Excavating layers of past work.

I will share more of this, but I am trying to make sense of the piles of papers I have created over the years, mostly gel prints but not just that. I have stashes of things in multiple places, that are where I stuff experiments, finished pieces that I have no clear purpose for, but also things like images or pages I ripped out of magazines that I thought I might find a us for or I just wanted to save. I have also found a bunch of complete pieces – I have collected up some of these to share, but am not sure how best to use them. I must have had a plan once….

This piece was using a hand-drawn stencil I cut – the left is just a sample and the right is one I liked well enough that I framed it and it’s on my art space wall.

Not sure what my intention was for his piece, but it is might pink, isn’t it? LOL! Hard to see but the central book page is actually mounted above the background, for a more 3D look. I suspect maybe I meant to frame it but never did.

These three were experimental pieces with no real intention for them, then (when I made them) or now! I think the heart was using the gel plate as a stamp, by mounting it on a large hunk of acrylic block – common now, but I had never seen it done back when I made it. I still really like the middle one a lot.

This one is pretty recent, Distress inks and Vaseline resist on tracing paper with a stencil. Love the colours, but it’s backed with heavy mat board so unless I deconstruct it….

This is a piece I love, using a homemade stencil – I think an image from one of my subscription resources. Still use it. Actually it might be both the stencil and a mask? Might have to drag it out to know for sure.

And finally, a pile of recent work – some of the postcards that didn’t make the cut for a recent swap, some background tags and some completed ones, all within the last few months. Destined either for happy mail or swap extras.

While this is by no means all the hoarded stuff, these are the things that I would call closest to being finished items, rather than samples or experiments. I’m kinda thinking the first seven might actually work repurposed to perhaps fill the last few pages in one of my art journals. I have two that really only need a handful of pages in each to be complete. And it might give purpose to them, with the addition of a quote or some text of some kind. The swap/happy mail goodies will get used, no doubt, but some bits could help fill those journals instead, if I prefer.

It’s interesting how much stuff you can amass in 20+ years of arty-farty pursuits. I suspect I could cover the walls of more than one room as if with wallpaper if I wanted to. Hoe nightmare inducing would that be? LOL!

Class project…done?

Well, I did embrace the imperfections and pushed on. The carbon paper technique I mentioned yesterday appeared a few more places.

and got more out of whack in the top left. Jeez.

Because the flower was from a book rather than a thin magazine, integrating it with paint was harder. My piece ended up with more colour than the samples by the teacher.

While it is better integrated, it still seems to be more floating on the surface than I’d like it to be. I think a thicker application of paint and more sanding might have helped, but this is still a first attempt at a technique/method very much out of my comfort zone. Will I try it again? Probably. But I really want to focus on the right images and composition. I don’t mind this one, I’m just not sure it says anything. It’s just a little vingette. I like the balance of it, and the composition, mostly, but it isn’t speaking to me. Maybe whispering, not sure. Anyway, I also have the little collage project as well, and really just a couple of weeks of appointments and commitments and deadlines to deal with. When did summer morph from a time when things slowed down into the busiest time of the year??

{sigh}

Busy weekend. Firstly, one more update on the curtain

I keep doing this. Sorry. I did finish my deli-paper filled curtain for all three windows. I did add a little something, as I mentioned I was planning in one of my WOYWW comments, and a couple people said they were looking forward to seeing it finished so…

The thing I added was a bit of stamping in some of the circles. I used some of my Dina Wakley stamps including the little guys that I love so much.

To be fair some of my choices were more successful than others. In the cases where there was black paint, the stamping was pretty obscured.

As the circle had already been stuck in place I was limited as to where the stamping would fall. Otherwise I would have rotated the circle so the faces were in the area with no black paint. Ah well, live and learn. I just have a few of the images dotted around but I do like them. Every time I spy one, I smile.

Pretty dark and dismal when I took the photos above and I am struggling to show that they still let in a lot of light, because of where the windows are! No matter. I just love it. But I am done now. No more to share on this one.

I have been working on my Journal Petite a fair bit, so there will be more to share on that. After a certain point, the lessons move to things that are better, perhaps, as further layers. My focus has been to get a base down on every page and not will hope to move to topping those plainer pages with more layers. Well, after I go back to the inserts part. More circles! LOL!

All you need to create your own quirky envelope for mailing art!

Settle in. This is not a super complicated process but it does have a few steps and you will maybe want to really explore the links I’ve added. First, let me show you the kind of envelope we will be creating in a low tech sort of way:

This version uses another of the quirky character downloads you will find linked in this playlist on YouTube. The one we will use for the play today is this one:

This is a low-quality image! Be sure to go to the video and use the link there to grab the HIGH QUALITY version.

