She believed she could so she did

Good morning friends. 

I am so happy to be a Creative Contributor for Susan K. Weckesser. 

Susan has asked us this month to show you a peek inside our studio. Mine is a total wreck right now because I am totally trying to get organized however my work area was clean enough to take a photo. I promise when I am done organizing I will post a picture. 

Until then this is my work table. 

Susan also asked us "What inspires you to create?"

Honestly my inspiration comes from everywhere. I can be sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee enjoying the outdoors and something pops in my head. A lot of time I think of things while I am driving or riding in the car. More times than I care to stress lately it has been in the middle of the night while I am sleeping. I wake up and write it down really quick and go back to sleep. :)
But most of the time I just grab a stamp and some Copics and start in. A lot of my scrappy friends say they take the paper they want to use and then color the image to match. I am the complete opposite. I always color my image then pick the pattern paper.
I love to create. It is my passion.

Today I am working with one of Susan's newest stamp sets. 

This is Love Ya Whole Bunches

I absolutely love love love this stamp. BUNCHES!!
I colored up the little girl using my Copic makers.
I found some pattern paper in my stash and used some twine to finish off the card.
For the sentiment I used my all time absolute favorite saying.
"She knew she could so she did!"

I hope you enjoyed my post today.
Have a marvelous Wednesday friends. 

STUDIO AND INSPIRATION

Being a Creative Contributor for Susan K. Weckesser is always FUN!  Susan gives us monthly inspiration/motivation and we roll with it!  When I use them, I feel like it gives my work a smile!!

This month she asked "Show us inside your studio...".  I took a few pictures with my phone using Instagram.  The little photos are awesome to add to a layout.  She also asked "What inspires you to create".  My answer is easy.  What DOESN'T inspire me to create!!

I started with a piece of Core'dinations cardstock and painted randomly on it.  Then, I added some spray ink through stencils.  I used Susan's Stencil with black paint for the numbers and the squiggle.  Next, I ripped some pieces of Susan's "Live In Color" Scrapbook Paper Collection and adhered them to the background.

I had fun with the Instagram Pictures.  I took pictures of things I love to use, or love to look at in my studio.  The bottom left is a stack of papers I've painted, stenciled or inked on.  On the right of that is a picture of dirty water with paintbrushes in it.  I don't know why but I love dirty paintbrushes!!  Above right are some of the Hello Kitty things I have on shelves and to the left is a storage thing that I keep tools and paintbrushes in.  The center has old gift cards in it because I use them to paint all the time.

A picture of some of my spray inks, stains, paints, powders and punches.

The top right is just some of my different mediums.  I LOVE them!  On the left is a shelf of Hello Kitty things.  I have soooooooo much more Hello Kitty stuff!  It is a sickness, I swear.  But how could you not smile if your studio was full of Hello Kitty stuff?

I attached the pictures with staples and finished the page with stamping.  I used Susan's "A Little Grunge Love" stamp set to add the arrows and hearts.  And her "Fly Away" set for the kite.  I doodled around the stamps and around the page.  Susan has a paper with different cut out sayings.  Her motto is "Live to Create....Create to LIVE".  That cut out is the perfect finishing touch.  Don't we all Create To Live???

Thanks for visiting!! Have an awesome day!!

xxDaniella

Wings Canvas

Hi! Dana here today sharing a canvas. Susan asked us to share why we create this month. Her motto "Create to live, live to create" really resonates with me and is a statement that I agree with. Whether it is stormy outside, or I'm just dealing with my occasional stormy mood, Susan's designs always bring a ray of sunshine into my studio. I love the happy projects that I create with her collections.

The design idea for this piece began with a Coco Chanel quote Susan shared with the team; "If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing." I thought this was a great motivational quote!

I had a lot of fun with my favorite Susan K. Weckesser Color Burst patterned paper. I have once again cut the colorful circles from the paper, slightly distressed the edges, and stacked them to form a caterpillar. I used the Susan K. Weckesser Live In Color Stencil with a black marker to add the little feet and antennae to the caterpillar.

I used the Susan K. Weckesser A Little Bit Washi and Tumbleweed Houses stamp sets to embellish the background of the canvas, which is a simple layer of painted tissue paper. I finished the canvas with some flowers and bright splatters of mist.




Thanks for stopping by today!
~Dana Tatar - Susan K. Weckesser Creative Contributor

Art does not define me, it releases me....

 Why Do I Create?

I am a "mind wandering, daydreaming, sensation seeking, and impulsive person" who needs an outlet....and I am sure you can guess what that is..... art . It's more than an activity for me, it's a deep down desire to act on all my inner stream of daydreams and imagination that runs rampart in my head. I actually tell everyone that for me, the style of mixed media is the ADD of artists, I cannot pick one medium, nor one style and on any given moment I am working on approximately 5 projects.....as you will see from the pictures of my art spaces......yes, spaces.

