A-Z techniques

The upcoming ArtVentures technique is Q and I chose to do the Quink ink technique that my friend Adrienne shared with us.

I started by covering a piece of matte cardstock with gesso then stamped into it with a detailed stamp. Sprinkled it with salt then sprayed watered-down black Quink ink . When it dried I brushed off some of the salt and highlighted it with some Goldfinger metallic paste.

I stamped one of the heads from a Diane Reavely stamp set, coloured it and attached it to the ATC, I then stamped the Inkadinkado word stamp "quirky".cut around it and added it. The heart is a sequin.

After looking at the ATC for a while I thought the Blue Heart drew the eye away from the rest of the card so I decided to take it off and added a stamped letter Q instead.

Canvas ATC"S

In my Art-Ventures group, Carol S proposed a swap for ATC's on canvas. Luckily I had a couple of canvas ATC bases and joined the swap. As it turns out only 3 of us joined in so I had sufficient to complete the swap.

I decided to do the same technique but in different colours.

I painted the bases with gesso and let it dry. I coloured the first one with green paint, let it dry then added blue over the top. I let it dry a bit then spritzed it with rubbing alcohol and then dabbed over it with a cloth, allowing some of the green to show through. For the second one, I painted the base with orange, let it dry then added a burgandy red over it and followed the same procedure as the first, allowing some of the orange to show.

After they dried completely, I embossed them with a dreamweavers stencil and embossing paste and set them aside. When they were dry I used leafing on both. On the the orange/red one I applied a variagated orange colour, then I added some green apple smooch ink to the vines and to cover some of the areas missed by the leafing I coloured with Pumpkin Smooch ink.

On the blue one I  coloured the vines with the Green Apple Smooch, but the silver on the flowers was a bit glaring so I coloured over them with some Ocean Soul Smooch ink, let it sit for a few seconds then gently wiped them with a kleenex.

To complete the cards I printed and cut out two images from Moonlight Journey and placed some little frames over them. Both were coloured with some metallic rub-ons in coordinating colours to match the backgrounds.

Mini Memory for Vickie

Vickie is the person chosen for May's Mini Memory on DCI. Her theme is Wings and colours are Purple and Lime Green.

I started with a back cover of an old book and removed the paper from it. I painted it with gesso then added dimension with a stencil and molding paste. I painted over it with green and purple acrylic paints and added iridescent violet over the purple section.

I found the little arch thing at the dollar store and since it was silver, I coloured it with Pinata` ink in a purple colour.  I did the same thing with the scabble pieces to spell out FLY.

I took some purple prima flowers and added brads with green dots on them to the centres, twirled some wire to simulate vines and glued them to the board. I had some left over paper which was a piece of a magazine column that I had stamped on with Versamark, gessoed, dried,  then coloured using a Colorbox stylus and purple stamp pad. I put this behind  the little arch piece then glued it to the board.

The little bird is from Magenta and it is painted with purple acrylic, crackle medium and lime acrylic paint. The final touch was a little gem for the eye.

Mini Memory for Mel

April's Mini Memory recipient is Mel on the DCI group. Her choice was any theme with aqua and blue as her colour choice.

I started with a coaster from our Don Cherry's pub, covered it with gesso then rubbed aqua and blue inks over it after embossing it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I coloured a little frame with some blue metallic acrylic paint and attached it to the centre. I added a game piece that my friend Muzzy had sent me on a card a few years ago (used with her permission). I took an old pair of earrings and removed the backs and placed the roses with the game piece inside the frame.

I had some Maple Leaf brads (to continue with the shape of the coaster) and embossed them with some navy blue embossing powder, removed the backs and glued them around the frame. Still needed "something" so put some blue stickles around the edge.

Mini Memory for Rhonda

Rhonda is the Mini Memory recipient for the month of March in my DCI group. Her choice was Children/childhood and her colour choice was cream/gold/white.

I started with a coaster from Outback Restuarant and covered it with gesso. I then added some Golden Gold Mica Flake, then when it dried painted over it with cream coloured acrylic paint.

