Heading East

Last weekend, with a to-do list longer than my arm, I abandoned everything I was supposed to do in favor of what I wanted to do.  I recently signed up for an ATC swap at Little Bird Creations, something I haven't done in years.  I literally have hundreds of these little works of art from years ago swaps, but have rarely done any since I've gotten into art journaling and collage.  Anyway, the theme is Japanese/geisha, and since I have a ton of related supplies, I decided to go for it.  They're not due until June, but you know how it goes with me and my stubborn muse....strike while she is hot or she will run away and hide.

I began by covering a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11" cardstock with some Japanese text.  I remembered a trick I'd read for getting 10 ATC from one such piece of paper, and cut them out.  Here's this handy tip:

1. Cut two lengthwise strips 2 1/2" wide, leaving one strip 3 1/2" wide.

2. Cut the strips crosswise: the 2 1/2" strips will be 3 1/2" wide, and the 3 1/2" strips will be 2 1/2" wide.

Then I added some texture with this embossing folder (I was able to do two ATCs at a time):

 

 

And then some transluscent color with these paints:

 





So much for the background; now onto the main image, which I got from this:

The above is 8 1/2 x 11", so I only used the head and shoulders, and that pretty much filled up the ATC.

All of this resulted in:

 

 

To color the images, I used my favorite cheap-o art supply:

 

 

 

And to decorate the colored kimonos, I used some of my favorite pens.  Because the Portfolios have a waxy surface, not every pen will write well over them.  I've ruined many a good pen learning this, but my Sharpie poster paint pens, Molotow acrylic pens, and Sakura glaze and souffle pens glide over the Portfolios with no problem.

 

 

 

Although the design is identical, the decoration changes from ATC to ATC.  And though it wasn't my intention,  even the faces all look different.  The face on the original image was very faint, so I had to go over the lines with a pen.  Even the slightest difference in my drawing changed the expression.  I'm not complaining, just explaining.  And of course I totally enjoyed coloring and doodling on the clothing, using varying colors and patterns on each.

 

 

 



 

 

 

I used very narrow red German scrap for the hair accessories.  The flowers are tiny Primas over small Stampin' Up blooms, with a dot of platinum stickles in the center.













Spray (and paint and stamp and draw) AND Paste

The Mad Scientist, Part II

I just couldn't stop....wondering how Wendy's metallic embossing pastes would look over some more of my favorite coloring media.  And of course the wondering led to the experimenting, which led to a whole lot of colorful sample pages.

Row 1:  Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels, applied dry.
Row 2:  Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels, applied wet.
Row 3:  Ranger Distress Markers.
Row 4:  Ranger Distress Ink (applied with ink pad direct to the paper).
Row 5:  Ranger Distress Stains.

Stencil:  Michelle Ward for Stencil Girl.

 

 

Then I decided to use Ranger's Color Wash sprays again, but this time stick to some deeper, darker colors.  I didn't expect to be wowed by the results, but I was.

 

 

Stencil:  Circle Explosion, The Crafter's Workshop

 

 

I had a few misters full of homemade sprays.  These were made with Distress Reinkers and Perfect Pearls.  Don't ask me which colors, because I didn't label them and made them ages ago.

 

 

Stencil:  Stencil Girl (one of the the March stencils from the Stencil Girl monthly club)

 

Before hanging up my lab coat I decided to see how the pastes would react when applied over paint.  And I do have an awful lot of paint.  I narrowed my sampling down to the ones I tend to use the most.

 

 

 

Rows 1 and 2:  Ranger Distress Paints

Row 3:  Ranger Claudine Hellmuth Acrylics

Rows 4 and 5:  Golden Fluid Acrylics

Row 6:  Your garden variety store brand acrylic, the kind you find under the Dick Blick, Utrecht, or Cheap Joe's brand, to name a few.

 

 

Stencils:  I have no clue.  They are very pretty border stencils, but the manufacturer is not printed on them and the original packaging is long gone.

I thought I was finished, but went back and filled a page with Derwent's Inktense Color Blocks.  These are highly pigmented inks in stick form, and when water is added they produce intense yet translucent colors.  And when they dry, the color is permanent.

