Featured Artist: Keri Sallee

I am so excited to have a chance to jump on the Artsy Addicts bandwagon!
 

My name is Keri Sallee and I am a 33 year old lover-of-all-things-creative who lives in beautiful Northwest Arkansas with my three crazy kiddos (10, 6 and 3) and my hot red-headed hubby of 11 years.

Like many of you, I started scrapbooking when my son was born 10 years ago because "it's what all good moms do!", but as I did it more and looked around, I found there was a bigger world than sticker vomit, rounded corners and matted pictures. There was a whole BIG world of actual ART being made by papercrafters. They were using paint and ribbon and texture and sprays and all sorts of other stuff that the hard core "acid-free/lignin free" creators would cringe at!

So I started to expand my horizons, if you will,  into a little altered art and fell in love with making mini albums, but...there was always a little secret dream I held on to...I wanted to be Christy Tomlinson! Her pieces inspired me with their texture and depth and composition...they were these amazingly BEAUTIFUL MESSES!

For years, I wouldn't let myself even experiment with it. I let myself be ruled by the negative "what ifs": "What if it doesn't look right?" "What if no one likes it?" "What if I mess up?" "What if..." "What if..." "What if..." I never even allowed myself to thing of the positive "what ifs": "What if it looks great?" "What if you like it?" "What if it's fun!?"

Sound familiar to anyone you know?

So one day, I decided to YouTube stalk Christy and I began to notice a pattern to the way she did her work. Not a pattern in the "everything looks the same" kind of thing, but a pattern in her techniques and steps.

Since then, I have found a fun and fabulous freedom in doing my own version of "Christy Tomlinson Mixed Media." I have found a little bit of myself each time I am fearless in trying new things and have found that there's more to my art than just paper and glue and "making pretty stuff." It's therapeutic...freeing....and revealing.

Today...I want to share with you one of my favorite pieces so far. It's only the 3rd piece I've ever done, but the words just say so much: "Enjoy Yourself and Pay Them No Mind."
 

Here are some closeups of my favorite parts:

This project was made using the "Birthday Wishes" collection that Glitz Designs designed for Echo Park's Photo Freedom line. I'm not a "pocket" scrapper, but I loved the bright colors, fun prints and sayings, so I had to have it. 

The black "lace" is actually just a lace stamp that I stamped on a coffee filter and scrunched. Coffee filters are easy (and cheap!) ways to add texture. I use them all the time!

A few other products you might recognize are Tattered Angels' Glam, ArtC damask stencil, Prima Marketing Flowers and drywall tape (from my hubby's DIY stash.)

I hope you've enjoyed my little project today.

You can find me in cyberspace here:

Instagram: thecreativelifestudios

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecreativelifestudios

Twitter: thecreativelifear

Blog: www.thecreativelifear.blogspot.com

Thanks for letting me share today..,.and remember...if you ever get caught up in the "what ifs", remember this little project...the cage is empty because the bird is FREE and so are you. Enjoy yourself and pay them no mind.

God Bless.

XOXO....KERI

 

Springtime Card

I just love springtime here in New England, today I went to visit my good friend and here is what I created a 5x7 card. Using the Graphic 45 (Once Upon a Springtime Collection), distress inks (tumbled glass and vintage photo). I couldn't resist using the Prima Essentials & Avon Romantique flowers, added a little Perfect Pearls (sunflower sparkle mist) adorned with a button and pearl gems, so cute.

 I just love how this 5x7 card turned out, loved the layers and depth that gives a vintage feel. With Easter coming up this weekend and spring upon us I am itching to create some more art pieces. What are you working on for spring?

Peggy Lee
/http://pegbaker.blogspot.com/

From Scrappy Mess to a Masterpiece

Some serious Holiday crafting has been going on in my room the last few weeks. Between Tim's 12 tags of Christmas, Cards, and some last minute gifts, I have had scraps up to my elbows. I wanted to share with you guys today a tip for turning those scraps into a work of Art.

I started with an 8x10 naked canvas (you could do any size). Then I used my Ranger Glue 'n Seal to decoupage the scarps onto the untreated canvas. Just looks like a giant mess right now. But notice the chipboard pieces - they will offer some depth later.



Next I covered the entire canvas with watered down Gesso. This will make all the elements one color and make them look as if they belong together. Be careful not to apply the Gesso too thick - you still want to be able to see the patters from the different styles of paper. I also added a thin coat of White Metallic Acrylic paint and then lightly sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang's Creme Brulee Cream to the finished piece to give it a sparkle. So you may ask - "Why add all of those pieces if you are just going to cover them up?" - well, it's simple, I'm after texture. While it is hard to see in the photograph - the text and the music notes are still visible in places. But the Mess looks like a uniformed mess at this point.



