VIDEO: EOINA - Bargello Technique

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Hey peeps! I have an oldie but a goodie video for you today! It's a technique that I love every time I do it, and I tend to forget about it. 

I also have a Patreon update and a streaming update for you. Starting during the pandemic shutdown in March of 2020, I opened a new Facebook group and started doing daily lives with various techniques, and I continue to do lives 3X/week - they are so much fun. But I'm going to make some changes you should know about. First - if you never joined the lives because you are not on FB, I'm moving them to YouTube only. On my streaming platform, the comments weren't all in one place and that could make the conversations among the group a little confusing. 

Second, I'm moving two aspects of these lives to Patreon - All replay views will be moved to Patreon, as well as the very valuable database I built for all these lives. So anyone can watch the lives, but once they are done, the videos will move to Patreon. The database contains 600 live videos, all filterable by type - so if you just want gel printing videos, you can filter for that. Same with stencils, coloring, etc. Also, if an edited version of the live exists, there's a link to that as well. It's a great resource! If you appreciate all the free content I provide already, I hope these tools are worth a few dollars per month. I also have a cooking tier on Patreon!

So onto today's technique, which I did on one of my lives. It's one borrowed from quilting, which you've seen from me a lot lately - no clue why I'm in my quilting phase. The cool thing about this is there are almost an endless number of ways to do it and it's SUPER easy - it's the Bargello technique. 

For this card, I used strips of this sort of vintage paper pad mixed with the black from this paper pad. I REALLY recommend using adhesive sheets for this technique. It goes very fast - this is one instance where I do not recommend glue. It didn't start out to be a Christmas card, but when I was done I thought it felt like the holidays so I added this sentiment. 

I used a different pattern for the second card, which you'll see in the video. The papers are the same and the sentiment is from the same set.

Here's the video:

Hope you have a great weekend ahead! Loveyameanitbye.

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VIDEO: QuiltCon Inspired Cards

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I was deleting photos from my phone during a kind of boring TV show the other night and I found some of my QuiltCon photos. 

There was this stunning aqua and grey quilt there that I used as inspiration for today's cards - and I think I found her on Etsy - choosing this teal paper pad, a striped paper pad and a gingham paper pad, cut into both quarter inch strips and little chips I dropped into this first design. It was so much fun putting it together. 

The sentiment is from this set. I love the way the dies cut it out. It makes it skinny so the background isn't covered up.

For this one, I took my leftover grey strips and put them on a card front. Then I cut that into little squares and pieced them onto this card. When I was done with that, I used the snowflake die to "quilt" a pattern into it. The sentiment is from the same set.

I did the same with the rest of the teal strips and then die cut that panel into a circle with another sentiment.

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So fun. I love paper piecing. Enjoy the video with my secret tip for what to use as a base! :) It's something everyone has.

Loveyameanitbye.

VIDEO: GHOSTS + New Shadows & Reflections Master Class

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103 days until Halloween! I can't wait. I'm always ready for spooky season, so I'm giving you a preview today with the most adorable ghost stamp set.

I also have a video for you today which is a little taste of my new Shadows & Reflections Master Class! I have 12 videos and techniques in this online class - ALL of my best tips and tricks for shadows & reflections - and you know I'm the shadow queen! This is my largest class so far, and it's very inexpensive so I hope you join me. I show you how to use clear, cling and wood or cling stamps, and also show you with and without specialized tools - so you don't need to buy a thing - just show your current craft supplies some love!

In today's card, I basically recreated the center photo with scene building and shadows - do you see it now?

In the video you'll see me color another one of the little photos that's so cute but I didn't have room for it. 

Here are the supplies in the video

Ghost stamps and dies [ ELH ] Floor stamp [ INK ] Masking Paper [ AMZUS ] Post it tape [ SSS ] Cut Align [ MSP ] Gray Ink [ PNK ] Graphit — Marker Universe [ MRK ] New & Improved Mini MISTI Laser... [ ELH ]

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Here's the video - you will get a big kick out of it!

Loveyameanitbye

The Joy of Using Old Stamps

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I think in general, we don't go back to our stamps enough. I have some GORGEOUS old stamps that never see the light of day, so I thought I'd fix that with a stunning old water buffalo stamp I bought in the late 1900s. The style of this is so fun, and had an Asian feel, so I thought I'd pair it with the beautiful old script stamp in the same drawer.

