Making Soft Pastel, Collage and Encaustic

Vicki has always been involved deeply in the creative arts, from professional soft crafts publications (knitting/crochet/needlework) to French Hand-sewing, stenciling to macramé, oil painting to encaustics. Never the less she is still focused on sharing her journey to art and how life events can shape us through creativity. The following are the materials she uses:

• 12″x 9″ Luan panel
• R&F encaustic gesso
• Deli Paper (thank you mixed media artists)
• soft pastels
• gold leaf
• encaustic medium
• Razor Blade
• Ranger Tacking Iron
• Heat Gun
• Prime the panel with two coats of clear medium, fusing each with heat gun. Alternating a Ranger tacking iron, scraping with a razor blade, and fusing with the heat gunmake the surface smooth. 
• Lay a layer of tinted medium (melted with scrapings from the early pieces.
• Gently heat the prepared panel with the heat gun, align and place the deli paper pastel side down, and burnish it carefully and thoroughly.
• Carefully remove the deli paper from the panel.
• Gently warm the surface with the heat gun and carefully position the deli paper with the ghost image pastel side up this time, creating a mirror image.
• With the heat gun again, warm the paper. The underlying layers of encaustic medium will encapsulate the paper, rendering it almost invisible.
• Carve a circular halo, add more touches of gold leaf

There you have your image.

How to Organize your Mixed Media Collections

All the nature surrounding Ann Strecko Koeman inspires her artwork being a Mixed Media Artist working in the capital of Canada. She collects a lot of ribbons and trims, yarns, cords, and threads in a variety of places. She will buy all things on sale or in clearance bins as well as visiting thrift stores, flea markets, garage sales and ebay. Eventually there is the free stuff she finds through friends and family, Free Cycle, and anything that enters her home and can be recycled such as string, shipping bands, rubber elastics around the vegetables and old clothing unfit for donating but fine for recycling.

With all the above it becomes easy to put away the new items so long they are stored in labeled drawers, shelves and bins. Items that come in tangled messes of pieces she tackles them differently. She dumps them in a big see thru purse that she found at a local thrift store and hangs the bag from one of the drawers in the Studio until she is in need of them. Once in a while she will plunge into the treasure bag and do some organizing.

She has a larger than necessary collection of fibers. She will keep a sample of 3 metres while the rest is stored in a storage closet. More of her work can be viewed on her blog Annmakes.

Creating Art from Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay India Inks

The quest to find different and creative ways or organizing different materials into art is a constant, never ending adventure. While we can’t make something from nothing the act of creation can be fairly difficult without anything to create with. On the other hand becoming proficient in using a few materials over and over again isn’t satisfying enough- new materials need to be found and experimented with until we become proficient in using them.

Anjuli Johnson the Mixed Media Artist used to think that India ink was only available in one color- black. However these different sets of inks come with as many as 12 colors, all vibrant and versatile. On Mother’s days she made Black and white cardstock with clear acetate attached to top with brads while coloring the acetate using alcohol inks and india ink. She also made a sketch while being curious to see how these inks worked on black paper and when the inks dry it becomes permanent and you can leave it as a top layer, or use more wax layers on top. This is a technique she plans to use frequently.

The inks are pretty intense, and adding a little water can make them last longer and go further without taking much away from their brilliancy. Anjuli began her art career as a scrapbooker, and it’s been an evolutionary process ever since. She is constantly trying to push through her fears to discover and develop her talents, meet new people, and learn from those around her.

Art Journal Pages: Tips and Tricks

Mixed media is all exciting and fulfilling for those who love color and art. Most artists will do anything with art because it helps them be creative and be able to express themselves. Tamara Dinius says that her two grown up daughters make her life meaningful in her creative journey because they support her, ground her, embrace her, and are amazing people in their own right. Her love for media is evident having taken over most of her creative projects solely. According to her mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression.

