Mixed Media Scrapbooking with Faber Castell and Mrs. Potatohead

Hello Lifers!

I hope you are having an AMAZING day!

Today, I want to share with you a super fun layout I recently did, using some techniques that I have never used in scrapbooking.

I wanted to do something a little different from my normal scrap style, so I decided to try my hand at doing something  more mixed media. Trust me...it was DEFINETLY out of my comfort zone. I tend to like to find fun paper and let it do the talking for me. BUT..instead I chose to tell the paper what it should be saying.

Here's what I came up with:




To show you my process, I made you this Snapguide!


Check out How to Make a Mixed Media Background With Faber Castell by Keri Sallee on Snapguide.


Wanna get up close? Here are a few of my favorite parts:

What do you think? Definitely different for me, huh?

I hope you enjoyed today's project and you were inspired! Be sure to check out the Snapguide for the full supply list and step-by-step instructions.

Have an awesome day and remember...make your art an intentional part of your life...not an afterthought.

XOXO

KERI 

Graphic 45 Design Team 2014 Audition

 Hello Lifers!

Today, I have something a little different on the blog.

I decided to take a BIG leap and audition for the 2014 Graphic 45 Design Team and they require something a little different from any other DT I've ever auditioned for: a blog post dedicated to your audition projects.

Oh....and did I mention...you have to submit at least 6 (!) projects?

So grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine, depending on when you're reading this!), get comfy, and hopefully be inspired. :) 

Steampunk Spells

When I decided to audition, I decided to design all new projects (as opposed to using older ones) and I wanted to challenge myself to use things I had on hand.

My project featuring Steampunk Spells by Graphic 45 uses a 8 x 10 Chunky Canvas from Canvas Corp that had just not worked out. So, I turned it around and turned it into a shadowbox. 

I've always LOVED the look of Steampunk, but it's never been a style I could embrace easily. However, I think G45's use of oranges and turquoise brighten up the usual neutral steampunk pallet and made it much easier for me to work with.

My favorite part is at the center...gears from Want2Scrap that I altered using nothing but Tattered Angels Paints. 

Gears--naked and dressed:

So fun, right? :)

Here are a few close-ups: 

My flowers were made 2 ways: (1) the colored flowers are cut using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die for Sizzix from Tim Holtz Nostalgic Kraft-Core Collection from Coredinations. I then embossed it with a gear embossing folder from The Paper Studio and Distressed it with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. (2) The Metal looking flowers are cut using Spellbinders Dies and then colored using Tattered Angels paints (like the gears.)

 

French Country

Still feeling fall? Next up is some beautiful G45 French Country.

This project was made by doing a mixed media collage background using French Country Paper, Liquitex Matte Gel Medium and Tattered Angels Paints all on top of an 8 x 10 canvas from Hobby Lobby that I had on hand. 

I then cut about 40 flowers using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals, wet them, scrunch them and Tattered Angels them (is "Tattered Angels" a verb? LOL)

I used a stack of mat board to lift my wrought iron piece up so that I could then tuck the flowers all around it.

Nutcracker Sweet

From Fall to Christmas!

For this project, I found an empty ribbon spool that once held 2 inch wire edge ribbon.

How "sweet" is this little scene!?

To make my 3-D scene, I fussy-cut out my characters from a sheet of G45's Nutcracker Sweet paper. I distressed them and then used pieces of bend mat board in the same of an "L" to make them stand. I was very strategic on the size and placement so the supports were not easily seen. 

A Place in Time 

G45's A Place in Time had so many options for styles-12 to be exact! Since I am tired of winter and longing for spring, I decided to use the paper for April, as well as a little throwback G45 line "Romantique."

For my base, I had this small 9 x 9 wooden tray that used to hold wooden veneers. (I've been hoarding this one for over a year just waiting for the perfect project!)

I colored my plain wood with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Chartreuse. 

The green/gold color went perfecting to make this:

A few of my favorite close-ups:

The flowers are stems from Petaloo and the butterflies are from Heidi Swapp (colored with the same Chartreuse Color Shine as the base.)

