Creating your Own Hide-away Doll House Play Set

Gloriann Irizarry always had her hands on crayons, scissors and paper. As she enjoys her time with her girls, she will always continue to create art into her daily schedule as that means doing what she loves most. From her creativity she creates hide-away doll house from a simple box. Here are the materials you need and the steps you shall follow:

· White foam board and Scissors.

· Metal ruler and hot glue gun

· Decorative gift box 17 ½ x 12 x 5 ½ and pencil

· Craft knife and Mounting repositionable spray

Here are the steps

· Measure the foam board to 5 inches to 16 ¼ with the pencil and the metal ruler then cut your foam board exactly at the 5 x16 ¼ pencil markings.

· Choose your favorite glue and spray then wait a little for the glue to get a little tacky.

· Measure the upper half and choose your favorite specialty paper and once the paper is cut to size use the Mounting repositionable spray and spray an even coat of glue. Let it get tacky.

· Finish the walls with Specialty Paper and choose contrasting colors.

· Follow the same steps for other floors and you can choose different colors

Gloriann is never bored and she will never stop creating because ART is so rewarding. She gets this awesome feeling when she sees her creation taking shape. Art has been a great way to be creative and to express herself.

Making Faux Metal Embellishments

During the cold winters of Canada, Ann Strecko Koeman stays warm by creating something just about every day. She is often found with her hair up in a twist, her hands stained with inks, and her clothes with paint splatters underneath her long goose.

According to Ann, Making your own mixed media embellishments for your crafting and art making can be satisfying to one’s creative soul and also to one’s wallet. When making Faux Metal embellishments with glue gun and some cardboard she likes using rustic looking items. She likes the look of old and worn even rusty metals.

One of the ways she makes such mixed media embellishments is by stamping an image on pictures while using ink and cardboard and after they have dried she heats up her glue gun, add a stick of glue and trace over the design with the hot glue.

Once the glue has cooled and is hard she spreads some PVA or Tacky glue onto a piece of kitchen aluminum foil as she cuts the cardboard around the stamped image to the desired shape and size.



The process is pretty simple and yet it can give such intricate designs. Ann is so passionate about creating and she even owns gloves that have flaps so her fingers are free to type away while she enjoys a warm mug of hot beverage to warm up those digits.

Mixed Media Art Small Gift Bags

The colors and textures of mixed media are some of the elements that leave Sandra Parés amazed. She enjoys creating and getting her hands dirty with paint and gesso. And with the festivities around the corner, she brings to you an ideal way of making someone’s Christmas using a small gift bag. The following are the materials you need:

· Regular white acrylic paint and brush

· Acrylic paint: Acrylic Glaze Silk

· Black gesso and sponge

· Scissors

· 1 template

· Ribbon to make the handles.

· 1 recycled tetra brik that we will have cleaned before.

Steps in making the gift bag

· Cut the tetra brik in half to make the small bag. You can make it larger or smaller according your personal idea.

· Using a sponge cover the whole outer surface of the tetra brik with black gesso.

· Once gesso is dry, paint the whole surface of gesso with the acrylic paint.

· When the paint is dry, you can polish the edges of the tetra brik with the adhesive tape.

· Take a template to add a picture on the bag. You will stencil the template with a sponge onto one side or both. If you stencil onto both sides, you have to wait to have the first side dry before you stencil onto the other side.

The last thing now remaining is to add ribbon so as to make the handles. You realize how simple it is to make someone’s Christmas.

Making Personalized Gifts Tags

Being a creative director of Martice Smith II, Martice Smith’s stunning illustrations reveals her love for fashion, typography and wildlife while being able to use a combination of traditional and digital techniques. It is after receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree that she established herself as a freelance Illustrator and graphic designer.

As a mixed-media collage artist, she believes that small details matter and she loves building upon several layers of paint, doodles and various mark-making techniques to set her work apart from the rest. She advises that if you are looking to develop your own approach, don’t spend a fortune on commercially made products when you can add a unique touch of your own- using what you already have.

She tried to make a personalized gift tags and these are the supplies you will need to get started: 

· Paintbrush & Gelli plate

· Stencils & metal eyelets

· Embroidery floss & brayer

· Acrylic paints & cardstock

· White ink pen for doodling

How to make it:

· Using acrylic paints, use a brayer and roll an even, smooth layer to the Gelli plate. Make sure to paint loose brushstrokes, going in various directions.

· Lay down a sheet of cardstock (or your choice of paper) and pull a print.

· Using stencils create a large tag template to use or trace through and cut out the Tags & Labels stencil from DecoArt.

· It’s important to seal the paintings on your tags, especially if there’s any water soluble media.

· Add the finishing touches and Eyelets, embroidery floss and twine makes these tags look more polished and really set the tone.

There you have it!

Holiday Mixed Media Arts & Crafts

Besides writing for mixed media art Shari Welch is currently a blogger for DecoArt. Her passion of mixed media art led her into being featured in Mixed Media May, and has been in a number of art shows in her hometown of Denton including GDAC. Helping others discover their creativity is something she adores. She is known for using reuse and recycles materials in her artwork like she was able to achieve the project below – the altered domino project.

· Attach the domino, dotted side up, with a clamp to a flat table surface leaving some hanging over the edge.

· Use a hand and with every safety precaution required, drill with a small bit and drill a hole through the dot of the domino.

· Make a few sets of stringed beads while attaching bakers twine to the one you will want to use as the top and set aside.

· Use glue to attach the paper to the domino, let dry, then add a dimensional effect product over the top of your paper surface.Leave them sit to dry completely.

· Insert a ring through the top hole in the domino

· Attach the beads onto the domino and you are done.

Shari Welch uses an online company that sells images and this saves time for her. Another plus is that the images are already sized for her project. To sum her passion for mixed media art, she volunteers for SCRAP Denton where she is on the education committee, teaches workshops, art camps, and performs art demos.

It’s really Fun to Create Mixed Media Projects!

