The Art of Scrapbooking™ by Melissa Samuels

Steampunk Debutante Card

Did I mention that I am totally in love with Graphic 45's Steampunk Debutante collection?!  I think it's the fantasy element of it that makes me swoon.  I love all of the awesomely (is that a word?) bizarre images that lend themselves nicely to cutouts, and the color palette is just delicious!  This has got to be one of my favorite Graphic 45 collections.  On my card I mixed in a little hardware, that seemed to be the natural thing to do, and added a touch of crackle paint to the wings.  Of course, you can't have butterflies without Stickles.  I hope you enjoy!

Art Therapy

Today was one of those days where I needed to stop, take a deep breath, and have a little art therapy session.  Every time I pull out the art journal, after I'm done I think, "Why don't I do this more often?"  It feels so refreshing and rejuvenating to break out the colored pencils and acrylic paints to create something pretty to me.

I hope you all get out your art journals and have an artful day filled with love and peace.

Conservatory

I was totally in love with 7 Gypsies' Conservatory collection since I saw it at CHA.  I loved the natural earthy feel of it, and butterflies are one of my favorite things to see on paper.  I had a million ideas racing through my head of what I could do with it. I found this jewelry box, and immediately thought of Conservatory.  So, of course, I had to make my own little mini conservatory.  Fitting, right?!  I hope you like it!

xoxo ~Melissa

       

Webster's Pages Card

Here's my Saturday card made from Life's Portrait by Webster's Pages.  It has one of my favorite sentiments on it, "Live the Life You Have Imagined."  I try to do that everyday. 

 

 

 

I was very pleased with the color palette and composition, so I entered it in the Inspire Me August Challenge.  I don't believe it stands much of a chance against some of the gorgeous layouts there, but I had a darn good time making it!

Memory Glass Gift Box Tutorial

Those of you who know me well know I'm frugal and hate to waste anything.  Okay, so maybe the truth is I'm a bit of a hoarder and can't part with anything.  At any rate, I was cleaning off my desk this morning and couldn't bare to throw this Memory Glass container for Memory Frames away.  I thought I could certainly make something out of it.

Here's what I did:

I started with my trusty Un-du to remove the stickers and create a nice smooth surface to work with.

 

I painted the bottom and lid with two coats of gesso.  This primes the plastic and prepares it to take the acrylic paint.  Try not to glob gesso and paint in the closure because it will make it difficult to close.

I applied two coats of acrylic paint.  I used a heat gun between coats to dry the paint, because I'm just impatient that way.  If you use a heat gun be careful not to get too close with it because it can melt the plastic and bubble the paint.

Embellish!  I added Magic Mesh, Prima flowers, lace, and pearls.

 

I think it would make the perfect gift box for jewelry, or a travel jewelry box for short trips out of town.  Also, you could store buttons, brads, charms, or small hardware in it. 

 

 

A peek inside my art journal

It's therapeutic to express your emotions, mood, feelings, and thoughts through drawings and  journaling.  I'm not sure why it's so freeing and makes me feel so happy, but it does.  I love to draw girl faces, I guess because I have 3 beautiful girls that inspire me.  Sometimes I break out the acrylic paints, colored pencils, watercolors, and scrapbooking embellishments, but sometimes I just make pencil sketches.  Regardless, I always find it relaxing and a great way to renew my spirit.

I love keeping an art journal because it can be anything I want.  It's a reflection of me on any given day. 

Sunday Morning on the lake

I have this wonderful memory from about 14 years ago of going out on the neighbor's pond with my hubby one Sunday morning.  He fished while I took in all the sights and sounds of the early morning as we drank our coffee.  There's nothing I love more than the feeling of the cool damp morning air, and the sounds of croaking frogs and chirping birds waking up to a new sunrise.  One of the attractions of moving to Richmond is we live minutes from one of the most beautiful state parks in Virginia.  We decided it was high time, since we've lived here for over 5 years, to try out the lake that's essentially in our backyard.  Even though it's a different location, the experience was every bit as relaxing and peaceful as I remember. 

  Spotted by the deer on the bank.

A giant duck we named Huey.

Huey gave us a guided tour of the entire lake!

Water lilies as far as the eye can see.

They were still closed when we got to the lake, but gave us a spectacular show by the time we left.

 

 

A normal looking blue heron that we didn't name. 

Hubby was sitting behind me, so it was easier to get a pic by holding the camera behind my head...upside down.

Two things I can't leave home without.

More of our guided tour... Right-side up Bob.

Fly away Huey, fly away...what's that?  You're too ginormous?? 

Suze Weinberg at CHA summer 2010

While I was at CHA I had a chance to meet Suze Weinberg, and catch her awesome demo.  She made this incredible necklace using two stamps, embossing powder, a Memory Frame, and her super cool Melting Pot.  Here's her website http://www.schmoozewithsuze.com/ and her rocking blog http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/suzeblogz/.

 

 

Art Journaling Series "Be Fearless" -spend Thursdays with me!

