Creating Little Fat Books

More often than not, some of the interests we have are lengthened and strengthened through increased learning and attending workshops on the same. From them we learn the basics and simply try to experiment what we learn.

Have you heard of Little Fat Books? They are much smaller than the normal handmade books with a measurement of 10.5cm x 10.5cm. They could feature with found objects on them or with nature elements.

Among the many that you can find, include one that you can look through a central circular. Making of Little Fat Books can be all exciting and in various types and shapes. You can also use different layers of color and the many materials that you can recycle soft drink bottle caps cut, rusted, circular metallic pieces while incorporating painted curtain rings.

One of the many Little Fat Books you can build on with your knowledge and as an interest is called “Twigs”. It is unique with two pages that are adjacent to each other. Little Fat Books have a stunning look and especially if you have the basics at hand. Because of their sizes they can our comfortably fit onto your hands.

Look out for these elements. They will entice your interests further.

Mixed Media Painting Tip

When creating mixed media paintings, I love using water color paper but it's hard to keep it flat or to prevent paint from getting on the wrong side. Here Michelle explains how she uses a backing board to keep the paper safe.

Key materials:
- Piece of Coreflute; this piece is 11.5" x 20"
- Cereal box plastic
- Masking tape

Note: any thick cardboard will be sufficient. It just needs to be stiff enough to hold its own weight.

** Have you tried this technique? ** I'd love to hear what you have tried! **

Have You Ever Thought of Working with Canvas?

Beauty is good and beautiful things motivate us on a daily basis thus everyone loves beauty. After all who does not like being identified with a beautiful thing or item and more so that which has been done on a self creativity platform?

Have ever thought of what you can do with canvas? Has it ever occurred in you that mixed media art can be applied on mini media canvas? From canvas you can achieve a lot and in many cases it should be the size of “4x4”. 

You can literally use it to make mixed media collage on but you will need embossing paste for sticking items with. There is nothing you cannot be glued on it which are preferred to be metallic the likes of metallic flowers as small as you want and as big as you want. You can also make them with the shapes that please you best.

Besides you can also choose to spray with colorations while fixing up other smaller shapes than the metallic flowers. At the end of it will look more of an orchard. Beads can be added at the middle of each flower and on completion you will have made use of a simple canvas to produce a beautiful piece of work.

Mixed Media Artworks are More than a Thousand Words

There is a famous adage which says that a painting can depict a thousand words. However, this cliché can be modified if placed under the context of mixed media art. Mixed media art is worth a million words. But what is mixed media art? Mixed media art, as the name implies, is a work of art that utilizes more than one (1) medium.This is the reason why it can exceed the words that a one-medium painting expresses.

There are various ways by which an artist can produce a mixed media artwork. Two (2) or more drawing materials can be used in order to come up with a painting. For example, a lovely picture of a lady on a canvass can be produced using oil, acrylic and watercolor. Some mixed media artworks also use collage materials. These simple items can be found in our homes like plastic bottles, magazines, newspapers,wood, scrap metals and fabric. In fact, for some people these products can already be considered as trash. This makes mixed media art more interesting because aside from expressing one’s ideas and thoughts, the artist can also help in saving mother earth. Plastic bottles are considered as non-biodegradable. They do not decompose. As such, they reduce landfill spaces and they pollute our oceans and rivers. It also takes huge amounts of fossil fuel, a limited natural resource, to produce them. Scrap metals, when used in a mixed media artwork, also saves the environment because instead of throwing it away, the artist recycles it. Old and defective appliances like television sets, cassette players and VHS players can also be employed in creating a mixed media artwork.

We can also derive a lot of mixed media art ideas from famous artists because a lot of them utilized the said type of artwork. Leonardo da Vinci used charcoal, black chalk and white chalk in coming up with a painting entitled, “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist”. The said artwork is currently located at the national gallery of the United Kingdom. In illustrating the biblical scene of the Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci used tempera and oil. Tempera consists of colored pigment mixed with a binder that is soluble on water. This painting is the first artwork of Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo also used the same technique in “The Torment of St. Anthony”.

