May Week Three

Last we took a look at watercolour (or water soluble) mediums. A word that you might see on product packaging is “Aquarelle” or “Aquarellable” which will tell you that it works with water.
Because I used them in my page this week, I just want to take a second to talk about Gel Pastels. Faber Castell have a well known product called Gelatos, which come in lots of yummy colours and can be diluted or activated with water, or used straight from the tube. Gelatos are great, but while they are really easy to get in the USA, some of us in other parts of the world have trouble getting them, and they are often expensive. If you want to try Gelatos, but can’t get them or can’t afford them, I suggest you check out the kids art section in big department stores and look for Crayola's Slick Stix, or any other product that says Gel Pastels or silky smooth pastels. All the ones I have found come in some kind of twisting, lipstick-style form. They will come in a limited palette of primary and secondary colours, but you can play with them and decide if you love them enough to invest the time, effort and money into getting the more gorgeous (and trendy) Gelato colours.

https://youtu.be/r915L4N5vL4

 

I drew the bird onto the foam from an image I found on Pinterest. I like this technique of stamp making, it reminds me of the lino-printing I did in high school art, but without the risk of injury from the sharp cutting tools. I think I will probably end up adding a little something to the bird stamp on the page, but I haven’t worked out what he needs yet. I don’t want to lose any of the translucence of the stamp, I love that I can see the background colours through the stamped image. 

Thank you to Jo Hardstaff and Maria Bozikis for the inspiration for the chevron stamp. It's my new favourite :)

The wording is what I decided I would do if I ruled the world. For me, joy comes from gratitude and is the perfect antidote to hate and jealousy. 

I'd probably give everyone a magic packet of Tim Tams as well, because arting requires energy:

And here is the best way to eat a Tim Tam (trust me):

 It's called the Tim Tam Slam. Aussie's get it.

Happy Arting!

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.