New Class: Face Sculpting on Gourds

I'm teaming up with my good friend, Shelley Fletcher, an amazing gourd artist, to teach an all new face sculpting class in Laveen, Arizona on Saturday March 19th from 9-2 PM. In this class, we will be learning how to sculpt a face using paperclay. (Believe me, it is easier than you think!) You can adapt this face into a southwestern style (like Shelley), into a whimsical style (like me) or into your very own style. The possibilities are endless. The background is a gourd shard. (In case you've never worked with gourds before, they are like smooth pumpkins that are dried and lend themselves to beautiful decoration.) Check out some samples here and here.

Your class projects (you'll have the opportunity to make 2 different faces!) will make beautiful medallions, necklaces, pins, or elements for your mixed-media pieces or mini-album covers.

Here are the pics of my class samples.

Little Red Riding Hood.

Goldie Locks.

And, the Sun Also Rises.

And these are the samples that Shelley created.

Isn't that feather work amazing? This is Shelley's third attempt at a face. I'd say she has it down pat. Wouldn't you?

All the details and how to register can be found here.


Come and play along!

xoxo
Bethany

Dear Chocolate

Dear Chocolate,

I miss you. Very much. Ever since I figured out that nursing Wyatt was sensitive to you and was fussy because I ate too many cherry flavored M&Ms around Christmas, I gave you up. A few days later, Wyatt slept through the night. For that I am grateful. And for that, I gladly abstain from indulging in your deliciousness. However, that doesn't prevent me from looking at you longingly. Imagining your creamy smoothness.

Granted, giving up chocolate has also been a wonderful thing for my waistline. Wonderful. But is it worth it? I'm not sure...

Ah...chocolate...until we meet again. In about a year.

xoxo
Bethany

The Button-Flower Project Transcript

I'll readily admit that my studio is a total mess. Between design team obligations, CHA assignments, family activities and magazine assignments, I don't have much time to clean. My studio has become a sort of dumping ground for random stuff and it was starting to get to me. I was feeling those teetering piles start to collapse on the small space that I had reserved for creating.

So...today I decided to stay home and tackle the Button-Flower Project that had been ongoing for about 6 weeks. This was my goal: organize my buttons and paper flowers by color in pretty glass containers and place them on my shelf. This way I could find exactly what I needed when I needed it; instead of rummaging through big buckets of buttons and flowers for just the right one. I was almost done with this grand adventure and I thought that Lyssie, Quinn, Wyatt and I could spend a lovely hour working together, learning colors and sorting to our heart's content. Wouldn't that be fun? I thought.

Well...our organization/color learning/sorting hour ended up turning into two sessions of extreme patience (on my part) and kinda fun (on the kids' part). Let me give you a few select excerpts from the transcript of the two sessions to give you an idea of how lovely these mother-children times were. No colors were learned during either session, by the way.

Session One (length about 24 minutes)

Me: Okay, button helpers. Let's put the buttons into the right buckets. Reds with reds, greens with greens...
Elyssa (E): Oh Mom! Look at this beautiful pink diamond! Can I have this pink diamond?
Me: Put it in the pink bucket and you'll always be able to find it. Quinn no spitting.
E: (sad face) Ohhhh. But I love it.
Me: Yeah, I know. Quinn stop putting the buttons in your mouth. That's yucky. Do you know what color this is? (holding up red button)
Q: Blue
Me: No, it is red. Let's put it in the red bucket. What color is this one? (holding up blue button)
Q: Yeddo
Me: Almost, blue. Can you find the blue bucket? (Q puts it in the red bucket and I fish it out.) What about this one?
Quinn (Q): (snorting back mucous) I have yucky nose.
Me: Yes. It helps to blow into a tissue. Let me help you. (Failed attempt to teach how to blow a nose. By the time I'm done, I need a tissue too.)

(4 minutes pass)

Q: Dis is pink!
Me: (excited) Yeah! Good job! Put it in the pink bucket. (Q throws it into the yellow bucket. I fish it out.)
Wyatt (W): (starts to cry)
Me: Wyatt..what's the matter? Quinn stop kicking the buttons all over the room. Lyssa, you are doing a great job!