I printed off the image of the little girl from Elizabeth's blog and cut around it. I placed this on top of some scrapbook paper. I took a frame that I bought at the dollar store and coloured it with a gold Krylon leafing pen, added a piece of acetate and placed it over the picture.

I spelled out Dream with some scrapbook letters, added some brads, german scraps and for the final touch glued on an old brooch  from which I removed the back.

Mini Memory for Jackie

Jackie is the February recipient for the Mini Memory swap in the DCI group and she chose vintage with earthy tones and gold as her theme.

I took a canvas and gessoed it then added scrunched up foil, cheesecloth and added some embossing paste with a stencil. I painted over the whole piece with various colours of acrylic paints to attain the vintage look.

I printed off  a vintage picture of a woman from digitalcollagesheets.com and glued it to the canvas. In my stash I found an old picture frame, which I touched up with paint. I cut out a piece of acetate and covered the picture, then attached the frame.

Added some vintage buttons that my friend Annie sent me awhile ago, a piece of paper tape and some book corners to finish the piece off.

Black and White pattern

The latest swap I joined is to create something with a black and white pattern repeated. I have not done any canvases for a while so thought I would do one for this swap.

I painted the canvas with gesso then added dimension with an old plastic doily and molding paste. When it dried I painted over it with white acrylic paint.

I printed off an image from moonlightjourney.com and cut it out. I then took a piece of black cardstock and another piece of white cardstock and put them through my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I put the black piece directly on top of the wet molding paste and it acted like a glue. I went over it and the picture with Judkins Microglaze to seal it. Added the white cardstock and the picture.

I stamped a hounds tooth stamp that I just bought at Michaels from the $1 bin, on white cardstock with Tsukineko Onyx Black Versafine ink. I cut three strips to go around the edge of the picture and attached them with double-sided foam tape. I punched out the flowers and added some centres to them.

I took some chipboard letters, painted them with gesso, then white paint and stamped them with the hounds tooth stamp.

Altered Container

I also joined up for an altered container swap. I chose to alter a little flip-flop box that I had in my stash.

I started by painting it with Gesso. On the top I used an old plastic doily and embossing paste to give it dimension, then painted it and added some gold acrylic paint on the highlights. Added a charm (that my friend Chrissy gave me in a 12 days of Christmas swap) which I coloured with alcohol inks, then glued some jewels to the top portion of the flip-flop band.

I painted the bottom a sunny yellow since I was thinking of warm weather, although it is not as cold here as it was in December and early January. I added some words to the bottom that I stamped on white tissue paper.

The inside is also painted and I added a piece of a page from an old book to the bottom.

Inchie frame completed

I received the rest of my inchies the other day via Carol, who met up with some of the gals from OZ who passed them on to her.

I was in a creative mood today so I decided to finish up a couple of ATC's and work on my frame.

The frame is painted with gesso and blue acrylic paint, then sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist. Unfortunately the "glimmer" does not show in the picture. After it dried I stamped my favourite corner flourish by Inkadinkadoo with Colorbox Goldrush pigment ink and embossed with gold embossing powder.

I colored the flourish piece at the top with purple acrylic paint then painted it again with
US Artquest Mica watercolour paints. Added a sun charm and a couple of gems to finish it off.

I then completed the other two inchies and the centre panel. The centre is done with Breezy Blue embossing powder as the base then sprinkled with purple and gold E.P., heated then stamped into it with a large background stamp. I then rubbed some metallic rub-ons over the top. The embellishment is an old button that I had in my button box.
The inchies are (top left-clockwise) Trizzy, Autumn, Carol, Me, Mel, Linda B, Me, Vicki, Chris, Rhonda, Lynne and Tracy. I am so thrilled to be the owner of these beautiful miniature pieces of art and to finally have them all in the frame.

Inchie swap

I have signed up for a swap on the Dream, Create Inspire group where we are using a frame from Blumoth Crafts. Eleven people joined the swap, and we create the inchies using a colour scheme and and in some cases a theme chosen by each person. We have two inchies, the centre and the frame to complete our own when we receive our inchies in the swap. I have decided to wait until I receive my inchies before completing the frame.