 

Stencil:  Daisy Cluster, The Crafter's Workshop

 

I just had to try the pastes over alcohol inks.  First I coated the page in my journal with Ranger's glossy glue n seal to create the nonporous surface the inks work best on.  Then I applied a variety of inks the usual way, pouncing them on with the felt covered tool.

 

 

 

Stencil:  Diamonds by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer for The Crafter's Workshop







Have I come to any conclusions?  Well, in my opinion, these metallic pastes look great over everything I've applied them to.  My personal preference is the gold....most of the time.  I just think the underlying color comes through a little better with it than the silver.  Also, a lighter coat of paste (usually) reveals more color than a thicker coat.  I've noticed exceptions to all these observations, so bottom line:  just go for it, have fun playing, and honestly, I doubt you'll be disappointed in any of your results.















A Perfect Threesome

Did that get your attention?  No, not a description of my weekend, but the combination of stencils, deli wrap, and a gelli plate. 

I was first introduced to the joys of using deli wrap as a substrate by the wonderful Anne Bagby, and I've been hooked ever since.  Later on, I noticed that Julie Fei-Fan Balzer was using it a lot, especially with her gelli plate.  I signed up for her online  gelli plate class (IMO a steal at only $15), and fell in love with the deli wrap all over again.

Last weekend I spent a very happy couple of hours churning out one design after another.  Just experimenting with different stencils and color combinations, not overthinking (truth be told, not thinking at all), and I now have a big stack that will be used as backgrounds, torn up for collages, and who knows what else.

Most of the stencils I used are from Stencil Girls.  I recently joined their stencil club, which gives me three stencils a month (that are exclusive to the club members) and access to MaryBeth Shaw's instructional videos.

For the most part, I used very inexpensive acrylic paint, including cheapo metallics.  A drop of Golden's fluid acrylics here and there, but mainly this is not only low tech, but low cost.  The only thing you might not already have is the gelli plate itself.  Trust me, you will enjoy using it.



Vintage Ancestors, Adventurous and Murderous

My friend Lee (who I hope to actually meet some day) from Australia has been a part of all the collaborative art journals I've done over the past five years or so.  I love the way she started off her Vintage Ancestors book, with a tale of two young sisters who somehow turn into the murderous seniors that Arsenic and Old Lace was based on.  All ficticious of course, but what fun!  Here are Lee's pages, which I will build upon to continue the story.

So, Lee asks the question, how did these young girls become killers, and what in their background led them down such a path?

I introduced their father, one E.J. Jones, who just so happened (according to me) to be the inspiration for another film character, the one and only Indiana Jones.  Boy, did I have a blast concocting this story, and the artwork that accompanies it.

 

 

This particular Dr. Jones was an explorer, working in rain forests throughout the world, in search of medicinal plants.  Along the way he discovered some poisonous ones as well.  Oh, and he was always accompanied by his two young daughters.  Hmmmm.....could there be a connection there to Lee's story?

 

Here are closer looks at the pages.

 

 

 

 

 

The backgrounds were made by first scraping several earth tone colors of fluid acrylics over the paper.  Then some stamping (stamps by Dyan Reaveley and Wendy Vecchi).  The photo of Dr. Jones is in a holder made from Tim Holtz's cabinet card die.  The leaves and birds were cut from a Sizzix decorative strip called Birds and Branches.  The label holder is a very old Stampin' Up accessory that started out in life a vanilla color, but was distressed to look rusty with nothing more than acrylic paint (black and shades of brown).

 

The story was printed on vellum.  I made the little envelope for the specimen (Specimen B stamp by Wendy Vecchi, by the way) from deli wrap.

 

I added the number tab (I believe it is from a 7 Gypsies set) because Lee had an index tab on her page, and I thought it would be a nice element to continue.

 

In mid January this book goes to Pat, and I can't wait to see what my creative pal does with the continuing story of the surprisingly (or not) homicidal siblings.

 







Anyone For Tea?

It's been about three months since I've had any books to work on from my Asian inspired journal group.  On Saturday, I received two, and just finished the pages I did for my friend way up north, Lillian.