(2.5 minutes passes)

E: Mom! Look at this pretty purple flower! Ahhh! (shrill scream) Quinn just spit on me!
Me: Quinn, no spitting! Do not eat the buttons. Wyatt, are you tired? (still crying, harder now)
E: Mom, look at this beautiful green diamond! Can I have it?
Me: No. Put it with the greens. Wyatt are you ready for your nap? Quinny, stop banging the lids together. You'll break them. (W crying uncontrollably now) Okay, I think that I'm going to put baby Wy down for his nap. Lyssie and Quinny, would you like to play upstairs for a bit while I feed Wy?
E, Q: Yeah! (everyone runs upstairs)

45 minutes passes while I feed Wy, then fold some laundry

Session Two (slightly longer than session one)

Me: Okay, let's go do the buttons again! (enthusiastic, but wary)
E: Yeah! (true enthusiasm)
Q: Yeah! (true enthusiasm)
E: Ohhh! Mom, here's a sparkly pink heart! It's so sparkly I'm going to die! Can I have it?
Me: No.
E: Ahhhh. But I love it!
Me: I know. Quinn stop kicking Lyssie.
Q: I want PB!
Me: PB is in the living room. Why don't you go find him?
Q: I want PB!
Me: Then go find him. He's right over there. (pointing)

(1.7 minutes pass)

E: Mom, I think we're almost done! (at least 5 cups of buttons remain unsorted)
Me: Really? Hmmmm.
Q: (crying) I hurt ear!
Me: Ohhh poor boy...How did you hurt your ear?
Q: I hit wall. I want loves.
Me: Okay, Quinny, sit on my lap and we can love. Don't sniff back. You'll get an earache.

(3 minutes pass)

E: Mom, I want to color now.
Q: Me too!
Me: Okay, go get some paper and the crayons and you can color while I work here.

(5 minutes pass)

Me: Oh dear! Look at the clock! We have to go get Cam now! Alright everyone into the car....(inaudible chatter)

The end. Whew.

DecoArt's CHA Booth

Thanks to a little luck, I've been blessed to work a bit with DecoArt, the company that makes Americana paints and various other wonderful products like texture paints and mediums.

They are just entering the mixed-media market and asked me to do a few canvases for their CHA booth. Of course, I jumped at the chance! One huge box filled with wonderful paints, adhesives, glitters and fun and many, many hours later, these 6x6 canvases were finished.

And I must say, I absolutely LOVED every moment of their creation. LOVED.

The theme was Sweet Shoppe and the colors were aqua, yellow, and pink. Fun, fun colors. Fun, fun products. If you are looking for an inexpensive acrylic that is very high quality, pick up some Americana paints. (You can find them at Hobby Lobby, Michaels and Joanns.) I was very impressed with the pigment load, texture and overall performance of these paints. And don't get me started on the textures and mediums. I could go on, and on, and on... Let's just say that the more I experimented, the more I played, the deeper in love I fell.

My first project is Bubble Gum Girl. Originally, she was going to be Lollipop Girl, but the stripes on the lollipop eluded me. (I ended up using my first attempt as a paint tray. It made an excellent paint tray, but a lousy lollipop.)

Bubblegum Girl

DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bahama Blue, Snow (Titanium) White, Bubblegum Pink, Rich Expresso Metallics, Flesh Tone, Lamp (Ebony) Black), Glamour Dust Glitter (Crystal), Americana Decoupage Glue (gloss), Americana Glazing Medium, Americana Gesso

Other Products: Colored Pencils, Charcoal pencil, Paperclay, watercolor paper

Next up is Gumball Machine. (I know, I was pretty clever when it came to naming these pieces.)

Gumball Machine

DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bahama Blue, Shimmering Silver Metallics, Snow (Titanium) White, Cherry Red, Bubblegum Pink, Purple Cow, Lemon Yellow, Lamp (Ebony) Black), Glamour Dust Paint (Sizzling Red), Glamour Dust Glitter (Crystal), Americana Decoupage Glue (gloss),

Other Products: Paperclay, watercolor paper, Charcoal pencil, black pen

My favorite is Sweet Shoppe. There are many more details in this one that don't show in my pictures. For example, there is a glossy-glassy medium over the window to make it appear more window-y. Wish that showed up more.

  

Sweet Shoppe

DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bahama Blue, Snow (Titanium) White, Bubblegum Pink, Rich Expresso Metallics, Lemon Yellow), Glamour Dust Paint (Sizzling Red, Ice Crystal, Turquoise Sparkle, Lemon Drop), Americana Glazing Medium, Texture Glass (on the window), Americana Gesso, Americana Thickening Medium (on the curtains)

Other Products: Black pen, Charcoal pencil, text from an old book, button

Birthday Cake is a simpler variation on my larger Wedding Cake piece that I did for Buell Children's Museum.

