Painted Papers and a Blotted Paper Towel

Hey everybody. :)

I was working in my studio a bit more today, making some more papers. 

Today I worked with markers and water soluble oil pastels.

I love the way they turned out, and I worked with a plastic sheet this time, so the effects are slightly different. 

Today I did six different pages in several colors.

I did a bunch of things, working with experiments. 

You know the drill.

Another thing that I was working with is coming up with a blotted effect on paper towels.

And I sort of achieved that goal.

You know what I mean. 

I think it's my favorite part.

I did this in different shades of purple using markers.

Yep. 

That lightened version from markers.

You'll see how I did it eventually. 

Mwhahaha. :D

That's all I've got for you guys today, and even though it wasn't that much, it's still something, right?

:) See you guys tomorrow.

Painted Papers II

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

I'm back!

Finally, I know.

It's been a while. 

And I've missed it, I really have. 

I've just been really busy with school and volleyball stuff.

And busy planning for NaNoWriMo.

But more on that later. 

It's just good to be back after being gone. 

It feels like longer than just a few days though.

Today was actually my first time doing anything with paint in about a week, so that was good for me too. 

I was basically just playing around with papers and stuff.

Making up some new techniques.

And working on some stuff for my Layering tutorial. :)

So yeah. The page above is probably one of my favorites.

Basically to make it was pretty simple. 

I took a plain sheet of printer paper and a white crayon.

And then, using the crayon I drew hearts over the whole thing.

I made some watercolors and went over then whole thing with a light pink.

The crayon resisted the paint.

Then I used a darker pink wherever the hearts were. 

I love it.

This one used pretty much the same technique.

But I used another color.

And I drew a different shape.

In the last one I did some basic hearts.

And in this one I did some Traci Bautista inspired doodle flowers. 

If you've ever seen Traci's work, you'll know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't seen her stuff, you really should look her up.

She's an art journaling genius.

Really.

Here are some index cards that I was playing around on.

I love the size. 

They're just so small.

And cute.

So yeah. I'm not going to describe the techniques I used on these cards,

Because if I did, then I'd be up all night.

Because, if the truth be told, I really don't know.

I was just messing around, and I used several different techniques per card.

I was just trying to develop some ideas.

If you know what I mean.

This is a dyed paper towel that I did real quick to use up some leftover washes I had.

I didn't want to be wasteful.

Yet I didn't really want to do anymore washes either. 

I basically just took a paper towel and folded it up.

Then I folded that in half.

I dipped one end in blue dye.

And the opposite end in a black one.

I really like the way this one turned out.

The white stripes are the white of the paper towel showing through.

This is going to be fun to use.

And last, but definitely not least, we have a paper that I made using a homemade stamp.

You can see it above.

The little flower doodle into foam.

How cute.

I made this paper, and even though I love the way it turned out, I have no idea how I got that effect.

I wish I could remember. I'll have to do some experimenting to find out.

All in all I think I did seventeen papers. 

Cool, huh?

Anyways.

Like I said in the beginning, I haven't been around much because of NaNoWriMo.

I did it last year. 

It's basically a challenge to write a 50k novel in the month of November.

And I've been planning. 

Planning like crazy.

Doing the plot, and the scenes, and trying to layer the story.

Yeah. I think this is going to go well.

Paper Beads and ICAD #5

And I'm back with you crazy people again. :P Just kidding, I'm sure I'm probably crazier than all of you combined. :) Today I have another index card (this time one of my favorites of all time) and a note about paper beads. Again. :) Let's start with the index car, shall we? Lets. If you look at the picture above, you can see the index card that I pretty much just finished. I really love the way this one looks, and the style itself really reminds me of Traci Bautista, who is pretty much one of my favorite artists of all time. This is probably one of my simplest cards yet. I started with a plain old card, and then I put down a layer of yellow acrylic paint. While it was still wet, I put down some light teal in the extra places, and then blended it into the rest of the card. The technique I used was actually inspired by the GPP Street Team crusade this month. I'll probably be working on it some more, so this isn't my official challenge entry. :)

But anyways, the way the technique works is you take a stamp after blending the background, and apply the same two colors you used for the background to the stamp. Then you just stamp it over the background. It creates a really cool effect, since the color disappears in some places, and is more vibrant in others. That was the whole background.  Very easy. Then, I simply added a strip of paper across the whole card (another piece cut from a color copy of my work; let me know in the comments what you think of a series on finding collage fodder) and then added the words that I cut out of a magazine. Yesterday it was 'More' and now it's 'More Power'. Pretty much the same thing, but at least I know what I'm thinking about I guess. :/

