Attitude of Gratitude

I am so excited to be a part of Tessa's Precocious Paper Attitude of Gratitude event. 

Attitude of Gratitude is a month-long event in November designed to encourage you to express gratitude on a daily basis. Tessa will be sharing her own thoughts on her blog, as well as uplifting quotations, stories, articles and videos, Her hope is to inspire those who participate to have a more grateful heart, and in turn, happier life.

 Last year I looked forward to Tessa's posts and I can't wait for them this month, too.  Tessa is such an inspiration, such a beautiful person.  I am thankful to call her my friend. 

This year I am going to join Tessa for her Attitude of Gratitude project.  I am going to try to blog my gratitude daily and throughout the month I am going to add to a mini gratitude journal which I will share with you along the way. 

I am going to be using Tessa's Precocious Paper Attitude of Gratitude kit:



Kit includes:

♥ Handmade Mini Album - 3 chipboard pieces, 2 distressed cardboard pieces, one metal ring, 4" by 6" finished size

♥ 2 Fabric and Felt Flowers

♥ 2 Sewing Pattern Petals

♥ 1 Denim Twist Flower

♥ 1 Blush Jersey Twist Flower

♥ 1 Full Set of Sweet Spots (10 pieces, exclusive to kit)

♥ 1 Navy Tulle Clothespin

♥ 1 Pink Raffia Clothespin

♥ 1 Green Raffia Clothespin

♥ 2 Leaves

♥ 1 Large Shipping Tag

♥ 2 Paper Sacks

♥ 1 Glassine Envelope

♥ 1 Template (for page shape, not pictured)

Let me tell you, if it's possible, this kit is even more awesome in person than in the picture above.  I am so in love with all the shaped journal pages and Tessa's flowers and Sweet Spots NEVER disappoint. 

Today I am sharing the title page for my journal:

Gratitude is the Best Attitude

Supplies Flower, Leaf, Trim, Chipboard: Precocious Paper; Stamps: Rubber Soul, Stampin Up; Ink: Ranger, Tsukineko; Paint: Delta, Liquitex, Making Memories, Plaid; Acrylic Ink: Liquitex; Decoupage Medium: Plaid; Gelatos, Pen: Faber-Castell; Mist: Lindy's Stamp Gang, Studio Calico; Other: Dictionary page, gesso

The majority of this piece is paint supported by ink.  I'm loving playing around with my Gelatos.  They have the perfect colors for creating my little girl's skin tone, pouty lips and rosy cheeks. 

My all-time favorite flowers of Tessa's are her Sewing Pattern Petals because they're just screaming out to be customized.  I went subtle on this one giving it a healthy mist of gold and brown. 

(Keep an eye out for more of "my girls" soon.  I'm hoping to get a variety of them up in my Etsy shop ASAP.) 

Please, join Tessa and me in this month-long exploration of gratitude. 

Here is how you can be a part of it:

1. Add the image above as a badge to your blog.

2. Blog your thoughts on gratitude daily (or as often as you can throughout the month).

3. Share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter if you prefer.

4. Write your thoughts in a journal.

5. Collect your thoughts throughout the month and create a layout or mini album to display your gratitude.

Thank you for joining me today.  I am truly blessed to be able to share what I love doing with you. 

♥Heidi

Post It Note Art

Don't you just love art made by your kids??!!!!  The girl is on a post-it note art kit.  Fun little masterpieces contained on one compact square. 

Even the background is a collaborative effort between me and both the girl and the boy.   We had fun with some water-soluable oil pastels, mists and stencils. 

This is based on this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

I sort of flipped it upside down.  Oh, you know I can't just leave a sketch alone!!!!  LOL!

Be sure to check out the Sketchy Thursdays post this week because today is the debut of the art inspiration from all of our new Design Team!!!!  Wow!  There is such an awesome variety of styles represented.  I LOVE it!!!!!

The kids are on fall break this week so we're just chillin'.  Enjoying the cooler (although I'm guessing temporary ~sigh~) temperatures.  We're actually in the low 90s/upper 80s right now. 

Have a great week!

♥Heidi

None of your beeswax!

OK, well maybe it is.  :oD 

I realized I'd never share with you the piece I'd made when I took a beeswax class a couple months ago. 

I've been interested in learning how to work with beeswax for a while now and finally got to take a class at a LSS from an awesome duo, Mike and Lesley of Jack & Cat Curio.  They're Ranger certified instructors and all around amazing mixed media artists. 

This piece is a sandwich of layers of printed material, stamps, a dress pattern and beeswax on a wood base.  I stamped directly into the beeswax on the top layer and finished it off with a few colors of Perfect Pearls including interference green which I MUST get my hands on!!!

Here's another view that gives you a little different perspective.  The Perfect Pearls made it hard to take a good non-reflective picture. 

