characters I meet in real life... my biggest fear is that I'll never have enough time to paint all of the things I want to paint. If I ever run out of ideas, I can just walk out my front door and almost always see *something* interesting. There's this one woman in my neighborhood that I see every so often who I've been itching to paint since the first time I laid eyes on her. She walks this pack of 6 or 7 dogs - those giant long haired Afghan hounds! It looks like a scene straight out of a cartoon with their hair swishing and bouncing and swirling along!”

What are your Twitter tricks of the trade? “My newest favorite Twitter trick is installing Friendbar. It adds a toolbar to your browser so you don't have to load the Twitter page to tweet plus it makes it really easy to just click 1 button & tweet about the page you're currently viewing, including an already shortened URL. You can set it to update your Facebook status too. Very handy!”

Read her blog at www.acageybee.com
Follow her at Twitter: twitter.com/acageybee

As a special thank you to her Twitter pals, all prints in her shop are 2 for the price of 1 this week. Buy one print and simply enter the name of the second print you'd like in the notes to seller box. Double the cuteness!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade acageybee.etsy.com

All photos copyright to Kris Brownlee/A Cagey Bee

Reposted from my original post at: Etsy Twitter Team: Shop of the Week: A Cagey Bee

A Work In Progress

More work was completed on my art journal page that I shared with you recently. I painted a woman with flowing red hair. I don’t do a lot of painting so this face was kind of hard to do. Not sure I’m 100% happy with the results, but that’s what an art journal is for – to learn and try new things.

I like how the texture of the paper I collaged with gel medium creates visual interest in an otherwise boring portrait. Here's a close up view.

She still needs a body but I thought you might like to see my process. Not sure when I’ll have time to finish her body. I took a class, which I will share with you soon, so I’m swirling with thoughts from new technique information. I want to experiment with some of those things first. This whole new-to-me-painting thing has me full of ideas, too.

On another note, I had a lovely Memorial Day. Spent it hanging out with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew. They're only in town for part of the week so we're squeezing in as much family time as we can. They live in Atlanta.

My mom has been so funny having all her children here. She even cried tears of joy a few times. We all miss my brother and his family very very much. I hope to get to see them before they go, but I know they have other folks in town to see as well. I need my computer genius brother to come over and fix my router so it allows access to the web for my iPod. And I want him to see our new house! And my studio! So they better squeeze in a trip over here some day this week.

Beginning An Art Journal Page

I have not been working in my art journal like I had hoped to be working on it. Life gets busy. Running the Etsy Twitter Team gets busy. But I found myself with some spare time last week to work on a page.

I started out with a rough idea of what I wanted. Lately all my work is created this way – not knowing where I’m really going. Ha! So I began working with torn book pages and Golden regular (matte) gel medium. This technique creates gorgeous texture. All you have to do is tear up some pages with text and slap them down onto your paper.

This is what it looks like with a little bit of gesso painted over it.

Then I grabbed my favorite green and brown paints – Eucalyptus craft paint and Raw Umber Golden fluid acrylic paint. Watering it down a little makes a really nice glaze effect. This is what it looks like painted.

Here’s a close up of the great texture the gel medium and paper creates.

Soon I’ll show you what else I painted onto this background. It’s better than I thought it was going to be because I really don’t know how to paint and I just make it up as I go along. My art journal is turning into my own self-taught painting class.

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Don’t forget that today is the last day for the Etsy Twitter Team Sidewalk Sale!! Get some great deals on handmade – free shipping to 30% off some shops!! It’s definitely worth a look! My sale is 15% off all items (not including shipping and sales tax). Use code "Etsy Twitter Team Sidewalk Sale" in the comments at checkout!

It’s All Green, Baby

Spring is springing here in lovely Rochester and where I am in Irondequoit. The trees have filled back up with leaves. Hostas are sprouting. Lilacs are blooming!

Plants are making their way up in my flowerbed in the backyard. This is our first spring in our first house so I have no idea what is “plant” and what is “weed” just yet. I’m letting it grow wild until I figure it out. Never really had anywhere to do any weeding or planting so I’m actually looking forward to getting dirty out there. Mr. M says his duty is the grass and I should tend to the other plants outside. Fair deal.

Mr. M bought me the tomato plants I asked for. And he got me surprise strawberry plants. I must find a way to keep the voracious and abundant squirrels here away from them so I get to eat the fruits of my labor.

The raspberries I told you about last year are also coming up. There are more plants this year on our side of the fence! Yay!! Our neighbor who owns the plants has Crohn’s so he cannot eat them anyway due to the little seeds. The berries won’t be out until July I think.

I adore this time of year here. Life is retuning to abundance instead of cold scarcity. My soul thrives on the green lushness around me. We got so lucky to have tall trees in our neighborhood so they can surround me. I love trees. They’re magical! I’m known to literally hug trees.

Now I need to convince Mr. M that I need a laptop so I can work on the patio and enjoy my lovely weather and deciduous companions!