Down the left is a fun scrap from a mixed media piece I did - and a scrap of gold glitter paper I couldn't bring myself to throw away. I trimmed it down so it's a little shorter than the other scrap just to balance out the heavier circle on the right.

You want to know what's crazy? I was trying to see if this stamp was still kicking around anywhere, and a stamp by the same company is featured on an MIT website! It looks like the script stamp I used. Here are two other views of that project on their site - a closed view and a back view. Here's the native page - I bet they don't even know it's there!

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Anyway - get your old stuff out and use it! Life is short!

VIDEO: Reflected Angel + Shadows & Reflections Master Class

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I've been playing a really fun new phone game. I'm not good at sitting still and watching TV, or waiting for my allergy shot, etc. - so if I can't craft, I do puzzles or games. Logic puzzles are my favorite, but those aren't good on a phone, so I have to do those in magazine format with a pen.

My friend Bev told me about Apple Arcade, which I was clueless about and I love it. You pay a small fee, but then all the games in there are ad-free - and if you've played any phone games, you know how annoying the ads are. Some games I will immediately delete based on the ads. Some games - like June's Journey - do ads really well - you don't have to watch ads, but if you do you get in-game incentives. 

Anyway, Arcade is ad-free and the games are super high quality and interesting. The first one that Bev told me about was Squiggle Drop, which is AWESOME and pretty hard. 

Then I read about one online and tried it and oh my GOSH is it awesome. It's called Mini Motorways. The graphic feel reminds me of Monument Valley which is a beautiful game from years ago. The idea is to move cars from their houses to buildings - matched by color. You can use bridges, freeways or roads you draw with your finger. However, you can also create traffic jams, so you can add stoplights or roundabouts. There's a timer element too - and when the timer runs out on a building, the game ends. It's a fun, engineering style game that's a real challenge! Even though each city eventually fails, it's not frustrating at all - it's relaxing and fun, and I've learned a TON in the week or so I've been playing. There's some stuff on Reddit about it, but people don't seem to be super active on there. 

Anyway, for today's card, I turned this beautiful angel into a statue by the water with a fun trick that I totally screwed up! You'll see in the video - don't be like me! I used the grip mat for the reflection - such a fun different way to use it. I used these colored pencils and this sentiment set. The inks are just blue and violet.

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angel stamp [ HNB | ELH ] Angel Dies [ HNB ] You Are Not Alone Sentiment [ HNB ] You Are Not Alone Dies [ HNB ] Grip Mat [ WFF ] Colored Pencils [ BLIC ] Blue Ink [ GNK ] Violet Ink [ GNK | BLIC ] Grey ink [ ELH ]

I have a fun new class coming, but my router died, so it put me a bit behind. It's going to be a shadows and reflections MASTERCLASS, and today's video is part of it - just one of many ways you can do beautiful, realistic shadows and reflections.

Sign up here to be notified when this mega class is ready!

Here's the video - bloopers included!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Loveyameanitbye.

VIDEO: Pop Art Lion (LeRoy Neiman Inspired)

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The 90s have come up quite a bit lately. Nostalgia? On one of my favorite podcasts, The Prosecutors, one of the hosts had no idea that pagers were a legitimate work tool. He is so young, he thought they were just for drug dealers! 😆

I worked in the construction industry so pagers were essential in the pre-cell phone era. I remember vividly switching from pagers to Nextel phone/radio combos and it felt so fancy. 

There's been a lot of 90s music chatter too. I'm more of a pre-90s music person - 60s-80s - but there's a lot of love out there for the 90s, musically. 

So I thought I'd use that to inspire a card this week, and I went back to something that was ALL the rage in the early 90s, and that was the art of LeRoy Neiman. His portrait of Sylvester Stallone was the one I always think of when I think of him - his art was in several of the Rocky movies, and Rocky will always be a movie I vividly remember the actual experience of seeing for the first time. 

It's a fun pop art style, made up of sort of impressionist influences but with bright, bright colors and bold strokes. 

