Re-post – Gel Skin Art

Here is a re-post of the “skins”, I made a while back.  Thought you would enjoy a 2nd go round on reading it and for the new subscribers and visitors.

The skin with the beads, is my favorite.  I’ve been tearing that up and using it in my work for about a year now. Here is an example of how I used it recently in my coffee filter art piece; see post here.

First up was Golden’s Self Leveling Clear Gel and the Clear Tar Gel.  I took a palette knife and spread a good amount on some freezer paper.. like frosting a cake.

I sprinkled some finer glitters and shiny things like colored micro beads, sequins or whatever I had.  The self leveling gel and the tar gel had the same results.  I think I will try mixing color into the gel to make it a solid color, then adding the pretty shiny things.  Adding snipped colorful fibers or fabrics would be an interesting effect, don’tchya think?  I’ve done it and it is.

Then I took fluid acrylics and dropped dots all over a sheet until it was crowded and ran a knitting needle around it making swirls and shapes.

I also took blobs of paints at the top of the freezer paper and spread them downward, but they came out too thin.  Not so great.  Using heavy body paints might work better.  But, still interesting and one of a kind.

Once they are dry, you can peel them off of the freezer paper.  Now what do you do with them?  How about adding them to a collage page, journal page or  cut into strips or chopped up to put into some dryer sheet collage art cloth… see my tutorial here on how to make it.

I haven’t been back up in the studio since before vacation.. sad.  I’ll get up there, get my creative juices flowing and be back with some fun stuff.

Thanks for stopping by?

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Collage Tutorial

I so enjoyed the 3 day weekend that just passed.  I was hot here in Mass.  A little too soon for me, but that tends to happen here.. not much of a Spring and then wham.. summer.  Give me a cold rainy day and I’m happy.  Strange, I know, but very comforting to me.  Whatchya gonna do?  Make art… that’s what… and that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s a tutorial just for you on how I made a collage on Bristol paper.  I started out thinking I would work on 3 collages at the same time.  Two on Bristol paper and one on deli paper.  The idea was to work on one while layers on another were drying.  Well, I started out that way, but there was too much going on and I couldn’t keep track of all the steps of the techniques.  I ended up focusing on one page for now.

You’ll see that I tend to lean more towards the teals, as in my other work too.  See this post and you’ll see what I mean, jelly bean.

Supplies/Materials:
Golden Gel Medium
Bristol paper 11″x14″
Golden fluid acrylic paints
Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints
scrap ephemera
polymer clay handmade embellishment (gotta have the clay in there)
lace papers
ink jet image transfer
my own hand carved rubber stamps
Portfolio Oil Pastels

Let’s start by showing you some of the handmade stamps I made.  Ok.. let me also tell you how I (bleep swear) at carving.   So they are not perfect and my back and neck  and eyes were sore after hours of carving, but they are my own originals.  Now, if you want to see some beautiful hand carved stamps.. go visit Autumn Hathaway’s website.. she is the queen of carving stamps.  She even has her own stationery line.  Gorgeous!

Here are mine.. aren’t they cute?  The pink ones are the ones I did this weekend and my own designs.

CLICK ON ALL IMAGES FOR A CLOSER LOOK

So, I started with the paper and scraped down some turquoise paint with a credit card.

Then added some Quin Azo Gold…

I used a little of the studio paints for patches of red.  More layers of turquoise and then I gave the entire page a wash with Titan Buff.  Ahhhh.  Let dry.  Actually, let all layers dry one at a time.

… and now, my friends… I begin the fun process of collaging.

I start the design using one of my stamps (love saying that).

STOP!  Wait a minute.. what time is it?  Did I forget to make dinner?  Um, ya, I think I did.  Ah, heck…. everyone for themselves; leftover night.

Continuing………. More of my stamps, scrap papers, corrugated cardboard from a coffee cup sleeve; stamped with red.

Added an ink jet image transfer from a transparency.

More papers, and stamps and lace papers.  Lace papers just melt into the collage when you use gel medium.

Here I put a strip of masking tape to protect the page from paint so I could put in a black and white stripe… then pull of to reveal a perfect line.  Love this.. makes me happy.

Here’s what it looks like before I start using Portfolio crayons.

I rubbed the black crayon around the edges.  I also used orange, teal, yellow and white crayon around the page.

Here’s the final.. I added a handmade polymer clay embellishment on one of the leaves. Also added a piece of my handmade tar gel skin with beads and glitter (right next to the spiral lace paper).  I cut about a 1/2″ from all around the edge of the page and snipped the corners.

