Intentions Mixed Media Paper Dolls Tutorial

There is no better teacher than experience, 

that is why I believe it's important to experiment,

in any area of life, experimenting will teach you for sure.

The inner student is always hungry for knowledge and lessons
are always there to be acknowledged,  stay open for lessons,
that is what makes our lives richer and our understanding
of life and the meaning, even more profound.

This requires that you want to, nothing will be pushed
forcefully in to you and growing is not easy.

It  means that you will be vulnerable and that you may fail,
many times, sometimes in a big ways but like in science,
if you not fail, you can never learn what is right, specially for your self,

you are unique and your answers will be very different from others,
but that is OK, you are in your own path,

let us respect that and be patient with our selves as we grow, this is Love.

Fortunately, life doesn't have to be hard or boring all the time,
we can have our delights and be content while we are discovering who we
are and who we want to become, this changes and evolves and that always
amazes me deeply, we adapt and manage, we re write and re paint,
we accept and let go, we re new and continue, we survive and grow stronger.

Here are the materials I used:

Watercolors

Watercolor paper cut in the size you want for your paper dolls

B2 pencil

Kneaded eraser if needed

Soft brushes

Fabric, I used linen 

Sewing machine

Thread in darker color

Cutting tool

Heavy gel medium

Draw and paint softly your dolls, I go for layers

allowing each to fully dry, I used ochre for mine.

I used a fine cutter to remove the white part I don´t want.

Add more details with a fine pen, I used dark brown and then

painted over with more color until happy.

Make some halos and sew around them, paste them on the back

using some medium, sew some fabric around the the body, 

I used a square shape.

In the Chinese culture, the circle means heaven and

the square the earth.

Simple shapes can be powerful and with meaning!

This is the back, I covered the sewing and adding this

can be used to write a quote or signing your work!

Trust

The ability to feel deep inside that everything is good and 

that this good will be in our lives.  Understanding that everything

happens for a good reason, we might not see it at the moment but 

time will give us perspective to see clearer. 

*

Peace

The opposite of stepping in everyone so you get what you want,

peace means allowing and respect, slowing down and listening

what life is telling you, truly listening.

Peace is to live the days gracefully, in content with what you are doing,

knowing that you are in the right path.

Peace is going to bed at night with the knowledge that tomorrow

is a new day and that you will be having many more opportunities.

Open

Open, allowing, receiving, trusting, learning,

this word is many things, we have to dig deeper into words

to be able to understand more of them.

How are you open? 

How are you allowing?

How are you trusting?

Only you can do this for your self.

*

Love

The true force of it all,

The strength that resists and also lets go,

the energy that sustains everything,
us, life, the universe,

allows and reveals, teaches and embraces,

brings peace and fulfillment,

the base and the sustain, 

the self.

Life

Our journey, what we are, what we experiment with,

what we are allowing, were we are expanding, what we

are giving shape.

Here

In the here and now is were we live,

how is it you want it?

peaceful, loving, harmonious, trusting?

The power of intentions will be so as much as we understand the 

meaning of the words, you can write in your journal the words you

want and write more about the meaning of each, research and

understand so when you see your doll, it will tell you much more,

it will be the conversation you and her will have!  

Hang them on a 

place were you can have this conversation with them and keep 

writing in your journal this conversation, it will grow richer in time.

Thank you for being here, blessings!

Art journal inspiration!

(Materials list below!)

Good morning and happy spring brake! I have some free time and this 

morning finally can share some inspiration, I hope you enjoy!

I am very intuitive about choosing what I will do, I hardly plan my

results, I love the excitement of not being sure what the ending result will be

and I think that is important to me for I get bored easily so this keeps me alert!

The first step is a free hand drawing and let me tell you this step is very 

important and truly liberating!  Of course, you have to learn to let go of 

expectations first and this is not easy but I also have to tell you this is a step 

I am gaining after many years of practice and understanding the shapes and 

the figures I like for my work, I´m sure this never stops evolving and it shows 

a lot of my style I have developed by doing it, just keep drawing and daring 

to step outside the usual ways you tend to do your drawings.

The coloring was made with some pastels and a charcoal,

I allow to show the pen marks and blend a little of the pastels here and there,

It´s all about enjoying the process and letting your self express!