I coated the inchies with gesso then used Acrylic paints, Metallic Paints, Lumiere paints, Perfect Pearls, Pearlex, and some of my stamps and stamping supplies such as Smooch inks, and pigment inks to do the bases. On some I used molding paste, others I used papers and even some netting type paper.

The embellishments are scrapbooking pieces, old buttons, old pieces of jewellery, brads and other "doodads".

I am really looking forward to seeing all the tiny works of art that everyone makes and the completed frames.

Mini Memory for Carol

I am on a roll with these Mini Memories and am thoroughly enjoying the creative process so much.

Carol A. chose the theme of birds/birdhouses and the colours mint green, white and pale mauve (with a condition that we could use pale pink in lieu of the mauve).

I started by painting gesso on a 3x3 chipboard square. I then added mint green pigment ink and embossed with mint pearl embossing powder. I stamped a background stamp into while hot using Old Rose pigment ink.

I recently picked up some small wooden house pieces at my little dollar store and thought they would be perfect for a bird house. My hubby drilled a hole for the entry and the perch. I painted the house with gesso, then white paint, then pink paint on the roof. I added some sequins for the tiles which Annie sent me a while back. To finish off the roof I added a piece of white german scrap paper which my friend Mel sent me.

I added a piece of the stick from a Q-tip as the perch. I took a washer and coloured it with pearlescent turquoise Lumiere` paint and put this over the entry. I stamped a leafy type Magenta stamp on the body but felt it needed more dimension so I took some Glossy Accents and added some green seed beads (which looked more mint green in the bottle). Felt it needed a bit more so when the green beads dried a bit I added some pink seed beads to give it a bit of a floral effect.

The little bird is the one that was originally on Trizzy's Mini Memory and I attached it to the roof to make it look like it was coming in to the bird house. The final touch was to add the word home with some little alphabet beads.

I hope Carol does not mind my taking artistic license with the colour combo, as I tried to stay as close as possible to her colour choice with the supplies I had on hand.

Mini Memory for Heather`

I decided to get a start on September's Mini Memory, which is for Heather. Her theme is birds and butterflies and the colours are white and violet.

The theme was not a problem, however, the violet was as I think of blues (i.e. the flower). However, as a colour it can be a mixture of red and blues, so as usual I just did my own thing and hope that Heather will not be disappointed with the colour.

I started by painting a chipboard coaster with Gesso, then painted it with African Violet acrylic paint, toned down with some white acrylic. I then stamped the flourish stamp in frost white pigment ink and winter white embossing powder. After that I painted it with Mica watercolours in iridescent violet.

I have some Magenta chipboard pieces and I painted a bird with the two colours and crackle medium.

I also had some mini canvases so thought I would use it for the centre. Painted it with gesso, then added molding paste and smooshed it around with a rubber stamp. I added some Pearlex pearl white to it when dry, then dabbed some of the African Violet paint mixture over that with my fingers.

I attached the canvas to the coaster, then the bird. I rummaged through my stash of beads and bellies and found three feather beads and added them to the bottom of the canvas. In the picture the background flourishes look different but in "real life" they are white.

Mini Memories

I belong to a small group DCI comprised mostly of Australians, but there are few of us from North America. The current swap is to make Mini items that can all be placed into a larger frame. Each participant has chosen a theme and a colour scheme. Some have stipulated a certain size and others have just left it up to the artist.

For the month of August Trizzy is the chosen recipient to receive a creation from 10 other people. Her theme is "Wings" and the colours blue and/or green with silver, with no specific size.

I recently bought a couple of stretched canvases at the dollar store and decided to use one for this project, but using the back instead of the front.

I covered the whole piece in gesso, then painted the inside with 3 different tones of blue acrylic paint. Still thought it needed "something" so went over it with blue H2O's - still not happy. So I took some silver fabric glue paint and slapped over the top portion and ran an old comb through it and rather like the effect as it looks like rain or a waterfall.