Here are a couple of closeups…
  

There you have it.  I’m going to shoot for different colors on my next collage.  Ones that I don’t usually use.

Hope you enjoyed my tute.

Don’t forget to rate and  “like” me if you enjoyed this.

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

Background Checks

Hey Blogmeisters!

Welcome to Friday!   Been cold and rainy here and down right brrrrrr for June in New England.

I’ve been working on some backgrounds and thought I’d share.  These just sort of came about as I sat in my studio playing with some new creamy crayons that are water soluable.  Click here to check them out.

This one, I used a gold paint as the first layer, then I mixed in cobalt teal by Golden in some light molding paste and pushed it through an old plastic doily.  It may look blurry, but it’s actually when the molding paste pushed through the fine mesh like plastic.. giving it a dreamy effect.

Next are yummy layers of acrylic paints, crayons, stamps, music paper, acrylic skins.  On the face below, I added glitter to her face and tried to capture it by tilting it.

… and below are backgrounds using credit/gift cards.  How fun to put them in mixed media backgrounds whole or cut them into shapes.

That’s it for now, as I prepare for my upcoming class tomorrow.  I’ll post pictures of the workshop.  I have some surprise goodies for my students.. here’s a sneak peek…..

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Next up:  Workshop Success !

Mixed Media Frame and Fun

Hey Blogsters:

Well, right about now, I am sick of the cold here in New England.  But, on a good note, the daylight is around a little longer now.   I shouldn’t rush it.  Time goes by too fast enough as it is.

I’ve finished my Mirror Frame that I did for a special family couple of their two children.  I hope they don’t read this post yet, as I haven’t given it to them.

The size is 10″ x 10″.   I put something in front of me while I took the picture so there would be no reflection in the mirror.

The frame is made from wood (purchased at craft store), covered with 2 layers of tissue paper applied with Golden Gel Medium.  Once dry, I painted it with Golden’s Fluid Acrylic Carbon Black.

The squares are made of chipboard, they are about 1 1/2″.   I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Sticky Back Canvas for printing my pictures on.  I gathered my pictures from my photo software and put them on MS Powerpoint, making sure they were the same size as the chipboard.  I always use MS Powerpoint for printing and arranging several pictures on one page and in one place.  Once I practiced printing on paper several times to get the right size of the squares, I felt confident to print on the SB Canvas.

Cut the pictures from the canvas.  Before you stick them to the chipboard, I used a black paint pen to paint edges of each chipboard square.  Burnish the picture to each chipboard.   If the canvas spilled over a little on the chipboard, I just used a craft blade and self-healing mat to trim to size.   Sandpaper around the edges to sand down the tiny “burrs” of the canvas.   With a make up sponge wedge, I pounced the sponge on a StazOn black ink pad and just went around the edges of the picture to give it a shadow’y (is that word?) look.    Important:  At this point I laid out all the squares on newspaper in a well ventilated area and sprayed on a matte sealer;  I used Preseve Your Memories (PYM) spray.  Great stuff!

Before you glue down the pictures to the frame, I took silver acrylic paint and went around the edges of the frame and the mirror with a sponge.  Now, the squares are ready to be glued down to the frame.  Arrange the squares to your liking and glue down with strong glue; I used Weld-Bond.

In the top left hand corner of the mirror, I made a tiny polymer clay heart and after it was baked and sealed, I wrote the word “love” on it.  Glue to mirror with strong glue; I used Liquid Nails.

I hope you enjoyed this small tutorial.  Give it a try.   Nothing beats a handmade gift -  made from the heART.

Here is another playful piece I did in my studio.

I was playing with some colors on my palette paper.  After I was done, I swirled and smooshed the colors around for a cool background.  If you think about it, palette paper is made for wet paints, so why not recycle the pages to put in your journals, etc.  It takes a lot of wet media abuse.

As you can see, I just doodled with white paint pen.  Then I took some scrap tissue paper and glued a 1/2 face size to the edge.  Painted that with Golden’s Titan Buff Fluid Acrylic paint; let dry.  Then just played and drew a face and painted it.  Nothing serious at all.

Let’s call her……..um…..Fiona………. I put that doodle in her hair.  I think she’s looking at it saying… “she really just didn’t put that in my hair, did she?  That is so ugly.”    She hates it, I can tell..

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Swaps

Swaps can be fun.  Here’s one I did for manilla tags.

