Dina

Maya Road DT Canvas

Caroline always has the Maya Road design team make an autobiographical canvas for the booth. This is mine from the last show…a few tidbits:

• Done on a canvas panel.
• The color is Maya Mist over gesso and modeling paste.
• Maya Mist colors I used are Fig Magenta (swoon, I so adore that color) and Salmon.
• I spritzed water over the Maya Mist to make it run.
• I journaled with the Sharpie water-based Poster-Paint pen, extra fine point.
• The silver on the chipboard alpha is Silver Maya Mist. That stuff rocks, I love it because I am baaaad at glitter, and it gives a glittery look without the glitter work.
• Blue splatter is acrylic paint…Liquitex Artist Acrylic Light Blue Permanent (my most used color).
• The corrugated cardboard is a shipping supply that I order from Paper Mart. Seriously.

CHA: Maya Road Canvas Bag

Oooh, I loved making this bag for the awesome Maya Road. For the body of the bag, I used Fig Magenta and Lemon Metallic Maya Mist. When they  mix, they create a pleasing orangey color. I used those colors to stencil, and added Salmon Maya Mist for some stenciling, too. (Stencils by Crafter's Workshop, except for the alpha which is from the office supply store.) The flowers are acrylic paint, the leaves are black cotton fabric.

New book by Traci Bautista…Doodles Unleashed

The talented & awesome Traci Bautista has a new book…Doodles Unleashed: Mixed-Media Techniques for Doodling, Mark-Making & Lettering. I met Traci and CHA and got a copy of her book. It is chock-full of inspiration! You can get a signed copy from Traci's Etsy shop here.

I'm happy to be part of Traci's blog hop celebration for her new book. Here is what Traci has to say:

"Graffiti-Inspired Stylistic Scrawls

In Doodles Unleashed, I share ideas and techniques on creating Stylistic Scrawls, here’s a snippet of the chapter. 

In some of my artwork, I experiment with letter styles and backgrounds inspired by urban graffiti walls. I make graffiti style marks by layering letters, scribbling my journaling over textured collage and mark-making on painted surfaces. The movement of my brush, the overlapping of the words and the repetitive style of the letterforms create my own unique stylistic scrawls. I use all kinds of tools to write with: pens, permanent markers, crayons, colored pencils, highlighters, Chinese paintbrushes, glitter paint or acrylic paint in a fine-tip applicator, to glue pens and bleach pen. As I write, I rotate my painting or art journal in different directions, spilling my thoughts, feelings and ideas onto the page. Sometimes the words are illegible. Sometimes they are simple and plain. My journal tells a visual story with lines, scrawls and scribbles.

Here are a few ideas to jumpstart your Stylistic Scrawls…
Write the alphabet with a skewer dipped in India ink
Write in a circular direction
Write a mantra with dimensional paint
Create a painted wash background
Write your journaling with a dip pen & India ink
Scribble your favorite quote with a white out correction pen
Write without lifting up your pen
Collage a page with dyed paper towels
Write five words with a black permanent pen"

Aren't you totally inspired?

Stamp Giveaway! All 10 of my designs!

I love my stamps by Stampington…and I am going to give away all 10 designs to one lucky blog commenter! I'll choose a winner by random draw from the comments on this post (one comment per person, please). And yes, I will ship internationally. I have more stamps in the works, too…so keep an eye out in a few months for new designs.

I will keep this open until March 12th…good luck!

CHA: Ranger Inks & Tim Holtz Idealogy

Two CHA projects using the wonderful Ranger inks and Tim's Idealogy goodness…

Sharing some CHA projects…up first, Crafter’s Workshop

My love for spray ink necessitates a love for stencils…and I tell ya, Crafter's Workshop makes the best stencils ever. The selection is amazing…and some of my favorites are designed by the awesome and talented Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Great company, great stencils…love. I made these scrapbook pages for the booth.

Stampotique color challenge…use pink, purple, and black…

Here's what I came up with for the Stampotique color challenge…pink, purple, and black.

Popping in to say hi…

I know I've been a bit AWOL…truth is, I'm swamped. But I will make a better effort to post. I'm just sitting down to start my creative warm-ups, and thought I'd snap a few quick pics in the studio…piles of journals & projects, stacked up and stuffed into cubbies.

I realized the other day that I never did a stamp give-away on my blog of my Stampington stamps! So, I'll be doing that in a few days. Stay tuned!!

Stampotique card…

This is my Stampotique card for the week. I love grungy backgrounds! Isn't the "bla bla bla" stamp great?

Challenge week with Stampotique…

The Stampotique challenge is to lift one of the Stampotique designers. My project is inspired by the great Kate Crane.