New Year...New Creative Fun...Introducing Butter Bee Scraps!!

Good Morning Creatives!!

I have been away at the annual Craft and Hobby Association education and trade show and it was an AMAZING time of focusing, learning and being inspired. I will be doing a 2 part recap next week so be on the look out for that!

Also....we're moving! Well...not physically, but in cyberspace! My new website is being built as we speak and I can't wait to have a new home to share with you.

While we wait, I have an amazing new (to me) company to introduce you to.

Butterbee Scraps Artistic Treasures contacted me because a mutual friend told her that I was a mixed media person who might be a good match to work with her products. So I headed over to her online store (based out of Canada) and I was blown away by the beautiful filigree metalwork, resin flowers, ribbon and other fun embellishments. It was a no brainer to say "YES...I would LOVE to work with you!"

For my first project, I wanted to start with something simple.

This half-done portrait has been sitting on my easel for easily 2+ months and I decided to finish her up for my first project. 

Here is her finished self: 

You might be wondering...what is that paper in the background? It's a phonebook! I found an old phonebook stashed in my scrap closet (because don't we all do that?!?) and loved the texture of the paper so I figured why not?

I wanted to keep her flat and use my metals from Butterbee Scraps to give the piece weight by making her a headband.

I used the Vintage Labels Ribbon to make the band and then layered 5 different metals to make the brooch part: Bronze Metal Filigree (810-B), Bronze Metal Filigree (55c-B), Silver Flower Metal ,Filigree (168-p), Medium Mixed Gears and an octopus from the Steampunk Tibetan Charms Collections. 

Here's some more closeups!

I used mostly DecoArt Craft Acrylics and Fluid Acrylics, with a little Buttercream Acrylics (by Joann's) and Master's Touch (by Hobby Lobby.) The red Polka dot washi is from Little B LLC and my stencil is from The Crafter's Workshop (it's called "Sequin Waste Bit.) I also used some Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens for shading in the lips and face. 

DecoArt Fluid Acrylics are great for detail work. Because they have such a high pigment content and move easily over your surface, you can outline and add details in one pass instead of multiple passes which would increase your wrist of mistakes (SCARY!) 

Next to her brooch, her eyes are my favorite. They just turned out so feminine and delicate.

It's very subtle, but there is journaling caressing her shoulder and it simply says: Be Free and Regret Nothing

It's a simple motto, but one that I am working on. Regret doesn't change your past...it simply ways you down and keeps you from you true future.

I hope you will remember that as we go into 2016 and find freedom in every step you take.

Until Next time...

XOXO,

Keri Sallee

P.S. For more from Monique (owner and amazing designer of Butter Bee Scraps) on this project and more, head on over to her blog: Butter Bee Scraps. Leave her some LOVE!! 

"This is my Happy Place" Art Journal with Faber-Castell Gelatos

Hello Lifers! 

Today, I wanted to share with you my most recent art journal piece.

I called it "This is my Happy Place."

I was searching through YouTube for something fun and creative to watch and I came across this video that Donna Downy did for Design Memory Craft. It was all out "drip techniques" using Faber Castell Gelatos.

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It was so much messy fun, I had to try it right away.

First, I started by using white gesso on my two pages. Gesso is important because it (1) allow your paper to stand up to all of the moisture you will be putting on it and (2) it allows the paints and water to roll better across the surface. Donna talks about it in the video and shows some examples.

I started with a bright green, med blue, light blue and purple for my background (sorry...the set I bought didn't tell me the colors. {insert frowny face})

When I was done, I felt like it i looked like a forest, with the green being the foreground trees and the blues and purples being the shadowed trees. 

I used a Dear Lizzy Die Cut card with a  chevron pattern and my orange gelato to add a pop of color.

I also added some stamped images using Unity Stamp Company "Dwelling Dots" stamps from their November 2014 "Layers of Life" stamp set, using Heidi Swapp's Archival Ink in Aqua.

2014 was a rough year for me, so there has been a lot of moments of "gloominess", so I added watered-down blue and black acrylic paint, using the same drip technique, to represent that...giving the feel of rain. I also splattered random colors of acrylic paint and gelatos that had been mixed with water. 

My title comes again from another Dear Lizzy Die Cut Card I used as a stencil.

I added the words "stop messing with it" because I sometimes feel like my little forest is my happy place, but there are those outside my forest who want to be the ones to rain down on my happiness.

I added a little bit of drywall tape just to add some texture and filled in some of the squares with a black Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen. 

My butterflies are made from a little thrifty secret...instead of spending money on chipboard or chipboard shapes, I cut these butterflies using a Stampin' Up Butterfly Die...from a cereal box!!

I stamped them with more Unity Stamps and Heidi Swapp Ink, this time in Navy and Aqua before adding gelato straight from the tube to the chipboard and smearing it around with a wet finger. Do add more depth, I went back with the same gelato color just around the edges. 

I edged my butterfly clusters with my water-soluble Scribe-All pencil in black and then added a little water-down gesso around them and some splatters. 

The butterflies, for me, are a sign of being reborn and leaving the old behind. They are in front of the rain and gloom because they choose to leave it behind.

I hope today inspires you to try something new...and to be like these little butterflies and fly beyond the gloom that life sometimes tries to keep you in.

XOXO,

Keri