Create With Me magazine

The second issue of Create With Me magazine by Stampington & Co. hit the newsstands Jan. 1, and I’m pleased to tell you that I have an article in there about preserving your children’s (or grandchildren’s) artwork with ICE Resin.

The article is the very first art collaboration between me and my 2-year-old daughter. We color together every morning before the babysitter arrives, and I’ve been saving her best scribbles since she was old enough to hold a crayon. Some of my favorite drawings of hers come from when we use the Faber-Castell Gelatos, these are luscious deeply pigmented color sticks that glide on like lipstick and turn so heavenly watercolorish when hit with a dab of water on a paintbrush. One morning when using the Gelatos in blue and green, Miss B created a really lovely canvas that looked like stems and leaves — all that was missing were the flowers.

I scanned her artwork and added a pretty flower brush in Photoshop Elements. It looked so pretty that I decided to make a necklace. I chose a gorgeous hammered bronze SLK open bezel so I could make the piece two-sided, the front of her artwork and the back a photo of my inquisitive little girl. I used the method for pouring a backless bezel (found in detail in my book Explore, Create, Resinate and also on our ICE Resin website on video), and then finished off the necklace with some cream and blue vintage rosary chain and a wirewrapped glass foil heart.

Obviously, my project is a little advanced because I chose to use the backless bezel and make it a double-sided piece, but this would be so cute of kid’s artwork sized down and put into any of our mixed-metal bezels or even our new white bronze heart bezel.

In addition to my article in Create with Me, there are some wonderful features by my friends and fellow fab artists Vanessa Spencer and Laura Bray and their adorable and creative daughters as well.

The grandparents are so thrilled to see their baby girl in the magazine that I had to give IOU cards to them at Christmas for copies of the magazine. She can’t sign her name yet, but you can bet the are still going to ask her to autograph their copies. As for my signature? I doubt it. My family rarely reads my articles (“oh, honey, are you still writing about that odd jewelry and what do you call it…assemble something… of yours?”), but I know I’ve hit a home run with this issue.

If you have children or are friends with a teacher, a copy of Create With Me is a great gift “just because.”

Oh the gifts I want to give…

I was thrilled to learn that last year’s premiere issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors Gifts issue was a huge success. No wonder, the projects featured were just so darn inspiring. I made some fun ICE Resin ornaments that people could use as jewelry, or use as ornamentation for their gift-giving presentation.

When the esteemed Cloth, Paper, Scissors Editor Jenn Mason asked if I’d like to contribute another project to this year’s Gifts issue, I immediately said, um…Heck Yes! I had a great time making mixed-media tags for the 2011 CPS Gifts issue, which is available for pre-order right now.

Even though it was summer time and 90 degrees outside, I gathered up some of my vintage Christmas paper books and ephemera and resined up lots of yummy papers to use as a base in my tags. I show a step-out of how to resin paper in the article, so if you haven’t ever made resin paper before, be sure to check it out in the magazine.

Once the papers dried to the touch, I got out some plain vanilla shipping tags, my Distress inks from Ranger and a bunch of vintage trim and buttons. I added some stamped images and words, as well as some other found object goodies, like a blingy broken rhinestone pin, a broken watch face and two delicious snowy white buckles. I used Helmar’s 450 Quick Dry Adhesive and glued all that fun three-dimensional stuff on my collage tags.

I gave them a good day to dry thoroughly, gave them a little shake to ensure nothing was coming off of them in the mailing (the worst thing for editors is to receive artwork where bits and bobbles end up at the bottom of the package) and shipped them off to Jenn with a kiss and a wave.

Five months later the finished magazine arrives in my mailbox and I get to squeal with delight about what a wonderful job Jenn and Barbara Delaney and all the rest of the CPS team did to create another inspiring issue.

I’m in love with Jenn’s Journal Jars, and Cat Kerr’s Coffee Cuffs. Also the work from my CHA Designer Member peers Melony Bradley, Laura Bray and Jennifer Swift. My friend Lara Scott has some cute stamp projects in there too using the Teresa Collins Stampmaker. Let’s not forget about the big guy himself,  craft guru Mark Montano who made a wintry assemblage. Reading the contributing artists is like being at an art retreat with so many fellow friends and artists.  

I’ve given my copy of the magazine a quick once over. I can’t wait for it to get dark so I can get into my pajamas and snuggle under my covers with the issue so I can read it from cover to cover.