January Week Three: Driver's Ed

Resists

Remember this is just what I used, and you can substitute what you have. I will put a list of suggestions for substitutes at the end.

• White Crayola crayon
• Inks: Shimmerz Sprays, Glimmer Mist Sprays, Distress Stain, StazOn
• Acrylic paint
• Stencils: Diamonds (Kaisercraft) and Alphabet (generic)
• Plain white card (to make a tag)
• Text/Dictionary page
• Gluestick
• Clear Embossing Inkpad
• Embossing powders: Clear and White
• Stamps: Inkadinkadoo and Kaisercraft 

How To Make the Background

1. Use a white crayon (or your substitute) to randomly fill in the pattern all over your background.
2. Apply colour over the background. Help colours blend together with water.
3. Create texture on the background using inkpads and a variety of texture stamps or found and upcycled objects.
4. Create a chunkier block of pattern with the alphabet stencil and spray ink or acrylic paint.
5. Create contrast between the tag and the background by making one a lot darker in colour than the other.

How To Make the Tag

1. Adhere a text page from a dictionary or another old book onto the tag.
2. Stamp an image in Clear Embossing Ink.
3. Shake Clear Embossing Powder over the stamped image, return excess to the jar.
4. Heat the powder until it melts.
5. Repeat the above steps with a phrase stamp and white embossing powder.
6. When the embossing had cooled completely, colour the tag with water-based mediums such as spray inks, watercolour paints, dye inkpads, or Distress Stain.
7. Punch a hole in the top of your tag, tie ribbon.

Resist Medium Substitutes

• White Rub-ons: Works like a heat embossed stamped image. Gives a clear and crisp image with watercolour over the top.
• Wet glue: You can use a sponge to apply the glue through a stencil, or put the glue into a fine-tip squeeze bottle and draw with it. This is an excellent alternative if you don’t have any stamps or embossing powders.
• Vaseline: sponge or scrape Vaseline over the stencil. Spray inks over the top give clearer results. Brushing paint over the top will smear the Vaseline, no matter how careful you are. This is not wrong! It just gives a different result.
• Oil pastel or plain white candle: The pastel resists the colour because oil and water don’t mix (just like wax and water don’t mix) 
• White acrylic paint. The difference between putting the paint over the top of the colour as opposed to underneath is the paint over the top will reactivate water-based colouring agents and end up tinted; whereas putting the paint down first will keep it white.

My Experiments:

1. Tag coloured with Distress Ink (inkpads).
2. Images clear heat embossed (clear embossing ink, clear embossing powder).
3. White acrylic paint over the top.

The white acrylic reactivated the water based Distress Ink, so the top layer ended up tinted. It was difficult to take the paint off the embossed area only to leave a clear image. I think the results are worth it though.

  

1.  Text paper adhered to tag.
2. Images clear heat embossed.
3. Dylusions spray inks over the top.

 The text paper behind the images is too busy. This may have worked OK with a less detailed stamp.

1.  Apply white rub-ons to a white tag.
2. Apply colour over the top.

This is easy to do and an excellent alternative to heat embossing if you like the clean crisp appearance of a stamp, but don’t have any suitable images, or heat embossing tools.

 

1. White acrylic paint stippled through a detailed stencil.
2. Watercolour over the top.

The uneven application of paint gives a great background effect.

1. White acrylic paint stippled through a stencil.
2. Watercolour over the top.

The larger holes in this stencil allowed a heavier application of the paint. Too heavy in places as it traveled underneath the stencil and created blobs. This uneven effect is perfect for a background. 

1. Clear glue applied from the bottle.
2. Watercolour over the top.

This is very thick glue, like a gel and the word is raised. If you want to draw a finer detailed picture or word, use Glossy Accents, Glossy Mod Podge or a similar glue that dries clear.

January Week Two: Resist Techniques Part II

Welcome to week 2 of January’s Roadtrip. How are you finding the Journey so far? There some amazing experiments being posted to the Facebook feed every day, so if you haven’t already, I encourage you join the Driver Reviver Group and check it all out for yourself. 

VIDEO LESSON

Resist techniques are so varied that I wanted to spend two weeks exploring them. This week’s lesson shows three resists: Clear Heat Embossing, Diamond Glaze, and Sakura Glaze pen demonstrated by Joggles: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDsOiWdDHdo

PRODUCT ALTERNATIVES

• Glossy Accents and Dimensional Magic are alternatives to look for if you can’t find Diamond Glaze in your locality.
• I have also used Glossy Mod Podge and a product by Atelier called Matte Varnish successfully. I pour the glue into an empty fine tip bottle to write and draw with. Look for suitable empty bottles in art and craft stores, discount shops or online.
• Watercolour paints can be used in place of spray inks.

LESSON NOTES

• I know that many of you probably already have heat embossing supplies. If you don’t, please don’t feel that you have to invest in these new products, you will make beautiful art with other methods.
•  If you want to know how to heat emboss, here is a video tutorial to start you off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igCA0WmM5gA
• If you are brand new to heat embossing and just want the bare essentials, I recommend you buy a Clear embossing ink pad and a Clear embossing powder.
• YOU CANNOT USE A HAIRDRYER TO MELT EMBOSSING POWDER. They don’t get hot enough. You need a heat gun (also known as heating tool, embossing tool, or embossing gun).
• You can buy heat tools for craft, or you may already have one in the garage: heat guns are also sold in hardware stores and are used to soften and remove paint and glue. They get a LOT hotter than the craft tools.

