Inspiration Found - CD Baby Album

  One of my CTMs created this adorable recycled from CDs Baby Album so I thought I would share with you.  Angela is an awesome Hybrid Scrapper and it never ceases to amaze me what she creates.  You can find many of her hybrid digiscrap tutorials on her Tutorial Blog as Toucan Scraps.

She created the digital papers and the real life elements herself after taking my Building Color Confidence Class at ReneePearson.com this spring.  She also used Angie Young's Butterfly and my floral stamps on a few of her papers.

Beautiful work Angela! Thank you for sharing with us!

Credits: Art Journal Bits - Splats Set 2 By Angie Young

Artist's Tool Box 03 By Cilenia Curtis

Today Is The Day

Good morning, Sherry here to show you a wonderful layout from Cilenia's gallery.  As you know, the Follow Your Art designers have released their second FYA kit for May, with the theme of Journey.  Sabrina took pieces from the kits of all 3 designers to create this powerful layout called Today Is The Day:

This layout is visually striking before you even read her journaling.  The journaling is a masterpiece in itself (click to see a larger version that is more easily readable).  I believe Sabrina added the horse silhouette, and I love how she has blended the word Journey into his chest - that gives us a great visual of the type of Journey Sabrina speaks of here.  The color palette is so peaceful and serene, and I love the bird silhouette - another great visual making the point of the layout.  Sabrina is a wonderful artist and writer and she has put those talents to great use here to create this layout that really shines!

You can get Cilenia's Follow Your Art Journey bundle here:

That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with a Photoshop tip for you!

New Art - New LO - Last day of NSD sale tomorrow!

When I scrapped all paper long ago, I loved getting all artsy on my backgrounds to ground and matte my photos and add inspirational script writing that was faint, but gave an artsy effect too.  Of course, I did this with real inks and paints... but now you can do it too with my digital Scribbles and Scripts!

Here is a layout I made using my latest mini kit Scribbles & Scripts along with my Follow Your Art - Hope - Bundle. And of course, my favorite little smiling face Miss Bailey as she was telling me she was ready to play in the Art Studio! Her enthusiasm and love for playing in art never ceases to amaze me! You are true happiness!

Here is a preview of my latest kit on sale now through Wednesday.

And don't forget!  Tuesday is the last day of our iNSD sale at Digitals!

My entire shop here is on sale and these prices won't last!

Camera mini album Cuteness!

OMG!  This is soooo cute I just had to share this!  This is one album that absolutely would belong on a coffee table to display!  Awesome idea for all your photography lovers!

Front

Caroline has a whole tutorial on how to create this on her blog!

cannycrafter: Camera mini album cuteness!

Friendship

Good morning!  Sherry here to bring you a bit of inspiration from Cilenia's gallery.  Today we are going to look at a great layout created using Cilenia's Follow Your Art May - Strength bundle.  It was created by mystampin, and it's called Friendship:

I love the concept of strength through friendship - friends are definitely a huge source of strength to us all, in fact our friendships even help determine how long we will live.  Beth has really outdone herself in the creation of this page.  She took the Strength title from one of the papers in this kit, which looks wonderful.  But the stars of her page are the two friend dolls!  Such creativity reflected here!  She used a brush for the doll's faces, and the hair comes from brads that are in Cilenia's kit.  What a great use of tags to create their bodies, and I love the string that binds them together, with such strength.  And backing them up with mats really makes them stand out even more.  Beth put a lot of thought into this layout, with the result being a spectacular page, perfect for art journaling.

You can get Cilenia's Follow Your Art May - Strength bundle here:

Be sure to stop by and pick up this bundle today - it's 33% off today, so it's a great time to buy!

Hope Springs Eternal

Hi - Sherry here to show you a beautiful layout in Cilenia's gallery at Digitals!  Today's layout uses Cilenia's Follow Your Art - Hope bundle.  It's by mystampin, and it's called Hope Springs Eternal:

This art journaling layout is just fabulous!  Beth created the paper doll using papers from Cilenia's bundle - isn't she so precious, in her Hope skirt and her arms raised up in joy?  I love the printed word ephemera blocks she's used on top of the background, and the word art ribbon at the bottom makes a great platform for Ms. Hope to stand on!  The color choices for this layout are so serene, it feels very peaceful to look at.  Beth also notes that she used 3 elements from A Moment In Time by Aria - the rocking chair, the shuttered window and the single blue flowers.

