Artsy Inspiration Blog Hop

Recently an online friend of mine asked me if I would participate in a fun blog hop/train and she said such kind things about my work, I had to say yes :)  This is how it works. Today, I will share a little bit about the person who asked me to participate, and a bit about myself and my creative process, and in a week I will post again, about a few more artists who inspire me!

Rachel of Captivated Visions has been an art inspiration of mine for a few years now. We "met" for the first time when I applied to what was maybe her first official Creative Team call for her digital scrapbooking designs. I spent two years on her team, watching her career grow and watching her designs evolve! I would say that she is now one of the most prominent digital mixed media designers out there, and I am so glad to say that I "knew her when".   She does much of her work using paper and paint and then lets us digital artists play around with her art without getting our hands dirty! (Although I definitely do get my hands dirty these days!) Just take a look at these hand crafted creations:

And here's a bit about me.

How does your creative process work? How does your work differ from others of its genre? 

 My creative process is messy and I honestly borrow a lot of inspiration from other sources. Once in awhile, I have a great thought that is my own, but I do a lot of practice in the meantime by looking at others' work and trying to emulate the things I like. That's why I love art journaling. I can watch a video by Donna Downey, for example, try out her techniques, and hopefully learn something along the way. And I can look back at those pages over and over but I don't necessarily have to display them for all to see :)

What are you working on now? 
 Well, I just got back from an amazing art workshop with Donna and with Finnabair, but I think it deserves its own separate post! Here's a quick peek at a journal cover I made (although as my husband said after I showed the journal to him "It looks better in person!"):

 
 


Why do you do what you do?
Because apparently, I have this overwhleming need to create! I didn't realize that I felt that way until I started digital scrapbooking several years ago, and that love has transformed into a new love for mixed media art. I love the "no-rules" approach, because I am a perfectionist and no rules means I can never do anything"wrong"!


Thanks for stopping by, and please come back in a week to learn about some inspirations of mine!

July Mixed Media Challenge

It's a new month, which means a new Mixed Media Monthly Challenge! This month's theme is using household objects in your art. I am a hoarder (I'm sure some of you can identify...) so I have a lot of things that I keep around for use later.

And our sponsor this month is Die Cuts With a View, who makes a great variety of fun and affordable scrapbooking and crafting supplies.

Here's my page:

In this art journal page, I used bottle caps from Feliway diffusers to create the purple circles. This is my favorite tool for making circles, because it has a built-in handle for "stamping", and we go through about one a month. The tops from Bath and Body Works Wallflowers work as well.

My other favorite tools from "throwaway" items are the waste left from punching out pieces from games. My husband and I are a a bit of game nuts, so we have no lack of these.  They work especially well when I want to create dimension using modeling paste or heavy gel medium (because they are made from heavy cardboard and are thick) I have circles, hexagons, octagons, hearts, etc.

And finally, a fun find is a silicone trivet I found at Walmart. It is perfect for stamping a hexagon/chicken wire pattern on my pages! I don't actually use this for its intended purpose, but it's fun to see new uses for things. I have also considered buying a patterned dishmat to use a stencil but haven't tried that yet.

I hope you enjoyed my page and learning some fun ideas on how to use household items. We'd love to see your projects. For complete challenge information, check out the blog here: http://mixedmediamc.blogspot.com/