It's also very relevant now, as the craft industry is being endangered by counterfeit product dumped into the market, and LeRoy Neiman is one of the most ripped off contemporary artists around - there's a nod to that in the article above. He was the canary in the coal mine of stolen art. So check out some of his original, beautiful artwork here. 

And be inspired by his STYLE to create something with stamps, like this stunning lion stamp.

I stamped the lion in black ink, and the only other ink I used was Pool Party. I used my favorite masking paper and OLO Markers.

Lion Stamp [ UNT ] Aqua Ink [ HA ] Black ink [ HNB ] Masking paper [ AMZUS ]

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Isn't that just fun? So easy too - you'll see. Here's the video.

Hope you have a great weekend! Loveyameanitbye.

Sunday Cartoons & The Way They Feel + Giveaway

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I'm back! Sorry for two posts today - it's just how the calendar goes sometimes! But you'll be glad I'm back because there are some sweet, summery cards ahead with the new Hero Kit.

But this first card is with the dog bundle and the sweet park background because this image yanked me straight back to childhood, and reading the Sunday funnies. The Sunday funnies were magical because they were in color - and after reading them, I had hours of fun using Silly Putty on them.

Something about this style of image just recalls that great comic art that has been a type of art that has been available to the masses and all classes for centuries. They are about as old as this country, since we just celebrated a birthday. Isn't that crazy?

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The sneak peek from yesterday is from the main kit - I love the little background stamp! The technique is a secret until Dare to Get Dirty - join us!

The last card is one of those ideas that comes in half sleep - I will be expanding on the idea soon - but I realized that I ALWAYS do these silhouette dies in black or white, so why not add color? And because the image is so very organic and natural, I thought I'd do crisp stripes as contrast. The tree die is from the main kit. 

Want more inspiration & a chance to win a $50 gift card? Check out the Hero Arts blog hop HERE. Leave a comment here and on the other posts to be entered!

Hope you're having a good week!

Loveyameanitbye.

VIDEO: Bees & A New Tool!

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Hap-bee Wednesday! I have a quick new video for you today that I think you'll be excited about. 

You know how much I like my sticky mats, right? There's a new tool that is like a sticky mat AND your MISTI foam put together. Genius. 

I used it to create the Hexie background and the bees on this card. 

Grip Mats [ WFF ] Bee Dies [ WFF ] Layering Hex Stencil [ WFF ] GKD Color Companions Ink Pad- Wild... [ GNK ] Dragonfruit, Concord & 9th Premium... [ ELH ] Summer Sky Bold Ink - Hero Arts [ HA ]

Since I have another post today I'll be quick - just check out the video and see what you think!

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Drawing Focus With Color - Sneak Peek

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Where did June go? Hard to say - but what I will say is it's the first time in half a century on this planet that July brought a welcome break from record heat! So no complaints for June being over. 

We built a pergola this weekend with the amazing Grid system! It's so pretty and modern and the design is incredible - completely made in Canada, and so easy even three very short people with just one ladder in 103 degree heat can do it! Pics below.

It's a lot more sleek than the wood one that was here when we moved here, that had long since rotted away, and we removed it. 

The ice storm this year completely changed our yard. The area where we put the new pergola used to be totally shaded, along with the rest of the backyard. Now it's blazing full sun all day every day - which means painting outdoors was no longer an option. So now I can get back to watercoloring outside. 

The one blessing of the new sun is that I have lots of things flowering back there.

Today's card is a little homage to all the life I enjoy so much in my yard.

I used a soon to be revealed Dare to Get Dirty challenge to create my colorful focal points, rubbing each stamped image with a bit of graphite to give them a little fog.

This is a sneak peek of the VERY summery kit that will be revealed Wednesday after the holiday. 

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Here's the before and after of the pergola the old wood one - this is a terrible idea in Texas - the wood was sunk in the ground - too many floods, pests, etc. It rots quickly. We tore it down years ago but didn't replace it because prior to the ice storm, our yard was full shade. This year changed all that so we went a simpler, more minimalist route with the grid. We are going to add side shades because the sun moves across the yard exactly from right to left in this photo.

Anyway - hope you have a good holiday lined up. We will work more on this space!

Loveyameanitbye.