I can't believe my "Be Fearless"  Art Journaling series starts next month!  I'm so excited!  This 5-part art therapy series is designed to encourage creative thinking and help you explore your creativity while learning techniques you will be able to incorporate into scrapbooking, cardmaking, and art journaling alike.  Each class has a theme to help you focus your journaling, and is packed with techniques.  To reinforce what you learn, between classes you will be asked to complete at least one journaling page that is your interpretation of the techniques you learned in class.  Classes are every other Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30pm starting September 9th at Memories Galore West in Richmond, Virginia.  Because this class is only offered in the West End seating is limited.  Class fee is only $140 for all 5 classes! 

You can call (804) 565-2000 to reserve your seat.

Class #1- What better way to start this journey than to journal about yourself.  The theme of the first class is "You."  The techniques learned are masking, brayering, using acrylic paint, gesso, crackle paint & Glimmer Mist.  Thursday, September 9th from 6:30-8:30pm

Class #2-The journaling theme is "Friend."  You'll journal about what a friend is to you, and someone special in your life.  The techniques used are acrylic painting, washes, stamping with acrylic paint, gesso, heat embossing resist, and stamping with Stazon.  Thursday, September 23rd from 6:30-8:30pm

Class #3-The journaling them is "Art is...."  You'll journal what art means to you.  The techniques learned are collage, adding texture, brayering, using gel medium, acrylic paint, gold leaf, stamping, and layering to add visual interest.   Thursday, October 7th from 6:30-8:30pm

Class #4-The theme is "Happiness is...."  Journal about what happiness means to you.  The techniques learned are using modeling paste for dimension, brayering, Glimmer Mist, distress ink, stencils and gold leaf.  Thursday, October 21th from 6:30-8:30pm

Class#5-We will bind our books together using the Zutter, and complete the front cover.  We will do the binding at the end so that there is no pressure to create the "perfect" page (whatever that is).  It's okay to make mistakes.  If you don't like a page, just throw it away and start over.  It's all about learning a relaxing art form, and having fun!  Thursday, November 4th from 6:30-8:30pm

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~Scott Adam 

What was I thinking...

When I was asked to participate in a puzzle exchange I jumped at the chance.  I thought it sounded like so much fun!!  I THOUGHT when I picked my theme I would be doing all 12 of my pieces in my theme, and then exchanging them.  Wrong!  I should have read the instructions.  I had to make each piece according to the recipient's theme.  Let me tell you, I don't have a lot of Wizard of Oz themed paper & embellishments just laying around.  I immediately realize this was going to be a little trickier than I had thought.  I guess I procrastinated a little, because the exchange is tonight and I did two pieces this morning and have one more to go before I'm finished.  All complaining aside, I'm glad I did it because it was nice to challenge myself to do things outside of my comfort zone.

Here are the infamous puzzle pieces.  I've tweaked some of them a few times, and I'm sure I'll tweak a few of them again.  They're not perfect, and some of them are down right homely, but they were made with love.  Oh, and sorry to those of you whose pieces ended up upside down:)
             

PUZZLE UPDATE**  Piece #12 finished!  Hallelujah!

Monday Morning Card

It's always tough getting back into the swing of things after a fun weekend.  Here's a little card I made to help jump-start my Monday morning.  I just love Webster's Pages and Prima flowers together, yum!

This is one of my all-time favorite messages.  It's so true. 

Let's live our dreams!

Birthdays Galore

I have lots of friends who have either just celebrated a birthday or have a birthday coming up.  Happy birthday ladies!!  Here are a couple of birthday cards I've been working on. 

 

This card is made from a scrapbook frame that I covered in Magic Mesh.  I love Magic Mesh!  The little girl is stamped on canvas and sprayed with Glimmer Mist. 

Happy Anniversary Dear Hubby!

My loving husband, Bob, and I have been married for 19 glorious years today!  I am so fortunate to have found the man of my dreams (when I was only a teenager).  Here is the card I made for him.  

 

 

CHA Summer 2010-more inspiration

I thought I'd share some more of my favorites at CHA.  I really enjoyed the Ranger booth.  They always have neat products, and they give fabulous demos. 

I love these stamp sets.  They come in acrylic & foam.

I thought these Pop it! Shapes have lots of possibilities.  I love anything I can paint or ink to custom match my project.

Here are some great examples of Memory Glass.

The Prima booth was spectacular!  It was packed full of exciting new products and tons of inspiration!  I could have spent the entire day just looking at the mini books and layouts.

The new Donna Downey canvas albums & iron-ons.

Donna Downey teaching a workshop.

 

Flowers galore!!

 

Tim Holtz-CHA summer 2010

It may seem like the camera is turned so Tim Holtz doesn't realize he is being stalked by me, BUT I intentionally turned it that way so that I could get a full shot of Tim and his stamping project (with no heads in the way).  I had no idea I would not be able to rotate the video once I shot it.  So, sorry for the sideways video, but it's Tim Holtz for goodness sake.  He's just as awesome sideways:-))

Oh, and here's what he made with lots of love especially for me...and, well, like 20 other people...