Creating and using Acrylic Skins

Hello!

Oh my, I am having such a grand time that I wanted to share it with you today. Many of you already know that I love techniques.  And the best thing ever in my artsy world is when techniques are combined using medium in a new way!  

Craft Stamper’s Take It, Make It Challenge this month is to use any featured technique from a 2014 Craft Stamper magazine.   I chose to try the technique to use acrylic paints and medium to create acrylic skins for use in mixed media/stamped crafts.  The technique tutorial “Skinny Love” is created by Trish Latimer. It is the featured cover photo on the August 2014 magazine and the tutorial feature begins on page 38.

You may be thinking, “What’s an acrylic skin?”  Any acrylic product can be applied to a non-stick surface and left to dry. Once dry it can be peeled off producing a piece of acrylic with no backing. Any acrylic paint, medium, gel or paste can create a skin.  Depending on what combination of acrylic products one chooses the results may differ in opacity or transparency, thickness, sheen, texture and of course color.

This is my first acrylic skin-

close-up photo

See the glass-like look on bottom-right

      

Please see Trish’s tutorial details regarding the details of technique.  I combined Golden’s Fluid acrylic paints-iridescent gold, iridescent pearl white and phthalo blue with Golden’s Clear Tar Gel.  I selected this gel which is known for it’s transparent, glass-like results as well as self-leveling.  It took 2 full days for my acrylic skin to dry and easily release from my craft sheet.

To create the diecut snowflake I sandwiched a piece of the acrylic skin in a folded piece of printer paper to protect it from sticking to the die or plates. Not sure if that is necessary but I left the back paper die cut on the skin to help manipulate the skin into position on my card.  

While working with my transparent skin I realized it could be treated much like clear acetate.  Areas of the skin where there is not paint are transparent allowing the background to show through.  So in the end I decided to adhere the white paper die cut.  The skin can also be painted or stamped on top or bottom for additional layers of interest. 

It is so fascinating to see all the layers that can be developed on a skin including using multiple layers of skin.  But the best part of my first skin is merely looking into the glossy depth at the beautiful swirls of paint.  So this first card I am keeping simple with a stamped embossing folder background.  Tomorrow I will share a tag with another look at a piece of acrylic skin.

Many thanks to Trish Latimer for sharing the wonderful tutorial and opening my eyes to acrylic skins!  Thanks too for sharing your creativity and providing wonderful inspiration!

Next time you reach for acrylic paint I hope you think of making an acrylic skin!

…Jan