On the tags I used: Clearsnap’s Colorbox Cat’s Eye Ink Pads, and smooshed those different colors around, rubber stamps, polymer clay button I either sewed on with thread or fun wire, embossing powder, ribbon and brads.

Swaps need a good coordinator and most importantly committed participants.. one person can ruin it all.  I’ve done a few, most are excellent, but a couple have fell through the cracks.  I’m still waiting for the results of one; it’s been almost a year.  People get busy and can see it through to the end.   Now, I choose wisely or not at all.. lately it’s been the latter.

Here is another I did for ATCs.  I made them out of polymer clay.  Now, that was fun.  The recipients were thrilled to get something so different.

Some, I stamped into the raw clay with rubber stamps then antiqued with brown paint or shoe polish, others were covered with decorated napkins once out of the oven.  The others were covered with a sheet of millefiori clay canes.  All of them have been embellished with clay buttons or beads.

I can’t help but use polymer clay thingamajigs on all my work.  they don’t seem complete without one, two or ok maybe three.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

Next up…. Mixed Media Mirror Frame.. Oooo la la

Open Your Hearts

Hey Blogsters!

For the past few months, on my walks, I’ve found some interesting heart shapes I’ve captured with my camera………BUT…

… Let me begin here with a quote from Melody Beattie’s book “Journey of the Heart”. She does daily meditations that are so touching.  I thought this would be appropriate for my heart post.

“Let your heart open-gently, safely, surely and certainly.  Do not let others decide when or even if you will open your heart, when or if you will embrace love.  Those choices are too big, too important to let others make for you.  Only you can decide when and how.” ….

“Look around.  It’s not your location that makes you safe.
It’s where you are in your soul, your mind and your heart.
That place is good.  That place is safe.
Open your heart.
Embrace life.
Go joyfully on your way.”
- Melody Beattie

So………….. I share my hearts with YOU:

vine

puddle on ocean rocks in Maine – I know this is pushing it a little.. but can you see it?

stones off my driveway; at this glance it’s a heart of stone.

vine leaf coming through brick walk

heart rock

… and finally I reveal to you my wooden heart collage that I’ve been promising.

I just love this piece.  You could even say I put all my heart into it.

Size: approx. 18″ x 14″

This piece started out as an old wooden painting I found at a consignment store.   What I used:  spackle, caulking, molding paste, vintage papers, tissue papers, fabric lace, gold leaf, old jewelry, polymer clay (face and button flowers),  found objects, charms, gesso, acrylic paints, stencils, rubber stamps, metal hinge.. whew.. that’s about all I can think of.

I hope you enjoyed my heart post..  Would love to hear back from you.

Next up:  Two weeks vacation from work for the holidays.  I’ll be in the studio to share some fun projects with you.

I hope all you have a wonderful and safe holiday… 2010.. can it be?

Judy

Studio Time !

Hey Blogsters..

Time for what’s been happening in the studio lately.

In a previous blog post, I mentioned I was taking an on-line class with Julie Prichard.  You can still join all her wonderful lessons.  Check it out here.

One of the books we made was called LTS (Long Tall Skinny).  I had a hard time with this book so for many reasons. I could write a whole blog post on my mistakes.   When I take a class, I usually stray from the original lesson and take a detour and make it my own.  With this journal, I used scrapbook paper with designs to use as a deep background as my first layer.  I also wanted to use what I already had and not purchase more paper.  These pages were much bigger than the instructions, but I wanted to see how this could come out.

I used Weldbond glue, to glue the folded edges together to make the binding.  The glue was very stiff when it dried and seeped through the paper.  When I tried to open the journal and turn the pages the next day and after being clamped together overnight, they were all glued together and I mean TOGETHER, as in FOREVER.  I had no choice, really, than to pry open the pages and the centers tore apart.  Note to self: don’t do that again.

I love Weldbond glue, as it  is extremely strong; it’s used by NASA, however it’s not a PVA glue nor flexible in working with paper.  It’s great for gluing objects in your mixed media work, however.  Maybe the scrapbook paper was too weak for the glue also.

Anyway, long story, short… my pages were a mess… I had worked so hard on it by cutting the book board, preparing all the ribbon hinges and ironing them all.. yes, you heard it.. I ironed.  When I tried to open the journal pages and they would hardly budge, my jaw dropped and I said “what the bleepety bleep am I going to do” (I really didn’t say those words, I just bleeped out the swear).

