Attention blogger friends...

Hop on over to Rachel's blog... where she has a whopping 4 new posts, one including more pictures of our wonderful colaboration day. Sheer magic my friends. Go, go, go... You'll be glad you did! Rich & wonderful shtuff...

Quieting the beast...

The beast... You know the beast... We all have the beast... The beast is that nagging, critical voice in our head that says "Oh your can't create" or "your not an artist" or "that is ugly", fill in with your own critical saying... you get the picture. In my art journaling class with Orly Avineri she talked about that very beast & putting a name to it. We name it so we can tell it to "BE QUIET!!!"

Here is my sneaky little beast and quieting him down... have a great weekend and go create something fun.

Click on any image for a larger view.

leartiste at heart

My good friend Patricia has started a blog leartistatheart. Patricia is the artist that started me on my creative journey. Patricia makes beautiful handmade cards and jewelry. Way back when she invited us to her wonderful home to make cards. That started us both going to stamp conventions and I was hooked! Go check out her blog and give her your support! Pat has always been a supportive and caring friend.

ArtCub & Playful Journey

ArtCub & Playful Journey
Originally uploaded by bkasstle

The first page of my journal for Orly Avineri's Art Journal Group. We made the Playful Journey Page in her class and I did the Artcub page for it. The Playful Journey Page unfolds into a large map, see the pic above. The bear is an image transfer using Golden's Regular Gel Medium(gloss). If you haven't done an image transfer I highly recommend it! it is so fun slopping on the gel, leveling it out. You let it sit over night and then rub off the paper and your left with your image to put on whatever you'd like, so fun!

Orly Avineri is an amazing artist and teacher. Her journaling groups are fun, informal. For me the classes are part instructional and a HUGE part fun. I look forward to each and every one. Stop by her blog and check out her amazing art.

Click on any page for a larger view.

4 Helping Us See

This two page spread is for Orly Avineri's 2009 Art Journal Round Robin. Here is a link to her original post regarding the Round Robin. Orly is a wonderful supportive artist and friend. She has been published in Artful Blogging. She is going to be teaching at Teesha Moore's Journalfest this fall. I am attending her Art Journaling Classes at Harmony Works on Wednesday evenings. Click on the image for a larger view.

The eyes are a gel 'skin' image transfer I did using Regular Gloss Gel. I printed the image on plain cardstock and applied the Regular Gloss Gel and waited over night. Once it was dry I spritzed some water on the paper, rubbed off all the paper and then cleaned up the image transfer. It was actually really easy to do and you get a wonderful result. I then applied the 'skin' to my journal page with Soft Gel and it worked like glue.

My pages also include scrapbook paper, vintage ephermia, stenciling and spray painting & glimmer mist for some shine(and grunge)... enjoy! Give image transfers a try.

Inspired & my Large Visual Journal.

Good morning! I have been overwhelmed by the traffic and comments to the blog since joining Seth Apter's Buried Treasure on The Altered Page . "Thank you!" does not do justice to how much I appreciate your kind words. You can click on any photo for a larger view of it.

This page uses one of my favorite wall stencils above Afro Girl's head and some lace cut number scrapbook paper, Afrom Girl is from Stencil 1 book.

This page uses dragon from Stencil Me In and wrestler from Stencil 1, a Tim Holtz mask on the top. I tend to do pages in twos, I am going to bind these loose ones in a book.

I have large 11" X 14 1/2 " Journal I have been using as a visual journal. It has been so fun to just spray right on it! At first I was first a bit hesitant but I just jumped in and it is working out to be great!

These pages use a lace plastic placemat on the left and stencils from Stencil Me In book.

This page uses bug stencils from Ginny's Small Studio and a stencil from Stencil 1 book, punchella. Everything has been oversprayed with Glimmer mist in copper. I love how it came out all grungy and aged.

The inside cover, with punchella and stencils from Stencil Me In & Stencil 1 books, Heidi Swapp masks.

This page is only a spray painted background. All of my pages start out like this before I spray on them. Have a great day and go make a mess and make some art today!

Sad News

I was so sad to open my email this am to find out Strictly Scrapbooking store in Cerritos, CA is closing it's doors. It was/is my favorite and first scrapbooking store. I took my first class there from Mary Ann. Sophia the owner, my friend Joe have always been so supportive and inspirational in my creative journey I am so grateful for them. Support your local scrapbooking/crafting store.

Thank you!

I get up for work at 3:15 am for work, yes an UN-GAWDLY hour... I have my coffee and the cats usually meet me and I hop on the internet and parooze some blogs... what do I happen upon this fine morn but my dear Dylan has featured lil' ole me on her blog! She is awesome! Check her out checking me out.... http://www.dyan-reaveley.blogspot.com/

Everybody's doin' it!

My friend Mary Ann at dispatchfromla.typepad.com is teaching an online class all about stenciling! From using pre-made stencils to making and cutting your own. All in her marvelous style! I am so excited to start!