"Painty" workshop with Dyan Reaveley

Sunday, Sunday . . . a fabulous all day workshop with Dyan Reaveley at Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook. For someone who is new to painting on paper, I came home with some pages that surprised myself!  [Interview with Dyan can be seen HERE]

We started at 9:30 am . . . and after some basics and introductions, started creating art journal page backgrounds by using Dyan's three basic techniques: painting with baby wipes, painting with a brayer, and a paint block technique using the Ranger blending tool. When all was done, there were seven or eight layers of paint on each page, including the stencil images and spritzes of ink. The paints we used were the new Dylusions paints developed to Dyan's specifications. ("If you stamp your feet hard enough, you get what you want.") Videos of Dyan demonstrating these techniques and talking about her paints can be seen on the Ranger website HERE.

Here's my baby wipe pages before the black stencil accents

I had too much paint on my blending tool :-(

This journal page  is ready for adding words, doodling, stamping, or whatever

And the brayer pages:

Before the black accent stenciling

We removed (i.e. tore out) six pages from the journal, on which we created "accidental" backgrounds by using the paint left over on the palette and on the brayer and painty blending tools after doing the pages within the journal.  I wasn't quick enough to complete all twelve sides of the six pages  . . . I managed five sides in one colorway and the  three sides in another but four blanks remain.  These pages will be taped back into the journal . . . I think I'll have to buy some paints  . . . but not just yet -  I have projects already filling up the craft table . . .

Five clean up sides in the pink, red, aqua, lime combo

Three reverse sides of the five sides shown above

And here is one of the two paint block technique pages I did . . .

Dyan would put more black accents on the page as well as pen doodling.

The star page below is a block technique page that was painted over . . . well actually painted around a solid star shape (the inside of a stencil) that I held in place  . . .  when removed the painted background shows through. The black was softened by some pounced on pink paint from the blending tool. Dyan's style adds words, outlines and images, perhaps using a white pen .  . . but at least four hours of drying time is necessary before adding any pen doodling or journaling. 

The second paint block page . . . covered with black

Next we were told to begin with a white page and a large stencil . . . rubber stamping (with Dylusions stamps) an image within the stencil shape. Then the background was filled with black. I added some pink stenciled stars and a bit of pink pounced paint for contrast.  The purple and lime circles were a clean-up of  blending tools.

The final step in the class (it was a bit after 5 pm at this point) was to decorate the cover of the journal using one of the three techniques we had practiced.  First we painted white gesso onto the kraft color journal cover so the paints wouldn't look like mud . . . I chose to use the baby wipe technique with stenciling for my cover.

Journal cover opened flat

The front cover . . .

Front cover

Hands down this was the best workshop I've attended. It was an honor and pleasure to meet Dyan Reaveley. I can't begin to describe the individual she is and the respect I have for her philosophy of making art. Personally, I stretched well beyond my comfort zone with colors and patterns and the result was pretty good, if I do say so.

The recently formulated Dylusions paints are wonderful for paper painting and I can see myself incorporating painted papers into my own work. Many thanks to Traci at Papercraft Clubhouse for making a great day happen.

A New Girl in Town

My birthday happened on Easter this year and a present came to my doorstep from Texas . . . from me to me.   Surprise!

Meet Marie-Grace Rousseau Gardner - an archived American Girl doll.  I fell in love with her face and the beautiful color of her eyes. She is truly unique since Marie-Grace is the only AG doll who wears this particular face. Pictures of the eight face molds and the dolls wearing each one can be seen HERE.

Marie-Grace and her friend, Cecile Rey, appeared together in 2011 and were archived together in May, 2014. I've read that it was the shortest tenure of any AG historical dolls.

The accessories for Marie-Grace include a straw hat, a fan, and a gold locket.

Marie-Grace is the twelfth historical character of the American girls, representing New Orleans in the 1850's.  Her father, Thaddeus Gardner, (Thaddeus, the name of both my dad and my brother) is a physician who has hung his shingle in numerous places since leaving New Orleans after the deaths of his wife and baby son when Marie-Grace was a toddler.  They have moved back to New Orleans and Marie-Grace hopes they will stay. She and Cecile Rey (the eleventh historical girl) meet at singing lessons and become friends. Their adventures are told in a series of nine books.

Cecile and Marie-Grace - New Orleans belles

Here is Marie-Grace after I liberated her from the box. American Girl dolls are packaged well with protective hairnets and are fastened to the box with twist ties and foam sheets. I think she is so pretty.