Melanie Statnick has an illustrative and whimsy style of her art and being a published artist/writer, she likes the mixed media art because of the numerous amounts of different surfaces you can use to paint or alter. As she does her creation from her private studio, she thinks embroidery hoop is a fantastic idea and it steps away from the average square shape of the canvas. This is how she does it:

· Using a loose sheet of canvas fabricTrace the inside hoop using a pencil. Gesso the inside of the circle and dry well.

· Paint shapes with acrylic paint.

· Pick your favorite stencil and stencil in images and/or write words.Because your surface is primed with gesso you can accomplish the same effects as you would on a regular square canvas.

· Dry well and spray with a matt finish. Flip your artwork over to the back side match the gesso circle you made.

· Push smaller hoop through the inside. Cut remaining fabric off.

From Melaniestatnickart.com you will get to learn more about Melanie and you will also find a lot of her artwork in art galleries and shops extensively in NC with international private collections. Creating id fun and can only be achieved if you do it with passion and positive drive.



Happy creating!

Gum Ball Machine and Creativity

Kim Kelley loves mixed media art because one is free to go beyond your comfort zone, using your imagination and exploring on anything. She is obsessive about her crafting and art whereby sheloves to reuse and repurpose products.Just seeing how she can change the look of something with a little paint and spackle makes her smile. With this in mind she tries to create two projects using gum machines and the first one will use a snowman theme, using a plastic and metal machine.

• Clean each part of the machine and dry completely using gesso on the bottom base, base, collar and top I let them dry overnight.
• Using a mixture of red paint and Golden crackle paste go over the base 3 times. Making sure the green is not going to show through. Golden’s crackle paste does not really crackle, especially with paint added, but leaves it with an almost spongy, velvet look and feel to it.
• Use a mixture of gloss gel for the pieces and parts; a bit of iridescent glitter, sponging it on to create a lot of texture.
• The ball of the machine, being plastic, actually comes apart and makes it easier to put everything together.
• Glue the ball together and then glue everything but the top together so it can be all together without the metal rods running through the ball.

Creating is all fun for Kelly as she loves to learn and explore new techniques and hopes that any art she creates leads someone to find their inner creative artist.

Ideas in Creating Wall Hangings

Tamara Dinius believes mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression. With her love for mixed media having taken her over most aspects of her creative journey, she gains a lot of support from her two grown up daughters whom she claims are supportive, embrace her work and that they are amazing people in their own right.

From her positive attitude and view of creativity, she showcases how to use Pan Pastels and rubber stamps to create an aged background for use in your mixed media artwork. She will do anything to put her creativity to cause and no matter what it will cost her, she will still build on her willingness to go the extra mile. Her creativity will lead her into using the most and locally available materials while being able to maintain simplicity.

From her website countrycraftersusa.com and the Etsy shop, you will get to learn what more Tamara is likely to be doing. You will also be able to read the mood if her creativity. She says creativity needs no school. It all about passion and going for that which you want to build your passion on. There is a lot to learn from her and her work.

Mixed Media Image Transferring

Cecilia Sanchez Peralta gets her creative motivations from her three sons whom she says inspire her with crazy ideas. She discovered scrapbooking, digital first and then the traditional one a few months after the birth of her twins in 2006. She is more fascinated with the Art Journal and Mixed Media, and she does not imagine scrapbooking without getting her hands dirty.The art journal is a real diary for her, because sometimes she needs to express feelings with colors and shapes.

The good thing about Mixed media techniques is that you can use everything you have at your fingertips, and you can do all kinds of jobs. She loves learning and discovering new techniques and materials. It’s only a month ago when she launched her collection of digital stamps a project she has been working on for a long time.

Materials:

Fabrics, digital stamp, printer, gel medium, beads, flowers, stickles

The process:

· Paint the digital stamp with photoshop and print as a mirror image to make the transfer.

· Get several scraps of fabric and cut the pieces to form makeup case.

· Put a layer of gel medium on fabric and over the printed image.

· Carefully put the picture face down onto the fabric and press to stick it everywhere; let it dry for 24hrs.

· Wet the paper with a sponge or “flus flus”

· You have to remove all paper using fingertips gently.

· Decorate a little: A string of beads, some dots with Perfect Pearls, some Prima flowers with a brad … and everything you want.

· Sew the different pieces of fabric to complete your make up case. There you have it! Happy Creating!

Taking your Artistic work to another Level

Janelle Nichol the passionate mixed media artist has this understanding that many of us have an inner need to create. With her passion to create, her focal point is around women and children and her style which includes collage and paints has been described as abstract folk art.

Janelle’s go-to materials include the full range of mixed media materials, with gesso, paints, tissue paper, gelato’s, intense blocks, sprays, Distressed inks and stains all being part of her collection. Anything that adds texture also features; moulding paste, sequins, glass beads and all sorts of unexpected ephemera can be seen when looking closely at her pieces.

Basically she will start with a sketch and a vision that includes the images and the mood, feelings and colours of the piece. She will then create the background, which can take on a life of its own but will stick to the colours and feel in her vision.

Janelle regularly exhibits which gives her a chance to engage with the public, as well as meet other artists and customers love seeing her work in “real life” as all of the depth and texture always looks better to see a piece of art in person. Janelle’s head is full of ideas for new mixed media paintings and calendars and so many projects and opportunities are in the process but not ready to reveal them to the world yet. You will love her pieces of work because they have distinctive look that combines mixed media with fine art painting.

Expressing your Passion with Creativity

Marilyn Harris Mills is passionate, creative, eccentric and a published artist. Creating mixed media feeds her soul. When she needs to immerse herself into creativity and inspiration, she reaches out to her supplies that are beckoning her to discover fresh ideas of using them. She creates based on her intuition and chooses the colors of her paints & the mediums firs then the supplies that will add the meaning to the project. Thereafter, she brings harmony and cohesiveness in the project using embellishments a step that should not be overlooked because it is very important. She has embellishments that she collected over the years; it is fun to combine them into an art piece.

