Hello mix media lovers. I recently took an art journaling class with the fantastic Dina Wakley from Ranger. She is one of my favorite mix media artist. I have both of her books and love her product line of stamps, stencils and heavy body acrylic paints. I live in south Florida and she was at my local scrapbook store in August. We learned great techniques in class and I was going to practice in my art journal and then I thought I could do a background instead in order to scrap my picture with Dina.
The dachshund was the first step on white cardstock. It was a simple outline printed off of the interest and I adhered it with Dina Wakley gel medium. The acrylic paints are inexpensive Apple Barrel paints in Admiral blue, Real navy, Peacock blue, Cool blue and Key West for the doxie. A Stabilo All Pencil was used to outline the entire doxie and a water brush to soften the line. I used gesso on the page and then started on the purple background. Fuchsia, dive pink and neon orange were used on the initial background.
I used the "Parasols" 12x12 stencil from Crafter's Workshop with a makeup sponge and Real Navy. I loved the look of this stencil along the edges and then added the stencil "Patterns" using the same color. Mixed Media in my experience is all about adding layers and dimension with stamping and stenciling, so that is exactly what I was trying to accomplish with this background. Dina Wakley's stamps called Textures were used with Memento Wedding Dress white, Lilac Purple archival ink and Cobalt. And after that layer I added white splatters with Dylusion ink spray in Linen White.
I hand wrote "Inspired" across the page with black acrylic paint. To finish off the layout I matted my photo with polka dot paper and added blue, purple and pink thread for added texture behind the photo. I am lovely how bright and colorful this layout turned out. It could have been a page in my art journal but I thought it would be great to also use those same technique learned to document my photo with. Dina signed my book and stamps at the end of class which is amazing. I would take another class with her in the future. I have a process video for this layout below.
This past weekend I had the privilege of taking an art class at my near by scrapbook store in Lake Worth, Florida called Everything Scrapbook and Stamps. This was not an ordinary art class, this was a mixed media art class taught by the wonderful Dina Wakley. This class was titled "Creature Feature" because we were incorporating animals into our work. I attended this class with about 15-20 other talented women from the surrounding neighborhood. I had an absolute fantastic time at this class. Not only did I learn new techniques by Dina herself demoing them, but it also allowed us to instantly try them for ourselves. Dina has a great sense of humor and throughout the class she would tell funny stories of her family or interesting tales of how she learned from experimenting. The facility was offering three different classes over the course of the weekend. I was fortunate enough to as least attend one.
The class allowed us the use of all of Dina Wakley's paint and medium line available by Ranger. That was the amazing part. Her entire line of colors were at our disposal and all her mediums to play with. We even got to play with Neocolor water soluble crayons and Stabilo "All" Pencils for our pages. I have played in the past with both of these mediums, but never in the use and style has Dina showed us. So I was appreciative of learning new ways to use art supplies I already am familiar with. The Dina Wakley line also includes beautiful stencils, masks and stamps which were all there including all her new releases due to release at the end of the month. You can see it used on the tag on the page on the left, its called Birds in Flight. It comes with like 4-5 different flying birds. I definitely pre-ordered all the stencils and one of her new stamp sets. I was able to play with her Gel Medium for most of my work as well and did purchase a pot of that has well. It really works different compared to others and applies tissue paper an book paper very flat without any wrinkles. That was a huge plus for me.
She was gracious enough to sign my "Courage" cover that I had purchased months and months. I loved her message, "art forever, housework never". But, I also purchased her Scribble Birds Stamp set from the store that day and asked for another autograph on my stamp set. I couldn't help myself, I left so inspired and have been practicing everything I have learned. Working with heavy body acrylic paints is rather new for me. I usually would work with my fluid ones to cover my surface, but in the world of mixed media, this is not desirable. In mixed media you want the ability to add layers of dimension to your work, you want elements that peek through and others that do not. Mixed media entails working with different forms of media or art supplies to experiment and see how they perform wet or dry or together. Its a world I have found to simply play around and have fun. There are no rules and no expectations. Your work becomes pure serendipity.
I will definitely want to take classes again with her in the future. She is actually coming to Florida again with Dyan Reaveley, another artist from Ranger and the creator of the Dylusions line. Overall, an amazing experience that I will remember forever. Can't wait to continue playing in my art journal.
Welcome to my corner of the internet. I am a new mom, a dog mom, a coffee addict, a scrapbooker, a sweets addict and an art journaler. I love memory keeping and sharing it with you.