Marie-Grace has l-o-n-g hair . . . longer than any doll I have ever handled . . . along with some little tendrils of curls at the sides. Braids wrap across the back of her head and in case you are wondering, her hairstyle is going to remain that way.  I would not have the slightest idea what to do with it all, having spent 95% of my life with short hair and not having daughters. Nor can I imagine a young girl (or a frustrated Mom) having to deal with all that hair . . . the scissors might have to come into play.  Perhaps that's why the longevity of Marie-Grace and Cecile was only 3 years?? Take a look at Cecile's hair. . . sausage curls.  Beautiful to look at . . . but we all know how little girls like to comb doll hair . . .

Marie-Grace's dress is pretty but just OK. It is not spectacularly put together - notice the non-matching plaid at the back seam (in the hair picture) which drives me nuts. I've been able to match plaids since I was ten years old. There are pantaloons rather than a slip and she is wearing knee high socks under white and black boots to resemble black shoes with spats.  

Her accessories were included in the purchase (a big deal in the doll world). The straw hat is well made and I've determined from seeing the picture of Marie-Grace with Cecile, that I put it on her backwards. Oh well, next time.  The gold locket is pretty but the fastener was difficult for my large hands to maneuver. And the fan . . . well it is just an extra piece, I guess, because it's New Orleans and ladies used them. However, it can't be held by the doll and the loop on it is not large enough to fit around her hand to dangle from her wrist. As I said, an extra piece.

The only negative to my Marie-Grace is that her limbs are not as tight as those of Molly and Nellie so she doesn't stand well or hold a pose.  She was obviously NRFB (never removed from the box) so there is no way anyone could have known that. I will have her joints tightened but I'm not ready to send her off just yet to the AG Hospital. She'll be supported by her sisters for now.

Marie-Grace does need a few things for her wardrobe so I'll be going through fabric in my stash to see what might be fashioned into some new things for her and for my other girls. For any sewists out there, JoAnn's has a deal on Simplicity patterns this week -  5 for $5.00 . . . and there's a separate doll fashions catalog on the pattern browsing table.

Back L to R: Nellie, Marie-Grace, Molly
Front L to R: Eva (Our Generation) and Caroline (Mme. Alexander)

Aren't they just fabulous? There is something to love about each of them.

Cheers!

Junk Drawer Wall Art

What is Junk Drawer Wall Art?  Well that's what I showed to a group of about 40 attendees in the "Adventures in Lifelong Learning" program at Thames Valley Community College last April. Preparing for this year's presentation (next week), thoughts of last year's event surfaced.

We all have "stuff" and trinkets we pick up as we go about our lives . . . when we come home, our pockets are emptied and the "stuff" moves from the counter to the junk drawer. Why not put it on display?

Credit for this idea goes to Paula Cheney at One Lucky Day, who created a very popular Junk Drawer Advent Calendar  (See picture of that kit here) several years ago for the holiday season.  Photos of calendars sent in by people who were inspired by Paula's work of art can be seen here. (Scroll down to view.)

As a collage and assemblage lover, I created a "non-holiday" version so it might grace the wall all year. Items from my jewelry box and the junk in the drawer of my nightstand were unearthed for this project. Here it is . . .

The frame is  22" x 26" (found at WalMart) with the glass (actually plastic) removed. A piece of foam core board was cut to fit inside the frame and was covered with burlap for a bulletin board look.  I collected my "junk" and played around with grouping items, then arranged it on standard manila tags (2.5" x 4.75").

The stuff was glued, tied or pinned to a tag - whatever worked for the particular piece.  Tape, stamping and stickers embellished the tags and the edges of those in Row 3 were inked with Distress Ink. Then the tags were pinned to the background.  Notice the different strings and pushpins on the tags . . . since this was a sample project for the presentation, I wanted to show the difference in look some simple changes make.  The tags unify the collection of very different objects and are pleasing to the eye, which looks for consistency.

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 1

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 2

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 3

A second sample made for the presentation illustrated how to display a collection of similar items.  The golfers in the family bring home golf pencils that spawn in the drawer.  So here they are . . .

The pencils were hot-glued to strips of heavy paper, the strips were arranged and then pinned (like the old insect collections) to a piece of foam core board that had been covered with a layer of quilt batting and tan flannel left over from a sewing project. A Boyd's Collection golfer pin and some golf push pins were used as embellishments.  This piece is a unique one -  some of the golf courses are now closed and others have experienced name changes.  But all of them were played by someone living in our house.

