New Funky Village for 2017--Step by Step

Not  quite  the  new  year  yet--but  almost.  Had  a  great  Christmas  with  all  of  my  family--really  fun  with  everyone  being  together  all  at  once--that  doesn't  happen  much  as  they  get  older--so  it  was  the  best  Christmas  gift.  In  between  all  of  this  celebrating,  I've  been  sneaking  away  to  my  art  room  and  playing.  My  favorite  way  to  relax (and  you  know  this  if  you're  a  frequent  visitor)  is  painting  papers.   This  time  I  got  out  my  alcohol  inks  and  yupo  paper  

I  found  this  tutorial  on  you tube  by  Mary Beth Shaw for  Stencil Girl Products--really  fun  and  very  easy  to  do.  

 Here's  the  link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLPX-S7ZKpI

I  also  played  with  my  new  Gel Press plate
and  110lb cardstock  paper

 

Next--made  some  textured  papers--

...with  gel  medium  and  stencils (and the  110lb  cardstock  paper  again)

So this was  my  color  palette  that  I  ended  up  with--

...and  I  decided  to  use  a  9 x 12 deep-edge  birch  cradle  board--my  favorite  substrate  to  work  on

Next  step  for  me  is  just  as  much  fun  as  the  first  one--

...my  first  layer  of  papers (my  background)--mosaic  style.  I  like  to  leave spaces  in  between  the  different  papers, so  I  can  fill it  in  later  with  my  black  pitt  pen
 (like grout in between mosaic tiles)

My  next  layer  is  when  I  added  my  main  theme,  houses  in  this  case--

.....and  then  my  'grouting'  with  my  pitt  pen--along  with  some  stamped  words  here  and  there

After I  sealed  it  with  gloss  varnish,  I  added  some  embellishments  for  further  dimension--

All  finished--

and  now  in  my  Etsy shop.   I  really  enjoy  making  this  mosaic-type  of  art  and  hope  this  funky  little  village  finds  a  new  home.  You  can  find  it  HERE  in  my  shop.

I  hope  you  all have  a  very  happy  2017!!

Here's Some More Ways to Make New Art from Old Art

A  couple  of  you  have  asked  me  how  I  go  about  making  art  from  my  prints--well  actually,  it's  nothing  new  or  different.  I  know  a  lot of  artists  use  their  prints  to  use  in  many  different  forms  (ie. clothing, ceramics, jewelry, etc.  and  even  boxes  ; ),  but  I  like  to  take  them  and  make  all  new art  pieces.  This  comes  in handy  when  you  don't  have  a lot  of  time  and  you  need  to  produce (like the  last  2  weeks, for  example)  Here  are  a  couple  of  pieces  that  I  just  made  last  week,  and  they  really  didn't  take  that  long.    These  are  my  original  garden  girls  that  I   posted   in  the  beginning  of  the  summer--

So  I  decided  that  I  wanted  to  do  something  with  these  2.    And  when  I  make  copies, I  don't  go  to  a  copy  place  or anything.  I  just  print  them  out  on  my  printer.  I  am  no expert when  it  comes  to   any  of  this  stuff,  especially  printers.  I  just  know  that  I  love  mine,  and  the  copies  are  pretty true to  the  color--a  little  different,  but  no one  would  know  that,  except  me.   Also,  I  don't  scan  any  of  my  art ( I  don't  think  I've  made  anything  flat  enough  to  fit  in  a  scanner, to  tell  you  the  truth)  I  just  take  a lot  of  photos everywhere  I  can  find  good  light--inside  and  out  until   I'm  happy  with  the  results.   My  printer  is  a  Canon  MP600,  which  means  nothing  to  me--I  just  know  that  it  produces   good  resolution--listen  to  me--acting  like  I  know  what  I'm  talking  about.   And  I  do  love  my  camera.  It's  a   Sony Cyber-shot--not  the best,  but  still  pretty  good.  I'm  actually  hoping  to  upgrade  soon.  And  before  I  printed  them  out,  I  decided  to  fool  around  with  the  color  a  little  bit.  I  wanted  the  color  a  bit  more  muted. 

What I did was fool  around  with  the  saturation (this is on my program from my Sony camera)--I just took out the brighter colors and their skin tone. The girl on the left is now a brunette.

And  what  I  decided  this  time  was  to  look  for  co-ordinating  papers  that  would  compliment  these.

On  this  one,  I  also  printed  out  another  piece  of  my  artwork  (the  houses)  Those  houses  were  from  the  one  table  that  I  made.  I  found, with  my  camera,   that  instead  of  cropping  photos,  it's  better just  to  take  a lot  of  close  up  shots. 

