“Truth” and “Time”: A Mixed Media Art Journal

This article is written by Cecilia Sanchez

I had many things to tell, but are all negative thoughts and makes me sad. I decided to hide those negative thoughts and only save two words of optimism. “Truth” and “Time”is my latest art journal page.

Materials:

  • Gesso
  • Color wash
  • Waterproof ZIG writer
  • Stencils
  • Acrylic paint
  • Distress ink
  • Metalic Zig writer
  • White uniball Signo
  • Masking tape
  • Stickers of letters
  • Wooden hearts
Art Journal Instructional Video

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"Truth" and "Time by Cecilia SanchezMy name is Cecilia Sanchez and I live in Málaga, Spain. I am married and we have three gorgeous sons: Javi (9), Antonio (6) and Jorge (6). They inspire me every day with their crazy ideas.

Since my childhood I liked photography, drawing, collage and make photo albums with cuts and travel souvenirs. I also love crafts in general. In 2006, a few months after birth of my twins, I discovered scrapbooking, digital first and then the traditional. I love to do 30X30 pages, cards and mini albums, and for over a year I am fascinated with the Art Journal and Mixed Media.

I am inspired by everyday things, feelings … The art journal is a real diary for me, because sometimes I need to express my feelings with colors and shapes

I love learning and discovering new techniques and materials. For a couple of years I began to take courses online and in person to learn new techniques and to incorporate them into my work. Since September 2010, I am part of the design team of Sweet Card Club, a monthly challenge blog cards.

From May 2011 also became part of the European team KURETAKE design, manufacturers of markers and pens Zig Memory System.

Since October 2011 I organize workshops Scrapbooking on “My Pink Scrapbook” unique physical scrapbooking store in Malaga.

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SOAP Technique: Creating a Textured Background

This article is written by Sunita Rajvanshi

Materials:

Regular hand washing liquid soap

Acrylic colors & canvas

Method:

  1. Mix a little acrylic color in small quantity with liquid soap (without mixing water in soap); say a ratio of 1: 2.
  2. Make bubbles, and apply with brush on the canvas (you can make many colors and apply at the same time on the canvas).
  3. Now immediately put your canvas under the sun, before the bubbles disappear & keep there until it dries.
  4. Don’t use a blower (hairdryer) for drying as bubbles will disappear with its hot air.
  5. Your beautiful background is ready.
SOAP Technique

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Creating a Textured BackgroundSunita Rajvanshi’s passion for Art started in early childhood in spite her studies in Science. Her relocation to Oman 4 years ago rekindled her passion and now she is using it to reach out and help the less privileged across the world.

She already did many exhibitions (including Dar Al Atta annual charity exhibition) in Muscat in last 4 years for charitable Causes.

Latest in year 2012, she took part in two exhibitions, to raise funds for PETRA (the Para equestrian and Therapeutic Riding Activities) Organization for disabled. One was “Celebration of Colours” from 23-27 April, 2012 with Tania Hens at Intercontinental Hotel and second was “Art for PETRA from 14-17 May, 2012 along with other eighteen artists.

She also worked as AWG art coordinator for 3 years until 2011. Also she is teaching “Mixed Media techniques in Collage” in PDORC Art Centre since 2009. She loves working with most of the mediums like oil, water color, charcoal etc. and nowadays experimenting with different textured backgrounds with Acrylics and planning to write a book about this.

She is also running a charitable Organization called “Second Chance Charitable Society in India to help the needy. One of her paintings appeared on the cover page of one of PDO’s publications in June 2011.

She enjoys leading workshops, also inspiring others to use their Art talent for helping needy by conducting more charity Art Exhibitions.

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Create Your Own Rub-ons

This article is written by Debbie Davis

I’ve been reading Marney Makridakis’ new book called Creating Time. I was intrigued by the name of this book because I always find myself saying things like, time goes by so fast, I don’t have enough time, etc.  I am hoping it will help me to at least feel like I have more time.  I am working on the first “Artsignment” in the book, which is creating a time box.

I wanted to add some quotes on time to the box and needed a quick, simple way to do it.  I had recently made my own text rub-ons for another project and thought that would be a great way to add text and dates to the box.

