THE NEW YEAR

I can't believe it's the middle of January already! What have I been doing that I haven't done ANY posting until now?Well, one of the groups I belong to is doing different workshop via the internet and using a book. I decided to join not one but two of them! Soooo...I've been a busy little bee if not maybe a little crazy for joining two but I'm having so much fun! Isn't that the point?! Not to mention learning lots. When you see some of the artwork of the others its all so beautiful. It is so much fun seeing how someone else interprets the lessons. It's also very inspiring. There are some very talented people in the group. The workshops I chose were an ATC workshop (ATCW) using Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop book and the other workshop is called Textural Effects using Nancy Curry's book Textural Effects for Rubber Stamping (TEW). Both are excellant books and I highly recommend them. Anyhow for the first lesson on ATCs here's what I did - Intutive Watercolor / Watercolor On Baby Wipes / Paint On Paper Towels. Second lesson was - Leafing Pen Resist / Inky Layers / Stencils.

LESSON #1 and LESSON #2

For TEW we're doing resist techniques. Here's my lesson #1:

Christmas Card

I've finished this years Christmas card. Now to get them addressed and mailed! I used cream colored cardstock. Next was Japanese washi paper in red/green/orange/gold. To highlight it I stamped my ornament in either red, green or orange and embossed in a matching color. Then used coordinating cardstock. I stamped the envelope to match.

PARCHMENT CRAFT/PERGAMANO/PAPER PIERCING

My very first attempts at trying this beautiful artwork. I've got a lot to learn about the techniques. Top left and bottom right corner I stamped the tulip flower inside the fram. Top right corner I colored the back side of the paper with markers.

MORE BACKGROUNDS

The above backgrounds were made using distilled or regular water and liquid starch. This technique is loosely (and I do mean loosely!) based on the ancient art of EBRU or Turkish marbling. I was watching a gentleman at Dollywood's Harvest Festival and I was talking with him. He was using the distilled water and starch and inks. I didn't have the "combs" or other instruments for "pulling" the inks through the water so I "swirled". In doing a little reading on Ebru they would use ox-gall obtained from slaughterhouses (yuck! starch works for me!) as their sizing. It's a matter of experimenting as to getting the right amounts of water and starch. I plan to do a little more experimenting using different types of ink and a little more starch. Water amount is about 1/4 inch in a metal or foil pan. Here's a link to view the actual art of Ebru:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgg0GIfbszg

BACKGROUNDS

I had the chance to try some techniques that I'd seen. What fun it was to create these backgrounds using them. Can't wait to use them in cards, ATCs or whatever strikes my fance at the time. WHO KNEW what you could create with "stuff" you just might have laying around the house!

SHAVING CREAM - For this technique I used shaving cream and re-inkers. I swirled it around and laid plain white card stock over the top. Let it sit a few seconds, lifted it off, scraped off the shaving cream and found some beautiful patterns.

BLACK PEARL - Black Pearl was done using foil as the bottom layer. Next was a plain white napkin which was painted over with black or dark acrylic paint being careful not to tear it. Mix Pearl Ex with Mod Podge then dab and swirl it over the paint with a baby wipe. Let dry over night.

GLOSSY WAX PAPER -
I used glossy cardstock and crumpled up wax paper laid on top. Placed a piece of cardstock over the wax paper then heated it with an iron. Used ink pads and brayer to put the color on. Quite by accident I got ink on the wax paper itself and thought is looked pretty neat. SOOOO....thought what would happen if I took the ink pad and rubbed it over the wax paper. The results are below.

WAX PAPER - Used direct to paper. Let it sit a minute then wiped off any excess with a paper towel.