Next, grab this envelope template. Print it. It will print on A4 or US letter but the envelopes will be of slightly different sizes. That should not matter in the slightest. But you might like to print it on heavyweight cardstock so you can keep using it over and over.

Now go grab some digital paper – you could use scrapbook papers, but frankly they will likely be too thick. If mailing, you don’t really want to add a lot of weight it you don’t have to. I have found that quality printer paper is fine for envelopes, 90-120gsm. Here are a few links to some free digital papers that would work. You don’t want super busy patterns, nor heavy, dark colours. This is a good link to begin with and the paper I used for the sample above AND the one today is this one. Right click and save the image. Now print it, ticking the SCALE TO FIT option (or whatever the equivalent is on YOUR printer) so you fill the whole page with the image of the paper. You may need to rotate it to portrait orientation first.

Now use the template to cut an envelope shape out of your digital paper.

The images from the download are quite large. Possibly too large for your envelope! Print them, but select the option to print TWO images per page – on my printer that is COPIES PER PAGE. The page prints with figures of about 5 1/2 or 3 1/2 as they come, but if you print them 2 sheets per page printed, they are more like 3 1/2 and 2 1/2. MUCH better for envelopes!

OK. one more bit of techie stuff. Grab this PDF of decorative address blocks. Sorry it isn’t a full sheet, but there area few styles.

Now you have a bunch of elements and it is time to put them all together!

And this would be the time for the glue stick or maybe even better, some temporary adhesive. That way, you can use the same envelope base and make a variety of envelopes to scan!

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And I also used an image for another collage sheet I bought

and yet another that uses bits from a number of collage sheets that I shared before, I think:

In close-up I think you can see all the bits I cut to assemble the figure. At this point you just need to scan the envelopes and print them as you need them! Or, as I mentioned, you could possibly photocopy them and then use them up and then copy more.

I hope that was useful and you will share with me your envelopes, if you makes some! I had an ATC come to me in a trade this week that was from someone I didn’t know personally and she had my own designed ATC by Me back on her card! Honestly, it totally made my day, to see someone using something I made and cast out to the winds!Doesn’t take much to make me happy LOL!

WOYWW tomorrow. I have had chaotic days lately, all I can do to keep up with my blogging, and WOYWW visits on the day are getting harder and harder. Even when I don’t have my knitting friend over, I have a meeting of some sort, like today. I always get to them but it seems to take till the weekend for me to manage it. Bear with me…

Interesting technique with Distress inks and waxed paper

I stumbled on my box of waxed paper while tidying up in my sewing room and had an idea. I wondered about the texture that comes from crumpling the paper. I’ve played with it a lot over the years, but not for a very long time! What I had in my head, was to crumple the paper and use that as the surface, rather than a glass or a kraft mat, to smoosh or pounce Distress Oxides or Distress ink onto tags.

It’s interesting, but a few experiments are needed. I like the original concept, of smooshing the inks on to a crumpled piece of waxed paper, then spritzing them and pouncing the tag on to apply the ink, drying between layers.

The effect is different, more mottled, than you get with normal ink smooshing.

What I then wanted to try is to add some Distress Ink (not Oxides) as a layer, trying to retain the crinkled pattern of the waxed paper. For contrast, I used Ripe Persimmon, which I daubed onto the crinkled waxed paper then pressed onto the tag:

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It’s there, but not as pronounced as I wanted – although it IS more pronounced in real life that it shows in the photo. I decided to simplify the process a bit, by creating the base of the tag in the “usual” way. I swiped the DO inks onto a kraft mat, gave it a spritz, then pressed the tag into that, again, drying between layers for a more complex background.

Loving the colour combo of Twisted Citron, Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed! This time, I daubed the Distress Brushed Corduroy ink onto the crinkled waxed paper quite heavily and pressed it quite firmly onto the surface – I even weighted it down to make sure all the ink and the texture transferred to the tag.

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  just over the white tag so you can see

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  Weighted under a stamping block

And the texture transferred pretty well for a nifty effect!

I think next time I would swipe more than daub, although I kinda like the boxy outline from the pad itself. I think it bears more exploration, cause the effect is cool and not difficult. I am curious to see how it works with all DO ink. It might not work at all, but then I won’t know till I try LOL!

Decidedly Quirky ATCs

As you will have seen back on Tuesday, the Crowabout digital images are a ton of fun. I decided to combine the quirky words and some of the creatures (some as they are, some created from bits) to top those masterboard ATCs.

I rather enjoy cutting stuff out. All the way back in my scrapbooking days, I was an avid letter-cutter-outer. Microtip scissors are the key. I gotta say I really love these cards. Not sure if you want to see all the close ups, but I took ’em so I’m gonna share ’em. Here is an overview so you can skip the detail if you like:

And three by three:

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I have another use for the images that I think will be fun but I have to work out the details. I will, but it is taking a bit of time….

