Making Mixed Media Bookmarks

Tamara Dinius is a lover of Mixed Media Art which she has embraced passionately as a result of the support she has received from her husband and her two grown up daughters who she describes as being so meaningful to her life. Through them, she has been able to ground her work. In her own words “they are amazing people in their own right”.

Her love for mixed media has taken over most aspects of her creative journey.She believes mixed media her simplicity; she acknowledges that you can complete several bookmarks using mixed media techniques on watercolor paper. How? This is by using one large sheet, decorate it and then cut it into many pieces from which you will have some to your decorative work and other extras for giving out to friends and relatives. Some of the materials you will need to achieve your task include:

• A range of moulding pastes
• Dylusion Sprays
• Stencils and papers
• Stamps
• Liquitex Acrylic Inks alongside many others items that will make all your work easier. The whole project will take you less than ten minutes which include time for drying. 

Being the creative Mixed Media she is, you can find more of her work on her Facebook page as well as her website countrycraftersusa.com

Try Playing out with Different Colors to make Mixed Media Canvases

Learning a few basic techniques the amazing world of mixed media art is accessible to everyone according to Michelle G. Brown. Sharing your knowledge and techniques allow you to express your own creativity. Michelle loves playing with paints because they are relatively cheap materials and they come in lots of wonderful colors and gives her the ability to coordinate all of the elements she need to create many types of mixed media art.

With the nice looks on the colors Michelle tried to make a canvas and the following are the steps you can also use to achieve create results:

• Lay out the canvas panels
• Collect a range of ephemera and tear into pieces.
• Adhere to the canvas panels, leaving some pale edges overlaying the edges
• Cut off the excess ephemera with a craft knife and use a sanding block to smooth the edges of the canvas
• Get out your Gesso and an old store card or spatular and roughly apply a layer of Gesso over the dried ephemera layer. Leave to dry.
• Add a layer of bone coloured acrylic paint, then a little ivory white and then a layer of yellow as a wash.

While the canvas panels are drying, get set up to create some color coordinated papers to add to the canvas panels. This is the advantage of using paints where you can make your entire bits and pieces match. You ought to understand the creativity within you.

Have you heard about making Canvas with Copics?

Kim Kelley is obsessed about her crafting and art being a lover of mixed media art. The comfort behind this is that you are free to go beyond your comfort zone, using your imagination and exploring an anything goes mind set. Kim loves to learn and explore new techniques and hopes that any art she creates leads someone to find their inner creative artist.

Once of the activities she loves is creating canvas that has not only texture but depth to it as well. Below, she shares how she made a canvas using a digital image and copic markers. How?

• Get a 3 3” x 12” canvas and apply some matte gel medium all over, including the sides.
• Digital images are known not to blow up enough and would not become pixelated. Additionally one that was large enough to expand across the 3 pieces of canvas.
• Lay out your image across the canvas’ to get the right measurements and cut it.
• Add the extra layers after the drying process
• You can choose to have a contrast between the background and the image. You can achieve this by mixing some black acrylic paint, iridescent acrylic paint and matte gel medium together for the same.

Some of the tips you can apply to achieve awesome projects include coloring the back of the each layer you use, color the edges when adding an image and you can use a pen or stick to curl the petals if you are using flowers.



Happy creating!

Wonderful Recycling Ideas

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 a little imagination the possibilities of being able to reuse the board, box, or game pieces to create something artistic and beautiful are endless.

She gives some basic instructionsof how one can decorate dominoes. You will need supplies like:

• Small piece of wood.
• Cotton pads
• Domino game pieces
• Mod Podge Matte clear acrylic spray sealer
• Hand drill with a small bit.

Here are some ideas to finish your dominoes:

• Key chain, Ball chain, leather, magnets
• Sharpie or any permanent marker
• Rubber stamps, permanent ink pad
• Found trinkets, beads, ribbon, eyelets
• Old comic books and newsprint
• Mod podge dimensional magic

Read below the steps to follow:

• Wipe your domino with alcohol to insure no oils or dust is on them.
• Drill a hole if you so require. E.g. If you are making a necklace or you are adding embellishments.
• Add a background. Paper, alcohol inks, markers, stickers, rubber stamps will do.
• Let your back ground dry then spray with an acrylic sealer.
• Add more colors, stamping etc. once the sealer is dry. You can add embellishments to your domino if you wish.

Creativity here is of essence and before you take your old games to the donation station, take a second look at them.