Each project is as they say “a labour of love”. However according to Marilyn, it’s not only about labour but she also uses her inner muse and soul. She utilizes all the opportunities of expressing with art what she cannot say with words while she gets a lot of joy from creating. She creates with passion and one of her favorite quotes is “I work in whatever medium likes me at the moment!” This keeps her going. Something you did not know about her is that she at one time tried knitting but she gave up as a result of not being able to remember the stitches.

Mixed Media Artist

Anjuli Johnson is intimidated by the awesome art I sees around her. However, she has grown in courage and a comfort zone that is getting bigger and bigger and being a scrapbooker she is constantly trying to push through her fears to discover and develop her talents, meet new people, and learn from those around her.

Anjuli made her first scrapbook at 12years with her mother helping her around. She used plastic sleeves to hold all my paper treasures- school awards and church certificates, hand-outs with quotes, pictures of friends and all different kinds of ephemera. It is when she was in college that she developed a scrapbooking craze and as years passed and her talent improved.

She began to develop the strong desire to use her artistic talents in other ways. Creative thinking, care, and time seemed to be a huge part of the work that she was seeing all which intimidated her. Having moved east and left all her supplies she missed her engagement in the creative process and it is until when the supplies were returned to her that a new dawn came her way and began to work every day only to realize that she was creating with a purpose. Her talents were developing and ideas were flowing more regularly.

According to her, it’s been amazing to realize how important and sacred the act of creation is.As we create, we become artists, but even more we can become better people, and we help others do the same.

Learning to be Creative from an Early Age

Ann Strecko Koeman has learnt to love and hate the gooey sticky stuff since she was allowed to use paste from a young age. As a child she used that yellowy syrup sticky liquid, looking like clear honey or diluted maple syrup, but it did not smell yummy.The stuff was messy and wet, but it worked for her construction paper crafting.After all it was the ’70’s! There was less care about acid free and archival quality.

Over the decades she has learnt different types of arts and crafts that all use a variety of adhesives; some smellier than others and some more convenient than others. She has also learnt that glues could be used as more than an adhesive when it comes to art making. It is only recently that she purposely started playing around with hot glue gun. This is because whenever hot glue drips, drizzles and is left to dry on a hard non porous surface such as tile or a silicon mat,it tends to lift off easily when it is completely cool. She has purchased a better quality glue gun that has a precision tip, is dual temperature and can be used without its long electric cord for short periods of time.

There is even glue like sticks that contain resin that can be melted in your glue gun and shot into these moulds to make super cute embellishments. Ann is pleased with all her experiments as their effects are so interesting. The possibilities of being creative for her are endless.

Principles of Composition in Mixed Media Art

Elegant mixed Media Art is always determined by good design and composition. According to Marilyn Harris Mills who is a published designer and artist, the following are some of the elements you can consider for your art work:

Confidence
Your work should speak confidently to the viewer. Know the reason behind choosing the subject matter that you use. Confidence will show in your final art piece and the viewer will be appreciative of your artistic art message.

Moods and Emotions
Design elements need to contribute to creating a mood or an emotion within the viewer. The elements all need to work together to evoke a certain mood or emotion the artist wishes to convey to the viewer.

Remembrance
Creating an art piece that will be remembered is hard to accomplish. Have a style that will be captured in each of your paintings so that your art will be remembered. Create in your own unique style…then both you and your artwork will be remembered.

Composition
This refers to the arrangement of all the elements of a design. You can arrange the pieces in a few different ways but first you must choose a focal point.

A successful art work will encompass all of these elements and principles of design. Don’t expect to get it right the first time but be different than other artists. You will have to go through the Trial and error phase.

Making Greeting Cards: Tips and Tricks

Greeting cards are so fun and quick to make as Melanie Statnick who is a published artist/writer will attest. She has a happy and whimsy style which she uses to create art daily from her private studio. As a result of having to send cards to each other with her mum and the fact that she loves to send gifts, happy mail, post cards and handmade cards, she wants to get in the habit of snail mail again. You too can do the same and this is how she says you can do it just the same way she does it:

· Hand fold 140lbs cold press watercolour paper into a card shape.

· Open to lay card flat and spray with your favourite then air dry or dry with heat gun.

· Cut the card stock paper to smaller size to centre in the front of the card and glue. Stamp all four sides of card stock. Stamp image of 2” art squares. Glue squares to cardstock.

· Stamp your greeting on top and bottom of watercolour card.

Using Pitt Pen Big Brush Markers colour in the stamped images. Add Stickles in your favourite colours and washi tape to the edge.

You have finished making your card and you can make many more to use them as gifts.


Happy creating!

Being Creative with your ATC Backgrounds

Besides being a mixed media artist as well as writing for mixed media art, Shari Welch also enjoys helping others discover their creativity. She has been in a number of art shows in her hometown of Denton where she also volunteers on the education committee, teaches workshops, art camps, and performs art demos. At some point, she needed to find a way to produce a series of artist’s trading cards with the same background colour scheme while being able to make each an original little piece of art in itself. On the other hand she loves Gelli plate because it is reusable and cleans up easily. As a result she tried to print out GelliArts gel printing plate and this is how she did it: -

Materials used

· Flower masks and stencils by Heidi Swapp

· DecoArt acrylic paints

· 8×10 printing plate

· Stencils by Prima

· Rubber brayer

· Stencils by Tim Holtz

· White card stock 8.5×11 (cut to 8×10 after printing)

· Yarn, texture tool, cut out decorative paper

With template in hand, you can create a colour scheme and print out sets of ATC background. However she says that from www.gelliarts.com you can get a better understanding of what the gel printing plate is, and what you can create using it. On the same site, you will get instructions, projects, and Youtube videos.

Making Handmade Halloween Decorations

Kim Kelley is borderline obsessive about her crafting and her art. She loves to learn and explore new techniques and hopes that any art she creates leads someone to find their inner creative artist. She is in love with Halloween projects and she wants to create something special for her BUNCO party. The idea she wants to use is that of decorating a skull. So what got her inspired? On what she had seen, real flowers had been used but she needed to use something that would last so she though using fake ones would do.

