Fabric Printing with the Gelli Plate

Ok, everyone.  I keep it short, as work is taking me down this week. But I had time to play at Carolyn’s Gelli Print Party.. now every first Friday of the month..  Won’t you join us.  Check out her blog and all the linkys to the party.

I enjoyed some of the prints.. not all, but was still quite fun.  I imagine building even more layers of stamps and image transfers.  Endless, I tell you.. endless.

 

Here are some close ups of the fabric prints.  I increased the saturation, as the paint on the fabric is very suttle and the camera did not justify the colors.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Share the love.

Judy ♥

Collage Page & Spraying Fabric

I know, I know.. 3 posts in one week… what’s going on?  Hey, have to keep you on your toes.

So, here is how this usually goes:

I walk in my the studio to clean up a little or to put away a previous project’s stuff still hanging around. As you know, I”ve been cleaning out the room of old stuff no longer needed.  I had dried up paints in jars, clogged up spray bottles and rock hard polymer clay (that I wasn’t about to bring back to life with a food processor).  Anyway……….

….. I look at some of the new Dylusions Spray Inks  (by Ranger/Dyan Reaveley) I just splurged on.  Hmmm.. let me give them a try on a piece of 11×14 Bristol paper.  Spray..ooooo… spray…ooooo.. another spray… ohhhhh.  These colors are delicious, let me just tell you right now.

Fast forward….. layers and layers of Dylusions ink
heavy gesso (for the white stencil swirls)
acrylic paint
a little fabric
fiber paper
Tulip Dimensional paint – for the white little dots and spiral flower on bottom right.
Glitter glue
Checkerboard Duct Tape
Paper towel covered manilla tag – the heart was cut from that

Now, mind you, this is done over a few days and in between cleaning.  See, I just sit down and I end up making something with no plans.

I wish I had taken pictures of this from the beginning, but I had no idea, I was going to keep going.. After all, I was just playing with ink.

Here is a picture of my final page….

See the little pansies at the top left corner and on the right, 1/4 of the way down?  That was some sheer fabric that one of my subscribers sent me.  I cut around the flowers and slapped those babies down with some gel medium.  The melted right into the background.  Nancy sent me a package full of music papers, old books, fabric, decorated wall paper (I think that’s what it was) and some old jewelry and some other goodies.  So generous, that someone would think of me like that.  THANK YOU, NANCY!!!!  I hope you like what I did with the flowers.  I love them.

Now, here is what else I did with the Dylusion Spray Inks.  They are NOT made for fabric, but I wanted to give it a try anyway.  As long as you don’t get it wet, you’re fine.  It’s really made for paper.

I grabbed some muslin fabric and started spraying different colors all over.  Oh my.. so purdy.   Then I took a little of the Tulip paint (made for fabric) and mixed that with a little gesso.  Took my make up sponge and dabbed it in the paint and gently pounced it on the fabric through a stencil.  Because the ink is not permanent on fabric the white paint was a little tinted.  But, I still liked it.  What do you think??  I’m just loving these colors.  Now if they can take these inks and make them for fabric.

Above: I spray through a rubber sink mat. Found it at Wal-mart.

Check out Dyan Reaveley”s YouTube videos HERE.  Watch her create.  You can also check out her blog HERE.  She’s a hoot.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Judy ♥

Back and new stuff…

You’re probably wondering, where the beejeezus is Judy.  She never writes, calls or sends flowers.  Sorry, I’m here.. been a long stretch, but I have updates.

Anyway, I had two weeks off from work and it was nirvana, I tell you.  But the funny thing was, I thought I was going to be up in the studio most of the time, but it never really worked out that way.  Three of us got the flu and that set me back a week, daughter home from college, cooking, gathering.. and on and on.  So, here I am almost 2 months later from starting my canvas….  Nuff of that…  moving on now…

So, last time, I left you with the latest canvas I started.  Click HERE to remember.

I took more still shots  of my work, but not every single step in my progress.  I got so caught up in the fun creative process.  But, I have a surprise for you at the end of this blog.

Here we go…

So, here is the progress about 3/4 the way through.

I made some flower stems from fabric that I loaded up with gel medium and let them dry.  Then ripped a lace-like tablecloth in a strip and diluted it with paint for the “grass” for the flowers.  You’ll see in a minute.

