Inspiration Exists ~ Black and Pink Mixed Media Canvas

I am excited to show you a mixed media canvas piece I have created as a Guest for my old friends over at Southern Ridge Trading Co.!! This canvas was super fun to make and the products from SRTC are ALL PERFECT for creating this type of art! Here's how I was inspired and I'll tell you abit of *HOW* below!
Some lucky friends of mine recently posted their gorgeous creations they learned in a *Finnabair* Inspired class and I was GREEN with envy that I was unable to attend (it was at our favorite Clipper Street store which is a 6 hour drive each way drive from my home!)... but I was inspired at least to give it a shot myself and I was actually able to come up with something I LOVED! (I usually take a very different turn sometime after I begin lol) But this time I persevered thru the *Ugly* stages and now I am UBER happy!

I started with a couple of ideas in my head. One, I REALLY wanted to do this black and pink glitter type art piece, TWO, I had a plan to use a smaller canvas on top of a bigger one along with some of my old messed up brushes (I NEVER throw these away!! So many cool new things for them to become after they're done painting for me!), and THREE This Picasso Quote NEEDS to be put in my studio to kick my ass! And so I started!! 

First thing I did was turn to my box of chippy goodness from SRTC and I found this awesome honey comb pattern, then after adding my paint brushes and some Prima goodness I added some random flower shapes and then I added lots of other paper flowers (which SRTC also sells at crops when they are set up!) These shapes and the molding paste and stencils create so much texture and interest in your art even tho it's all painted the same colour! It really is fun. Now... I'd love to tell you how every single thing is done here...but I can't give away ALL the secrets! Watch for a class with me tho on making something just like this..... ;)

The canvas that is the focal point of the piece I wanted to be one of my own drawings and represent me...which, of course, had to include coffee and cats... cause that's what runs in my veins and lives in my heart. It's also the focus of alot of my art! haha I also wanted the painting to look *in progess* without looking unfinished... if that makes sense, so instead of painting it with acrylics I used my Staedler Karat Watercolour crayons (AWESOME!!!) to paint my cat and mug.

Theres my sideways photos again......grrrr .... I really have to figure out how to fix that!

Now... I didnt know what the theme of the challenge was over at SRTC when I started this project (YES!!! They have started monthly challenges!!! SWEET!) so it's not really eligible for entry.... BUT if you are thinking of trying out some SRTC chipboard.. (and that's not even a REQUIREMENT!!!) make sure you pop over to their blog and join in on the fun!!

SPRING CHALLENGE!!!!

Oh and make sure you are a member of their Facebook Group as well HERE!!!

Memories Shadowbox Layout ~ Upcoming Workshop I will be Teaching

 I am back again, today with a scrapbook project!! I know! Be still my heart! I LOVE scrapbooking, it really is dear to my heart, I should make a point of doing it more as I have thousands of photos in NEED of special treatment and it's good to look at memories. Since I have been talking with the Dollar Dollar (looking for a new name) craft store here in Williams Lake, I am going to be starting to teach some scrapbook projects and this is the first, we are just waiting for some product to come in for us to pick a date.

Sorry for the glare of the glass, I should have taken the photos out of the frame but... once it was in there I didn't want to fight taking it back out and possibly wreck something. This will be a fun class chock full of some of my favorite techniques in scrapbooking as well as some of my favorite supplies. Papers are from the awesome BoBunny Rose Cafe, there are elements from Prima and Faber Castle and of course the always FABULOUS Southern Ridge Trading Co!!!! Who also have started challenges on their blog and I will be entering again over there and I hope you will too! ANYTHING GOES!! And you don't even need their chipboard! I thought I'd taken a close up of their title piece, Memories is a SRTC product and it has been covered in Perfect Pearls.

I will keep you posted on when we pick a date for the class but let me and the store know if you are interested in this class and other's like it!!!

I will have it at the Dollar Dollar store this week and you can go check it out in person.

I always have assistance while I work!! lol Here is Brad's cat Pilchard supervising!!!

