Book Study - Stencils

On NGS group we are doing a study of Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week is the section on "Stencils". There are many ways to use to stencils, and Bernie discusses several ways. I like how she choose to demonstrate applying stencil over stencil in this section.
I choose a large squares stencil and placed it over pick card stock and sponged on white acrylic paint.
When the white paint dried, I layered smaller squares over the top and sponged on black acrylic paint.

This will be a fun background to incorporate into a project:

For my next project, I choose translucent acrylic paints that would allow the dictionary page to show through. I used yellow ocher over sequin waste, and q. nickle azo gold over a home made stencil (made with dye cuts).

This is another fun background that I will incorporate into a future project.

Book Study - Inky Layers

On NGS group we are studying Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop", this week we are looking at the section "Inky Layers". Bernie states she came up with this technique from having too many supplies that would dry up from not being used fast enough.
Start by making a collage from a variety of papers on to your ATC back. If you want, color some of the edges with dye ink.
Sponge some dye ink colors to the card, leaving some white areas.

Then apply a colored glaze over the entire card. I don't have any colored glaze, so I made my own by mixing acrylic paint with glazing liquid.

Then apply pigment ink on small areas of the card.

The final layer is to apply iridescent ink that is semitransparent to some areas and blend in.

These were fun backgrounds to make.

Quilts & Rain Coats

My brother in law asked me to make him a large wall hanging in pink, red & purple. Hope he likes it:
A bed quilt for my grandson:

Couple of quick baby quilts out of leftover flannels for Comfort Quilters:

And rain coats for my grandchildren out of oil cloth:

One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap

I'm hosting a swap on Art-Venturers for a One of a Kind Dimensional Door Swap. These are to be about ATC size, except having lots of dimension. The rules are, it must have a door/gate/arch that can open, reveal something behind the door, and be so thick that it can not fit in a regular envelope with normal postage.
I was trying several different mediums, but having trouble getting the dimensional doors to open without breaking. This is what I came up with. Used one of the Paint on Paper Towel samples I'd made earlier and ran it through a Cuttlebug Embossing folder, then colored the raised areas with dark brown StazOn ink and black Versafine ink.
Stamped an arched door with dark brown StazOn ink on to balsa wood on both sides and cut it out and cut the door into two parts. Then colored with tea dye Distress ink and attached hardware with ribbon wrapped around the doors. Added more hardware to be the door pull.

Used more balsa wood to layer my piece to create depth to my piece. Wrapped some stamped wrinkled tissue paper around some of the layers. Stamped an Arch with dark brown StazOn ink onto the wrinkled tissue paper and wrapped around a final basal wood arch cut out over a waterfall picture I took. Added a vintage girl image and raised with foam mounting tape. Attached a metal butterfly with some printed words.

Adhered all the layers together and wrapped the extra textured painted paper towel around the top and sides of all the layers to create a tower. Colored the edges of the tower with dark brown StazOn ink.Added "secret" dictionary definition above the doors on the arch.

Tower with doors open:

This was a fun challenge.

Book Study - Leafing Pen Resist

On NGS group we are doing a study of Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week, one of my favorites: Leafing Pen Resist. Take a look at Bernie's book to see the beautiful samples she has using the liquid watercolors with this technique - fabulous!
The metallic ink in these pens is resistant to watercolor and spray inks. There are a variety of metal colors and pen tip sizes to choose from. Bernie recommends using watercolor paper for this technique. On one of the backgrounds, i used a medium point tip silver pen to draw asterisks. On the next one, a broad tip gold pen to create large polka dots. On the last one, a broad tip copper pen to draw squiggles.
I don't have liquid watercolors, so I sprayed blue ink over the surface.

Before drying, sprayed purple ink over the top and then let dry.

On the second one, I sprayed yellow ink over the surface, then added blue color wash with a brush to get the green splotches.

On the last, I sprayed yellow ink then painted on red squiggles.

Bernie's use of liquid watercolors creates a more blended background (make sure you get a look at her book!)

Here are my backgrounds:

Tagging/Graffiti ATC

This month theme is "Tagging/Graffiti". Started with some brick background paper and darkened it with Pumice Stone Distress ink and heat set.
Cut the paper down to size, covered with clear pigment ink added one layer of Embossing Enamel and heat set (one layer gives a rough pebbly feel) and rubbed Fired brick Distress ink over the top and let dry, then wiped off the excess ink.

Used a homemade stencil to lay over the paper and sponged on gesso for my "graffiti".

Found some fun thick leather bits and added to the ATC with old large brass brads that I distressed with a texture hammer:

Book Review - Paint on Paper Towel

On NGS group we are doing a study of Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week is the section: Paint of Paper Towel. Bernie reminds us that there are many types and textures of Paper Towels. She also says that the texture is shown off well with metallic paints.
I tore a paper towel into 4 sections and painted on an assortment of Lumiere Paints and let it dry.For the ATC on the left, I adhered a whole section of painted paper towel over the ATC and decided to extend the paper towel to the back instead of trimming to the edge of the ATC. For the ATC on the right, I tore a couple of the paper towels into pieces and adhered them over the ATC. These backgrounds are now ready, or....
You can stamp over the paper towels with a large stamp. I used Midnight Blue StazOn ink on this one:
and black StazOn ink on this one:
Fun backgrounds!

House Shaped ATC

On DCI group there is an ATC swap using House Shaped ATCs. I cut out house shapes on card stock and adhered some of the paper that had absorbed the excess ink from the baby wipe technique. Stamped on an image using black VersaFine ink and added black Distress Ink to the edges of the ATC.
Made a film strip embellishment by painting a blue acrylic wash over a dictionary page of names. Coated the back of Tim Holtz's "film strip ribbon" with liquid glass and adhered to the painted paper.

Used the film strip embellishment for the chimney. Added a metal decorative corner bit to the roof. Used a heart brad to attach a blue paper flower to the stamped image and added a couple of square blue brads.

A fun swap, looking forward to receiving what the others have created and excited to see what shaped is next.

Book Study - Watercolor on Baby Wipes

We are studying Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop". This week is the section "Watercolor on Baby Wipes". The instructions are tow set a clean baby wipe on a piece of scrap paper and then set on a piece of palette paper and randomly squirt liquid watercolor over the wipe. I don't have liquid watercolors, so I decided to use dye re-inkers and dropped ink over the wipe.
The dye re-inkers didn't blend well, so I added some water to help the ink spread, I went a little overboard. Bernie suggests setting the wipe and the scrap paper aside to dry.

The colors blended more than I wanted, but I love how the ink helps the patern of the wipe stand out (and the color is great). This can now be applied to an ATC or other paper to use as a background.

I had a scrap paper that had gesso over a stencil from another project. I like how it looks after absorbing the ink under the wipe.

Because my wipe was so wet, and I was a bit impatient for it to dry, I set the wipe between two sheets of printer paper and pressed to absorb some of the ink, and repeated several times. Now I have lots of papers to play with.

I did this technique again, without adding the extra water.

Wipe after it dried:

Some printer paper was used to absorb the excess ink:

Bernie mentions that you can also fold the baby wipe in half before adding the watercolors and later unfold to achieve a Rorschach inkblot test. I recommend Bernie's book, to see how the technique looks with the watercolor and see it used in ATCs.