In last week’s lesson I suggested using tags to experiment with the new techniques. I wanted to share an idea that Lynne Tarrant showed in the Driver Reviver Group, in case you missed it:

Lynne is doing the technique on one side and writing the instructions for the technique on the back of the tag. Over the course of the Journey Lynne will create an entire reference library of mixed media techniques she can refer to whenever she wants. Great idea Lynne!

January Week One: Resist Techniques

Hello Arty Friends!

Welcome to the very first Roadtrip of the year! I am Jodi, and I will be your Guide this month. Annette, Lisa and I are so excited to have you on this journey with us! When we were discussing Journal Journey back in September 2014 we said “if we get 50 people to sign up, we’ll call it a success”. Little did we know that we would end up over 1000 people registering! My mind boggles and my heart warms thinking about how many of you are out there taking this Journey.

As this is the first email of the year, I will give you a summary of how we have planned to deliver the Journal Journey.

Each month we will have a Roadtrip, which is best described as a Theme, Challenge or Prompt for the month that will be explored in more detail during the Driver’s Ed and Destination weeks three and four.

Week 1 email: Will introduce the Roadtrip and send you on a Detour: a video tutorial that we have handpicked from the thousands available freely online that will teach a very specific technique that absolute beginners will be able to do, with basic or easily found supplies.

We will also link you to a carefully curated PINTEREST BOARD for the Roadtrip that features examples to inspire you, as well as extra videos and online tutorials. These boards will be added to throughout the year, so if you are a keen Pinner, make sure to “FOLLOW” Kreative Koncepts on Pinterest.

Week 2 email: Another video tutorial will be sent out in week two, this time the tutorial will be an intermediate or advanced technique that could require either a particular product or a special tool. We have called this the Stopover.

Week 3 email: The Driver’s Ed. This will be a full tutorial from one of your Guides to create a page for your Journey Journal. There will be a PDF and maybe a video to watch. The theme of the page will relate to the Roadtrip and will incorporate the techniques from the Detour and the Stopover.

Week 4 email: The Destination. This is the week the rest of the Guides share with you their pages based on the Roadtrip and the Detour. We will also share pages that participants have shared in the Driver Reviver Facebook Group. If there are any FAQs to be answered, look for them in this email.

If you want something to do every week, you can use the video tutorials as a starting point to create a page; or you can wait for week 3 and just make a page based on the Main Tutorial. Some Roadtrips may appeal to you more than others, so you might be inspired to do only one page. You might have a super-busy month and only have time for one page.  There are no deadlines in Journal Journey, you can go back to previous months and previous tutorials whenever you want.

Our first Roadtrip is called White With Two. Your mission is to use only white and two colours in creating your page/s this month. Sound boring? Hopefully I can change your mind by the end of the month. I have found lots of examples and saved them on January’s JJ Pinterest board.

How will you interpret the Roadtrip? You might pick just two tubes of paint (say Phthalo Blue and Rose Madder Red for a complimentary combination). Add white in varying amounts and you have everything from pale pink to a beautiful baby boy blue to play with.

You might want to be broader with your interpretation of the challenge, as I was. I chose my favourite colours, green and blue as my two (this is an analogous combination), so I could use Aquamarine, Viridian Green Hue, Process Cyan, Lime, Teal, Turquoise and about 10 other variations on my two colours, and that’s before I add the white! Of course, if you make more than one page based on the Roadtrip you can experiment with different colours and combinations to your hearts contents.

If colour theory is new to you, or you would like a refresher, check out this introduction. You can find basic colour wheels for sale at many art and craft stores.

If you prefer a digital alternative, check out https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ or do a Google Image Search for a free printable.

I like to practice new techniques on large tags that I make from cheap white cardstock that I buy from the office supply store by the ream. Measurements for making tags (from A4 and Letter sized paper) are included in a separate PDF.

 

The Detour this month takes you to look at different Resist Techniques, and I have found two videos to show that there is no special equipment required. Remember that you can substitute products; watercolour paints would substitute for the water-based inks used in the first video.

VIDEO ONE: Crayon Resist demonstrated by Rachael Grieg from Darkroom Door: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZbmlgPqSh0

VIDEO TWO: Vaseline Resist demonstrated by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. 

 (For some reason I can't imbed the video, please use the link)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCPtjqXcXWA

Over the next week, have a think about the two colours that you want to use. Watch the video tutorials, and experiment with the techniques if you have the supplies (and the time).

See you for more Resist fun next week!

-Jodi

Important Links:

Pinterest Board for January: http://www.pinterest.com/kreativestore/journal-journey-january/

Driver Reviver Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/966728763342652/

Kreative Koncepts Online Shop: http://www.kreativekoncepts.com.au

Kreative Koncepts Mixed Media Blog: http://www.kkmixedmedia.blogspot.com.au