Mixed media artworks are not only limited from the legendary artists of the renaissance era. There are a lot of existing artists which are very passionate about this field of art. The perfect example of this artist is Serena Barton. Would you believe it? She mixes wasabi with common painting materials in some of her collection! Wasabi is a spicy green paste paired by the Japanese with sashimi and sushi. Rhea Carmi, an Israeli mixed media artist, combines sand with other painting media in several of her works. Other artists also use mud in their artworks.

In other words, there are countless ways by which an individual can create a mixed media art piece. The options are endless. One can use simple materials that can be found in one’s bedroom, garden, living room, kitchen or even bathroom. One only needs a huge amount of imagination to succeed in creating a mixed media artwork.

Here are some awesome Mixed Media Art Ideas for you to try out...

Quick Handmade Mothers Day Gift

- In this post, you'll be able to discover a wonderful gift for the up coming Mothers Day which you can humbly present to your Mom.

Creating Layers Online Tutorial
- Creating layers for mixed media art is really easy, watch the video in this article and you'll surely appreciate the importance on mixed media art layers.

“Wish” Art Journal Layout 

- If you want to learn how to create a layout for your Art Journal, this a very informative post about creating a nice Art Journal layout 

Faux Dichroic Glass 

- Creating something from different stuff is really cool and fantastic. If you want to learn about using glass for your artworks then this post is just for you.

Found Objects for Mixed Media Painting 

- Recycling is really important in our artworks. In this post, you'll discover other things that you can use for your mixed media art projects.

Utilizng Readily Available Materials for Mixed Media Art

All along Mixed Media Art has supported creative ideas to the stage of implementing them to success using materials that are readily available in our homes or those that are relatively cheap to buy compared to undertaking the corporate route of specialty with an entire range to choose from and which you are expected to match. This at times can be very frustrating.

Talking of readily available materials, visually textured backgrounds are easily created by use of text pages obtained from old books, magazines, conference proceedings or even knitting patterns. From them you can create a great background art since they are of different paper textures, font’s types and sizes. On these materials you may also find diagrams or sketches that will effectively add to the background layering. Words could also be used to add meaning and create a story

Old books are more preferred than the use of a book of value because from old books you can create many pages and the covers can be used as substrates for future projects. They can also be used as papermache to provide strength by shrining them together as well as creating interest and especially when knitting or dress making patterns are in play.

Tips When Making a Black Altered Book Page

The process and materials for making a Black Altered Book Page are fairly easy but when all is completed, the end product is so beautiful because of the brightness of active patterns and color. The tools and materials used include:

• Bottled American lamp acrylic paint
• 3 – 5 different sheets of origami paper that come into styles
• Scissors
• Small punch like heart, flower or star
• Aleenes Tacky glue or any other white one
• Sakura metallic gellly roll pen

The technique is also a straight forward activity

• Paint your page spread with black acrylic and let it dry
• Cut and punch origami paper and adhere with glue. Thin wood pulp Origami paper work better especially for punches and is less expensive unlike the washi papers that have toothy, fibrous texture and are more expensive. Washi paper is best for the corners and cut papers.  Glue is applied with a toothpick which helps to keep the other parts of the background better surfaces to work on.
• You can be creative and draw a pathway (or several of them) with one of your pens and write a favorite quote, something you want to say, or perhaps about your joy in creating art. 

You will fill the areas with your favorite patterns as you chose to fill the background with stars and symbols. Many great patterns can be obtained online and there is a lot of fun in creating these pages.

Using Cereal Boxes for your Mixed Media Art Projects

There are different ways that you can use cereal boxes and plastic sheets for your mixed media art projects. One excellent way to use the plastic sheet inside the cereal box is to use it as a protective covering for your altered book project to avoid the paint from getting around the edges of your book when painting or creating a layout. You can also use it as an alternative for plastic covers which can be bought in department stores. So instead of spending money for plastic covers, you can certainly use the plastic sheet inside the cereal box as the cover for your mixed media art projects.

And for the cereal box, you can actually cut the edges evenly and by doing that, you already have a cardboard that you can use as a book cover out from a cereal box or you can as well use if for paintings.

Creating mixed media art projects is really fun! While creating, you can actually discover things that you can reuse. Recycling things is a good practice since recycled materials are free, it can save you lots of cash and by recycling materials for your artworks, you are helping the environment.

Start creating and recycling now!