Love and Laundry Canvas Class

 Hey crafty friends! I have been teaching alot more lately and I LOVE IT! I have always enjoyed teaching and as I start to feel stronger I am getting out to teach fun mixed media classes such as this one. I had and have a few dates where I had been asked to teach and so I sat down to decide on and make up a fun canvas that wouldn't be too costly to make at some weekend crops and I knew I wanted to use this quote I'd seen on Pinterest of course! I wasn't completely sure how I was gonna do it but I knew I wanted to change up how I did the back ground and I wanted a *spring-like* feel to it. When I walked into my favorite scrappy store *Clipper Street* in Langley and saw this Dovecraft paper pack the entire canvas just came to me! I LOVE IT when it happens that quickly! haha as I have mentioned before, creating is not always an *easy* process for me and it can be almost painful at times...this was not one of those times and it was a breath of fresh air!!! Just like in the SPRING!! haha

Now I am teaching this class at a couple more events so I wont give you TOO many details. If you are interested in having me come teach for you, please feel free to contact me at graphicat creations (all one word) at gmail dot com.

I will post some more details for you, a few pics of the process, after I am done with the last class.
Talk to you soon and thank you for looking!!!

It Takes a BIG Heart Mixed Media Canvas

Helloooooooo!!! **I swear I can hear an echo in here** lol
So awhile back it was a dear friend of mines birthday and I'd been saving a quote in mind for something for her when I was finally able to make something for her! I promised myself awhile back that I would eventually make every one of my dear friends one of my canvas wall hangings, and it was Marianne's turn. :) I of course... left it to the last minute and well, lol ... I worked on it right up till the minute I had to leave for our monthly girls birthday lunch! It was still wet in places when I gave it to her!!!! haha!! So... I did not get a chance to photograph it before I gave it to her. So this past weekend when some of us got together again to do alittle crafting I asked her to bring it along so I could finally take a picture of it and post it on here for all to see!!!

Marianne is a teacher of little ones, and if you KNOW me IRL you know that I admire anyone who can surround themselves with other peoples children all day and not go stark raving mad (or maybe they already are.... wink wink) Anyhow, I found this quote on Pinterest of course... cause I LOVE PINTEREST... follow me here if you like it too?!?!? and knew I had to save it for Marianne.

It takes a Big Heart and alot of coffee, to teach little minds

OK so I may have added the coffee part myself... but you get the idea. hehe I found that postcard/vintage photo in some epherma I got from Limor Webber when I took one of her classes last fall, then I searched around my studio for various items one might find in a classroom like the pencils and crayons. I just LOVE making drips with my hot glue gun so I made some melting crayon.

 Now... does anyone else have this problem a lot ^^^ pictures that save sideways?? I know I rotated them in my editing software and they are saved upright but when I import them here or in FB they turn themselves back over... any advice on how to fix this? It happens almost every single time now for me.....

.... a lot!! ugh! OK... so... did you also know that my old buddies over at Southern Ridge Trading Co are now hosting monthly challenges?!?!? They are!!! I am so excited for them! And since I have used some cool, fancy stars on this canvas I am going to enter this over there on their first Anything Goes challenge!!! You should too!!!  Ok... I'm gonna fly off now and see what kind of art stuff I can get into today! :)

Happy Crafting friends!

Art Journal Entry ~ Big Cups!

Hello bloggers! I have been posting alot on FaceBook and I really need to spread myself out some on the various social networks and blogging. I have been with Google + for awhile now and I will have to fix some of my links on the side bar here. I will post some of them in this post for you as well at the end. I just wanted to jump on here and share my latest art journal entry. This wasn't for life book, it was just for me, for fun. :) LOng time ago I started watching Vicki from Clips and Cuts art journal videos (if you don't know who Im talking about you MUST check her stuff out!) and well I just wanted to do something sort of in her style. So I reverted back to my favorite theme in my art and that is COFFEE of course! haha

I started with the awesome new Prima paper pads Jodi Lee Butterfly Collection. These papers are not only stunning, but I swear are made for us collage loving mixed media artists!! I loved this one of course as it was full of tea cups and pretty scripts and flowers, Stunning really. I have used them in the background as well as I drew and cut out the cups and the letters on this paper.

