I'm excited to announce my latest live online workshop, "Circle Play," in partnership with Stampers Grove in Scotland. In this live, 2-hour online class we'll mix collage, monoprinting, stamping, and mark making to turn circular stamps into fabulous flowers or other creations. We'll start with a layered background and then combine stamps, mark making, and collage to turn ordinary circles into a delightful mixed media garden.

I hinted yesterday in my post announcing my latest rubber stamp release with PaperArtsy, and now for the big reveal... I'm teaching an all new live online class, in partnership with Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook, CT,  featuring my new EGL09 stamp set (or the faces, motifs, or images of your choice.)

Pocketful of People will combine stamps and stencils, painted papers, pens and markers, and heat embossing to make fantastical art dolls that live together in a pocket in your art journal or another substrate of your choice. (Or just make the art dolls and skip the pocket!)

In our private Pocketful of People Facebook classroom, I'll share ideas for alternative options for faces - other stamps and images, as well as ideas for turning the pieces into something else if you prefer not to make art dolls. They can also be totems or even a uniquely whimsical Pocketful of Posies.

The main class is taught during a 2-1/2 hour Facebook Live in a private group, but it also includes exclusive downloads, an additional live video and demo from me where I'll discuss shape and form in choosing your images as well as ideas for coloring and preparing art parts for the class. (There's some homework, so make sure you join early to get ready!)

My latest live online class is now up and open for registration. "Stick, Stamp, Paint." is a fun 2-hour mini workshop hosted in partnership with Country View Crafts in the UK. The class, which is in a private Facebook group, will be live on June 6, 2020 from 1-3pm London time (8-10am Eastern in the USA.) 

We'll use inks, rubber stamps, collage, paints, and mark making to create layered mixed media artwork featuring a variety of fun techniques. I hope to see some of you there!

I'm delighted to announce my third live online class, POCKETbook. I'm offering this class in partnership with my local store, Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, VA.

In the POCKETbook workshop we'll be making a 5" x 7" handmade book with embellished paper and / or fabric pockets as the pages. The class includes tutorials, patterns, exclusive downloads, and, of course, the live online class. It's all hosted in a private Facebook group, and registration is open now.

Signups have begun and we'll start adding students into the private Facebook group on April 16th. The live class is on Saturday, May 9th, from 1-3:30pm eastern time. I hope to see some of you there!

I'm excited to share that my new live online workshop, "Mix & Morph," is now open for registration. I've partnered with Papercraft Clubhouse - a fantastic shop in Westbrook, Connecticut, for this live class which will be held in a private Facebook group on Saturday, April 18, 2020 from 1-3:30pm eastern time. And, it's open to anyone, regardless of location, as long as you have a Facebook account.

Hi all! It's been a while, but I was finally able to finish up a tutorial I've had in the works for about the last two months. I've used kraft-tex from C&T Publishing as the basis for a fun new mini accordion art journal. There's plenty of collage, some stamping and heat embossing, and even some stitching.

Here you can see a peek at the finished outside of the journal, but be sure to head over to view the full tutorial for details and step-by-step instructions and photos.

I have a new tutorial available today over on the StencilGirl blog! I'm sharing one of the ways I like to art journal on top of layers of paint and images left over from cleaning off my stamps and paint brushes on the blank pages of my journal.

If you'd like to see more on how this page came together, make sure to head over to StencilGirl Talk to see my step-by-step photo tutorial.

I have a new tutorial up today on the StencilGirl blog - in this post I'm sharing one of my favorite ways to use Posca paint pens with stencils to create layered art journal pages with bright, colorful "painted" focal images.

I'm so incredibly thrilled to share that, after many many requests, I now have rubber stamps! For this new line I'm beyond excited to be teaming up with PaperArtsy, one of my absolute favorite companies. If you haven't heard of them, they're a small family-run company based in the UK with a fabulous lineup of products and designers - I'm feeling quite humbled to have this opportunity to join the family. (And while I'm on the topic, don't miss the official announcement of this release with even more photos, projects, and a tutorial, over on the PaperArtsy blog!)