I salvaged the center of the pages with scrapbook paper strips, textured the front and back covers with molding paste, tissue paper, stencils, caulking, fabric and polymer clay.  I started filling the pages with mediums, textures, objects and paints.

In the end, I’m happy to say, I love my misfit journal that I brought back to life.  I felt like I was in “Grey’s Anatomy”… “CLEAR!”

Here are some pictures of the book and some of the inside pages that I haven’t finished playing with.  It measures about 12 1/2″ tall x 6 1/2 ” wide.

front cover:

front cover, details

back cover:

back cover, details:

Some inside pages:

I enjoyed this learning process.  Making mistakes really challenged me and I embraced it.

Thank you, Julie, for a fun workshop and sharing all your ideas.  You are a great teacher.  I hope you like the journal.   You made it look so easy to make, but I guess I took the long way around to get the job done.

I’ll leave you with this eye candy for now… I do hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment.

Next up:   mixed media collage on wood and very cool funky fabric cuff.

The Canvas Project – A Great Ending

Hey Blogsters!

I’ve been creating some fun things in the studio to show you,  but first I want to share the results of my submission to the Canvas Project.   Here is the post that refers to it that shows my final 5 canvases.

They chose only 1 out of the 5 submitted canvases for each of the 700+ artists that contributed.  The 84 page book is below.

As you can see, they chose my “impound” canvas.

I’m excited to be part of this project and honored to share a little bit of success with my good friend and outstanding artist, Amy, whose chosen canvas is on the opposite page called “instigate”.

Amy reeled me into doing this project and I’m glad she did…. thanks, Amy and congratulations!

Thanks for stopping by!

Next up:  Time for some art and what I’ve been up to in my studio… also…my misfit journal.

Golden on my mind…

Happy Thursday, Blogsters….

I’m taking a long weekend away from my day job and spending time with my oldest daughter who is on her way to her first year at college.  She’ll only be less that two hours away, but I can still get a little weepy, can’t I?  I admit it, I one of those that cry at stupid sentimental situations on tv or if someone is telling me a story….. happy and sad.  Some of you parents out there know what I’m talking about.

So, as we take her to Maine on Sunday, I’ll have Labor Day to recover… and that, my little bloggers, means an art day for myself….<jumping up and down and whistling inserted here>…  AND…………… speaking of art………

……….as you may or may not know, I love textures.  Yup, I do.

Last week, after revisiting an on-line demo from my favorite Golden artist, Patti Brady, I pulled out some of my mediums to play around with.  Just watch her work these mediums.  This definitely isn’t Kansas anymore, Toto.

First, is the Fiber Paste.  This medium is amazing.  I never really gave it a good try before now, but the results are very fun.

I took a sheet of freezer paper (shiny side up).  With my palette knife, I spread a generous amount on the paper, as if I was frosting a cake, trying to minimize the peaks.  Let it dry overnight.

I peeled it gently off the freezer paper.  Now what do I do with it?  I stared at it for a bit and as Madonna sang in her “Vogue” song… “….don’t just stand there, let’s get to it………..there’s nothing to it”.    So, I did……

I took washes of Golden Fluid Acrylic Paints and made three separate sections of colors (blue, yellow, red).  This fiber paper, really soaks up the paint.  Let the paints dry.  I did some doodling, rubber stamping and some collage of resin music paper, handmade paper and the famous “spoil me” girl from Art Chix Studio.

This is very pliable as you can see from the top picture.  I think I may put this in a journal or on a book cover.

I just had another thought for this medium.   Put some in a small squeeze bottle and draw with it on freezer paper…. letters, flowers, doodles and once dry you have your own fiber thingamajiggys to put in your own art.

Ok.. now on to the Glass Bead Gel.

Shown below is what I used with the gel… fluid acrylic paint mixed into about a 1/4 of a cup of the gel.  I took a paper doilie, held it on top of this book cover and with my palette knife, spread the gel through the doilie.  Carefully, pull off the doilie to reveal the pattern.  Let his try overnight.  I say “overnight” because I’m usually doing my art in the evenings.

You never think is will come out shiny, but it does.  After all, it is glass.  I hope I captured the pictures well enough to do it justice.

Below is a closer look… the glass beads are shiny and smooth to the touch.  I’m going to paint over it and wipe off the excess and see what kind of resist develops.

I would love to here what you think about these pieces.. have you tried them?  would you like to? do you want to see other texture techniques?

Have a great Labor Day Holiday… and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Next up:  Perhaps another recipe???  Is it time?