Tuesday, March 29, 2016

ICAD's - #1 - #7

This swap with an MMSA pal proved to be very fun and interesting.  I seized it as an opportunity to experiment using the 3" x 5" format.  Visual prompts were all around me:  snippets, supplies, previous projects.  I began on March 15th.

 A pile of foreign postage stamps in the purple family gave me a start.  Purple ink dragged a swath across the background.  Washi tape jumped in after the stamp placement.


Magic Mesh wanted to play on Day #2, so I pressed small green and blue ink pads onto the card, then covered it with Magic Mesh triangles.
 On St. Patrick's Day, I rescued a rye bread wrapper from recycling.  It took food coloring gels dripped onto the card and smooshed with another card a while to dry before I could glue on the plastic shamrock, stripes and color register.

Day #4 was my chance to try punch-outs.  Circles cut in black paper made an overlay for the imported hand-made papers background.   A gold marker added dot details.

Gray and silver images begged to play together on Day #5, with this collage resulting.

I painted this background with acrylic paint to compliment the focus piece, also painted a strip of drywall joint tape, and layered.

On Day #7 I used an idea gathered from You-Tube.  After stripping one layer off a corrugated box flap,  I cut it into squares.  Glued the squares side-by-side onto my file card.  Coated with white Gesso.  Drizzled rubber stamp inks from one edge to the other (tilting the card so they dripped down).  Then glued on an image, and- it was finished.

More to follow...

First Flowers of Spring

The crocus opened when the warm temperatures arrived, although with yesterday's snow they closed up.



Monday, March 28, 2016

Mixed Media Collage

Yes, I know, I've told mail art pals that I don't usually incorporate ephemera which other people send me into my art.  But this is an exception.  Someone sent me a dictionary page stenciled with acrylic paint.  I was ignoring it, but it started demanding attention.  The result?  The post card below.

 After adding smudges of gold acrylic paint for accents, I glued on the main focal piece and a butterfly.  Next I pushed white paint through areas of a sequin waste "stencil."  A white paint pen gave me dots inside the circles.  Finally, I added a piece of gel-medium-reinforced tissue paper, a postage stamp, a word, and a home-made border sticker to finish my project.   Now out it goes!

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Not Quite Digital ATC's

Some of my mail art pals like to swap ATC's.  Inspired by a new MMSA-er, I double-printed mostly vintage images and added details. Although I didn't integrate the artwork online or with a PhotoShop program, I'm relatively satisfied with the results:

 Edges are ink smudged for a distressed look.

 Watercolor pencils and clear embossing powder add shimmer to the dragonfly's wings.
The background is from a photograph of an area creek wall.

 The bee and the feather rubber stamped images are clear-embossed. Watercolor pencils added color to the black and white flower image and the bee.


Clear embossing powder over the eyes adds a realistic effect.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

My Gelli Plate Was Calling To Me

Sometimes I just get on a roll, which is the best time to make lots of art.  Although I usually swap post cards through the mail, sometimes a note card is nice to have on hand.

blue, purple and gold paint, stencils and rubber stamps

blue, purple and gold paint, collage and rubber stamp

blue and gold paints and rubber stamps

blue and gold paints and rubber stamps

And two postcards with purple, gold and pink paint,
collage and Magic Mesh

ICAD challenge

ICAD

A fellow MMSA pal recently invited me to swap decorated 3" x 5" index cards with her.  Rather than wait for the start of DaisyYellow's June/July ICAD project (Check out her blog for details.), we decided to begin a.s.a.p. taking it seven days at a time.  Tonight I made my first one, prompted by newly-received items on my table.  Visuals like colors and images spark inspiration, that's a given.  I plan to post pictures of my finished cards after my swap partner receives them.  She gets first viewing privileges :)

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Purple Play

Some paper trimmings became the focus of today's Gelli Plate Printing session.  To make up some small note papers, I chose three purples and white acrylic paint, later over-printing with gold paint. Two stencils and some rubber stamp images added details.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Just A Few More Gelli Plate Prints

Over-painting "ugly" scrap book papers makes them more useful for notes or once-folded envelopes:




Another Gelli Plate Printing Session- Wheeeeeeeeee!!!

There is something so satisfying about applying acrylic paints to the Gelli Plate, overlaying stencils or dragging lines through the paint, and then transferring the design onto paper.  Sometimes I add another layer or two.  This afternoon I prepared envelopes and note papers for future use.  Combining Caribbean Blue, Lime Green and White on the plate (and later adding rubber stamp images) resulted in some designs just in time for some St. Patrick's Day correspondence.











An Upcycled Envelope

Monday, March 7, 2016

Abstract Watercolor Play

Spreading watercolor paint on a damp piece of paper and letting it flow is easy.  Trying to make sense of the design afterwards is, well, a bit of a challenge.  After some watercolor pencil enhancement, stencil play, and a few added lines, these pictures seemed to make a little more sense, in a very abstract way.

Tilting Flowers

Strange Dancer

Setting Sun

Man O'War

Friday, March 4, 2016

Fabric Abstract Landscapes

After putting together Torn Paper technique ATC's I wanted to make smooth edges with scissors. For a current Fabric-themed Swap I glued, then sewed my favorite Batiks to paper backgrounds for water, hills, mountains, skies.  One has a stitched sun, another has a watercolor pencil sun behind the mountains.