F is for Fabric Stamping

Working on making some art tote bags. Have some upcoming classes/art retreats and though it would be handy to have a small tote for the little things. Decided to combing my love of stamping and quilting with batik fabrics to make these. Re read up on fabric stamping. First, pre-wash fabric, then iron and cut out pieces.

On this piece I stamped on flourishes with turquoise Lumiere paint and stamped on small words with dark blue Fabrico ink (not sure why the words don't show up in this photo?!?). I believe Fabrico inks are now manufactured under a different name. On this piece, used all fabrico inks. Filled in and highlighted stamped words with Fabrico ink pens. Stamped flourish with Fabrico ink pads.

On this piece. Stamped on letters and painted them in with olive green Lumiere paint, outlined the letters with a purple Fabrico ink pen. Dragonflies were stamped with olive green Lumiere paint.

Heat set the ink and paint by ironing both sides of the fabric with a dry hot iron. To be extra cautious, also ran them in the dryer on high for 30 minutes.

Now, something is not working with my sewing machine. Off to borrow a friend's machine.

Oct QOTM

The quote of the month for ccswap in October is, "I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them " by Pablo Picasso. I choose one of the fusible web backgrounds I made earlier. Stamped a floral image on top with silver Encore ink, then placed it into a black framed card. Cut out two butterflies from the messy background I had attempted earlier this summer, and colored the edges with a gold metal pen.

I wrote out the quote on similar black card stock with a silver metallic pen, cut them out and glued them along with the butterflies to the framed card.

Very funky looking, but I think it goes with the quote.

F is for Fusible webbing backgrounds

F is for the following techniques: Faux Leather, Faux Washi, Faux Silk, Faux Chipboard, Faux Batik, Faux Bleach, Faux Postage Stamping, Faux Sea Glass (Julia Androus), Faux Anything, Freezer Paper Backgrounds, Foiling, Foil Flashing Tape, Fabric Stamping, Floor Wax Backgrounds, Friendly Plastic techniques, Fun foam techniques, Frosted Embossing, and the one I'm doing today: Fusible Webbing Backgrounds.
Followed Trish's advice and used a dark paper for the background. Cut a piece of Heat and Bond(one brand of fusible webbing) to place on top. Used heat gun to get the webbing to melt. You can see that it bubbles and separates as it melts.

I had cut the Heat and Bond larger than my paper, so I tore off the edges and added them to the top and reheated (I like texture).

Used a variety of embossing powders to sprinkle over the hot melted webbing, and reheated with the heat gun.

Came up with this lovely background :

Tried the same technique using light blue paper and the same embossing powders (but not the copper ones). Here I mixed the powders together before adding them to the melted webbing to get a more even distribution of colors for this background:

Inchies for Inchie Frame Swap

On Dream, Cream, Inspire Group some of us have signed up for an Inchie Swap to be used in these cool inchie frames from Blumoth Arts. Each person has chosen a color scheme and some also choose a theme. We will decorate our own frames and the center portion. 11 of us signed up, so we will have two inchies to do for ourselves also. I'll wait to decorate those when I receive the inchies from the others.
Started by painting the inchie bases with acrylic or Lumiere paints.

Added texture with Golden light molding paste and heating it with a heat tool to get some bubbling. Let dry completely.

With my finger, added more color using acrylic paints, Lumiere paints and some have colored perfect pearls included. The colors were used to go with the color schemes chosen by the other participants.

Here are the finished inchies.

Will be so much fun to see what each participant receives and how they complete their frames.

Another Gift

Need to make another present, and the recipient loves grungy art, so with the last flower I made in the quilling project, I am inspired. I have some lovely grungy paper I made in a class with Bernie Berlin last fall. The top sheets are cut down from ones of the official "Resist This" papers and the bottom paper is one of the peeled off papers cut down. I ran some Distress inks over the peeled off papers and misted with red color spray. Let dry, then lightly stamped on some words with bronze Encore ink. Then sprinkled on some copper Perfect Pearls and swirled over the surface with a wet paint brush and let dry.

For the front cover, roughly colored the edges with a large copper leafing pen. Attached some blue mesh ribbon. Added a large "pearl" bead to the center of my grungy flower and tied on a strand of beads. Used Bind-it-All to bind the pages together with a large black coil.

For the inside covers, painted thin cardboard with d. purple acrylic paint, let dry and colored the edges with large copper leafing pen. Painted edges of the peeled off papers with d. purple acrylic paint and attached to painted cardboard. Printed vintage images on to plastic transparency sheet and adhered to covers. Added words with black letters on clear stickers.

The back cover is a "plain" sheet of the same Resist This paper as used on the front. The recipient may use this booklet to store ATCs, photos, embellishments, or whatever. Will be in the post tomorrow.

