Mix17 Ying and Yang Challenge

This SCS challenge requires using two different mediums.  One that creates a smooth surface and one a rough surface.


Finding balance when using different medium that result in rough and smooth surfaces

For a rough surface I started with a scrap of packing material which came embossed with a dotted pattern. To add to the rough appearance I added walnut distress ink and liquid pearls.  At the folded edge of the card I also added a line of hot glue and some micro beads.  While most might think of hot glue in terms of a nice smooth line my lumpy results are prefect for the rough surface.  Particularly after adding microbeads onto the hot glue.

 

 I must shout out a thank you to Vivian Keh  at Contadina K .  I have been blog follower for many months and frequently get to enjoy her use of hot glue in her mixed media projects.  I appreciate her inspiration!   My next challenge is to more on my hot glue technique so I can also achieve a more organic looking line.

For smooth surfaces I often think of vellum and one of my favorite looks is white embossing on the white vellum.  Here I used a Tim Holtz stamp and embossed in white.  I embellished with a few butterflies made with scraps of alcohol inked glossy cardstock. 

Thank you for stopping by today!  I'm curious have you ever thought of using different mediums to achieve different surfaces when working on a card or mixed media?...thanks for sharing a comment!

A Virtual Vacation

Creating texture and dimension

I designed this underwater reef scene as a virtual vacation in an effort to ignore the snow that is falling outside my window…yes, I made this tag on Friday, May 17!

 

I hope you love texture and dimension as much as I do because that was a main focus for this tag.  I used scraps to create this scene and the “glitter under glass effect" techniques was added as described in this week’s SCS MIX16 challenge.

The base of this tag is a scrap of paste paper with a debossed swirl pattern. The seahorse was made with a scrap of paper created with the shaving paper technique. It was die cut and run through a crimper. The other sea life elements were cut with original Cuttlebug dies, embossed with small graphic patterns to add texture and enhanced with distress inks. All were attached with matte medium.

The "under glass effect was made by using stickles to highlight the seahorse and large shell and a light covering over the entire element. Once dry each  was covered with glossy medium for the “under glass effect”

The top of the tag is covered with small scraps. Stickles was used to fill in all the gaps between scraps and sparingly cover the surface. When dry the scraps were covered with glossy medium.

Since I previously had not used glossy medium I did a comparison test for this project. I found:
·   Glossy accents provided the look with the thickest layer of coverage and perhaps best meets the description for Glitter under Glass.

·   Ranger's Glossy Glue N Seal was the thinnest layer of coverage.

·   Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Glossy Medium provides a mid-range glossy look-similar to cloisonné and became my preference for this project.

I am entering this project into eP Picks Challenge - Gel Medium at Eclectic Paperie

As always I appreciate you taking time to look at my work and when you share your thoughts you add sunshine to my day! May your day include some happy creative moments!

MIX 15 Scrapping a scene

Challenge15: Use scraps of paper and make a scene. (See details of Splitcoaststampers Mix-Ability challenge details in the previous post.)

For the background I combined scraps of Basic Grey paper with some stenciling scraps. As I was laying out the paper I saw what is a natural looking shadow under the bird's head created by the background of the circles on the background paper. What a serendipity!...I worked with the layout to maintain this effect in my final card.

I covered the bird with newspaper scraps from the weather report and related articles. The numbers on the lower body are the high and low temps around the world. The little pendant shapes on the tail were from weather map portraying the cold front coming our way.

I added distress stains to the gel medium used on top of the bird to achieve translucent colors.

Below the bird I added punched leaves and dried flowers from last year's garden. I have found gel medium to be the best adhesive for adding flowers. I use my fingers when applying on flowers.

I used gel medium for the entire card both to adhere the pieces and a top coat.

MIX-Ability Challenges

Over the past weeks I have enjoyed playing the Mixed Media Challenges over at Splitcoaststampers. These challenges are designed to make mixed media simple and approachable, and to inspire stampers to experiment with medium from their stash. 

A "medium" can be any of the following:

• Pencils - wax, oil, watercolor, graphite/charcoal, chalk/pastel
• Pastels - chalk, oil
• Markers - watercolor, pigment, water-based, acrylic
• Pens - ink, glitter
• Pigments - Gelatos, watercolor crayons, metallic rubons
• Paints - watercolor, acrylic, oil, poster, tempera
• Inks - dye, chalk, distress, reinkers, pigment, hybrid
• Powders - mica, pigment, chalk
• Sprays & airbrushing
• Dimensionals - embossing paste, gesso, fabric, found items, papers (collage, piecing) & ephemera, foils
• Heated elements - encaustic wax, embossing  
  A "mix" can be any two or more of these items or others.

 

MIX 10 Challenge-Circle Flowers

Challenge: Hand cut (no dies!) circles from paper, fabric or anything else and make them into flowers and then add glitter to make them sparkle!

I swiped several distress pads across the card base to create the background. The flowers are created with texturized paste paper I recently made. The stem and leaves are recycled security envelope liners. Lots of tearing, scrunching and folding paper.  This was so-o much fun!...pure playtime!

 

MIX12 Soft Landings My Friend

Challenge: Add a POP of color from across the color wheel. I also challenge myself to pull out a couple stamps I had not used before.

 

I used distress inks to stamp and color the feather and then clear embossed.  Highlights were colored with Inktense pencils and then wet a paintbrush to create a watercolor effect. Wow that yellow Inktense did give a pretty pop of color. Highlighted the feather's spine with a Signo white pen.

 

I covered moth and feather with gel medium and let it dry. Created the background with blue and green distress inks. I swipped inks on craft mat and moistened. Card stock was placed face down in ink and repositioned a few times. Dried with heat gun.

 

I tested several other methods of creating the floating skies and could not achieve any as effective as the distress inks. I was pleased with how the gel medium protected the images from the background ink.

 

These stamps are large! I had to create a 4x7 base to achieve the floating effect I desired. But it will be well worth making a special envelope.

 

 

   MIX 13 Challenge- Use 2 mediums and include some hand drawn doodling on your project 

This is my first ever hand drawn bird or anything on a card! I am so excited! It was so much fun!!!   I used Dylusion mists for the background above the ground. And stamped the Stampendous leaf with Ranger archival black ink stamp. I stamped a 2nd generation image from each inking to create a layered appearance and finished with white Signo pen squiggles on the leaves.   I used Inktense pencils to color the ground and bird. It is a great way to have a little more control when  watercoloring. Love the strong pigmented colors...only wish I would had started with a larger set of colors. I had fun using a slightly wet brush to rub off small droplets from the tip of the pencil to create the small dots on the bird's body. White pen squiggles again.   Handwritten sentiment banner edge is outlined with Black Faber Castell's Pitt big brush pen (India Ink). Stardust Gellyroll pen adds a touch of sparkle to the flowers. Signs of Spring  MIX14 Challenge: with a little springtime inspiration we are to step out of our comfort zone and create ART using at least 2 different coloring media. I am still waiting for spring to arrive here. So I dug deep to think of happy spring time icons that are meaningful to me and came up with: newly leafing trees, linens blowing dry on the clothesline and bluebells.   For this project I covered a 5x7" canvas with gesso and used acrylic paints for the background.  I love texture and wanted to try some new textures on the canvas. I wadded up some tissue paper and glued it on top of the gesso at one end. At the opposite end I wrapped bandage material across the canvas and painted it. Once dry I challenge myself to not settle for what I thought the layout would be and turned the canvas to each side thinking about how I could use that side. Talk about moving outside one's comfort zone. Finally I decide to use the canvas upside down from all my thoughts during the beginning prep LOL!   I decided the tissue paper texture could serve as layers within the tree branches and would provide a place to hang my sheet. I started with creating the tree branch using embossing paste with stencil. I colored and added leaves.   I outlined a mask for the flowers. Since it had no interior lines to work with I just went with whatever came to mind. A few bleeps along the way but I just added another layer of colored over those 1st editions.   I ended up coloring with most everything in my stash....acrylic paints, watercolors, dye inks, liquid pearls, pencils, markers...What fun!  I am not yet calling this finished-- I want to let it sit a spell. Are you starting to create some mixed media cards? These challenges are a great place to start with other stampers! The mix ability challenges are great fun and the talented hostesses provide lots of great inspiration. You can click on to the link on the right to connect to the MIX-ability challenges at Splitcoaststampers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monthly tag swaps at 2 Peas

April swap required including a tree image and quote.

I started by creating a distress background.  Then added a layer of brush strokes around edges and heat embossed.  Finished with an edging of vintage photo around entire tag and accented with some water droplets.

Selected an old favorite tree stamp from a company now out of business and stamped image and added quote and stamped edges. Create divider stripe by painting embossed packing scrap in gold. In upper left corner I added a skeleton leaf with medium gel and fibers for embellishment.






The May swap required the use of flowers and a masking technique.

This tag is inspired by my little rock garden tucked below birch trees at the beginning of my front walkway. Perennial violets are one of the few plants that survive our harsh winters.

I created a background with Dylusion mists. Stamped the violet in archival ink and colored with watercolors. Stamped the leaves below the plant.  I used a leaf mask to sponge in yellow honey distress inked areas at the top then added a layer of stamped leaves.  I made a mask for the violet plant and used Yasumoto Pearlescent watercolors to soften the color around the violet.

I added a layer of gel medium to adhere dried flowers from my last year garden(top and bottom left corners). Once dry I added a top coat of medium and liquid pearls to the center of the flowers.