With these collaborative books, sometimes I know exactly where I'm going and sometimes I just start and hope for the best.  All I knew this time, is that I was going to use the stencil technique I've learned from workshops with the incomparable Lynne Perrella.  Using multiple copies of the same image, stencils are created by cutting away different parts on each copy.  Paints, inks, stains and pastels are applied in layers, decorative stencils are also used in sections, creating a final image that while inspired by the original, is unique and totally belonging to the artist.  I love this technique!  A bit of upfront work, yes, but ultimately so much more satisfying to me than simply cutting out an image, altering it in some way, and gluing it down,

First, the two page spread:

 

 

Here is a little closer look at my teacup holding lady:

 

 

 

She was done on watercolor paper, and I mainly used fluid acrylics.  Some details were done with glaze pens and souffle pens.  The characters were heat embossed, as was the teapot on the bottom.  The background paper is from Graphic 45's new Bird Song stack.  It was originally a pale pink, but I changed it to green with one of the acrylics, which is very translucent, so the original pattern is still visible.  The bamboo shoots on the right were heat embossed using Ranger's verdigris powder (one of my favorites).

 

An even closer look:

 

 

 

It was the teacup in the image that led me to the facing page.  I did a little online research into the Japanese tea ceremony.  The four words are the principals behind this ritual.

 

 

The background paper is also from the Graphic 45 stack, and it was altered with gold fluid acrylic paint, and the heat embossing in black and pink on the bottom.  The teapot was stamped on a piece of scrap paper that had been previously covered with that verdigris embossing powder, and it is stacked on two other pieces from the Bird Song collection.  Each layer was attached with pop dots, though I don't think that is obvious in the photo.

 

 

 













 



Toss The Smokes; Alter The Box

The Kindred Souls group is in the midst of a cigar box swap, and I was lucky enough to be paired with Neil, an awesome artist from England.  We briefly communicated and both decided that whatever each of us did would be fine.  I was happy to be making a box for a man, because I don't often get to do that,  and I did what I love to do......a little bit vintage, a little bit steampunk, a little bit grunge, and a whole lot of texture.   I just mailed the completed box the other day, and it will take about two weeks to reach Neil.  So, Neil, if you're reading this and would like to be surprised, step away from the computer or go visit another blog!

Above, a look at the box with the lid partially opened (yes, it closes nicely).  And now for some closer looks.  First, the top.

I took some corrugated cardboard and ripped off the paper covering one side, then cut it into different sized pieces for the mosaic look.  I used inks and stains to color the pieces until I thought they looked suitably grungy, and adhered them with a strong glue.  Then I went through my stash of keys, selected some and glued them down.  I wanted to attach some sort of knob to the top to aid in opening the box, but the craft knobs I had on hand (lots of them!) didn't have a screw long enough to go through the lid, and I had no screws in my junk drawer that would fit, so I wound up using a finial from an old lamp that worked perfectly.  It took a while to get the hole made, but an awl worked fine.

The sides of the box were covered with many scraps of patterned tissue paper and sealed with Ranger's Glue N Seal.  Oh, I used that on the top of the box too, by the way.  The chain goes all the way around the box and the swags were created by attaching the chain with plain old thumb tacks....which I banged up and colored with permanent ink to get a rusty look.

Decorating the inside of the box was optional, but I just couldn't leave it naked.  Here's what it looks like fully opened.  And next, photos of the inside of the box and inside of the lid.

                                         

For the bottom and sides of the inside I took some patterned paper and altered it with stamps and stencils.

The underside of the lid was covered with Tim Holtz's tissue tape, which was then colored with both Golden's fluid acrylics and distress inks.  And yes, everything was sealed and protected with more Glue N Seal.

I think boxes look nicer if they have some lift, so I added feet.....made from bingo markers.  The paper on the bottom of the box is plain old kraft from a disassembled grocery bag.  It was inked, crumbled, inked some more and glued down, without smoothing it too much so some of the wrinkles remained.  It may not look it in the photos, but I think it resembles leather. 

I left this out and opened for DAYS before packing it up (carefully enough, I hope) and sending it across the ocean.  Even though everything seemed dry after a few hours, you really want to make sure of that before shipping something like this.  I wouldn't want Neil to be unable to open it.  Speaking of which, before packing it up I did put a little something inside for Neil to discover.  No photo of that, so even if Neil decided to look, something will still be a surprise.