I  like  to  print  out  my  art  on  this  card  stock  that  I  get  from  Staples (office  supply  store).  It's  nice  and  thick--110 lb.  I  use  the  cream  color, but there  are  many  color  choices  there,  and  of  course  you  can  just  use   white.  And  when  I  want  to  decrease  the  size  of  the  photo,  I  usually use  the  Windows  program  that  is  free  if  you  have  Windows,  and  everyone  does  if  they have  a  PC.   The  program  is  called  the  Windows Picture and Fax viewer,  and  it  gives  you   5  different size  options.  And  if  I  don't  want to us  those  sizes,  I  just  use  my  printer  program  on  my computer  to  decrease  the size  of  the  photo  that  way.  (I  hope  I'm  not  confusing  anyone  even  more)

This  first  one  was  completely  inspired  by  Teresa Magel.  She  is  now  one  of  my  favorite  artists.  I  first  found  out  about  her  when  Lisa  from   The  Wright  Stuff  blogged  about  her  and  some  other  artists.  I  adore  her  faces,  and  how  she  uses  them  in  her  mixed  media  collages--in  this  fashion--

     I  also  wanted  to  tell  you that  the  way  I  adhere  the  images  onto  my  surface  is  with  gel  medium and then  cover it  also with  that  or  matte  medium.   And  yes,  the  colors  run  a  bit,  but  not  much,  and  I  really like  the  smudgy,  shabby  look,  so  that's  good  for  me.  But  I  have  sprayed  a  workable  fixative  on  the  copies,  which  keeps  them  from  running.  On  these,  I  didn't  do  that. 

 I  wanted  to  put  my  own  style  into  this  piece  also,  so  I  put  the  collage  on    2   1/2 inch  wrapped  canvas--this  was  one  measures  9 x 9.  These  are  so  cool--they  look  like  hanging  boxes.

I  also  added  my  extra  collage  elements on  like  these  roses--

I  stenciled  these  on  with  Golden's  light  molding  paste,  and  then  just  painted  them.















And  I  used  a  cupboard  door  face  plate  also  using  Basic Grey  glazed  brads  to  attach  it  to  the  canvas.

Plus  the  coffee-stained  doily.  How  I  adhere  these  doilies or lace  or  any  material  for  that  matter,  I  do  it  with  matte  medium,  and  cover  it  with  the  medium  also,  and  in  this  case,  I  used  a  very  watery  acrylic  wash  of  paint  in  random  spots.  And  then  I  just  seal  it  up  with  the  rest  of  the  piece.   Lately,  I've  been   on a  shiny  kick.  I  would  always   seal  everything  with  a  satin  finish  sealer--now  I've  been  using  a  gloss  varnish  on  everything.   It  covers  the  fiber  very  nicely--it  adds  a  great  texture  to  the  doily--almost  like  sculpture.

I'm  never  sure  how  these  collages  will  turn  out,  but  I  was  loving  this  one  every  step  of  the  way!  And  as  far as  the printed  image,  once  it's  collaged  on  and  all  dry,  I  always  add  color to  the  eyes  and lips,  and  use  a  fine  point  pitt  pen  to  bring  out  details  in the eyes,  nose  and  mouth.  Sometimes  I'll  do  more  with  the  hair  and  skin-tone,  but  not  on  this  one  or  the  other  one  either. 

And  speaking  of  the  other  one,  I  decided to  keep  her   face whole  and  combined  it  with  this  scrapbook  paper  with  the  bird  image--they  went  well  together.

And  on  the  sides  is  where  I  put  some  of  my  house  prints  on--

I  really  liked  the  brass corners  that  I  added.   These  corners  were   completely  black  when  I  started  out  with  them.  So  I  cleaned  them  up,  but  they  didn't  clean  up  very  well,  so  I  first  put  some  Amaco  antique   white   rub'n  buff  on  them  and  then  some  Blue  Stream   Alcohol   ink  over  that,  which  was  very  intense.  So  then  I  just  rubbed  a  lot  off  with  91%  alchohol,  and  it  brought  some  of  the  shiny  brass  out--

----exactly  what  I  was  going  for!

