Painted Stamped ATC's

While I was painting the long strip of brown packing paper (see post below), I decided to paint a sheet of less-than-exciting scrapbook paper with the same colors, over-stamping in the same way. I cut the sheet into nine cards 3+1/2" x 2+1/2".  I really, I mean REALLY like the way they turned out. I will probably add some collage over them, but not so much as to cover the lovely colors!

Starting sheet cut into nine ATC cards

Guess I should have worn gloves?
Or used Art Guard on my hands first...

Fortunately rubbing alcohol, hand soap. and a green plastic scrubby pad took most of it off.

Background Paper

One of the YouTube presentations I viewed recently demonstrated decorating newspaper to make background papers.  The artist mentioned packing paper.  Since I had saved a long strip, I smoothed it out and gessoed most of the length of it.  Next, I used a wide flat brush to paint the outer edges with pink acrylic paint.  The center, I painted with yellow.  Last, I added brush strokes of turquoise blue.  I loved it as it was, but there was more to do.

I spritzed water over the paint, took a textured paper towel, and blotted off the excess water.  That left light areas where I intended to rubber stamp some images.

Something unexpected happened while I was brushing the paint onto the paper.  I started to sort of lean into it, going with the flow, enjoying the process.  A feeling of well-being settled over me.  It was almost like a relaxant.  Not to the point of falling asleep, no.  But that good feeling lasted several hours after my art session.  It reminded me that ART IS GOOD FOR YOU.

I tried rubbing my turquoise ink pad over a swirls stencil, but not much ink came through onto the paper.  Then I flipped the stencil over to clean the ink off with a baby wipe.  As the ink spread into the spaces of the stencil, I got the result I wanted after all.  So I changed my approach.  I put the stencil down on the background paper, pressed a scrunched-up wet wipe into the ink pad, and  used it to dab the ink.  

Next, I used pink ink over a flowers stencil.  I'm thinking that this technique is more controlled and maybe (?) less messy than spraying ink over a stencil.

I rubbed gold ink randomly over a circles stencil, finishing with black inked roller stamp and a script block stamp.

Finding afterwards that the long sheet of paper had folds, I cut along the fold lines to make smaller sections after I finished stamping.  

I might gesso the backs to add support to the thin brown paper, and then fold the six pieces to make mailing envelopes.  We'll see.

Magazine Image Transfer - Part 5 - Wha-Hoooo!!!

Finally, some excellent results.  In this second session, the backing of every single transfer slid right off into the hot water.  I do think soaking in "hot" was the key.  So, the result was a better transfer and an altered picture each time.  Way too much fun :)

This design required a LOT of burnishing,
due to the small spaces between the
stencil lines.

A partial page

WARNING:  I eventually stored these transfers on waxed paper for two weeks, but it became difficult to peel some of them off, thus requiring tedious scraping.

Magazine Image Transfer - Part 4

Here are the rest of my image transfering experiments after I viewed Journal Arista's "Mixed Media Stencil Packing Tape Transfer" You Tube.  These definitely had to be scrubbed to remove the paper backing after soaking in warm water, and the stencil was very difficult to extricate from the heavy duty packing tape.  Be sure to view my previous three posts on this same topic.

Oh, and what do you do with all of these wonderful (sticky) clear transfers?  I'm stacking mine between pieces of waxed paper until I know how I want to use them.

Magazine Image Transfer - Part 3

Again, please refer to Journal Arista's "Mixed Media Stencil Packing Tape Transfer" You Tube.  The picture backings of these three examples below came off mostly intact in the warm water soak.

Tape over stencil over picture

Stencil and tape still intact after
paper backing fell off in warm water

Clear transfer

Picture after transfer complete

Tape over stencil over picture

Picture removed from back, tape still attached to stencil

Clear transfer

Resulting picture

Tape over stencil over picture

Clear transfer

All that's left of original picture

Magazine Image Transfer - Part 2

Here are more of my experiments with packaging tape over stencils over magazine pictures, per Journal Arista's "Mixed Media Stencil Packing Tape Transfer" You Tube. ( I neglected to mention in my earlier post that I vigorously burnished over the stencil, then flipped it over to burnish the back of the magazine picture so I could get a good contact with the clear packing tape.)

HOUSEHOLD TIP:  It took Soft Scrub with Bleach and a non-abrasive green scrubbie pad to get the accidental image transfer off of my Formica counter top.  (See 1st posting on this topic.)  This also works on ink from cash register receipts left on a wet counter top.

Packing tape over stencil over magazine image

Resulting clear image transfer

Tape over stencil over magazine picture

Resulting clear image- it ripped
because I didn't have longer lengths of tape, and
I didn't overlap the tape strips 1/2" or more.

Original picture after transfer removed some color

Magazine Image Transfer - Part 1

For the past two days I have been soaking up mixed media ideas, getting glued to the You Tube to the point of feeling light-headed.  There are so many ideas which I want to try.  Today's experiment was inspired by Journal Arista's "Mixed Media Stencil Packing Tape Transfer," which I highly recommend viewing for oneself.

The presenter did mention not to use stencils with small parts, and yes, it was difficult removing the packing tape from most of the stencils I used.  After soaking in warm water, the paper backings sometimes came off almost intact, but usually I had to scrub the paper off to get see-through transfers.  These "skins" can be used over inked or painted backgrounds on journal pages or other collage pieces.

(I realized I should have photographed the magazine pictures before I started, but- oh well, too late.)

Here are a few of the stencils and end results:

Tape over stencil over picture

Peeling tape and picture off of stencil after soaking
in warm water

Overlapping rows of packaging tape
peeled off of stencil

The original picture fell off in the water- yay!

Stencil taped to picture

Tape peeled off of stencil after soaking

The picture survived, minus holes of course!

This was a fun experiment.  Would I try it again?  Maybe...   Now- to use the results on a project!!!