   

I forgot to mention that I cut a necklace chain for the stem of the bottom flower.  Bracelets for the ground of smaller flowers that were actually bobby pins.

Then I made my polymer clay leaves for the flowers.  I must say, stamping into clay is so fun.  In the center flower at the top of the canvas, I also stamped text into the leaves.  I am loving that look.   I may take a small portion of a larger rubber stamp and if I don’t particularly like the stamp anymore, I’ll cut the section off that I like.   A small detailed scissors is great to cutting around a clay stamped image.

To see my tutorial on how I make my “Buttons ‘n bellishments, GO HERE.  This shows you the button process, but can be used the same for embellishments.

Here are some final pictures, but at the end, I’ll take you through the process with a surprise.

On my wall….

.. and finally, what I have been working on all day… a short video of me going through my canvas.  A few corrections on words I noticed I should have fixed, but I had already done the video once before, so I kept it in. It’s just me talkin it up with you.   I hope you enjoy and would love some comments.

MixedMediaCanvas by Judy Shea 12112 from Judy Shea on Vimeo.

As always, thank you for stopping by and sharing this blog adventure with me.

Judy ♥

Snow, Fabric Dying and Journals

Well, here it is April Fool’s Day and that’s what we got here in Massachusetts.. a big ole fat April Fool’s prank by Mother Nature…  I’ll leave you with this… and we’ll move on to art.

Last week, I showed you some fabric dying with beet juice.  This weekend, I was making some pancakes with blueberries.. wait.. blueberries?  I have to give it a try.   All I did was take hot water and threw some blueberries in a container and let them soak for hours.  Then drop in the fabric and let them also sit for hours.

Here are my results on some fabric and lace…  not bad.

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One of my readers asked me if they were colorfast.  I didn’t know the answer, but I did find HERE that if you boil the fabric in water and vinegar before the dying process, it will keep them colorfast.

Ok.. so once again, I refer you to one of my recent posts on my large journal covers, I started to create.  I’m happy to say that I have completed the book and it’s ready for art making.

I used my awl to make four holes for metal binder rings, spray painted the rings white, then smooshed them with some teal paint. I used a lot of the Portfolio Watersoluble Oil Pastel crayons… creamy, smoothy goodness.  I did all my shadowing with them.  Also, included on these pages are polymer clay, ink jet transfers, stencils, metal embellishments, rubber stamping and lots of layers on the bottom using paint, gesso, pastes.   I stained the edges of the inner pages with walnut ink….. LOVE LOVE LOVE ♥

Because I used poster board, one side of each page is a bit glossy.  I think I will need to gesso each page to give it some tooth.  A note about spray paining… I hated it.. the fumes, the smell.. never again.  I even did it outside.  I’ll have to find an alternative.. maybe THIS or THIS.  If they work for fabric, they should work on paper/canvas; unless it needs that absorbancy.   Hmmm.. fabric?  What.. no more beet and blueberry juice?

Here are many pictures of the front, back and closeups.. enjoy.. click to make them bigga…

FRONT COVER – this journal is about 12″ x 16″

DETAILS

BACK COVER

DETAILS

As the Beatles sang.. “All You Need is Love”. ♥  ♥ ♥

There is so much happening on these pages.  I will protect them with PYMII.  Love this stuff.. check it out.

Well, that was fun.. I had some time off from work this week and it was just so nice to not have to worry about anything but me and my art for those hours when the house was quiet.  No running into the home office to check on things.. ahhh.     I’m ready for retirement.  I can dream.

Thanks for stopping by and let’s hope this Fool’s storm is just passing by and will melt real quick

Judy ♥

Beet Juice, Fabric Transfers & Sketching

Remember my post about my roasted veggie salad?  Well, I roasted some beets again… just lovely…. but with the pieces I trimmed off, I boiled in water and made beet juice to dye some fabric pieces in.. check it out…..

Here are some pieces of cotton fabric and lace.. before the dying.

I boiled the beets in water and let it cool.. then stored in a squeeze bottle.  And let me tell you.. this juice has some serious staining going on.  When I was peeling them, my hands were so red.. then I read that in the original Red Velvet cakes, beet juice is where they get the red from.  Who knew?

