doodled song lyrics

Spent an afternoon warming up for a lettering project 

by listening to some favorite songs and doodling the lyrics.

happy easter

recent journal pages

It's been a while since I've photographed and shared any of my art journaling pages. Life keeps happening, trips keep popping up, and I think I do more suitcase-packing than anything else.  But today, while sweet little Eliää is having a sick day with a tummy upset, our out-and-about-Oxford plans are on hold.  So I've looked back through my camera roll to find a few photos I'd posted somewhere but not here on my blog. Here's a little recap of pages, some still in progress, with the spring-like colors I'm craving right now:

welcome spring with amy's inspired ideas

What better way to welcome spring than with a fresh new ezine
full of colorful crafty projects?
My delightful friend Amy Powers and her guest artists have compiled a
beautiful burst of spring inspiration

in her latest issue of Inspired Ideas, available now through her blog.

Amy's "Inspired Friends" in this issue include
Kathy Curotto,  Jerusalem Greer,  Cathe Holden,  Jenn McGlon,
Kerrie More,  Ashlee Park,  Lilla Rogers,
Laurie Romanaggi,  Koralee Teichroeb
and Brenda Walton.

Here are just a few teasers of things you can make following directions in each article:

Reviews of several just-published craft books with sample projects add to the fun. 

For the review of Lilla Rogers' book shown in the photo above,

we used a Project Life card layout, 

made with our own whimsically watercolored cards.

We hope you will be inspired!

heartfelt box with eileen hull

Although I ran out of time to post this before Valentine's Day, I wanted to share a version of a project I'm currently working on.  Just arriving in stores now is the new line of "From My Heart" dies by my creative designer friend Eileen Hull with Sizzix.  

Eileen and I are super excited to be teaching another class together in April, 

using this really cool heart box she designed.

Eileen's Scoreboard Dies are innovative designs for cutting thicker materials like matboard.  For my sweetly simple Valentine version, first I painted 

a sheet of 140-pound Fabriano watercolor paper with a soft wash of 

Golden's Light Magenta acrylic paint.  Then I used Eileen's heart-box die to cut two heart shapes for the top and bottom of the box, running the top heart through a texture plate.  Using another die from her new line, I also cut several sizes of flowers with heart-shaped petals from the same painted paper.

For a little glitz, I doodled on the flowers and outlined the heart-box top with Ranger's Liquid Pearls in Platinum.  After the Liquid Pearls dried, I stacked my flower layers, cutting into some of the flowers to fluff the petals. 

Next I die-cut a second set of two hearts and box sides from heavy Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper and assembled the box.  To make the white paper blend better with my painted paper, I dabbed the edges with Tim Holtz's Distress Stain in Spun Sugar.  Then I adhered the textured heart to the top of the box and added the layered flower.

Thinking it would be fun to add a Valentine sentiment to the box, I die-cut a banner from Bristol paper using an old Sizzix banner die (which I couldn't find online anymore).  With a Pitt black ink pen, I doodled the word "heartfelt" and filled it in with a Prismacolor watercolor pencil, also shading the tag ends.  Using adhesive only on the tag ends, I shaped the banner into a slight curve.

This heart box will be so easy to tailor to many occasions, including Mother's Day.  

I'll definitely be making more boxes as Eileen and I prepare to teach our class together.

(Our Sentiment Box class will be held at Angela's Happy Stamper in Reston

on April 9th (6 pm) and April 13th (1 pm).  Come join us. :)

happy valentine's day

Doodle Amour class at French General

In a couple weeks, on Saturday, February 9th, in the afternoon,

I'll be the lucky girl teaching a doodle lettering class

in the fabulous atmosphere that is French General in L.A.

My generous friend Kaari Meng, warmly supported by her sister, mother, and daughter, concocted this idea with me one lovely evening last summer in France.

To honor French General, I added a few French ribbon swirls to my doodle lettering and outlined a ribbon heart for Valentine's Day and put them together for the February class which we've called "Doodle Amour".

Photo by Debby Schuh at French General's Sunday Soirée

The class will focus on how to turn your handwriting into doodle lettering similar to mine, with examples and demos and hands-on practice.  My class sample, including more doodled pages sewn together as a small booklet, is on view at the store.

If you're in the L.A. area, it would be my pleasure

to share with you my new-found love of doodle lettering.

Because learning is beautiful, n'est-ce pas?  And since I'm still learning, too, I expect to learn so much from all those in class with me, for I believe the best artistic expression is always a two-way street.

Late-night doodling in my bedside notebook :)

According to Molly, there are still a few openings in the class, with details listed under Workshops on the French General site.

Home from CHA 2013, Anaheim

.
Having generous creative friends with mad skills is so awesome!
Especially since my first visit to CHA revolved around their efforts on my behalf.

Although she couldn't persuade me to jump right in with a designer table,
my new teaching buddy Eileen Hull, one-of-a-kind Scoreboard die designer for Sizzix,
invited me to CHA as her guest to help with her Sizzix booth and class.
I couldn't have asked for a more gracious introduction to the event than I received at her side.  Although I had expected simply to observe and learn, Eileen, who knows and is respected by everybody there, generously toted me around to all her favorite creative people.

Colleen Baxter's fabulous Glass Effect Gel spiderweb at the Viva Decor booth, CHA

And just before Eileen and I left for CHA, my super-talented friend Amy Powers decided to whip up a new business card for me,
using some of my doodles for her Inspired Ideas ezines.
It took making a new midnight friend at Kinko's to get the cards printed, but it was worth it.  It was so much fun to hand them out and watch people smile at my little colored birds.  And to watch those whose products I love tuck my cards into a special place for the next step.

I'm still basking in the wonderful bustle of it all -- and I haven't uncrossed my fingers yet!

CHA 2013, Anaheim 

merry christmas & happy new year

Wishing you a wonderful holiday and peace and joy in the new year!

house doodling class

Omigosh!  After two months of struggling with a crashed computer (new hard drive, new parts, restoring documents, photos, etc) while traveling, I'm finally able to blog again.  But after two months using only my iPad, I'm having trouble remembering where everything is. :)

And in just over a week, my friend Eileen Hull and I will be teaching a class combining her cleverly-designed Sizzix matboard dies with my techniques for doodling and writing on the die cuts.  For the class, Eileen has chosen her large House die as the sample.  In addition to decorating the houses for the holidays, we'll then personalize them with my version of doodle writing.

The two class samples

Sample with my doodling and handwriting

If you are close enough to attend, please join us

at Angela's Happy Stamper on Saturday, December 1st, at 1 pm. 

Details on Angela's class list.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the people and blessings you are grateful for.