What's Up in the Batcave

Ah yes.  The Batcave holds many surprises.  It's where I work, create and play on the computer.  I forgot that I promised my very creative friend, Alisa, some pics of my new paint brush holder that we found at Rescued Junk by Old Crow Farm back in the middle of January.  It's a fabulous place a little west of Des Moines.  We had fun junking that day and I bought a few things at Rescued Junk.  When I saw this sterilization piece (either from a dentist office or for test tubes?) I immediately thought; paintbrushes!  I took it into the Batcave and voila.  This is what I have.  I was not only able to stick in all but the fattest paintbrushes, but I managed a brayer or two, some palette knives, some pencils and a few other odds and ends.  It sits on my art table and is so wonderfully handy.  I highly recommend it!

I also purchased some things at Ikea while I was helping Lauren move to Baltimore last summer.  They are supposed to be used for sheers, but I saw organizational possibilities for unused wall space in the Batcave.  My handy hubby hung them.  They are called 'Dignitet' and are a fairly thin wire that can be tightened from either end as weight is added.  I have seen these used for hanging kid's artwork.  I am using them for my ephemera because I am one of those people who need to see what I have in order to use it.  There are clips that you buy to go with these.  The plan was to use one wall for the product and the other for artwork, but ... ahem, I had too much product.  Oops.  That is what comes of working at a scrapbook store.  The hearts were another find at (help me Alisa), I believe, Urban Finds in Des Moines.  They are corrugated metal just cut and painted.  I bought them for Valentine's Day, but love them so much that I hung them in the Batcave.  I may eventually move them up to the wall, but for now, I love just seeing them in here.

You can't see it, but there is a little tightener thingy on
the place where this is attached to the wall.

My hearts!

I have been working on a couple of projects, but also I have been diligently practicing techniques that I have learned from a fabulous class that I took called "She Had Three Hearts".  It is an art journaling class and I learned so many cool techniques, you wouldn't believe.  It is taught by Christy Tomlinson and she offers fabulous classes online!  If you are interested just go to ScarletLime and check them out.  You will not be disappointed.  Anyway, this weekend, I finished reviewing the second week of the class and loved the resist techniques that she taught us.

This is just hot glue and then some Tim Holtz paint dauber
rubbed over the glue after it is cooled. 

This is gel medium (Claudine Hellmuth) on paper.  

My fav:  sticky back canvas, gel medium, and paint.
It looks like Batik fabric to me.  It's cool to work with the sticky back.
You can just press it down on your craft mat and it stays for you.
Love that.

Alcohol ink and stencil.  Love it!

Have a great week.  I need to get lesson plans worked out for the week.  It's a short one for me as I have conferences on Thursday.  Then the next week I work for three days and take an early holiday.  Can't wait! Back to the Batcave!