Creative Day with Dina Wakley

I have been pretty busy lately. Making and shipping Summer Mini Book kits (which there are only THREE left), designing cards and getting ready for the May Loft Art Retreat (which there are only TWO spots left for Sunday May 18th) but when I heard Dina Wakely was going to be in the area I knew I had to sign up! It didn’t matter that it was 1.5 hour drive. I knew it would be worth it! I believe this is my 5th class I have taken with her, not including the online classes I took years ago. Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook CT hosted her and I am so grateful for local, independent retailers like this that can get fabulous guest instructors and unique products to play with and purchase!

I love Dina’s inspiration, her techniques and now her products! I am so excited that she is part of the Ranger Signature Artists. I got to play with her paints, stamps, stencils, masks and brushes and they are all wicked yummy!

Some of the techniques we did in this all day “Introduction to Art Journaling Class” were ones I have done before, but that is ok with me. It is always fun to create and get painty! PLUS this time I got to explore and play with all of Dina’s supplies. I also learned a lot of new techniques and ideas! I was working on the paper Dina provided but also in a few of my Dyan Reaveley Journals (these are the best journals EVER!)

I absolutely LOVE how Dyan Reaveley’s white spray ink looks layered over her other sprays. See the stenciled letters above and the stenciled numbers below? Yea those! The dimension and textured look it gives is amazing!! Dina finally got me to write one some of my pages too! I usually don’t have time or feel inspired to in class.

Above I was inspired by one of the many fabulous stencils Papercraft Clubhouse had for sale and drew my own flower- YES I CAN DRAW! This page is just itching for some handwritten journaling- will have to add on to it later. One fabulous thing I took away from Dina was the fact that she rarely sits down and does a page from start to finish. Some days she just gesso’s her pages. She calls it “underwear for her journal pages”. Then another day she might just slap down some paint (usually with her fingers 😉 ) etc. etc. she builds up the layers over time. This is very eye opening to me and makes art journaling feel more possible. If i’m tired one night I can come home and just gesso some pages. easy. Another day I can add some stenciling or color. super easy. and as I go before I know it I will have a bunch of fabulous pages done! perfect! (The technique Dina is demo’ing here is one I talk more about below)

The following pages are one of the new techniques she shared with us and is one of my all time favorites! It all starts with “puke on a page” which some of you may have seen my post on instagram.

You start by doing layers and layers of techniques on  a page. theres stenciling, paint, spray, journaling, etc etc etc. on this page above. it looks a mess right?! Well then you paint some of Dina’s heavy body acrylic in “night” and WOW! You get this whole new look. You can see a bit through the paint, and you see the dimension. The pictures really don’t do it justice…. ( I loved the outcome so much I did it again in one of my smaller Dyan Reaveley journals)

Oh yea! Did I forget to mention I got to take this class and have this artsy farsty day with one of my favorite creative chicks? Cheiron drove up from NJ for the class. We have taken a few other Dina classes together and are already looking forward to Dina’s class at the Ink Pad in NYC! If you are in the NYC/NJ area definitely check out Cheiron’s blog as she teaches a bunch of inspiring classes as well!

We ended the night with a little mexican food and a fabulous margarita! Our waitress commented on how messy our hands were- I LOVE IT! And then I raced home to Providence to get to Utrecht before they closed.. I just needed a few more supplies that Papercraft Clubhouse didn’t have. (trust me I did some damage there as well 😉 )

I’ve already started to use Dina’s paints in my own studio fulfilling custom etsy orders. I will share more of this canvas later when I am sure that it has been safely delivered to it’s new home! In between other projects I have been gesso’ing pages in my art journal, and “slapping down a bit of color” 🙂 I have made a promise to myself to art journal more because it really makes my creative heart happy!