I have been gone

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Michelle

from this blog for a while, it seems like a very very long time but in reality is about 6 weeks. Trying to catch up from my buying trip to Las Vegas and the recent guest teachers we have had, along with designing new classes and remodeling the store has really whittled down the time I have had available to manage this blog and make Art. I miss it. . .

In the few minutes I had spare I have managed to have some fun with my Gelli Plate making some more prints and using some of the papers to make a couple of mini books.

I love Gelli Plate Printing, I am obsessed

Here are some images of what I have been up to

Some recent prints

Gelli Prints

I used the 6×6 Gelli plate and decided to fold three of the prints in half. Using a simple pamphlet stitch with hemp to bind the book. I then stamped various images and added some quotes to complete this little book.

Here is a look at the cover.

I love this quote stamp by Tim Holtz

Gelli Print Book Cover

Here is one of the interior pages

Interior Pages

The heart shapes are punched from another Gelli Print

Interior Pages

I stamped this mushroom image and then colored with pencils, adding a quote I made on my label printer. I used Gel medium to glue the sticker down.

Center of book

Center Pages

Brush and Pencil stamps are by Impression Obsession

Mini Book

Here is another view of the book

and here are some playing cards I am altering using the Gelli Plate

Playing Cards

I hope all the images have made up for the long time between posts.

I think I am back on track time wise so will post again soon,

until then go make something !

Tag Tutorial coming

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Michelle

I made this tag yesterday and did it at the store as a Make n Take today. Sometimes I get into a bright colorful mood, so I made this tag using the new Neon Dabbers by Hero Arts. It was very hard to get a good photograph, this tag is just so vibrant in real life.

Neon Floral Tag

I am in the process of editing photos and writing a tutorial for this tag, so check back in a couple of days to find out how I made it.

A2Z Art Journal Page Letter L

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Michelle

This is a page from my A2Z of Me Art Journal (a small watercolor moleskine journal)

The letter for this page is L

The word I chose is Life. I have 4 parts to this spread Here is the page with the right flap closed, which is what you see when you open the book.

I added the extra page using Washi Tape

Art Journal Page flap closed

Here is the page with the right flap open which is where the majority of journaling will go.

Art journal page flap open

Close up of some of my journaling, which will eventually be filled with words of how I want to Live my Life

Close up of journaling

Close up of the closed flap.

Close up of Closed Flap

I used Goauche to color the pages, I love the matte finish on the pages. I stenciled with Distress Paint from Tim Holtz using a stencil from Hero Arts. Image is an old Lynn Perella paper I had stamped with a Butterfly and the Pennant border is the left overs from a Basic Grey layout.

I used some Dyan Reaveley stamps for the leaves which I then colored in with my Derwent Inktense pencils (love them) and the stenciled writing is painted in with Black Gesso. I love painting in my letters with the Gesso as I love the matte finish it leaves.

If you are stuck for ideas with your Art Journal consider doing an A2Z Journal, I picked words that are personal to me. You could also pick random words from a dictionary and journal about those. or journal with a friend and pick a word for each other. That could be a lot of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the peek into my Journal

till next time, Michelle

Another Tim Holtz inspired tag

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Michelle

This is another tag that I made last year.

The background was done with Tim Holtz Distress Ink and the colors are just so vivid

Lampost Tag to make it glow

I used Tim Holtz Distress Powders in Black Soot on the lamp post and with the rough texture it “feels” just like wrought iron. For the light part of the lamp I used Luminarte H2O’s which makes it glow.

Art Journal Pages

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Michelle

As I said before, I love to Art Journal and I have a number of books I am working in at the same time, doesn’t everybody?

Art Journals being worked in

Here is one of the pages I did last year. Still not complete as I feel the need to write more, but sometimes I never feel a page is finished till it feels finished and then even then I may go back later and add something more. Does that make sense?

Art Journal Believe in your Dreams

This page was colored with Tim Holtz Distress Stains and when dry, covered with Ice Radiant Rain spray. This is my favorite spray, the glimmer is just so great. I used a couple of Stampotique images, the leaves are Dyan Reaveleys and the Circles are Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s stamps from Impression Obsession.

