Happy Heart Day - Valentine's Blog Hop

It's Valentine's Day! That means it's time for a huge blog hop with some amazingly talented creatives!

For my project, I focused on best friends! We all have them, we love them and they need to be reminded too! Especially that bestie that knows way more than any person should, has seen all the crazy, has stood beside you and held you up when you couldn't stand on your own. I've been very fortunate to have a few of these people in my world. From over 40 years ago to 27 years ago to family that you've known since the day you were born!

Happy Valentine's Day to all the amazing friends I have!

Time for the project now!

I started with a great little canvas that I picked up at my LSS. I didn't do any gesso on this one and just layered on my Distress Oxides. 

Some pretty layers and splotches using Barn Door, Aged Mahogany and Fired Brick.

Once the inks were dry I used Rebekah Meier's Skylight stencil, Ranger Embossing Dauber and the gorgeous Ancient Amber Embossing Powder from Seth Apter and Emerald Creek!

I then stenciled on a layer with Spiced Marmalade. Once that was done, I mixed some Spiced Marmalade with TH Crazing Medium and stenciled on that with RM Stencil Distressed Lace. 

Here's a close up of the crazing medium mixed with the Spiced Marmalade.

I dressed up my Paper Dolls with a little foil and wings that I tinted with some Finnabair wax.

This was such a fun non traditional Valentine to create! Thanks to Cathy Frailey from It's Oddly Appealing for bringing us all together for this hop!!

Make sure to hop on over to all the other amazing creatives that are taking part!! Enjoy your Valentine's Hop!

PolymerCreations4U: A Journey into Craftiness 

It's Oddly Appealing

Matter of Crafts

Kelly Parker Designs

Psychotic Ramblings of a Serial Scrapper  

The Joyful Soul Creates 

Paper Mache Patch  

Scrappy Squirrel’s Nest

A Fine How Do You Do  

Whimsy Chic Paper Crafts Etc

Inky Pinky Boo

ekgorman designs

Life in a Snapshot 

Juli Loves Paper

The Crafty Moussekateer 

Savvy Handmade Cards

The Crafty Robin 

Whimsical Creations 

CMP Designs YOU ARE HERE

Thanks for playing along and have a great day!

Cathy

Supplies Used:

Distress Oxides in Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany and Barn Door

Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade

Rebekah Meier Stencils TCW803s Distressed lace and TCW801s Skylight

Rebekah Meier Mixed Media Medium

EC and SA Baked Texture in Ancient Amber 

Eileen Hull Journaling Cards, Hearts

Finnabair Antique Brilliance Wax in Fire Ruby

TH Small Talk, Snarky

TH Crazing Medium

TH Paper Dolls

TH Botanicals

Ranger Foil

 

Clipper Street and Seth Apter

Yes, that title is correct! Seth Apter spent three days teaching right here in Langley, BC, Canada at Clipper Street Scrapbook Company! And I got to be there for the Saturday and Sunday class.

Anyone else ever have an experience that you just can't fit in a Facebook post or Instagram blurb? Well that was my weekend. I don't even know if I have the words now to describe it, but I'm going to fumble all over myself and give it a try.

I think everyone knows how much I love my LSS, Clipper Street. I am grateful on a daily basis that I have this place to go to, for creative supplies, for inspiration, for a talk and a vent too. Deanna works so hard for us to bring in amazing teachers, all the newest product and the whole team is just amazing. Thank you Deanna and all the amazing team at Clipper Street! I did a post a couple of years ago about this fabulous place and you find that post HERE 
I also wanted to give a shout out to the anonymous person that called or emailed Deanna at Clipper Street and generously paid for half of one of my classes. I do not know who it was, but that was an amazing kindess and I was a bit overhwhelmed by that gesture, Kim and Deanna can vouch for that. So to that person, thank you for your kindness!

