Sudoku Step 7 on Maggi's Background

Received the last set of Sudoku ATCs today. On this one Maggi did the background, Chrissy stamped the flourishes, Kathy stamped the couple, Jan added the umbrella and rain, Margaret added the flowers and Bev stamped "DREAM".

 Didn't seem like the ATC needed much. So I inked the edges with black Distress Ink. Now to send one to each of the participants.

Sudoku Step 6 on Chrissy's Background

And a third set of these Sudoku ATCs arrived. Chrissy made the lovely backgrounds, Kathy stamped the gold diamonds, Jan stamped on the cage, Margaret stamped on the branch and Bev added the jewel to the cage.

 I decided to highlight the bird in the cage by coloring it with a pink Sakura glaze pen.

 Here's how it looks so far. Now off the Maggi to do the final step!

Sudoku Step 5 on Kathy's Background

Also received these ATCs in progress. Kathy made the luscious backgrounds, Jan stamped the bamboo, Margaret stamped on the number strip and Bev added the pink jeweled centers.

 I cut out this decorative strip from pink card stock and colored the long edges with gold Encore! ink.

 Adhered the pink strip to the right side of the ATC.

Now to send them to Maggi for the last two people to add their bits.

Sudoku Step 4 on Jan's Background

Received these ATCs in progress. Jan made the gorgeous background, Margaret stamped the Umbrella Man and Bev added the "raindrops".

 I've added this Film Strip ribbon to the right side. Off to Maggi for the next 3 people to add their bits.

Bird ATCs

I've signed up to make 2 bird related ATCs for the Mixed Media Misfits group.

For the first one I choose a rinse aid background on canvas sheet.

 Stamped music score over part of the background with gold acrylic paint.

Inked the edges and the lower left corner with black Archival Ink. Added a gold mini heart brad to the upper left corner and three gold mini brads to the lower right side.

 Had some previously inked grunge paper that I used die cuts to cut out the bird cage and bird.

Painted black acrylic paint over the bird cage, then thickly coated with brushed pewter Distress crackle paint. While the paint was still wet, used a heat tool to get the bubbly effect.

Stamped flourishes over the bird with gold acrylic paint. Inked edges with a black marker. Added words cut out from the dictionary.

 Added bird and cage to the background:

For the second ATC, used a rinse aid over pulled paper background. 

 Adhered canvas sheet to grunge paper. Sprayed Aidrondack Color Wash on the canvas sheet. Sprayed several times to darken the color. Used heat tool to speed up drying.

 Lightly sprayed on heirloom gold Perfect Pearls Mist.

 Used bird die to cut out main bird body and stamped on flourishes with gold acrylic paint. The bird wing was cut out of a previously sprayed canvas sheet and stamped with gold acrylic paint. The branch was cut out of scraps from the Double Distress technique. All of the edges were colored with brown Color Box ink.

 Used gold leafing pen to color the background edges and a metal "hope" charm.

 Added a gold brad for the birds eye and adhered the parts to the background.

Book Study - Water

On NGS group, we're doing a study of Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson's book "Surface Treatment workshop" This week we're looking at the section "water". The water is used as a resist. And is very similar to the soap technique we looked at last week. 

This is also a "fussy" technique. The authors say don't let the wet paint get to dry before applying the water or not let the paint dry long enough before blotting off the water.

Painted a watered down yellow acrylic paint over watercolor paper and splattered large drops of water oner the surface.

 Used paper towel to blot, not wipe, off the wet water after the paint has dried.

 My result, think I needed to let the paint dry a bit more.

 One of the fun things to do with this technique is to do it in layers of different paint colors. Painted over surface with watered down red acrylic paint and splattered on water.

After blotting off the water. In my background the water is not very drop like, but I like the effect:

Decided to do one more layer with blue acrylic paint and splattering on water.

I'll stop here, because I love how it turned out:

This technique can be done over old paintings. I choose one of the All Purpose White Craft Glue backgrounds I made earlier.

Painted a watered down layer of red acrylic paint, and generously splattered with water.

Very interesting, when I blotted off the water with a paper towel, the water interacted with the glue and removed some of the silver acrylic paint along with the water.

On another one, I painted watered down blue acrylic paint over a purple acrylic background and splattered with water.

Used a large piece of paper towel to blot off the water and the authors state that the pattern of the paper towel can become part of your background.

I don't see it, maybe that's because of the texture of the watercolor paper:

No problem, decided to layer on more colors and splatter with water.

Either I used a thicker consistency of the yellow acrylic paint, or let it dry more that the other colors.

Repainted the orange and red areas, let dry longer and got a better result.

Other variations of this technique are to use over metal leaf, and using a water dropper to draw on the water.

Bird Ornament

On Mixed Media Misfits, I've signed up for the Bird Ornament Swap. We down loaded the pattern from Vintiquities Workshop blog. Used the pattern to cut out thick cardboard pieces.

 Used some of my paper scraps to decorate the bird.

 Cut out the bird body a bit larger than needed out of the work sheet paper. Added some tea dye & seedless preserves Distress ink. Also stamped some flourishes on the paper with gold acrylic paint.

 Adhered the paper over the cardboard, trimmed to size, sanded the edges and colored the edges with brown color box ink. The paper on the wings is textured paper, ran through a Cuttlebug embossing folder and colored the raised areas with brown ink. The crown has bought paper covering it. The hanging charm is a Tim Holtz fragment adhered to a scrap of work sheet paper with the word "dream" written on and some gold acrylic paint rubbed around the word.

Hope my swap partner likes it.

L is for Lapis Lazuli

I made this background about 2 years ago as part of the study of Julia Andrus' book "Paper Transformed", and loved it. Decided to make more and use it in the upcoming "L" technique ATC swap.

Julia recommended using 3 shades of blue alcohol ink. I decided to use 4. Squirt the blue alcohol inks on to applicator and pounce over glossy card stock.

 Repeat with two more layers to deepen the color, add a small amount of brown alcohol ink in the third application.

 I decided to add a fourth layer with blending solution to blend the colors a bit.

 Then use a toothbrush to splatter on gold metallic mixative. I used a large drop of the gold metallic mixative, which made large splatter drops.

 Here's a piece cut into an ATC sized piece.