Mixed Media Techniques on Blotter Paper

Hey friends, what’s going on today?  Well…..

… I thought I would take my under paper (blotter) on my art table and take it to the next level with more layers of paint.  I’ll show you how I use texture paste on art tissue paper and use those torn pieces as collage fodder. Finally, I show you how I put an image transfer on the piece.

 

I really hope you enjoy that and share with others.  Please subscribe, click the thumbs up and share if you liked it.

I’ll be back soon with more.

Thanks for your comments; I just love hearing from you.

Judy  ♥♥♥

Edgar Allen Poe Journal

Hey, everyone… This weekend is the end of July!!!  Can you believe it? Wasn’t it just May?

This weekend, I published a video on how to create of journal from a notebook.  I covered the back and front of the notebook, creating a personal journal, with layers and layers of paint and just did an overall mixed media frenzy on it.  After all the love/hate process and the stages it went through, I love the way it turned out.

I created this as a gift for my amazing niece, Christina, for her birthday.  She loves Edgar Allen Poe and she loves to write. So, I created this journal for her to enjoy and write in.

I hope you enjoy it.

If you do enjoy my channel, whether it be my art or cooking, I’d love it if you subscribe and hit the thumbs up.  Please share with all your family and friends.

I’ll be back soon for another video on some sort of art.. .culinary or mixed media.

Love to hear from you with your comments.

Thanks for all your support and being here.

Judy♥♥♥

 

Mixed Media Mail Updo

Hey there… I know I know….I’ve been gone for about 3 weeks.  Life/work, once again, gets in my art way.  But no fear, I’m here now.

I’ve been working on this video for a few weeks. I finally found the time to finish it.  I started out as a large pamphlet I got in the mail.  I thought it would be neat to alter it with some mixed media magic. Once I finished filming, this sucker was about 45 min long.  So, had to cut it down a little and fast forward a lot.  I put some comments in so you would know what I was doing.   Let me know what you think.

If you have any questions about my process, give me a shout.. glad to help.

Now… enjoy!

Here are some close ups.

          

  

If you  live in New England or even Massachusetts, you probably are ready for Spring like the rest of us. We’ve had enough snow this winter and I’m ready for a nice long walk… I don’t know… Maybe late April?

I hope you enjoyed the video.  Love to hear back from you.

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Collage from a Post It Pad

I had so much fun creating my Post it flip chart paper collage.

It was hours of filming and editing, and would have been too long and I would bore all of you.. but here is a video of my process… sped up.  I would have kept it really time with my hand dancing, grooving to the music and talking, but it went on forever.  So…………

…. it started with my flip chart pad that I keep under my work surface.  An idea I got from Autumn Hathaway.. thank you Autumn.

Here we go…

Close ups. Click for larger view.

     

Let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you.

Judy♥

More Gelli Plate Fun & a Gelli Journal Give-a-way!!!

Hey, I’m back with another video on some gelli’ing.  It’s now the end of the Gelli Print Party with Carolyn Dube, but I’m just loving the prints and making some cool art from them.  Go check out Carolyn’s blog and see her videos, then check out her linkys to see what others are doing. 

Now, check out my latest video.

In my last video, I took some of my favorite prints and made nice strips with them.  Maybe bookmarks? Click picture for close up.

   

As much as I love my prints, what am I going to do with them all?  I’m going to make a journal with them and give it away, that’s what.  Yahoo!!!

First, let me be clear…. I am NOT, I repeat AM NOT a journal maker.  So, I am just taking the pages and sewing them together.  Nothing fancy.  Make one signature, sew it to a cover and then they can be journaled on with backgrounds already for you.  Thanks to my friend, Raine, for showing me how to do this a long time ago.  She makes amazing journals.  I don’t even know the name of the stitch I’m using, that’s how much of an non-journaler I am.  In and out, that’s what it’s called.. the “in and out” stitch.  No, not really.  I kid, I kid.

So, here is the journal I stitched together.  Simple, not fancy and ready for your mixed media fun and journaling, collaging or whatever you want to do with it.  You could glue a blank page to an inside page and journal on that OR paint some squares of lighter paint to write on.  So many ideas.

