My Mind's Eye Blog

On Trend Pink and Gold Foil Baby Page

Hey there My Minds Eye lovers!

 

I hope each of you had a fantastic Easter! I know we had a fantastic time over here. We woke up to snow which was a bit of a bummer but thankfully everything melted in just a few hours!

 

Today I want to show you my very first page made with the new On Trend line!

 

 

Years ago I found one of the cutest scrapbook albums and turned it into a baby book for my first baby boy. Since then I searched and searched for the same exact album for the rest of my kids because of course each of my baby albums had to match... perfectly. One might say I have a type A personality.... but the album happened to be a 9x9 album and if you didn't know apparently NO ONE makes them anymore and they're extremely difficult to find! So imagine my excitement when I walked into a scrapbook store in a small town in Idaho and I happen to see SEVEN of exact same album! Needless to say I bought three more after I was done with my happy dance! So each time I have a baby I record the first year of their life in one of these precious albums. As most of you know I just had my third baby and it marks the beginning of yet another baby album.

 

This page I made is the very first for my sweet baby Bostons baby album, I hope you all enjoy!

 

 

One of my very favorite ways to add journaling to my pages is to use my vintage typewriter that my husband bought for me at a garage sale a few years ago!

 

 

I wanted to add something pretty that would add some dimension to this page, so I went with a die cut of these pretty leaves. Then I used some pink and gold watercolor to fill them in, and I'm totally obsessed with how they turned out! 

 

 

The papers and embellishments in the new On Trend line are absolutely to DIE for! This gold foil text page and the chunky pink stripes really caught my eye and I love they way they work together to make a whimsical feel to this page. 

 

Thanks everyone for stopping by and I hope you have a fantastic day!!

Mixed Media with Karen | February 2015

Hi everyone! This is Karen, back with another Mixed Media with Karen.

For this month's entry, I wanted to continue in my code desires notebook which is a collage book that reminds me that I get to choose how I feel and helps me focus on what those feelings are.

For this page, I decided to go with a picture I found a few weeks ago of this woman wearing a really fancy dress and laughing. The photo made me smile right away and even though I am more "stay at home in my PJs" kid of person, it reminded me that sometimes I feel more alive when I go out and socialize with friends.

So I wanted this page to honor the aliveness the photo made me feel. Since she's wearing a shiny dress, I knew immediately that I wanted to couple her with shiny papers and embellishments. I picked some of the blue Necessities papers that I love so much and layered them under her.

And then on the opposing page, I decided to use the large, shiny and awesome letters to spell "YES." Here's how it looked at this point:


Now that I'd tied  the twine on one letter, I decided I wanted to add two more of them to make sure there were three instances of it. I added one to the S of the YES and then put a vertical line alongside of the photo on the left side. I like how it adds a little color and motion.

I liked the yellow enough that I decided to add some more of it. I pulled out different sized embellishments that had yellow bits in it and added some to the left side and some to the right side. I love the splashes of yellow and how it makes the page happier.


As a Final touch before I added the paint, I decided the page needed more black so I added little bits of black paper on the bottom layers, some black and metal hearts and a few embellishments.

Once I put down the blacks, I felt I was ready to get painting. I try not to overthink the painting process. I just pick some of the colors on my page and just go to down. I try to add some paint to the sides of the page to frame it, and some to the layers to make them seem more seamless.

As a final touch I added a few sequins because i like the shine they add. So here's a side look at the final page:

and here's a better look at how shimmery the page is. I love the papers and how they add intermittent shimmer.

here's the clustering on top:

and the magnificent, huge letters on the right side.

There we are. If you're into Mixed Media or Collage like I am, I highly urge you to use the beautiful My Mind's Eye papers and embellishments. And please do share your pages in the comments so I can see them!! Have a lovely February!

Mixed Media with Karen | January 2015

Hi everyone! This is Karen and I am back with my a new Mixed Media with Karen.

Today I have a new page in the You Choose journal I mentioned last month .One of my desired feelings for 2015 is open. I want to be open to receive. Be willing to let people and the universe help me. Be open to signs and messages and kindness.