 

Birthday Cake

 DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bahama Blue, Snow (Titanium) White, Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Yellow), Americana Gesso, Texture Crackle, Texture Thick, Americana Decoupage Glue (matte)

Other Products: string, tissue paper, watercolor paper, charcoal pencil, chipboard star, stamp, StazOn ink

My next piece, Eat Dessert First was a quicky, but I enjoyed adding the doodles and experimenting with the Americana Glazing medium.

Eat Dessert First

 DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bahama Blue, Snow (Titanium) White, Bubblegum Pink, Purple Cow, Lemon Yellow, Lamp (Ebony) Black), Americana Gesso, Americana Glazing Medium

Other Products: black pen 

Finally, my last piece. Cupcake. Molding the paperclay into a cupcake was somewhat tricky, but I triumphed in the end. (evil laugh...rubbing hands together...)

 

Cupcake

DecoArt Products: Americana Paints (Bubblegum Pink, Snow (Titanium) White, Cherry Red Medieval Gold Metallics), Americana Glazing Medium, Americana Gesso, Glistening Snow-Tex, Americana Decoupage Glue (matte)

Other Products: Paperclay, wire, pencil, stamp, StazOn ink, Distress ink, text, sticker letters

If you are going to CHA this winter, make sure to stop by booth #1337 to see them in person. Unfortunately, I won't be there so make sure to take a bunch of pics and send them to me so I can live vicariously. hahaha.

xoxo
Bethany

Introduction to Shimmerz New Shimmeringz and Coloringz

I know that you've seen the release video, now see in this short video exactly how Shimmerz new Coloringz and Shimmeringz work together. You're going to love it!

xoxo
Bethany

New Shimmerz is Here

I'm so excited to tell you that the new Shimmerz products are here! Coloringz and Shimmeringz are absolutely the coolest things! You're going to love them.

Check out this cool video on the Shimmerz Blog to learn more!

Splash Hearts

If you haven't seen the latest Somerset Studio, you really must run out and get a copy because....

I have an article in it! I know! I never every thought that I'd write for Somerset Studio, I mean, it is reserved for real artists right?

My article is on my Splash Hearts that I did for Shimmerz. I love how the magazine photographer captured the gorgeous shimmer on them.

I even have a cool-dude two-part video on them.






How exciting!

New Shimmerz Coloringz and Shimmeringz

I'm super excited to announce Shimmerz newest products: Coloringz and Shimmeringz! Coloringz are super saturated sprays of color without shimmer. Check out these gorgeous colors!

 

Shimmeringz are only shimmer, no color. Using these two products in conjunction will allow you to completely customize your project! Want red with gold undertones? My Bleeding Heart with Goldie Lox. Want blue with silver? Mama Sings The Blues with Concrete is your recipe. Pretty exciting!

Here's a picture of a white cardstock flower sprayed with Pink Stiletto and Heavy Metal.

Gorgeous!

The official release date is Thursday, so you'll have to just sit tight until then to see them in action.

xoxo

Bethany

Buell Children's Museum

A few weeks after I had baby Wyatt, I got the most interesting email. It was from the Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo, Colorado.

In the letter, I was asked to be a part of the Alphabet Zoup exhibit that is open from January 6th through May 28th. Apparently, the curators had seen my French fry boxes on the cover of GreenCraft magazine and wanted me to create more boxes along with a few other pieces. (Can you believe it? I'm still in a state of shock, to say the least!)

Who would have thought that a few pieces of (previous) junk would lead to an exhibit in a museum? Not me!

In my part of the exhibit called Ya want fries with that? (for the letter Y) museum patrons will receive their very own french fry container to decorate with sequins, buttons, stamps, yarn and other lovely materials. While they create, they are surrounded by my whimsical artwork.

(This is what my kitchen table looked like as I packed up my two ginormous boxes.)

Including an army of these cuties.

This sweet girl...

This funny girl...

This guy...

This spook...

These girls (featured in Somerset Studio)...

And this piece...(all for sale, of course. Along with quite a few assorted pieces including a few mini art quilts.)

In addition to the two containers on the cover of GreenCraft, I also sent 30 more decorated ones for the museum gift shop.

This photo was taken in the middle of my gesso-ing. It was a pretty crazy time, to say the least.

 For my completed pictures, I arranged them by theme.

First, the flowers...I used loads of Shimmerz Blingz in Pixie Dust on these lovelies.

Metallics...

Boy-inspired...

Girl-inspired...

So, if you live near Pueblo, Colorado, head over to the Buell Children's Museum! My family will be taking a road trip during Spring Break this year to visit. I mean, how often is your artwork on display in a museum?

Wow.