Backgrounds

I've been working on backgrounds. Inspired by Yahoo group challenges, I've created these three. They are all in my book journal and will be further embellished. This one is for a winter colors theme. It's mostly overspray on a page from Barron's.



This one has a fancy store bag from a card shop as the base. I used a noodle brush (silicone pastry brush) to paint on a thin layer of acrylic paint and gesso.



The black base on this one was an accident. I scanned something that came out pitch black, so I used it for a background. I painted some random patterns with acrylic. Then I "noodled" over it with the same colors. Finally, I used a doily as a stencil in one corner.



Three easy and quick backgrounds.

Carved Wine Corks

On one of the Yahoo groups to which I belong we've been talking about rejectamenta. I love that word. Rejectamenta! These are pages from my PRACTICE journal using hand carved wine corks from my collection of rejectamenta. I stamped right after I carved them to see if I would be able to use the resulting images. I don't have any good examples of finished projects using these stamps. The stamped images are rustic and quite lovely.







The frame on the final practice page is stamped with a piece of styrofoam packaging. You know the kind. There were two of these in the box with the product snuggly wedged between them in the box. I coated it with acrylic paint and stamped with it.



EDIT: I've gotten a few questions about this post. Thought I'd post them with the answers.

Q: Did you stamp with ink or paint?

A: With the exception of the frame, which was stamped with acrylic paint, I used ink to stamp with the corks. I believe I was using pigment ink that day, but I'm not sure.

Q: How did you carve the cork?

A: I used a craft knife with a very sharp blade. I drew my design on the cork before carving. First I stabbed around the design about 1/8 inch deep and then cut around the edges. BE CAREFUL!! It's easy to slip when doing this. There are several tutorials online if you search on "cork stamps" or "wine cork stamps".

Addition to Plastic Bag Bead Making Description

I added a step to the description of the bead making process. This step is done just prior to rolling the bead in the Franklin Opals.

The beads tend to be thicker in the center as they melt, so I used a second knitting needle to gently push the thinner ends toward the middle while holding the bead in front of my heat gun. Then I rolled the beads across the clean sheet of paper again to smooth them out. This makes for a more uniform shape. If you're going for the irregular look, skip this step.

Faux End of the Day Glass Beads

I learned about "End of the Day" glass from my grandmother. She had an "End of the Day" glass basket that eveyone in the family loved. "End of Day" glass refers to glassware made by glassworkers at the end of the day, often on their own time. It used up the leftover molten glass and was usually a mixture of many colors. The beads I made tonight reminded me of this glass.



These beads are made using a method very similar to that used in the Plastic Bag Bead post. Here's how I did it.

1. Start with very light weight, clear plastic, like the plastic bag from your newspaper or a dry cleaning bag.

2. Cut a strip about three inches wide and twelve inches long and fold it in half lengthwise.

3. Cut a ten inch piece of multi-colored "Fun Fur" (eyelash yard) and place it between the two layers of plastic.

4. Wrap this around a knitting needle or skewer and heat it with a heat gun. Because of the polyester content in the Fun Fur, it melts and becomes one with the plastic during the heating process. The beads tend to be thicker in the center as they melt, so I use a second knitting needle to gently push the ends toward the middle while holding the bead in front of my heat gun.

5. While still hot, roll it in Franklin Opals and heat until the Opals melt. Repeat this step several times until there is a thick coat of Opals all over the bead. Be sure to keep turning the bead while melting or the Opals will drip off. In this way, this process is similar to making glass beads. Continue turning as the bead cools.

Here's one I embellished.



This bead was wire wrapped and finished off with seed and bugle beads and a charm. I think it has "Geo Deco Thingie" written all over it!

More Bag Beads

For all the beads described in this post, I used the same process for creating the bead as described in the Plastic Bag Bead post.

Tarkine Opal



Slogan Strip with Franklin Opals



If you click on the slogan you can see the strip that is cut from the Archivers bag. The bag is translucent, not clear and without color. I put an orange strip of paper behind it in an attempt to make the translucent strip show up in the scan.



This is the bead resulting from shrinking the strip cut from the Archiver's bag with the slogan written on it. It looks rather like a pearl.

Alcohol Ink with Plastic Bag Strip

I applied Wild Plum and Stream alcohol ink to a portion of a translucent plastic bag, as show below. I cut this into strips about half of an inch wide and about twelve inches long.



The beads resulting from this application are a little like amethyst. It's difficult to tell from the scan, but they are square, albeit, primitive squares.

Plastic Bag Beads

On one of the Yahoo groups I read there was a discussion about beads made out of plastic bags. I thought I'd give it a try. I had a bag with the Archiver's logo on it, so I cut the logo into strips. This way I wouldn't have to color the beads after melting them.