Even after storing my juice in a container, I put cold water on top of the still remaining pieces and it’s still as red as ever… AND you know what else is pink if you eat a lot of beets?  Well.. never mind.

I put the fabric/lace into an aluminum pie pan and squirted and brush/dabbed on the beet juice.  Using rubber gloves, I squeezed the remaining liquid and let them dry.

These pieces are so pretty… Not sure what I’m going to do yet, but maybe some transfers and some sewing to put on a mixed media piece or on a journal page…

AND….. speaking of transfers, I was playing around with some fabric transfers.

I printed out two pictures of my funky faces I drew and a copyright free photo of a fairy.

These are small pieces of muslin..about 4″x3″.  I printed (ink jet, rough side) on a sheet of transparency film and used Golden Soft Gel Medium to transfer onto the muslin.  I think I’ve mentioned before that the transparency transfer method is my favorite and always works for me.  You can see the colors of these transfers.. almost exact from my printed picture.  They are so vibrant alone.

Click to enlarge pictures.

Once I let them dry, I did a small touch up with some acrylic paints.  On my faces, I painted the lips a bit more with red acrylic and used gold sticky spiral and added gold glitter to some areas.  With the fairy, used the gold spiral and gold glitter to make stars.  Maybe some sewing with gold thread all around the fabric edges?  What do you think?

THEN….Just for fun.. During the American Idol commercials (there so damn many of them), I’ve been sketching some faces without too much thinking.. just going for it…. Here’s a bunch crowded together.  Funny to look at each one.. do they remind you of anyone?

That’s my studio play for now.  Hope you enjoyed the peek.

I’ll be doing an update on my LARGE JOURNAL I’m making.. using the Bold Background pages I made from poster board. They are coming out yummy.  So.. stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Final Mixed Media Projects.. and more

Well.. here we are.. 2011.. Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!  What a great year it was and let’s hope that 2011 is even better.

Having the past two weeks off from work have been so refreshing.  Family, friends, art.. what else could a girl ask for?  Food?  Yes.. too much celebrating for sure.  I’m not making any resolutions.. I’ll just do my best each and every day.

Let’s get to some art, shall we?

Remember my mixed media texture on canvas.. here is the before picture:

After… click to see some details…

Well, you recently saw my post on my paper towel journal.  I took my second towel and turned it vertical to make a small/tall journal.  So cute!

Below are some of the steps I took to make it.

Click any picture to see more detail.

As I started to make the journal above, I thought of putting a patchwork fabric piece on the inside cover of the journal.  Well, after sewing and sewing.. I LOVED the result so much that I decided to make another journal out of it.  See below…

I just started to sew pieces of scrap fabric onto a 6×12″ piece of material.

Added more and lace around the edge….

I added more trim, ribbon, lace scraps.  Sewed in watercolor paper signatures, strung some ceramic beads off the binding and that’s it.

I decided to do some cleaning in the studio.  Donating lots of unused crafts that have been sitting around for years.  It feels good to re-energize, clean out and give to others.   It’s a “win win” to me.

What else is new you ask?    Well….

….  also wanted to share with you a few challenges and workshops that I am involved in that are FREE.  They are at your own pace, so no pressure.  I certainly won’t have time to do them consistently, now that I’m back at work.  That’s what I love about it.

1st:  The Sketchbook Challenge.. read all about it HERE.  Great artists hosting each month for the year, you heard me… a year.  One theme per month.

2nd:   Milliande’s Art Journal January

3rd:  Strathmore Visual Journal Online Workshops

Pass the word.. send my post to a friend.

Well, I’ve said a mouthful, don’t you think??? Whew… Lots to share with all of you and it’s all fun and good.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Paper Towel Journal

Remember my last post about the paper towel painted backgrounds?  Well, I decided that I liked them so much, I was going to make something out of them or at least one.

Now mind you, I am not a journal maker or a sewing, so I combined two things I am not good at and here’s what I came up with.

Go ahead and click to see details and close ups.

Lots of trial and error here, my friends…  First off.. paper towels still rip.. Even if they are the “quicker picker upper”… they rip.  I still had fun, cuz it was just plain cool.