Im not sure how everyone else is when they are creating but sometimes the process for me is almost painful! I get stuck, hate where things are going, agonize over colours and ugh.. sometimes it takes so long as I hate the work almost all the way thru and refuse to give up!! And while this one started that way abit, after I put the background down and used some TH Stencils for the damask texture I just stopped and was worried this was going to be another one of *those* type pages. But then I went to work on it yesterday and it just flowed freely! Much like the coffee pouring out of the cups! And now I'm really happy about it and I think I will turn this one into a canvas soon. (right now I have 2 other paintings on the go and some classes to design FIRST!)

Now I took some other photos of this, close ups of each page, but I have a really tough time with Blogger lately rotating my photos on their side... Anyone else have this issue? I will resave them over and over trying to get the file right but... I don't know what I am doing wrong. I will post them on the following social sites if you wanna check them all out!

Graphicat Designs FaceBook Page

Cheri on Google ++

GraphicatStamps on INSTAGRAM

I will post my YouTube for you later when it's got something cool to look at! lol

Thanks for being here!

Cheri

Upcoming Mixed Media Class

So as I am healing I am not only getting more and more creative, but I've started teaching again. I taught the little ART canvas (see previous post) at a local fundraising crop for the Womens Shelter here in town. I am working out some classes to begin teaching at our local Dollar craft store starting the beginning of March and this mixed media canvas I am teaching at another fundraising crop coming up in 2 weeks. I really enjoy teaching and I'm excited to get started again. I will also be making youTube videos with tips, techniques and just fun artsy stuff! Stay tuned!!!

OK... so this fun little flower pot is SO fun to make! You get nice and dirty playing with collage, gellatoes, whipped spackle and stamps... we're using them all and more!

After the class is finished I will post a youTube video on how to make this as well as provide a template for you all to print and use to cut out the above shapes if you're not confident in your drawing abilities. I just loved this saying I found for it as well, it's symbolic to me right now as I'm hoping the Spring to my long winter is arriving and I can grow out of the *dirt* and bloom again. It's been a tough haul.

I'm really glad you stopped by here, please, let me know if you're interested in my teaching anywhere. Or just any questions you might have in general.

Happy creating peeps!!!

ART Board class

Hello crafty peeps! I'm back with a post about this fun mixed media class I taught recently at a local Fundraising crop here in Williams Lake. This class was fun and I think everyone enjoyed getting their fingers inky and learning a few new tricks! As I am feeling better I am starting to teach more and more, stay tuned this week for some dates and info on my upcoming classes here at Dollar Dollar in Williams Lake! I will be starting with a Mixed Media class and then a scrapbook class!

So below, in my favorite colour pink...of course! Is a little reminder to myself to just create..stop over thinking everything! Are you guilty of this? staring at a blank page or canvas ... like you're about to bungee jump?? Oh! I get SO MAD at myself! lol Recently I was in a class by the FABULOUS Ms. Dina Wakley and she said something that really hit me (in fact I think it will be the title of my next canvas!) she said *They will ALWAYS make more paper!* Right?? how friggin obvious is that? What does it matter? rip it out, gesso over it, give it to the kids to use, line the dog crate... whatever! Just don't worry so much! Ugh! 

So there are the usual layers under here, some texture paste, drywall tape, lace, ribbons... the I've layered some beat up paint brushes and pencils in a little bundle and abit of chipboard shapes (some from my favorite Canadian laser cut chipboard place Southern Ridge).

Then we covered it all with a light coating of gesso, (I say light as I like some of the colour of the items underneath to show thru) And we began to spray and spritz with various glimmer sprays from Lindy's Stamp Gang.

The shiny frame in the centre ART was made with some fun frames from Maya Road, the inside peice we used some collage paper as a background, I wrote out the word ART with some liquid pearls and then when it dried I filled in the centre with some glossy accents! It looks like glass or water... LOVE IT!

OK! So as I said earlier I am going to be making some youtube videos and I will make another one of these quick little boards for you to watch and give it a try.

Please, let me know if you're interested in any classes or lessons. Even if it's just a few of your friends, lets make a date to get together! Email me at graphicat @ gmail dot com for more info!!

Ciao For Now!!!

Happy creating!