And  a  big  Thank  You  to  Tim  Holtz  and  Basic  Grey  for  these  very  cool  embellishments--

  So  in  the  end--these  are  prints  of  my  art,  but yet  still  original  art  pieces-

This  is  only  one  way  that  you  can  print  out  your  art.   Another  way  is  with  Lazertran Transfer  paper  for  inkjet  printers  (they  also  have  it  for laser  printers  too).   Lazertran  is  decal  paper.  Once  you  print  your  image  out  on  this  paper,  you  soak  it  no  more  than  a  minute  in  water  and  it  slides  right  off,  and  it's  a  bit  transparent.  But  you  can  make  it  really transparent  if  you  follow  the  special  directions  that  come  with   the  Lazertran  papers.  I  have  yet  to  do  this,  but  I've  printed  out  on  Lazertran  before.  I  use  it  sparingly,  because  it's  costly.   Or  I  have  tried  printing  out  on  scrapbook  papers  also.  This  you  have  to  fool  around  with,  because  it  doesn't  always  look  good.   As  I  experiment  with  new  ways,  I'll  be  sure  to  post  them.   And  if  I  missed  anything  about  how  I  do  this,  just  ask  me!!

And one more thing--I want to  thank  Regina  from RGR Designs  for  this--

 I  appreciate  being  appreciated  by fellow  bloggers--Thank You  Regina!!

A Metal Embossing Tutorial--My Way

I don't know if there is a right way to emboss metal, but this is the way that I emboss metal.  And let me tell you, it's SOOO easy, and you probably have most  everything you need for it already, including the metal. The picture inside of the frame is all embossed metal--

I've shown metal embossing before, but it's been a while, so I decided to show you with a little more detail on how I go about doing it.  I use the aluminum  metal foil (36 gauge) that I get at Dick Blick, but  you can also use the aluminun pie tins or any aluminum tray that you can get at the grocery store.  You can  just wash the ones that you bought  that had food in them--they're just as good.  And I've purchased a few embossing tools, but the one I always go back to is either the other end of a paint brush or a dull sharpened pencil.  The metal usually rips for me when I use a stylus.  The foil is pretty durable, but you do have to be careful, and it can be cut with regular household scissors.  After I sketch my design lightly with a pencil, I start embossing (you can emboss on either side)--

I knew that I wanted a rooster, heart, and sun on this, so I sketched it on. After that I just doodled with my paint brush tip or whatever my choice of embossing tool that I'm using at the time.  You don't even have to sketch anything on--you can make a zentangle--or just emboss whatever comes to mind.

After that, I always put some alcohol inks on it first and when the inks are dry, I apply a black craft acrylic paint quickly, and then wipe if back off again.  Just don't wipe too hard, because you'll get right back down to the metal.

Then when that's all dry, I just paint in my design with acrylics, but I recommend the artist's acrylics, because they're much more vibrant.  The craft paints are too thin and it's hard to cover the metal.  So when all of the paint is dry, I always spray a couple of coats of a workable fixative on it--the paint will come off if you don't.  And then when the fixative is dry, I put a gloss varnish on it, so it has a nice shiny look to it.

It's very hard to get a good photo of the finished piece--it's much better in real life.  So the frame--well a couple of  months ago, I went to the wholesale show in Columbus, Ohio, and I showed everyone these barnwood frames that I purchased there--

These frames had glass inserts in them.  So I kept the glass in it, and just adhered the metal piece with extra heavy gel medium right on the glass--it always works!  And I hadn't cut the metal just right to fit inside the frame, so I camouflaged the side with textured wallpaper--

I hope I covered everything, but if you have any questions--just ask.  So next time you bring one of those trays home from the grocery store, don't throw it out--try this--it's fun.

And here's some  more rooster love--

FUN!

I also wanted to show you what I treated myself too.  When I saw these earrings on Sharon's blog

Livewire Jewelry

I knew that I had to have them--these are me, and I just got them yesterday (very quick service!) I love them Sharon--these particular earrings were published in the magazine Bead Trends, but this isn't the first time that she's been published.  Go check out her blog--she's also a very talented mixed media artist.

I hope that everyone has a great holiday weekend here in the U.S.--I know I will--the weather is looking beautiful!!!

Cigar Box Love

I used up all of my papers, and my cigar boxes, except for one  lid.  Here's what I did on the second one--

I made a shadow box!  I made all ofthe collage items to put into it--

I like to think of these as puzzle pieces. I arrange and rearrange them until they just "fit" into place--you know, just like putting a puzzle together.  And I love when I find just the right touch to add--

This was from a necklace that I had, and I just colored it with alcohol inks. I love alcohol inks--they're great for adding color to metal or glass, or anything for that matter.

And as for the other cigar box--I took my own advice. I'm using  it for storage for my neocolor crayons.  One reason being,  is that they're not that cheap, and I want to take care of them.  The other reason is that I've become very attached to these little guys. I love my crayons!

And also, I know I don't say this enough, but I just want to thank everyone for visiting me and for  all of your comments!  Plus, I want to thank you for sharing your art with me--I've learned so much in the last few months--I can't believe it.  I think it's great that we can share and learn from each other--so thanks guys!