I Get It. Happy New Year Anyway!

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Hi friends. 

I completely get it if this year has left you feeling rough around the edges.

If you've made it to New Year's Eve in one piece, rough around the edges is just fine - embrace it! 

There was a lot of magic to be had in 2020, born directly out of the difficulty of the year, and I'm grateful for those moments I wouldn't have had otherwise - my live class group, my Pokemon group, the chance to perfect a few recipes and finish some online classes, learning to make marmalade, and re-igniting my love of sidewalk chalk to name a few. 

My Gen X self tends to try to find the little bright spots, but that doesn't mean I don't get the frayed edges at all - I do. I have them too.

So I just wanted to bring you a little gratitude for the time you've spent with me this year, a wish for you to have a safe and happy New Year, and a hope for all of us that next year is a little easier. Even just a little easier would be great. 

I have just a sped up video of an art journal page I did based on this odd, socially distanced Christmas, along with some rough spots - I don't normally film my art journal pages, but this one I felt like sharing with you. The ephemera in the background - one is about Christmas, and the other is a vintage letter with someone expressing frustration over not being able to get mail. I felt like both were super relevant and relatable and so I finished the page with some rough edges, and some socially distant friends and just captured a moment for me to look back on in the future. 

Have a peaceful transition into 2021. If you don't see the video player below, click here to watch on YouTube.

Loveyameanitbye.

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Shoot for the Moon!

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Merry Day After Christmas!

I've been doing some Gel Press projects lately with my Splash inks - you've seen them on my blog recently - and I find with these inks, that I can't bear to throw my brayer cleaning sheets away!

The inks have an acrylic component but also have transparency (why I love them so much) and the colors mix so beautifully, that they create little Nordic landscapes on the copy paper I roll my brayer on! When I am done printing, I cut these down and stash them with my gel prints for later use on a card, and that's what I have for you today! They have such a northern lights look about them, that I wanted to create a nature scene with this gorgeous new stamp club release. I was super duper torn about whether to use the moon stamp or the amazing embossing moon dies, but I saved the embossing dies for another day. What I can tell you is if you love lunar images, you will love this bundle!

I took the brayer cleaning sheet that looked like an icy fjord - snowy hills surrounding a lake reflecting the aurora borealis to me, and I stamped the tree image from the bundle several times - in the foreground in black ink, and in the background - Rocky Slope - to make it look dimensional. Then I used Metropolis to stamp the moon image, and cut it with the matching die. I made the moon pop out of frame a bit to make it look even bigger. Such pretty, classic images. Just a note when stamping over acrylic inks - be sure and heat set it or let it air dry for a bit, because acrylic is non-porous - I have a very thin layer here, but I still heat set the inks to make sure I didn't smudge them. Smudging is one of my life skills.

Here's what the full release looks like - these bundles are not a subscription - just a while-supplies-last monthly release inspired by my talented friend Maria. So when they are gone, they are gone. Here's what the bundle looks like - see the amazing embossing dies for the moon shapes? The crescent moon and the trees both cut and emboss. Genius.

What I love about these is the packaging is also the storage, which is pretty much my favorite. So it comes in the envelope you see above, which then goes into this snazzy zippered binder, which also comes in a beautiful pale blue here. Like everything Tonic produces, it's very well made. 

I hope you had an amazing Christmas/Hanukkah/Friday, and had a chance to see the Grand Conjunction on Monday. What a year. 

What's funny is, New Year's will look exactly the same for me this year. Staying home - in bed by ten! :) Take that, 2020! I hope yours is whatever you want it to be.

Shoot for the Moon: Stamp Club [ TNC ] Tonic Studios - A5 Ringbinder Die... [ TNC ] Premium Dye ink Pad : Rocky slope –... [ PNK ] Premium Dye ink Pad : Metropolis –... [ PNK ] Gel Press 5 x 7 REUSABLE GEL PRINTING... [ SSS ] Niji Splash Ink - BLICK art materials [ BLIC ] Speedball Soft Rubber Brayer - 3-1/2" [ BLIC ] Pre-Cut & Scored Cardstock [ CTC ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | CST ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Here's some more inspiration and a chance to win! Leave a comment on each blog and you will be entered to win a $50 Tonic gift card AND this bundle!

Maria Willis

Michelle Short

Mindy Eggen

Seeka

Amber Rain Davis

Daniel West

Ilda Dias

Jen Kray

Jennifer Kotas

 Me :) >> Lydia Fiedler << Me :)

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Gel Press Workshop - February!