I also enjoy having breakfast on the side, put some music on and

even dance! Your feelings show in your work so depending on how you

feel, add to it, the music, the environment, all you need!

To finish, I use the charcoal to add extra contrast and lately I´ve been using this

last lines as a writing process and I love it!, you can see more of how I´ve applied

this step in other drawing in my Instagram even on faces this looks very appealing 

to me and I´ve incorporated it more and more, you may try it too!  Finding ways to 

journal in different ways is really amazing, I feel I keep stretching and expanding,

and I love sharing it with everyone who wishes the same!

I am planning some future classes, if you are interested, I would like to hear what you want to learn from me, what you like, what you have been struggling with and all you want so I can share this things better with you! You may write me to monicatlink@hotmail.com or you can send me a messenger chat from facebook, I´ll be happy to hear from you! 

I hope you try this and have lots of fun, it is easy and fast so you can do a bunch

of pages in one hour but I´m sure you will try many more!

Thank you for visiting and sharing with me!

Enjoy!

Materials used in this page:

Art journal book I used a small one 7" x 10" Mixed media Canson

black pen I used a waterproof uni-ball micro deluxe

pastels I use Rembrant soft pastels  

Color sticks firm  I use Nupastel from Prismacolor 

Pastel pencils I use Derwent

My choice of colors was

Yellow ochre

Blue 

Aqua

pink

A charcoal bar

cleaning cloth

New Life Book Open for registration

OK! The time is now!  Are you ready for a great

year full of inspiration, creativity, new artsy friends

and tons of classes to get inspired in 2013? 

I don`t know about you but I just can`t wait!

Please visit click on any of the

photos to subscribe now and 

make sure you will be in this event!

Life Book is an awesome online course were

you will have different classes each month, there

are different teachers from around the world

gathered to share with you and I am one of them!

If you enjoy to learn new artsy things 

and meet new artistic friends, 

this is for you!

I hope to see you in class!

Altered Book Cover

I was creating the pages of my 

altered book and suddenly,

because of all of the work on the

 pages, the cover broke!!!

HAVE THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?

if you love to alter books...

You could freak out,

or you could...

Very simple and also fun!

I loved the masking layer, it is a

 keeper for meand now I am 

trying in one of the pages inside!

Then, I started painting

I usually don`t know were the work is 

going, I like that, it`s exciting!

I like to leave the intellect outside the studio,

and let the HEART do it`s magic!

Then, more layers wanted inn,

I just opened the door and 

let it happen...

Still, it didn`t feel like finished and...

LOVE, 

our greatest prayer

our best embellishment,

our true guidance...

May you Be In Love!

Tea Christmas Party!

You are invited to a tea party!

I am a big fan of tea and changing their flavors, discover new

ones and collect favorites!  One day I was drinking one 

and thought that the paper used to make them is super strong!

 It stands very well the heat and keeps it`s shape while in the hot water!

Most papers disolve in the water and specially when hot

so I decided to give it a try and work with these tea bags!

It is so much fun to discover that everyday things can 

be  transformed into creative endeavors!  

Here is what I did:

After use, I left them to dry alone, this will give them some beautiful

aged color, then I removed the tea by cutting one edge, carefully 

removed the thread and now they are ready to work with them!

Tip: Use the removed tea for your plants and garden!

I`ve stamped on them with permanent ink adding

two or three layers of different stamps, I think black 

looks wonderful for it gives a nice contrast but why not

 trying other colors?

I just love them!  Simply like this, they can be used to make

 beautiful seasonal cards!

Then I thought:

Why not make some cute tiny pillows with them?

So I filled them with a little stuffing! 

I also though I could add a drop of a nice scent and 

place them in a bowl to add a nice touch in a corner.

Then I`ve tried sewing them, this has to be carefully done

but they hold!  In some cases they started to fall appart

but I added a coat of medium on those parts and voila!

 Write beautiful sentiments on them!

To end, I added a cute iron on embellishments on gold and used my pen to add

some accents and voila!

You could make tea bag ornaments with them!

I hope you are inspired to make your life even more beautiful

and change your ideas of trash being a waste!

R e c y c l e 

M a k e A r t 

Make Happy!