Inspiration Abounds: Nathalie Kalbach and Camp Scrap

Summer creativity is the best, especially when I got to attend the Create NJ art retreat, and "go to" a 6 week camp for all things creative! So, recently I found an intersection between the wonderful class I took with Nathalie Kalbach at Create and Camp Scrap with May Flaum. Note: you can still sign up for all four sessions of Camp Scrap for $28 ( a huge bargain - May has tons of videos, ideas, etc. to share) by August 6, after that the price changes.

I first "met" Nathalie online when I starting taking Creative Jumpstart, and it looks like there will be one for 2015 - yay!! Now, at the Create retreat, I got to meet her in person, and that was a wonderful experience!! It's like getting to meet one of your heroes, someone you have admired for a long time. This time, the teaching was personal and we worked in acrylics, which is a medium I have not done much work in before, so did I LEARN A LOT? Oh yes!

I worked in my Dylusions art journal, and it love the bigger size of this one.

Here I am playing with colors and different ways of laying it down, and then some stamping. So how did Camp Scrap intersect? Well, one of the challenges was to work with colors you would not normally choose. I must say for me, pinks and orange are not my go to colors, perhaps from living in a male household (pink). But, the challenge made me go for something different, and I am glad I went beyond my usual boundaries. I'll be going back later to these pages and add to them at some time.

Here is another. We did a critique in class of a page we liked or disliked. I chose this one before I made the change to it. It was just too chaotic. So, I took up the suggestion of using a stencil and white paint to go over it, and I like it much better. I also learned that Dylusions sprays will react with the paint, so once again you see a lot of pink.

At Camp Scrap one of the By Design sessions focused on a square within a square, and that was my inspiration for these pages. Once I toned down the red, white and blue with some bronze, I liked I the page even better.

I had fun using my new Seth Apter and Patti Tolley Parrish stencils, and some petroglyph style stamps I' had for years. Some stencil detail below...

And now to my favorite pages...love this technique Nathalie taught us! I am not a fashion magazine kind of gal, but I have a new use for them now!!

Details...

 

I am loving my wild, wacky women!

Thanks for all the inspiration May and Nathalie!!

 

Camp Scrap Challenge Week 1: take a risk!

This has definitely turned into a "risky" week! First of all, I just retired from 30+ years of teaching science...I mean, it's been great so far, don't get me wrong! But it is a huge change, and you do question yourself if you did it at the right time, how will it work out... Then the weather here this week has been wild- lots of lightning, a tornado, flooding...you name it!

So, on the creative end, what was my big risk this week? I would say it was doing a painting from beginning to end on a large canvas...and here it is, my sunflower. You are given verbal directions and a demo of how to do it, but then it. Is up to your imagination.

Went with a great group...and you can see how everyone has a unique painting.

My friend Lynda- I like how natural hers looks...

Michelle and I sharing ours, leaning to the sun...

Nancy on the left-we were celebrating her birthday, and her daughter Kayla (thanks for organizing this!)

So, in about 2 hours, we painted our canvas. Challenge? Done!!

Simon Says "W is for White"

W is also for "way out of my comfort zone" as May Flaum challenged us this week in Camp Scrap. As you know, I am a color kind of gal, so white?? How the heck do I make something mostly white for the Simon Monday Challenge? Well, you will see that I could not resist a bit of color.

It all started with a nice thick coat of Delta Magnolia White.

Next, a little texture play by laying some punchinella in the paint.

Whitewash with some titanium white and water, a stamped design I had on hand to make a card with, and since we are headed to a Paint and Sip tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday, a card is certainly in order. Sprinkle with some distress glitter...

Play with the layout to see where things should go...

Got it! Now, to add some pearls and white rub-ons...

Some detail of the rub-ons, white on white...

Then, I just had to add in some color, so spritzed in some peacock feather distress marker.

This photo shows it a bit more true to color, so you can see all those variations of white. So, I guess W is for white, and I am happy I tried something different for me!

 

 

Camp Scrap: Week 2 Challenge

I have been meaning to do this layout for over a year, and the Week 2 challenge to layer on the layout was a perfect stepping stone for me to get this done. I used one of my Kit Klubs from Captured Moments, so it was all coordinated.

Here is the base I started with, a simple background page with splashes of pattern.

Next, figuring out the placement of photos

Here it is in all it's layered glory! Most of the embellishments are from the kit, but I just got my new hexagon punch from Stampin Up and I had to play with that! I really like that extra layer of pattern.

