Shaina learns Brush Script

I have been completely smitten with Kal Barteski’s script art for a long time…she turns simple words into magic with her brush. And so I was so excited when Studio Calico made the announcement that Kal was teaching a class for them called Life : Scripted. I was not missing this opportunity!

And let me tell you, I have not been let down. Kal’s love for this art and the supplies she uses to create it just ooze out of her. And she is a great teacher. I watched her do it and felt like I could do it too. So I got my supplies out and ready and for the first time dipped my special bamboo brush into gouache and then touched it to paper.

Too much water…making the paint was too lean. So I loaded up again and got so excited when the color looked just like I wanted. Attempt number two:

And then once I got the feel for water to paint ratio figured out for my brush I just kept drawing lines…line after line after line. Big fat lines, skinny little lines, some really dark, some lighter…all fun! I just felt my smile getting bigger and bigger on my face.

Then I tried diagonal lines and swirly lines and shapes. I was getting the feel for my brush and loving it!

And then it was time to move on to letters. I was trying to connect them, not connect them, use thin and thick lines, focus on the shapes and just get a good handle on how the brush works on actual shapes. I did lowercase and uppercase and this is my absolute favorite page of uppercases. I added a heart at the end cuz it made me so happy.

After pages and pages of letters and lines I wanted to try my hand at my One Little Word for the year: THRIVE. I wrote it a bunch, using different types of letters and combinations. My first page of “thrive” was my favorite in the end.

I added some drips for good measure and they made me extra happy. In the end I’d used tons of gouache and tons of paper. My whole office was covered and it just made my day! My plan is to use my scripting in my Project Life for 2014. Been waiting for this class to share those pages so they would be complete.

I am so glad that Kal and Studio Calico came together to offer this class. I know that this is something I’m going to fall more in love with the more I do it. I can’t wait to practice and practice some more and really learn my brushes and the shapes that I like.

Hoping to share lots more of the process and progress!! Thanks for peeking.

What is a new form of art you want to try?
Have you tried Brush Script before?
Do you love it or hate it?

Hello October

October is my favorite month of the year…its always been the month when I feel most like myself. I find comfort in scarfs and hot coffee and falling leaves. I love how the light changes and how the air feels. And this little quote has kind of become my mantra for the autumn season. I am so glad that its October again!

To welcome in the fall I’ve created a little “October looks good on me” download for your computer and your phone.

Download here
Desktop Wallpaper
Phone Background

What is your favorite thing about autumn?
What makes you feel most like you?

Summer of Love

There is something so special, so magical about summertime. It is full of iced coffee and driving with the windows down, and staying up late with the sun…having bon fires, trips to the lake, and being adventurous. It holds some of my favorite memories, and I want this summer to have that same kind of feel. That same kind of celebration.

So, I’m participating in my friend Kara’s “Summer of Love” art journaling and photography class to kick-start the summer season and savor each passing moment. She is a killer teacher and I am so looking forward to the journaling prompts and the night photography techniques she’ll be teaching.

The live class starts July 1st (yay!), but you can begin the e-course at any time because you access a blog site where all the content will be uploaded and stored and the students get a PDF of the content after the class. I could see this becoming a summer tradition…

Doesn’t this sound like a great way to welcome in the summer? I am excited to start and would love to have one of you readers join me too. Kara is letting me give away a registration to the course and bring you along with me on this fun little journey.

Just leave a comment below with your email and what you love most about the summertime to be entered to win. But, if you don’t want to wait and would like to begin tomorrow, you can do that too here. I’m sure Kara wouldn’t mind. Hehe.

Leave a comment below with your email and what you love the most about summertime to be entered to win registration to Kara’s “Summer of Love” e-course.
Winner will be selected on Wednesday July 3rd and announced on the 4th.

Sister Day

Yesterday my younger sister Megan came to visit.  She lives about 4 hours north of me in Summerland BC.  It was so good to see her, and definitely something worth celebrating.  We needed a "Sister Day" together. We went for coffee, spent too much time at Walmart (where Meg bought out the M&M display...only a slight exaggeration!), and worked on a big project together.  

Megan and her husband are celebrating their first anniversary later this month.  And Meg, a spectacular planner, of course has something big up her sleeve.  And I got to be in on it!  Once again I served as the shipping depot...housing all the gifts at my house so she didn't have to pay shipping to Canada and could keep them hidden until needed.  Chris and I  had a couple fun days of packages, including a chocolate covered fortune cookie 10 times the normal size, and a 41 inch replica Japanese anime sword!  Yeah, she is an awesome gift-giver.  

All of the gifts she has planned are for a day-long scavenger hunt she's sending her man on.  And I got to help create the clue cards too.  Megan sent me a bunch of pictures ahead of time of the two of them from when they were dating and their first year of marriage.  I put them together and created a card base which we added the clues to yesterday.  We just got them printed at Walmart and they turned out awesome!  

Then, keeping with tradition, we created a box to house them and collect souvenirs from the day in.  These boxes that Meg and I make are pretty precious to us.  I made them as a teenager to collect bits and pieces of everyday life in and passed the tradition down to Megan.  The process includes finding the perfect shoe box with a folding lid, lots and lots of cutouts from magazines for patters, words and pictures, and then special pictures that match the theme.  Then using packing tape we laminate the box to protect it.  We made one for Megan's then boyfriend when she was going away to Australia.  She gave him mementos in it, things to remind him of them, and while she was away he kept all the letters she sent in it.  This guy appreciates these boxes as much as we do.  :)  So we worked on one for the 1st Anniversary. 