So that's what Junk Drawer Wall Art is all about . . .you can do this too!

Cheers!

Paper Doll of the Day: Aidan, one of the boys

Following the release of the many gal stamps designed by Julie Nutting for Prima Marketing,  a boy stamp finally appeared in Release 5 of the product line in 2014.  Aidan is dressed in a casual tee shirt and cargo pants outfit.  I didn't adopt him right away, thinking there would be more boys to follow. Four more fellows appeared in Release 7, but I went with Aidan. He has the least weird hair of them all (seriously, take a look) . . . and I like his clothing. Having grown up surrounded by boys and living as a parent with only sons, I am somewhat particular about boy hair and clothing.  In any event, here is Aidan.

Aidan is stamped on some script paper in Julie Nutting style.  I looked through my scrapbooking paper stash for male appropriate patterns and Aidan acquired several personas.  

Creating Mr. Aidan was the same process used with the gals - stamp the figure on sturdy paper, color hair, skin and whatever else needs coloring, stamp the clothes on selected papers, cut out everything, ink the edges, and piece it all together. Voila.

The fashionably trendy guy

The boy next door

The scholar - Sheldon Cooper style

The athlete with cropped hair and baseball shirt

The gang of guys

I am wanting more Prima fellows to join Aidan for a bit of diversity, but none of the other guys is calling to me just yet.  Give it time. :-)

A friend has asked what I'm going to do with these guys and gals I've created . . . they will grace some tags . . . inspiration will strike!

Stay tuned.  Cheers!

Easter Wishes from the girls

Nellie, Eva, Mr. Rabbit, Caroline and Molly are enjoying the day. Even though sprinkles of rain are threatening . . .

Enjoy!

Paper Doll of the Day: Riley, Part 3

Ready for the Easter parade are the Riley gals from the last post . . . take a look . . .

The hat is one of four choices in a Prima Julie Nutting stamp set. The green hat on gal #3 is the stamp as it comes, while the white hat on gal #1 was stamped on the reverse of the paper so the scarf would look more realistic. The headband came from another doll stamp and sports a punched flower.

The "Bolero Doll" is counting on having a fabulous Easter - she was stamped on a page from a vintage mathematics book.  :-) Her hat was traced from one found online (sorry I don't have the page information) and embellished with a punched flower . . . it is large enough to be appropriate for the Kentucky Derby!

The twins stamped with the Ruffle Doll stamp are all dolled up and ready for Easter festivities.  Here's a sneak peek . . . they were the first gals I made after discovering the Julie Nutting stamps last spring . . . more about them next time.

Cheers!

Paper Doll of the Day - Riley (Part 2)

We have returned from our Florida vacation . . . it was wonderful to bask in the sunshine, spend time with the golfer son and his gal, visit with friends and play some golf.  Walking on green grass rather than white (or brown) snow was a remembered experience.

Sign on the deck at our hotel . . . Okaaay

In a previous post I showed a Riley paper doll makeover - using the jacket from the Prima "Business Casual" stamp set and modifying it a bit to replace a not-so-favorite dress I had colored with Ranger Distress Markers. But . . . . I didn't include a picture of Riley dressed in a "happy" dress.  So here she is  . . . in three versions of her dress.

This first version of Riley is stamped on a darker script paper in black ink.  The skin tone was softened with a peach Prismacolor pencil and pink cheeks were added. Then just the dress was inked and stamped on green patterned paper, cut out and glued to her body. Black shoes were edged in black ink to cover the white core of the paper.

The second version of  the Miss Riley doll is stamped on a lighter script paper. Her skin color is warmed with peach coloring and blushing cheeks are added.  Her dress was stamped in black on a lively floral paper. I trimmed off the black cross-hatch ruffle at the hemline and replaced it with an identical ruffle but stamped in red ink on red swirl paper. The belt and shoes were stamped on the same swirl paper, cut out and glued in the appropriate places. I love the red shoes, although tiny to cut out, they are just the right accessory for the dress.

For third look, Riley's dress combines a green dotted print with the lively floral. The top from a floral dress was pieced to the skirt of a green dress, minus the cross-hatched hemline ruffle. (Can you tell it's not a favorite of mine?) The ruffle from one of the other Julie Nutting dolls was added to the hemline for a different look. The belt was stamped on pink paper, cut and glued to the pieced dress. The original black stamped shoes complete the outfit - for now.  This one is a work in progress.

I probably should add a bow or flower to her hair . . . hmmmm . . . tomorrow.

Cheers!