Next I wanted some contrast for all this white. So I took an old cardstock frame from Daisy Dee that was dated 2004, and I covered it in black gesso and bead gel. When it was dried, I used my finger to rub same white metallic paint over the frame to bring out the texture of the bead gel. Then I spritz it with the Lindy's Stamp Gang Creme Brulee Cream.



Next I assembled a beautiful spray of Prima's Christmas lights Crystal Sprays, White Flowers, and butterflies from Karlas001 store around my frame. Notice that even though the flowers and frame have covered the canvas - you can still see the textures of the pieces that were adhered to the canvas backdrop. These textures give depth to the canvas and offer something new every time you admire the piece.



Next I decided the frame seemed empty so I cut a Tim Holtz bird cage from black chipboard and embossed it in silver with the music note stamp from Stampendous. During the 12 tags of Christmas, Tim Holtz shared a technique for using shrink plastic with UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel). So I cut the bird at 8 inches from the Home Accents Cricut Cartridge from Shrink plastic and when I dipped it into the UTEE it shrunk to about 4 inches making the perfect crystal center piece for my canvas.



To finish the piece off, I used a Dylusions stamp from Dyan Reaveley, that says "A Friend knows the song in your heart" - the rest of the phrase was removed. I stamped it onto thick packaging and embossed it with white embossing powder. Placed it in the bottom right hand corner of the frame and called this Masterpiece finished.



I have a step by step from start to finish video available on my YouTube Channel, click here to watch it.

Thanks for stopping in today,
Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com

Store Front Mini

Today I want to share with you a different take on a mini ablum design. Amy Rodriguez, Teddyboo, gave me the storefront mini album kit to design. But instead of a traditional mini album - I decided to turn mine into a christmas Decorative piece. I made the pages into village pieces instead of a traditional mini album. The panels are all free standing with the aid of a Tim Holtz Easle that is adhered with Tissue tape. At the end of the season, photos can be added to the back of the panels and the album can be bound into a mini.

There are lots of details on each panel. I have broken out tutorials on how to make some of the elements. Please visit my YouTube channel for more details on this..







View Youtube Walk through

Thank you for stopping in today. I hope you have enjoyed my project share.

Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com

Grunge Canvas

I took these photos of my son a few weeks ago for football, and I wanted to use them in a scrapboooking project. However, I didn't want "typical" football imagery. I felt that was too 'generic'.




The images make a statement on their own, so I wanted them to be center stage. I decided instead of a traditional scrapbook page, I wanted to make a wall canvas.



His school colors are royal blue and red, these colors inspired the color of the canvas. I added some dictionary pages for words like Athlete, Jock, Boy, and sports. Then painted over them lightly with the royal so they are there, but not completely in focus.



I used a transparency from Creative Imaginations and cut it into two parts. I didn't want clean lines, so I distressed the edges and then used my heat tool to melt the plastic and give the transparency a more warped and tattered look. I painted in the saying on the canvas with red marker. It says "stop searching and create yourself." I feel at 15 years old that is what he is doing, "creating" himself.

I also used a screen to represent the grid iron. The screen was painted black so it would also fall into the background, then I curled the edges up to give more dimension and to hide the sharp edges.



His name is made with letter block grunge board from Tim Holtz. Each letter is sitting at a different height, so that there is more dimension.

I hope you enjoyed this share. Thanks for stopping in today,
Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com

Altered Cigar Boxes - Shabby Chic

This year I started participating in a monthly Altered Cigar box Swap, and I would like to share with you a few of the boxes that I have created in the Shabby Chic Style. All of these boxes started out as “naked” boxes. They are unfinished 8x8 wooden boxes that can be found in the wood section at your craft department stores. They are usually less than $5.

Dressing Room
For this box I used Prima's Annalee paper to cover the box and the dress form. I distressed the edges to make it look more Shabby. The sides of the box are painted a very soft blue, with White Crackle around the corners. I added gold rub and buff to the edges and on top of the crackle to make the box appear dirty and weathered.


Timeless Bliss
Again this box uses the Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue paper. I made a spray of Prima Roses and used some of the Tim Holtz film strip as filler in the spray. This box is so elegant; it was really hard to part with it.




1920's Fashion Couture
I wanted this box to be sexy and rich. I used Webster's Pages Hollywood Vogue paper collection, since the 20's were about Glamour, Hollywood, and sex appeal.



Pretty in Pink
This box was designed around Pink Paislee's Sweetness collection. I replaced the glass of an ornate frame with a wedding dress applique then nested a hand painted cameo in the center. Add a spray of Prima Roses and trimmed the box in lace, velvet ribbon, and half back pearls.


These boxes are gorgeous keepsakes. They are perfect for storing mini albums, or fill them with goodies for a friend’s birthday or Christmas present. Christmas will be here before you know it. Start planning now to alter one of these cute boxes for a special someone this holiday season.

Thanks for stopping in today,
Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com