Crafts and Bloom Girls... What could be better?

A chance to win a free workshop, that's what!!

I am so excited to share with you a sneak of my first and upcoming workshop with Craftsy. They are such an amazing company and you will love this workshop. If you are just starting out in the art mediums world with will be a great workshop to start with.

I will be sharing how to get started with watercolor pencils and Copic markers. I will give you tips and techniques on how to use the mediums on your stamped images and how they can also work well together.

The workshop will be available September 28th but until then, go over and enter for your chance to win the workshop for free! You have until September 27th to enter.

Click HERE for your chance to enter.

Good luck and Happy Creating

love and kisses

Hey everyone!!! Sherry here with a look into my creative process!!! And sometimes the unexpected journey it sometimes takes me on. Have you ever been in the process of making a project and half way through you go"crap, I'm not liking how this looks". But, you're to far in to 'fix' it but also to far into it to toss it!!! Well, I started this layout thinking that it would be a 12x12 project. Then, as I was getting going I decided I didn't love it! So, instead of tossing it and starting new I figured out which parts I loved and worked around them!!

So all I want to say is believe in yourself and you talent! Trust the process and love what you create! Sometimes it has to go through a yucky stage before it becomes exactly what you hoped it would be:)

So here it is, flawed start and all!!

Step ONE

I found a nice soft textured patterned paper and pulled out two of my favorite Bloom Girl stamps! i positioned them so that when I started adding color they wouldn't bleed together to much! (You will see what I mean in the next step)
Once the black ink of the stamped images is dry I did a thin layer of clear gesso over the top of the entire layout. This will help in the following steps to prevent the paper from completely absorbing the inks and liquid.

Step TWO

Next up, my FAVORITE way to add fun color to any project, Magicals!! I selected a few shades of pink and a few shade of brown to create fun hair colors! Because I added the layer of clear gesso i could wipe color from where I didn't want it with ease while it was drying! I slowly added more and more layers till the color was what I wanted it to be!!

THEEEEEEEN I decided I HATED IT!!!!! I almost threw it out till my fiance came down, hearing my words of frustration, to see what the fuss was all about! He looked at it and agreed maybe the color combo wasn't right, but that the left side was awsome!!! So BOOM my direction changed and I cut the layout in half and added some fun stencilling with molding paste.

Step THREE

Oh how i love the intensity of a good spray! Once the molding paste was dry i sprayed the left and top edges with water to allow the spray to spread wherever it naturally wanted to flow. I unscrewed the top of the spray bottle and ran the end of the straw along the two edges of the project, then tilted it slightly to allow it to flow around the paste.

Step FOUR

then to soften the colors and brighten it up a bit, I added a bit more stencilling with white paste! (you'll notice in later pics that I actually ended up extending this further up and left then where it is here. Once my picture and a few embellies went down a lot of the paste texture disappeared)

Step FIVE

Next up, EMBELLIES!!!!! I pulled out my bowl of homeless flowers (I have a cute glass bowl on my workspace that I throw homeless items that don't have a package anymore!) and metal embellishments and started layering flowers and metal bits around where I knew I wanted my photo to be set.

Along the edges of the flowers and focal area I spread clear glass beads and allowed to dry completely.

Once the flower were secure and the beads were dry I dry brushed them all with white gesso. (tip: if you like the color of your embellishments and want some of it to show through, you could also use clear gesso. Or for a super fun look you can even use black gesso!)

Once dry I start sprinkling my selected Magicals over the gessoed areas! I continued to layer this till the vibrancy was there! fortunately because magcals are so pigment packed it didn't take to many layers!

Step SIX

All that was left was to pop dot the photo on and ta-da I have a fun 6x12 layout to display!
Here are a few close ups to check out a few more details!

Thank you so much for popping in! Remember, the supplies I used are just ones that I prefer and enjoy. But, if you like something else as home that you love use it, if you have something similar use it! I am always a fan of new goodies but sometimes we can't have it all! So dig into your stash, pull out some delish products and create! You don't have to have the exact things I use to create beautiful things!

Make sure to pop into my Blog, Facebook and Instagram for more inspiration, sneak peeks, tutorials and product reviews!
Thank you for popping in:) make sure to peek around at the other amazing projects by the DT!!

xoxo

Supplies
PRIMA:
Bloom Girl- Summer (#980160)
                     Metal Floral Embellishments (#980221)
                     Flowers (#575212)
Art Ingredients- light paste (#961404)
Flowers(#565251, #556945 and #577957)
Stencil- 'weaving' (#962333)

LINDY'S STAMP GANG
Magicals-(for the hair) Steam punk sepia, sandra dee sepia, steel shimmer
                (for the flowers) cheshire cat cherry, time travel teal and rusty lantern lime
Spray-flying monkey midnight

AMY TANGERINE
'Twins' thickers (#366837)

HEIDI SWAPP
Clear Pocket Cards (#369959)

Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo, Bloom Style!

