Alaska – what can I say. Always so majestic and breath taking. We had an incredible room on the ship for classes and we were fortunate to see whales during and after classes.
Look at this view!
Alaska
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Author Archives: Michelle
Cruising to Alaska
We are headed to Alaska again for another Royal Carribean cruise. I flew in a day early so that I could go and visit my friend Brookes store called Urban PaperCrafter in Edmonds Washington.
I only spent an hour here before Brooke whisked me away for a day of play 
We took the ferry
And had Crepes
Before driving to Port Angeles. I had a personal quest to search for Edward from the Twilight series. Did not find him but I did see the restaurant that Edward and Bella had dinner in !!
Here are some of the photos from our day
Vegas Baby
Time for the Summer Trade show and this year it was held in Vegas.
Not a favorite location of mine. I find there is too many people and it is hot. On the plus side I get to meet up with my colleagues and order tons of merchandise for the holiday season.
View of the hoover dam from the plane.
Vegas was hot, hot, hot and there was a swarm of grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were so dense that they could be seen from space!!
I found some very cool products for the store and had a great time with my colleagues. Time away from the store always gives my head time to think about new classes. This time I found a new book system and it gave me some fabulous ideas for 4 or 5 different art journaling classes.
Can’t wait to get some of the components I need to start designing.
Here is one of them.
Here is the outside of an English pub that I managed to eat at with my friend Brooke. I like to eat genuine English Sausages when I get a chance.
Genuine Sausages and Baked Beans. Strange to have the Baked Beans with Bangers and Mash tho.
I finally did it – I made a video
I taught a class in March or April of last year on the Gelli Plate and what we could do with the prints I came up with this fabulous concept of the Traveling Throw Away Collage Journal. There was some chatter the next day in the store and someone who did not come to the class asked me too do a video. Easy enough to promise but difficult to do when you have no idea how to edit videos!!!
Finally I have figured it out:
It really is a great concept. Think about using up your scraps to make your book. If you don’t have a long reach stapler you can use a 3 hole pamphlet stitch to bind it instead.
I would love to know if you try it
Cutting the page
If you have never tried to cut your art journal pages I highly recommend you trying it. It makes them more interesting to have windows or shaped pages.
This one required a lot of cutting but was totally worth it. I gessoed the page with black gesso and then I traced through a Dina Wakley stencil with my white Gel Pen and then cut on the inside of the white line. I think I may put eyes behind all the openings
Experimenting with my Gelli Plate
Tried Gelli Plate Printing with my new Creative Expressions watercolor pallet on black cardstock. Punched circles and added to my art journal page.
The shimmer on the back paper is unreal!!!
Watercolor Powders
We just received some new shimmer watercolor powders in the store and of course I had to try them out. Loving the subtle shimmer they give me in my moleskine journal. Adding acrylic paint though a stencil on top of them and the paints takes on shimmery glow.
An action shot!
This was one of the “Action” shots that did not make it into the Miami magazine, It is one of my favorites. I was so nervous having the photos taken but this one captured me in a moment of mark making!
I know you don’t see my face but you do see my page!
April Art journal page
I started with a magazine page and scraped gesso across the background using an old credit card. I used lots of different colors and then added some random stenciling to the paper using black and white paints. I punched circles and added them to my book. Now I just have to journal.
A Rolled Art Journal
This journal was designed a little differently. I ripped muslin into four foot strips and then the same with some used underpaper and alternated them, attaching them with staples at one end.
I gessoed both sides of the muslin scraping and pushing it into the fibers.
The journal is meant to be rolled up.
Adding depth to the already started pages
The start of the journaling
This is a fun sized journal to work in and I like the different surfaces.
I used Pebeo Paints, Gesso (of course), Scribble Sticks, Neocolor II, sprays, Stains and paint pens
This is a journal that I designed for a workshop a couple of years ago and I love coming back to it and adding bits n pieces.