With my Cuttlebug I embossed some plumbers tape using the bird embossing folder (keeping the wings theme) and cut it to fit around the outside of the frame. I coloured the embossed parts with Adirondack pens then sprayed it with a setting agent.

I painted the inside edge in green but it did not seem finished so I tried several different things...stamping, lace, beads and even some green cording, however, none of them appealed to me. Into my stash!! I found some sea glass but it was too bulky; then I discovered some little plastic mosaic pieces and there were enough blue and green ones to fit around the edge. I adhered these with some of the wonderful Sookwang tape (Picture and giveaway on this blog) then used silver seed beads as the grout.

I stamped and coloured a cattails stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor pencils and and H2O's, and cut it out. I did not like it with the brown cattail head so cut them off and attached the rest of the image to the inside background. I had some little icicle embellishments in my stash and added them as more fauna. I added a jewell to a round paper clip and attached it to simulate the sun.

I have had the dragonfly ornament thing for years and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I added some bead chain to the body and some beads on the tail, then attached a butterfly charm. I glued this to the frame with some super glue. However it would not stick. So I revised the piece. This was the original.

I took off the bird and replaced it with the butterfly. I cut off a piece of the dragonfly's tail and screwed it to the frame, then added a green jewell to hide the screw head. Much happier with it now and will mailing to Trizzy this week!!

Image transfer swap

I recently signed up for an image transfer swap and decided to do a canvas. Well it was one of those days when no matter what I did nothing worked!! I must have done about 5 attempts at the transfer and was really getting discouraged as none seemed quite right.

I coloured the canvas with gesso and then added layers of acrylic paint. I then used gel medium to transfer the image directly to the canvas. The final look is quite faint, but I think it just gives it an aged look.

I added some images from tissue paper, stamped and embossed swirls and then stamped a text stamp around the canvas.

I took a chipboard frame and embossed it with platinum embossing powder and UTEE, then stamped directly over it while hot to add texture. I used this to frame the picture. Fiinally, I added the little saying piece to complete it.

April Quote of the Month

The April quote is: "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."Langston Hughes

I really struggled with this quote for some reason and looked through a lot of pictures, stamps, stickers and things on my computer.

First Attempt: The background image and the frog are stickers, and the little girl on the bird is from Lisa's Altered Art. This was my first attempt and I was not happy with it, so back to the drawing board!

Second attempt: The canvas was completely stripped and painted over with gesso then painted in a deep red, brown and a smidgen of black acrylics. I added some lace at the top and some text paper at the bottom with a bit more of the same paint and some acrylic pewter paint over it. I am still not happy with the overall effect.
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Third and Final: I had some worksheet paper that I had on my desk that was covered in paints, inks, Krylon pen, embossing powders, stamped images and glitter. I decided that I preferred this to the previous backgrounds, so adhered it to a piece of 130 Lb card stock.

I lightly stamped a few more images on the background with Ancient Page Coal; stamped the "Believe" stamp with pigment ink and embossed it with Pearl embossing powder.
I attached the picture of the little girl (flickr-chicks 57)then added the transparency with vellum tape and attached the quote. I am finally happy with this and can now sign up for the swap.

Quote of the Month - January and February

I am participating in a swap on CCswaps where we create a piece of art using a quote for that month, which must be displayed somewhere on the art. The quote is: "Great art picks up where nature ends."

For January I used a piece of cardstock and did the Stamp Smooshie technique (you use your stamp as an applicator and smoosh the ink around on the paper-usually 3 different tones of the same colour ink). I then added some mica magic ink over it. I stamped the Safflower Script stamp (Stampington) on a piece of acetate with Stazon black ink and attached it with vellum tape.

I had a piece of cardstock on which I had rubbed off some Mica Magic ink while doing some stamping and liked the look of it, so I chose that to stamp the Magenta butterfly image on and attached it to the middle of the acetate.

I mounted the piece on another piece of Mica Magic coloured background. The final touch was to add the maple leaf brads and the quotes. This is now at it's new home with Maggi.

The February quote is: "Feet what do I need thee for when I have wings to fly." I decided on an altered book board. I used some techniques from Kelly Rae Roberts book Taking Flight. I am really pleased with the book as it has great inspiration and some step-by-step instructions and not just a bunch of "pretty pictures".