So I thought this was a lovely way to start my page. I printed this image from Pinterest. I then added layers underneath the photo and put a transparency on the right page. I decided I wanted a million little hearts so I punched a whole lot of them and glued them haphazardly on the right hand side.

Added a few on the left just for a unified look.

 

I then went to town with paint again and added some pen work this time, too. After I was done with it, it looked like this:

 

It's got several shiny parts including a glare from the transparency. But I love that.:

here's a closer look at the layers on the left. I added a bunch of paint to each paper:

and some lines of paint to the bottom right

and top left

I then decided my hearts looked too bare so I traced around them each with a black pen. And called it a day.

It's still a bit chaotic than I'm looking to create for this project but I am learning and that's all that matters. I am open to my instincts as I create the page. Thank you for letting me share! See you in February!

Mixed Media with Karen | December 2014

This is Karen, back with another Mixed Media with Karen.

As the year comes to a close, I often start thinking about my projects for the following year. One of the projects I'll be doing this year is called You Choose.

This is a Moleskine squared journal where I will be collaging images that remind me of the way I want to feel this year.

It's a book that will be a year-long inspiration for me and a reminder that we each get to choose how we feel in life. How we feel every singe moment in the day.

I am not so great at collage which is why I picked it as my theme for this book. I decided it will give me a lot of opportunity for practice. I also decided I wanted to experiment with making sparse pages. Let's see how it goes.

For this page, the first thing I did was to pick some papers and embellishments that I liked and layer them underneath the photo of me. I then used similar papers on the facing page and added little butterflies on top. I stamped my word of the year "brave" using a stamp I carved myself. I then stamped the four other feelings I want to have next year.



Here's another look so you can see how shiny it is:

Once I had my collage layers, I decided to just go to town with the paint. I added pink and red and gold to the outer edges, I underlined my words with gold paint and red. I painted over the papers to make them seem seamless.

And I ended up with this:



So much for clean and sparse.

Here's a closer look at the left side:



My words are: brave, abundance, open, alive, and serene. Here's to a year full of them.

Finally, one more look so you can see all the shimmering gold:


So here we are, attempt one at mixed media collage. Here's to a wonderful 2015 and getting to choose our feelings!

Mixed Media with Karen | November 2014

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with another Mixed Media project. This month's project was inspired by Carissa Paige's Life Book lesson about home.

I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and all of my family is still back there, and I consider it my home. But I moved to the United States when I was 17 and have now been here over 23 years. My husband is American and I have two boys. So I consider the US my home as well. Sometimes, neither feels like home. Sometimes, both feel like home. Most of the time, it's confusing.

So I decided to make a project about how I need to remember that home is not necessarily a place.

I grabbed a bunch of my Mixed Bags from both Jubilee and Just Sayin' and emptied them on my table. I took a photo of me and my sister from when I was a kid and one with my husband and boys now. I honestly didn't know what I was going to do but I told myself not to overthink it and just start picking things that spoke to me and glue them down.

There was no rhyme or reason to my process. I just went on until I thought I had enough. This is where I stopped.


I didn't worry too much about the colors because I already knew I was going to paint all over the page. I still had no plan at this point except that I knew I was going to draw an earth. So I went to Google and wrote "globe" and pulled up image results.


I looked at the one with the yellow in it and drew outline of the shapes as best I could. I didn't over-worry. I wanted the idea to be clear but it didn't have to be geographically accurate. I drew right in the middle of my page with my Stabilo All pencil.


I then painted the oceans blue and while it was drying, I painted the outside of the globe with orange and yellows.


I feel the need to note that I still didn't really have a plan for how this was all going to come together and I wasn't crazy about what I was seeing so far. But I kept going because I knew it always works out in the end. I added in the green and brown to my earth. I put one more layer of yellows on the outside and I knew I was going to eventually journal all over this page so I added some white with a palette knife. Then I wrote out my title. I ended up with this:


Title says: Home is where the people you love are.

Here's the left side:


and the right side:


Had I thought this through some more, I would have put my sister and I on the right page and my boys on the left one since that's where the US is. And I probably would not have drawn the globe right through my son's
face. But, alas, I didn't plan this page, I just went with it.

