Hi again and let me invite you to the very special post today! “My Studio” is a project prepared especially for you by our designers and guest designers too!) to share their inspirations, interests, ways of thinking… all that what is important for them in the creative process:) We start with our brave volunteer – sweet and talented Heidi Kelley from the USA!
(it is also her birthday today – so let me wish her all the best and more dreams comng true – from all the Team:))

 “Every Teeny Piece”

Some of my crafty friends say that I have a problem. A problem with an ever-growing stash of supplies that includes teeny pieces of paper, scraps, bits, and baubles. See, I truly think that each little piece can serve its purpose at some point. Inspired by the idea of using up each little piece of paper, I kept some of my torn scraps and stickers from the last project that I made with the Elise Rebel paper line. This paper collection is so bright and beautiful. and I thought it would work beautifully within an art journal that I have slowly been working on.

But I wasn’t just inspired by the scraps, I wanted to challenge myself a bit also. See, I normally use monochromatic color schemes, or colors that simply are calming together, or earthy tones. Using lots of bold and brights together, is not what I usually reach for when creating my projects… so these couple of art journal pages were greatly influenced by the incredible works of Dina Wakley. Her work is breathtaking, artsy, and she makes it seem so effortless to use these color palettes together – and it blows me away. Here are two glimpses of one of her art journals:

I can’t stop looking at them. Incredible!!

I first prepped my white chipboard pages with gesso, and then added a little bit of color using Shimmerz Coloringz and let dry.

For this page, I grabbed my scraps from the backside of the Elise Rebel “Superstitious” paper, leaving them torn exactly as is – no fixing, no editing. I then then added a chunk from the front side of this paper, and used molding paste to smear in place.

Then I used some more Shimmerz paints to drip, spritz, and blend over these scraps of paper. Next I took some stickers from the Elise Rebel collection, layered them on top of the background I had created, added a bit of lace, a scrap of muslin, and then did some mock stitching using black ink.

I then added the photo of my girls, using 3D dots, and some more embellishments. I finished the page off by dripping some chunkier Shimmerz paint around some of the embellishment edges, and then applied some StazOn ink around the whole page.

Using the same formula as above, I created the page below, simply changing the color palette by the hues of paint that I used.


Isn’t it amazing how little pieces of paper and stickers were put to use, truly minimal supplies – but with a beautiful result. The Elise Collection was PERFECT for this art journal, and still completely customizable just by altering the color paint for each page! AND it was completely freeing to use color… although I might add, each time I reached for a contrasting color – I was nervous, lol! One day I hope to use these kind of palettes without abandon.

How will you be inspired this month? Will you challenge to use or do something new?

xx Heidi

To see more of Dina Wakley’s brilliant works, please visit her blog at http://dinastamps.typepad.com/