Experimenting with Small Mini Mixed Media Canvasses

Anjuli Johnson constantly tries to push through her fears to discover and develop her talents, meet new people, and learn from those around her. She loves all things mixed media- paper, paint, pens, wire, gears; clay… the list goes on and on. It’s not enough for her to stick to one or two tried and true techniques- she always feels the need to try nearly everything she sees.

As a self-taught artist, constant learning and experimentation are a necessity for her to become the accomplished artist she dreams of. However it is not her to frantically moves from one medium to the next in a mad rush to try and learn as much as possible. She acknowledges and confesses that it’s not only her who has a room full of craft supplies, waiting to be used for the first time. Besides she has learned things about so many mediums by working on her mini’s first- paper clay, ink, multiple ways to paint with acrylics, collage, modeling paste, gel medium, and lots of other things.

And even though what she tries turns out to be terrible, she doesn’t sweat too much. The simple reason is that she doesn’t waste expensive materials on a piece that she might ruin through her inexperience. Having begun as a scrapbooker, it has been an evolutionary process ever since.

Using Creative Arts to Make your Own Jewelry from Fabric

KatjaBlum likes to find creative solutions for ugly or broken things around the house. As an artist, she started with yarn, fabric and papier mache (rarely together), branching out into collage and other paper arts about ten years ago. On the other hand while jewelry is a perfect way to take a piece of your art with you in your everyday life, Mixed media and jewelry is a great combination.

With mixed media jewelry there are endless possibilities of projects as Katja has highlighted on one of them below. This is what you need:

• 3 pieces of woven or braided rope to fit around your wrist
• Needle and thread
• Duct tape
• Thin craft wire, yarn or thread to wrap around the bangle
• Assorted fabrics, fibers and beads
• Mod Podge, Fray-Stop

Steps to follow:

• Measure the inner circumference of a bangle you like and cut the lengths of rope to size.
• Don’t pull the measuring tape too tight.
• Cut the rope pieces to size, lay them out together and tape them with duct tape to form a closed ring.
• Cut long strips of fabric or use unspun, dyed spinning fiber to wrap each ring, beginning with the two outside ones,
• Dab some Mod Podge or Fray-Stop on the fabric
• Start wrapping in the center of the duct tape at the bottom
• Decorate your statement piece to your heart’s content. Wrap it with thread, yarn, cord or thin craft wire.

The Parting shot of this art is that thinking about the functional aspects and size of jewelry gives you an interesting framework for your creative ideas.

What do you know About Doodling?

Melanie creates art daily from her private studio with a style that is known to be fun, whimsy and eclectic.Lately she has been doodling in sketch books on legal pads and more. Doodling is regarded as “absentminded drawing” because as you doodle the mind drifts and the pen drifts. As such doodling gets no respect.

While many more companies are being taught how to use the white board more effectively by doodling along with their presentations in meetings providing a visual aid, Artists and non-artists have been writing books on how to doodle in art and how doodling is important in the work place and in schools.Drawing and doodling engages the mind, helps us think and improves concentration. It’s been proven to aid in memory retention whileIt also occupies the mind from drifting into unwanted thoughts at times like meetings and lectures and prevents us from daydreaming.

Studies have shown that people who doodle at times when they are supposed to be paying attention retain 25% more detail than non-doodlers. And if you dint know some of the famous doodlers include John F Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Mark Twain. Melanie doodles when talking on Skype, watching TV, talking on phone and even when she thinks of writing articles, she doodles.

Paper Towel Rolls Mini Book

With her art style that is fun, whimsy and eclectic Melanie Statnick is a Canadian Mixed Media & Collage Artist creates art daily from her private studio. She has so far learned how to make books and other note pads with recyclable paper towel rolls and bath room tissue rolls. She says that there are many different ways to make and design these and from the example below, you can learn more:

Supplies you will need to acquire include:

• Craft paper or scrap book
• Paper Roll
• Micron or copic pens
• Hole punch
• Images, letter, word art
• Binder Rings
• Gel Medium. 

The following is the process of creating your mini Book.

• Flatten out the paper roll. Cut it in half. Glue the inside of both rolls to create your front and back cover and let dry.
• Measure approximately where you want to have your holes and use the hole punch to punch through. Then measure and cut your craft paper the same size as your roll covers and punch holes in each to match your covers.
• When your papers are cut use four and glue them to your covers front and back.
• When you are finished with your pages use your binder rings to hold the book together. 

You can find more ideas on Pinterest and you can also involve your children since the creating is all easy and fun.

Creating a Packing Tape Postcard

Martice Smith II has these stunning illustrations that reveal her love for fashion, typography and wildlife- using a combination of analog and digital techniques. Below she illustrates a quick and simple way of creating image transfers made from packing tape. You will eventually end up with a stunning postcard- worthy of being framed!