What I love is that the collage pieces are sticking out here and there and definitely giving a feeling to the page. And also adding a lot of texture:


even subtle ones:


So there we are. It all came together in the end. And it's a great reminder that, when confused, home is where people I love are and my home is all over the world as the people I love are spread throughout the world.

Mixed Media with Karen | October 2014

 

Hi everyone! This is Karen, back with another Mixed Media project.

For this month, I decided to use another Life Book project. This one is from Tam and it's about using your intuition. As Tam talked about intuition and imagery and listening to yourself, I saw images of balloons being let go. I'd been thinking of the brave for a while by that point and then I saw the word "release" so I decided maybe the universe was trying to tell me something and I should just sit and paint.

Sometimes things become clearer after you start.

So I grabbed a piece of paper, a bunch of 3x4 cards from Jubilee and I drew a balloon.



I cut it out and then used it as a template for each of my cards. (Apologies for the yellowish photos, it was really late at night and my camera did the best it could.)

After I cut all the cards, I had my balloons.



It was time to create my background. I covered the page with blue paint and then put some white on it with a palette knife.



I wasn't thrilled with it at this point but I knew most of it would be covered so I decided not to fret. Sometimes you just need to move on and see what unfolds.

I then lay down my balloons and pulled out the large letters from the Necessities collection. I knew I wanted to use the gold ones but the original letters were too thick and took up too much of the page. So I cut them up and made them narrower. This way, they fit easily.



Then I added the other word that I knew would be in my title: release



Next step was to make the balloons look like they were being released. So I put some twine at the end of each of them.



I then traced the balloons with black Stabilo All because I wanted them to stick out more. I also tied a bunch of twine to the letter "R" because I wanted it to look like the balloons were tied down on the letter and had been cut off to be released.




It was time for my favorite part: paint! Using the colors in the papers, I added paint to the balloons and to the frame of the page.  I like paint because it unites the page and adds vibrancy. I also finished out my title.

Here's how my page ended up:



The title says: it is time to be brave and release. let it go.

And it looks very very shiny in person:



That's it for this month. I hope you can have some time to play with the huge letters and your intuition and some paint this month! See you next month.

Mixed Media with Karen | September 2014

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with a Mixed Media page for September. This month, I decided to try out one of my assignments from the Life Book class I am taking.

The week's artist, Mika Diaz,   taught a technique where we traced an image on tracing paper and then used it on our page.

I found an image in a catalog I had lying around and then traced over it with pencil.



I didn't worry too too much about getting it perfect.

I then started working on my background. I decided to collage a bunch of the 3x4 cards I love so much.


I glued them down using gel medium (I will note that gel medium and I don't get along well. I can never seem to use it without creating a lot of bubbles.] I really liked how it looked after I had the cards down. In fact, I liked it so much that I was tempted to just leave it like that. But then I got the idea to use one of the gold papers from the Necessities line and I kept worrying that it would "ruin" the whole thing.

Here's something I've learned: when you have an idea, you need to be brave enough to try it. Even if it turns out to be a disaster, you can always start from scratch or paint over it or even soldier on. If you start second guessing your ideas/whims, you will always find yourself doing the same things so as to not "ruin" anything.

But it's only when we venture out and try new things that we expand and discover.

So I urge you to give those little whispers some voice.

I decided to listen to mine and I glued down the gold page on top.


And then I immediately hated the results. I hated how much the page bubbled up. In some sections, it was so bad that I had to cut out parts of the paper which made me more upset. After ranting out loud for a few  seconds about how I totally should not have ruined my page, I scolded the negative voice in my head and decided to move on and see where I could go next.

I put some paint down on my page and noticed that the paint hugged the bubbles and texture of the paper.


I was already liking this better. Next, I glued down my traced girl and traced over her again with my Stabilo All pencil (which can write over any surface and is awesome.) I then painted my girl lightly to match the colors in the background. And added a bit of text that says "You Can Choose Peace." A little more Stabilo All on the edges and my page was done:



I love that the cards all the way at the bottom show through in parts of my page. But what I love even more is that gold that comes through the layers and shines:

If I hadn't been willing to add that gold layer, I could have not achieved this lovely effect. Yet another proof that you have to be willing to try new things. And that when it looks like all is lost, you can just move through and remember that this is just another layer, it doesn't have to be finished until you say it is.

