Painting with Roberta Laliberte

I did Roberta Laliberte's class on Soul Food over the weekend and enjoyed it a lot because it is all about working with very watery acrylic colour washes and she chose the perfect theme for her technique: some lovely koi in a pond.

No, no, this isn't the whole painting but a detail of my finished piece.... I loved the look of the background and the transformation of the painting in progress so much that I wanted to show some of it to you too:

It was done on some heavy watercolor paper...using a load of water actually...which made it take hours to dry completey (which was quite hard for an impatient person as I am ;)

The next step was doing a glue resist technique....which makes you come up with edges like the ones you see on the water lilly leaf above.

Only after the glue had dried I could move further to giving colour to my koi I had first drawn on a piece of white paper and then transferred to the prepared background.

On this image the painting is still wet and the colours became a lot brighter after all had dried. I also added some more layers of colour with the koi for a more vibrant look.

Roberta is one of the best teachers in art I have ever met and it was a great pleasure listening to her and watching her do her magic in the videos! I really enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed doing my own painting. Thank you very much, Roberta! You really gave me a wonderful time at my crafting desk...taking a deep plunge into working with colours ;)

Hugs,
Claudia x

52 Card Pick Up - Session 3

Here come my numbers 9 to 12 from the 52 Card Pick Up. The next twelve cards will look a bit different because we are to doodle and use part of it on the cards. So I am off to practice my doodle skills which have rusted I am afraid ;)

But for now I hope you enjoy having a look at my third set from the class. Again I had some happy time at my crafting desk creating and adapting ideas for my own cards, because for this set Stephanie left a lot of room for own interpretation and merely gave hints or impulses than a ready design.

No. 9

No. 10

No.11

No.12

I enter these too to Inspiration Emporiums "Say it with Words" challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x

52 Card Pickup - Session 2

As my desk was already a total mess yesterday afternoon (after I had done the first four cards for the 52 Card Pick Up) I decided to do the next four cards as well.

No.5

No.6

No.7

No.8

Again I had a wonderful time playing with chit chat and letter stickers and a lot of distress products. I especially like the shading around silhouettes as it gives a lot of depth to the design. 

I love especially the quote on the second card of this set as it speaks of an important truth which we often forget about.

I enter this set of cards to Inspiration Emporiums February Challenge "Show It With Words!".

Have a lovely Sunday! 

Happy crafting,

Claudia x

52 Card Pick Up - Session 1

Today I gave myself finally a push to start my 52 Card Pick Up deck.

If you don't know what "52 Card Pick Up" is all about take a look at Stephanie Ackerman's site to learn more about her lovely concept HERE.

I love her concept of having a project that - once it is ready - will always stay a source to refer to if you feel down or have lost your mojo. I also love that you can either choose to do one card a week or more in one go (which is what I do as once you have started creating and messing around you can't just stop after one card ;).

I decided to follow Stephanie's order of cards (as she definitely has put a lot of thought into "building up" your very personal project and creativity along with it)...so I started with the cover card and then did the numbers 2 to 4.

As my playing cards are a bit smaller than the ones she uses with her class the design differs a bit...as I use many elements that she used that are one-size...so they take more space on my cards than on hers. But actually this is something that makes my cards more "me" - so I very much like that.

On card No. 2 I ran out of chit chat stickers, so I replaced one word with a stamped one...and think it looks really cool!

This time I managed to work with glitter and NOT having it all over my clothes and place afterwards. What a lucky moment! LOL

I had a wonderful time at my crafting desk stamping, smearing and smudging distress paints, markers, inks and stains, glueing and tearing and working with textures...be assured: my hands did almost look like another finished card afterwards (having glue, scraps of torn bookpages, glitter and paint on them all over...due to a forgotten spot of still wet black acrylic paint on a black piece of craft sheet which I use a palette;).

Thanks for visiting!
Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia x

3 ATCs inspired by "52 Card Pick Up"

I only recently joined the "52 Card Pick Up" online class from Stephanie Ackerman as I really adore her special design she uses on her 52 cards filled with encouraging sentiments to guide you through a year.

I haven't started my 52 cards yet but gave the technique a first try to create a series of 3 ATCs using Tim Holtz goodness only along with Stephanie's technique.

I loved playing with tissue wrap, tissue tape, alpha parts, journaling tickets, glue, Tim Holtz stamps, distress paints and stains and distress markers!

Hope you like them! Thanks for visiting!
Hugs,
Claudia x

Tim Holtz Tin Tutorial

Good morning everyone!

I only recently prepared a tutorial using Tim Holtz stuff only. It originally was meant for a different blog but things angled off so I am able to share it with you right now.

I had a plain tin with ATCs in it and decided it finally was time for it to be altered. I started with my beloved alcohol inks and gave my tin a coat of "Juniper", "Sunset Orange", "Terracotta", "Stream" and  "Salt Blue Ocean".

Then I went through my Tim Holtz stuff looking for the perfect idea-ology for embellishing and found the beautiful ornate bookplates which were just perfect. Once I had it as my center piece I knew what to do with its "surroundings".

I used Distress embossing ink and Ranger embossing powders "old paper" and "rust" to stamp and heat emboss a harlequin border to both sides - leaving the middle for the ornate bookplate, who was given a treatment with both embossing powders too.

For the panel that was to fit the book plate I stamped only part of a Tim Holtz "Way with words" stamp with Ranger jet black archival ink.

To do so I inked the stamp and then wiped off all the ink around the word I wanted to use. 

I then marked the size of the panel with a pencil so it would fit with the book plate. When cutting it out I added some additional 2 mm width on all sides (so I could glue the panel behind the plate once it was finished).

After that I blended my stamped panel with Distress ink "Vintage photo" to tone it down. 

It was then given three coats of clear UTEE which I cracked once it had hardened. 

To make the cracks more visible I squished in some Distress stain "brushed corduroy".

Now my panel was ready to be glued behind the ornate bookplate. 

 To fix the bookplate to the tin's lid I had to punch two holes for the brads, which I used a nail and a hammer for. I set the lid on top of my bench vice and saw to it that the nail could go right through on the other side.

Once my bookplate was fixed to the lid with the brads I was done! I hope you like it! As I love altering tins I had great fun turning it into a tiny treasure (ATC) box. Thank you for visiting and enjoy the close ups: