ponderings

Stampotique Guest Designer

Thrilled to be the guest for Stampotique this month! You can read more about it here...

The little girl stamp I used on this is one of my faves...I know I use it a lot, but I can't get enough of it.

Jenni Bowlin & Ranger projects...

I'm back from CHA...it was a quick trip. My favorite thing about CHA is meeting people and seeing friends. I've got some more teaching gigs lined up (hello Toronto, Boston, and Baltimore!). Plus some others in the works...yay.

Thought I'd share the projects I made for the Jenni Bowlin wall of the Ranger booth. Jenni's product line has really wonderful ink pads and acrylic paint dabbers. I combined those with her new release (perforated papers and an alpha stencil....be still my beating heart!). Love.

 

Samples I made with the NEW Dyan Reaveley stencils & inks...

Oh, how I love my friend Dyan Reaveley. She's one of my most favorite people on the planet. I'm *so* thilled that her new signature line with Ranger Ink is being released at CHA this weekend! The line includes new stamps, spray inks in bright colors (be still my beating heart!), and fabulous stencils. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to play, but I did manage to eek out a few projects...

I am seriously inky today...

I am seriously inky today...

Because every technical writer loves a bulleted list...

• I've had a few questions about my online classes. We are sooo close to getting my old classes up on my website. We're hoping to have them up by February. My hubby is actually waiting on me to get down to the city offices and make sure I'm "legal" for selling classes. Make sure you join my newsletter...I'll announce when they are up and also have a "grand opening" discount.
• New classes...I have lots of plans for new classes. However, they are on hold a bit because...
• I am writing a book! I am literally in the studio for 12+ hours a day. So right now, that's taking all my time. But never fear...new classes are on the to-do list right after "submit final manuscript."
• Will you be at CHA? Come and say hi...I will be in the JBS booth on Sun & Mon mornings. On Monday from 1 to 3 pm, I'll be demoing in the Crafter's Workshop booth. Then on Tuesday, I'll be back home and working on the book!

February Class at The Occasional Artist...

I'm repeating some of my popular classes from the last year or so at The Occasional Artist. Next up: Encasutic Tag Book. This is a fun & easy class...it's so fun to work with Beeswax! Call the store directly (623.847.2215) to sign up.

Encaustic Tag Accordion Book

Saturday, February 25, 2012

10:30 am - 1:30 pm

 At The Occasional Arist

Come and play with stamping and beeswax. We’ll make six encaustic tags (acrylic paint, spray ink, modeling paste, beeswax…oh my!). The tags will go in an accordion book structure. Beeswax is fun and addictive...come and play!

 Supplies Students Need to Bring:

--Standard crafting tool kit (scissors, paint brushes, pencil, etc.)
--White acrylic gesso
--Gel medium
--Acrylic paint in your favorite colors
--A small collection of collage papers & fabrics that appeal to you. I will bring my box of papers, but your project will be more personal if you use papers & fabrics that you like.
--Any of your favorite stamps. I will bring an large assortment for class use, but bring any that you like as well.
--Black ink pad. I use an Archival black pad by Ranger, and will bring several for class use.
--OPTIONAL If you have an encaustic iron, please bring it. I will have 3 for class use, but if you have your own, you won’t have to wait in line.

My mess today...

Utter chaos! There's a desk under there somewhere...

A face for this holiday Monday...

Felt like painting last night while I was watching the Golden Globes...this is the result. I traced my face to use as a template (but wasn't trying to make a self-portrait). I have to say, I have a big nose. heh.

Just pushing color around...

I'm just pushing color around on my pages...using a favorite silhouette. I've been sick + CHA assignments + another big project = stressed out me. So it feels good just to move color around & not worry about it turning out good. Have a happy, artful Friday!

A flair for buttons...

My sweet friend Shelley Haganman made these buttons for me...they're an image from my artwork, and then she also put my new website on them (dinawakley.com). How fun is that??

Check out Shelley's "A Flair for Buttons" blog and Etsy shop. Seriously cute stuff! Thanks, Shelley!

Fella #3 took this picure of me on Saturday...he thought it was so funny that I had black paint up to my elbows, yet couldn't explain *how* I had ended up with black paint up to my elbows.

