Kraft Paper and Journal Pages

You must have either met or heard of this Artist Melanie Statnick who writes and creates from her private studio. When she discovered kraft paper artwork on blogs and from other artists, she couldn’t wait any longer to start playing around with them.

There are 1000 of great projects that one can use Kraft paper for. From papers, banners, cards, table clothes to paper flowers, all these give such a crafty feeling.

She decided to create a mini project on canvas that seemed to take all her favorite stencils while outlining it using white gel pen. Though a bold move at first, it can be very nervous because of the permanence of the pen.

The stencil has two pieces outer edge and inner piece of the pod. Thus it is so versatile. You are spoilt for choice of how you want to use it; either on one side or both. Using a Pitt Pen in bold black, Melanie layered her piece of art with the inner stencil while painting it with acrylic paint and adding words that came with the stencil.

This was a delightful yet easy project. According to her, it is important that we learn to go out of our full filled day’s families and unexpected issues and put our creativity to task.

Getting Creative with Mixed Media Art

Mixed Media Artists need not to spend hours creating unique components to use in their creative projects.This is because Mixed media is all about experimentation with combined materials, mediums and techniques.

Gail Green who is a crafty book author says that the use of colour, texture, images dimensions and our own interpretation will always give us unique results.

That said, she has discovered awesome products and product lines which make us feel mojo or do the tiring and time consuming parts. All this allows us to get creative.

Gail loves all projects that come her way. She will try anything and everything. She was fortunate enough to find a perfect line of canvas products at CHA show where she came across Linnie Blooms booth. She kept running into the Owner and Founder of Linnie Blooms, Linda Barutha.

Linnie Blooms products include canvas shapes and canvas items. In addition to this you will find other range of products, the likes of interesting stencils. Apparently, Linda includes “knock outs” in her stencils and artists can use both the negative space stencils.

Linda also has fun stamps and phrases that can be used on the canvas pieces as well as on traditional cardstock for card making.

According to Gail, Linnie Blooms Canvas Bracelet is a perfect show of how Mixed Media projects can be satisfying.

Using ColourArte Products

The amazing paint products, such as Radiant Gels, Radiant Rains, Primary Elements Artist Pigments™, Silks Acrylic Glaze, and Twinkling H20s are manufactured by ColourArte. That said, Barbara who is a mixed media artist and loves to teach and learn new techniques while sharing her knowledge with other artists is now up to the task of sharing some examples of diversity, as well as observations, using these products.

How does she do this? She has prepared a white tag for each product description to explain to you the diversity of each ColourArte product.

She starts with Radiant Gels Dimensional Paint is the newest product in the ColourArte line. It is a thick, shimmery paint that can be used for many different mixed media applications. It not only can be used as paint and brushed out to a beautiful, transparent color.

Next, there are Radiant Rains in two different bottles. The Color Concentrates come in dauber bottles, while the Shimmering Mists come in mister bottles. There are 21 Color Concentrates and 26 Shimmering Mists.

Then there are the well-known Twinkling H20s Shimmering Watercolors. These are cakes of intense shimmering watercolor that you activate with water. The colors are so concentrated that a little goes a very long way.

Last, but not least, are the gorgeous Silks Acrylic Glazes. These are the most luscious, shimmery paints.

Barbara is a contributing artist in a book and from what she writes; you will easily notice her passion for creativity and learning new things.

Linnie Blooms and Linda Barutha

Michelle G. Brown understands that we all have an inner need to create, and bylearning a few basic techniques, the amazing world of mixed media art would be accessible to everyone.

When she came across the Linnie Blooms booth at CHA Winter Show 2015, she literally wondered why we don’t think about something new in crafting that leaves us completely impressed and mesmerized.

The range of alterable, mixed media items, made from canvas and recycled ephemera, with stitching on them was remarkable. That is how she got introduced to Lindy Barutha and her company Linnie Blooms whose range includes both substrate items – 12×12 panels, stitched journals and mini folios. This is in addition to canvas embellishments in the shapes of flowers, butterflies and many other designs.

When it comes to decoration, Linnie Bloom uses its current art supplies. They don’t need any special fabric supplies. Linda who has been building Linnie Blooms since mid-2013 says that she has always been creative and loves to create her own designs.

Linda is also working with two major online retailers to provide stitched kits. However, she has had to move from sewing all of the pieces herself, to having a few sewing assistants. The next few months are exciting for Linda and Linnie Blooms as she looks forward to featuring an online workshop. Watch out for this and much more.

Using your Positive Thoughts

“There is power in positive thoughts once you begin your day in them”. This is according to Shari Welch who has been creating art for as long as she can remember. All her focus was shifted to Mixed Media Art after her graphic design studies in Portland.