"Q" is for Quilling, Grunge Style

Time to start on another letter of the alphabet for the Art-Venturer's ABCs of Techniques challenge/program/whatever.
Q is for Quilling, Quilting (metal). If you know of more "Q" techniques, please let me know.
If you do a google search on quilling, you'll find lots of helpful sites. I wanted to used some of my stash of papers. Some are acrylic paints over dictionary pages, some are ones the catch the extra spray in my spray box, and others are scraps left over from a variety of background techniques.
I cut the strips into widths of 1/8" - 1/4" depending on how thick I wanted the piece to be. I used an embossing stylus to wrap around the strips of paper. For the tightly rolled bits, I used the thinner end. For the strips used to make petal shapes, used the wider end to achieve a looser coil.

To make the bases of my grungy flowers, pulled out some backgrounds in my stash. The collection on the left are Textured Gesso backgrounds, the ones on the right are Distressed Scraps backgrounds.

Punched out large and small flower shapes and stamped script over them with brown StazOn ink.

Used black & gold cording to tie on wrap the tight coils to become the floral centers.

Side view to see the dimension. The tighter I pulled on the cording, the more curved up the flower shapes. I'm saving these for future projects.

For the next flower, taped the pointed ends of 5 quilled petals together.

Sprayed the top of the coiled flower and smaller white flower lightly with the Bronze Color Mist Spray. Sprayed a large white flower with Blue Shimmering Mist spray, Bronze Color Mist Spray and walnut ink. While the old, sprayed paper underneath was still wet, ran the tips of the large flower into the wet colors for fun! Let all this dry.

Glued the three flowers together for a fabulous grungy flower.

I know just what to use this flower on.....

Gift using reverse images

Decided to use the reverse stamping images I made earlier today in a gift. I'm making an ATC holder booklet. For the outer covers, used thick paper towel that had absorbed dyes from a previous project. Cut them to size and stamped flourishes with silver Encore ink.

Trimmed down one of the reverse images to fit on the front cover. Added opposite color gems to the eyebrow of each image and an appropriate saying metal tag. After binding with the Zutter Bind-it-All with red coils, tied on colorful fibers.

Had some background paper that was made some time ago. Wrapped rubber bands around a block of wood and used as a texture stamp with a variety of dye inks on coated paper. Cut this down to size and stamped on a saying with brown StazOn ink.

This can be another "R" technique: Rubber band stamping.

Back inside cover done as the front, used a different saying stamp.

Added the other "reverse" stamping image I made (this one with the negative image as well). Trimmed it down, stamped on the word "create" with brown StazOn ink.

Hope the recipient likes it.

R is for Reverse Stamping

I hadn't used my "Reverse Stamp" in so many years, I forgot I had it. Seeing "reverse stamping" in the list of stamping techniques, reminded me to give it a go. I chose a women's face image and stamped it with brown Brilliance ink and stamped this image onto the reverse stamp. I find this easier to do using pigment inks, as they dry slower than dye inks, and I don't feel like I have to rush.

Stamped the "reverse stamp" onto confetti card stock, then stamped the original image on to the same card stock. Great reverse.

For fun, went for the reverse & negative image. Stamped the woman's face onto this foam block after softening the surface by heating with a heat tool.

Used same Brilliance ink pad, to ink up the foam and stamp image on to confetti card stock.

Fun to play and experiment.

Pleased to Announce...

Resist with crayons

Had time for some quick playing. Never get tired of Resist techniques, so decided to play with an oldie but goodie: resist with crayons. (Part of the ABC of techniques for Art-Venturers). You can make some fun backgrounds by just scribbling or doodling over paper with crayons then cover the surface with dye inks or sprays. The ink easily wipes off the waxy crayons to reveal the original colors. I decided to play with some bird images and using the crayons to add resist color. I stamped the birds on some cheap white card stock with black VersaFine ink. For the bird on the left, colored some of the bird with a white crayon and used the white crayon to highlight around the outside edge of the bird and by the flourishes (sort of like the bandana technique, but doing the white before the background color, instead of after). Wondered if I'd get a similar effect using metallic colored pencils, so used a silver pencil to color in parts of the bird on the right and around the flourishes.

I had some mini misters that still contained watered down dye inks and a bit of perfect pearls in them, so used these to spray over the card stock. The white crayon on the left sample had great contrasting resist. Very similar look to the bandana technique that was so popular last year. The metallic pencil on the right sample is a very subtle look. Might have made a difference if I'd chosen other colors.

Decided to give it a try with two colors of crayons. This time I colored the entire surface of the bird with a white crayon (not sure why some of the black ink got caught up with the white crayon and turned the color gray?!?!!? Used both white and blue crayons to color around the flourishes (must admit I was rushing at this point, I was running late).

Sprayed over the card stock with an assortment of home made color sprays as above. Like the white & light blue around the flourishes. Turned out pretty good for a rush job!!!

The possibilities of adding resist colors with crayons are endless. I had a cheap brand of crayons laying around the house. Think I need to keep my eyes open to pick up some metallic colored crayons. These are much easier for me to work with that the metallic pens. Don't get the big blobs of ink gushing out unexpectedly.