Where I create:
Craft space #1 is the extra room that some people might use for their guest bedroom. My overnight guest get to use the couch in the den. Nothing is too good for my guests..lol
Well, it keeps them from staying too long anyway!! HA!

But then I have a tendency to over flow and when that happens I take over my dining room, where I do most of my painting. If you are company you see picture #1, if you are a good friend dropping by then you get version #2 ( keeping it real for my friends, lol )

And last is my new studio that I am renting at the Art MoB, it's a very big step for me and it's both exciting and scary at the same time. Currently, the table I work on is set up for my hand made paper making. While I like being in a studio it is harder to get use to people coming in and out and all the noise. But this has been on my bucket list and I am going to give it one year, but I hope I do well and can stay on longer.

What are my favorite colors?

This has always been a hard one for me to answer, and again I'll blame it on my creative ADD....the answer is....my favorite color is whatever I am currently using. I don't have one set of colors I fall back to, I love every color in the crayon box! And here is a little bit more about me....as a child I adored my crayons. There was nothing more exciting than getting a new box of them and there was nothing more devastating than breaking one too....I can just smell them when I look at this picture!

Here is an art journal page that I created....and I used crayons too!

I began with a sheet of the Bouquet paper and used crayons to write the word art filling up the background. The crayons will create a resist for the next layer. Next I used my KOI water brush and Derwent's Inktense blocks to color over the top of the crayon. Because the crayons are waxy the ink does not adhere to them and they pop out from under the ink.

After that dried, I used my Signo white pen to do some stream of conscious writing, or in this case, I simply copied what I wrote up above in "Why do I create?" Because my writing isn't a focal point but only part of the background I used my broad water brush to smear the white pen writing. If you want any of the crayon words to stand out better then simply go over the crayon with water and blot it off.

Lastly I made wings for my little art fairy by randomly adding acrylic paint to a sheet of Bouquet paper and then once it was dried I stamped some angel wings with ink and then used embossing powder to make them shine. I cut them out and glued my darling little Loveyawholebunches stamp. It's one of Susan's newest releases!! I just love her and the sentiments!

A Big Welcome to the 2015 Creative Contributors

It Is 2015! Already!

Wow! Where on earth did 2014 disappear to? It was a super crazy busy year full of graduations and weddings. I hope that you had a good year. This year there are going to be a few awesome changes. First of all my logo will be changing. Just having fun with doodling! This will be a fun year a designing for me. I even have my designs showing this month in New York at Printsource and later on in the spring at Surtex. A dream of mine. I am also having to really focus on health. Sometimes we just have to slow down a bit and smell the daisies! I like daisies…..so it is all good. I am enjoying every minute of each day.

I am really excited to announce that this year Susan K. Weckesser Inc. will have Creative Contributors. These ladies are not only really super amazingly talented but they are so BIG HEARTED too! If you don’t already be sure to get to know them.

I would like to introduce the 2015 Susan K. Weckesser Inc. Creative Contributors.

CHA Announcement

I wont be at CHA 2015 this year but I have a couple wonderful designers doing demos with my stamps and with Clearsnap, Ann Butler Ink, & and Fancy Pants products at booth #1903: Bella Crafts Quarterly. So stop in and check it out and say hi! Take a picture and tags me me @susankweckesser #craftuplove …… It will really make me SMILE! Especially when I am stuck in a hospital bed instead of crafting. Haha! I will likely be crafting IN my hospital bed! !!!!

Have an AWESOME week! and an AWESOME 2015 !!!!!!

BIG HUGS,

Susan

xo

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Thank-you for helping to #craftuplove

THANK-YOU from the bottom of my heart for helping to make this 2014 Christmas Love Campaign AMAZING! Everywhere I looked people where reaching out to friends, neighbours and even strangers and doing something kind. It was SO wonderful to see and hear the stories and to see the wonderful crafts, artwork and edible goodies. It WAS AWESOME! I got so many wonderful emails and pictures! It was SO cool!  There was people participating in my home town here in Medicine Hat, Alberta, all over North America, AND all other the world!!!

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”

― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

The prize winner of this years Christmas love Campaign is Gayla Vibar.

 Gayla can you please email me at susiebeestudios@gmail.com. Thank-you for helping spread some love this Christmas! xo

Thank-you to everyone for helping to make this Christmas a little more special for someone this year. Let’s keep the spirit going and #craftuplove the WHOLE YEAR LONG. It really is wonderful to make someone smile…isn’t it! *smile*

hugs,

Susan xo