How to use Pan Pastels to make Aged Background

By Leave a Comment

~ * ~

This article is written by Tamara Dinius

Here we’ve taken canvas panels or water-colour paper to create this cute wall hanging.

Pan Pastels for aged background

This video will demonstrate the use of Pan Pastels and rubber stamps to create an aged background for use in your mixed media artwork.

 

Here is a snap shot of the background with the first few layers

Pan Pastels for aged background

And here we’ve added the stamping:

Pan Pastels for aged background

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tamara Dinius lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and chocolate lab. She has two grown daughters who make her life meaningful. They support her, ground her, embrace her, and are amazing people in their own right. Her love for mixed media has taken over most aspects of her creative journey. She believes mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression.

You can find more of Tamara’s work, and on her website countrycraftersusa.com, Etsy shop,  or via her Facebook

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

.

.

Filed Under: Mixed Media Art Techniques Tagged With: , , , , ,

Turning Mixed Media Tags into Greeting Cards

By 1 Comment

~ * ~

This article is written by Michelle G. Brown

I love making handmade greeting cards from my family and friends – but I always worry that the hard work that has gone into making them won’t be appreciated and they will be discarded along with the store bought cards. I wanted to make a greeting card that would keep on giving, well after the birthday or event has passed – that’s when I decided to make a tag bookmark and integrate that into a card; that ticks both boxes – a handmade greeting card AND a gift

Greeting Cards from shipping tags

Materials:

Faber-Castell Gelatos

Manilla shipping tags (here we used Size 7)

Rubber stamps (for the tags we used Ranger Ink Dina Wakely Media – Face in the Crowd MDR41313)

Black ink

Black markers and pens

Cardstock in colours to match the gelatos

Craft knife and cutting mat

Ribbon in colours to match

Making your Greeting Card Tags:

1. Gather materials and decide on colors. Here I was making Mothers’ Day cards, so I was after bright colours (and I just LOVE rainbow colours!)

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

2. Create a colourful background with the Gelatos on the tags, activating them with a little water

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

3. Add a stamped face and quote from the Dina Wakley set to your tag. Add a border with black marker. Add ribbon.

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

4. Add some stamped swirls to the card. Put the images around the edges as the tag will cover most of the card front.

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

5. Match the tags to the background card stock

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

6. Now we need to create a way to attach the tag to the card. I didn’t want to glue it permanently, so I cut slots into the card.

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

I put the tag onto the card and used a pencil to mark the top right side and the bottom left side of the tag, so I would know how wide the tag is. Then a drew half circles and cut them using the craft knife and cutting mat. Then I tested the tag and found the slits needed to extend past the edge of the tag. Then I cut the slits a bit bigger.

7. The easier way to put he tags into the card was to “twist” it in

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

8. Your mixed media tag greeting card is finished! You can also write a note INSIDE the card to tell the recipient that the tag can be removed and used as a bookmark.

handmade Greeting Cards from manilla shipping tags

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Michelle G. Brown is passionate about mixed media art and enjoys sharing her knowledge and techniques with you to allow you to express your own creativity. Michelle understands that many of us have an inner need to create. By learning a few basic techniques the amazing world of mixed media art is accessible to everyone!

Michelle lives with her husband and two boys in Melbourne, Australia. When she is not creating or on Facebook, she’s at karate training.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

.

.

Filed Under: Greeting Cards Tagged With: , , , , ,

Aged Background using Pan Pastels

By 2 Comments

~ * ~

This article is written by Tamara Dinius

Here we’ve taken canvas panels or water-colour paper to create this cute wall hanging.

Aged Background using Pan Pastels

This video will demonstrate the use of Pan Pastels and rubber stamps to create an aged background for use in your mixed media artwork.

 

Here is a snap shot of the background with the first few layers

Using Texture Plates to add dimension

And here we’ve added the stamping:

Aged Background using Pan Pastels

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tamara Dinius lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and chocolate lab. She has two grown daughters who make her life meaningful. They support her, ground her, embrace her, and are amazing people in their own right. Her love for mixed media has taken over most aspects of her creative journey. She believes mixed media allows for a broad range of styles and anyone can find success in this form of artistic expression.

You can find more of Tamara’s work, and on her website countrycraftersusa.com, Etsy shop,  or via her Facebook

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

.

.

Filed Under: Mixed Media Techniques Tagged With: , , , , ,

Handmade Vintage Christmas Greeting Cards

By 2 Comments

With the Holiday season approaching, it’s time to get started on our handmade greeting cards. Here we have used our Mixed Media Art Ephemera Sheet 17 ~ Vintage Christmas Greetings to get us started. Once you have downloaded the ephemera sheet and get it printed, it makes it easy to create individual handmade greeting cards.

These Vintage Christmas Greetings have also come from my Aunt’s vintage greeting cards collection. The box is still FULL of cards and interesting ephemera that you haven’t seen yet and I just LOVE going through the musty smelling papers to bring the interesting and the strange vintage images to you.

using vintage images to create your own handmade greeting card

Tools and Materials

Process

1. Download and print off your Vintage Christmas greeting ephemera sheet. Gather supplies together. You can choose the colored card that suits the image that you have chosen.

2. Cut out the image you will be using. I prefer to use a craft knife, steel rule and cutting mat.

3. Cut imaging into roughly thirds, taking the image as a guide to get the best fit. Don’t worry if you make a mistake – just print the ephemera sheet out and start again!

4. Edge three panels with black ink. Let them sit for a minute or so to dry.

5. Use double sided tape to stick three panels onto green card, leaving a gap of about 5mm [3/18″] between panels and around edges. I did this by eye, but you can measure the distances if you would prefer.

6. Cut out the green card, using the craft knife.

7. Layer the green card with three image panels onto the cream metallic paint. Cut it out. I used a slightly smaller border, just to allow the image to sit up off the backing card.

8. My original plan was to put this straight onto the green card, folded in half, but something was missing.

9. I pulled out a holly stamp to tie in with the image theme.

10. Stamp holly around the edge of the green card. Use part images and turn the stamp to add interest and variety from one stamp.

11. Layer image and background onto stamped green card. And admire your work now that your greeting cards finished – don’t forget to sign the back and add the date.

Handmade greeting cards with mixed media art epherma sheet

Filed Under: Greeting Cards Tagged With: , , , , , ,
Next Page »