Final Tag book – all put together

I had fun making this – same sort of accordion construction I have done 100 times before, and I am sure everyone knows already. I attached the ribbon tie to the back of the book so it would wrap round.

Added the tags – I made the pages a little bigger so the tags would be framed nicely, yet the top would extend above the book so the ribbon and rik-rak would be free.

And the cover in place:

Just to save you looking back, here are al the tags in place. Some might have a few additions, like splatters, etc.

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  Tag one

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  Tag two

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  Tag three

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  Tag four

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  Tag five

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  Tag six

I have a really fugly art journal page that I may add. Not sure yet. I also have another box of stash coming and I may want to throw a little more onto the fugliness to see if it salvages it. Or not. I added a title that is pretty perfect for it so I may just share it as is. It is a cautionary tale…sometimes, more is crap. But is it ART?

Cover for my trash-tag book

My cover is done and I really like it!

In the end I decided that the top words on cream and the bottom words on white were FINE.

I am looking at my old mini-book posts, and researching various tag-book constructions, to try to determine which of them will work best for my tags. The backs of them are the backs of the paint-chip samples so full of text, so I think something where the tags are stuck on the binding method is best, to avoid having to cover the backs fully and make them really thick.

I know I want it to be black, to set off the colourful chaos of the trash tags, but other than that, I have not yet settled on the best version. I think I am leaning towards a basic accordion, and indeed the cover will work well for that sort of construction. But there are a million variations of the accordion book, mostly spine variations. See? again, it is the finishing touches that delay the completion of the project! Maybe because I have a habit of looking forward to the next project before I am done, and the antici………pation of starting something new takes up valuable headspace.

Oh, and I have a much-requested calendar to finish up and add! I know it is one that gets a lot of downloads every year, and we are already into Month 2 for 2021. I really must get it sorted cause I don’t like to disappoint the people who like to download it every year!

Tag book final tags

Just a quick one today. Here are the final tags – funny, isn’t it, that sometimes the finishing touches are the part of a project that takes the longest?

and the next three:

I am actually pretty happy with them. I was determined to make the bits of text I printed but did not use work as text on the tags. Some of it I printed in error on cream cardstock, rather than white, which is obvious to ME, but not a problem in the end as I didn’t have to mix the white and cream words on the same tag. I had trouble with stamping on the paint chips – I tried Versamark, as it was on my desk, but it didn’t seem to really want to dry and got a bit smeary. But Staz-on worked a treat so that is the way I went.

I had cut out a bunch of stuff from the packaging of the Dina stamps and that pile o’trash is destined to become the cover of the book. That and a few more bits from the leftovers. Really, I could make 20 tags from it, although I suspect the quality of the tags would suffer the further into the rubbish pile I went!

I may end up mixing the cream and white on the cover as I want to use all the leftover words and not print them again. That defeats the purpose of my challenge to myself. I’ll get it done, but maybe not today!

WOYWW 610 – trash project progress

Happy WOYWW to all! Best day of the week.

My desk is NOT clean. It should be – I tidied up in advance of a new project, but the project took over and things got messy.

If you saw my post yesterday you will know my project is to use up the scraps from the Collage Collective leftover from my The Hill We Climb art book. As you can see I made a LOT of progress on the tags, but not so much I am ready to take final photos of them all. I anticipate I will be ready for that tomorrow! I still have to make the cover and do the tag-book construction. I do have a couple of in-process tags not quite done, but they should give you an idea of where they are going! The one from yesterday, to save you paging back:

A second one that is still very much in progress:

and one that is pretty much actually done:

The last photo is a box of goodies I set aside for donation – Neet posted last week about a friend who is doing a worthwhile project and needs supplies. I have far too much and while some of the stuff is partially used (papers with a corner cut away, part-full sticker sheets) I figure it will be useful in some way. So off it will go (if not already off – depending on Hubby’s P.O. schedule this week) and hopefully happily received. I could send 10 of these and not miss what I am sending nor make a dent in what I have. Making the time to really sort thru it is always the bigger problem.

So there we go. A big old mess. Tomorrow I will share the final tags and then do the cover and assemble the book. Darling Daughter has been off school for a couple of days as her teachers are getting vaccinated (she attends a special needs school) and we have been watching movies and chilin’ out, which explains why my progress on this project has been slower than it should have been. MY vaccine went swimmingly, just a couple of days of a sore arm and a little bit of a lump and an itch near the injection site. Pretty much back to normal and just waiting for the next dose….

Have a great WOYWW day, y’all!