New Stamps and New Opportunities

As I sat down to post today I realized how long it has been since I last posted on my blog.  Wow!!!  All I can say is, sorry.  I have been very busy, I have another magazine article to come out soon in Scrap and Stamp, have done a couple projects for Artists Club, am still teaching full time, and have been spending all of my free time on a new project which I cannot talk about yet but believe me it has been all consuming and I hope will have the desired result when it is released.  HMMMM!!!!!  Just a little teaser.  LOL.  I cannot talk about it yet but will be able to do so soon.

Another project which is near and dear to my heart is stamp design and I am happy to report have a new series of stamps available at http://www.treasuredtimesrubberstamps.com/products/our-stamps/hartman/  I couldn't be happier with them, they are absolutely darling and parts of each set will be featured in my new magazine article for Scrap and Stamp.  I hope you will come on over and visit with Jody at Treasured Times Rubber Stamps and take a look at this new series.

Can't you just see using these for Spring and Mother's Day????  Hmmmmm......  Can't wait for you to see the new article and what I did with portions of each set along with a stamp that traditionally would be used at Christmas but I used for Spring and gardening.  Pretty clever if I must say so myself.  LOL.  

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on these stamps.  

COVER GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so delighted, I made the cover of Scrap and Stamp Magazine!  Woo Hoo!!!  This is twice in my life that I have been on the front cover of a magazine and I am over the moon thrilled!!!!  I am especially thrilled because the stamps that I used for the article are from my personal line of stamps.  You can view the stamps at http://www.treasuredtimesrubberstamps.com/products/our-stamps/hartman/ or purchase the painting patterns on my website www.chartmandesigns.com 

When I designed the cards for the article I painted/altered all of my own papers and had a ball designing these.  For any of you who are familiar with my work, have taken any of my classes, and follow my blog you won't be surprised as I have blogged about these techniques before but it is so thrilling to see them in a national magazine and I can't thank Scrap and Stamp enough!!!

If you love the article, send Scrap and Stamp a message and maybe, keeping fingers crossed, they will ask me to write another one. 

I have long been a sketchbook junkie and try to sketch every day, the two journal pages shown above done in my new Strathmore Mixed Media 500 Series Journal and I LOVE it!  The paper is so smooth and is such a fine quality that it is a joy to work on and really makes me want to do something to show off, not my usual sketchbook work in progress.  LOL.  These were completed using my Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils, Tombow Markers, and black permanent markers.  These bees may look familiar as they were done a few years ago on a number of patterns as well as in Scrap and Stamp Magazine.  I'm fond of these little guys.  Hope you enjoy them as well.  

Mixed Media Class Part 2

As a teacher it is wonderful to know that students take away from the class the goals that were planned.   This is a frame that one student completed on her own after our Saturday Mixed Media Class.  I was so proud and thrilled that this student chose to share her finished frame with me.

Mixed Media Class

I had the best time on Saturday, I had the pleasure of teaching a Mixed Media Background class at Memory Lane Scrapbooking in Missoula, Montana and had the BEST time.  What a talented great group and such a joy to teach.  They were engaged and wanted to know more!!!  So thrilling for me as a teacher and what a joy.  We spent the two hours playing with paint, stencils, inks, paper, and developed amazing canvases which I am sharing with you.  I can't tell you how fun and engaging the class was.  All of my students went away from the class with a gorgeous canvas and a new set of skills that they can use on their own as well as a new appreciation for the use of stencils.  We used a variety of Crafter's Workshop Stencils which included the Mini Punchinello. I love that stencil and it is one of my go to stencils in my own personal work.  I wanted to give them the opportunity to use a variety of stencils and brought many from my own personal collection.  

Staci at Memory Lane Scrapbooking was go gracious to share her space with me and allow me to take over the classroom with my supplies and samples.  If you have not been to Memory Lane and are ever in the area take the time to stop by.  Staci is committed to her customers and providing superb customer service.  It is definitely worth stopping by, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Here I am in teacher mode and having a ball.  As an Art Teacher I have committed my professional life to teaching younger students but always love having the chance to interact with adults.  What a joy and what a marvelous inquisitive group.  Couldn't have asked for a better day.

Here are  the canvases that we completed.  You can see that we were obviously working on backgrounds but you can also see that each student put their own flair and personality into each canvas and each one is stunning.  Thank you for sharing your talent with me on such a special day.  

Faces in 2014

I'm not a big believer in setting goals, I always seem to lose sight of those goals after January is over.  LOL.  But it is one of my goals this year to improve my ability to paint faces.  I did this page this weekend as a part of my first Lifebook 2014 lessons and thought I did ok.  I wasn't as happy with some of the features as I'd have liked and thought she lacked any personality but definitely have room for improvement.  I used watercolor crayons though on the journal page and loved those, then of course added acrylics, scrapbooking papers and some stamping which made for a fun afternoon.  I'm posting this so I keep track of my progress. 

Journaling for 2014

When I was younger I did a lot of journaling, wrote a diary when I was young, recording major events in my life as I went through the teen and college years, writing about concerns or worries seemed to make the problem easier to deal with.  I've written about memories from my childhood that I wanted to share with my children and have interviewed and recorded some of my Grandmother's memories before she passed away.  Each one of these brought me joy and helped me to process life events in a healthy way.  I have gotten away from journaling on a regular basis largely due to life getting in the way.  In 2013 I was able to take a number of journaling classes and one of them encouraged us to draw our daily lives and I found myself inspired once again to begin recording those life events that occur on a daily basis, no matter how mundane they seem to be.  In fact signed up for other classes for 2014 but through Facebook heard about another journaling class called the Documented Life Project and was curious as to the content. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thedocumentedlifeproject/ I did some research and thought hmmmmm.......  Wondering if I would be able to be consistent enough to keep this going but it was FREE so I decided to give it a shot.  I found that I connected with the ideas presented by the four artists in the group, I am very organized and keep a planner and thought this could work for me.  Not to mention the fact that I could begin to document things that go on in my day in a quick easy manner and save it for future reference.  A number of years ago my sister made me a Christmas Journal that I record Christmas information in that I love. So.... I was hooked. 

To make a long story short after reading the posts and watching some of the other members develop their journals, playing around with my own ideas for developing a journal decided to give it a go.  I found a Moleskine Daily Planner on sale for 50% off at Barnes and Noble after Christmas and started altering the book according to the instructions in the paid portion of the project.  Yes, there is a paid tutorial on how to set up your planner, I found it to be very helpful, you may not need it however. 

You can see in the photos above that my Moleskine Planner no longer resembles the 50% off Star Wars Planner that I purchased at Barnes and Noble.  I added monthly tabs, tip outs to sketch and journal on and altered with paint and collage the front and back covers.  I purchased a hard cover journal which may cause problems as I proceed, the instructions suggested a soft cover, but will see how this one does and may change for next year.  I couldn't resist 505 off, the fact that it was a Star Wars theme didn't bother me in the least.  I anticipate that I am going to really love this process, imagine not having to carry with me 4 different journals when we travel or go out for the day.  Hmmmmm.......  Interesting concept. 

Jump for Joy Angel Copic Tutorial Part 2

 

I was surprised when I sat down to write this blog post how long it has been since I last blogged.  I guess that the holidays got the best of me.  LOL. 

 

This is the second in the Copic tutorial and I thought you might like to color your angels, if you are coloring along with me.  I used the following Copic Markers on this dress:  R81, R83, R85, and R89.  The socks are YG00, YG03, YG05, YG07, and YG09.  The toes and heel of the socks are the darker red used in the dress.   

 

I also realized that I colored a different angel for this second tutorial.  I'd love to say that I had that planned but honestly I didn't.  Once I colored these angels I cut them out, decoupaged them onto a mini canvas that I had painted, added some glitter paint, a hanger and gave them away as Christmas Gifts to some of my friends.  Using the Copic Markers was such an easy way to add color to the angels and because they are permanent, didn't fade or bleed when I decoupaged them onto the canvas. 

 

Give it a try.  I'm sure your friends will love them as well.  

Color the Jump for Joy Angels with Copic Markers Part 1

How about a tutorial coloring these adorable angels with Copic Markers? 

As many of you know, I am a huge Copic Marker fan and unfortunately have a huge investment into these markers but feel it is totally worth it as I can refill them so they are truly a "green" investment.  Ok so maybe they are part of my art hoarding obsession.  LOL.  But worth every penny. 

I was coloring a bunch of these images and decided that maybe all of you would like to color right along with me using your Copic Markers.  Here is a hint, I am making Christmas Cards for friends and family. 

I started with E000, E00, E02 and layered them slowly blending with my E000 but I wanted more of a shadow and added E11 and E13 and didn't blend these out quite as much.  Stop back in a few days to see the next phase. 

Jump for Joy Angel Journal Page

Here I used my Jump for Joy Angel on a journal page where I hand lettered Merry Christmas and painted the background with watercolor and black permanent marker.  The angel was paper pieced, painted, and colored with Copic Markers.  Wouldn't this made a cute card?  Love her. 

Mixed Media Jump for Joy Canvas Ornaments



I love these canvases!!!  I paper pieced scrapbook papers to the angel's dresses and socks, added paint to the fronts of the dresses, socks, faces, hands, wings, halo, and hair to enhance the shading and highlighting.  Added Deco Art Glamour Dust Glitter paint to the dress to enhance the highlighting and then decided that the canvases needed additional color and stenciled additional color to the front of the canvases with Deco Art Tangelo Orange, and Light Buttermilk.  I used a small drill to drill a hole to attach a screw eye and ribbon to hang the ornaments.  I then cut out a piece of scrapbooking paper the size of the canvas and glued it to the back of the canvas. 

I think these will make great gifts for my friends and were so quick and easy to do because I used my new Angel Stamps from www.treasuredtimesrubberstamps.com. 

If you would like directions for painting the angels go to www.chartmandesigns.com and look at the painting pattern for the Jump for Joy Angels. 

Stay tuned for additional projects using these stamps and a tutorial on coloring them with Copic Markers. 

Jump for Joy Angels Mixed Media Canvas Tutorial Part 4

Here you can see the Washi Tape on the sides of the canvas and two of the angels stamped on book paper and decoupaged onto the canvas.  I still have not added the orange to the canvas but promise you in the next post will show that added, the angels painted, and the ornament ready for the Christmas Tree. 

Are you working along side of me? 

Jump for Joy Angels Mixed Media Canvas Tutorial Part 3

Here they are..................  My brand new stamps from the Jump for Joy line of stamps!  I love these!  The next few blog posts will show how I used these stamps in three different projects.  I'm finishing the ornaments on the mini canvases and then will share a card that I finished, and a journal page which I added one of the angels to which may make a great Christmas Card. 

Hope, Faith, and Love and I love these.  I hope you will too.  Head on over to Treasured Times and purchase the stamps or go to my website www.chartmandesigns.com and purchase the painting pattern.   

 

Stop by tomorrow and see how I've added the stamps to the mini canvases, soon to be ornaments. 

 

What do you think? 

Jump for Joy Angels Mixed Media Canvas Tutorial Part 2

Here are close-ups of the mini canvases after I have added decoupaged papers, Washi Tape on the edges, added the Roller Doodle Stamp and some turquoise blue acrylic paint blended onto the canvases.  Deco Art has a great Deco-Pauge product which works great.  In the past I've had problems with decoupage bubbling up but since I started using an old room key/credit card to smooth over the decoupaged areas have not had a problem.  Seems to work well pushing out all of the air bubbles under the papers. 

I think this needs to have some orange stenciled areas added to it but will add those once I've added the stamped images.  I'm also going to add some GLITTER!!!  Wahhoooo!!!!!  Love the bling. 

Jump for Joy Angels Mixed Media Canvas Tutorial

Ready for another Tutorial?  I am so happy to announce that my newest stamps have arrived and they are fantastic!!  These angels have proven to be very popular as a painting pattern and now are equally popular as stamps and I am so grateful to all of you for your overwhelming support of this design.

I've decided to do another tutorial showing you how to use the stamps in a mini mixed media canvas which can be used as an ornament or as a darling canvas on a mini easel.  I purchased 4"X4" mini canvases and began by developing a canvas using scrapbooking paper, book paper, music score, Washi Tape, paint, and a variety of stamps including my line of Jump for Joy Angel Stamps which can be purchased at http://treasuredtimesrubberstamps.com/products/our-stamps/hartman/. 

I'm actually going to paper piece the angels and use paint to add detail and I'd love for you to join me in this project.  If you already own the pattern from www.chartmandesigns.com you can use that instead of the stamp but the stamp makes it sooooo easy to develop the design. 

Here you can see the canvases with the scrapbooking paper decoupaged onto the canvas, Washi Tape around the edges of the canvas and used my new Roller Doodle Stamp from Glitz to add some interesting detail. 

Are you ready to join me? 

 

What's On My Desk?

I'm trying to journal everyday and having a hard time finding inspiration.  So I thought why not journal what is in front of me every day and sketched out what was on my desk that day.  It was fun and certainly appropriate for my "Day Job". 

Do you journal every day?  Let's have a conversation. 

Back to Drawing my Awesome Life

I'm totally loving this class so thought I'd post my title journal page.  So fun and enjoying it soooooo much.  Needless to say it inspired me to purchase more art supplies.  As if I needed a reason!!!  Joanne Sharpe is contributing to my art hoarding obsession.  LOL.  Can't wait to try them out on all of you.  Who knows it might even spark a tutorial sometime soon. 

This is painted using watercolors on a 5"X8" sized Moleskine Journal and used Faber Castel pens on the lettering and border. 

Journaling Process

I'm in the midst of taking another Joanne Sharpe class which is a journaling class and I love it!!!!!!!!!!  So much fun.  If you have not taken any of her classes I recommend them highly!  She is a former teacher and really understands how to connect even though it is an online class.  I can't imagine how great she is in person.  I'm only into the first week of class but am already way behind.  LOL.  Of course it doesn't help that I am still finishing up the past two classes that I took from her.  That is the beauty of online classes, you do them at your own pace, and for Joanne's classes you have access to them for the lifetime of the class.  I love that aspect.  I can already see an enormous amount of growth in my artwork since I began taking online classes. 

This is the first project that I am sharing, it is completed on Bristol paper and in true mixed media fashion, used water soluble graphite, watercolor, and Tombow Markers.  I wanted to see how watercolor responded to the Bristol paper and I actually really liked it.  So...... we'll see what happens.  I was pretty happy with it, of course would change some things if I ever did it again.  This page came at the end of a loooonnnnggg Halloween week at school, the kids are always crazy during this holiday, and really needed some calm in my life.  LOL.  So I was dreaming of a quiet cup of Chai. 

What do you think?

Aloha and Merry Christmas using Stencils and Gelli Printing

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka which is Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.  A few years ago my husband and I traveled to Hawai in November right before Thanksgiving and noticed how the islands were beginning to prepare for the holidays.   We got there in a massive rainstorm and our taxi driver mentioned that it was their rainy season and the weather had been a little chilly, naturally we were a little concerned as we were counting on nice weather since we were coming from Montana.  Not to worry though we thought the weather was perfect.  The locals were all wearing light sweaters or sweatshirts while we had t-shirts and shorts on and thought the weather was perfect, you could easily tell that we were not locals.   I really felt at the time that I could spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in Hawaii and enjoy 80 degree weather.  What a hardship.  (Giggles and Grins)  Santa was displayed in Hawaiian finery and Rudolf and his friends were dressed for the beach and I thought how fun!!!!   I was inspired to design a Hula Girl and thought how fun would it be to design a Christmas card with a Hawaiian theme. 

During and earlier post we discussed using stencils for a background to be used for a fall themed card and I thought that this post might be a good time to do something similar but geared toward Christmas and immediately thought lets go HAWAIIAN!!!!  Ok, ok, I will also show something more traditional as well.  LOL.  But why not use some of the techniques that we’ve discussed to design a card for the holidays or how about gift tags. 

I adore using my home made sprays as they make such short work of any project and when used in conjunction with stencils can really be stunning.  When I start designing papers to use as background or even as journal pages I always do a number of them so I have a stack to go to when I am starting a new project.   I also save my scraps as they can easily be used in a card.  You can see in the following card that I used my hula girl stamp, home- made sprayed scrap- papers in the background, colored Monstera Leaves and cut out the word Aloha for the sentiment.  I used my Copic Markers to color this but could easily have been painted.  You can see the stamp that I used for this card at http://www.treasuredtimesrubberstamps.com/products/our-stamps/hartman/  I love her and have used her in a card in an earlier post. 

 

The Santa card uses my Santa Face, the line art for this is found on my blog under the archived November 2010 section.  I attached Santa’s face to homemade patterned paper, a tag which has some stenciling and Gell Printing on it; how fun to cut out tags from those gorgeous patterned papers that you are going to design.  We now have a lovely card and would make a gorgeous gift for anyone.  Just add some lettering and bit of glitter and Amazing!!!  Ok so they aren’t terribly traditional but fun none the less. 

 

 

 

Pantone Fall Forecast

Fall in in full swing.  As my husband and I came home today from a long weekend we enjoyed the fall colors on our 5 hour car trip.  It was gorgeous!   I wanted to stop and take photos along the way but we were both so tired that each one of us just wanted to continue on.  I am hoping to get up into the mountains this next weekend so can share the gorgeous colors of the Tamarack Pine Tree!!!  Amazing this year!!!!!!!!!

 

With each new season comes the newest color choices as is determined by Pantone, that mysterious group of “it” people who determine what the home wares and clothing industry will feature as the current color trend.  Yes, I admit I fall prey to the color forecast for each season.  As a designer I like to see what colors are going to be hot for that particular season and try to them into my designs.    I looked at the selection of colors this year and was particularly taken; warm rich tones which had me heading to my paint container to find those paint colors.  Then I thought about incorporating the new fall colors with a stenciled canvas.  HMMMMM…….  See you soon.  I have to get busy creating, the warm Sage Green is calling me.  Take a look at the Pantone web site to see for yourself the gorgeous selection of colors forecast for the year.