       

I gathered all the Gelli papers together and ripped them down to size with a metal ruler and just pulling strips off so they would have torn edges.  A few pages are smaller than the others, just for fun.  Then I made a cover page and coated with Liquid Laminate (love that stuff) to seal.  I made 3 holes in the binder and used wax thread and an upholstry needle to sew all the pages together.  Again, in one hole, out the other until I used up the thread and the pages were nice and snug.  Strung some fabric beads I had made on the binder edge and added one of my “buttons n’bellishments” to the cover.  If you want to learn how to make one of these embellishements, take a look at my online class and join us.

I hope you enjoyed our party.  Thank you, Carolyn, for a great Gelli Print Party!!!

If you want to win this Gelli Journal, leave me a comment here and then if you have a Facebook page, like and share my post there.   I’ll pick a winner this Friday, 1/11.

Thank you for stopping by, as always.  I love to hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Gelli Plate Party

Happy New Year, everyone.  New Year’s Day is a family day for us.  The holiday craze rush is over and it’s time to chill and enjoy the final day of my vacation.

Boy, what a great week I had.  I tried to get in my studio as much as I could.  I did manage to finish up my online class, “Buttons n’bellishments” and have it ready for Joggles in February to start the workshop.  Please check it out and join us.

Now, I don’ t know a better way to start off the year than by having a party.  A Gelli Plate Party, that is. Carolyn Dube is the instigator on this one.  Go to her blog to find out the deets and check out her video HERE.  She’s already on Day 2.

This is my first take on the Gelli Plate.  I got myself one for Christmas. Thank you, Judy!  Lots of fun ideas rolling through my head.  I mean, really, where does it end?   I had to cut down the video a bit, cuz I just couldn’t stop my self.  So, I took some still shots to show you my results at the end.  Carolyn warned me.  But, I’m safe now.

Wasn’t that fun?  I hope you enjoyed that.  I can only imagine even getting more creative the more you play.  I love the imperfections.  I tried to use my already printed sheets to create more layers instead of always using a new one.  I was groovin to Bruno Mars in the beginning, so that’s the reason for my dancing papers.

So, I had a pile of Wausau paper and many craft paints that were just sitting around my studio for years.  Wondered what I was going to do with them eventually.  And then they invented the Gelli Plate.   See that, I had them sitting there for a reason.  Love when that happens.

Love to hear back from you.  Let us know if you’ve “gellied” lately.

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Bookmark Tags – A dedication

Last week,  I met my girlfriends of 33 years.  We’ve met back in 1979, all working for the same company.  We get together about 5 times a year. Sometimes we go away, but mostly we have wonderful dinners together.  We are called the “Bitas”, prouounced “bee-tahs” (long story).

We all have our different personalities and great sense of humor.  We know how to have fun and get a bit rowdy. In the old days we would be up all night.  Now, things have changed quite a bit.  It’s bedtime by 10p.m. for most of us.

We’ve been through our weddings, having babies (and watching them grow to be so proud of them), divorce, surgeries, deaths, wakes and funerals… life, you know what I mean.  Now, two are grandparents… Not me yet.. no way.

We are a simple group of ladies.. we have an understanding.. we don’t judge each other and accept us for the way we are. Our gifts are simple, if any at all.  Our company is our gift.

When we got together this week for our holiday dinner, I decided to make some handmade Bookmark Tags.

I took some large tags and spritzed them with Dylusions of different colors.  I applied white acrylic paint through a stencel over the ink to give it the Faux Batik look I had done in my post here. Added gold acrylic paint around the edges.  Stamped a woman’s face and a word on the bottom.  Added old paper doily pieces.  Used a bottle cover as a circle stamp.  Covered the hole with my handmade polymer clay embellishment. Punched another hole to add my business to dangle.  On the back of the card, I stamped a love poem and a “made by”.

Here are the results: (click photo to enlarge)

 

The girls just loved the bookmarks.  It’s something they will use.  As Annie would say “I don’t need anymore s**t”.  Got the message loud and clear.  You’ll use this and it won’t take up any room.  Promise.

Here is a picture of us this week at dinner…and we celebrate Sarah’s Birthday.  Happy Birthday, love.

  

From left to right:  Me, Annie, Michelle and Sarah.

So, I dedicate this post to my wonderful “bita” friends.  Love you all.  My life would not be the same without you.

Judy “Bita” ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Faux or No Batik?

Recently, my friend, Jessica, did a post about how she was feeling in one word…she chose the word “glum”. I loved how she turned her feelings around; read about it HERE.

