It is hard to believe that it is the last day of November 2012! Time just flies by, whether we are having fun or not!
As December progresses, you’ll begin to see a change in this website as it transforms into what it was meant to be all along! By 2013 it will be renewed, rejuvenated, and ready to bring the same to you, be means of helping you explore your creativity in artful ways!
I hope you are ready for more Artful Adventures here in the Creative Zone!
Back view – it is about 1-2 inches deep
What a surprise when your husband brings home something to hang on the wall of the man cave area, and tells you he wants you to “fix it up” for him! That’s just what happened as my guy was on the hunt to select some items for his patriotic/naval themed wall decor.
He found this piece of wall art which had a great cutout of a rope and anchor. It took me some time to decide what I could do with it, considering I was already shocked with how a basically red, white, and blue look was going to fit in with the colors of the furnishings of the room!
Finally, it came to me! I had purchase a giant old atlas at an estate sale, for the purpose of using for mixed media pieces. I went through the pages and selected maps of areas where my husband had either traveled while in the Navy, or where we had lived. I used ModPodge and stuck it all down to the front of the piece.
When it was dry I could easily hold it where light was coming from behind, and see where it needed to be cut with a craft knife.
I used a little more white and blue paint, and then just gray paint around the anchor and white around the rope. 
When that was dry I did detail work with a fine black marker (I think it was Faber Castel Pitt Pen) and added some shading with some Faber Castel Pitt Pens. The sides are painted black to coordinate with some of the other wall pieces that are in black frames.
To me, it seems unfinished and I wanted to add some words to the piece, but he didn’t want anything else on it. Since it was done at his request, I left it at this stage, but I REALLY want to add something else!
Estate sales, thrift stores, and garage sales are great places to pick up old books, maps, and all kinds of great items to use in your mixed media pieces!
Have fun and mix it up!
One of my favorite people to watch make art is at it again! Junelle Jacobson will be the featured instructor at Christy Tomlinson’s mixed media class, “Bless This Mess” which starts Tuesday, October 23rd. This is a sequel to the first class Junelle did earlier this year. She is a great teacher and a lot of fun to watch.
I first “met” Junelle at a Layout a Day (LOAD) challenge, and loved her scrapbook pages. We then were in one of Christy Tomlinson’s first online classes, and we all began to see and love Junelle’s unique and creative touch on all the pieces we were doing.
One of things that is most fun with some of these classes, are the FaceBook groups that go with them! How fun to see what other classmates are doing and meet people with similar interests from around the world. I hope you’ll think about joining us!
I have used various kinds of fibers to bind loose pages together from time to time, without a lot of thought other than whether it looked nice. However, I recently wondered why the preferred fiber is a waxed linen thread. Why linen, and why wax it? Well, I searched online and thought I’d share what I learned! Unbleached linen is both strong and has a long life. The waxing is done to keep it from tangling and being able to grip it firmly to make any knots. It wasn’t rocket science, but it was interesting.
Whether you like to creating photobooks, scrapbooks, or journals of all types, at some time you may want to pull some pages together to make something unique, or simple put together some loose pages. I recently ran across a great online resource for making all kinds of booklets, Making Mini Scrapbooks, Instructions and Inspirations.
I’m working on something now that will soon need to be bound together, and I’ll show the end result upon completion. Until then, here is the front cover:
Where does the time slip away to? It is already time for another FUN, informative class with the fantastic Joanne Sharpe! You have to love the internet with its wide array of classes and virtual places to meet and hang out with new friends with similar interests! Joanne’s class, Magical Marker Mystery Tour, started today and will run for 4 weeks if you play along in “real time” with the rest of the group.
Her lessons will come out three days for each of the weeks, with 5 lessons each week. She uses video and shares pdf files. This class promises to continue on the information she has shared in previous classes, yet don’t feel that you must have already taken other classes. One of the great things about Joanne’s classes is her ability to give you information so that you can just jump in and run with the class you have chosen. This class is going to cover several kinds/brands of markers. She will show the differences in how each can be used and what they may work best for in your art projects.
Joanne says her classes are like buying a book; you buy it and it is yours to keep going back to over and over again. Not all online classes offer that availability, which really provides great value when you consider the fact that you can keep going over the lessons time after time if you want to.
Besides the training videos she does, Joanne has started creating a Facebook page for each class group. It has been so inspiring to meet artists from all over the world and see their work as they upload pictures of their take on the lessons! If you ever wanted to learn more about different kinds of markers, jump in and join us!