I had the honor of meeting Seth a couple of years ago at Creativation when I was there with Emerald Creek. Sometimes I fan girl a bit (okay A LOT, there were witnesses to most of it LOL) and talking with Seth was no exception. But he talked to me like a peer and was so kind and gracious, I was just in awe of that experience. Then this weekend having him teach for two full days and being a part of that, mind boggling. Seth is so incredibly talented and so generous with sharing his knowledge. He was so encouraging in class and walked the room to help everyone! As I listened to him teach and learned new techniques, I also learned much more about creating and "letting your piece tell you what it wants/needs". I found learning from Seth to be such a stress free environment, even though I went in thinking "omg, what am I doing here, I shouldn't be here, I'm not good enough, what if i make a mistake, what if I put something in the wrong place" Trust me, you can have all those thoughts, but after a few minutes of being in class and listening to Seth and seeing him do a demo, those thoughts will disappear! You will feel like you belong there and if you have a question, ask it!! Seth is very open with his ideas and help and sharing his talent. I will always be so grateful for this opportunity and a huge thank you to Seth for how approachable he is, how gracious and kind he is and for sharing so much of his talent with the rest of us. It was an honour to have been in your class Seth.

And how cool is that denim shirt!? It even has paint on the back of it!

Now on to one of the best experiences I have been lucky enough to have.

I think most of you who visit my blog know who Seth Apter is, you can find his incredible art/post/supplies at The Altered Page. And you will want to and follow him and see his artwork, go aheadgo add the link to your favorites, I'll wait! :)

The Saturday class was called Get Baked, featuring Seth's new Baked Texture Embossing Powders that he created with Emerald Creek Craft Supplies. Our first project was a small canvas using the Vintage Beeswax and learning some collaging and mark making.

Finished project! 3 glorious layers of Vintage Beeswax!

 

I love this one! Reheated this section and pressed this stamp into it for texture! Look at the edge of the a and r to see the nice deep impression I got!

 The afternoon was a larger canvas using all the Baked Texture powders. Learned so much about layering paints and creating focal points. And in case you're wondering, the answer is yes, Yes you do need all of the Baked Texture powders.

Not complete, I still have some marks to make. But I love the Chunky Rust I added.

If you're still hanging in here, thank you!! I know this is a long post! Sunday's class was called 52 Card Pick Up and it was an absolute incredible learning experience! I think one of the favorite classes I have ever been a part of. A deck of black gessoed cards and a day of getting painting, stamping, stencilling, collaging and NOT overthinking! Very freeing to just do/create and to do it in an environment where you have such an encouraging teacher that says "if I go left and you go right, that's okay"

Yes, I used a colour called Pumpkin Soup!! I wanted a different colour but it was being used so I just winged it AND I quite like it! Just do it!

Not all 52 cards are completed, but they are ready for collaging! It was such an incredible experience and one I won't forget. Learning to just do and not overthink is a hard one for alot of us, but if you have the opportunity to take a class with Seth, do not miss it! You will learn so much more than just techniques.

Thank you for reading this far and have a really wonderful week!

And as always, thank you for all the support!

Cathy

I Really Am Creating!!

I know it seems like I may be doing nothing...but honest I am!! LOL  I have a number of projects coming up next week and the week after and I can't wait to share them with you!! But for now I'd like to share some of my crafting I did while I was on the east coast of Canada, having my first visit to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island! I took some supplies with me, picked up a couple of small things while I was there and just used the quiet evening time to play and relax. Sometimes it was at the little kitchen table we had in our cottage or it was on the kitchen island in the big house we all stayed in, or the coffee table in my pretend bedroom(really a second living room but worked out great for us). I worked on fun tags, tags with trip stuff on them, a thank you card for my cousins and a birthday card for my Uncle Jim.

This was the birthday card for my Uncle Jim for his 70th birthday. So glad I grabbed a handful of my TH Paper dolls and threw them in my little travel bag.

For the map piece, I just trimmed it down, rounded the corners and then drew the hearts on. One around Nova Scotia where my Uncle lives and one around Vancouver where the rest of us live.

And these paper dolls were perfect. The two boys represent my Uncle Jim and my Uncle Rick (who passed away in July a number of years ago), the two girls represent my Auntie Judy and my Mom (who passed 4 years ago) and the lone show off girl is my Auntie Barb, who is 16 years younger than her oldest sibling. I think my Uncle liked his card.

I also did a thank you card, attached to a bottle of vodka to make more vodka slushy, for my cousin Ken and Nancy and Kaley, the owners of Hope River Farm. Be sure to check out the facebook page to follow the antics of farm life in PEI. They fed us so well while we were there and their table was full of family, 12 of us total!!

I seriously just threw in handfuls of TH Paper Dolls and other cards, some stuff from the Prima St. Tropex line and stamps that I loved like the Dina Wakely one that I used to border this card. Colour is from my DW Scribble Sticks and my Wendy Vecchi Minis.

