MAIL ART

MAIL ART

Wow where has the time gone again.  Last month Sara organised a Mail Art Swap on Cardmaking Paradise forum, I had a great time and received two wonderful envelopes.  Here is another I swapped with a friend.

Mail Art Envelope (front with name covered)

For the envelopes I used printed sheets from my play with Faux Gelli printing and acrylic paints using a silicone sheet.  I ended up with a large supply of sheets, which came in handy for these envelopes.  I opened an old envelope and used this as a template.  Stamped with several images plus images stamped onto tissue, the face painted from the back of the tissue and glued down.  The butterfly was from a preprinted tissue sheet. Great fun.

Mail Art (back)

 

Mixed Media 4" Tile

Here we are approaching November already and I am trying to get my act together and play more with all my piled high craft goodies.    Meanwhile I came across this photo of a 4" swap from August at our craft group.   I have used various decorated bits to create a mosaic background with accent beads glued in the gaps.  Photo is taken a bit on the skew, but original is 4" square.

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Mixed Media Art Tile

 

 

 

The face is from Lynne Perrella set of stamps by PaperArtsy.  I used a piece of mountboard to stamp and colour.  Some areas are coloured with gel glitter pens. I then sealed it with a coat of Glossy Accents.

 

Button Canvas (Double Sided)

I know, buttons and more buttons, but I do have quite a lot of so many different texture and shaped buttons that I have collected for years, it seemed a shame not to use a few of them for this project.

I did show on 6th August an 8" canvas I covered with buttons, this sat on my craft room window sill.  I then had a brain wave and decided to decorate the back of the canvas as well, using a Mucha image for the inset, it is now double sided and I get a choice of which side to view and the neighbours get to see the other.

I painted all the buttons and background with black gesso (though you could use black paint).  Highlighted with Lummiere Halo Gold, Luna Light teal, and Treasure Gold Aquamarine and White Fire.


Button Canvas back view

Below is the front view

Button Canvas - front view

WIRE COILED JEWELLERY

 

I was recently introduced to a fantastic tool, called a Coiling Gizmo, by Jane at our Craft Group. After a practise run, I was bitten by the bug.  I purchased the tool and been having a lot of fun since.  My grand daughter made a bracelet and earrings for herself over the school holidays.  I had a few paper beads from a previous project, so decided to include them in these pieces.  

 

Coiled wire and paper beads jewellery

These are black paper beads I made a few weeks ago, mixed with grey paper which I scribbled with a black Sharpie, after coiling I sealed with Glossy Accents.




Paper Bead Necklace and Earrings

 

Paper Bead Charm Bracelet

 

 

Paper Bead linked bracelet


 

Who knew you could have so much fun with paper strips and thin wire!!!!  Until next time

 



GRANDCHILDREN'S TAKE ON BUTTON DECORATED FRAMES

 

I was lucky to be able to spend some time during these summer holidays with my lovely grandchildren crafting, they made a great job of gluing the buttons to frames then covering with gesso I had provided black and white gesso for them to choose which one they preferred. 

   

 

Amber with her White Gesso highlighted Button Frame with Red and Gold Inka Gold Gilding

 

 

They used Inka Gold to highlight raised areas.  There were plenty of buttons left over and my grandson covered another frame later that day, leaving the buttons unpainted as he liked and wanted to see the various colours.

 

 

Jay's Button Frame with Black Gesso highlighted with green and copper Inka Gold


 

You can see a few charms embedded between the buttons, just to add a bit of interest.  I think they enjoyed making these as the day before we had used eggshells to decorate a frame. Until next time....

 



MORE ON THE BITS AND BOBS THEME

 

 

This is the same idea as in the previous post and will be my swap for next month, this time using eggshells laid on pva glue, with alcohol inks to colour.  Eggshells are soaked and lining removed before applying to glue. This gives quite a matt finish, but you could use a gloss varnish to finish if you prefer.

 



Eggshell swap piece

 

 

 



Eggshell frame closeup

 

BITS AND BOBS TEXTURE TECHNIQUE FOR CARDMAKING PARADISE

Bits and Bobs - Buttons 

 

This is the first in a series of my DT techniques "Bits and Bobs" featured on Cardmaking Paradise for everyone to join in the fun with their own take on it.  It has been fabulous to see how many different variations on this theme that members have shared.  There is a new technique now up and running for the next few weeks.

I loved sorting through all my buttons and bits for the one above and the shell design below which I have used for the 4" swaps at our monthly craft club meeting.

Bits and Bobs - Shells

 



This next one is an 8" canvas using various buttons and bits, including an owl and a pussycat!

8" Button Canvas

 

PAPER MACHE ARCH

I decorated a large paper mache arch which I have had for years, painted with black paint, highlighted with a touch of Treasure Gold.

