ATCs FOR ALL postcard swap, suzi blu style angels. Tried to do different shape faces and maybe one of them for me came out unintentionally more like a dudadaze gal, so apologies to Diane.

ART JOURNAL.



A page from my latest art journal that I'm working on. Background pages are done in acrylics, inks, rubber stamping and bubble-wrap. Girl was a doodle I did whilst giving an English lesson, decided to keep her as she was, without rubbing out etc, coloured in with colouring pencils.

LIFE'S A BITCH !!! and so she is, as she really does throw things at us when we least expect it or sometimes she just keeps on throwing things at us without giving us the chance to come up for air. These last couple of months have been one thing after another, I know if I look around there are people worse off. Hopefully things will slowly get better, it will take time so it's best to take one day at a time and appreciate that day.

TEESHA MOORE.

The greyt Journaling artist Teesha moore has made some video tutorials on how she goes about creating her artistic journals. Very clear and concise and a pleasure to watch.

HAND PAINTED PAPER TOWELS.



I love preparing my own hand painted paper towels, hand painted handwipes, nappy liners and scrapped acrylics on all different paper surfaces, ready for use in my various art projects.. I have learnt a lot of these techniques thanx to the greyt mixed media artists out there, who kindly share their knowledge with us.

I spent last Saturday evening preparing various backgrounds ready for use in my art work.
I love Traci Bautistas method of hand-dying paper towels, I use watered down acrylics as I can't find liquid watercolours where I live, come to think of it where I live I can't find hardly anything !!!!!...sorry ....back to the subject. After finishing the tubs of watered down acrylics and dipping my scunched up paper towels in them, I noticed I still had a lot of paper towels left so I thought I'd try Traci's scraped acrylic paint method on the paper towels.

After I had put blobs of acrylic on the towel and scraped it over with and old credit card, excess paint I scrap onto another paper towel. Don't scrap over the same place too often otherwise you will get the 3 M's = mucky, muddy, mess !!! LOL.

I put a fresh paper towel on top of the scraped one and I let the paint sit for a minute or two, then I put the towel under running water and scrunch it up well , turn off the water and squeeze them to get out the excess water, open the towels up delicately otherwise you run the risk of ripping them. Hang them somewhere to dry and when they are almost dry I iron them ( with an old iron ) , I then seperate the layers of paper towels and you find you have 3 different shades of the same print.

I use these as a replacement for tissue paper as backgrounds.
hope this makes sense.



Above is the background I prepared on some watercolour cold press 140lb paper. Traci Bautista's scraped acrylic paint method, then I dripped some water on the background let it sit for a while and removed it by dabbing with a paper towel / rag / or you can brush over it gently with a paint brush, I then added mica powders and added splattered watered down black acrylic paint. You can see the ATCs I made for a swap using this background

ciao
crafty joan

SCRAPBOOK QUEEN.

ATC background vintage text, hand coloured paper towel, rubber stamping and a collage image from lisa's altered art Queen Series.

MIXED MEDIA ATC BACKGROUNDS.




Here are some ATCs with different mixed media backgrounds ready for use. Different techniques used are:- melted wax crayons, gesso and pva glue mixed together painted with metalic acrylics and doodled over, vintage text with tissue paper and painted over with acrylic and gesso, fabric paper technique, vintage text with tissue paper painted with acrylics and finished with wax.

I like to spend an afternoon or evening if possible preparing different mixed media background ready for use in my art, the above is a small example of some of the mixed media techniques I use. There are so many and new ones popping up so there's always something to learn, so it's worthwhile having a good surf around on the net, so many blogs and you tube videos .

have a greyt weekend
ciao
crafty

HALLOWEEN swap on ATCs for all .
Top 2 atcs I've used gel skins ( explaination in previous post ) and the bottom atcs I've used the melted wax crayon for background and then rubber-stamped.
ciao
crafty

GEL SKIN IMAGE TRANSFER METHOD.

I have alway loved using image transfer methods in my art work,at the moment here image transfer with acrylic paint is the image transfer of the moment.
I prefer to use acrylic gesso.
At the moment I'm making a batch of GEL SKINS for future art work.

GEL SKIN method.
Find an image you would like to transfer, bearing in mind COPYRIGHT if not sure take something from the FREE DOMAIN sector. I use ink jet images, magazine images and photocopy images.

Put a layer of Gel medium over the image and wait until this layer is dry, you will know when, as the gel goes from a milky colour to a clear . I usually put 3-4 layers on , each time in a different direction, (3D hatching).

Once you have put all your layers on place the image face up, ( paper image under and gel layer up) in warm water and wait for about 20 mins so it gets a real good soaking.

remove and place image face down on something plastic, otherwise the image can become distorted when rubbing off the paper. To remove paper I use slow circular movements.

let dry, if you see there is still some paper attached , soak again and repeat until you are happy with the gel skin.

To put transfer image, onto my art work I like to use Diamond Glaze. I also use it for transparencies , packing tape transfer tech and all other transparency transfer images. Have never had any problems with D.Glaze nice smooth images with no bubbles or lumps under transfer.

Have a surf around the web and you will find other tutorials and videos, on all types of transfer image techniques, can't remember where I saw this, was sometime last year.

I've tried using white glue PVC , but haven't had any luck, I thought it might have been soaking the image in warm water that softened the glue, so I also tried in cold water but to no avail, during the rubbing off process everything starts to break up. If anyone has had any luck with white glue , please let me know.

ciao
crafty joan

BUBBLE WRAP BACKGROUND CHALLENGE ON SaWo

Challenge for THINK MONDAY THINK ATC is mixed media.
This is my entry.
I randomly applied different papers with pvc glue onto open weave muslin, and then glued some tissue paper over the first layer and then whilst the glue was still wet I applied some inks. The bottom of the ATC is american tyvek postal envelope painted and heated with heat gun. From my point of view this is where I went and ruined the ATC, just seems out of place, they are supposed to be rocks, think I'll go in and change the colours so it ties in with the rest of the ATC. I used transparency images as the background made me think of Scotch mist.
This technique is one of BERYL TAYLOR's, you can find the explaination in one of the first issues of cloth paper scissors or in her wonderful book.

HALLOWEEN FAIRIES ATCs for a swap on atcs for all

Thank God it's Friday challenge SKULLS.


This is now part of a set of 3 for a haunted house swap, you can see it on my blog atc mondo or serendipity

Theme Thursday challenge is VINTAGE WOMEN

ATCs For All swap theme Gaelle Boissonard

Theme Thursday HALLOWEEN ATCs

This is dedicated to all the witches out there.....and believe you me.... they do exist...take me for example !!!!! mind you I'm more like Glenda.
What do you class yourself as.... a goodie or a real baddie ???

ATCs for a breast cancer awareness month swap on atcs for all , images by lisas altered art.

Challenge blog Gothic Arches is 2 years old, theme this week is CUPCAKE.

We love Suzi Blu swap on ATCs for all

WHIMSY FAT GAL LOVE an atcs for all swap.

Just loved doing this swap, was so much fun to do. The beach babe one was inspired after seeing a photo of some Italian galz at a craft weekend retreat.....thanx galz.