As a way of being creative, she has created videos that will show you the process of completing an art journal layout, start to finish. Some of the materials she will use to complete her layouts include Dylusion Sprays, Liquitex, Acrylic Inks, stamps, stencils, papers, paper napkins, as well as other items. It is in less than 30 minutes that you will have completed the layout.

From Tamara’s work, there seems to be a lot of expression in art. You too can engage in it and to learn more of her work you can check out her website www.countrycraftersusa.com. It’s all yours to have and learn.

Making Containers from Mixed Media PapierMâché

Papier-mâché (French for “chewed paper) is a sculptural technique that most people know from elementary school. However papier-mâché was used for making coffins in Ancient Egypt, for armor, medieval church and castle interiors, boats and even aircraft fuel tanks during World War II. to make a papier-mâché bowl in your house you will need:

• Paper, torn into strips and pieces – tissue paper, newsprint, junk mail, gift wrap, scrap paper
• Fiber, fabric, threads and other light, “glueable” things
• Flour or wallpaper paste
• Masking tape for adhering bases, handles

You can make a balloon bow while using decorative paper for the inside layer. When you have almost reached the desired thickness, think about the base for your balloon bowl. You can get as creative as you like, but one easy method is a base ring. You can also use this technique to make handles and rims.

You can also make a container bowl by covering the inside of that container with plastic wrap and use it as a form. It’s safer to work on the inside of containers you don’t want to cover permanently with papier-mâché. However remember that you are working the outside first this time. When working in a bowl, you won’t need a base to make your object stand, but you can certainly add one later, as well as handles.

Once the objects are dried all the way through, lift your papier-mâché bowl out of the form and pop the balloon. Cut the containers into any shape that pleases you. Decorate the papier-mâché bowls.

Making an Altered Book

With mixed media art you are free to go beyond your comfort zone, using your imagination and exploring an anything goes mind set. Kim Kelly made his very first altered book a year ago when he found out that his uncle Rocky was dying of cancer. Having been given months to live, he wanted to make something that would give him and the family a little hope. And after playing with a book he created a master book and an altered book.

There are a few ways you can alter a book…altering page by page, making a shadow box of sorts, fanning pages, and even cutting shapes out of the pages. However he chose to create a stand up, 2 opening frame display where he used Jacquard Lumiere paints, harlequin chipboard pieces, bead texture, flake texture and texture gel. Here is how you do it:

• Break the spine of the book by bending and wringing it back and forth
• Glue the pages together.
• Draw the lines where you want to cut and then cut down about halfway through the pages.
• Put at least two coats of gesso on both the cover and the inside, making sure you get all the cracks and crevices.
• Once you get the texture the way you want it, you can start to add your chip board pieces.
• Add the decorations you want to use as the last step. 

At the end of the it all you will have learnt and explored new techniques of being a creative artist.

Painting Wood Blocks

Melanie’s style of art is fun, whimsy and eclectic. She adores working with word and altering objects an art that was pasted down on her by her mother who painted art on everything she could alter. She says each night her mother would spend long hours painting on wood, tin and more. She has drawers full of wood blocks, knobs, balls, and cut images and below she shares what she created with lovers of art:

Materials you shall need include:

• 4 wood balls with flat edge
• Acrylic paint
• 1 Large wood block
• Gel Medium
• 1 Small wood block
• Collage images/words
• Wood glue.

This is the procedure:

• Start by painting all four sides of wood blocks, knob and wood balls for the bottom.
• Stamp, stencil or glue paper to four sides of your square blocks.
• Once you have all your sides painted the way you like you can begin to glue your collage images down to the sides for your blocks. Leave two sides open for a top and bottom with both blocks.
• Glue your door knob on top of the smaller block and follow the same direction on your large block. 
• Glue your small block on to the large block and glue your wood balls to the bottom of the large block. Glue your knob on last. Leave plenty of drying time.
• Embellish your word blocks with your intuition. Use the words you’ve chosen as inspiration to help you complete your blocks.

There you have it!