Your Stuff / My Stuff

Our Paper Traders group did another Your Stuff / My Stuff swap this year.  I sent an envelope full of extra stuff from my studio and received back an envelope from Sue in Canada.  Above is a photo of all the terrific stuff she sent to me.  We only had to make one ATC to send back but I sent her two because she gave me so much good stuff... and then I just kept right on creating!  Below are all the ATCs I made from this stash - and there are still a lot of goodies left over.  =)

Poetry Found

My second attempt for this Found Poetry swap was a bit more difficult but much more successful.  This time, I used pieces of Post-It Notes to cover my words and only had a tiny little tear which I was able to fix.  The hard part was trying to find the right words for my poetry.  In the end, I had to change the word "ignorant" to "ignore" and then it all came together.  The image for this piece was re-purposed from a postcard I received and I want to give credit to the original artist Wendy Paula Patterson for her beautiful imagery.

art

like

a party-colored dress

promiscuous

and hard

to

ignore.

Lost Poetry

Occasionally things don't always turn out in my studio.  This week's epic Fail came while working on my Found Poetry canvas for an upcoming swap at Paper Traders.

I have seen this technique gaining popularity and was anxious to try it myself.  I had read online that another artist used MasquePen to block out her words so she could paint over the rest of the page and then remove the masque when she was done.  Sounded perfect!

The paper I was using was quite old so I tested the MasquePen in several methods: straight paper, over clear gesso, over clear acrylic sealant, and over clear gesso covered with clear sealant.  The last seemed to work wonderfully so I prepped my pages and went to work.

Below is what happened to me when I tried to remove the masque...  Two section of masque pulled the paper right off the page and my words with it.  So sad!

I decided I will salvage this piece by reprinting my poem and gluing new words over the top.  But will have to start from scratch on a new piece for this particular swap.  Live and learn.  (For my next piece, I'm going to try using Post-It Notes to cover my words...  I'll let you know how it turns out.)

mourning

love,

thrown aside,

and

Haunted forever by

all

which is not to be

Beachy Love

Cathy is hosting a paper mache heart swap over at Paper Traders this month.  Once I got over the initial messy gross-ness of the paper mache process, I found it to be a relaxing task to do while watching movies.  It took me about a week to make these hearts because I had to let it dry in between the many layers.  I learned a few things doing this project which I'll share...

I loosely based my technique on Crafy Cupid's tutorial here: http://www.craftycupid.com/index.php/cc/entry/mache-mixed-media-heart-tutorial/

For working with the messy paste, I employed this Martha Stewart tip using a rubber band to create a scraper which easily removed the excess paste from my paper strips:

http://www.marthastewart.com/272867/paint-can-tip

When they were completely dry, I applied a layer of gesso and then a coat of acrylic paint to each heart.  Both of my hearts were crackled using Ranger's Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  Here's something interesting that I discovered...  The gold heart was painted with a glossy metallic acrylic paint underneath the crackle.  When dry, the crackle still appeared very shiny and crystal clear.  The blue heart, however, was painted with a matte acrylic paint under the crackle.  This one ended up looking much more opaque (sort of like sea glass) as the crackle coat seemed to take on some of the aspects of the underlying paint.  Both results looked terrific but were notably different.  For this project, I topped off the blue heart with an extra coat of glossy glazing medium to bring back that high shine finish I had anticipated.

The "sand" for my beach scene came from a pre-packaged bead mix and I just love the way this looks!  I used Glossy Accents to adhere the beads, shells, and charms.

So here are my finished results... I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them:

I also made an extra heart which I covered with distress doilies and pretty printed napkins layered over a bronze crackle finish:

In Stitches

We're doing a stitched canvas technique swap in our Paper Traders group this week.  This was a bit of a challenge for me because I really hate to sew.  My stitches on this piece are not very good but the overall effect is nice and the loose threads give it a shabby chic look.

Tangle Garden

At Paper Traders, I am hosting a colored Zentangle® art swap. Zentangle art was created by Rick Roberts & Maria Thomas. You can discover more about this method on their website: Zentangle.com.  Below are the cards that I created for this swap... a relaxing way to catch up on my DVR recordings!

Graven Angels

Over at Paper Traders, I am managing the current round robin journal project but was disappointed that I couldn't commit to actually participating this year.  Working 50-60 hours per week at my two jobs has left precious little time for making actual art.  What time I do have is spent doing more management type work for the group, although I have been trying to host the occasional ATC swap.

Even though I did not participate in this year's round robin, I did make a spread in my mom's journal which has the theme of Graven Angels.  Everyone's work so far has been lovely but they tend to be dark and somber - no surprise, really, given that it's all about cemetery statues!  Yet, death has never felt like a dark spectre to me so I wanted to make a page that was lighter and more introspective...

...in fond memory of George, Grandma Betty, Jennifer, Grandpa Holso, Alyssa, Uncle Ronny, Danny, and Aunt Joyce.  I love and miss you all and I'll see you someday soon!