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I am excited to be part of Creative JumpStart 2017!

Woooo hooooo! I'm excited to announce that I'll am an artist in Creative JumpStart (CJS) 2017, run for the 6^th time by the sweet and talented Nathalie Kalbach. If you're not familiar with CJS, it's a one-of-a-kind online event that helps you kick your creativity into high gear in the new year. Learn techniques, discover new materials, and connect with other artists and crafters. 

Click Here to Learn More about CJS!

Throughout January, you get access to 27 downloadable videos from 27 featured artists. I'm proud to be one of those artists, called “JumpStarters.” Take a peek at this promo video:

Head on over to Nathalie's site to sign up:

Click Here to Sign Up for CJS 2017!

You get 27 videos for just $40 (USD) if you sign up before November 30th, (11:59 pm EST, 2016). Afterwards it will be $45 until December 31st, 2016. On Jan 1, it goes to its normal sale price of $50. Still an amazing value, less than $2 per video.

Join me and let's have some fun!

Well, how about that. I actually made some art.

Which is pretty remarkable since my studio currently looks like a toxic waste dump. Heh heh.

My travel schedule was quite back-to-back lately, which is exhausting mentally and physically and requires so much prep. I finally had a day where I could create! I had a little helper on my lap all day long.

All three of these pieces will be for sale late next week on my Art of Dina Wakley facebook page. Remember that FB is fickle and even when you "like" my business page, it won't show you everything I post. To see everything, you can change your notification settings. I will also announce the date/time of the sale here.

Geez, everyone's a critic. Ha.

Colors and products above: Dina Wakley Acrylic Magenta, Turquoise, Lemon, Night, Gilt (splatter). Stencil is Fractured Circles. Stabilo All Pencil.

Products above: Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Cheddar, Night, Blackberry, Turquoise. Stabilo All pencil and white paint pen. Stencil is the Squares Paint Comb.

Look, birds!!! I haven't drawn birds in ages. Felt good. Products above: Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Night, White, Blackberry, Turquoise, Evergreen, Ocean, Fuchsia, Lemon. Stabilo All pencil. Paint pens. Stencils are Mini Favorites and Stacked Squares.

He is still "helping" me today. 🙂

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Happy to be this week’s guest artist for The Documented Life project!

I am happy to be the guest artist for The Documented Life project. Love those women and the impact they've had on mixed-media!

The theme this week is "Stripes." I didn't put any pressure on myself, I sat down to create. Here's what happened.

• I grabbed some art from my "art pieces" box. The box is full of backgrounds, experiments, half-done projects, "ugly" art, etc. I use the materials in this box constantly. It means I never have to start from scratch for anything. It also means that no art time is ever wasted. I either love it, or if I don't love it, I can put it in the box and repurpose it another day. Or, if I feel like creating but don't want to worry about it being good, I just throw some paint around and fill up the box with colorful goodness.

• I chose a piece I didn't really like and cut it into ATC-sized pieces. Busy backgrounds make the best small ATCs!

• I find it's just as easy to make several ATCs as it is to make one. So I chose three of the pieces, and used my Dina Wakley Media Tape to add stripes on each one.

• Next I inked the edges with black Archival ink, and added some sewing to each ATC for interest and to "embed" the stripes into the background.

• Next I flipped through my stamp compendium to find some stamped images to use on the cards. What's my stamp compendium? It's simply a journal filled with pre-stamped images. When I get a new stamp set, I stamp it a bunch of times in the compendium. That way when I need an image, I can just flip through the pages instead of digging through my stamps.

• I added the stamped images, colored them a bit with crayons, and then added quotes with Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Small Talk Stickers. Easy and effective.

Products I used: Dina Wakley Media Tape (printed), Dina Wakley Media Stamp sets Boxed Faces, Sketched Faces, Silhouetted Women, and Collaged Hearts. (The Silhouetted Women and the Collaged Hearts sets are the smaller versions available at Michael's Stores.)  Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink. Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons. Tim Holtz Idea-ology Products: Small Talk Stickers, Tiny Attacher.