The background is similar to one that I learned in an Altered Diva class, where you paint gesso on the substrate, add one coat of paint. let it dry then add another coat and while wet spray it with water, let it sit for a bit then dab it with a cloth. The little circles in white were made by dipping the end of an adding machine roll holder thingy in paint and stamping on the book board.

The body was a stamp (PSX) of a seamstress mannequin which I stamped into polymer clay and baked. When it was ready I rubbed it with a wash of brown acrylic paint, then painted the flowers, heart and ribbon and body with acrylic paint and brushed some Pearlex and Perfect Pearls over the top.

When it dried I coated it with Poly Glaze, then when that set I rubbed some "Goldfinger rub-on paste over it and glued on the gems.

The head is an image from a magazine advert which I cut down and glued into a flattened bottle cap and filled with Glossy Accents. The gold wings were left over from when I was making some Christmas Angels years ago; cut in the middle to reduce the bulk and glued behind the body and added some gold Stickles to enhance them a bit. The seagull was a found item in my stash. This will be going to it's new home at the end of February when the partners list is announced.

It-girl for October

This month on Artventure Chrissy is the "It Girl" and she chose Nature as her theme. I am running out of ideas for something unique, but decided to do another canvas for this month.

I started out by doing a canvas which represented a misty day...i.e. the saying I used. This is my first attempt, however, I was not completely happy with the whole thing. The saying stuck out like a sore thumb and all attempts to make it better failed.

So back to the drawing board!! I love autumn because where I live all the leaves change colour and they are just beautiful. This made me think of another idea for the It-Girl canvas. I gessoed over the original one, then painted it with yellow, green and orange paint.

When it dried, I added tree trunks then the "leaves" with a larger paint brush using red, orange

and green arcylics; I added brown and yellow on the bottom to simulate the forest ground. Added some bushes with the green acrylic.

Still not quite right, so I printed off some birds and squirrels and added them, because anytime I have been in a forest they are always around. I think I am finally happy with it and hope Chrissy will like it.

So what do you think? Any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

Board book Spread 5

Step 1. Pages were sponged with gesso, then painted with black acrylic paint. Various metallic paints were dripped on the pages and then the pages were closed and held shut; I smoothed the pages down to distribute the paint over the pages. Opened up the pages...what magic .!! Love this technique-the paint looks like ferns and branches and a big bug right in the centre. LOL

Board Book Page 4

While waiting for the page to dry I made an embellishment. The instruction was to use stamps that were not Asian but to end up with something which looked Asian. I made mine from air dried clay and painted it with acrylic and metallic paints. You will see this further along in this post.

Step 1: A layer of Gesso was sponged then cheap glue added randomly over the page. When dry another coat of gesso was applied, dried again red paint was brushed on. Gold acrylic paint was rubbed over the pages to accent the ridges from the glue.

Step 2: Stamped a fern stamp (Hero Arts) around the perimeter of the pages.
Step 3: A strip of the faux washi paper (see previous post) was added to the right page. We were to add a Haiku to the page "A Japanese poem usually written in 3 lines". I found several online and finally chose one that I liked and printed it on parchment coloured paper in red ink, then cut out and glued the word over the washi paper. Final touch was to add the handmade embellishment. In hindsight, maybe I should have added a moon somewhere on the page to match the Haiku?

Board book Spread 3

Step 1: Tore up various strips of leftover scrapbook papers and attached them overlapping each other and lighty gessoed over them after the glued dried. Rubbed Vintage distress inks over both pages to age it a bit. Step 2:Ripped a wide piece of masking tape and stamped a background image on it with black stazon ink, then attached it to the left hand page. Made a heart shaped image out of airdry clay and stamped it with a text stamp. When dry I added red paint and then gold paint over the top. Attached a piece of magic mesh and attached the heart. Printed off a Heart quote and added it to the left page. Now there were no instructions to add anything else, but since this is my book I decided to add some images to go with the quote..guess I am just a rebel at heart!!