Gorgeous and Fun

Buzz of the Week: Collage Journeys

It happened slowly, very slowly but before I knew it I had fallen in love - with collaging. Even last year, I wouldn't really have thought about collage. If I did think about it, I would think of the hastily torn out photos from magazines to make school projects. But some time last year I discovered acrylics. I had known about acrylics for ages but it was last year that I discovered what I could do with them. And then from there the next step was collaging. And since then collages have cast a spell on me.

One of the books that has fueled the creativity in this direction is "Collage Journeys". It is a fantastic book and divinely inspiring. I have also had the privilege of taking a class with Jane Davies. Not only is she a fantastic artist but also an awesome teacher. I'll share a couple of collages I made in her class over the next week. If you ever get a chance to take a class with her, I would highly recommend it.

Buzz of the Week: Claudine Hellmuth Acrylic Paints

Stunning, luscious acrylic colors from the Claudine Hellmuth Ranger line have been on my mind this week. They have an interesting catch line - "51 colors from 15 colors". Very, very fun! The colors are bright and look fantastic. Also in the same line, Ranger sells sticky back canvases. I haven't tried these canvas but I can think of several ways of putting these to use. Image is from the Claudine Hellmuth website.

Buzz of the Week: Sketch Saturday

Today's Buzz of the Week is a blog called Sketch Saturday. It is another fun place to visit for inspiration/ideas. They publish templates every week and you can make a card with their template and then share it with them. If you are running low on ideas, need some inspiration or you just want to see some beautiful cards - take a stroll through Sketch Saturday. The template image above is from their site. Do you have any places or things that inspire you that you would like to share?

Buzz of the Week: Prismacolor pencils

Prismacolor color pencils are today's Buzz of the Week. Before someone told me about Prismacolors, I had almost given up on coloring with pencils. I used to use Derwent pencils, but they are much harder. So when I tried to blend with the Derwents, the blending never looked that smooth. But I heard how smooth the Prismacolors were and I tried them! And they are really soft and fantastic for coloring. So if you have given up on color pencils, give these a try. They are very likely to change your mind. Image from the Prismacolor website.

Buzz of the Week: Grunge Paper

This is what Grunge paper looks like. Now I know it looks like something meant for building construction. But do you want to see what you can do with it? Take a look below.

This was a collage that I made in a class with Tim Holtz. This class was appropriately called the "Patchwork Pandemonium". It is entirely made out of grunge paper. We did all kinds of things to it, distressed it, stamped it, some of it was dry embossed and then painted with acrylics and then distressed. And this is just one of the things that can be done with grunge paper. You can make flowers like roses, grunge paper will hold shape!

And grunge board, which is thicker than grunge paper, is much easier to work with than chipboard. There are loads of ways to use grunge paper. Take a look at the patchwork collage closeups below.

Buzz of the Week: K and Company paper

 

Gorgeous, gorgeous paper from K and Company. I have plans to use these in my collages and maybe cards too.

Buzz of the Week: Martha Stewart Glitter

This week's buzz of the week is glitter. How can a girl resist sparkle and glitter <insert a big smile here>? And if you really like glitter you can get several different colors of glitter in a pack from the Martha Stewart craft line. These bottles are like shakers, where you can pop off the top and sprinkle the glitter just like salt and pepper. So much easier to use! I have actually seen several crafters use salt and pepper shakers to fill up glitter. I think that is a brilliant idea. But it is really convenient that the Martha Stewart glitter comes in these shaker bottles. And there are so many beautiful colors. Happy glittering!!

Buzz of the Week: Ribbons from Paper Source

If you have a Paper Source near you go checkout their ribbon collection. At 3.50$ for 10 yards of this double faced satin faced goodness, it feels like a steal. Ribbons can be used in so many ways - on cards, on collages, to wrap presents, to string a pendant around your neck or make flowers and bows. And the ribbons from Paper Source are a perfect treat!

Buzz of the Week: Perfect Pearls

 

These pigments from Ranger have a soft pearlescent shine. But what's fun about them is that they can be used in many different ways. Stamp some cardstock with Versamark and then brush the Perfect Pearls on the cardstock. Or mix them with water and use them like watercolors, or mix them with water and spritz them. Or you can mix them with embossing paste or mix them with ultra thick embossing enamel or with acrylics. So many, many ways to use them and they'll oomph up any art with their lustre. Image is from the Ranger website.

Buzz of the Week: Griffin and Sabine

 

This book is art crossed with fiction. This petite book tells a compelling story in a very unique way. The story is printed as correspondence between Griffin and Sabine and I know there have been other books based on correspondence (that reminds me of another correspondence book to blog about!) but this one is published with a twist. There are actual postcards in there! With art on them! You feel like the visual version of an eavesdropper. An absolutely fascinating read and a very, very interesting book. There are two more books in the series and now I am trying to get my hands on them.

Image is from chroniclebooks.com