Materials list:
- Cereal box cardboard
- Gesso
- Acrylic paints – two colours
- Foam stamps
- Found object stamps
- Black ink
- Spray Varnish
Postcard Art
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Create Your Own Pearlized Flourishes
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This article is written by Dawn Stegall of FaithfullyYours.net
From crystals, to pearls to rhinestones and beyond, bling is hot in scrapbooking and mixed media art! However, bling can be expensive. In this tutorial, you will learn how to make your own pearlized flourishes for much less. Not only are these less expensive, but quick and easy to create as well as easily customizable.
Supply list:
• Bling flourish (you want to copy)
• Pearl paint (Ranger’s liquid pearls, Tulips pearl fabric paint)
• Transparency
• Scanner/copier
Step 1: Scan/Copy Original Flourish
This step may require some experimenting on your part to get the desired result. I started out scanning with flourish still attached to original backing. Finally, I ended up copying and printing in one step.
Step 2: Place transparency on top of copied image.
Step 3: Begin Painting
Add dots of paint following copy as your guide. Keep paint bottle straight up for better “beads” of paint.
Continue adding paint.
This copy has multiple flourishes. You can copy “as is” or only use the ones you want.
Once you have finished making all your beads, let dry.
Step 4: Trim Around Flourish
The clear transparency will be barely visible on your finished project.
Finished card using handmade pearl flourish.
The flourish didn’t quite fit my card placement, so I cut it apart and placed around the sentiment how I wanted.
A few ideas:
• You can use any type of flourish or pattern. Just follow along lines, making dots of paint.
• Stamps-I have also seen rubber stamps of “dotted” flourishes. Stamp with watermark ink or a light ink and cover each stamped dot with a dot of paint.
• Find a digital image online you can print out and use for your pattern.
Think outside the box! You can use any shape, pattern or design you want. Simply follow along the design placing spaced dots of paint. Good luck and fun!
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Dawn Stegall strives to be a good steward while remembering God in her scrapbooks.
For a free guide and weekly inspiration visit FaithfullyYours.
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Homemade Stamps
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This article is written by Francesca Albini
I wanted to do a little booklet of imaginary landscapes and thought it would be fun to use only stamps and stickers. I have a large collection of stickers that I find in children’s books and magazines, or that I buy when I travel. Most of the stamps I used in my booklet are homemade. All you need is some lino carving knives, scissors, a brayer, some kind of plastic sheet to spread acrylic paint onto and… a trip to the pound (or dollar) store. There you will find lots of things that can be used to make stamps – flip-flops, erasers, foam sheets, gardening mats, etc. You can find novelty erasers in the shape of fish, frogs, triangles, that can be quite cute. Also don’t forget the small erasers at the back of pencils, they make lovely dots. After a while you’ll develop an eye for what items make interesting patterns.
Normal white erasers are ideal for carving simple designs, like my palm trees, the bird and the sun. I draw the (mirror) image with a marker on the eraser and then carve out very carefully all the bits that I don’t want printed. I ink the stamp and do a print, if it needs tweaking I carve some more and test it again. I use both sides of the eraser, so I get two stamps out of one eraser. Tips, sides and corners of erasers can also be used to print lines and rectangles.
I cut the fish and the waves from a foam sheet that came from a children’s card making kit. I cut the foam gardening mat into blocks, and with a double sided sticky tape I attached a thick windy string on one, some paper clips on another and buttons on a third.
To ink my stamps, I use ink pads, stamping brush markers and acrylic paint. When using acrylic you have to wash your stamps straight away, before the paint dries. Sometimes it helps to put a foam sheet under the page where you want to stamp, so that you get a better print (with the buttons stamp, for instance.)
I like the idea of a theme, like landscapes. I guess one could also make portraits out of stamps, compositing hair, eyes, hats. The possibilities are endless.
Happy stamping!
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Francesca is a visual artist using pretty much everything she finds around her to record and relive feelings and memories of places and emotions. She collages, paints, draws, photographs. Francesca loves mixing modern technology, such as mobile phone apps, with the simplest of tools such as glitter glue, crayons and other children’s art supplies. Read her blog at Frans Journal Blogspot.
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Junk mail art and homemade gesso
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This article is written by Francesca Albini
Looking at the speed at which my paper recycling box fills up every week, I’ve been exploring various ways of making art with junk mail. The simplest way is to use it is as an interesting background for mixed media work.
In this picture of dancers in the woods, I glued torn pieces of coloured junk mail to a board. When the glue was dry, I sanded the whole surface to make it blend together more and take the excessive gloss out of the paper. I then added glazes of my home made pink gel pen ink. I also made a rough contour of the pieces with my ball point ink and a very dry brush. The trees are also painted with ball point ink. I gave the impression of grass with children’s green day-glo paint. Lastly, I painted the dancers in gesso and contoured them with a toothpick dipped in ball point ink. The sun through the branches is done with a yellow highlighter spread with a wet brush.
Another way of using junk mail is to cover it in gesso and then paint, write, collage over it. Of course, while junk mail is free, gesso is very expensive. So here’s how to make your own super cheap one. Next time you decorate, keep your unused water based white wall paint (or use white acrylic paint). Mix the paint with baby powder (possibly unscented!) and pva. Now you are ready to cover in gesso tons of useless leaflets. I make as much gesso as I need on the day, so I don’t know if it can be stored.
You can use the paper to make single artworks, or sew them together into a junk mail journal. I wanted to challenge myself here and decided to do a “Raphael” on a gessoed leaflet. I used washes of children’s gouache and was quite pleased with the way in which the support received the paint. I found it sturdier and more forgiving than watercolour paper, and I like the little bit of texture coming through the gesso.
Of course, junk mail can be used to do fun collages, as well. I seem to receive a lot of pizza leaflets, so I made a pizza-man out of them. The funny character was then scanned into the computer and given a digital background.
Enjoy your junk mail, and make great art with it!
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Francesca is a visual artist using pretty much everything she finds around her to record and relive feelings and memories of places and emotions. She collages, paints, draws, photographs. Francesca loves mixing modern technology, such as mobile phone apps, with the simplest of tools such as glitter glue, crayons and other children’s art supplies. Read her blog at http://franjournal.blogspot.com/
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