So, basically.. took the paper towel and sewed some lace trim around the edges and backed it with another piece of cotton.  I used metallic gold and turquoise thread.. and some beige for some of the inside cover.  I then sewed all around the front with gold swirls.. not as easy as I thought.   Then sewed another piece of fabric for the inside covers to putt batting in.. so it would be a puffy journal…   Sewed 3 sides, slid in the batting and sewed up the fourth side.  I took 4 pieces of watercolor paper and sized them smaller than the book size, which is about 5″ x 6″, closed.  I bound the pages with wax linen thread… put fabric beads I made with some other acrylic beads to dangle on the tail.  Sewed a polymer button I made to the front, highlighted with gold wax.  Made a loop-di-loop string to wrap it from the the back.  Does all that make sense?  Did I mention that paper towels rip?

Badda Bing.. Badda Boom.. there you have it!!  Quick and dirty paper towel journal..  Ok, it wasn’t quick it took me a few hours.. and my back.. oh my back..hanging over the sewing machine… glasses on.. glasses off.. change threads, change bobbins.. dog wants to pee.. string in my hair.. now I gotta pee.  Fuhgedaboudit!!

My thoughts:  I will definitley give this another try.  I wouldn’t use a paper towel again, but there are other non-fabric materials to use.. I think of Tyvek envelope paper for my first thought.  Of course leather is just..well, perfect.

I’m sure the front of this journal will not hold up if I abuse it, but it’s only for play… I think I will try to seal it with gel medium to make it stronger.

I’ve been playing with some used coffee filters.  Oh messy and vintagy.. love it.  I’ll be showing those soon.

I also finished my textured canvas piece that I showed  in the same blog post I linked above; that’s also coming up.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Mixed Media Citra Collage Tutorial

Last year about this time I did two posts on the beautiful Autumn that we had… you can see the posts HERE and HERE.  Well, that was last year.  This year is a different story.  I have no pictures because the colors are dull this year.  The summer was so hot for so long, the trees just got too stressed and couldn’t generate enough chlorophyl.   I guess that’s like us really isn’t it.. sometimes?  Dontchya think?   Let’s hope that next year it comes back in full force with beautiful backgrounds.

Speaking of backgrounds… I wanted to show you a very cool technique that’s been shown here and there using CitraSolv.  It’s a degreaser used for household cleaning.. well, check it out HERE.  Then check out the CitraArt HERE.  Pretty darn cool if you ask me.. go ahead ask me… .. It’s funny you should ask… Yes, I thinks it’s so cool that I made a mixed media canvas collage with it.

Let’s start from the very beginning.. …(wait do you hear Julie Andrews?)  Sorry.

I looked all over for a bottle of Citra Solv.. nothing in the local stores even though the CS website listed the retail store locations.  So, I finally found a bottle at Vitacost.com.   Citra Solv works well with the National Geographic magazine pages the best, as it is contains a clay coating used for the crisp images the magazine is known for.

Moving on….

Here are the steps I took to make my Citra Backgrounds.  Start with your bottle of Citra Solv and a Nat Geo magazine. Now, you may want to work with a window open or go outside.. it’s not a terrible smell.. just a very STRONG orangey odor.  I got sick of it after a while.

I put my CS in a small plastic spray bottle instead of using a brush.  I thought it would be easier to spray.  I started to use a small plastic “solo” bathroom cup and a brush to spread it on and this is what happened…

Ummm.. apparently the plastic in the cup did not agree with the CS.  However, this plastic spray bottle is fine…

Let’s begin… can you stand it????

Open the magazine to some colorful pages and begin to spray.  Spray, turn to next colorful page.. spray,  next and so on…  now don’t be stingy with the liquid.. if it’s drippy that’s ok…

See how it begins to “melt”.. oh so fun.

Spray all the pages you want and close the book and let it sit for a while.. at least 15 minutes.. if you don’t see a change when you open the page.. spray some more and close the mag… some pages are better than others…. BUT oh look and see some of my results…

Do you see where I have the pencil pointing above?… I saw a face in that blotch and I started to enhance it further.  Look for images and play.

Above, I started to rubber stamp and play with the face.

So, there you have the way to make the Citra Backgrounds.  Now, let me show you how I applied it to a new mixed media canvas piece.

I started with a blank canvas, put down some fluid acrylics, letting each layer dry.  Then on the far right I put a large strip of heavy acrylic paint.

I let it dry then put my heat gun to it really close.  This will make the paint react with the intense heat and start to bubble… I got this technique from Gary Reef.  You’ve heard me mention him before.. such a love; you can see the video HERE.