Thank you very much for letting me share my art and I look forward to seeing you next month!

Mixed Media with Karen | August 2014

This is Karen, back with a Mixed Media with Karen for August

This month, I decided to couple my Mixed Media page with my assignment for May's One Little Word homework. Our assignment in May was to make little cards to fit into 2.5  by 3.5 pockets. To just have fun with them and then journal on each of them with the "i am" prompt.

So I went back to my trusty cards from My Mind's Eye and picked a collection that spoke to me. I then cut them all down to 2.5 by 3.5. One  of the cards I pulled had a camera and some hearts coming out of it. Because the cards are 3x4, I lost some of the camera, and decided I didn't want the rest either, so I pulled out some tape and covered it.


I just want to make sure to remind you that embellishments can be altered to your heart's content. I mess with mine all the time. I then pulled out some ephemera from my Mixed Bags and lay it all out randomly.

I moved all the stuff around back and forth until I ended up with something I liked.


I then decided to move on to my second layer, which is where I added paint. I pulled out yellow, red, green, and gold paint. I added some to the edges and sometimes all over. At the end of this stage, my cards looked like this:

and then I stamped each card with "i am", added a few lines of journaling and stitched around the whole card. After which I ended up with these:


And finally, I put them in my album into their pockets:


I also wanted to show you a side view since it shows the shimmer so much better.


This was a fun project that can be as time consuming as you want it to be. Mine took a while mostly because I was having a good time and wanted to just play. I could have left the cards in the first stage after ephemera and they would have been wonderful just that way. So your taste might vary.

I hope you pick up some of these cards and play just to see how much fun it can be!

Thank you for letting me share and see you next month!

Mixed Media with Karen | August 2014

 

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with a Mixed Media with Karen for August. For this month's assignment, I wanted to do something completely different. Ever since I saw the Real Wood Veneer paper in the Necessities line, I knew I
wanted to play with it. I wanted to paint on it and see how it would look.

So I grabbed the paper, glued it down in my journal and used a pencil to start drawing on it. I was worried the pencil wouldn't work but it had no problem. Once I'd drawn one layer, I went over the main lines with my  Stabilo All pencil and I was even able to go back and erase the mechanical pencil lines without any problem


I then started painting using my acrylic paints. It took a few rounds to cover the wood but I was able to do it without much of an effort. I also loved how the paint got into the grains of the paper and gave the whole thing a rough look.


I then added the big chipboard Today and a "carpe diem" sticker and another chipboard embellishment with some twine. I painted my edges brown and black and finally painted my whole background gold.


Here's a side view so you can see the shimmer.


My final step was to add journaling lines. I was worried it might be problematic to write on the wood page, but it was no trouble at all. My usual Micron pen worked just fine. (So did my Sharpie.)


And here's a final look:


All in all, I loved the way the wood page added so much personality to my painting of the girl. If you haven't used your wood grain page yet, I highly urge you to try some paint on it. The results are magnificent.

As always, thanks so much for letting me share my page, and see you next month!

Mixed Media with Karen | June 2014

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with a Mixed Media with Karen for June. When I got the new Market Street collection, I knew that I had to immediately sit down and play with the beautiful 3x4 cards and some of that amazing gold. So I sat down and glued a bunch of the cards to my page without overthinking it.


I then added some of the new gold tape, a few gold bits here and there and some more ephemera.


You can see all the sparkle form this light:


Then it was time to paint, I took out a bunch of my acrylics and just finger painted all over the page. Again, I tried not to overthink anything. I just had fun and kept going until it felt enough.


Then I took out my 12x12 chipboard sheet and added a bunch more embellishments and my title. I was thinking about my husband the whole time I made this page. About how he's so kind to me and loves me so
unconditionally even when I am not the easiest person to be around. I am very grateful for him. The title says: You and me, we are perfect together.


And since the straight shot doesn't really do this page justice, I wanted to show you how incredibly shimmery it is:


A simple, fun one this month. I love it when a product pulls you to create and this is how the Market Street line has been to me. It's calling me to sit and make art.

Have you played with yours lately? I'd love to see some of your wonderful work so link me up in the comments.