As a way of starting her morning and with her positive thoughts, she decided to create a pretty little art block. Here is what she did:

Materials used:

• Wooden block
• Drawer pull
• American multipurpose ink
• Distress ink
• Fibrous String
• Embellishments
• Diamond mesh ribbon
• DecorArt

This is how to go about it:

• Find images that will fit into your artwork and you can make use of online companies that sell images
• Cut your images to size and make the edges rounded using corner punches while you define them with distress ink.
• Paint the art block and the feet probably with a different color for each. To speed up the dry time, you can choose to use hairdryer then using E6000, glue the feet on the block.
• Using tacky glue, glue the images on the block and accentuate them around when all dry using glamour dust. You can make use of your creativity as much.
• You can now tie your embellishment on the fibrous ribbon before moving on to the drawer pull.

With her passion of Mixed Media Art, she emphasizes that creativity in all this is of essence.

Acrylic Backgrounds with Water

Anjuli Johnson is a self-taught artist who has done a lot of experimentation with paint and having begun her career as a scrapbooker, she is now Mixed Media Artist. She has been undergoing an evolutionary process all along.

With watercolor, oil and gouache Anjuli will always prefer acrylic because of the different reactions of their brands. For one it dries very fast and reacts really well in water. She uses water and paint to create acrylic backgrounds for her mixed media paintings.

She has three paintings to show and as follows:

Magnetism – You will use dry canvas and the colors you chose. For her it was red and orange paint. Ensure you get rid of any brushstrokes on your canvas.

True North – In this case, she misted the canvas before working on it. There were certain areas where she concentrated the paint. The brushstrokes all disappeared.

Pacific Reef – Here, a brush was not used. Instead, in the dry canvas, thick spots of paint were added in random places. Fingers are used to flatten and spread the paint as one sprays along. The entire canvas should be all wet.

According to Anjuli and with her imagination and creativity, there are so many ways one can use water with acrylic paint and get very exciting backgrounds. She loves Mixed Media art and it is she constantly tries to push her fears away so as to build on her creativity and discover her talents.

Handwriting on Adventure

Martice Smith II is an established freelancer illustrator and graphic designer. She has established a niche for herself within the Mixed Media Art since she does more specializations on the mixed media illustrations.

That said, she has a thing for graffiti – style which she considers a fun mixture of bold and expressive calligraphy. It makes her handwriting become more unique and easy to recognize. With her spirits more often than not transcending into artistry, there are times she will prefer to look imperfect and scribbly.

She describes the world around you as your oyster hence advises that “You take an adventure” as she takes you through a quick adventure on finding your voice within your handwriting. And what are the sources of her inspirations:

• Food packaging
• Billboards
• Kids’ writing
• Murals on trains
• Expanding the powers of observation
• Looking out for brand packaging

Having gained the inspiration, here are the supplies that you shall need:

• Assortment of markers and fine point pens
• Skewer or toothpick
• Speedball’s Super Black India ink.

Here is what you now need to do:

• Writer large letterforms with your chise – tip marker and work randomly across the page
• Try writing a phrase is a circular shape using a pen with a smaller point. For smoother writing, you may have to rotate the page and allow the words to look like a series of marks
• Exaggerate the letterforms and lines as you make your own way
• Finally draw scribbly flourishes with a toothpick dipped in India ink.

It’s all about what makes you happy.

Making Altered Daily Journal Cover

It is from her private studio that Melanie Statnick who is an accomplished artist will do her art creation besides writing. And with her love of writing she has been on a mission to get a journal big enough to accommodate reflections on a daily basis since she did not want to spend even a single coin on buying one.

As such the thought of upcycling build up in her mind due to the fact that it would give her room to exercise her imagination. She took black gesso which she would use to cover the front of the journal. Black gesso is of more preference because it leaves with a primed black surface which is easy to use with white gel pens.

Over the gesso surface, Melanie painted a wide rectangle of turquoise and added a weekly stencil which is an Artistcellar product. She then used various stencils for quick and easy creation of a stenciled background. She wanted to be experimental.

To add flavor to the journal, she first added the year before outlining days of the week using a PITT pen. She then added some detail to the cover with start while making good use of a white gel pen.

Finally she was happy with what she had created

Mixed Media Story Telling

“Mixed media is a great way of telling a story; hence every time you are creating your Mixed Media Art, ask yourself is for sure you are telling the story like you would have wished to. It can be deep or intense with a color theme beautifully put together. Besides, you can out elements of fun and whimsical or a just a simple work of colors”.

This is according to Madeline Faiella who is a traditional artist since she uses both traditional and digital methods in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. A lot of her work has been features on home décor, electronic devices, stationary as well as fabrics among other areas.

Madeline insists regardless of the type of story that you are telling, you ought to remember three things which are:

• Have the story you want to tell
• Ensure that you have a fabulous color theme
• Instill in yourself creation fun

As a result of her passion to tell stories using Mixed Media Art, she has a piece that uses to tell a story and which has been named “A Hero’s Return”. The color theme and the layered texture are both very strong on this piece so as to pass the message clearly while keeping the reflection clear

Madeline is one of the licensed artists who have been drawing, sewing and making since her early childhood days.