If I were to think of a word for me, I would sum it up to be “blah”.  After dealing with a sinus infection for over a week then to get a flare up of tendonitis in my right arm  because of work and being on the computer for hours on end, well, that is how I feel.  Enough.  I have work to do and a blog to write.  I’ve switched my mouse hand to the left and that is quite a challenge.  So, I’m trying to kick back on the typing until things are a bit calmer.  Ok, that was my 5 minutes of whining.  Thanks for listening.  But, before I go, let me show you some fun art play I’ve managed to sneak in.

Recently, I came across 3 heavy book boards measuring about 4×6 inches.  Holes were already in them to prepare for binding.  I bought this long ago, so I don’t know where it came from. Sorry.

Loving the Dylusions ink sprays, I decided to use them on the boards, on each side.  Man, I love they way they settle on to their new surface.

      

  

Purdy, huh?  The teal background behind the boards is tissue paper that I spread gel medium on, let dry then stenciled with white acrylic paint. FUN!

Because the Dylusions are water soluble, they bleed when you put acrylic paint on them.  Even if I use PYM, they still bleed, which baffled me. I thought it would seal the ink.  But, it did not.  If anyone knows how to seal the ink, let me know.

Once the ink was dry, I stenciled on top of them with white acrylic paint.  The paint was a fainter color because the white took on a little of the color beneath it.  It reminded me of Batik.

What do you think?  I’m loving this effect.

  

I used a make up sponge to pounce the paint through the stencil.

  

  

When I’m done putting this little book together, I’ll be back to show you the end result.

I hope you all have a great rest of week.

.. and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Judy ♥

Coaster & Watercolor Collages & Stencil Girl Products

When I was at Art is You this month, I grabbed a few of the cardboard coasters from the bathroom.  Ok Art is You’ers.. didn’t you?  I was secretly hoping that Jessica would not take hers.  But, she did… and believe me.. I have plenty at home.

And speaking of Jessica, check out her blog.. she has amazing journal work and is co-running the Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge with Carolyn Dube, another amazing journal artist.

Back to the coasters…

Coasters are such a great little size to collage on.  There are many different sizes and shapes, they are small enough to work on while your watching tv or you just want to collage on a smaller scale.  And, for jounalers, just glue it into your journal after you’re done.  As a matter of fact, I have been known to ask the servers at restaurants for a few more, after I’ve confiscated the ones under my family’s glasses.  No. Really. I have a drawer full.  I have a problem.

So, I grabbed my 3 1/2″ square coaster and smeared some paint all over it with my old credit card.  One color then another, then some scribbling.. no plan.  I used one of my fabric transfers of a vintage angel.  Then, you look at it and say.. “wow, that’s cool.. how did I even make that effect”.  Right?   Been there?  So I wrote the colors I used what I did on the back, cuz I really liked the background effect.

Here is my result and my steps on the back of the coaster.  Just jot down what you did, cuz you never know what you’ll end up with.  The black scratches I used by dipping the edge of my credit card in back paint and making the marks.  I also used a diamond stencil with gold paint and pounced white paint through some drywall joint tape.

I feel like the angel is looking at the cross.  I am in love with the religious images.. the “vintagy” look and the colors.  I never really noticed them for their art before, but they seem to attract me lately.

   

You can check out one of my coaster collages and tutorials HERE.

Next up is a couple of collages on watercolor paper.  These both measure 8″x6″.

I started with Portfolio Oil Pastels.  If you don’t have these, they are just great for any collage/journal work.  I randomly scribbled lines…

  

Then rubbed the colors with a damp paper towel.  I added more shadowing on the edges.

    

Here are the final results…

   

The bird cage is a transparency transfer directly on the collage and the butterfly is also a transfer, but on thin cardstock that I ripped and stained with ink.  I worked on these side by side so they looked a bit related.  Sometimes, if I think anything is too bold and needs some toning down, I take some fine grit sand paper and give it a rub to fade the area.  It gives a worn look and pushes it back a little.

Finally….. I thought I’d share with you a quick collage piece we did at Mary Beth Shaw’s “Mores Is Less” class that I took at Art is You.  She asked us to play around on paper first before we started on our wood substrates.  I actually like how this came out.

