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This started as one of Tim's awesome blank folios (the small one). I painted and stenciled and voila! It's an art journal! How fun is that? I'm going to be teaching this in my class rotation this year (it's a six-hour class). I used my new stencils, love them!

If you are at CHA, come say hello!

I will be at Ranger Ink every morning and afternoon…come see my new metallics and the fine line tip. Awesome stuff! Booth 2521.

I will be at F&W for book signings on Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday at 1 pm. Come and get a signed book! Booth 1713.

This one is from the Silhouetted Women set!

I am headed to the CHA show to teach, demo, and show off my Dina Wakley Media line. Woo hoo! Follow me on Instagram, I'll be sharing photos from the show.

http://instagram.com/dinawakley/

Here's one of the gals from the Positive Women set…

Here are a couple more samples. You are going to love the new stuff!

Woodcuts:

Scribbly Birds on Branches (and Woodcuts in the background):

And you are going to LOVE the metallic paints! They are luscious. They have the same beautiful heavy body that my other paints have, but they spread like buttah.

Hooray, the day has come! I am happy to share my Winter 2015 release with Ranger.

Handwritten Heart Collage

I did this set with cardmakers in mind. How easy is it to stamp the heart, then choose a phrase to go inside? Voila, instant card! I'm sort of obsessed with the heart, though…I've even been using it on journal pages. What an easy and fun focal point!

 

Positive Women

I know, I already have two sets of women stamps, but I couldn't resist designing just one more. I love these gals and their positive message. I added the grungy polka dot for great backgrounds and patterns.

Scribby Birds on Branches

To accompany the popular Scribbly Birds set, I present to you Scribbly Birds on Branches. More adorable birds to use! Yay!

 

Scribbly Flowers

I really wanted to do draw a flower set. Great for cards, backgrounds, and focal points, these designs will look fab stamped in colored ink, or stamped in black and then painted in with my acrylic paint (or your fave markers, pencils, etc).

 

Silhoutted Women

I lifted these silhouettes right off my journal pages. I love a silhouetted image, I think they are powerful because they are both a presense and an absence. Lots of possibilities with these!

 

Woodcuts

This set is based on my custom foam stamps that I often teach and make in class. I love the bold shapes, they are perfect on colorful pages.

 

Masks

The mask sets are Graphic Shapes, Insects, and Organic Shapes. Can you say OBSESSION??? I am in love with all of these. The insects match my stamp set, Scribbly Insects, too. Yay! Remeber with my mask sets, you get both the mask AND the stencil. Two forms of awesomesauce.

 

Stencils

For stencils, I present to you Alphabetic, Daisies, Essentials, Halves, Pebble Heart, and Wheels. I know there are a gazillion stencils out there, but I always design stencils that I want to use in my art. I missed the old standard alphabet stencils from the office supply store, so I did Alphabetic. I love Daisies, it's a lovely background. And I did Essentials because I use all of those basic shapes constantly! See if you can spot the stencils in all of the samples I posted above!

 

Next up….new paint, mediums, and a FINE LINE TIP!!!! AAAH!

I get asked all the time when I will come out with new paint colors. Trust me, new colors are coming eventually! For this show, we're introducing Black, Gilt (gold), Sterling (silver), and Penny (copper). Metallics are hot, hot, hot, and I wanted in on the action with my gorgeous, heavy-body paint. You will love the colors, they introduce a real sense of glamor to your art!

Glazing medium is a great addition. When you add it to my paint, it will thin my paint down without making the colors break, and it extends the open time of the paint so you can easily build and blend glazed layers. The medium + paint = awesome over gesso and texture paste!

AND…the fine line tip is here!

I am so excited about this. The tip is a needle that will screw right onto your Dina Wakley Medium paint tube. The needle has a wide gauge so it's not hard to squeeze the heavy-body paint through it. YESSSSSS. Now you can doodle, draw, write with my acrylic right onto your work! The paint comes out dimensional and is just awesome. I will be demoing this at the show, can't wait to show you how it works.

Sooooo, that's the scoop!!! Thanks for letting me share. I'll share more samples and demos with you in the coming weeks.

Art forever, housework never!

 

Howdy! We are busy packing. Our new home closes today and we move tomorrow! Our current home is still for sale…if you know anyone who wants an awesome home in the Arrowhead area of Glendale, let me know.