She picked up onStyrofoam skulls which she could use to stick the flowers in where she wanted. She ended up pulling all of the stems out once and starting over wanting a different look. She did not like the way the stems showed from the back, so she added a thick, almost cheesecloth material hanging from the flowers and draping down the back of the skull. She glued one of the glitter spiders to the skull and one to the top of the highest flower and took her glue gun and created strings of webbing all over.

She had an inspiring project and she advises that you free off from your comfort zone, start using your imagination and exploring an anything that goes through your mind set.

Get Discovered by Sharing our Creativity with others

“Creativity is not an antisocial act”. Let go of your ego and remember: there is no one-size-fits-all plan for everybody. Flow with whatever’s good for you”. This is according to Martice Smith who has established herself as a freelance Illustrator and graphic designer having receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree. The following are some of the approaches she advices every artist to use to get their works exposed so others and who will get to know you and your creations: -

· Be true to yourself by doing that which interests you and that which you consider authentic to you.

· Be open about what you are working on by collaborating on a project with other artists, sharing sneak peeks and ideas of your works in progress and also highlighting various techniques.

· Take records and document what you are doing. You can photograph your work at different stages to give people the experience of how you shape your art work.

· Celebrate other people’s work by teaming up with other artists to spread the word about each other’s recent success. And finally push yourself to try new tools and experiment with unfamiliar techniques.

In summary Martice acknowledges that being open to share your process while allowing for the possibility of people to have an ongoing connection with you and your creativity makes you grow as an artist. Let people know what you have to give them.

Mixed Media Art Tags from Scrap Papers

Tamara Dinius who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and chocolate lab believes that mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression. While to her Mixed Media is all about creativity, she know too well that Mixed Media Art Tags are created using scraps of papers, old art work, music sheets, and other items that add texture and depth to the tags. And how does she achieve all achieve all this?

· Add the assorted scraps to an old manila folder. Besides, any type of adhesive medium will work.

· Add the scraps to your manila folder in a haphazard manner and once dry, layer a glaze of paint over the top to tone down the first layer.

· Use a stencil and acrylic paint to create additional depth and interest to your tags. On this, use a paint color that is dominant in your scraps of paper.

· Using your favorite stamp and ink pad add additional interest by stamping your project. You can also add acrylic paint using stencils or other items.

· To finish, use additional fabric and papers to back the tags. Using a zigzag stitch, sew around the perimeter of the tag. Punch a hole and add your ribbon. Your tags are now ready to use as luggage tags, gift tags, decorative tags, or other item.

That’s it!

Making Card Pockets

Melanie Statnick the published artist/writer has a lot of her artwork in art galleries and shops extensively in NC with international private collections. She is one person who misses to have library cards in the back of books with memories of having to look up books in the card cataloguing boxes being so clear in her mind.

She altered paper library pockets with Silk Acrylic paints. She then painted the first colour coat onto the pocket first, then used a paint brush to apply the second colour to the applicator and rubbed it over the stencil onto the pockets in a circular motion. Drying the paints is the next step while adding some stamps and paper collage sheets and embellishments using a gel medium or mod podge. To outline the images you will use black Pitt pen, white get pen and then add some Stickles. Valentine theme will come in handy to stuff the pockets with. They are best for sticking a magnet strip on the back or onto your refrigerator to leave notes for your sweetheart.With her happy and whimsy style, Melanie creates art daily from her private studio. From her website www.melaniestatnickart.com you can get and learn more about Melanie.

Making a Customized Grunge Mat

Anjuli Johnson began her art career as a scrapbooker, and it’s been an evolutionary process ever since. Since she loves all things mixed media- paper, paint, pens, wire, gears, and clay she is constantly trying to push through her fears to discover and develop her talents, meet new people, and learn from those around her. Being a new home owner her head is full of plans for how she can update and improve certain things… new tile in the bathrooms, different coloured accent walls, perhaps some new kitchen cabinets at some point and of course, a brand new art studio.

While looking for décor ideas before deciding what she likes and want to incorporate in her home, she has been spending months scouring Pinterest and internet images and many of the gallery walls caught her attention. She knew she wanted to frame some small art pieces rather than photos and the position was to be on the outside of the mat, rather than having it framed underneath. She also wanted to do a whitewash grunge type of effect rather than having a plain white or black mat.

So what did she do?She used the cardboard insert from the frames she bought as mats and used gel medium on book pages to transfer text onto the surface. Once the medium dried, she dipped her fingers in water and rubbed off the excess paper to show the bottom text transferred to the cardboard. She used watered down acrylic paint as a wash and applied several coats until it was the colourshe wanted. She did let the cardboard dry in between before adding watermark stamped images in a few places to complete her mixed media mat.

Making an Autumn Layout?

It is on Sandra Pares’ site where you will find a lot of art and craft products. The colours and textures on many mixed media art amaze her and she confesses to be enjoying creating and getting her hands dirty with paint and gesso. With autumn having refused to come to her land, she also loves the forest on this season and the trees are wonderful with intense colours and a lot of contrast, ideal for shaping it with mixed media. This is how she does it...

Supplies used:

· Dylusions inks spray: ground coffee, melted chocolate, lemon zest and pure sunshine

· Autumn Leaves drawn in a cardstock

· 12″x12″ watercolour paper

· Gesso and 1 photo

· Primary Elements and Silks Acrylic Glaze

· A brush and sponge

· 12″x12″ Cosmic Swirl Template and scrap paper

· Some stencils to make texture like punchinella

· Gel medium

What to do:

· Paste some scrap paper with gel medium over watercolour paper to add some texture. Then, put a thin layer of gesso, without covering the scrap paper.

· Add a little colour in the background with Lemon zest and Pure sunshine

· Put the template in a part of the paper and with the brown ink spray the template.

· Add more texture in the background. With a sponge and Silks Acrylic Glaze stencil different templates with punchinella.

· Stick with gel medium all missing elements: doily shape, photography and leaves. The result will be an Autumn Layout with a lot of texture and contrast.

There you go!

Using Dina Wakely Paints – Michelle Style

Michelle G. Brown understands that many of us have an inner need to create and by learning a few basic techniques the amazing world of mixed media art is accessible to everyone. It is for this reason and the passion in her that she gives you this painting tutorial while using Dina Wakely Paints.

