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I love the fall season and decorating for Halloween. A couple of weeks ago, I was at Dollar Tree and saw this fun skeleton mirror. It was large enough to hang on our gallery wall above the fireplace, but a little cheap looking (not surprising given it's price point).  I decided to go ahead and buy it, but planned to give it a mini makeover! I prepped the frame by painting it with black gesso. The black gesso gave the frame a nice matte black look with an almost chalkboard-like finish.
I waited for the gesso to dry and then moved on to the next step of adding some color. I knew I wanted to use Viva Decor's Inka-Gold for this step. I am a huge fan of Inka-Gold. It has a gorgeous metallic finish and the product is so easy to use!
I decided to use Inka Gold in Copper, Platinum and Violet. I started with the Copper - a rich metallic orange color and simply dry brushed the Inka Gold on the high points of the scrolled frame. Next, I added the Platinum and Violet on other areas of the frame.  For the last step, I dry brushed a bit more of the Platinum Inka Gold on the mirror to give it a streaky, vintage look.  And Voila! For a $1 and some products that I already had on hand I made a fun, new piece of Halloween Decor. What have you been making this Fall season? This blog post was provided by Creative Team member, Kimberly Eaton.
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 We are excited to announce that we are partnering with national publication, CardMaker Magazine for a fun-filled event on World Card Making Day, Saturday, October 1st! It is an all-day event featuring three classes and 12+ complete cards/projects by wonderful instructors (including the magazine's editor), a card drive benefiting local cancer organizations, lunch, goody bags from Annie's Publications and Palette & Paper, and make and takes.
We would love it if you could join us! Click here for class details and sign up today! Space is limited, so please don't miss out! Also, be sure to check out CardMaker Magazine. Subscribe here and be sure to check out their blog. It is filled with inspiration and information. The key to a gorgeous piece of mixed media art work is having a strong background. The background serves as the foundation of the art piece. Do you want in on a little secret to making awesome backgrounds? Try gelli printing! What is gelli printing? Gelli printing uses a “gelatin printing plate” (store bought plates don’t use gelatin and remain stable at room temperature) in which to apply paint to, create textures on, layer stencils on and more. Let’s take a closer look at some of the steps used in gelli printing: Gather your supplies to get started including a gel plate, brayer and acrylic pants.  Squirt some paint dollops on your gelli plate.  Use your brayer to spread the paint.  Place a piece of paper on top and lightly press/rub to transfer the paint to the paper and “lift off the design”.  Add more paint and keep going or clean off your gel plate and start fresh. The steps above are only the foundation of gelli printing. You can incorporate many more tools and techniques to obtain many stunning designs. You can incorporate your gelli prints in tag making, card making, scrapbook layouts, art journaling, ATCs and so many more fun projects! To learn a lot more about Gelli Printing, join Dina Wakley at P&P on Saturday, September 24 at 6 pm for the Joy of Gelli Printing Class! To read all about the class and register, click here. Just check out some of the amazing images Dina made using a gelli plate: New Product Alert! Palette & Paper will have a variety of Gel Press printing plates in stock this week! Definitely stop in and check out these great new products.
Do you wish you could freely express your creativity? Does your brain need a little exercising? Do you wish you could expunge stress at the end of a trying day? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then you should try Art Journaling. Art Journaling can take many forms, but at its core you express yourself through art (any mix of paint, stamps, stencils, writing, coloring and more) and/or record memories and emotions. However, getting started with Art Journaling can be a little intimidating. Well, Dina Wakley wants to make it easy for you!  Dina is a mixed-media artist and teacher along with being a Ranger Signature Designer. She has written two books on Art Journaling, designed products for Ranger and more. And now she is coming to Palette & Paper to teach you techniques for Art Journaling before heading to Canada and Australia to teach classes this fall (what an amazing opportunity!). Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an artist to art journal! Or perhaps you have art journaled for years and want to re-spark your creativity and incorporate a new-to-you style. Either way you won’t want to miss Dina’s class on Saturday, September 24 from 9:30 – 4:30 pm (includes lunch and drinks to refuel your creative spirit). Check out more details here and get signed-up today as class registration ends soon. Any questions leave us a comment or email.
According to the website Days of the Year today is Letter Writing Day. We love sending letters and cards and receiving “happy mail”. How about you? When is the last time you received something fun in your mailbox? In celebration of the day, we thought we would share a fun way to send happy mail. Have you heard of Pocket Letters? Pocket Letters got their start in 2014 and quickly spread with the help of Instagram, Facebook and website, The Pocket Letter Pals Network, that was created to help “Pocket Letter Pals” connect.  Pocket Letters utilize a 9-pocket page protector (sold to house baseball and other trading cards in and can be found at most big box discount stores). Each pocket measures 3.5 x 2.5” (the same size of ATCs!). In a nutshell, to create a Pocket Letter you fill up each of the 9-pockets with pretty paper and decorations, plus some goodies to send to the recipient. The awesome thing about Pocket Letters is when you fold it in thirds it slips right into a standard size 10 (business) envelope. If you don’t make it too chunky you can even mail it for just one first class stamp! Pocket Letters end up just as unique as the person that made it, which makes them a lot of fun to trade and collect (another bonus is they store well in a binder). If you are interested in finding a Pocket Letter Pal for ongoing or a one-time swap, visit The Pocket Letter Pals Network or one of the many groups on Facebook for Pocket Letters. If you want to see more fun Pocket Letters checkout the following hashtags on Instagram for some major eye-candy: #pocketletter, #pocketletters, #pocketletterswap So, let’s take a closer look at putting a Pocket Letter together. Again, there are many ways to do this, so just think of this as Pocket Letter 101 which can definitely be expanded on! You will need 9 sheets of paper measuring 3.5” x 2.5”. These can be the same, coordinating, a few of a couple of patterns, etc. This is also a great way to use up some of the paper scraps you may have laying around! Next up, grab some “decoration”. This can include coordinating paper, washi tape, diecuts, etc. Making little labels for each pocket is also a fun idea. We love the look of “typewriter fonts” – either printed from a computer (dafont.com has some great, free fonts including a favorite, Traveling Typewriter) or get the look from using an actual typewriter!
As for goodies, you can include a lot of different things (just keep in mind the size dimensions and they need to be relatively flat). Ideas for items: washi tape samples, tags, ephemera/diecuts, stickers, stamped images, cute bandaids, teabags, post-its, page flags, decorative paperclips, ATC, mail tag, ribbon, and most importantly a LETTER!  Now to assemble your Pocket Letter. This is an easy step with just sliding everything into place in the pockets. A Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher comes in handy when making Pocket Letters. The mini stapler keeps the little label tags in place, and you can even add a few sequins.
Once done, fold it up, stick it in a business envelope and send it on its way. You are guaranteed to make someone’s day.
 Giveaway!So now comes the extra fun part! We have two Pocket Letters that we want to mail to friends of Palette & Paper. Both of the Pocket Letters contain a $10 Gift Certificate to use the next time you are at Palette & Paper*! Entering is easy – just leave a comment below! We will randomly select two winners on Wednesday, September 7 around 2 pm ET. Please leave your email address in your comment or your Facebook or Instagram User Name so we may contact you for your mailing address (USA addresses only). *good towards Shoppe purchases only (not classes) |
Palette & Paper's blog is written by various creative team members.
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