Excited to be returning to Artiscape this April in Columbus, Ohio.  I always have a blast, both in class and out of class, laughing, playing, and being around all the creative energy.  What am I teaching? Check it out below!

Dirty Little Secrets of Gel Printing April 29th, 2017
How do you get those amazing prints that look like weathered layers of the rainbow in just one single solitary pull? Yes, one single pull! It isn’t an accident or happenstance, but on command when you know the dirty little secrets of monoprinting with a gel plate!

These pulls always bring gasps of excitement as the first corner is pulled off and you get a hint of the colorful magic about to be fully revealed. The best part is once you know the secrets then you can actually control when those prints are going to happen. It isn’t random and it isn’t some unexpected surprise, but it is always amazing to see it pull off the plate!

All you need to bring to class is a soft rubber brayer, 5-6 of your favorite colors of acrylic paint, white heavy body paint (or other very opaque white paint) and apron. Gel plates are provided courtesy of Gel Press so you’ll be able to try out a variety of shapes and sizes!

What makes those patterns in the prints? Stencils and you’ll have a huge stash of choose from thanks to StencilGirl as you build your prints. What a great opportunity to explore and play! Details and registration here.

Art Journaling with PanPastels April 30th

PanPastels are magnificently vibrant and often misunderstood. After this art journaling workshop, you’ll know how to get the dreamy looks of blended colors, how to add those subtle highlights that take a color to the next level, how to build layers with them, and most importantly, how to use them with stencils and how seal them so they can pass a white glove test!

You’ll seal them in three different practical ways in this workshop, all indoor techniques so no stinky sprays. Each way will fully seal the PanPastels and create a unique look. Knowing these different techniques is incredibly handy when building up layers on an art journal page. A full tray of PanPastels are available for your in class play courtesy of PanPastel plus a huge selection of stencils will be there courtesy of StencilGirl Products!

Included in your class kit are your very own tools so you can easily seal PanPastels at home. You’ll also go home with my favorite pencil for journaling that matches the feel of PanPastels. All you need to bring are 20 cosmetic wedge sponges (cheap kind from the drug store) and thick white paint (such as Liquitex heavy body titanium white). Details and registration here.

What happens at CHA doesn’t stay at CHA!  I had this grand plan of sharing photos all weekend long and of visiting all the booths.  After all CHA looks like one big party on social media…which it is, but not disco lights and loud music.

The party was all about finding creative fun people around every corner.  Every single corner!  There was lots of work to be done (booth set ups and take downs don’t happen on their own) so rather than miss any of the fun I chose to skip sleep more than I have in years.  Also learned that I’m not 21 anymore…

The days of CHA were spent demoing, teaching mini workshops, and make and takes in the Gel Press booth. I was given tubs of paint, stacks of Gel Press printing plates, and a bunch of people eager to play.  My happy place.

Here are just some photos of the fun people in the booth- and below are videos of some of the demos.

Thanks to Craft Test Dummies, who stopped by for some play as I was demoing, you can get a feel for what I was playing with and yes, my luggage was checked going and coming home.  TSA doesn’t seem to know what to make of arty people who travel with paint, cake spinners, and pasta.

Watch on YouTube.

Watch on YouTube.

Watch on YouTube.

Live broadcasts were happening all over the place as I walked around the floor.  Here’s Marjie Kemper talking with Leandra Franich of Paper Artsy.  It is quite a strange feeling that when you walk around the corner in some booths you are photobombing someones video…and yes, did that.  OOPS!

A huge treat to me was demoing right next to Mary Beth Shaw and not just because of all the laughter and excitement over packing tape!  We have such different styles so it was a hoot seeing people react to the different looks you can get with a Gel Press Plate.

There were all sorts of new products at the show and they let me out of the booth unsupervised to browse around.  In my excitement of looking I forgot to take nearly as many photos as I should have.

I was absolutely captivated by the Color Fizz at Faber Castell.  It is like a bath bomb for your art journal! Rae Missigman was demoing it and I couldn’t stop watching the colors fizz and mingle!

Loved seeing Scotty- Eileen Hull‘s fun trailer that she hits the road with on the Paper Trail.

The rainbow was everywhere!  It was so wonderfully distracting as I walked through booths.  From the Plaid Color Shift painted vases, to the folded papers at Bazzill, the plants that matched the cricles at Gel Press, the hands on rainbow with Dina Wakley’s scribble sticks, a rainbow display of the basics and the rain at Darice, the rainbow of canvas as Tattered Angels, Jennifer McGuire’s rainbow tag at Ranger, and the best sign in the world from Rustoleum.

After I came back from visiting this gorgeous booth, I think my Gel Press friends watched me a little more closely.  There was a glimmer in my eye as I talked about how much these white spaces were calling to me for a touch of color.

For all the rainbow colors, the new products, the most wonderful part of CHA was the people.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and to the Gel Press booth who helped make my first CHA so much fun!  (That’s you Jen Starr, Donna Salazar, Cheryl Boglioli, Sally Lynn MacDonald, and Laurie Karian- you all put up with my crazy so well!)