Materials and tools needed.

· Dina Wakely Paints

· 10” x 12” canvas

· Scrap paper

· Sequence Scrap

· Masking Tape

· Gesso

· Archival Inks

· Removable adhesive

· Stencil Girl Stencils

· Black markers

· Impasto medium

· Blending tool

Painting Process

· Gather up your blank canvas or art journal

· Prime with Gesso and leave to dry

· Add texture with Impasto medium and Sequence Scrap

· Leave overnight to dry

· Add colour with the acrylic paints

· Continue to build up colours and Leave to fully dry

· Use the Masking tape to add masked lines to the painted canvas.

· Add a layer of Gesso,applied with an old credit card

· While gesso is still wet, carefully remove the masking tape. Take care with this step; it can get a bit messy.

· Using your range of black markers, outline “roads” and add other features.

· Gather your stencils and stencil with the Archival inks.

· Put the stencil in place and add a little masking tape to hold it.

· Add ink and remove the stencil as well as the masks.

You only need to add a few finishing touch ups to your work and you are good to admire your work.

Have you ever Tried Making Encaustic and Origami Collage?

Vicki Ross has always been involved deeply in the creative arts, from professional soft crafts publications to French Hand-sewing, stencilling to macramé, oil painting to encaustics. She believes in the healing power of creating and she is focused on sharing her journey to art and how life events can shape us through creativity. She also loves the local thrift store since she is always wanting to learn and see how she can incorporate various types of treasures into my regular art. She tries out there craft on various materials and still gets it right all the way. Some of the materials she will use include 4″ square tumbled marble tiles, plain encaustic medium and pollen that you will get from flowers.

Each of them gets a pour because she wanted to keep the three dimensional look of the folded paper. After two pours, fusing, she takes a brush and make sure all crevices are filled. When cool, she scraps back as far as she can, again maintaining the 3-D looks. It is after this that she declares all victory to her work. However she admits that it is not an easy task. Here creativity takes toll of the whole project and the willingness to learn and create.

Making Halloween Decorations using Recycled Wood

Shari Welch is a volunteer for SCRAP Denton where she is on the education committee, teaches workshops, art camp, and performs art demos. With her art passion and being a mixed media artist, she enjoys helping others discover their creativity. She is fortunate to have a creative reuse store in her town and SCRAP Denton is where 75% or more of her materials come from. What makes it even better is being able to recycle as well. For your local home improvement she advises that you visit habitat for humanity stores and scrap wood bins. This is because construction sites are begging to get rid of their small scraps of wood. This I show she does it:

Painting the pieces the colour she wants the cracks to be. This technique can be done the sides, top, and bottom so I taped the edges with painters tape. To achieve a smooth coverage use a finger to spread the glue. You want to let the glue sit for a minute. The glue should be tacky not dry.

Apply the top coat and in random directions making sure that the bristles are slightly breaking through the glue.

Leave it alone for a few hours or even better over night for best crackle results.

For the front and back apply printed tissue paper with PPA adhesive. This adhesive is perfect for thin papers.

Use Tim Holtz distress ink in black soot for the edges.

Finish this project by gluing all the pieces together; add some images, yarn and shiny embellishments.

Mixed Media Art Good Design and Composition

Every time you are creating any art work, the following are the elements of a good design that you should put in place:

· Proportion
This deals with the size of the parts that make up the whole. Are they all proportional or are some too dominant and others to small?

· Unity/Variety
Variety is often linked with unity. While you want to have unity, you don’t want it to be boring. When a painting has unity, there is a feeling that it all works together as a whole and is complete as well as having harmony

· Contrast
This implies to the differences when you compare one thing to and you can use ways like diagonal lines against verticals, colors that jangle, lights against darks, soft edges against hard edges, intense color against neutral color etc. Differing values in a painting can be dramatic.

· Rhythm /repetition
Rhythm is created by having an element repeat itself in the painting and always it has repetition. Repeating shapes can lead the eye through a painting and give it rhythm.

· Balance
Balance is the key to a successful painting. The design must be balanced for it to work effectively. If the design is balanced then the scale of it is also in balance. When something is balanced it looks right.

· Focus/Emphasis
Every painting needs a centre of interest and without one; the painting is rendered without much thought by the artist. Having a theme or story to your painting gives your painting emphasis.

There you have it. Happy creating!

How to Send a Mail Art

The love of mixed media has taken over most aspects of Tamara Dinius’ creative journey the main reason being the fact that mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression. She reveals the aspect of mail art which surprises many other people.

Mail art is created by the artist and generally sent via the postal service to the end receiver. It is an interesting art because every person who handles the mail en route will have an opportunity to view and enjoy your piece of artwork. Tamara uses mixed media techniques with various envelopes that have become quite grand. She has experimented using the standard goldenrod office envelopes, as well as the brightly coloured envelopes. While she has enjoyed using all the different products at some point she goes back to the basic white envelope for most of her mailings.

Mail art is easy to send and does not require anything special prior to posting at your local post office. Though it is not required at her local post office, she adds a white label with the recipients address for ease of sorting. The holidays are a wonderful time of sending mails to your loved ones. Get creative with the mail art and put a cheer on their faces.

Be Fearless and Learn How to Draw

You must have heard of Melanie Statnick the published artist/writer from North Carolina and one who creates art daily from her private studio. She is known for her happy and whimsy style of art. It is common that everyone would want to shop for all the newest toys on your mind the next time you get paid. However, when you’re on a budget this is the worst thing you can do with your already tight income.

Many are the times she has heard from her students statements like “I can’t draw a straight line”. Or just plain “I can’t draw”. However being a self-taught artist she believes that she can learn anything and having seen so many nice things from the stores, she still does not buy them because she is determined to learn to draw her own images and save the 20 bucks.

Over time she has sat with her journals, pens, pencils, markers and watercolours and has been teaching herself to draw. It all takes practice. In addition, There are so many books on how to draw and websites that have an abundance of inspiration. The secret is that we have to get past being perfect, realistic and spot on. It would amaze you to know how many people appreciate the imperfect cute doodle.