Kill Negativity Close Up

A close up of a dog shooting a negativity plant! The bleed through from other pages kind of looks a little bloody!

Believe Close up 2

This is a close up of the circle stamps from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

I used them as flowers and then I journaled up the stems

Stampotique Stamps Close Up

A close up of the very cool Stampotique Girl.

Love this stamp. I stamped her directly on the page, but I stamped her face onto white paper which I cut out and colored.

Hope you enjoyed looking at one of my Journal pages.

Till next time, Michelle

Patriotic Stars

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Michelle

I thought it might be fun to dress up the picnic table for July 4th.

I used the Tim Holtz Alterations die – 3D star to make candy dishes.

I turned the star inside out and used the inside of it to hold candies.

Continue reading →

Cruising to the Caribbean

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Michelle

As a child I was fortunate enough to travel to a lot of wonderful places and countries. I love traveling and seeing new cultures, tasting new foods and sightseeing.

Then I bought a store and traveling for me, apart from trade shows, ceased.

So I jumped on the chance to teach on a Mixed Media Cruise last year. Cheryl Mezzetti asked me to co-teach with her aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. We traveled to St. Thomas. St. Marteen, and Coco Cay in the Bahama’s. We also had three days at sea, which is when we taught classes.

The first class I taught was an Art Journal that could be used as a photo album, travel journal or technique journal. There were different techniques used on each page. Unfortunately I still have to complete the interior of my own album with the souvenir’s I collected.

Continue reading →

Paris Tag

Posted on June 23, 2013 by Michelle

I love to make tags, last year I made a new one every week. This year time seems to have run away from me.

This was one of my favorite tags from last year.

Paris Memoirs Tag

This was made with book paper and an old atlas for the background. I colored the papers with Distress Inks. Stamps were from Tim Holtz as well as the Filmstrip ribbon and I also used the Tim Holtz embossing folder on the Ten Seconds studio metal.

The A2Z of Me

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Michelle

In the last post I mentioned that we also have another Art Journaling class, the A2Z of me. This class is done in a small watercolor Moleskine Journal. We started with the letter I.

Here is the page I completed:

The background was done with Gelatos and Gesso. Archival Ink was used for stamping and a Signo Uniball black pen was used to journal.

Each month we randomly pick a letter but skip blank pages so when we have finished the alphabet it will be in order.

I love this class, we do a quick background technique and then spend time cutting out imagery, stamping, chatting and hopefully writing. We each pick a word that corresponds with the letter and it is fun seeing what everyone else does to complete their page. I always try to pick a word that is personal to me rather than generic. In June we had the letter “V” but when I sat down to do the journaling I could not remember the word I had picked so I was unable to complete my page.

Art Journaling

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Michelle

I thought I would start to show some of the images of the Art Journaling classes that we have at the store. We actually have two classes going on every month.

Adventures in Art Journaling, this class was the one we started with. We work in a Moleskine notebook. Love this book. Just the right size and I love that the paper is thin. We can always add gesso if we need to.

The other class that we have is the A2Z of Me. Each month we pick a letter of the alphabet randomly, do a background and then add imagery and write about the word we chose to go with that letter. We are also working in a Moleskine journal but this is a small watercolor book. We skip pages in the book and then go back and complete them when that letter comes up, this way when we are done, the book will be “alphabetically correct”

This photo is from the very first Adventures in Art Journaling class back in February 2012.

We used Dylusions sprays, stencils, and stamps along with Ranger’s Archival Inks.

This was the morning class

and we had so many sign ups I repeated the class in the afternoon. This page I finished off with book paper, Faber Castel pitt pens, Ranger’s black gesso, rub-ons and stamps.

We have been having so much creative fun in these classes that I have been asked to host a third class, so as soon as I figure out what journal and what theme we are probably going to add it.

Michelle McCosh

Making a mess in the name of Art