And here's a really cool picture that I took of my general working area when I'm making beads. I use my pallet to put glue in, and put beads wherever I can as I make them. All the beads I'd shown you before had been made on a small needle, but I decided to see what the difference would be if I tried using toothpicks. So far I like the way it's been working out; they're easier to work with compared to a needle, since they're that much thicker around, but they're still a reasonably thin hole so beads probably wouldn't fall through if I tried to string them with something else. Now that I think about it, seed beads might, but I'd just have to remember to put a larger bead right next to it. Some creative stringing, that's all I can say. We'll see how this goes.

One note; I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures lately; I've been using the camera on my phone, because during the move my camera cord sort of went missing. Plus I think I lost my SD card. After I find those things, the quality of the pics will probably improve. But in my mind, I'm thinking that some poor quality pictures is better than nothing right? Plus, it's not that bad until you enlarge them. :) So that's all I've got for you guys today; wish me luck for my Drama class at school tomorrow; I have to read a two minute piece in an accent. I chose a british accent, but I'm just hoping I don't crack up while I'm doing it. But I have been told I do a mean british accent. :) Anyways, wish me luck and I'll see you guys tomorrow!! Bye!

ATC Background Tutorial

A little while back I did a tutorial on ATCs. I love to make the backgrounds a bit different on each card. These are some of my favorite backgrounds to use, and they're so simple. They only use a couple of supplies, and they're really easy to make. The photo above shows what they look like. You can make these in any colors you want, but I recommend darker, more vintage looking colors. The style of this technique just goes better with those types of colors.

These are the supplies needed for this technique. I actually designed/developed this technique in order to use up older, dried up old baby wipes. So you're going to need one of those. You'll also need an ATC blank in white, a spray bottle full of water, and ink pads in two coordinating colors. With the inks, I recommend Distress Inks, since they react with water, but if you know of another brand that does the same thing, feel free to use them. I'm using Aged Mahogany and Vintage Linen.

Here's the ATC after I've already put the lighter color (the Vintage Linen), and am starting to apply the darker mahogany color on top of it. I like to use two colors, since I think that it adds more color, texture, and dimension to the finished piece. When you apply the color, either dab the ink on, or rub it back and forth on the pad. Then rub it lightly against the paper in light circles.

Here is the ATC after both layers have been applied. You can see how on the edges it is a bit darker. I like it better that way. It seems to add dimension. I don't know about you, but I like it. You can also make it more even if you like; it doesn't matter to me. I like the look of it. :)

Spray/mist the ATC back with a bottle of water, making sure that some of the dots of water are bigger than others. Let it sit for a minute and...

Scrape or dab it off with the baby wipe. This is what the finished piece looks like! I love it!! I hope you guys try out this technique, and, if you do, feel free to post it in the comments. I'll come and visit you!

Note:: This technique can be used in any way you like; in an art journal, mixed media, ATCs, or any other thing you can think of. It doesn't matter! Just play around. That's what matters.

I hope you guys enjoyed today's post, and I'll talk to you later. Bye!

Creative Ideas 6.1

Hey all! I'm back with yet another blog post for all of you. I was thinking that maybe once or twice a month I could post on here with a few different creative ideas to use in your art. I think that it could be a cool idea, and you guys could post in the comments with your discoveries and blog posts showcasing your finds. We'll see how this goes. I think that it's a good idea, but I guess I'll never know until I try, right? So here we go. Tell me what you think.

• Make an art journal page that you stamp with acrylic paint and bubble wrap.
• Scrape some paint over a page, then let it dry. Scrape another color over top and let it dry as well. Spray with water, then after a minute or so, scrape the water off.
• Paste a bunch of different sizes and shapes of book paper all over the background of a page, then scrape paint and layer over top
• Stamp with ink on top of Mod Podge, then smudge it gently.
• Experiment with lots of layers; try collage, stamping, acrylic paint, color scraping, tissue paper, wax crayons, watercolors, water soluble pastels or crayons, etc.

Tell me what you guys think! Does this sound like something you'd like to see regularly? Or does it seem boring? Let me know!!