Be fearless with your drawings and learn to let go of how many Facebook “likes” your photo

Making a Project using a Printer Tray

Shari Welch is a mixed media artist known for using reuse and recycle materials in her artwork. She is passionate about mixed media art and enjoys helping others discover their creativity. With the existence of type cases or printers trays which are divided into sections to hold the various letters of a typeface for print every creative artist is now taking advantage of these unique frames to create one of a kind piece of art.

Printer trayscome in different sizes, colours, shapes, and number of sections. There is so much skill to it and it is mostly a matter of layering different elements. You can create one that is very simple or more detailed like it is demonstrated below:

• Chose a tray and use washi tape to decorate the edge of the frame. Give it some interest to define some of the edges of the sections.
• Interesting coordinating papers and printed cork sheets will do to fill up the background sections. Distressing papers edges will be held up by sanding, tearing, embossing.
• You can add items from a trip, little bits and pieces of things you love, collections, photos etc. This is where all the fun is. 

However the secret of this art is to lay everything out before you glue anything down including the background, the type, charms and everything else. Also consider using 3D foam adhesive pieces to help your items look as if they are coming off the page.

Using Craft Kits form Flying Unicorn

Kim Kelley is borderline obsessive about her crafting and her art. She loves mixed media art because you are free to go beyond your comfort zone, using your imagination and exploring on anything comes to your mind set. She scoops up anything that catches her eye, but there are times that she enjoys opening up kits that have everything in it that goes together; from matching papers to colour coordinating flowers. If you have the same problem then you may want to do what she does and purchase kits. A kit allows you to stop guessing about putting things together.

Flying Unicorn is where Kim buys her kits. The kit comes with a triangle shaped canvas; which she loves working with, some flowers, metal pieces ink and sprays. She finds herself in a rather red mood rather than purple so she changes from bits to bits. So how does she do it?

• You shall use glass bead medium by Golden, heavy gel by Golden and white flake also by Golden for the base layer on the canvas. Apply it haphazardly so it does not look the same throughout.
• After allowing it to dry, add paints. Using sponges add Crimson, Burnt Orange and Metallic Russet Lumiere paints by Jacquard onto the canvas. After the layer dries add a mix of black acrylic paint, silver powder and gel medium; sponging it on and with a bit of water to wipe it off.
• Add some flowers, metal leaves, film strip and of course the quote.

There you have it, your imagination and creation has come to be.

Using Radiant Neon ink Colours

If you are an accustomed artist, you ought to visit Melanie Statnick’s website www.melaniestatnickart.com and see what she has accomplished being the seasoned published artist/writer that she is. She brings to you the aspect of using Radiant Neon ink colours which she says can be blended together. On the other hand Radiant Neon ink pads are bright, bold and juicy. They are also opaque ink and fade resistant and can be embossed.

Melanie is a great fun of colours and she is of the neon while she considers it best when on white. She will create cards with them on white and black card stock to show how the neon ink affects different backgrounds. She will also do this while testing to see how brilliant the silver looks of the Delicata ink pad. You will use just chip board pieces, add the radiant neon ink in your favourite colours and then blend the silver ink over top. This however you should do when they are all wet. You can use the delicate ink alone and let this ink air dry for best results.

The more you keep experimenting with colours the more you will get surprised at what you can achieve. Happy creating and experimenting!

Creating a Good Design in Mixed Media Art

Mixed Media Art is exciting and everyone wants good painting that will result to good design. However, whether we design from using our imagination or design from a photograph of our own, some key factors should be considered and applied. The elements of design are the visual elements or tools you use to compose and design and the elements of good design include:

• Colour

Acquire basic understanding by possibly attending colour theory courses. Colour speaks first in a painting and if you have just begun designing, it’s better to use a colour wheel. Learn about what colours go with each other since using colour can make or break a design.

• Shape

Shapes are organic or geometric and same sized shapes would be boring.Organic shapes are curved, irregular and have a natural feel to them. Geometric shapes are triangles, squares, rectangles and circles.

• Texture

Texture refers to the surface appearance of the objects in the painting. It can actual or perceived.Texture is fun because it creates excitement and interest in your painting.

• Line

Lines will set the tone of your painting. You can use either Horizontal, vertical and diagonal, straight, curved, thick or thin line. 

• Space

Fill this space with shapes to create your painting.Using shape creates depth in a painting by overlapping them or weaving them together, or laying them side by side.

• Form

You must give the objects in your painting, form to achieve dimension.

It’s of importance that you teach yourself the basic rules, apply them and then once you’re very knowledgeable then you may go ahead and become creative developing your own style.

Have you Tried Dina Wakely Paints?

Michelle G. Brown has this drive that it’s only by learning few basic techniques that would make the world of Mixed Media art exciting and accessible to everyone. At one point she was so excited to have the 12colours of Ranger’s Dina Wakely paints as well as the black Gesso. You will love the name of the colours because they are also unique. She has this passion of drawing and writing over the paints.

So far Michele has discovered that most colours are fairly opaque and thick and luscious. More often than not, they are described as creamy. And even as Dina talks about choosing her favourite colours; she stresses on the importance of having her paints in tubes to make them easier to apply and close the lids with one hand. Michelle loves the nature of Dina’s paints their thickness and “open time” (longer drying time to allow blending). However the packaging is a bit frustrating. When these paints lie on the table, the back side of the label don’t show what colour it is. You have to pick several tubes before getting the colour you want.

All in all the colours are of great quality and at a reasonable price. Her prayer right now is that there will be more colours out.

Creating Mixed Media Collages

Anjuli Johnson is constantly trying to push through her fears to discover and develop her talents, meet new people, and learn from those around her. It’s been an evolutionary process ever since she began her career as a scrapbooker. She is fascinated by collage; the fact that it can be found everywhere- in elementary classrooms, photo albums, crafting and fine art. It is used for many reasons- practicing motor skills, preserving memories, home décor, etc.