The three sets in this initial collection are all based on my original hand-carved stamps. Each set measures 5" x 6" (13 x16.5cm,) and all of them come on cling-mounted, deeply etched red rubber - the details are amazing. 

The first set (EGL01) is the one I'm calling "Medallions." If you know my work and products at all, you know how much I love a medallion. I use circles in almost almost everything I do and I love the way these stamps give me so many more options for adding these types of designs into my work. I'm also really happy with how perfectly they work with my Boho Blends embossing powders from Emerald Creek.

Here's a new mixed media piece that I created that features just the designs from the first set along with my Boho Butterflies stencil from StencilGirl. Inside the largest rusted tin circle, you can also see some of the Tumbled Carnelian from my Boho Bits collection with Emerald Creek.

I made a set of collage papers to use as the starting point for this piece... each one is a different color and uses PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint along with mark-making and one of each of the stamps in the set.

The second set, EGL02, I've been calling "Florals" and I based this around the large flower design that's from a stamp I carved for a specific project I made last December - it quickly became a favorite and definitely needed to be in this set. I added a floral medallion and a few different foliage accents to round it out. The repeating background stamp may look familiar as it's a smaller and more detailed version of the pattern in my Collage Textures & Patterns, Leaves stencil from StencilGirl.

​To introduce this set, I've created another new mixed media piece featuring each of the included stamps along with some dimensional bits and a few dried flowers and twigs that nicely mimic the color and shapes of the stamped designs. I also accented the assemblage piece with a few pieces of jade from the Amazon Adventures mix from my Boho Bits.

The final set in this release, EGL03, is the one I call "Motifs." This particular set includes seven stamps, five of which may look familiar if you've seen my stencil designs. These are smaller and more detailed versions of some of my earlier stencils, which were also based on my hand-carved stamps. I love that having the designs in both a stamp and a stencil provides a lot of versatility - the different sizes allow you to layer or mix them together.

I used this set to create an art journal spread:

I used the PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints with water to get more of a gouache effect for the circles in the background, then stamped different images in each circle. I especially love the torn, collaged circles where I repeated the background stamp from this set on a piece of painted paper. The contrast of the density of that pattern with the larger motifs makes me happy.

For the last project, I mixed all three of the stamp sets together and layered them with one of my hand-drawn portraits which was printed out on rice paper so I could use in this piece.

i really love the layering of the Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint, the stamped and colored images, and the collaged portrait. I set them in an antique film cartridge and kept the embellishment to a minimum to keep the focus on the portrait and I'm very happy with how it came out.

If you want to see more, don't forget that I have additional photos, three handmade cards made with each stamp set, and even a short tutorial for the final project shared above which combines all three sets. It's all in my official introduction post up today over on the PaperArtsy blog.

I'm sooooo excited about these stamps - I love how they come out and I'm having a blast using them. I hope you like them as much as I do!

I'm excited to share that by popular demand, the 9" x 12" Chinese Garden - Buddha stencil from my June 2019 release with StencilGirl is now available in small and mini sizes!

The new 4" x 4" mini stencil is the perfect size for tags, cards, and mini art journal pages like the one here from a recent 2-1/2" square mini art journal.

The small version worked perfectly on this 6" x 6" accordion art journal page:

I deliberately designed these so that you could either color them in completely, leave it as a simple line drawing, or stencil over top of a more complex background and use color and shading to leave some or all of it showing through the face.

Here you can see more examples of how I used most or part of the face on a heavily patterned background and faded out the color so the background would come through... some leave very little showing, some allow a lot to remain visible. I love the variety of the looks you can get using the same stencils, products, and techniques in slightly different ways.

Both of these new baby Buddha stencils are available in my shop, along with the original 9" x 12" large version.