I wrapped the strips around a knitting needle and heated them with my heat gun. Then I rolled them on a piece of clean paper on my table top to smooth them out. The beads tend to be thicker in the center as they melt, so I used a second knitting needle to gently push the thinner ends toward the middle while holding the bead in front of my heat gun. Then I rolled the beads across the clean sheet of paper again to smooth them out. This makes for a more uniform shape. If you're going for the irregular look, skip this rolling step.

I heated again and rolled them in Franklin Opals. A final heating to melt the opals and the beads below were the result.



Because I used the colored part of the plastic bag and I didn't have to paint the beads, I also didn't have to seal them. The Opals took care of that.

Another fun project.

Metallic Popcorn Paper

On this example of painted popcorn paper, I rubbed metallic paste over the texture. I used Ruby Rub 'n Buff, followed by Patina Rub 'n Buff, followed again by Ruby. When dry I buffed to a shine, which doesn't show in the scan. This is very shiny and vibrant in real life. I like how it worked on the popcorn paper.

Stamping in Popcorn Paper

I stamped in some popcorn paper while the texture spray was still wet. Here are the results.



Both backgrounds were stamped with the same DeNami flower stamp. Either one could be used for a background for an ATC. The red one doesn't show the pattern of the flower stamp very well. It was painted with red metallic acrylic paint. Then I used my finger to dry-rub it with black acrylic glaze. For the white one, I rubbed the black acrylic glaze directly on the popcorn texture without any undercoat.

I think there are better mediums for stamping in texture, like modeling paste. I don't think I'll do this again with the popcorn paper technique.

Happy Accident

I meant to duplicate the "popcorn paper" technique using mat board, but I goofed. It turned out to be one of those happy accidents.





I started by spraying a deep red scrap of mat board with the texture spray described earlier. In the last project I covered the chipboard completely so that no chipboard showed through. This time I sprayed more sparsely and left mat board showing through.



Since the Twinkling H20's floated on the top when the chipboard was completely covered, I thought with some of the mat board showing through I might get a nice sparkly effect. Wrong! The Twinks completely saturated the top layer of the mat board and dried disappointingly flat. For some unknown reason, I started rubbing the surface with my finger while it was still damp. The top layer began to roll up and peel off, revealing the next layer with just a touch of color left. Interesting effect, but the picture is dark, so you have to click on it to look at the larger version to see what I mean.





One look at the resulting surface and I knew it was going to take Radiant Rains very nicely. I used Sky Blue and Periwinkle. (I get mine from After Midnight.) The rough edges resulting from rolling off part of the mat board's surface layer actually gave the piece a marbled effect.

Once I got the color saturation I liked I decided to add a little webbing spray on top.



Here's the finished piece photographed in the sun on an angle, in a desparate attempt to get the shimmer to show up.

If I do this again, I'd change the process in the following ways. First, I'd skip the texture spray altogether because most of it rolled off when I removed so much of the surface layer. Second, I'd probably wet the top layer of the mat board with inexpensive watercolor paint rather than Twinks since none of the glimmer showed up in that early stage. Third, I'd use a different color of webbing spray. White was all I had on hand. I might even try Golden Clear Tar Gel mixed with Luminarte Primary Elements to get the webbing effect.

I love learning from happy accidents.

Popcorn Paper

I decided to play with unconventional supplies again. I was wandering around in my local Lowes in the paint department when I stumbled on the stuff that is used to repair the "popcorn" texture in ceilings. "Surely I can use that in my art," I thought.



The base of my "Popcorn Paper" is actually chipboard, not paper. I used the chipboard that comes folded into my husband's laundered shirts. It's similar in thickness to a cereal box, maybe a little heavier. Here's how I did mine.

1. Spray the chipboard with the ceiling texture goup. You'll find it at any home or hardware store. It dries in about 30 minutes.



Here's what it looks like after it dries. It was late in the evening so this photograph was taken with ambient light. The blue is a result of my florescent bulbs. It's actually very, very white.



2. When dry, spray with black spray paint.



3. Highlight with burgundy and cream spray paint. I added Twinkling H20's to one corner (lower left), but they floated on top of the spray paint layer. It doesn't show up well in the photograph. If that's a look you like, go for it.



4. Finally, I added layers of pigment ink and blended them with my finger. Click on the finished photograph to get a better look at the texture.



This was fun.

Popcorn Paper

I decided to play with unconventional supplies again. I was wandering around in my local Lowes in the paint department when I stumbled on the stuff that is used to repair the "popcorn" texture in ceilings. "Surely I can use that in my art," I thought.

The base of my "Popcorn Paper" is actually chipboard, not paper. I used the chipboard that comes folded into my husband's laundered shirts. It's similar in thickness to a cereal box, maybe a little heavier. Here's how I did mine.

