Exciting News to Share!

Hi everyone!! I have some exciting news that I would love to share with you all…I have been invited to be on the creative team for a new mixed media kit club I am joined by these talented ladies: Tina Walker, Martha Richardson, and Rita Barakat.



Frog Dog Studio was created by Tina Walker, and is an awesome new kit club featuring mixed media products. Here are Tina’s words describing all of the goodness: “Frog Dog Studio is a monthly Mixed Media kit club. We have a talented team of designers who will share video and photo tutorials on how to make kit projects and use kit supplies, in easy, fun, and creative ways. We pride ourselves on making the world Mixed Media friendly and want to share our excitement and passion for creating art with our subscribers. We believe that Mixed Media is the window to the soul, and embrace individualism, and self expression. Getting our hands messy with paint, ink, and glue is a natural part of our lives. If you would like more information about our kits and what we have to offer, please visit our website, Frog Dog Studio.”

The kit will go live on June 1. Let me just tell you all that there are some fabulous goodies in these kits! I was really inspired when I got my first kit to work with. Tina has done a great job of finding really cool and fun things to use. And by having all of the tutorials, it really shows you just how flexible you can be with the kits. FUN!

You can check out the Frog Dog Studio Blog here for news and updates.

Thanks for stopping by!!

How to Make a Vintage Bird Nest tutorial and a Sneaky Peek…

Good morning! It’s a beautiful day here in Texas I am planning to sit and do a bit of sketching later after I get the boy down for his nap–fingers crossed!! In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a project that I created last week as a creative challenge submission for Stamp Antonio Arts. The challenge was called “Feather Your Nest” in honor of the arrival of spring. Participants were challenged to create a bird’s nest with eggs out of any type of materials. I have been wanting to do something different lately, so I jumped right into this challenge. I decided while I was at it, I may as well create a tutorial on how exactly I created my project in case anyone else might be inspired to make one. It turned out really cute, take a look:


To see the full tutorial please check out my Snapguide “How to Make a Vintage Style Bird Nest”.

Remember that big news I told you about last week? Well, here’s another teaser…


I hope you all enjoy your day today!!

I’m Dylusional!! :)

When I get obsessed I go all out…and that is exactly what happened when I discovered the awesome stamp sets by Dyan Reaveley!! I’ve been using the Dylusions spray inks for quite a while now, but never looked into any of her other products. Don’t ask me why, I can’t believe it took me so long So I had myself a mini spending spree and ordered several stamp sets and stencils, as well as her Art Journal. Let me just say that I have quite a number of art journals with all different types of papers, etc., but this one takes the cake! The size is perfect and the papers are just made for mixed media. They hold up really well to all of the spraying, layering, and stamping. No buckling or curling at all. I am in love With that said, I’d like to share a few pages that I whipped up using the stamps, inks, stencils, and magazine bits. I also used the Silks by Luminarte, which I am also in love with. The colors are really vibrant and I love playing with them!



I have another journal that is small (5 x 7) filled with a kraft colored paper that I occasionally work in. I am using a heart theme throughout this one. I thought I’d share a few pages of this one also. It is still a work in progress





Well, that is all for now. Stay tuned though, I have some really big and exciting news to share with everyone later this month. I can’t wait!

The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly—and Quirky Birds :)

This week I was able to play catch up with my LifeBook 2013 lessons. I can’t say enough about this experience, I have already learned so much!! The teachers are amazing and the work that everyone is putting up is truly inspiring. This week I was able to complete the lesson from Week 11-The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Michelle Kral (also known as Misti B).This lesson was so liberating. The whole purpose is just to celebrate and embrace the good, bad, and ugly side of ourselves. We were encouraged to let our ugly out. Well, I feel like I certainly did. This piece is pretty hideous, but I finally felt something in myself just let go–I think for the first time ever. I usually worry over what people will think about my art and feel like it always has to be perfect, but not this time. Here it is, in all of it’s hideousness…

Pretty ugly, eh?
Now this week’s lesson was a total blast. We made “quirky birds” and used song lyrics that help to ground us and help us celebrate the “now”. Everytime I hear the song “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds I think of my husband. It’s a really beautiful song, if you’ve never heard it you should check it out. We made this as a really cool fold out accordion booklet. I may go back and do the back side with some more fun birds later on.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend! Thanks for stopping by

LifeBook Week 10 and 12–I Painted a Face!