Wanna guess what's in my little bottles? CHIA SEEDS! Don't they almost look like little pebbles?!

Phew! Are you doing OK? Do you need a break? 

No? Let's Keep going!

Magic of Oz

This collection has long since been one of my favorites from G45. They did a BEAUTIFUL job interpreting "The Wizard of Oz." I was so inspired by it that I made 2 projects with this collection.

First...I was inspired to make this amazing (if I do say so myself!) mini album.

From the outside, it just seems like a mini album, but the inside holds a secret...

Both the front and the back covers have 5 little flaps featuring the good on the front and then bad in the back, BUT...that's not the secret...do you see it?

All 5 of the center pieces open...making 5 even smaller albums. Each on has a small magnet to keep it closed and features one character on the cover.

Can you tell I LOVE this collection? No...then this one will change your mind.

This was the last project I made and I have to say it is one of my favorites of all time because it is so out-of-the-box...or should I say "out of the closet!"

Yup...that's a high heal shoe. It started out as an ugly plain black pump (purchased at my local thrift store for $4.) Then...came the glitter. I used the AMAZING Glitter Blast Spray Paint from Krylon in Cherry Bomb to transform it in to my own ruby slipper. 

Inside my ruby slipper is a mini tag album: 

And of course you can't talk about the "Wizard of Oz" with the Yellow Brick Road:

Or high heal shoes with bows and bling:

So there you go! My 6 audition projects for the 2014 Graphic 45 Design Team. 

To my readers...I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them. These were definitely a labor of love. I hope to use these as tutorials soon, so check back to see how I did it!

To Graphic 45...thank you so much for this opportunity and for visiting my little blog. I hope you had fun.

To All..I will leave you the way I leave you every time we are together: Remember...choose to make your art intentional...not an afterthought. 

XOXO,

KERI  

P.S. Thank you for forgiving me for some of my pictures going outside the limits of my blog frame. I wanted my pics to be SUPER big! :)

Feeling Sketchy Post for Susan K Weckesser!

Yesterday was my day on the Susan K Weckesser Blog My Sweet Earth!

Normally, I am not a scrapbook sketch person, but when I saw this one on The Paper Issues Instagram feed, I knew I had to use it:

I saw those triangles and I immediately thought: Susan's Celebrate the Simple Stamps for Unity Stamps!

Here is what i came up with:

I used Basic Grey's Persimmon line because I thought the colors went so well with my vintage photo (and yes...that is me WAY back in 1983!)

Wanna see more?

Click Here to head over to Susan's Blog!

Until Next time Friends!!

XOXO

KERI

Hand-made Christmas-My Wish Book

I'm so excited to be featured on Susan K. Weckesser's Hand-made Christmas Love Campaign today!!

My project is " My Wish Book"

For more details, head on over to Susan's Blog: My Sweet Earth. 

A BIG Thank you to our Christmas Love Sponsors:

Susan K. Weckesser (of course!)

Fancy Pants Designs

Canvas Corp

Tattered Angels

7Gypsies

Core'dinations

May Arts Ribbons

Also at the blog....

HAND-MADE CHRISTMAS CONTEST 

To start off this wonderful year 5th year of the Christmas Love Campaign, we are having a Hand-made Christmas Contest. 

 What you have to do: 

 *Follow along during our Hand-made Christmas event from November 2 - November 16, 2013 at Susan K Weckesser Inc blog

*Like the Christmas Love Campaign Facebook page ---> HERE.

 *Make your own Hand-Made gift. (it can be something you designed yourself or if you want try something that the designers have created please go ahead and have fun and do that!)

*Take a picture and post it on our facebook page. Or if you have Instagram post it there and tag it #craftuplove , #christlovecampaign & #susankweckesserinc so I see it! You can find me @ [SUSANKWECKESSER] on Instagram, so come follow me and I would LOVE to follow you! So much fun! 

 *Give your gift to a neighbour or stranger to make them smile! SPREAD THE LOVE! 

 *Come back to our Hand-Made Christmas post and let us know that you have crafted up some love and you will be entered to win a awesome prize pack from the above sponsors. The prize will include lots of goodies so you can craft up more love! How awesome is that! You have until November 17, 2013 at midnight MST to enter. Have fun! COME & JOIN US!

