Friday, February 27, 2015

Guest Designer Announcement


Hi there!  Well it's almost time for a new challenge!  But first let's introduce our March Guest Designer:

Meet Kathy:



Here is a little something about Kathy:

"Hi! I'm Kathy, a Southern Californian native who now lives in upstate New York. I'm a RN who loves creating. I currently belong to the design teams of Open-Minded Crafting Challenges, Send A Smile 4 Kids, Sketch Saturday, Cards in Envy, Try Stampin' on Tuesday, and Repeat Impressions. I was thrilled to be asked to design for March's Mixed Media Mojo challenge and I hope you enjoy my ATC's.  Please stop by and see me at https://craftynurse4u.wordpress.com/"

Welcome Kathy!!!

Be sure to swing on by Sunday March 1 to check out our new challenge and what Kathy created for it. In the meantime did you see that we are having a Design Team Call?  



DESIGN TEAM CALL

Would you like to join our Design Team?  We are looking to add a few new members!  Do you love mixed media, art journaling?  Then we would love for you to apply.  This DT call is very simple just link below your blog and a specific piece for us to take a look at. 

Requirements:

  • A project for the 1st of every month for our new challenge.
  • One or two additional blog posts during the month, which may be a shared technique, idea another project. We work together to create a schedule that fits everyone's schedule. We do not want any pressure on our members just fun!  
  • Term begins in April
How to apply:
Link up by March 15. 


Thanks for stopping by!

Maria


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Art Journalling and Special Announcement

HI there Mixed Media Mojo fans!  Maria here today to share an art journal page that I made.  Have you played along in this month's challenge, there is still time!

I love using Dylusions products by Ranger.  I have all the spray colors and now they are coming out with paints in all those fabulous colors!  Have you heard about that?  I don't have my hands on them yet but hopefully my LSS will get them in soon!  I've heard that they are very fluid, bright and dry super fast.  Dyan Reaveley claims she loves them because she likes to work very fast and they dry fast.  Of course "everyone" has paints out there which seems weird and you might say why?  Tim Holtz has a distress line which is a line of paints, inks and stains that react in cool ways to achieve a distressed look.  I will do a future post on Tim Holtz products. I know Dina Wakley has a line of paints I believe those are thicker paints. Now Dyan is releasing her own line of paints.

Anyhow, I worked in this journal:

This is the smaller of the 2 Dylusions Journals.  I have the larger one but this size is perfect.  It measures 5 5/8'' x 8 3/8" cover and pages are 5"x8".

Here is a page I did inspired by one of Dyan's Videos and techniques:

In the video where Dyan shows this technique from CHA 2015 she was using and showing the new paints especially how awesome the black is.  Here I just used plain acrylics I had on hand.  Next week I will share some more details on this page and perhaps another page for you.

Check out her great video straight from CHA HERE.


DESIGN TEAM CALL

Would you like to join our Design Team?  We are looking to add a few new members!  Do you love mixed media, art journaling?  Then we would love for you to apply.  This DT call is very simple just link below your blog and a specific piece for us to take a look at.

Requirements:
  • A project for the 1st of every month for our new challenge.
  • One or two additional blog posts during the month, which may be a shared technique, idea another project. We work together to create a schedule that fits everyone's schedule. We do not want any pressure on our members just fun!  
  • Term begins in April
How to apply:
  • Link your blog featuring your favorite mixed media, art journal piece below. 
Link up by March 15. 


Thanks for stopping by!

Maria

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

February Challenge~Mid-Month Fun~Art Tag

Happy Wednesday!

kim here today! I wanted to share a small project to brighten your day!
We are little better than half-way done with the month! Wow, where is the time going?!?!!

After a jam packed weekend with Valentines and here in the US, a long school weekend off, crazy. I have a feeling lots of you need some me-play-time!

Join us for this month's challenge, Use Red, twist Wings. We hope you can play and share the love with your friends!



I have a new found love for making tags! They are a small space and not quite so scary to play with!


My tag is cut from a manila folder and I misted it with water, then pulled it through some Distress Paints. As it was drying I sprayed some Dylusions spray ink over it to get it more red.



Once dry, I stamped the base with Archival Ink using some Unity Butterfly stamps.


The paper flowers are Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, splattered with Picket Fence Distress Paint. I love splattering!

I inked the edges of the tag with Distress Ink Spiced Marmalade to brighten it up. Then just a touch of Vintage Photo along the very edge.

Hope you are having a super fabulous week and can make some time to play! We can't wait to see what you create!

~hugs~
~kim, designing for Mixed Media Mojo

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Step Out for Bird Canvas




Barb here.  I am going to walk you through my making of this canvas.  I knew I wanted to use a bird stamp for my canvas (wings).  It is a new stamp so I really should use it.  I got out a small canvas (the bird is small).  At this point I also know that I want my bird to be an aqua or tealish color.  I covered the canvas with a dictionary page using gel medium.