Look at that beautiful texture.  I’m excited now.  When you are happy in bubble town, let it cool down (that rhymes, by the way).

I painted the white with gold acrylic paint and heated it again causing more bubbles… and then another layer of gold…

Once the paint was dry and cooled, I put random ripped masking tape over the gold.

Then painted it red then pulled the masking tape off revealing the gold underneath.

I DIDN’T LIKE IT…I needed to tone down the red.. just wasn’t working for me.

So, I painted the gold over it…..

Close up below.. love the texture…

OK… let’s get on with using the Citra Backgrounds….

So, here you can see the citra pages on the left and going up and on the top… Did a little rubber stamping on them and “antiqued” with some brown shoe polish around the edges..  On the bottom is a ripped resin music page.  It’s coming along, but still needs some lovin.

Ah Huh…. one of my favorite techniques.. pushing molding paste through stencil… Here, I tinted molding paste with black acrylic paint.. and mixed to make a black paste.

A little boo boo on the top left of the fleur-de-lis.  I’ll need to let it dry and redo that section.

Below is a picture after the fleur-de-lis was done and I added some gold trim along the red strip, hand made polymer clay embellishments, ribbon and gold paste that I rubbed over the molding paste design.  People, I’m just in love with Inka Gold waxy paste by Viva Decor.  I can’t get enough of it.

Here is the last picture I took.  At this point I’ve added, black tissue paper, black stenciling, fabric, lace paper and I blinged up a boring metal pendant.  However, I have to admit.. I know it’s not done.. it still needs a final image above the music paper.  It’s look very royal.. maybe a queen?  Beeswax?    What do you think?

I had so much fun creating this piece.  Hope you enjoyed the post and tutorial as much I as enjoyed creating it for you.   I’ll show my final canvas in my next blog post.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy  <3

Art Submission – Busting Your Boundaries

Hey Blogger Friends…

The New England weather has finally changed from hot and humid to crisp nights.  I’m just loving this.

The magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors, is having an art challenge for Artisan of the year.  I am biting the bullet and have submitted 3 pieces of my mixed media collages.  I’m really proud of them and whether I am selected or not.. It felt good to bust my boundaries by entering.

Here is what I’ve submitted, one picture in full, then two details of each piece:

Remember the sneak peek I posted, well, here is the final; I call this the Collage Garden.  The bottom half is created with my Dryer Sheet Collage Art Cloth.  This was fun and to think that the tic tac toe board underneath was being thrown away.

Details…

This is called “With Love”

Details…

Lastly, this one is called “The Key to my HEART”…

Details…

Well, there you have it..  you can go HERE and read the details of each piece.. I think you just have to create a username to see all the entries.  Look for mine.  Lots of BEAUTIFUL art I’m up against.  Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Next up… Collaboration with a Crow

Sneak Peeks

Hey Bloggeritas and happy Friday…

Can is be true.. it’s the end of July?  Uncrazable!  It’s been a hot month here in Massachusetts.  I’ll never complain about the winter again.. promise, honey.

I’m working on a submission to a magazine and I wanted to give you a sneak peek of my art piece.  It’s a mixed media piece on an old tic tac toe board I found at the recycle shack at our local transfer station.  I used a lot of my recycled dryer sheet art cloth, polymer clay, gold touches (um, lots of it)  and textures.

The little fabric house is about 4″ tall x 3″ wide.   I sewed (yes, me, sewed) the house myself.. man I was proud.  It opens up to a pocket that will hold a heart.  All together.. “awwwwwwww”.  The entire board is about 10″ square.

Now, I am not done with this piece.. I have a little more to do.   I’m kinda stuck right now.. so I’m letting it sit a while and put it in a place in the house so when I walk by,  something will hit me, well, I hope not literally.

.. and more…..

I’ve did another dryer sheet art cloth; playing around with acrylics and rubber stamping only.   First, is front view…

Then I flipped it around.. pretty cool.  I just love the drippings.  I could never make another one look like this.  That’s what I love, each one you make is unique and your own.

A free weekend approaches.. don’t you just love no commitment weekends?  I’ll be in the studio playing and I’ll be sure to share more artsy fartsy stuff with you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Next up….. Published!