The term collage comes from the French word “college”, meaning “to glue”. Though it had been a technique for many years, the first mention of the term was around 1913 when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque drew serious attention to collage as an art form. Collage is such a versatile medium with infinite possibilities. In fine art, collage can be used to express different ideas through the different materials used- newspaper and magazine clippings to make political statements, blocks of color to suggest violence or the randomness of life, or even sections of old paintings and drawings cut up and reformed into something new.

We all have things that we try to hide from other people- weaknesses and vices that are embarrassing or compromising, or even accomplishments that we are anxious or unsure of for some reason- talents we hold back because of fear. The idea of hidden things has lately fascinated Anjuli especially those lurking just below the surface and whatever the nature of our hidden parts, they affect our outward natures, as well.

Arts & Crafts with Yarn

Katja Blum likes to find creative solutions for ugly or broken things around the house. Before branching out into collage and other paper arts about ten years agoshe had first started with yarn, fabric and papier mache. However she confirms that yarn is not just pretty; it is a ball or hank of raw artistic potential. One more thing about using yarn is that it would be making it and while spinning is one of her favourite activity Katja Blum spins more yarn than she could ever knit or weave up. It’s great fun to make the big, crazy, textured yarns that are commonly referred to as “art yarns”.

If you are a spinner, here is a tutorial for you to start making art yarn. You will need:

• Craft wire, 28-30 g
• Yarn
• A sturdy clamp or vise
• Fabric strips, paper strips, ribbons, beads, sequins – any embellishments that can be strung or spiked on your thin craft wire.

How to do it.

• Prepare the wire. A length of craft 28g craft wire is going to be the “spine” of your yarn.Yarn is made by twisting fibers, so that they for a long string and hold together.
• Paper strips are best spiked on the wire in a harmonica fashion for a firm hold, but with fabric and ribbon.
• Secure the ends of your base yarn and wire in a heavy clamp or vise.
• Twist away. Make sure to twist in the same direction throughout.

If spinning is your thing, make as much yarn as you need and embellish to your heart’s content.

What is your Obsession?

Vicki has always been involved deeply in the creative arts is always focused on sharing her journey to art and how life events can shape us through creativity. She confirms to be a studio person by nature and finds more pleasure in figuring out all the ins and outs of a subject long before she experiments with it. Serious life changes back in 2002 pushed her to learn how to paint and instead of experimenting with watercolours, she studied the chemical formulas and what made some pigments play nice together and that some made mud.

After a lot of work her conclusion was that she hadn’t really crossed over to the dark side of crafting and she thought she could start art journaling as a means of technique experimentation for implementation in her ‘real’ art pieces. She spends hours making journals and she has to choose her materials very correctly otherwise she would not get the right product. She prides in being able to see books she has made earlier while experimenting using different watercolours.

She is into many aspects of art from professional soft crafts publications (knitting/crochet/needlework) to French Hand-sewing, stencilling to macramé, oil painting to encaustics. Whatever your leaning could be, she believes in the healing power of creating. The desire to grow and create is what has driven her into doing what she does now. Join the club and start crafting.

Water Colour Painting with Simple Materials

You will find a lot of Melanie Statnick style artwork in many art galleries and shops in NY as well as within international collections. Being a published artist, she creates art daily from her private studio and you could also get to learn more from her website www.melaniestatnickart.com.

One or the activities she loves most is watercolour painting on Old Paper Ephemera and this is how she does it:

Materials Required:

• Old papers from textbook and Paint Brush
• Pencil and Eraser
• Clear Gesso and Gel Medium
• Water Colors
• White uniball
• Micron
• Form Board

Step to follow include:

1. Cut foam board to 8×10 and while using gel medium, cover one side of old paper taking care to get each corner and the sides.
2. Flip glued side down to foam board and use brayer to roll flat and to get out any bubbles or folds in the paper.
3. After drying use the clear gesso to prep you surface to accept the watercolour. This will dry clear and leave a “tooth” texture to the paper that will feel somewhat like sand paper.
4. When the gesso is dry you can draw a boarder around your paper and begin to draw your pictures where and what you like.Go over your drawings with a micron pen and white gel pen before you add your watercolours.
5. Your drawings are ready for the watercolour. You can paint just your designs and leave the background plain or paint and splatter it all.

It’s all about creativity at its best.

Collage and Creativity

The key ingredients in the work of Elaine Brady Smith who loves creating encaustic and mixed media art include vintage papers and hand printed collage papers made with repetitive marks, simplistic shapes, and transparent layers.She attempts to give you a tutorial on adding Collage and imbedding objects.

Handmade papers such as Japanese mulberry, lace papers, your own handmade pulp papers, and other natural fiber handmade papers are perfect for encaustic collage.Tissue paper is a good and inexpensive alternative, whether it is white, coloured, or printed. You can build up many transparent layers with tissue paper and incorporate your own marks by drawing or writing on it.

• To pre-wax a piece of collage paper for the Tacking Iron Method, place the paper on your palette or griddle.
• Pick the paper up with a pair of tweezers, and allow excess wax to drip off.
• When the pre-waxed collage paper is cool, place it on the surface of your art. With a preheated tacking iron, gently iron the piece into place.he process of using the tacking iron automatically fuses the wax layers.
• Once the wax cools, you can add more collage layers to your piece, overlapping them as you go.
• On imbedding objects some objects to add might be buttons, game pieces, jewelry pieces, and natural plant materials.To add objects, 
• Brush a small puddle of encaustic medium to the area on your art where you’d like to place the object.
• Dip your object into the encaustic medium and lay it on your hot palette to allow some of the excess wax to drip off.
• With a pair of tweezers, pick up the object and place it on the wax puddle on your surface.

There you have it!

Learning How to Make Min Art books

Martice Smith II stunning illustrations reveals her love for fashion, typography and wildlife while being able to use a combination of analogue and digital techniques. Below she brings to you a fun twist on the classic matchbook style design which she uses to create beautiful, miniature artbooks with a variety of decorative cardstock, sketchbook papers and a stapler.

