Mixed Media Collage – Re-post

I’ve been cleaning my studio this weekend… My gosh.. 2 large black garbage bags.  Why, tell me why do I need all this stuff?   Hmmm… anybody?   I haven’t touched most of it for 2 years.  Ok ok.. maybe 5.. I’m lying.. probably 7.  But that’s as far as I’m admitting to.   I got to the point when I walked in my studio, I felt surrounded by clutter and unfinished projects in bins.  That’s it… be brave and purge.  The stuff must go.. either trash it, donate it or sell it.  If I want to bring any new supplies in my studio then some must go. That’s my rule.  Stop spending the money for new supplies.. and use what you have.

I have about 100 magazines in total of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Somerset Studio.  I’m purging them too.  They are worth a lot of money if you were to go buy back issues.  I’ll put them on Craig’s List and see if I can make a little cash on them.  If you’re interested, let me know.

So, never before seen footage, here is a quick shot of my studio. It’s an extra bedroom I took over.  I’m in the midst of the clean up.  I’m getting there.  God, that looks messy.   I need an organizer.. any volunteers?

In my cleaning, I came across one of my favorite pieces.

I thought I would RE-POST the blog where I showed the tutorial on how it developed.

———————————————————————————————————————

– Original Post –

I finally finished my latest canvas.   I started on a different path and ended somewhere else.  I like when that happens.  You begin a piece of art with different intentions and it takes a complete turn and you end up loving the result… in your happy place.

Here is how it started:

I took magazine clippings, map pieces, lace paper, scrap papers, doilies and glued them over the entire canvas.  Went in with a paint brush to cover up an white spots with cobalt teal fluid acrylic paint.  Then I gave it a wash with titan buff and water.  Let dry.  Then it sat around for a few weeks.

Here we go… first, let me say this is an 11×14 canvas.

I just started squaring off 4 sections with cobalt teal, raw sienna acrylics and dripped air brush paint on top.  Now, the cross lines and top right corner are made with “Wood Icing” by Mary Beth Shaw.   Mary Beth has a new mixed media book just out call “Flavor for Mixed Media”.  I just got it and it’s full of delicious art.. the culinary kind, too.  Right up my alley.  I felt a connection with Mary Beth, as we both seem to approach making food and art the same way.  I was lucky enough to be gifted a jar of this lovely ooey gooey paste (wood icing) by a friend (thanks, Raine!).

Continuing….

In the textured areas that I made with the wood icing, I painted with Golden quinacridone nickel azo gold acrylic paint and once dry, pushed in brown acrylic paint then wiped to reveal an antique look.  Went around edges with black portfolio oil pastel.  Pushed Golden Light Molding Paste through plastic doily tinted with cobalt teal.  I’m in love!

Bottom left: Fabric transfer on old dictionary page.. highlights, scrapings of paint with credit card.. lines, circles… what fun.

Here’s the final and details…

That was a great art journey for me.   I hope you enjoyed this re-post.  It’s always fun to go back.

Thank you for stopping by, as always.

Judy ♥

Mixed Media Love Letter

What’s THIS?  FEBRUARY?  I”d like to know where January went, please.  Seriously.

I’m not going to complain that we have had a very mild winter here in Mass.  If  the temps stay in the 40’s, I can still go for my walks.  I can handle low 40’s but anything under that..fuhgeddaboudit.

My latest piece is what I’ve been working on since my large canvas was complete.  After working on something that big that took so long, I sort of crashed from all the creative energy.

Well, I’ve done many of these “love letters” in the past.. you can see a previous post HERE.

This particular letter was for my niece, Caitlin.  A gift for purchasing her first condo.  So excited for her.

Here are some pictures and close up of the “C” and then I created a short video about it.

    

Well, there you have it. I hope you are enjoying the videos.  I’ll be doing more once I get in the groove of the editing.

In the meantime, create something and enjoy every minute of it.

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 ♥

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 ♥

Latest Work.. Mixed Media Canvas

I’ve been cleaning my studio this weekend… My gosh.. 2 large black garbage bags.  Why, tell me why do I need all this stuff?   Hmmm… anybody?   I haven’t touched most of it for 2 years.  Ok ok.. maybe 5.. I’m lying.. probably 7.  But that’s as far as I’m admitting to.   I got to the point when I walked in my studio, I felt surrounded by clutter and unfinished projects in bins.  That’s it… be brave and purge.  The stuff must go.. either trash it, donate it or sell it.  If I want to bring any new supplies in my studio then some must go. That’s my rule.  Stop spending the money for new supplies.. and use what you have.

I have about 100 magazines in total of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Somerset Studio.  I’m purging them too.  They are worth a lot of money if you were to go buy back issues.  I’ll put them on Craig’s List and see if I can make a little cash on them.  If you’re interested, let me know.