… and speaking of Mary Beth Shaw… please stop by her STENCIL GIRL PRODUCTS site for some great shopping on all the stencils she has available. Stencil love is in your future.. I just know it.  Oh, and while you are there.. pick up some Wood Icing.  You’ll never leave home without it again.

Thanks for stopping by.  I love to hear from you.

Judy ♥

Butterfly Collage with Ink Jet ImageTransfers

This week, I decided to give the Peerless Watercolors a try.  I purchased them at Art is You from Joanne Sharpe.

So, I stopped work early one night (5p.m.) (only one night, but i”m working on more of them) and I put on my jammies and sat myself down to play with the paints.  Let me just say what a great feeling it was to kick back and concentrate on my art.  Since my daughters are now both in college (help! send money), our nights have a bit more space in them.  Funny how fast the time goes and all of the sudden your here, their there and life moves on.  Screeeeeeech… halt… Sorry,  I got off track.  Continuing….

I decided to work on Strathmore Bristol paper and paint in patches all over the page like this…  Click on any image to enlarge.

Seriously, this page took me a couple of hours.  I had fun swiping colors off the “peerless” cards and onto the page. That took time and all with a small brush (water brush by Koi).  I love the puddling of the watercolors when you use more water.  They dry to a nice dark edge.

Once I was happy with the background,  I gave it a spray of PYM (Preserve Your Memories) to seal it.  You can see it deepens it a little.  I took this picture under a normal light bulb.  The top picture was taken under an Ott Lite.

So, my fine friends, I took it to my studio and scraped some gesso all over it (that’s why I had to seal the page first, otherwise the colors would have mixed), rubbed it off,  then buffed it dry.  Used black Staz On ink and a make up sponge with stencils (from Stencil Girl and Mary Beth Shaw = LOVE).  Added stamped, hand made foam stamps and of course some of my polymer clay ‘bellishments.  One of the parts I love the most, are my image transfers; the butterflies and the two women, under my teal heart..

Below, you can see some gold glitter trails it put in.

I get so lost in time when I am doing image transfers.  My favorite combination to make a perfect transfer is a transparency film and gel medium.  I did a few tests using different mediums and my best result was Golden Gel Medium.  I have not tried Liquitex, but I will someday.

I transferred on muslin  and cotton fabric, paper towel, masking tape and I did a packing tape transfer also.  I got the images from Dover Clipart which is copyright free.  You can join their mailing list and they will send you samples every week.  Click on THIS LINK and put in your email address.  You will get samples every week.  If you like them, you can save and download on your hard drive on your computer.

The technique goes like this:

Get yourself some transparency film. Maybe you know someone who might have some or you can split a box with a friend.  I had some old Lexmark ones and some I hadn’t used even after I printed on them  months or years ago.  You want to print on the matte side, not shiny.  Your best bet is to print a bunch of images on one page.  You can use Microsoft Word or Powerpoint to insert an entire page of images (please email me if you need help with that.).  This is my method. There may be other ways, for example, using a photo software would also work.

Cut your image out.

Spread some gel medium on the surface you want to transfer to and on the image itself… gently, you don’t want the ink to rub off.  Use the consistency of spreading butter on bread.  I use my finger to spread the gel, as I don’t want any brush line.

Lay the film with image face down on the gelled up surface and rub it down with your finger in a circular motion, working from the center and making sure your reached all around the image.  Now wait 5 or 10 minutes or even longer.. overnight even if you need to be away.  But, if you’re like me, you ain’t going nowhere and you want instant results.

After you’ve waited and I hope you were patient, peel up the film slowly.  Check a corner and see if the ink is now transferred to the surface.  If it did, then keep slowly peeling it off.  Did it work?  It works 99% of the time for me.

Here is a few pictures of my image transfer results…

The butterflies are on paper towel, cotton fabric (old ripped t-shirt) and masking tape.  I decided to color in the black and white clip art with the “peerless watercolors” and the “Koi” watercolors…

I give the images a spray seal of the PYM so I  know they will keep their color and last a long time.

I made a bunch of image transfers on muslin fabric for my mom who loves her religious (catholic) books.  She wanted angels so she could sew them to her fabric covered books.  She was just in love with them.  I’ll be using my masking tape painted images on some other art; I wanted to use them on this page, but it didn’t seem to match.

Hope you enjoyed this post and I want you to try the image transfers and let me now how they come out.

And always… thank YOU for stopping by and leaving some blog love.

Judy ♥♥