You can get Cilenia's Follow Your Art Hope bundle here:

Just think of all the wonderful "hope" layouts  you could create!

Awake at Dawn

Good morning!  Sherry here, and today I am showing you a wonderful layout from Cilenia's gallery.  It's called Awake at Dawn, by judyinsd, and it uses Cilenia's Follow Your Art Hope kit:

Dawn is such a powerful symbol of hope, the dawning of a new day that is a blank canvas for us to paint anything we want.  Judy's pictures are perfect illustrations of that concept - we can see here that even through the clouds, hope shines through.  Her background layering adds so much interest to this layout, as well as the layering of elements and paper circles/strips behind her photos.  She chose to use the "dream" word art, which puts the finishing touch on this beautiful piece of art.  What a great use of Cilenia's kit Judy has given us!

You can get Cilenia's Follow Your Art - Hope bundle here:

That's all for today, I'll be back tomorrow with a new Photoshop tip!

Lovely In Lilac

Hi everyone!  Sherry here!  Today we are going to see a beautiful layout using Cilenia's new Lovely in Lilac kit.  It is by Aria (Lynne):

I absolutely love Cilenia's color palette for this kit, the contrast between the purples and greens is wonderful.  And Lynne's layout is also wonderful!  As complicated as it looks, Cilenia's kit actually contains so many diverse elements that a layout like this can be created easily (although still requiring the talent exhibited by Lynne here!).  The layered background papers are provided in the kit, and also the dragonfly cluster.  The smaller paper that is underneath Lynne's picture is another piece that comes straight out of the kit.  So see, Cilenia has given us shortcuts to creating amazing beauty.  I love this picture that Lynne has used.  She journaled about being the "stiff" dancer, but she doesn't look stiff here, she looks like she's ready to take off like the bird in the tag she has chosen, I think.  Beautiful layout, beautiful kit!

You can get Lovely in Lilac here:

That's all for today, see you next week!

Coming of Age

Hi, Sherry here again to bring you something wonderful from Cilenia's gallery!  This layout was created using Cilenia's Follow Your Art - Explore bundle.  It's by judyinsd and is called Coming of Age:

Judy's layout is really interesting.  She has these wonderful vintage pictures and knows the story that goes with them, telling that story so well with her journaling.  Cilenia's Explore bundle has the perfect pieces to make Judy's layout outstanding.  The rich red in the background paper really makes her photos stand out well.  The compass in the top corner is part of the paper, so that detail has already been taken care of for you.  Judy has done a great job also with layering papers behind the pictures and anchoring them with the brads - those brads bring a very realistic look to this layout.  This is a wonderful memory to treasure, and shows us that exploring works in learning about the past, as well as learning about the future.

Here's the link to Cilenia's Follow Your Art April Explore bundle:

Your own explorations are waiting to be documented with the new FYA Explore!

It doesn't stay clean very long! Playing in the Studio.

The Art /Sewing Studio back in the loft finally! YEA!  Had to close the shutters to take the photo! lol Bright light! But perfect for doing artwork.


Sorry, the bright sunlight drowned out my windows.. I have my antique blue and rose bottles up there and they looked so sweet too.


Within minutes…..
"I'M READY NANA!  See... I have my Tim Holtz apron on even!"


So we thought we'd do some canvas art today.
We were inspired by Donna Downey's latest March's Canvas Create project.  Yes I'm a member and subscribe and LOVE IT!  I don't like pom poms so we made our own rolled fabric flowers instead.

We ripped our strips of fabric to about 1 1/2" wide.  I WISH I had Baileys Mama taking a video of this… she giggled so hard doing this ripping she almost fell off the stool! LOL
We used Mod Podge to 'glue' our fabric to our our canvas in strips and wrapped the ends around to the back.
Then began our color mixing with a blue and green and added just a touch of black to get a deep teal shade.  We dry brushed the whole piece putting a little heavier coat around edges making sure we stoked up and down to catch the torn fabric edges.  Hind site… I almost wish we had not glued the fabric so well and left a little more of the edges loose.  Next one. ;)  We also added some spray dye to our colors to brighten up the teal-blue we liked and used it directly too as we worked.   Home made spray dye from powered Rit Dye very strong.


