Art & Design Workshop
Hello Everyone!
My name is Wilna and this is not a welcome note. This is a welcome letter. HA! And everyone thinks the art of letter writing is dying out. Well, I decided that in this workshop I am not really going to be writing all that much (but talking a lot) so I will write to you. I am sitting in my office/studio/haven (the one you see me in in the welcome video and in this YouTube video) and Jack Johnson is singing in the background. My teenagers (I have three!) are still sleeping even though it’s almost noon.
Welcome to this workshop! In 2006 I won the Scrapbooking Hall of Fame (not bragging here…. I am making a point) and I remember Elizabeth Dillow (a fellow winner from that year) told me to write a book about technique. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, why she thought that, or what she meant. I really was very baffled by this comment she made. And now, almost a decade later, I “get” it. I do techniques. I love doing it. It makes sense for me to teach it because it gives me content. I am a pragmatic person. I don’t understand very philosophical stuff or concepts that are intricate—like the whole letterpress thing. I bought the plates but it sounds like so much work to figure it out. (But I will figure it out and learn and make videos about it to demystify it for you).
Back to techniques: I really do the same thing over and over again until I am tired of it. That’s the simple explanation of my process. But for a very long time something bothered me. It’s like the pendulum was moving too much to the art technique side and not coming back. I was constantly thinking how to articulate balance with art techniques? A word that came to mind was minimalistic. Also: Less is more; simplify. But in the end not one of these words said it like I felt it.
But DESIGN. This word made my heart leap. YES! When art techniques and design are balanced and in love with each other, the perfect match happens. Looking into design principles for scrapbooking, I discovered the application was too complicated. I mean, innovative design is a good design principle but seriously, how do we apply it to making a scrapbook page. It works for product development but we are not manufacturers. We just want to have fun and play and be creative! Right? So long story short, I decided to look at my pages and see what four principles I used over and over. And this will be our class outline and structure for the next four lessons:
Lesson 1: Working with Grids
Lesson 2:Working with Typography
Lesson 3:Working with Patterns
Lesson 4: Working with Contrast
Bonus Videos
Every lesson I will also have a bonus Tech Tip video for you. I will talk about editing photos, taking better photographs of your projects, tips, and tricks with Photoshop, and also how to make your own Silhouette files. Tech stuff is such a passion (my mini Schnauzer is called Mac) that I am sure it could be a whole workshop by itself.
I am thankful for you, dear reader/student/friend for investing in this class. THANK YOU. For this workshop, I am your person. I can do this because of you.
Watch the supply video…twice.
And tell your friends to come too(!!)
Share your pages (or sneak peeks) on Instagram with the tag #artdesignwithwilna
Love,
Lessons
Class Materials
Lesson 1: Designing with Grids
Welcome to the first lesson of Art & Design. I’m so happy you’re here!Balancing art and design is a science. One can get really caught up in academic speak for all these principles and ideas… but I want to teach it as simply and honestly as I understand it. No big words, no fancy ideas… just…
Lesson 2: Designing with Typography
Welcome to lesson two of Art & Design. This chapter is all about typography. Ellen Lupton said “Typography is what language looks like.” As scrapbookers, we are storytellers and language is important to us. We will make the story part of our layout the focus, and we will also be learning some fun new art techniques….
Lesson 3: Designing with Patterns
In this lesson, we will be working with patterns. I love patterns as a design element. They make layouts striking and you can get away with a little bit more simplicity. We will be doing a bunch of creative techniques this week—working with embossing powder as a resist medium to gelatos, acrylic paint, molding paste, and…
Lesson 4: Designing with Contrast
This lesson is all about contrast! I will show you five scrapbook layouts where we will make a statement with contrast as a design element. Contrast makes for strong and impactful pages; so for me personally it was a bit of a stretch. But it’s good to challenge oneself now and again. It makes you grow…
Bonus Videos
Here’s a link to the Lightroom Class: