Creating and Using Acrylic Skins-Part 2

Hello!

So glad you could stop by to see the tag I created with the acrylic skin.  If you missed yesterday’s post you can find the beginning info on acrylic skins here.

 Here is today's tag-

 

And a close-up:

The entire background is stamped and colored with blended distress inks. The branches are stenciled with pre-colored Golden's Light Molding Paste that is for highly textured work and is to hold stiff peaks. I made by mixing distress ink with the paste on my craft sheet. After covering the branches with molding paste as usual I added texture to the leaves with a plastic serrated knife.

The bird  a piece of the acrylic skin I shared yesterday and cut with a Memory Box die.  The eye is added with enamel accents.  I did not attach white paper to the back of the bird which makes the translucent parts not as clear as the background sightly shows through.

Supplies: Acrylic skin-see original post;  Memory Box Die-bird; Stencil by Heidi Swapp; Ranger distress inks and archival ink, Stamps-STAMPlorations-mini mixed media backgrounds; Stamping Up-bark background.

Craft Stamper’s Take It, Make It Challenge  This month’s challenge 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.

Thanks for stopping in...hope your weekend includes some creative fun!

…Jan                                                                                                                    

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                                                                                                                   

Moments in the Garden

Welcome back!  Hope you are having a great summer!

Weekly I volunteer at our University's Botanical Gardens. It is only a 13 week assignment since our summers are so short.  But they are glorious weeks as I watch the maturing of each plant in my 2 assigned raised beds. This results in gardening being one of my favorite themes in my creative work.

With this post I am playing in a challenge named after Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume III.   Every 2 weeks a new challenge is selected from the products and techniques shared in the book. Out of respect for Tim each player must use there own copy of the book. Anyone found sharing information will be disqualified. So that is the basics of this challenge. You will find Linda Ledbetter, the challenge coordinator with more details at the link above.

Please let me share how I created my card-

For my background I started with cool peri,wild plum and purple twilight alcohol inks and used Tim's dot fade and burlap stencils. As I look out over the vast botanical gardens the colors blend together so beautifully and that is what I tried to develop here.  Of course I work through many trials until I finally achieved results that matched the picture I had in mind.

I used stamps from Tim Holtz's Stamper's Anonymous collection for the plants, bird and sentiment and stamped with archival ink.  Highlights on the flowers were added with jelly roll pens and a Signo white pen.  I pulled apart a loosely woven ribbon to give the bird a place to rest and to add some subtle texture.

For the base foreground, I upcycled a piece of metal, painted with acrylic paint, embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder, added Inka Gold and cut the shape needed.

Thanks to the Curiosities Crew for this week's wonderful inspiration! And another special thanks to Inspiration Emporium and The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring these challenges!

This is also a reminder "summer" is the theme for this month's challenge over at Mixed Media Card Challenge  until August 25, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700).

Thanks for stopping in!  Have fun getting your fingers inky!
...Jan

Summer- Mixed Media Card Challenge #2

Welcome back for my post to kick-off the 2nd month at Mixed Media Card Challenge!

Here in northern Alaska winter is v-e-r-y long and white. Summer is a time to celebrate our long sunlight filled days. It is so easy to hang out with friend and family into the wee hours when it is  daylight for nearly 20 hours.

As I thought about this month's summer theme....I knew I wanted to use a bright summer palette and pulled out my stamps including a sun, bird and an icy delight.  Here is what I created:

I started by painting the background with distress stains.  To add more interest I stenciled a layer of embossing paste. I love the movement and energy these dotted swirls added to a background.

The bird is styled for a party complete with necklace and hat using distress stains, inks and pens. I wanted the drink to look as refreshing as possible so I stamped the glass on acetate with solvent ink, colored the back with sharpie pens and adhered to white cardstock.

Since the bottom of the card had the raised embossing paste which would cause issues with stamping a clean sentiment, I stamped on acetate and attached directly to the background. I like the look of the background shining through the sentiment.

The burlap adds some texture and grounds the bird's feet to the background.

Perhaps you are thinking what happened to the sun stamp that I mentioned earlier...here is what the image looks like...

As you can see it is "too much" to add to my card but with some masking I was able to use a part of the image for the bird's necklace! 






I hope you decide to play in this month's Mixed Media Card Challenge!


Get inky and have fun!...Jan

Supplies: Ranger's distress stains and inks, stickles, archival ink. Also Stazon ink, Signo White Ink, Gel pens, Embossing Paste, Colorbox Art Screen-Swirl Dots,  Graphix Acetate, Therm O Web-Vellum Adhesive Runner and Burlap   
Stamps: Dina Wakley's Scribbly birds set; Glass-stamp co. no longer in business; Celebrate!-STAMPlorations, Celebrate Sentiment Builder Set.