So, never before shown footage, here is a quick shot of my studio. It’s an extra bedroom I took over.  I’m in the midst of the clean up.  I’m getting there.  God, that looks messy.   I need an organizer.. any volunteers?

 

In my cleaning, I came across one of my favorite pieces that I will hang in the house, unless I sell it.

I thought I would RE-POST the blog where I showed the tutorial on how it came to be.

———————————————————————————————————————

– Original Post –

I finally finished my latest canvas.   I started on a different path and ended somewhere else.  I like when that happens.  You begin a piece of art with different intentions and it takes a complete turn and you end up loving the result… in your happy place.

Here is how it started:

I took magazine clippings, map pieces, lace paper, scrap papers, doilies and glued them over the entire canvas.  Went in with a paint brush to cover up an white spots with cobalt teal fluid acrylic paint.  Then I gave it a wash with titan buff and water.  Let dry.  Then it sat around for a few weeks.

Here we go… first, let me say this is an 11×14 canvas.

I just started squaring off 4 sections with cobalt teal, raw sienna acrylics and dripped air brush paint on top.  Now, the cross lines and top right corner are made with “Wood Icing” by Mary Beth Shaw.   Mary Beth has a new mixed media book just out call “Flavor for Mixed Media”.  I just got it and it’s full of delicious art.. the culinary kind, too.  Right up my alley.  I felt a connection with Mary Beth, as we both seem to approach making food and art the same way.  I was lucky enough to be gifted a jar of this lovely ooey gooey paste (wood icing) by a friend (thanks, Raine!).

Continuing….

In the textured areas that I made with the wood icing, I painted with Golden quinacridone nickel azo gold acrylic paint and once dry, pushed in brown acrylic paint then wiped to reveal an antique look.  Went around edges with black portfolio oil pastel.  Pushed Golden Light Molding Paste through plastic doily tinted with cobalt teal.  I’m in love!

Bottom left: Fabric transfer on old dictionary page.. highlights, scrapings of paint with credit card.. lines, circles… what fun.

Here’s the final and details…

That was a great art journey for me.   I hope you enjoyed this re-post.  It’s always fun to go back.

Thank you for stopping by, as always.

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.

‘

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 ♥

Big Bold Backgrounds

As I continue to do some Spring cleaning in my studio, I took a large piece of Wausau paper out the the wastebasket to give it a new life.  I thought, what kind of Mixed Media Artist would I be to throw this away.

I began to spread paint around with my old gift card, which make great small paint pallets by the way.  Layer after layer of colors.  If I didn’t like a section, I simply painted over it with white paint.  This was a big background about 14″ x 11″.  I love the size and decided that it will become a large journal.   Since I only had the one large sheet, I had to make another to make a book.  I had some white poster board lying around.  Poster board paper.. the kind you used/use in school for projects… takes a lot of abuse with paint, water, gel medium.. really standing up to what I was doing to it.  Actually better than the Wausau paper.  Samantha Kira Harding gave me that tip a long time ago.. Thanks, Samantha!

Here is a look at them so far.  I say “so far”, because I know that I’ll end up putting some fabric on their or some polymer clay pieces.   Click on the picture to enlarge, then click again for details.

Cobalt Teal paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic) played a big part in these pages.  Just my favorite color.  I also used Ranger/Hellmuth Studio’s “landscape green”.  That combo is perfect together.  I used heavy body white acrylic paint to spread through stencils, did some transparency transfers, rubber stamping, charcoal stick.

Few more section shots.. click to enlarge.

I also purchased some dauber bottles for paint… they are actually BINGO ink bottles.   In the past I bought the dauber covers that can go on any basic acrylic paint bottle (ex: “folk art”).. but I did not like those.  I was always banging the bottle to get the paint flowing

Here are 3 that I made.  Cobalt Teal mixure with water and a little Golden Glazing Liquid.  My own version of green and Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold.  All three of these colors are on the pages above.

So, my next step is to get hold of more poster board paper and make the inner pages… then binding it.  Not my thing, binding/sewing journal pages.  We’ll see how that one goes.  Stay tuned for more…

Thanks for stopping by.

Judy

In the Artist’s Studio

Been away for a little bit..sorry.  Work has me shackled.

Here are some fun things I’ve been playing around with in the studio when I get up there..

First… a couple of crooked houses.. look how cute my black bird is on top of the roof… all together… “awwwwwwwe”.

Click to see more detail on any of the pictures.

Next .. paper towel paint spills and then sprtized and stenciled.

These were left hanging to dry on my easel.

…and, I’m working on this canvas… LOADED with textures (gel medium, beads, paper doilies, embellishments)..then once dry.. painted with pearl ex powders… yummy.

Click on the picture for a close up and click again to see more deliciousness details.

Be good and thanks for stopping by.

I’ll be back with more to show you and a tutorial…

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  ❤