Continuing on my LifeBook journey, I’ve completed Weeks 10 and 12. Week 10 we celebrated heart connections with Tam. We filled in our heart with rolled paper containing short messages to our heart connections. I wish the picture could convey the cool 3D look of this heart. What a beautiful lesson this was, and a great reminder of how important people are in our lives.

Week 12 was Celebration and Connection with Mindy Lacefield. I’ve always enjoyed her style of art and wondered how she painted her adorable, whimsical faces. This was a great lesson for me, especially learning how to shade and create the faces. I’ve never been really good with faces, but she made this seem so easy. I like the primitive style of their faces. I realized when I finished the painting that I subconsciously ended up painting me and my son. This wasn’t my original intention, but I love how that’s how it turned out.

I am hoping this weekend to possibly get to Week 11, which is about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Michelle Kral. I’m looking forward to it, but there were a few supplies I needed before I could start this one.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter! Thanks for stopping by

Catching up on LifeBook 2013

First of all, I have some exciting news! I will be teaching my first ever art journaling class at Seton Home. Seton Home is a nonprofit organization that supports teenage mothers and their children. This is a cause very near and dear to my heart, and I am so excited about the opportunity to work with the girls.
I fell far behind with my posts (and my classes) over the past few weeks for LifeBook 2013. There just never seems to be enough hours in the day for all of the things I’d like to do I’m trying to get caught up with everything now. I think I’m only 2 weeks behind in my lessons. I wanted to share the last few projects that were done. Week 4 was a lesson in scales of light with Dion Dior. What a fun lesson, and very educational. I have a lot to learn about shading!

Next up was Week 5-Game Piece & Game Board with Kelly Hoernig. This was a great exercise relating to our goals for this year. I can’t say I was very happy with my gameboard. It’s pretty ugly, but I do like the way the little cards came out. I would like to alter more playing cards to use in the future for my journal.

Week 6 brought us a lesson from Tam herself–Celebration and Courage. I really liked this one! First of all, I learned how to draw an entire body. I’ve never done that before. Tam has a wonderful way of breaking it down and making it seem so easy. I was amazed at just how easy it really was. The second thing I loved about this lesson was she introduced us to masking fluid, which I have never used before or even heard of. You can bet that I will be using it plenty in the future. That stuff is awesome!!

Week 7 was an interesting interview with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. She is just amazing!! Week 8 was a lesson that I haven’t completed yet. I’m not sure if I will do it or not. I think it may be one that I will come back to later on. And finally Week 9-Painting over a Printed Image with Danita. This was a really fun technique. After finished this assignment, I realized I had done something similar before in my art journal. I enjoyed this lesson, even though it didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped. I couldn’t get one side of her face the way I wanted and the paper ended up bubbling and just getting messy so I gessoed that whole side and added some journaling instead.

All in all, I can say that I am enjoying the LifeBook class. I don’t feel like I’ve created anything outstanding, but I am really enjoying learning so many different techniques and meeting so many wonderful teachers. I’m looking forward to hopefully getting caught up over the weekend in time for the newest lesson on Monday. Wish me luck!
Have a great weekend!

Having Some Fun in my Art Journal

I’ve been sneaking a few moments here and there in my art journal. It’s such a great feeling to just be able to work on a background or do a little bit of doodling. Eventually I will finish an entire journal! Right now I have about 3 books that I work in plus loose papers that will get bound together for LifeBook when that is done. 

So here are a few spreads that have been many months in the making. I find myself going back and adding things or redoing things all of the time, it seems I can never leave well enough alone! 

Right now I am having a serious love affair with washi tape in my journals. It adds just the right amount of color and pattern in the background. I love the fact that it is sort of transparent, so it doesn’t take away from your background, but rather helps to enhance it. I’ve also taken a tip from Donna Downey and started trying to use up some of those old letter stickers from Scrapbooking that I have in my stash. It’s been fun mixing and matching whatever I have on hand.

Take care of yourselves and have a fabulous weekend!

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