When I am painting and spraying I use a large sheet of watercolour paper as my scrap sheet to wipe brushes and to take overspray etc.   I used a sheet of this to decorate the arch.  I added more  paint/ink and images using black ink and white gesso.  Now I will have to decide what to place in each section and if I should use a theme or a collection of anything and everything!



Paper Mache Arch



This next photo is a close up of one of the sections.

Close up



 

 





Hands on Canvas

This is a canvas I made for my daughter using the family hands to spray, doodle and attach to the canvas.  For a couple of the hands I have used just doodling, for others I have outlined the shape left by spraying through the flower stencils.

4" Art Squares and Canvas



At our crafty meetings each month, we decided to hold a 4" swap each month.  I decided to design mine around corrugated board.  Using a mixture of acrylic ink mixed with white gesso to partially cover.  I had prepared lots of embellishments so I ended up making quite a lot of pieces.  The above was the same as the swap piece (but I liked it so much I made another that eventually I used on the canvas below). 

 

 

 

Above is a 16" square canvas I made with other pieces.  It was a gift to my lovely daughter in law. 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a bit carried away and went on to make several cards with similar designs but using a finer corrugated cardboard, 15 in total, all slightly different and still enough embellishments over to make more. 



 

 



 

 



Mixed Media Journal Pages Take 5

 

I tried a new technique here (completely outside my comfort zone), inspired by Teesha Moore's fabulous journals.  I had taken limited craft supplies on holiday early this year and decided to cut up a few magazines and try this method.  Teesha's method is to cut colourful magazine strips to glue as a border onto a prepared background, adding paint, inks, etc.  For the flowers I used the negative of a chipboard sheet as a stencil after die cutting the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die, then painted and outlined.  Adding the cut outs and overlaying.  I enjoyed the process for the first time and will definitely have another try and see how it turns out.

 

 

 

Another venture with limited supplies on holiday.  Black ink,  paint brush, Pitt pens and  a few Caron Dache Neocolour II watersoluble crayons. I dipped a paint brush into the bottle of black drawing ink and squiggled all over to create areas. Starting with the right side and probably have overdone it with doodling.  After I had finished drawing this I then discovered a sort of Punch type face, (Punch and Judy) so decided he needed an eye. 

 

For the left side I decided to just draw overlapping hearts and colour in with light wash using the crayons and lots of ink splatters.  I like the left side much better. 

 

There are more pages, but not completed and ready to share yet.  Will be back with other stuff I have been playing with.  Until then....



 

 



Mixed Media Journal Pages Take 4

Lots of fun creating these pages, stamping onto distress inked book papers, unfortunately I had already prepared the doodled border and the acrylic paint covered it, but like the end result.





I used Pan Pastels for the background on these pages, so intense.  I played around with various flower stamps and quotes, another experimental couple of pages.  My favourite pages are on the way.

Mixed Media Journal Take 3

No, it is NOT blood.  As usual when working on a canvas, I had a stencil drenched in lovely juicy red dylusion inks, so I slipped the stencil between two pages and blotted it on the opposite page.  Weeks later I picked up my pens and decided to fill the empty areas.  With such a large area in the centre I drew this lovely lady.  Some friends think this is spooky due to the red ink residue on her face.  I don't have those thoughts, I loved working on the whole thing and wonder about the mystery lady peeping from behind the flower!!!!!

The background for the pages above came after completing the border, which I often do it seems.  I used various ink sprays and stencil for the main images.  The completed pages are a bit dark, but then this journal is all about trying out different techniques that I might not have tried otherwise.  More to follow tomorrow.



Mixed Media Journal Pages Take 2

I really enjoyed completing these pages, the colours and the doodling, I used ink sprays and stencils for the background before I picked up my pen.

 

 

Experimenting with different inks here.  I covered both pages with white gesso.  On the left I used Ranger Distress Stains in patches before stamping.  On the right I used Stazon Pads direct to the paper.  I liked both but was surprised how well the distress stains appeared over the gesso.  More to follow, until then...

 

 







Mixed Media Journal Pages

 

After a long absence from this blog, I thought I would share a few pages of my journal over the next few days followed by the various crafts I have enjoyed over the last few months since finishing with our local workshops last year.  However we have decided to continue to meet and craft with each bringing their own pieces to work on.  I do really miss tutoring, but not the preparation and cutting of card and papers for everyone plus purchasing sometimes months in advance for forthcoming projects.  But I now enjoy meeting up with fellow crafters each month to share the latest ideas.  We also have decided to have a swap each month, a 4" mini work of art which we will compile it into a booklet as a keepsake at the end of the year.  Some wonderful swaps which I shall share later on, now that I intend to keep up with blogging again.

 

The journal pages above were mainly stamped and painted, with a pan pastel background.  Hand drawn border, coloured with glaze pens.



 

 

This second set of pages started off with the banner, the rest just came together.  One of my favourite pages.  Check back for more pages to follow.

 

Feel free to leave a comment, I would love it if you do!  Until next time....