I only have one teaching gig in January…come and make art with me at Scrapbook-N-Memories in Harrisonville, MO! All the class details are here.

I will try to get up the rest of my schedule ASAP…a little swamped with the move. More soon, happy new year!

What I should be doing: making cookies, updating my 2015 schedule, updating my 2015 class list, more CHA samples, packing, making some art for ME and working in my journal, filming several new online classes.

What I am doing: Pinning.

I absolutely adore Traci Bautista. I love her energy and her art, she never fails to inspire me. A few months ago, she asked if I would be willing to help spread the word about her newest book, "Printmaking Unleashed." Oh my, you need this book. It is overflowing with techniques and mixed media inspiration. I have a love of all things printmaking, and this book had some techniques I have never tried. Woo hoo!

Traci sent me a printmaking kit to go along with the book. I thought I'd show you what I did with a couple of the goodies from the kit. One of the great things about Traci's book is it shows you many ideas for printing with common materials.

First, I chose a couple of pages to work on in my journal.

Here's a Dina-thing…I NEVER do a an art journal page from start to finish in a sitting. I work in an organic way, experimenting with backgrounds, wiping extra paint on pages, blotting ink on pages, etc. When I go to work on a page, I usually have something there already…color, texture. So, for this I chose two pages in my journal that had some color and texture. The page below had some ink pressed, as well as painted layers. There's even a partial drawing at the top (I was demoing something in class and used that page to scribble what I was talking about).

I forgot to get a "before" picture of the second page I chose…I was too distracted by the awesome stuff in Traci's printmaking kit. Oopsie! From her kit, I chose a great piece of plastic with a circular pattern.

I have been experimenting with paint sprays. What I do is take an empty mister bottle, and squeeze in some paint (I am of course using my Dina Wakley Media paints by Ranger). Then I add about the same amount of water and shake well. That way I have an opaque paint spray that is permanent.

I sprayed over the plastic with my white paint spray.

Then I picked up the plastic, flipped it over, and printed it onto my second page a couple of times.

Ohhhhh deliciousness!

See how the print in a neutral color (white) helps tie together the disparate background elements?

Next I sprayed pink paint spray over some mesh and then flipped it and printed it on my second page. I love working like this…I end up with TWO pages with just a small amount of effort.

Last, I used the circular plastic canvas and Turquoise paint spray.

Here are the two backgrounds. The first is stenciled…the second is printed. Two for one!

On the stenciled background, I added a stamped woman from my Face in the Crowd stamp set. Notice her hair…I love to change the hairdos on my stamped women.

On the printed page, I drew a woman and added some journaling.

I can't wait to use more of the goodies from Traci's kit and practice the techniques in her book. Happy printing!

 

Well, hello. Long time no see.

Time for a little "what's been going on" round up…

My Fella

My son had his surgery. He has had a terribly difficult couple of years, with this last year being the worst. Would love any kind thoughts and prayers. He is on the mend but there is still a long road ahead. This picture is from the hospital when one of the volunteer therapy dogs came to visit.

 

Teaching

My teaching for 2014 is finished. Thank you to everyone who came to class to make art with me. I truly do love to spend time with you, "my people." We are working on my 2015 schedule and I hope to post it next week. I have been designing seven new classes for you for next year…can't wait to share them with you!

 

My Book

My second book, Art Journal Courage, is out and doing well. Some of you have sent me kind notes about it, which I appreciate so much. Thank you!!! I hope you're feeling inspired by it.

The best place to buy my book? Your local store! Ask for it!!

 

One Spot Open in Back2Back

And…BREAKING NEWS….because of a cancellation, there is ONE SPOT open for the Back2Back retreat in February with me and Dyan Reaveley!!! Go to this page for more info. Call Everything Scrapbook and Stamps for more info. Hurry!

 

And…CHA is Around the Corner!

On top of taking care of my son, trying to sell our house (AAAAAAH!) and dealing with our impending move, I have been working on CHA goodness. I can't wait to share with you my new stamps, stencils, and other goodies that are coming out. I've made samples and I have really loved working with the new stuff.

The pic below is a pile of art that I got back from my publisher…do you recognize the page below from my new book? I have done a few new pages I need to photograph for you…it's on my to do list!

Hugs to all of you…more soon.