Hi everybody! It's a Monday, not our regular schedule here at the Bloom Girls but it's Frida Kahlo's Birthday today so I asked permission to post on her day!  Recently I visited Mexico, what a beautiful country and of course I HAD to visit Casa Azul, her home/museum in the quaint city of Coyoacán, MX.

And being the scrapbooker that I am I had to create a journal/album to put all my photos and memorabilia. 

I thought it would be cool to do a Bloom project going back on Jamie's stamps all the way to the newest.

Jamie's stamps are so versatile they go anywhere and Boom, make it all better!

I'm also using the new Ranger's line of Dylusions acrylic paint because they match so well the vibrant palette of Mexico, I think Frida would approve... and Sandra Evertson Relics and Artifacts, because Frida would approve as well...

so come visit!

One of my favorite FK quotes

 "Feet what do I need you for, if I have wings to fly"

you are going to love what I used to create my quote banner...I should put you to the test on this one, ha!

on to the know how

I took a chipboard album and painted it Azul, if you thought it was as easy as splashing cobalt blue, think again, I used 3 blues, one violet and a white, from Liquitex and DinaWakley acrylics, you can see a bit of the museum outdoor pic to help me with the color

I had me a stamping storm, can you spot the banner I used? yup you're right! I am using Sharon's hair as my banner, it worked beautifully, who would have though you don't actually need to buy an extra stamp now!

It's all in the eye of the beholder

 

 

Frida loved butterflies that's why I used the gorgeous Monarchs on Sharon's hair.  while I was fuzzy cutting I decided to leave the eye, kinda  quirky.  That led me to using a real eye from Sandra's Relics.  And what better to decorate that eye Frida/Dali style than by using Catrina?

Also this stencil silhouette provided me with the perfect Frida and Jamie's stamps provided me with the perfect scale for her signature flowers on her hair!

my first choice for her wings were the butterflies on Sharon's stencil, as the project evolved I decided to add the Relics ones on top of the Monarchs.  It's an ongoing thing, as you know,  while you create.

I wanted colorful blooms for my book to surround Frida with all the bright colors she loved

I'm using

 

 

Sharon

Sharon stencil

Catrina

Inspire, Create, Explore

Wings

 

Girl Sophie

 

Bubble Gum pink, postbox red, squeezed orange, lemon zest, cut grass, white linen, black marble 

I decided to add Catrina's roses here along with her hairdress in the eye and wings

and can you spot her chin in "Frida's" body? I used Catrina's chin sunflower in a couple of places!

Flowers' on Frida's hair

And now a tour of what's inside!

 

I saved all of my receipts, including a permission to take photos inside the museum!

each tab has one of Frida's quotes handwritten in them

I used Jamie's wings stencil and stamp here!

the body was made stamping a Prima floral stamp

here I used the wings stencil with some gold embossing

and this one was inspired by Frida's wardrobe exhibit:

 "Appearances can be deceiving",

 that we were fortunate enough to see

this is one of the corsets she had to use and also the inspiration of one of her paintings

 

So, I hope you have enjoyed my" Bloomy" interpretation of Frida

 

and enjoyed a new way to use some of  Jamie's fab stamps!

"til next time!

 

Milagros

 

 

 

 



Quentin, a book for Father's Day

Hi everyone, Milagros today with you! It's June and it's the month when we celebrate Dad's, who better to help us than adorable Quentin?  For today's project I used a Folio by Tim Holtz and some hoarded papers by Graphic 45, vintage "A Proper Gentleman".  Of course you are welcome to go through your stash and find something masculine to help you build your man!

come on in

Let's get started

 As you can see I stamped the bow and collar in 2 different pattern papers, to create a contrast, then fuzzy cut

 I wanted to use a real chain over Jamie's drawing so here's my solution, a TH brad, ready for the actual chain

 I cut a circle of plastic, out of packaging for my lens, a metal rim for the glass that I then gold leafed

 I used 111 Prima watercolor pencil for the eyes

 they were inspired by my DH...

 All of that is pretty explanatory, cut and paste!

 I cut some gears in metal and used a gold leaf pen to highlight his gears, the bow was popped

 I used a Faber Castell Big Brush in White for the hair and mustache

 love the way he glows!

After I though I was done, I wasn't so I decided to use a stencil to add some texture

 yup, he needed that!

 and of course he got dusted with some Mica powder in Gold!!!

I hope he inspires and helps you in this upcoming Father's Day!

Milagros

Quentin stamp

chipboard album

Dies and die cutting machine

metal, chain, brads