I will defnitely be playing with beeswax more.  I happened to luck out and come across a few jars of it on seriously cheap clearance. 

Doing anything crafty this weekend? 

♥Heidi

peeking out from under my rock

~waving hi!~

Yes, I'm still here.  LOL.  Been doing lots of planning and organizing.  Stuff I'll be able to share with you later this month. 

I thought I'd share with you a card I made for the April issue of Scrapbook News and Review.

You may recognize it as the one I shared that I made the cover of the magazine!!!!  This is by far my favorite card I've ever made!!  Lots of misting, pastes, gels, inks and rub-ons.  I'm just so in love with the color combo, too. 

April 2011

The June tutorials are up in Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.  Check it out! 

June 2011

There are lots of fun ones this month including creating textured butterflies, lots of different paper flowers, adding vintage flair to hardware store finds, creating a ceramic stucco background (LOVE it!) and a few from me like stamping with watercolor crayons, using a stamp alignment tool and creating custom ink pads and foam stamps.  I've also done some testing and comparisons of embossing static pouches.  Trust me, you will not be disappointed with June's tutorials section!

Did you know Scrapbook News and Review Magazine published TWO TIMES A MONTH??!!!!!!  There is tons of yummy eye candy published on the second Sunday of the month and then as if that isn't enough we publish oodles of tutorials and primers on the last Sunday of the month.  Can't get that much content in just one print magazine! 

Plus did you know we share lots of tutorials, sketches, eye candy and fonts on our front page every week?  Oftentimes, around holidays (hint hint) we'll also run holiday-related shows. 

AND we have a hopping forum where we share lots of tips.  Check it out!!!

****************

So, Diana says I must be allergic to double-page layouts because I'm always "too busy" to create a Sketchy Thursdays layout whenever there is a double-page sketch.

Hmmm...maybe she's right, LOL.  Of course, I'm aware I can use only one side of the sketch if I want (and you can, too) .  LOL!!!

I hope you have lots of awesome, fun plans for the weekend and if you are in the States, hopefully you have a 3-day weekend! 

♥Heidi

she knew she could conquer the world

I've really been getting into mixed media and collage lately and recently took Christy Tomlinson's online course "She Art".  I learned lots of great tips in the class and while I've been incorporating the ideas into lots of original stuff I just had to make one of the SheGirls from the class for my mom for Mother's Day.

SheGirl template and phrases by Christy Tomlinson

This is created on a 6x12 canvas and includes paint, ink, rub-ons, patterned paper, soft gel medium, acrylic ink, dimensional paste, dictionary pages, corrugated, stamps, drywall tape, a CD and I'm sure a ton of other stuff I can't remember right now. 

Lots of rub-ons, a stamp and acrylic ink used on this CD.

Acrylic ink mixed into soft gel medium applied with a foam stamp.  I'm loving how mixed media is helping me to re-embrace my HUGE collection of foam stamps that haven't seen the light of day for at least a couple, three years. 

I love TONS of texture.  Drywall tape is my go-to tool right now.  Soft gel medium and acrylic ink applied over a drywall tape mask and then inverted and used as a stamp, too. 

The scariest part of making a SheGirl...the hair.  I started out trying to make this one look like my mom's hair but I couldn't get it blond enough so she's a major dirty blond here.  LOL.  Paint and  ink.

I love how the boots and the grass came out.  The boots are made with corrugated.  The grass is dimensional paste mixed with paint and combed on.  Lots of fun rub-ons.  The edges of the entire thing are swiped with Tsukineko Brilliance ink, BTW.  Have I mentioned how in love I am with Tsukineko?  Luscious, luscious inks!!!!

I went with the floaty, swirly skirt for this girl.  Love mixing all the patterns.  And rub-ons, stamps and ink, of course.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed making it. 

♥Heidi

Christy Tomlinson Giveaway

I am so inspired by Christy Tomlinson of Scarlett Lime.  Her mixed media art is simply gorgeous. 
I'm dying to take both her online classes:

The She Art Workshop

&

She Had Three Heart Art Journaling Workshop

Courtney Walsh has a very cool interview with Christy on her blog today.  Not only is there lots of amazing Christy eye candy but you can win a spot in the She Had Three Hearts art journaling workshop!  Click here for details. 

I made a few purchases today with mixed media intentions...some Faber-Castell PITT artist pens, some Sakura white Gelly Roll pens, a Canson mix media book which is going to become my new art journal and I'm hoping is going to get broken in tonight, and a bunch of new stamp sets.  I couldn't help myself.  I went to Joanns looking for some pens and realized that not only was all their paper crafting stuff 40% off but they are having their Friends & Family sale, too, which gets you ANOTHER 25% off EVERYTHING you buy (including stuff on sale!).  Did you know Joanns has a phone app where you can grab their coupons and just show the cashier your coupon on your phone??  That's so cool.  And so dangerous!

