BLACKBIRD singing...The Crafter's Workshop - January 2018

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!!

Today, I am sharing my first project for The Crafter's Workshop for 2018!

I have been a little obsessed with my art journal these days and below is the project I created.

I was inspired by The Beatles song ‘Blackbird’ and the lyrics, which I adore.  I am always inspired by song lyrics for an art journaling spread and these immediately made me think of this intricate stencil, appropriately entitled ‘Tweet.’  I also used the other two stencils and media shown below.

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own.

After prepping my pages using the White Gesso, I brought out All the blues, greens, violets and black Distress Inks.  Using the star and dot parts of this 12x12 stencil, I added layers of ink across the top portions of the left and right sides of the pages. 

Using the star and dot parts of this 12x12 stencil, I added layers of ink across the top portions of the left and right sides of the pages.

Next, I added light blues, greys and black around the perimeter of the pages.

 

I went back to add another layer of ink to provide more contrast after adding the black, although it still wasn’t dark enough.  I decided to go over those areas with some of the Heavy Body Acrylic paints.

After that layer dried, I used the Modeling Paste to add some of the small dots and star shapes in this ‘Galaxy’ stencil.  I had intended to only use the small shapes of this stencil, but ended up using a portion of the galaxy arch shape to frame around the area I planned to write my the lyrics.

Even though this stencil is very intricate, I knew that the Black Modeling Paste would be the perfect medium to highlight this design.

After writing the lyrics I used lots of pens and markers to add some detail and embellishment to the spread. 

Here are the detail photos and final project!

Thanks for stopping by the Blog today!  I hope this has been a bit of inspiration to kick off your New Year.

Jenni Calma

The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

Supplies Used:

TCW672 - 12x12 Doodling Template - Galaxy

TCW687 - 12x12 Doodling Template - Positivity

TCW   - Doodling Template - Tweet

TCW9001 – White Gesso

TCW9005 - Modeling Paste

TCW9010 - Silver Gesso

TCW9009 - Black Modeling Paste

TCW9024   – Heavy Body Acrylic – Kale Smoothie

TCW9022 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Grape Jelly

TCW9016 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Spun Sugar

TCW9017 – Heavy Body Acrylic – Lemon Custard

You Are My Sunshine - The Crafter's Workshop & Canvas Corp. Team Up!

Today I'm share my creations with a team up between The Crafter’s Workshop & Canvas Corp.!  Along with an amazing array of inspiring mediums, stencils and embellishments that we were given, the theme we were assigned to convey is “Spring Is In the Air…”  And since the weather in our part of the country is so completely unpredictable, it is easy to associate with the beginning of a new season!

The newly released mediums from The Crafter’s Workshop have outdone their previous release.  The Black Modeling Paste and the Heavy Body Acrylic paints are like working with cake frosting, without the calories…the texture and consistency is so amazing and easy to work with…perfectly combining with their intricate stencils.

I used a combination of the mediums pictured below, some are new and some are from the last release.

    

With the idea of Spring, looking thru the new stencils, the one that popped out at me has intricate sunflowers and the coordinating famous song & quote.  These are a few of the products I laid out to use during my process.

I started with a small 8×8 canvas and used the Gold Gesso to add a layer of background shine as well as prep the raw canvas…perfect application!

Next, I used the Clear Matte Medium with one of the new 12×12  leaf stencils to add a repetitive pattern onto the background.

After the Gel Medium dried, and most of it looked completely clear, I misted a generous coating of the Tattered Angels “French Lime” mist that we were given from Canvas Corp.

I dabbed some of the extra mist off the canvas in places.

While the mist dried, I used a piece of small muslin from Canvas Corp. to stencil a sunflower using several colors of Distress Ink.

  The sunflower is the singular one that is part of a larger 12×12 stencil.  It was the perfect size for this piece of muslin and a good ratio to the 8×8 canvas.



I frayed the edges of the fabric to give it a rougher edge and kept it in place with washi, while I stenciled it with ink.

After the ink dried, I experimented with a tiny bit of texture using the Heavy Body Acrylic paint in Iridescent Gold.  I carefully added the paint to the end pieces, after lining up the stencil over the previously inked portion.

Waiting for all the other pieces to dry, I grabbed my new favorite medium, the Black Modeling Paste, and layered it over the Sunshine phrase on more muslin fabric I had misted.

Even after two attempts, part of my stencil ended up thicker at the ‘My,’ but I added some more Tattered Angels mist and trimmed up the edges into a banner shape.

Finally, I used my glue gun to layer the stenciled muslin piece onto a burlap square, and adhered both to the canvas.  I cut out a piece of the muslin center of the sunflower to add some burlap pieces, gold thread and tiny faux flowers.

I dabbed a tiny bit of the Gold Gesso to the edges of the muslin, burlap, canvas and flower petals, adding more definition and texture.

Finally, I used my hot glue gun to add the banner sentiment to the canvas, using some Canvas Corp. tiny brown clothespins to the ends.

Actually, before that final step, I adhered this large braided twine to the back of the canvas for it to be hung from a wall!

 I am so pleased with the way this project turned out and it does make me excited for the beginning of Spring!  Our first daffodil bloomed on recently, hope it lasts a little while longer!  The first signs of a new season are such a positive reinforcement into all of our lives!

Thanks for stopping by the Blog today!

PRODUCTS Used:

TCW9003 – Gold Gesso

TCW9006 – Clear Gel Medium

TCW9013 – Iridescent Gold Heavy Body Acrylic

TCW9009 – Black Modeling Paste

TCW658 – Jungle Vines

TCW660 – My Sunshine

loOkiNg uP - The Crafter's Workshop January

Hello there crafty friends!  Hope you are all having a Happy New Year!  Today I wanted to share with you a scrapbook layout I created using for The Crafter's Workshop a couple weeks ago.The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project.  The opinions I share are solely my own.

                                        

With the Fall season past and Winter in full swing, lots of my photos seem to have a theme behind them…looking up!  These are a few of my favorite ones from November.  The colors were so powerful and vibrant, I thought it was perfect for the reality of our recent gloomy days.Using the colors in the photos, and the graphic nature of them, I thought it would be interesting to create a simple organized page with three stripes of color, using watercolors.  I used the Clear Gesso first onto plain white cardstock and let it dry completely.  Then I used liquid watercolor, diluted a bit, to paint on the stripes.  The liquid watercolor is great because it is reliably even, and I wanted consistency.After waiting another few minutes to let the paint dry, I mixed 3 tiny batches of paste in the same colors, using the liquid watercolor to tint the Thick Modeling Paste.  I chose a fairly loose, organic stencil to contrast the more rigid lines of the photos and stripes.Starting at the top of the gessoed area and the top of the stencil, I added the blue modeling paste over the blue watercolor.  I very carefully cleaned off the stencil in between colors, not wanting any transfer.  I am normally too impatient to complete this step, but it really does make a difference.After the blue was mostly dry, I repeated the same steps, using the yellow, then red.  I skipped down the stencil a bit, so it doesn’t read like the complete stencil pattern, just more of a pattern of texture and shapes.After letting all the paste dry, I adhered my photos, embellishments and title.

Thanks so much for stopping by the Blog today!

PRODUCTS Used:

TCW9007 – Clear Gesso

TCW9005 – Thick Modeling Paste

TCW654 – 12×12 Doodling Template – Chica Doodle