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

Hey friends - just popping by to say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the rest! I also wanted to let you know I've scheduled my online Gel Press workshop for February! You can find all the details and sign up on this page. I've posted the date - but it doesn't matter if you have a conflict that weekend because the whole thing is online and you can access it at any time! So I hope you'll join me for 8 fun technique classes that will make you love your Gel Press even more!

Have a safe and happy holiday - I'll be back with a Gel Press adjacent card on Saturday!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
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Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

The Art Of Your Time

*Compensated affiliate links used where possible at zero cost to you. No posts are ever sponsored or paid.*

I studied Soviet history extensively both in undergrad and in graduate school - my Master's degree is in Slavic linguistics, so I was immersed in both the language and culture of the region for about 20% of my life on this planet.

One of my favorite classes was a Russian art history class, which explored the genres that were born under Soviet rule. 

At first, it was all very offputting to me, before I learned the history. I didn't understand the thematic background just viewing it as a Gen X American child with no context. But as I learned more, even though my focus was language and literature, I found myself revisiting the art more and more. The more I understood about the time in which the art was created, the more I appreciated the art. 

It was dark, I'm not going to lie. It was also extremely spare - there was nothing extra in the art of the time period I studied. And now I know it's because that time was extremely spare. 

I was extremely fortunate to grow up in a family that experienced the depression - I am the youngest child in a family that reaches much farther back. It taught me so many life skills that I value more than anything else. As much as I didn't love the freezer burned corn and lima beans my grandfather served when we went to visit him at holidays - I completely understood where that came from and I learned from it. It has served me well all my life, and is especially comfortable now.

But lately - in some of my classes, I've had some conversations about whether or not we should be documenting all of the crazy things that are happening right now, and as the granddaughter of a man who wrote a line or two daily every day of his adult life, I can emphatically say - YES - we should be.

As much as I enjoy writing, I enjoy visually documenting things even more. And so today's post is your permission slip to make your cards reflect this bizarre time we are living in. It needs to be recorded in one way or another so that some lucky college student in the future can have the wonder I had discovering the strange life of Soviet Russia...

So today's cards all heavily rely on real life as we know it this year. The first one is probably my favorite. I sort of feel like recklessness has been misappropriated and I'd like to reclaim it. So I distanced my friends from a new stamp set I'm obsessed with - A Walk in the Park - and the companion set. I used the new sun stencil and a sentiment from this set. The shadows were made with the transfer paper hack in this video. I have a coupon code in the footer for the transfer paper. I wanted to separate the people in the scene, but also have the hopeful, bright sunrise, and I did that with this stencil. 

This one is a combo of oh so many themes for 2020 and covid. This awesome new floor stamp made me think of chess, which is such a great metaphor for our issues. I separated the people on the floor, but also colored a few of them because I think we all have this sense that we have no idea right now who is infected, who is vulnerable, who we need to protect. It's the perfect imagery - and wouldn't you love to know that if you did everything you could do right now to protect vulnerable people that in the end, your kindness mattered?

Finally, and not because it's not my favorite, because it is, I abstracted the background in A Walk in the Park to make a Seurat inspired scene. When I saw the image, I imagined it like A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - but now - without people. So I stamped it in a light grey ink, and then dotted acrylic paint all over it with a combination of Q-Tips and my ball stylus.

X-Press It Transfer Paper — X-press It [ XPR ] PFS - Slim Line Waves Stencil [ PFS ] Slim Line Daisy Burst Stencil –... [ PFS ] BFF Avery Girl Coordinating Die -... [ PFS ] BFF Girl Avery - Picket Fence Studios [ PFS ] Slim Line Die Cutting System – Picket... [ PFS ] Peach and Piper Coordinating Die –... [ PFS ] Peach and Piper – Picket Fence Studios [ PFS ] PFS - Leaves for Flowers [ PFS ] PFS - Leaves for Flowers Coordinating... [ PFS ] PFS - Corner Sun Stencil [ PFS ] PFS - Burst of Sun Stencil [ PFS ] PFS - A2 Tall Grass and Waves with... [ PFS ] PFS - Slim Line Grass and Waves with... [ PFS ] PFS - A Walk in the Park [ PFS ] PFS - A Walk in the Park Coordinating... [ PFS ] PFS - More for a Walk in the Park... [ PFS ] PFS - More for a Walk in the Park [ PFS ] PFS - Slim Line Cloud Coverage Stencil [ PFS ] PFS - Do Good Recklessly [ PFS ]

There is so much fun new stuff today over there today so check it out!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
5% off at LBC here with code LYDIA5
Phone stand for filming link below in the banner - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE