Linda Israel

Multi-Media Artist

Today was a great day.. Three of my friends came over and we had a nice workshop and wonderful art was created..

We used a variety of supplies: Tim Holtz distressed inks and stamps, Rubber Stamps from Time to Stamp, Stazon ink, acrylic paint, cardstock, chipboard and scrapbook paper…

The first project we did today was ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) We used my sample cards as the inspiration to get everyone in the mood…

Meghan made two Beautiful cards. The first card she had to use the wing stamps by Tim Holtz. That was her focal point and then she went from there… I like the colors she chose for accenting the wings.. Then I love how she inserted the key into the keyhole on her second card…. Very clever Meghan…

Kathy was very industrious and made six ATCs. I was digging through my goobers (stash of embellishments and supplies) and found a safety pin and said to Kathy “here make something using that”… I think she did a great job of making the Stitches Divine card.. She even changed white ribbon to match her card using an ink pad. I liked how she used the little girl with wings, by putting your on the girls dress, that helped to bring the whole piece together…Great job..

Heather also worked on a couple of great ATCs, but she was a little shy and I was unable to get a photo of  these before she left.. Hopefully she will take a photo and send a copy to me so I can post it here for everyone.

The next project was making six by six inch art.. Everyone started out with the same papers and shapes. But each person made different choices when creating their art.. Kathy’s art has more green while Meghan’s had more orange.. But they both had the same paper when they began they just choose to use different supplies to embellish their artwork.

The last project we made was working on a eight by eight inch canvas panel and using a photograph.. I gave each person a choice of one of 6 flower photos that I took from my garden. Kathy and Heather both chose the sunflower photo.. I chose to use the zinnia photo and make an art piece along with the others…

I had a great time with the ladies today. I hope that they each had fun and learned something new today.. I also hope that they found a new friend today as they met a new person.

We are already checking our August calendar to see when we can get together again.. Make sure that you check back and find out when we will be getting together again so that you too can join in the fun…

Linda

Today Jacquelin Sit with News9 Oklahoma City came to my house and did an interview because of my impending appearance on HGTV “That’s Clever” Tuesday June 29, 2010.

Jacqueline brought two crew members with her, Casey and Sarah. The first thing that Jacqueline said to me was, you give great directions…  I’m glad!  Otherwise they may not have gotten to my house today! lol…   When Casey walked into the house she noticed that the door to my studio was open and walked inside. She said, “we are shooting in here!!! This room is cool!” Or something to that effect…  Everyone that comes into my room is a little overwhelmed by all of the stuff inside…

First I was asked several questions regarding when I started making things, how I got on the show etc.. Then I moved over to my work desk and made a couple of projects for them to film…  This was a lot easier than when the HGTV crew was here for 8 hours…

Jacqueline said that she was inspired and wanted to go to Michael’s to get some craft supplies.. lol I said great, that is my goal to inspire people to create…

The ladies enjoyed the caramel coffees I made for them as well as the peanut butter cookies.. It’s always good to get them on your side before they film you.. lol

I’ve been asked how did I manage to get on News9. Well I was very fortunet to become facebook friends with Amy McRee – News9 Anchor. She posted on a thread that if we had stories to share to let her know, so I posted that I would be on HGTV and she responded. I got an email from her asking if it would be okay if Jacqueline could contact me and I replied well of course! I’m very fortunate that I became facebook friends with Amy McRee, or I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to be on the news! Thanks so much Amy!!

Over all it was a great experience and I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to share with them and with Oklahoma today..  Check out the online article here: News9.com

Here is a link to the newscast on News9.

Thanks everyone so very much for being so supportive of me. I appreciate my Husband and my family for always being supportive. Most importantly I’m thankful to God for the gifts He has given me. It is because of Him that I’m able to do the things I can do, and share these with others…

Make today a great day!!

Linda Israel

The video I created to promote my being on News9:

I used a technique learned from Gary Reef to create the following Bubble Art pieces.. The shapes are wood, two inches thick, the base is about 8 inches wide and about 10 to 11 inches tall. My neighbor got a new front porch and I came home when the guy was cutting these pieces off.. I asked him if he was going to throw those away and he said yes, I asked if I may have them and he said sure, keeps me from having to haul them off.. I wasn’t sure what I would do with these at the time, but I’m glad I took them…

Henry and I went to Home Depot and I stopped by the paint department and looked for their Oops paint.. I found a small pint of Behr Premium Plus paint interior Eggshell Enamel in an off white for $1.00. I figured that this would work as “house paint” for the technique that Gary talks about..

I first painted the pieces with liquitex basics acrylic gesso, and let that dry.  I coated one side of the triangle with the house paint in what I thought was a thick enough coat (didn’t read the instructions again until after I started). Painted another triangle and then read the instructions where it said to put a very thick coat, thick enough that your finger sinks down and leaves a huge hole in the paint.. I thought great, I have messed up.. But I went ahead with what I was doing and started the heat, rest, heat rest to see what would happen… The two that didn’t have as much paint on them made smaller bubbles, and I liked it much better than the one that I put a thicker coat on.. So I decided that when I did the other sides I would use a thinner coat and go from there… Heat, rest, heat rest, this went on forever.. lol.. Henry turns to me and says “you do realize how much time you have in these right?”…  Yes I know, but isn’t the texture cool?  And this was just with the ugly house paint! lol.

After all of the sides were bubbled up, I went and got my craft paints, as I don’t have any “artist” paints. I used one from Craft Smart – Violet, Plaid – Tapestry Wine,  Plaid Metallic – Aquamarine. For the Violet I put a little in a cup added water and white acrylic color to make a “wash” then proceeded to paint all of the triangles. I then heated the paint so that it would dry, I also puffed up the bubbles some as those were still not quite cured as I was doing this in one session.. Then I put the Tapestry wine in a cup with water and black acrylic color and put this wash on all of the triangles.. Heated again to dry.. Lastly I put the Aquamarine in a cup with just water to make  wash and covered all of the triangles and heated again..

That was it, I felt I was done, at least for now.. I may add something to these later, but for now I thought that I liked the color and the texture.. Maybe in a day or so I would look at these and think ah, I know what to do next, but for now this is what they look like…

Thanks for stopping by for a look, and thanks to Gary Reef for sharing his technique with the world.
Linda

Today I’m smashing bottle caps for a project.. It’s kind of fun, and it’s a great way to take out frustrations.. You don’t have to think about much while smashing the caps.. I’ve had a huge bag of bottle caps for a couple of years, waiting for that perfect project… I’ve decided what I want to do with them, but in order to use them I mush smash them first..

A while back I remember reading somewhere that I could smash them using my old Sizzix die cutting machine and a Sizzix converter.. I played around with what cutting pads I had and figured out the best solution for me…

Again several years ago, tired of spending so much money on cutting pads/plates I sought out a local plastics vendor and picked up some sheets of plastic and cut those down to be small enough to fit through my sizzix sidekick.. Just so happen that I had enough of these that I could use these for my bottle caps and not worry about messing up the other plates… So I made a stack of one of my plastic plates and a sizzix clear plate and pushed the cap under the converter.. Down went the handle, pulled everything back out and the bottle cap was stuck to the plate.. Duh turn the cap over so that the rough side was up silly.. So after prying it off of the plate I tried it again and smoosh it went…

I decided that I wanted these to be really flat so I picked up another on of my plastic plates and made a stack of two plastic plates and one clear so I had three and ran the cap through the machine again.. Smash again, ah that’s what I’m talking about! So I spent an hour smashing bottle caps, methodically, push it in, down goes the handle, pull it out, add a plate, back into the machine, down goes the handle… I’m sure anyone watching would be wondering what is she doing, has she gone mad? Well yeah a long time ago, what does that have to do with today? lol…

Back to smashing bottle caps I think I have two or three hundred of these things and I need them flat. lol..

Make today a great day!

Linda

I was talking to a friend at work about places to buy things and she shared the following websites with me..

The first three websites are deals of the day. Offers that are only good for one day.. Get them while they last.. Some are great steals and some are so so.. It depends on what you are looking for..

http://www.craftysteals.com/

http://www.scrapbooksteals.com/

http://www.peachycheap.com/

This website has a lot of cool embellishments and supplies.
http://www.frugalities.com/

A always faithful place to shop for me: http://www.joann.com/ I love all the specials that they have. I got super lucky on Thanksgiving weekend and got some great bargains on Cricut cartridges.

I’ve been getting the newsletter from Cricut and like going to their website when I need some inspiration: http://www.cricut.com/

And I must go weekly to http://www.hobbylobby.com/ to see if there is a coupon! lol… I always print at least three. Today I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some glue and took my husband.. When we went to the check out there was a lady in front of us buying scrapbook supplies and she was getting a paper cutter that was $49.00 without a coupon.. I said here I think you need this and she was “Oh thank you so very much! I totally forgot to bring one today!” I told her that I always print extras never know when I might meet someone that needs one.

Well that’s all the websites I have to share today… Have fun!

Linda

A guided tour through my 11 by 14 “studio”. My husband calls it my crap room. lol.. I hope you enjoy the tour..

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Linda