Oops – I want my canvas to go the long way but my words are going the other way.  I know it probably does not matter because of all the layers that will be on the canvas but I would always know.  My way to fix this is to tear some strips of dictionary page and gel them on over the top – just creating more layers and texture.   


I took a palette knife and spread my gesso over my dictionary pages.  I just put a light coat on it.  I had just watched a video and that is what the artist I was watching did.  So while my gesso is drying, I went and found my bird stamps – gee they are bigger than I thought – I hope my canvas is big enough.  I stamped the birds on some typing paper and tissue.  I gessoed some dictionary pages and stamped with Versafine ink (black).  While still wet, I put on some clear embossing powder and heated it.  I love how this makes the stamped images pop.  I don’t know what I am going to do with the bird yet.  I figure I can use the typing paper one and just use it for figuring out placement on my canvas.   



After the gesso dries, I apply a coat of yellow acrylic paint.  I hate waiting for things to dry but as I see it I realize this yellow is too bright so I get out my Gelatos in several warm colors and scribble them on the canvas.  I spread the color with my fingers.  I am now getting happier with my colors.  I do need to add some more of the bright pink and always remember to do the edges of your canvas so the colors flow around the entire canvas.   




I have to add red to my canvas since this is part of the challenge. I decided to do it in two corners (trying to achieve visual balance).  I had to have some crackle embossing paste so I decided I needed to try it out.  Patience – it has to dry.  The plan is to then rub the red gelato over it.  Prayers please.  Update:  Well it worked.  After I was done, I rubbed some gold gelato over top of the red to soften the red color.  If you look very closely you can see the crackles.  I also think you can see one of my fingerprints.  Remember this if I ever come up missing and they need to identify me, my fingerprint is on the bird canvas. 



I colored a couple of the birds with gelatos on the backside of the tissue.  I think I read that somewhere that was how you were supposed to do that.  I don’t know for sure.  The bird will be blue not teal.  I think once it is added to the canvas, I will add some more color to the front.  The sentiment was stamped on some tissue.  I put the clear embossing powder on it so the sentiment pops.  Now I have to decide if I should add some color to the backside of the tissue also.  Maybe – I don’t know.  This is the first time I have used tissue on a project. 


 Look, the canvas has changed direction.  I guess the bird looks better this way.  I guess it did not matter which way the dictionary page words went because now they go in both directions. 

The tissue was added to the canvas with gel medium and yes it does basically melt into the background.  On the sentiment I added some Faber Castell Big Brush in pink and smeared it around.  In the bird I added some distress paint and some more Gelatos to deepen the color.



I then took a stencil and some embossing paste and went a little crazy on the dots but once you start there is no going back.  There are even dots on the sides. 



This was a fun project and I am so glad that I tried using the tissue on the canvas.  I also love this bird stamp.  There are three more birds in the set and I can't wait to use them on a project.

Please join us in our February challenge at Mixed Media Mojo.    Red with the added twist Wings.



Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Bluebird of Happiness

Barb here - sharing a card that was in my head.  I had to get it out over the week end so I could move onto other projects.

It fits into our challenge for the month - red (there are three little red hearts on the card front) and wings (one big blue bird of happiness).


and the inside says "So blank blank blank be happy"

It was done on mixed media paper with gelatos, acrylic paints, distress inks, distress paints, large and small stamps.  The sentiment was generated on the computer.

So please come join us in our monthly challenge.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

February Challenge



Welcome to a new month and a new challenge!  Thanks to all those who played along last month!  

Our Mixed Media Diva for January and Guest Designer for March is:
KATHY - The Crafty Nurse

Check out her great submission:


Now let's get on to this month:



Before we get started it's time to introduce our February Guest Designer!  This month we have Ann Chuang!

Meet Ann:




Here is a little something about Ann:

"My name is Ann Chuang. I live in Taiwan. I am a junior high school math teacher and a mom. I started crafting about 2012. At that time, I started making very simple cards that would take me hours to make, but the look of pure joy that people give you after receiving a handmade card is worth every second! Now, I also love to dabble in Mixed Media. I have always liked creating, inspiration comes from random places. I have no set style and don't really want to. I'm looking forward to sharing my creations with all of you!"

This month our Theme is RED and the Twist is WINGS.  Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Check out what our Design Team did with this challenge and be sure to swing on by their blogs and leave them some love there.


Ann - February Guest Designer


Maria

How to play along for your chance to be our next MIXED MEDIA DIVA:

Please link up below a new project created for this challenge and do not combine with more than 3 other challenges.  Limit to 3 entries per person.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Maria