Dina

Guest designer for Shabby Chic Crafts…

I was lucky to be asked to be the guest designer for Shabby Chic Crafts this month...check out their blog for all my pages, and scroll down through all the posts for lots of cute layouts and inspiration. Shabby Chic makes all kinds of cute & easy to use tags for you to use in your scrapping & card making. Very versatile stuff! Thanks for having me!

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Dinaartsy

The winners of the Ed Roth stencil books…

Wow, thanks for all your sweet comments in the book giveaway! I've even visited some of your blogs…you all inspire me. Carter chose numbers for me this a.m., and here are the winners!

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The winner of Stencil 101 is:

I wondered how you did those! They always look so wonderful! These books look amazing!

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The winner of Stencil 101: Home Decor is:

That's one very cool book!

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Congrats!! Email me your addresses and Ed will have Chronicle mail the books directly to you. And remember, if you want Ed's books, you can buy them from his website and from Amazon.com.

Kenner Road November Peeks…

The kits go live on the 14th at 9:00 p.m. Pacific time. Check it out!

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Art journaling samples from class I taught in Spain…

Here are a few of the samples I made while teaching my art journaling class in Spain. The class was centered around layering and building up work with many different layers. All of these samples went home with sweet-hearted students. 🙂

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Inky Fingers class layouts…

For the sweet Norwegian gals…here are the 3 layouts from the Inky Fingers class.

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Dear me

In praise of Ed Roth…and a giveaway!

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So, a few months ago I was browsing the Phoenix Art Museum bookstore and I picked up a book called "Stencil 101." As I flipped through it, I got so excited that I let out a little scream. The book is full of tutorial and project ideas for stencils…and BEST of all, there were 25 stencils included. Now, these stencils are not your typical hearts and ponies…no, they are urban and cool and I was so utterly inspired. I immediately began using the stencils in my work.

The sweet man who wrote this book, Ed Roth, recently contacted me after seeing his stencil on the cover of Somerset Memories. My scrapbook page, which is on the cover, is an imprint of Ed's swallow stencil (I was using the stencil and it became coated with ink. I flipped it over & pressed it onto a piece of cardstock to blot it, and the result was the imprint you see on the page. I simply let it dry and cut it out.)

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I often get emails about the stencils I use in my work…and 9 times out of 10, the stencil came from Ed's book. Seriously. If you don't have it run, don't walk, run and get it.

Here are a few of my pages using his fab stencils:

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I guess what I really love about Stencil 101 is that those stencils made MY work better. And that is the highest compliment I can give.

And…super exciting…Ed has another book coming out! It's called Stencil 101: Decor, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I start to drool just looking at it…exciting!

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Ed and Chronicle Books have a surprise for you! They are generously giving me one copy of each of his books (Stencil 101 and Stencil 101: Decor) to give away! I will choose one winner for each book from the comments left on this post…I'll draw the winner(s) in a week. Sound good?

And seriously, you need Ed's books. Check out his site, too, for all kinds of info, how-to tips, inspiration, and other stencils you can buy.

Thanks, Ed, for the inspiration you have given me!

A 6×6 quickie collage…

While hanging out in France & watching all the talented scrappers do their thing, I started making little 6×6 quickie collages on some chipboard I had left over. Here's one…quick & fun. It felt great to just sit & create for a bit. This one was a gift for a gal who couldn't come to the event–her friend asked me to make her something. What a thoughtful friend!

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And…I just remembered today I promised the awesome Norwegian girls that I'd post the layouts from my class I taught there. I'll get them photographed today & posted tonight or tomorrow…sound good?

Bit of scrapping…

I can't tell you how awesome the other teachers were in Norway & France…Oddborg, Tracie, Celine, and Karine all inspired me greatly! During Karine's class, I was inspired by her layout and I made this. I didn't have any photos with me, but Corinne did, so I used her photo and she took the layout home. Thanks for the inspiration, Karine!

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Art from my Europe trip…

I did some small art pieces during my trip (most of which I gave away to sweet students)…and over the next few days I'll share some of them. I did make it home with this canvas…

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Catching up…

I have oodles of pictures to edit, and no time to do it (yet). Here are a few shots from Montpellier…Celine's event was so fun! Great people, great projects…loved every second of it. It was great to hang out with Celine and Karine, and well as Corinne and Denise. The scrappers at the event were fearless! They are super talented and adventurous, and I love that.

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Loved this statue…notice someone climbed up & put a red pirate hat on one of the figures…lol!

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Montpellier is a lovely city…skinny alleys and iron grates, lots of gorgeousness! Loved the cool doors, too.

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Headed to Spain and the lovely and talented Lisa Mitchell housed me all week. We had so much fun eating, walking, shopping, and art-ing. This picture makes me smile b/c we are out of focus, but the Boqueria market behind us is crystal clear. We ate at the famous El Quim lunch counter. Everything was fantastically delicious! Lisa was brave enough the order the house specialty of baby squid over fried eggs. I did taste it & it was lovely. We also had butiferra, fried artichokes, and asparagus wrapped in bacon. Fab.

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Had a great time teaching the workshops there…so many talented scrappers & artists!

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I so love Barcelona…I'm sure I'll return over and over again.

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It feels great to be home, it was so awesome to get off the plane and see my fellas. Lots of hugs & love all around!