 

Patriotic Stripes (and stars): Simon Says and Camp Scrap challenges

Simon Says Stamp and Show has a challenge this week to use stripes. Since next week is the 4th of July, and I had some great patriotic themed paper from Authentique, and Stamp Camp is coming up, this was the perfect blend for working with stripes!

I started off by embossing a 4 with my new Tim Holtz Alterations folder, then sanding over the four to make it stand out, then distressed the edges. Funny story...I thought I was purchasing the die to cut out the numbers, and when I opened the package, I was a little disappointed, but what the heck! I tried it out, and it's actually pretty cool. They are ATC size, so that is whirling some gears in my brain.

Keeping things simple, I went for three blocks of color in the red, white and blue. The left side kind of reminds me of a firecracker. A little ink around the edges, a bit of frayed Eclectic Element fabric, and almost done. Honestly, I am finding myself being pretty miserly with my fabric pieces...I just don't want to use it up :)

Once I stamped the word "Liberty" (Art Impressions) across the card, and added a little stamped element (stamp by Heather) to the envelope, the card is ready for a patriotic celebration of stripes and stars!

Also, now that I am finally finished with the school year, I have time to play at camp - Camp Scrap that is! My card fits the first week project of "finish with a stamp" because that is just what I did!

Join us at Camp Scrap

Maura and I are off to Camp Scrap once again this June.

You can register until June 12th at Big Picture Classes. We will be sharing our projects from camp here on the blog. Join us! It looks to be a great experience with lots of new ideas.

In Honor of Camp Scrap

This will keep all of you campers in the mood for creating.  Just sit back, grab your s'mores and enjoy!

Camp Scrap: Inky tag

May Flaum shared her inky tag with us this past week, and that inspired me to pull out my inks and make one too. She promised it would be quick and it was! Inking the tag with distress inks...

Misted water on this stamp, and stamped image onto tag. It gives a very subtle design to the background.

Stamped with archival ink, and colored in with Distress Markers, and Dylusions ink.

Fussy cut the bird and popped that out, added a bit of pen work, some spotty dots, and now my tag is ready to "tweet".

I am going to enter this into a challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.

Camp Scrap - Misting

Perfect time to play...I finally got my new Lucky 8 punch, and wanted to test it out.  This is how I punched the ivory page.  Then, since this is the July Fourth week (and some inspiration from soapHousemama), I decided to work with red, white, and blue.

I cut several stars out of leftover packaging, laid them out and then misted the layout with Dylusions "Melted Chocolate" - yummy!

...
A little detailing with my black pen.

I was trying to decide what I wanted to do, and chose to do a bit of paper weaving with my patterned papers. I found these two great photos of my sons, that they had shot, and really liked the black and white feel.  I added red, white and blue buttons, tabs on the photos. some waffle paper, and the title "Brothers".

Another package in the mail this week from GaucheAlchemy - some punchinella that I had ordered :)

So, after I added some barn door and broken china distress stains to the waffle paper, I just had to add in some of the black punchinella.

I decided I wasn't really happy with how bright the buttons were, so just dabbed them with some Picket Fence Distress Stain, and I like the white wash look to them now.

Tucked in a small tag with some journaling about each of them right now in their lives, behind their photo.

Final step was adding some white rub ons, and here it is ..."Brothers." I had a lot of fun playing with the mists and the stains, and some new products, and keeping with a red, white and blue theme!

Sunday Morning Delight!

Checking out the Camp Scrap blog with May Flaum this morning, and....

I have my SteamPunk Lady tag featured today! What a delightful surprise to wake up to this morning! I am honored. May, thank you for hosting such a wonderful creative camp!!

Camp Scrap Butterfly 2

 

 

I've been trying to do more work with my art journal, so decided the butterfly challenge was a good one to use with this. We learned a technique in my class, where we took a sheet from a magazine and had to choose just three words.  I chose generations, etiquette and respect.  We circled our words, and then gessoed over the rest of the words.

 I started by melting some crayons at the top of the pages, and heating it more to let it run down.  Next, I used a template and misted the background with purple. Then chose some images that I felt represented my words, stamped and added in butterflies and moths.

"Life isn't about finding yourself, Life is about creating yourself"

Camp Scrap-Butterflies

I decided to embellish journaling tags for yesterday's Camp Scrap post. I used Distress Inks, added little pearls for their bodies and a touch of the glitter pen for some sparkle. 

 I rolled the wings around a pencil to give them just a bit of dimension and then adhered them.

They're all ready to use on a card, scrapbook layout, in Project Life or perhaps another Camp Scrap project.

Supplies used: tags: Elle's Studio, stamps: Hero Arts, inks: Tim Holtz Distress Inks