Mini notebooks with monoprinted backgrounds

I periodically make huge batches of monoprints using plexiglass, various weights and textures of papers, and either ink, paint, alcohol ink, etc. This was a batch I made some months ago, utilizing various water-based dyes.

This week Ive been making up a number of mini composition notebooks. They're all lined and bound with washi tape, and utilize the monoprints, various embossed cardstock, and rubber stamping. Top left and top right both feature stamps by Viva Las Vegas Stamps, and bottom one, stamps by Artistic Outpost. These are fun little gifts to make and I try to always have some on hand. 

Christmas in July

For another AFTCM swap. I made several cards but liked this one best. Stamp is by I Brake for Stamps, background uses Color Mists and Pearl-Ex.

When pigs fly...

I have a thing for flying pigs--at least images of them--because they represent what is "impossible," and I like to challenge notions of impossibility. Here's a quick recent collage with some of my flying friends.

Color Mist sprays & gesso

Oh, my poor neglected blog. I've been working on some things but sorely need to update.

Well, let's see. I purchased a set of bright Color Mist sprays from the lovely Aileen at Outside the Margins. I used what she calls deli paper (a slightly coated tissue-like paper) and stamped all over it with white gesso. Let that dry, then sprayed the bright colors, which come out softly bright used this way.

Tore these into strips and covered a slide mailer with them using PPA. Painted and stamped inside for a nice little "thinking of you" sort of gift.

Bright colors, black & white checks

I'm playing catchup on some gifts to friends in my art world. This one is for Kathy, a.k.a. Sweetpea, who likes bright colors paired with black & white checks.

These are altered coasters (beer mats), covered in tissue paper that's been stamped with white gesso and sprayed with Color Mists (a la Aileen's techniques at Outside the Margins).

Didn't have a black and white checked ribbon so I painted white onto a plain black one.

Off to Sweetpea in the morning.

Sheryl's deco: Faux Batik Technique (sometimes called Faux Bleach)

My friend Carol asked about a deco page I'd done. I forgot to scan the back page of this one, but here's the front.

This is one version of this background technique. There are many out there. Here, I stamped ivory card stock with embossing ink using an ornate stamp. I embossed using detail clear embossing powder. When cool, I washed it with a very light wash of Twinkling H20s in blues, greens and purples.

When dry, I placed a blank piece of newsprint over and ironed off the embossed powder. The result is a great resist effect.

I wanted to know what would happen layering more ink and another stamp over that, so I tried it and got a different but really cool resist there. I used Fluid Chalk ink in a purple called Wisteria.

The woman w/numbers is from Diva Stamp Impressions and she was stamped on a scrap of paper that had been treated with Color Mists. I keep lots of brightly colored scraps around me (in large piles, if truth be known) and there's almost always something that is just the thing for whatever I'm working on.

This is is Sheryl's deco on the AV group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Art-Venture/

And as a a bonus: "Faux Batik Technique" is fun to say!

Another tag card

While I was in tag booklet mode, I made this card for a dear friend's birthday. I sprayed it with Color Mists and just stamped and embossed. Happy birthday, Andrea!

More Nebula Grunge experiments

My pal Fiona has experimented and done her own take on this technique. Check out her blog at http://fionascreations.blogspot.com/ to see what she did. I love that she tried it with different sprays and on glossy cardstock as well!

More on Nebula Grunge

To give you an idea of how bright these are before I do the overspray, here are:

-Color Mists in bright colors (Lemon Yellow, Margarita Magenta, Slimescent Green, Cobal Sky and Tahoe Turqouise. The first picture shows the true brights, the second is the dried finished background. Overspraying these with Tungsten Carbide (black) gives the whole "night sky appearance" as the colors peek through. This was on one layer of acrylic paint.

-Starburst Stains in California Poppy Orange, Beauganvillea Fuschia and Delphinium Turquoise. Oversprayed with Color Mist in Cobalt Sky. This was also on layer of acrylic as well.

I experimented with lighter overspray colors as I went along, but I really like the darker look.

Nebula Grunge on a box

Here I used Color Mist's Lemon Yellow, Slimescent Green and Tahoe Turquoise. Sprayed the box with these colors and while wet, I oversprayed the box with Cobalt sky and then dryed with the heat gun.

I added some Copper Kettle to the lid and dried again. The box had one coat of white acrylic on it to start.

Happy Accident

Today has been a fun day of just experimenting. If you look at my "background noise" journal from earlier this evening, you'll see I use what looks like a stencil on the cover. It was actually a piece if scrap watercolor paper that I sprayed these letters on. I liked the negative image better for the journal, it felt perfect.

These are chipboard letters I painted with white acrylic paint. I was reaching for my trusty gesso when I opted for the paint instead. I originally sprayed these with Aileen's super bright Color Mists, but they were just too bright for my needs. So grabbed her black spray, which is called Tungsten Carbide, and oversprayed them all lightly, and then hit them with the heat gun.

The result was these, which I think look batiked and very cool. I think the acrylic caused the sprays to "bead up" when heated.

I love happy accidents.

Journal pages: Kate's book

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More pages from the round robin journal project in which I'm taking part. Kate's theme was "word play," and I came up with bird idioms & bug idioms--hence the "birds & bees." I love playing with words so this was a very fun pass for me. I'm getting more comfortable working with brighter colors--breaking out of my vintage rut! These are transparencies layered over stamping, paint, Color Mists, feathers, velvet leaves, etc. The bright color mists are from Outside the Margins.