See that massive file in the background that is exploding with stuff? That's my "unfinished/warm up" box...where I put stuff I've started & might need another time. Me thinks I need a bigger box, eh?

Getting carried away today...

I've been in the studio all day...spent the morning prepping for my PanPastels demo at The Occasional Artist tomorrow (from 11 am to 1 pm...come say hi!). I'll be demoing backgrounds, stamping, and a bit of drawing.

I've also been going a bit nuts playing with Jenni Bowlin reinkers...so fun! I've been using up scraps of watercolor paper that I had leftover from other projects. They're great for my inky experiments.

Have you been able to play lately & just see what happens?

Answering a question about the tags...

I can't thank you enough for all of the positive emails & comments I've received regarding my video that was posted today in Nat's Creative Jumpstart 2012. It has been so uplifting & fun to read...thank you!!

Several people asked me where I buy my tags. I get them from Xpress Tags. They're a great company, I've always had really good service from them. I prefer the heavyweight tags over the standard manila ones. My favorite size is size 8...but I also buy size 6 and size 12 (and sometimes even bigger ones).

If you don't want to commit to an entire box of tags, Ranger makes great tags in various sizes. They're heavweight & wonderful to work with.

Let me know if I can answer any other questions! Happy creating!

ETA Answers to a few more questions!

The ink is Ranger's Adirondack Color Wash  and Maya Mist. Ranger colors I use constantly are: Sailboat Blue, Sunset Orange, Wild Plum, Lettuce, Butterscotch. Maya Mist colors I use constantly are: Green Apple, Fig Magenta Metallic, Lemon Metallic. Really you can't go wrong with ANY of the colors from both lines, they are all fabulous.

The little book that I wipe ink in is a 7 Gypsies notebook. They are called "Petit Carnet." The pages are a nice heavy manila, and they are a great size.

Haaaapy New Year! Lots of news & reminders...

Happy New Year! We've been working furiously behind the scenes to get my class page up and running. Well, let me clarify that. My husband has been working furiously...doing custom programming to make his artist wife happy. I will keep you updated...won't be long now and my classes will be up.

 

Local Class Info! Join Me for a Class!

The new book arts & stamping store, The Occasional Artist, in downtown Glendale will have its Grand opening on Saturday, January 7th. I will be in the store from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. doing demos with Pan Pastels...come and say hi!

By popular demand I am teaching my Introduction to Art Journaling class at The Occasional Artist on Saturday, January 21st from 10:30 am. to 1:30 p.m. Call the store (623.847.2215) to sign up. Please bring with you white acrylic gesso, paintbrushes, and acrylic paint. We'll be working on watercolor paper, but if you'd like to work in a journal, feel free to bring one. We'll cover making a simple background, adding images and layering with spray inks, and adding top texture and color. Join me!

 

21 Secrets Registration is Open!

Don't forget that registration for 21 Secrets starts today! There are some great artists participating...what a great gift to give yourself for the new year.

Click here to go to 21 Secrets.

 

Creative JumpStart Starts Today

Nat Kalbach's Creative Jump Start starts today...and my video is up first!  You can see it for free, but you do have to sign up first.

Here’s how it works:

• 1. Throughout January we will share videos, audio or pictures to inspire you.
• 2. You sign up for a newsletter HERE and, in January 2012, you will receive a link and the password to unlock the view of the daily materials as soon as they go live. (My video went live TODAY)
• 3. You watch the presentations and you will be hopefully inspired to be more creative—all for FREE!

Registration is almost open for 21 Secrets!

Don't forget that registration for 21 Secrets starts on January 2nd! There are some great artists participating...what a great gift to give yourself for the new year.

Click here to go to 21 Secrets.

It's Christmas Eve!

We're having fun here in sunny Arizona...listening to the soundtrack from Elf, making raspberry cheesecake & coconut cream pie (my faves!), and other holiday preparations. Tonight's dinner is Panko Shrimp, asparagus, & baked 'taters. Tomorrow we're having fennel & coriander glazed ham, potato gratin, veggies,  homemade rolls...yum. So...lots of cooking ahead, but I don't mind. It will be a delicious couple of days!

