Lost & Found Studio

a week late and a few hundred dollars short...

nonetheless here is a breakdown of how I create a travel journal from start to finish.

questions before you begin:

where are you going?

how long will you be there?

size of journal and color choices

I will be going to Las Vegas on my next adventure and I will be there for a total of four days.  I decided to go with the red, white and blue color palette.  here is a pic of the supplies I am starting with.

which includes:

1 - magistical memories suitcase

2 - 12 X 12 sheets vegas by reminisce

2 - 12 X 12 sheets let it ride by reminisce

apple barrel paint in cobalt blue

2 - 12 X 12 sheets red card stock

1 - 12 X 12 sheet 3/4" graph in red by hambly screen prints

bingo cards mini - black by jenni bowlin

thickers in subway black and tinsel cherry by american crafts

travel stickers by martha stewart

photo gem accents- las vegas by paper house productions

this is what I will have in front of me as I work and of course I may not use it all.  I will also be pulling from my stash to embellish as I go.

tomorrow I will continue with the steps in completing this album.

-n-

Today is Friday Free for all!

Today is like that "bonus room" you smart folks are having built in your new houses. I especially like the ones where you are tromping up the stairs to view what you are expecting to be mediocre bedrooms and VOILA! A bonus TV room/den/art space appears! It makes your heart go all a flutter and helps you forget that some brainiac designer decided that lavender is back in style for wall colors....

I love bonus rooms and I love a Friday where we decide to throw caution to the wind and art our way through the day! Today we are planning a brief but much needed shopping excursion for the am activities and then noses to the grindstone doing......WHATEVER WE WANT TO DO!!!! OMG!!

I plan on doing some scrap booking catch up and I believe Nadia is in a kind of travel fog as she has not one but 2 travel journals she is building! Fingers crossed she will post some directions!

Before I head out to pick up Gal Friday..{.get it???...grin} Here are some more canvas beauties I am loving and wishing I could hide from Mr. Post Man...

Nadia's "Observe"

 

Nadia's "Courage"

-L-

Colorful Creative Canvas's

Ok we are counting down to shipping these babies off! Today had us feeling like we could create without pressure.

In fact, most of what we did was completely collaborative and spontaneous. This set of 4x4's moved back and fort between the two of us for most of the day.

"Home girl" had this one already started by the time I rolled into the studio. She ALWAYS manages to use colors I just would never ever in a million kazzillion years even THINK to use!  Can I just say I {heart} the lime green against the purple and blue?

Finally it was time to sign and cry. There are 10 large canvas's in this bin and 14 small.. Just let me be with them a few more days please. I need to make sure they understand that I would give them all a home if I was allowed to....

-L-

and what about these babies?

s'all right!  ifirmado, sellado y entregado a punta cana, ningun problema!

-n-

Lest we forget..

Nadia gets home tomorrow from her beach retreat. Lucky girl missed the bucketful of snow we got last night. Next time I may make her take me with her. Three is so not a crowd right?

Today is Remembrance Day .  An excellent day to remember how lucky we are to be Canadians and to remember those who have either lost their lives or are currently fighting on behalf of  us all. |It makes me personally think of those families out there right this minute who have a mom, dad, son, daughter, sister or brother in a war zone.   I can't imagine your sleepless nights.

It was also a day not to be out and about on the icy streets. Me and my sweat pants ( that NO ONE are allowed to see me in..) hunkered down in the studio. My pants and I..oh and my friend Diane...tried to figure out different ways to print out the sizes of pics I wanted on my new printer. Am I just a little addled?.. because EVERYONE seems to understand their gadgets and gizmos better than I do... I suck so bad at new technology..

After wasting nearly half the day trying to figure out where the print button was on my new 2007 Microsoft program..( who the hell would think to click on the freakin Microsoft icon?? Not me..it took the boy CHILD to enlighten me..another blow to my fragile self esteem..

So this day is not a total loss...I present to all of cyber space a couple of finished canvas's .

Nadia's "Experience Change"

Laurie's "Dream the Future"

Stay warm!

-L-

Evolution of a Canvas

Materials used:

Golden Acrylics

Acrylic Glazing Medium

12x12 Gallery Profile  Canvas

Sharpie, flat brushes, sponges, fingertips..what ever is on hand!

 

#1- Here is my pretty, clean and perfectly white canvas. We work on gallery profile canvas. We like them because they are a 2" deep canvas that gives you the option of not framing as well as the added bonus of being able to write or wrap the paint around the edges.. If you just want to play around, even the Dollar Store carries cheap canvas...

#2- My giant hand..ugh! Ok so I've mixed some  yummy yellow acrylic with a Glazing Medium and put that on the canvas as a base. I really don't want to make it too uniform in color so once the color is on the brush or sponge, I may only add water -not paint. This is why the background yellow has darker areas along with others that appear almost white. Then I went in with Burnt Umber straight from the tube. Almost dry brushing it on so I have more control. Believe it or not this can take about an hour.

Work in progress..

 

#4- Here you can see where I moved that Burnt Umber around a bit more and then cut out some simple hearts from an old Atlas. I like crinkles and wrinkles so I actually balled up the hearts to get more texture before flattening them out and using gel medium(or glue) to adhere them down. A super simple technique to try yourself .

#5- More Glaze Medium here mixed with different color's. I like the Fluid acrylic because not only does it act like a flo medium and give you extra time to move your paint around, it also makes the paint less opaque. I want to be able to see some of those maps underneath the color. It all adds texture.