Gather your supplies as follows:

• Bone folder
• Scissors
• A bowl of water
• 4×6 inch cardstock paper
• Magazine pages and paper ephemera

Steps of making a packing Tape post card

• Prepare the image transfer then cut strips of packing tape to the size of your image.
• From the center out, use the bone folder to remove any bubbles or creases.
• Trim around your image and place into bowl of water.
• Rub away the paper backing with your thumbs. For a clean, crisp image, make sure you do not scratch the surface of the tape while rubbing off the paper.
• After the tape dries, paper fibers may reappear. If so, re-moisten the paper and gently, rub them off.
• Discard paper fibers from bowl.

You can now go ahead and create your postcard whereby there are many approaches you can use to create an elegant and modern post card. Happy creating!

Greeting Cards from Recycled Materials

Laura Thykeson has been totally immersed in mixed media art for many years. The excitement was even more when she discovered altered books and art journals about a year ago and have been hooked ever since. While many artists tend to make their own beautiful and original greeting cards for all occasions and from their own creativity, she attempted to write up a tutorials for beginners who have just ventured into this field which she describes as all fun.

Materials Required:

• Blank watercolor card w/envelope
• Bits and pieces of our recycled art, old art journal pages, paint splattered pieces of papers, collage material, pretty paper napkins, stamps (optional), any 3d embellishments you choose.
• Coordinating scraps of “stencil play” pages, scraps of cardstock
• ATC’s in abstract, colorful and textured designs, or even postcards

Instructions:

• Chose your blank watercolor card and glue and layer them on the front page of the card to start your colorful background.
• Once dry, open up your card and spread glue or adhesive all over both sides of the inside pages of the card.
• Add some cool sayings or words on the inside of the card using your choice of stamps.
• Trim all around the edges of the card to give it some interest and texture.
• Cut small strips of abstract, glittery watercolor paper scraps.

This is a really fun and easy way to make a unique and interesting card for any occasion. Use your creativity.

Encaustic Painting for Beginners Part 1

Elaine Brady Smith loves creating acrylic mixed media and encaustic collages. However she would like to help take the mystery out of “getting started” with encaustic painting since she has met a lot of people who are fascinated about the same. There is a lot of information to relay but she would rather start with FAQs about Encaustic Painting:

What does Encaustic mean?

It is a Greek word which means to burn in. this element of heat is necessary for a painting and so to be called encaustic. Encaustic painting uses numerous techniques to produce a wide range of results.

What is Encaustic Medium?

It is made of beeswax melted with Damar resin with a ration of 5:1 up to 10:1. While is it is less expensive to make your own encaustic medium, ready-made medium is as clean and pure as you can get for clear coverage and bright colors.

What Substrates Can I Paint Encaustic On?

Wax will adhere to a variety of surfaces. The most important thing to remember is that the surface must be absorbent and porous.
What Equipment do I need for Fusing?

A heat gun is more preferable because it can be control the amount of air when fusing layers. It is the best heat source for beginners.
What Equipment do I need for Encaustic Painting?

You will need a palate on which to melt your medium and pigment cakes.
What Other Tools do I need for Encaustic Painting?



You need tools to apply the wax to your surface. Cheap bristle brushes are great for this and can be purchased at the hardware or craft store. Get started in encaustic painting.

Making Handmade Candle Holder

Besides her love of working with mixed Media, Sandra Parés enjoys creating and getting her hands dirty with paint and gesso. The colors and textures leave her amazed. Using the steps below, she was able to make a candle holder with a magic light that would illuminate her summer nights. Keep reading to see how she did it:

Supplies required:

• Wire and a candle
• A stencil
• White tissue paper
• A make up brush
• a star die 
• 8”x10” Gelli Plate
• Facetten-Lack metallic platin Vica Deco
• A big shot and a Brayer 
• Black acrylic paint
• Hair spray

Steps followed:

Use the brayer to put the black paint over the stencil then press the stencil over the gelli plate.

• Surround your jar glass with a piece of tissue paper which must be large enough. put the tissue paper over the gelli plate to print the texture.
• Open a few holes in our piece of tissue paper with the Big Shot and the star die
• Paste with extra heavy gel medium the tissue paper around the glass jar and leave it to dry then paint the holes with Facetten-Lack to give a touch translucent at the glass.
• Once dried add color and you can paint with the Primary Elements of LuminArte but you will have to spray the entire glass jar with hairspray

The result will be beautiful and shining: a candle holder with a magic light for your most special nights.