Sunday, June 28, 2009

Royal We

I have two ways of working....fast where I finish quickly and then some pages take months (or dare I say years) to finish....this one was month to finish. The page was gessoed white and then swirls were stamped randomly using blue Lumieres paint (sorry not sure what company made the swirl). Then the page sat....for months

Til last week, I wanted to experiment with the lyra gel crayons I have. These are water soluble so i wanted o see how they would do as a wash over an image. They worked great. The princess image is from Lost Coast Designs and the lettering comes from Purple Onion Designs. I over sprayed with glitter spray because everything I worked on that day got sprayed. I still think it needs little bling on the bottom of the page, I imagine that will come soon.

My girl Patches

Here is an altered book spread I did of my John Wetzel Terrier. I painted a black and white picture of her using watercolors....the background is black gesso and metallic markers swirled around. The lettering is an soda can that I ran thru a die cut machine. Way to recycle huh? Quick and easy page

Path to Self

This page was a lot of fun I will share the techniques later. The image of the woman is from After Midnight Stamps.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Monday, June 1, 2009

Altered Book Swirl Page

This page I have been working on a few months. Yesterday, I decided to finally finish it up. There are three separate techniques here - the swirl main image, watercolor resist background and dry brush technique for the circles the letters are printed on.


Ingredients
  • Two page spread - for this technique to work you need two page spread
  • White candle - taper works best
  • Watercolors - I used Dr Martin liquid watercolors
  • Watercolor paint brush
  • Water
  • Two sided cardstock - both sides must be decorated.
  • Circle Cutter
  • Scissors
  • Pop dots double stick
  • Additional cardstock
  • Stamps and ink - I used Bird by stampers anonymous, Flowers from Judikins, Letter unknown. Ink is my favorite Archival Ink by Ranger.
  • Glue Stick
  • Children's writing tablet
  • Acrylic paint - I used orange
  • Gesso
  • Paintbrushes
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Circle Punch - 1 inch


Watercolor resist - I was just experiment candle was as a resist. I think the same effect could be achieved with a crayon.

  1. Using white taper candle draw a design on the page. I did just swirls and wrote the word "spring" several times.
  2. Using a paint brush wash clear water over the candle drawing.
  3. With watercolor paint brush, wash watercolor paint over the page.
  4. Let dry.

Swirl pop up - Just like the pop up books of my childhood.

  1. Using a ruler decide what size you want your swirl to be. I decided a 4 inch circle would be best.
  2. Cut out circle with circle cutter.
  3. Using scissors, cut circle in a swirl
  4. Place a pop dot at the center point. Attach it to one page.
  5. Place a pop dot at outside end of the swirl. Close book and then open it. This make sure the end lines up nicely. Use more pop dots to line up the swirl as you wish.
  6. Stamp bird and flower images. Cut out. Using glue stick, attach the to swirl. I put some backwards so that no matter what side you are looking at you can see birds and flowers.



Dry brush technique - This is a quick technique that uses up the left over paint from other projects.

  1. Brush acrylic paint over children's writing paper. Use a light hand. Let dry.
  2. Brush gesso over the paper. Again use light hand and they let dry.
  3. Using a circle punch, punch out circles from the paper.
  4. Stamp letters on each circle.
  5. Cut pieces of scrapbook paper into 1.25 inch squares
  6. Attach squares to page with glue stick.
  7. Attach letter circles to the squares.