I also just got Roni Johnson's Teach Yourself Visually Collage & Altered Art book. 

This one came *highly* recommended by some of my peeps over on Scrapbook News and Review that I trust their opinions on matters of mixed media.  I'm just starting to look through it and I'm jonesing to dive into my craft room.  When do the kids go to bed??!!  LOL. 

The kids are outside playing archaeologists.  We've got hot plans to watch the new Suite Life on Deck movie tonight.  Oh, the joys of having near-tweens. 

Do you have any hot plans tonight?  Scrappy plans?

Whatever you do, have fun!

♥Heidi

Life is Good

This is a bittersweet post for me.  I've got two Precocious Paper projects to share which I LOVE but sadly, these are my last PP projects as a member of her DT.  I'm so bummed to be saying goodbye to my DT term.  :o(  It has been an honor and great fun!!!  I will definitley continue to include PP products on my projects, of course, as they're definitely some of my favorite flowers out there!

Supplies Cardstock: Stampin' Up!; Patterned Paper: 7Gypsies, My Minds Eye; Brads: My Minds Eye; Chipboard: Colorbok; Flowers: Precocious Paper; Sticker: SRM Stickers; Pen: Zig

I absolutely love the Precocious Paper Rolled Fabric Flowers.  They come in two sizes and are just so elegant.  Here I topped a trio of smaller ones with some pretty patterned brads. 

Something I discovered about the ivory rolled fabric flowers (which I'm sure also goes for the white and any of the lighter colored ones) is they accept glitter mist beautifully!

I wasn't sure it was going to work...I trepidatiously sprayed this one thinking if I screwed it up I was going to be seriously bummed since I only had 2 to work with.  I thought maybe, since the fabric was so shimmery and slick-looking that the mist might just bead up on it or unevenly soak in.  Very happily the fabric accepted the mist perfectly. 

When I set out to make this next piece I dove into it with just this gorgeous misted flower and a poem composed by my 5-year-old daughter for inspiration.  Let me tell you, those were some amazing inspiration as I am so proud of this piece.

Supplies Flower: Precocious Paper; Ribbon: Michaels; Tape: Advantus; Stamp: Delish Designs; Ink: Ranger Industries, Tsukineko; Paint: Delta, Making Memories, Plaid; Glitter Glue: Ranger Industries; Ink Mist: Maya Road, Tattered Angels, Tsukineko; Pen: Sharpie; Charcoal Pencil: General's; Oil Pastels: Pentel; Tool: Stampin' Up!; Poem: "The Flower Grows and Grows" by Kinsey Myers; Other: chipboard, drywall tape, staples

The thing I think I'm most impressed with myself on this is that the mix of paints I used on her eyes is almost exactly the color of my daughter's eyes!  I call her "Rootbeer Eyes" because their color reminds me of a backlit rootbeer barrel candy. 

It's so hard to photograph anything shimmery.  This picture doesn't do the flower or the metallic, shimmery copper color in her hair or eyes justice. 
So, one day last month on the way to school my daughter recited a poem for me.  I asked if she'd learned it in school.  She said no, she'd just made it up.  And then she kept reciting it over and over.  She even said it for her class.  Of course, I had to write it down and I've been planning to commemorate it on a layout ever since.  Today, instead, a painting seemed more in order.

The poem begins in the middle of the flower, sprials out of it and down the stem with the "composed by" and the date sprialling through the leaf. 

I put in a seed

It started to grow

It grew a flower

On top of its nose

It started to smile

Full of glee

Happily

Isn't that adorable??!!!!!   My budding poet!  I love the way every line didn't have to have the same number of syllables. 

To finish off the page I attempted to make an interpretive sun out of spiraled misted Tim Holtz tissue tape and clouds of drywall tape. 

The butterfly is cut out of some spring-themed ribbon. 

I hope you enjoy this as much as I loved making it.  I don't paint often and don't consider myself a painter by any stretch of the imagination but I really had a great time doing this piece.  I guess I just need awesome inspiration first.  Now I've just got to find a frame for it and it's going to go live in my daughter's room. 

Be sure to check out the Precocious Paper blog for lots more yummy, flowery inspiration from her talented DT.   I can't wait to see who will be on the next team.

Hopefully you guys are cooler than we are this week.  It got up to 91 yesterday.  (Not sure what today was but it felt even worse.)  If it were May, or even April, I would've given in and clicked on that A/C so fast but there's something about it being only March that I refuse to on principle.  Even for here that's 15 degrees warmer than normal.  It's supposed to go back to the "normal" range next week.  I'll believe it when I feel it. 

♥Heidi