Materials Required

• A variety of stamps
• Ruler and Pencil
• Stapler and Scissors
• Bone folder
• Blank Sketchbook paper
• Cardstock or decorative papers

Steps to follow

• Cut the cardstock and sketchbook papers to size with the measurement for artbook cover being 4.5 inches long by 2 inches wide and Measurement for blank sketchbook paper: 2 inches by 2 inches.
• Fold up one edge with the decorative side facing down then fold up one of the edges about 1/2-inch.
• Gather the pieces of blank sketchbook paper and tuck them inside the fold.
• Staple the fold 1/4-inch up from the folded edge.
• Take the other end of the cover over the blank sketchbook paper and line it up with the bottom edge of the fold.Tuck this same edge under the 1/2-inch piece of stapled cardstock to form the matchbook-styled artbook.

It takes less than 30minutes to make one hence you can make so many at a time. This is easily achieved by use of imagine which brings out very unique shapes. Lightweight paper works best for this project. Have fun creating.

Putting Poetry into a Creative End Product

Mixed Media Art has found a place in the heart of Leeanne Oschmanns as declares that a craving for harmony and balance in her creativity brought up the need to express her poetry in more than words. Merely drawing or painting a picture didn’t work because it was too stifling and usually limited the expressive elements to one aspect of the poem. However, the beauty of poetry is that it is many things and something different to each person and the same can be said of mixed media.

Since Mixed Media is versatile and diverse, the power of symbols and the beauty of texture and medium render a flexibility that is more difficult to achieve in styles of singular medium and subject. Sometimes a thought so profound that it should not pass can be symbolised and articulated with visual richness and subtle suggestion. This is the single reason why she recently felt encouraged to contemplate the 100th anniversary of The Great War by burning only a single light, preferably a candle, in the darkness. She has this strong urge to express her thoughts.

It is referred to as the power of creativity by use of words. Her passions include personal growth and understanding. However, people and animals complete her experience of what it is to be human. And being a poet is her way of shedding light on the things that seemed darkest or most beautiful. On the other hand the power of symbols and the beauty of texture and medium render a flexibility that is more difficult to achieve in styles of singular medium and subject.

Crafting in Different Situations

Ann StreckoKoeman enjoys many types of crafts and art making. She spends way too much time in waiting rooms, but is grateful for small size sketch books and mechanical pencils. She says such like challenges end up bringing great works while at the same time she acknowledges that Artists are human and not immune to facing challenges and crisis in their lives that can range from health, financial, family, work and a myriad of other difficulties. Surviving and thriving as an artist takes persistence, perseverance and preparedness.

She explains that with time and having had to haul around a diaper bag filled with everything she needed for her babies, she has also adopted the same idea of having her own activity bag to keep her busy while waiting around for her kids during their own obligations. By having a small project bag to keep her thoughts preoccupied for sure made the time go by faster but also alleviated any stress she was feeling. For example a sewing project and in a small baggie she has a dozen pre- cut fabric circles, and a small sewing kit which consists of some thread and needles. Any waiting time is for sewing up some fabric. She also has a pen and paper in her purse to jot anything down any time and to also sketch in case the waiting time is longer.

When you talk of being creative, sometimes it is the conversations going on around her that give her inspiration for an interesting quote to use in her art journals. She affirms that sketching relieves a tiny bit of stress from mind and body.

Using DecoArt Media Line Products on Mixed Media Canvas

Kathi F. Rerek who is a mixed media artist has been crafting for almost fourteen years and has been lucky to have served on several design teams. After receiving a package containing products from DecoArts’ new Media range she decided to try them out on a flat canvas. This is what she did: -

• She started out by applying White Gesso to smooth out a bit of the canvas texture as well as cover up a rejected project.
• Mixing Primary Cyan, Titanium White, and Paynes Grey Media Fluid Acrylics (MFA) on a palette and sponging them onto the canvas.
• White Modelling Paste using Media Fluid Acrylics. She scooped out a palette-knife bladeful of the paste and blended a few drops of Primary Yellow MFA into it.
• Using a palette knife, she again scooped out some White Crackle Paint onto a palette and mixed in a few drops of Pthalo Green-Yellow MFA and Primary Yellow MFA.
• Adding colours but first Quinacridone Gold MFA was painted and allowed to dry.
• She scooped some of the paste onto a palette and added Burnt Ochre MFA and Transparent Yellow Oxide MFA to it, then used a palette knife to apply it to the base of the canvas.
• Pthalo Green-Yellow MFA and Interference Green MFA were combined and spritzed with water to thin it to a wash-like consistency.
• The last step was to combine Cobalt Turquoise MFA and Cobalt Blue MFA with some water to create a wash, which was brushed over the entire canvas.

Kathi applauds the performance of the products from DecoArt’s Media line and can’t wait to explore them further.

Making Jack O – Lanterns with Creative Paper Clay

Gloriann Irizarry love to sculpt and will never stop creating.Art has been a great way to be creative and to express herself.Seeing your creation take form is an awesome feeling because ART is so rewarding. According to her, it’s very easy to use household items like LED lamps to light. This is how you do it:

• Hunt down some LED battery operated lamps and take the LED lamp apart. 
• Grab a pack of Creative Paper clay and roll the clay into a ¼ thick sheet and use the clay sheet to cover the top of the lamp.
• Pinch the clay all around the top of the lamp and make sure you cut any excess out and smooth all the edges with water to make it easy to work with.
• To give your sculpt the smile you’re looking for grab a sewing needle and free hand cut the eyes, nose and mouth off while removing any excess paperclay.
• Grab the aluminium foil and sculpt a dress form which you Press, twist and turn until you are completely satisfied with the form.
• While you wait for the dress core to dry work on sculpting the face. Add a little more clay on the eyebrows, cheeks and jaw to create the shape you want. You can make if chunky or thinner is all up to you.
• Smooth the edges all around the head to make sure is all round a plump. This will give Jackie O Lantern the pumpkin look you are looking for.
• Don’t forget to give her a set of arms and let the whole thing dry.You are good to go. 

There you have it. Happy creating!