Remember that you can sign up for my newsletter here. I won't bombard you with emails, I promise! I'll keep you updated on class offerings as well as offer a few tips & tricks along the way.

Here's another page from this week. A few notes about this page:

• There was color on the background from previous "leftovers"...i.e. when I blot stencils, use up extra paint, etc. Often when I need to blot a stencil, I'll turn to a page in my journal & blot it. Later on when I get to that page, I've got something there to work with. Love it.
• I grabbed a pen & just wrote over the color...poured out what I needed to pour.
• I grabbed a tag from my "unfinished projects/warm ups" box and decided that it would be perfect on the page.
• I cut up another painty/inky tag to make the hearts. Easy peasy!

I am wishing you a wonderful holiday...be merry!

The page from my messy desk...

Remember this page? It was one of my "in progress" pages from my desk shot a couple of weeks ago. I finally finished it by adding green to the circles. That's all it needed, I thought. The colors on this page are amazing. I did the background with Fig Magenta Maya Mist and Lemon Metallic Maya Mist. I tell you, I love those two colors. Love. Love. Love. And when they mix, they turn a beautiful orange. I also used Purple Twilight Colorwash by Ranger to spray over the figure.

A few notes about this page:

• This is in my huge watercolor journal. The paper is extremely porous, so I did coat it with gesso.
• I sprayed the inks and then moved them around with a very watery paintbrush.
• I did the white text with a white Stabilo Marks All Pencil.
• I cut the silhouette from a magazine.

 

Journaling Deep with Samie Kira...

My friend Samie Kira has a new subscription-based inspiration newsletter, Journaling Deep. She also has super cute stamps, available from Paperbag Studios.

Here's more info about Journaling Deep:

Journaling Deep is a year-long email-based class for visual journalers. You can join at any point. And these notes will be delivered as PDFs, direct to your inbox, each Thursday for $10 a month.

They come not as a pre-planned series of boring posts, but a living, morphing diary of my own explorations and experimentation in my journal and artwork. When I become excited about something new, I share it with you.

I'll also be peppering in digital goodies like collage sheets & backgrounds, essays, observations, etc, to help keep your creative juice flowing. 

Since each little bit is delivered to your inbox, there's no searching around, going to a website, remembering log-in information -- it's all right there, at your fingertips, forever. Print them out and work on them later. Share photos of your journal pages. Get direction on something you're curious about. There's really no limit to the bursts of creativity we can create together. 

And all for the price of 2 lattes a month.

 

December is kicking my boo-tay...

I hope you are all having a great holiday season. December is a crazy month for me...two of my fellas have December bdays, as does my hubby. Plus our anniversary is in December, plus Christmas. Plus all of the end-of-year concerts, etc. Busy, busy!

I am journaling, though...will try to take more pics & share this week. I started painting this funky face today...still need to add text.

Are you finding time to make art this busy holiday season?

Creative Jump Start Summit 2012

The ever creative Nat Kalbach has masterminded the Creative Jump Start Summit 2012. I'm excited to be a part of it!

 

Nat says, "Here’s how it works:

• 1. Throughout January we will share videos, audio or pictures to inspire you.
• 2. You sign up for a newsletter HERE and, in January 2012, you will receive a link and the password to unlock the view of the daily materials as soon as they go live.
• 3. You watch the presentations and you will be hopefully inspired to be more creative—all for FREE!

So come on—get inspiration from some of the most creative people in the community."

Fun!

A journal quickie...

There was a pressing from a stencil in the very front of one of my new journals (If you've ever seen my spray ink video, you know I never ever waste ink...if I have an inky stencil, I always press it it onto a journal page, piece of cardstock, tag). I decided to simply write over it...voila, quick journal page.

Sometimes you  just need to get it out...express yourself and move on.

 

I've been digging through pictures...

to find images for the Portfolio section of dinawakley.com. I found this layout that I made for EntreArtistes magazine. Gosh, I love dyed cheesecloth. I need to use it way more often.

 

Don't forget you can join my newsletter. I promise I won't be too annoying...heh.