I was delighted when Paloma invited me to be a guest designer at the Scrapidées blog! Here's the sketch I drew: And here's my layout: I stuck pretty closely to the sketch (which, when it's your sketch tends to happen). Check out the details: I did some Copic airbrushing through a doily (with yellow, orange, and red) to create the doily pattern on the background. The journaling was typed up on a typewriter. I painted the raw chipboard letters with gold paint and then tied long blue embroidery floss bows through them. If you look at the photos, the dominant... Read more →

Join me in the FREE online classroom today! We'll be making these three layouts... ...in just two hours! Don't you want to learn how to make this awesome birthday cupcake? There will be lots of machine sewing tips! And paint splats will happen! Come explore the magic of white-on-white. Join me for this FREE online class TODAY at 2pm EST. Hope to see you there! Read more →

For Pencil Line's 4th birthday, we were allowed to choose any sketch from those four years. This is sketch #170: And my interpretation: To me, sketches are an opportunity to go wild and let my imagination soar within the safe confines of good design. I used gesso to white out a spot in the intensely patterned paper, stamped over it and then used washi tape to secure my photos. I couldn't get the paint color quite right. Four layers of paint later, I'm quite happy with the teal! Painting these words was a last minute decision, but I think they... Read more →

I have only been with Pencil Lines since January, but the site has been rocking for FOUR years! The site has had over 200 amazing guest designers! Today (Sunday, October 17) we are celebrating the four year mark with sketches past and present. Each member of the design team has chosen a sketch from the archives, and will be sharing why they love sketches so much. On the hour, every hour from 8am GMT, a sketch will be posted along with a RAK from one of our sponsors. That is a lot of prizes and a lot of inspiration! At... Read more →

We've reached day three. My final guest design projects for Hambly. I just want to thank Allison for inviting me to play. I had a ton of fun! My first real passion in the crafting world was jewelry making. So I decided to play around with some Hambly transparencies and papers and see what I could come up with. I made five sets of earrings: Not only are they super cute, but they're lightweight and so comfortable to wear that you hardly notice you're wearing earrings! (I accidentally slept in the third pair down. Didn't realize I was still wearing... Read more →

Day two of my Hambly Guest Design gig. I've got some scrapbook layouts and a blank journal for you. Lots of layers of paper, vellum, and transparencies make up the background. (Thanks go to my brother for taking these photos.) I used a combination of regular straight stitches and this fun "star" decorative stitch. I painted the border on the journaling spot and the title is hand cut. Lots more hand cut letters. Both these little letters and the big "colorful" are hand cut. I reverse painted part of the flower transparency. I love the way it turned out! I... Read more →

I am totally tickled, thrilled, and delighted to be Hambly's guest designer this month! I made a whole bunch of stuff and I'm going to share it in three parts. First up, some adorable treat bags! As you can see, each bag is lined with colorful paper and full of candy! Check them out in detail: There are a ton of butterflies on this bag, courtesy of the Martha Stewart triple butterflly punch. I tried to create a lot of dimension by using foam adhesive to pop some of them up. I cut the sentiment with an exacto knife, outlined... Read more →

Art Journaling Week was so fantastic that I've decided to host another week long blog party. As you can see from the banner above, it's called "Holidays Handmade." For the week of December 6-12 I'll be sharing crafty holiday projects of all kinds. Here's where you come in: I'm seeking guest bloggers. I'm looking for tutorials on: crafty gifts to give memory keeping during the holidays homemade decorations unique holiday recipes ideas for gift wrapping last minute quickie gift ideas cards and anything else you can think of that is craft+holiday I'm hoping that Holidays Handmade Week will include all... Read more →

For my next Live With Prima class (one week from today, Monday the 18th) we'll be making these three layouts... ...in just two hours! And do you see the common theme? That's right! They're all white! Official class description: Explore the color white! In just two hours we will create three amazing layouts that use white-on-white. Some machine sewing, some paint splatters, a little bit of creativity, and lots of tips and tricks for putting beautiful layouts together in no time at all! Take a closer look: Join me for this FREE online class on October 18, 2010 at 2pm... Read more →

I wanted to play along with this week's challenge on the Studio Calico blog: Create a project using a grid design. I kind of love the way it turned out. Simple, simple, just photos and story. The title was stamped and colored with watercolor paints. Each of the journaling squares was stamped with a number stamp, using very light colored ink, and then I painted the photo squares with orange watercolor paint. Here's what the layout looked like before I added the photos: I almost didn't want to put the photos on! It just looked so darn cool like this!... Read more →