1. Spray the chipboard with the ceiling texture goup. You'll find it at any home or hardware store. It dries in about 30 minutes.

Here's what it looks like after it dries. It was late in the evening so this photograph was taken with ambient light. The blue is a result of my florescent bulbs. It's actually very, very white.








2. When dry, spray with black spray paint.
3. Highlight with burgundy and cream spray paint.

4. I added Twinkling H20's to one corner (lower left), but they floated on top of the spray paint layer. It doesn't show up well in the photograph. If that's a look you like, go for it.

5. Finally, I added layers of pigment ink and blended them with my finger. Click on the finished photograph to get a better look at the texture.

This was fun.

Back to Gravel

I'm back to working with gravel. I dug into a bag of Cherry Stone Grit I had in the garage (for spreading on the slippery sidewalks during the winter). Here's what it looks like after being rinsed. It's still a little wet in this picture. When it dries, it's not quite as dark.

I was curious to see how this would perform in one of my gravel art pieces. Here's a creation using the grit with a Krafty Lady mold purchased from After Midnight Stamps. It's mold number 128. For the column, I used paper clay painted with Lumiere paint (copper) followed by a blue acrylic paint rub.

For the background, I layed down a base of Radiant Rains on a piece of mat board. Then I mixed some of the grit into Golden Soft Gel and spread it on the mat board with a palette knife. If I do it again, I may mix some acrylic paint into the gel before spreading it. When it was dry I added highlights with Lumiere paint. Finally, I brushed on some additional Radiant Rains mists. You'll probably want to click on the picture below to see a bigger version.

It looks really different than the aquarium gravel pieces. The cherry stone grit is sharper and more angular. I like the look.

Deeply Etched Rubber Stamps & Paper Casting

Some stamps are better than others for paper casting from toilet tissue.

If you use a traditional rubber stamp like the one on the left, you'll get an image that is indented into the casting. If you use a stamp with an image that is etched into the background, like the one on the right, you'll get an image that is raised.

If you want to highlight just the raised part of an image, you'll want a stamp like the one on the right. However, this example is not deeply etched. While a fine stamp for stamping, this is not so good for this type of paper casting.

The After Midnight stamp on the left is deeply etched and is very good for paper casting. It's the stamp I used for the "Faux Antiqued Pewter" technique. Because the image is etched into the background, it resulted in a casting with the main imaged raised above the background. This made it possible to highlight just the flower.

Here's a link to the Faux Antiqued Pewter

Also, Tyra Smith has an excellent tutorial on her website for toilet tissue casting

Another Aquarium Gravel Experiment

I've become so enamored of the aquarium gravel projects that I decided to combine my technique with a Krafty Lady mold. You'll have to click the pictures to see the detail.

I started the same way I did my last experiment with aquarium gravel. If you've read that one, you'll recognize it at this stage.

The difference is that I added a paper clay cast made with a Krafty Lady cameo mold I purchased from After Midnight. It's mold number 291. These molds are an absolute dream to use.

I glued down gravel and the cameo with cheap white glue and let them dry. Then I painted everything, including the cameo, with brown acrylic paint. I wiped most of the paint off the cameo right away, leaving only enough to highlight the details.

Here's a closeup of the cameo after the paint is mostly removed.

When the brown paint was dry, I highlighted the peaks in the textured areas with Lumiere Super Copper paint. I put a very small amount on the tip of my finger and rubbed most of it off on a piece of paper. I then dry rubbed the textured areas very lightly, so only the peaks would pick up the paint. I did the same with the graveled areas.

Here are some closeup photographs of the details.

Faux Antiqued Pewter

I was cataloging my new stamps and decided to turn this one into a paper cast. It's a great stamp by After Midnight. Here's how I did it for those who haven't tried it yet.

1. Lay rubber stamp down on table.

2. Spray with water.

3. Lay a single layer of toilet tissue over the stamp. With a soft paint brush, gently push the tissue into the crevices on the stamp.

4. Mix white glue with water (I think I diluted it about 50-50).

5. Lay another single layer of toilet tissue over the first. Dip the paint brush into the glue-water mixture and gently push the tissue into the crevices.

6. Continue this process until it's as thick as you want it. There are 5-10 layers, on this cast.

7. After it is dry, remove it from the stamp. It may curl or warp a little.

8. Mount on a piece of mat board. I ran it through my Xyron adhesive machine, but you could use double sided tape or a glue stick. I think I would avoid a wet adhesive at this point.

9. Paint the cast and the mat with black acrylic paint. I just used inexpensive craft paint this time.

10. When dry, apply silver Rub 'n Buff. Let is set, then buff it with a paper towel.

Use on a card or on the front of a journal or on a paper mache box.