Tattered Angels Week-Day 5!!

It's our final day together crafty friends!

I hope you have enjoyed this week as much as I have and have learned a few tricks to add to your creative toolbox.

Tip #5-Change up your Metals!!

This technique works best with Glazes because of the acrylic base of the paint and the finer glitter.

As you can see here, this golden metal piece from Fabscrap just wasn't working for me, so I added a little bit of Shindig Glaze on top of it to tone down the brassiness. 

You can also use Glazes on plastics, such buttons, if the color is just not quite right.

My FAVS!!

Although I didn't use them in the particular project, I can't leave a Tattered Angels week without telling your my Favorite Chalkboards (shimmery) and Baseboards (matte)!

As you might remember, we talked about on Monday that Chalkboards and Baseboards differ from Glimmer Mists and Simply Sheers in that they will give you a more intense and opaque color, whereas mists and sheers are exactly that..sheer.

JUST A LITTLE NOTE: The name Chalkboard can get a little confusing. It gets it's name because it has the solid feel of a chalkboard, not the writing surface characteristics.

Here are my TOP 2 Favorite Chalkboards and Baseboards.

(1) Cardboard (Baseboard-matte)- Essentially the color of corrugated cardboard, this will turn just about anything into a solid sheet of kraft paper with a smooth matte finish. The brown color is so yummy.

(2) Red Rocks (Baseboard-matte)-This color could not be more appropriately named. It is a very true maroon-red without a lot of purple so that it feels like a neutral.

(4) Chalk (Chalkboard-shimmer)-  This is the most multi-purpose of the Chalkboards to me. I use it to highlight images, to lighten other Tattered Angels or to splatter on a project to lighten up it up if it's gotten a little too dark.

(4) Teal High Heel-With a name like that...what's not to love!? It's just fantastic!

I'm sad to say that our week together has come to an end. 

I hope you have learned something new and maybe lost a little "fear of the unknown" you might have had about Tattered Angels.

Come join me again soon...as I live The Creative Life.

P.S. Here's the link again if you want to see the full selection of Tattered Angels colors and products!

Tattered Angels Winter Catalog

Tattered Angels Week-Day 4!!

Day 4!! Here we go!!!

Tip #4-Use with your Stamps!

Depending on which product you are using, there are 2 ways to go about using this technique.

(1) If you are using a spray-able mist, then you will need to either spray it on a non-stock surface or (my personal preference) is to spray it on a scrap piece of felt, essentially making your own ink pad and then stamp like normal.

(2) If you are using a Glam or a Glaze, simply paint it onto your stamp and stamp as normal, like I did!

You can see I stamped my "2" using Camel Glam and once it was dry, because of the composition of the paint, I was able to spray over it with the Moss Glimmer Mist and my Glam color stay true!

NOTE: Because of the loose consistency of Tattered Angels, it's always best to test your stamping on a scrap piece of paper before doing so on your project so that you can "feel out" how much paint your particular stamp will need to give you the best image. 

My FAVS!!

For the longest time I didn't use Glazes because I thought "How is it any different!?" but now, I use it all the time! The fine glitter adds a solid shimmer and gloss to your project, while the small applicator brush helps you control and get your color EXACTLY where you want it.

(1) Cowboy-This dark caramel color is VERY multi-purpose. Use it to distress, to darken metals or just to splatter to add dimension.

(2) Aloha Green-This green is perfect when you want to add just a little bit of shimmer and color because the light green doesn't compete with your project.

(3) Pinata-The FIRST Glaze I ever used! As you can see, it's a fun POP of pink. The first time I used it was coloring over some pink flowers. It really brought them to life!

(4) Saffron-This is the Glaze I use the most. Like Cowboy, it is very multi-purpose, but since it's a little bit light in color, I tend to use it more.

(5) Shindig-I would call this my 2nd Favorite! The color is hard to show in a picture, but it leaves your project with a fantastic dark steel gray shimmery finish.

Well...tomorrow is our last day together...see you then!!