We rolled fabric roses and made stems from old book pages for our canvas too and tacky glued them down to the canvas.  We did paint on the fabric roses with some of the deep red paint we had so it matched perfectly.  Just spray the fabric rose with a little water before brushing on the paint to make it soak into the fabric.

Then we just started to paint and platter and plat colors!  We added the deep red to match our flowers with some drippage on the top corner.  We like drippage! LOL (as Bailey giggles again as we do.)

 We printed one of my fav quotes and Miss Bailey cut that up into strips and glued down again using Mod Podge with a light coating over it so it had a film in case we wanted to wipe any paint off of while we worked.  The paper was a little to white for our liking so we added some white washing around the strips to blend it in better and even did a light wash of color over the strips of paper too.  Perfect in our opinion.  Then we plattered (thank goodness the table was covered in craft paper and we had on aprons! LOL But the craft paper splatters will be added to later and cut up and used in another project I'm sure.

This is my Miss Bailey being so happy we finally got to play in paints again!  She of course had to use up all the mixed paint when we were done with our canvas.  See the fabric strips in front of scissors?  Into the scrap bin they go for another project I'm sure. :)


So this is what we made today. :)  Need to take a better photo with a flash. :) The red in the roses is not as dark as this appears.  "Hmmmm maybe those flower need a button in the middle?" says Miss Bailey.  Kid after my own heart. :)  Love buttons!
Should be completely dry and ready to hang when she comes back over tomorrow. :D

Daily Download as Featured Artist at Digitals

Hi there everyone!  Happy Spring! Now you will see why I've been SO busy! We just finished Week 1 of our Building Color Confidence and the students are rocking the house with all kinds of awesome color inspirations.  Can't wait to see what they do with week 2 Lessons!  You can still register and catching up will be easy and I'm always available for you if you have questions. _______ The Art Studio is finally moved back up to the loft! I promise to share photos as soon as everything is organized and put in it's place.  Whew! That was a job. Can't wait to start playing again, been a few weeks.  _______ Starting today through April 13th, I am the Featured Designer at Digitals. Free Daily Download of my "Shades of Blue" Page Kit for next 14 days in my Shop here.   WIN my new Explore Kit Don't forget to SHARE THE LOVE! And for all who do share and mention @cilenia on Twitter or share and tag me on Facebook, I will be giving away TWO (2) of my newest Bundle FYA Explore! Deadline is April 5th and then I will randomly draw the winners and announce on my Blog.  If you already bought the kit, then I will send you a gift certificate to use as you wish.  I have a few mini add-ons for Shades of Blue too.  It's themed with a spring fresh and clean look and style like I usually end up doing this time of year but a little artsy flair added of course.  Some absolutely beautiful layouts from my team below and in my Gallery! Wow, these girls ROCKED this!  I will also be releasing my April Follow Your Art Kit called Explore on Monday.  Sneak Peak in the side menu! Layout Inspirations Layouts from my Team for my latest Shades of Blue Kits See all the Layouts in My Gallery at Digitals Connect with Me   Where else to find me Selling my Original Art at my Etsy Shop Blogging Here I sell my Digital Art at Digitals Teaching at RP.com For Charity Art Aid Follow your art by follwing your heart and buying our sampler for funding Art Room Aid Projects for only $2. Thank you for your contribution to these very worthy causes!  Learn and Grow Using Digi Elements for Hybrid Blog Inspiration Sneak Peak Explore Layout from one of my awesome team members Judy! Shades of Blue Previews Page Kit Embellishements Add-On Quick Pages Add-On Interested in joining our awesome Team?  Does our art excite you?   Do you like to play with Art? Do you like to share your creations on several sites?   Are you socially active?   We are always in search of awesome new team members and we have extra perks more than most teams out there. We share all of our knowledge in a private group and teach design principles too privately. We are a fun, supportive group with some really awesome members! We are looking for: Creative Layout Designers Creative Writers to help our blog writer Sherry and/or create digi or hybrid mini tutorials too. Marketing Members - Social Butterflies wanted for FB and Twitter and answer ISO threads. Team is for all three Designers, Aria, Angie Young and myself. Send me an email to cileniac@yahoo.com letting us know what you'd be interested in doing with us and I will send you the info on how to apply.   This will not be an open call, but if you know someone who would compliment our art well, feel free to forward the information. No current digital designers will be accepted at this time please.