Creating text rub-ons

I found the quotes on-line by googling “time quotes” and then copied and pasted them into a word document.  I changed the font to a size and style that would fit on my project.  Using overhead transparency film, I placed the film into my inkjet printer so that the text would print onto the smooth side.

When creating rub-ons this way, you need to make sure to print text in a mirror image, otherwise it will be backwards when you rub it on your project.  Also, be careful not to touch the ink after printing or it will smear.  Lay the film, smooth side down, onto your project and, using your fingernail or a wooden craft stick, rub over the text/image you want transferred.  You can rub as light or as heavy as you want, depending on how clear you want the text/image to be.  I like to print off a string of symbols such as ########## and just randomly rub them on.

How to rub a text or image

After rubbing the quotes, etc, onto my time box, I decided to see if I could re-use any ink that might be left on the film.  I was so surprised to find that I could get another print out of most of what was on the transparency.  It was very light, but that just added to the look I was going for.

I added some additional text using the rub-ons so that it was darker in some areas.

Adding texts on the rub-ons    Rub the quotes on the time box

Please note that the rub-ons will not be permanent and will smear if you brush over them with anything wet such as paint or glue.  To set the ink, I took my project outside and lightly sprayed it with a little matt coating before doing any additional “wet” work on it.

Think of the possibilities with creating your own rub-ons!  Here’s an image that I printed onto the film and then rubbed on some scrapbook paper.  I found that you don’t need to set the ink when transferring the image to paper, unless the paper has been previously painted on or coated with any type of acrylic medium.

rubbing on a scrapbook paper

This is a fast and fun way to add text, numbers and even images to your art.

 

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My name is Debbie and I live in Morton, Illinois (USA). I’m happily married and have a wonderful family that includes a daughter, son, son-in-law and 2 of the sweetest grandchildren ever!

What I love most about mixed media art is that you don’t have to be an expert at anything to create beautiful art. It is a great way to recycle found objects. Art is such a wonderful stress reliever. I just wish I had more time to play!

I have a shop on Etsy called Artful Explorations where I place some of the art I have created for sale.

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Inverting Colors in Mixed Media Art

This article is written by Jon Webb

This artwork features my dog Wally who passed away several years ago. I call this artwork, “Celestial Surfer“.

Jon Webb’s Artwork

I created this by using:

  • black marker to make star-like dots on
  • water color paper
  • glue
  • photo cutout of my dog
  • cardstock
  • water color crayon

This is how I created it:

  • draw the surfboard and painted it with a water color crayon.
  • After the paint dried, I glued to the surfboard.
  • Then it was all scanned into the computer – I used the inverse colors feature from the jpeg menu to create the night sky effect (I actually had to use a photo of the dog with the colors inversed when I glued it onto the surfboard). When I inversed the colors in the computer, the photo of the dog also changed back to normal.
  • I created the window from the jpeg menu and, once again, inversed the colors to make it opposite of the surrounding background. The trim around the edges was created from cardstock and from the jpeg menu.

I usually experiment on different things to discover new ideas. Creativity as well assists me in all my artworks. Don’t be afraid to explore new things. Art is fun and you can always use art to express your feelings, thoughts and who you are.

I started a blog last month which features the rest of my artwork. Here is the link to it: jonfwebb.blogspot.com. You are welcome to visit it anytime. I hope you’ll like my artworks. I hope you get a good laugh out of it if anything else. Thank you, once again.

 

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Hi! my name is Jon Webb. I am a mild-mannered grocery store employee, who lives in a world of weird, ridiculous, and sometimes serious art which is represented here. Although my artwork is warped and twisted much of the time, it is G-rated and not meant to insult anybody, though I do reserve the privilege to poke fun at myself. I now live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex after spending most of my life in the western U.S. I am also a jack-of-a-few trades who mastered none of them. My greatest joy in life was the 25 years that I spent with my dear wife, Renee, who passed away in 2010.

I now invite you to visit my bizarre and sometimes serious world, and I hope you enjoy the experience. Come back as many times as you wish. To get the picture of what I am doing here, I recommend that you start at the beginning and work up to the current date. Remember, art saves!

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