Dina Wakley Media Paint Colors in the Background: Lemon, Evergreen, Cheddar, Ocean, Magenta, Night. Stencils in the background: Fractured Circles and Variegated Stars. Also in the background: oil pastels.

Short video about my new Media Tape…see the tape in action!

Introducing……new Dina Wakley Media tape and a limited edition Christmas stamp/stencil set!

It's (almost) the most wonderful time of the year! Here are a few new art supplies for you.

First up: a limited edition clear stamp/stencil Christmas set! I adore this little set. It is vintage-inspired but in my scribbly style. My favorite thing in the whole set is the toy border…look at that adorable t-rex. Rawr!

And…I am KILLER excited about this….Media Tape! I did a little video explaining the tape, and it will go on the Ranger blog on 9/20. Keep an eye out for that. This tape is awesome. Strong like washi, but with a little bit better of an adhesive (you know how some washi doesn't stick very well). This tape sticks well, but you can remove it, too. It's more like a masking tape adhesive. The tape takes paint and ink like a champ (woo hoo). You can paint it. Stamp on it. Stencil on it. Yessssss.

 

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I love art…

I love art. Art is not a hobby for me. Art is how I live.

I wish you could see the Mica Spray on this book. I am going to do a Mica Spray video soon because I want you to love it as much as I love it! It's so cool on acrylic paint.

I started this with black gesso. Then I put color over it and made a mess. Then I traced my hands and painted around them. It's a striking effect! Have you tried black gesso?

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Stamp and Stencil Sets at Michael’s….

Well, it's about time I did a full post about these! I have five cool clear stamp & stencil sets at Michael's. I have been using the images and stencils in my projects for awhile, but I wanted to give a shout out to how versatile they are.

   

 

These stamps and stencils are smaller than their original versions, which makes them PERFECT for cards and tags. Plus, if you've had class with me, you know how much I LOOOOOOOOVE to have different sizes of the same image/stencil. Makes layering so much more easy and interesting! (See the stencil nestled behind the stamp set in the pic below.)

In the pic below, my standard 6×9 stencil is on the left, and the cute little 5×7 Michael's version is on the right.

The stamps are a high-quality silicone that won't break down or tear. They take ink fabulously, and you can easily stamp with acrylic paint, too. (I used Night paint on the stamped images in the pic below.)

Here are a few samples with the stencils & images:

 

More original art for sale next week…

I am working on some new pieces to put up for sale on my Art of Dina Wakley FB page. I will do it a bit differently this time. I will announce the sale date/time a few days in advance. You can view the pieces but you cannot claim anything until the sale time starts. I am hoping this will eliminate the "surprise" factor and will help more people get the pieces they want. I will also have some larger pieces for sale.

Keep an eye on my Art of Dina Wakley Facebook Page for the announcements and details. Remember that Facebook is a bit lame and won't show you what I post on that page unless you a) interact with the page (i.e. click like, comment occasionally, etc) or b) set your notifications to ALL. Setting your notifications to All is the only way to see everything someone posts on a business page. Without doing that, FB decides what to show you.

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Messy face…

Here's a messy face that was part of a demo in a class I was teaching at Runaway Art & Craft Studio in Salem, OR. The pink color is my Blushing paint. It's a lovely coral. The orangey/yellow is just a big of Cheddar.

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Bad blogger….here are my social media links!

I know, I know. I am a bad blogger. I am going to try to do better, but I wanted to let you know where you can find me on social media, too.

ETA: I'm not giving up blogging….just wanted you to know where I post a bit more regularly.

 

Instagram

Now, keep in mind that sometimes you'll get pictures of my lunch, my cats, and my kids. But I do post art stuff there, too.

 

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Snapchat (go to Snapchat on your phone and search for dinawakley to add me)

Again, you'll get snippets of life (and boredom). But I do occasionally post process videos in my Story.

 

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Art of Dina Wakley Facebook Page

I update this more often, post art pictures and my favorite art quotes, and even sell original art here. Remember that Facebook will only show you what I post there if you interact with my page (i.e. click "like" on some posts). To guarantee you'll see posts, you can set the notifications to "All."

 

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Twitter

I'm on twitter, too!

 

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