This is a time when my fussy cutting technique and scrapbooking scissors come in handy!!  And I'm like a pro at taping boxes now.  :)  Its such a fun project to do with and for someone you love.  It was a privilege to help Megan create something special to commemorate and celebrate her first anniversary.  And to spend the day with her.  That was pretty awesome. 

What do you do on Sister Days? 

Are you able to stay close with your siblings still? 

How do you celebrate everyday together? 

Yellow Shelf Project

I am very excited to share another "Stop Pinning // Start Doing" project with you today.  Its another one from my office, which is so coming together!! 

source

I saw these white shelves with the pop of yellow on the back of them and not only thought they would be perfect for bringing more of the yellow into my office, but totally saw how I could use the idea with what I already had.  I have had two of these tall white shelves from Walmart for years... they have made many moves with me and have transitioned with my style as I grow.  And so I was so excited to use them once again in this space.  

Chris and I took the shelves into the garage and ripped pages out of a magazine and taped the sides to protect them from the paint.  Then it took two full coats of the yellow spray paint to completely cover the backs.  

The next day I pulled all the pages off and moved the shelves into my office.  I absolutely LOVE how they look next to the grey stripes and my purple walls.  The pop of yellow is exactly what I needed and I think it all turned out awesome!  I pulled a couple books, one of my elephants and a plant to create a little vignette for these after pictures.  I'll put the rest of the shelves up soon and unpack some boxes finally!  I can't wait to make this a workable space that I can continue to be inspired in. 

Have you done any project lately??  I'll love to see.  Link me up in the comments!! :D 

Stop Pinning // Start Doing

Today I want to introduce a fun new feature I am starting here on my blog called "Stop Pinning // Start Doing." The idea behind it is this:  many of us are addicted to Pinterest and find so much inspiration there and awesome ideas, but many times those awesome ideas sit on our boards and nothing gets done with them.  I want to take Pinterest to the next step:  DOING!!  

And so begins: 

One of the first boards I created when I first joined Pinterest was called: "Home" and I have since then filled it with pictures of things I would love to see or use or have in our new home.  Things like furniture, and kitchen cupboard organization guides, and how I wanted my home office to function.  And as expected a pattern started to form...colors schemes emerged and project ideas repeated themselves.  

One project in particular was this:  horizontal stripes painted on the walls.  I found myself pinning pictures of walls with stripes over and over again.  

source // source // source

 I've had a plan for a color scheme for my office (based off of this shower curtain) for awhile now, and knew grey would be a prominent color within the space.  So I matched that idea with the stripe project from Pinterest and a plan emerged:  grey horizontal stripes on two walls in my office!!!  

One of the stripe images I pinned was from the ever talented Elise Blaha.  She had done horizontal stripes on her textured walls and gave some terrific hints and tips on her blog post all about it HERE.  Luckily the builders had left a big 5 gallon bucket of the white paint used throughout our house, so we used that.  The measuring was the hardest part...and getting the lines level.  But Chris was a trouper and we worked well together measuring, taping off, and painting the stripes in.  After we pulled the tape on the first stripe I was soooo excited!!  It turned out just how I imagined.  

 After a bit of touch-up the next day I took pictures of the finished walls.  As you can see we took Elise's tip to make sure the top and bottom stripe were white so we didn't have too much cutting in work to do.  You can see a little of my dark purple wall in the first picture too.  :) The colors are really great together! 

So that is my first completed and shared SPSD project and I am so excited to do more!!  

Have you created something based off an idea you got from Pinterest?  Or are you planning one??  Feel free to play along and add this badge I've created to your blog and blog post!  Let's start a movement!! ;) 

download here

And please leave a comment if you create something too and link me up!  I am so excited to take Pinterest to the next level and start using and creating and doing the things I pin.  

font source: Kal Barteski

lessons

once again i was intrigued by a blog post written by my blog-friend and fellow SFTIO Design Team member, Felecia.  she always seems to have the best stuff on her blog.  today she had a link to a quiz with the title What's Your Creative Style?
of course i had to click through and take it too.  you want to also??  here's the link:  QUIZ.

and the result of my quiz:

Creativity gives you insight...You feel that creativity provides insight into your own being. In fact, it is like therapy for you, enabling you to get to know yourself better. You seem to be looking for a way into the mysteries of the subconscious. It’s not really self-expression you are seeking, but rather the tools of self-expression: discovering what your creation will reveal about yourself. Art helps you reflect on, analyze and expand your personality. You long to be creative, and it’s not just because you need to deal with your emotions. It’s the tension between contradictions, and the need to resolve doubt that drives you to be creative. Painting pictures, decorating rooms, arranging shells in the sand — these are all creative processes that allow your introspection to roam. You can trace your life through the different ways you have exercised your creativity. For you, art is there to make sense of life. You are more attracted to artistic activities that demand reflection, planning and solitude, and the personal discoveries you make often provide answers for others, too.

this result rings so true to me.  and i think that's why i love Scrapbooking from the Inside Out so much.  the concept pushes me toward personal discoveries and revelations about life and how i feel about it.  this month especially... ENLIGHTENMENT was honestly a harder theme for me to work with.  but the pages that came out of a month of self-reflection are so powerful and important to me.  i can't wait to continue to share this kit and my pages with you. 

my first attempt

at a stop motion.  the lovely rhirhi is the queen of these amazing works of art and she gave me some tips to try.  this is my very first one.  i just used some left-over, unedited pictures from one of my week shoots.  and i even added music. 

i can't wait to do more of these.  i am inspired and eager to create!!
please let me know what you think!!