 

These tags were from our first days of heading out to the east coast, from our dinner at the airport in Vancouver to our first night on Cape Breton Island. The Lighthouse Cottages were probably my fave little cottages. And if you go to the site and let the pics run  through, we had the 3 cottages closest to the green space. What a view and lovely beach space.

This piece was from a brochure and the top piece was my receipt from the Glenorra Distillery that we visited.

One of my sassy girl tags! It was just nice to sit and play after busy days of driving, sight seeing and beach combing.

And this one went to my Auntie Judy due to a conversation, over dishes, in my Auntie Nikki's kitchen after some wine and my made up on the spot poem that consisted of "Sassy, Sassy, kiss my assy" Yup...you had to be there to find this as hilarious as we did and yup...my family is batshit crazy!! LOL

And these three tags were done one evening while crafting on the kitchen island while we stayed in big house on the Bay of Fundy. Even though there were 10 of us, it was always kind of quiet i nthe evening, I was crafting, another group was playing crib at the dining room table, another group sitting in the living room reading. Everyone doing their own thing but still all together as a family.

 Thanks all for stopping by! One day soon I'll post some pics of the amazing scenery we saw on the east coast and some of the places we stayed. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Cathy

A Trifecta of Dies!

I was so excited to be one of the $50 GC winners in the Stamp 'N Scrap Busy Beaver Blog Hop and even more excited when I saw that they had some Seth Apter dies in stock!! You can check out Stamp 'N Scrap and see what they have! Great service and my package was wrapped up so pretty! I had a couple days of work left when I got my package but tonight I played!! 

I really like using canvas boards, but of course I didn't have any....so regular canvas it was. I used a 10X10 canvas and....didn't even gesso it!! I know...who does that? But I couldn't wait so I just started painting. And also...I didn't even clean my brush off between colours!! I'm losing my mind here! LOL Used a completely dry brush for all the colours and my fingers.

I used Seth Apter's Trifecta die on this project and I love it! I can't wait to use the other one I got now! You can get this die at Scrap 'N Stamp HERE or from Seth's website HERE

Here is the finished project featuring Seth's  Trifecta dies, Tim's Distress Paints in Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs.

I cut out the dies, then used them as stencils on the canvas (the Peacock Feathers colour), then painted the dies and added them on. I used some burlap I had on my table and painted that and added it.

I used Ranger clear Texture Paste and a large word stencil for background texture. I also added in some spots some Clear Rock Candy crackle paint. Here are some close ups :)

I then assembled everything and glued most of my bits on with Dina's gel medium. I love that stuff!

The shimmery paint is one of the new ones from Finnabair called Fairy Wings, love it!

So many circles!! One in paint, one die on cardstock and one done on cork.

I need to use more crackle...on everything!! I love this stuff...I forget sometimes that I have something!

Excited to have my first ever Seth Apter Dies!! You can find his designs on his website and follow his creative journey on his blog, here is the link to The Altered Page. Can't wait to get more...I need the drips one next I think! :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend everyone! 

Cathy

 

Travel and Discover Dear Graduate

This month over at Mixed Media Mojo Monthly Challenge the theme is Graduation with a Travel twist!! Make sure you join our brand new Facebook Group and share your project with us! The new group is Mixed Media Mojo Challenges, just click on join and someone will approve you, invite your friends as well. Let's get creating and sharing!

Here is my project for the month! Ohh how I love these TH Paper Dolls!

Here are a few step outs of how I created this little 5X7 canvas board :)

After I gesso'd the board I used my TH Distress Crayons and just rubbed them in and blended them with my fingers.

I also used colours from the background to add a touch of colour to the TH ruler piece and then I added a small quote sticker.

And to add a bit of my travel twist I used my TH stencils and a baby wipe to lift the colour for the words and arrows. I really need to use my Distress Crayons more often, I really liked how they turned out.

And a few close ups of the finished project.

A final report card for graduation and the dreaded Periodic Table of Elements (I was never very good at the sciences)

This ruler is much nicer than the ones I used in school :)

And part of the travel twist, little postcards to friends while this little guy is out adventuring.

I love the Crazing Medium!! Adds just that little extra touch of texture.

Don't forget to come and join the fun and join our new Facebook group! Can't wait to see what you all create with June's theme of Graduation with a Travel twist! :) See you in Mixed Media Mojo Challenges! 

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Cathy