#6- Letter a Monoline quote or sentiment. At this point it is safe to switch gears and get out a Sharpie or other permanent pen. As long as you know that no other paint is going to go over top, you are safe. (Sharpie will bleed through if you paint over it.)

#7- The finished piece!

You can see though that as I go through each step I re-asses the color continually. I may add some shadows or more detail here and there as the canvas evolves. Take a step back from it every once in a while. When you come back to what you are working on you will see something different. All in all the whole process takes me ..personally about 4-6 hours...I'm slow...

There are literally hundreds of different ways to get paint on paper or canvas. And hey...You don't need to have a fine arts degree to play..so go at it!

-L-

Monday Morning!

Today started out slow. Got into the studio about 10:30. Nadia had already prepped and started painting the base on 4, 12x12 canvas's.  I don't know where her energy came from but I think I saw an empty pot of coffee on the counter.

For about 2 hours I actually thought.."Hey..maybe we can get this all done..there really is a first for everything....."... Well it wasn't today. I was moving slow, and the paint was moving even slower. In the end I finished one in about 6 hours. A sweat shop we are not!

Tomorrow I am going to try and post "The Evolution of a Canvas" I'll try to take you from the blank canvas to the finished product through a picture tutorial. I was going to try and do this today but...you gotta finish the canvas in order to take the final pics..right?

I dunno if we got any pics of my hands today but I gotta tell you..they seem to be my favorite tools at the moment. There is something about the instant gratification of putting your fingers into cool wet paint and moving it around without the brush. In a lot of ways you have more control than with a brush and interesting textures happen from being able to rub it into the canvas as apposed to brushing it on.  Finger painting for adults really.. and soooo much fun!

Bring on TUESDAY!!

-L-

Friday recapped!

We are still feelin like rock stars here!

 

Welcome to past Fridays self portrait. Are we the only ones who think self portraits are fun? Taking pics of yourself can be such a hard thing if you haven't been in front of a camera for a while. This one was taken to mark our new 3 day work week. Still a shock to us too...but to work we go~!

One of the bag commissions we had is done and will be delivered Wednesday.

Bag front and back

Then we powered through and finished these 4x4's for the order from Vibe.

We have had that creative mojo really flowing! My only regret is that I am going to be even busier trying to make myself doubles of these for my own wall...I am sooooo loving some of the color combinations not to mention the freedom we have had experimenting with different mediums!

Can hardly wait for the paint to dry on what we worked on today!

-L-

10 second tidy..

Is your creative space like mine? Every surface covered, 2 or 3 projects on the go and all not quite done?

When I go down to the studio I wonder how I ever managed to teach my children how to do the 10 second tidy as I certainly can't seem to manage it as an adult. Even with the assistance of a labeller , a type A studio partner not to mention my Windex wielding daughter...it is a mess...

Today I went through chipboard. I had...4 bins..... probably all told about 15-25 lbs worth GASP! It also took me nearly 2 hours. Is this procrastinating? Are you saying I should have at least put in a load of laundry before I ran my fingers through all that pressed paper...perhaps...sigh.

Looking for organizing  studio Ideas! What works best for you? Do you have to go back and re-do, re-sort like I do every once in a while? Get back to me..I'm curious...

Happy Thursday!

-L-

Rockin the Studio!

After a terrible couple of weeks in each of our homes..days that can only be described as pure shit...Days where, if you can believe it, found us each in different hospital Emergency rooms. Days that went long and hard and didn't seem to end.

All I can say now is WOW and double WOW!  We are rockin! We had some super news that pretty much proved to be the turn around for us. Some super fine ladies,  ( and I do mean "fine" in that I'm a white girl tryin to be a bad ass ...kind of way)  anyway..some fabo ladies from all the way up in Fort St. John got an eye full  of our work just before Summers start. A couple of weeks ago they contacted us and before you knew it we were doing coffee and talking shop. 

Short version...Lost & Found Studio has gone retail!  These fab ladies own a Home decor store that just seems to be made in heaven for us. You can find us now at :

Vibe by Home Pro’s
9629 – 100th Avenue 250-785-6882

Fort St. John BC.

It all happened so fast! We arrived with arm loads of canvas and left empty handed and with an order for more. Our heads were definitely spinning.

Monday morning brought us back to reality and we put our heads down and got straight to work. Sometimes it just takes someone (someone you are not related to..) to tell you they like what you do.

What wonderful positive reinforcement. Thank you Kim and Stacey!

We are so rockin the studio!

-L-

Time keeps on tickin... tickin ..tickin..

Holy Crap have we been busy! Where did fall go? Wasn't that my last post...OMG! there is a threat of snow coming our way  next week. Is it really that time already?

 

 

Sometime during  the past 2  weeks, Nadia and I went to the Creative Stitches show here in Edmonton..where we made bracelets....Sew? ha! don't make me laugh!

 

 

It was totally a nice break from the creative sweat shop we were in.

Yes, that's right...it was that time of year again..Our big card order came in and we went into mass production for a week. 110 cards done and DONE!

The best and worst part of my last 2 weeks? My Halloween ATC's ...

Apparently I missed the memo as our Calligraphy Society is no longer doing a swap...gee..just when I decide to take part again...I came home with all I took minus the one Nadia took cause she felt sorry for me...sigh.. c'est la vie...

At the moment we are knee deep in consignments..yes you heard me right..If you want a one of a kind piece of Lost & Found art feel free to contact us and we may be able to help you out. Currently we are doing tote bags and 12x12 canvas's for what I assume are to be Christmas gifts. WOW! Again with the winter ....

-L-