Sky ATC-Reflections

The sky is one of my favorite things in the world. But when it came to this trade, I was kind of stuck. I guess I had too many ideas of which way to go, that I just couldn't pick one. Inspiration struck one morning as I was walking out to my car, on my way to work. It had rained and a puddle of water was in the street. I saw the reflection of the sky and trees and well, that was my idea. The execution was a little more difficult.

Digging through my fabrics, The perfect fabric presented itself. A batik in mainly white with blues, greens and golds running through it. I stamped the fabric with a tree stamp I had on hand using a purple ink. Once dry, the background was painted in using a light gray acrylic. The fabric part was then given two coats of glossy accents, with a few drops around on the "pavement". It was kind of boring, so I added in a purple ink around the water to make it pop more.

It was still boring and needed a pop of color. So back to my drawer of odds and ends, yielded these paper leaves. I added them using the glossy accents and it gave another layer of interest to the design. The edges were finished off using a copper shiva paintstik.

Happy Spring Everyone! We are still waiting for it to "spring" here!

Verdigris ATC - Year of the Snake

I thought this color idea paired nicely with the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Water Snake. I did something a little different this time. I took pictures of my process in creating this ATC. Why? I have no idea but I have had quite a few questions on how they were created so this will give you a visual step by step.

This is step 1. I fused pink fabric to peltex and used puffy paint to create a snake.

Step 2 is puffing up the paint and then painting over the whole piece with copper paint.

This was step 3. I painted the verdigris color over the top in a mottled kind of way to recreate the patina.

I didn't take pictures of the process after this. I used chinese stamps for prosperity and double happiness using red and gold inks. Then hand painted in the Chinese symbol for the snake (I love the internet!) and Year of the Snake.

Here are the final finished pieces:

The group shot

There was too much black so I used orange glitter glue over the top for a little extra punch.

Happy Chinese New Year!

ATC - Red

This year the group is going to do colors for the trades each month. Red is the color for February - how appropriate. My piece is titled PASSION which red always seems to signal to me.
I stamped all over my batik fabric scrap (which was in shades of red, orange and brown) with a handmade stamp. The stamp reminds me of something inside our brain that is all connected. When dry, I placed a red mesh fabric from a floral arrangement, over the entire piece and free motion quilted around the stamp and filled in with different sized circles using black thread. I cut them apart and added Glossy Accents onto the stamped parts to bring out the red. I think this may be one of my favorites! I loved out it turned out.
Don't forget to check out all the others at http://artsinthecards.blogspot.com

Spring - Kinda

Lot's of crazy stuff going on in my life right now! So I have a few things to post about. This is the latest of my ATC trading cards. Looking at them now, they really look so much like a set I did last year. I must have really liked that one!

The theme was in Just Spring based on ee cummings poem. I just didn't have anything springlike happening. We have had nothing but rain and overcast days. It has been depressing to say the least. Everyone has been just in a funk and it is well represented in my latest ATC's.

I used hand dyed fabric and did a rubbing on it with a leaf plate. It was boring. So I fused it to the peltex and cut to individual cards and stamped leaf prints using commercial and hand cut stamps in brown and light green. I really liked them at this point but then was at a loss on how to proceed. I just wasn't in a spring frame of mind. Finally I decided to just go with it and used fabric crayons and sequin waste to add in "flowers" in red, blue and yellow. I smeared on a sparkly glitter glue to represent the standing water. I heat set, then free motion stitched grasses as this seems to be the only thing growing right now. My single shot is a little blurry again. I think I may be having some problems with my camera. It is also tough to get good shots when the weather is so dark and dreary. But we are on our 2nd day of sunshine so things are looking more like spring! Finally!!

Trashin' the Mailman ATC

Our latest trade was to use the junk mail that we receive and create some ATC's. This gave me a chance to try out a cool new technique for image transfer. Take a color brochure and place packing tape over the image. Overlap if you need to. Then rub the whole image to make sure you get a good print. Once that is done, flip over to the backside, run some sandpaper over it to rough up the surface, then use water to remove the paper backing. This will leave you with a print of the image on the packing tape.
I glued this to watercolor paper that had been painted in pinks, blues and purples to match the colors from the brochures. I used gel medium to adhere it. I then pounced some interference blue over the fronts, then stamped with tiny snowflakes in dark blue. Once that was dry, I added another stamp in white in a random pattern and outlined in dark blue marker.
For the big snowflake, I cut out 2 snowflakes from the brochure and then made photocopies in a larger size. I made extras in case I screwed up ; )
I used glitter glue on top of the snowflakes to make them sparkle then cut each one out when the glue dried. I glued one to each card and added Holiday 2010 from another brochure.
Finally I added eyelets and funky yarn to frame the entire piece. They were hard to photograph as they are very shiney.

Check out our ATC blog to see all the other pieces for this challenge:
http://artsinthecards.blogspot.com/

This and That

Well I have not been as busy as I would like to be creating art but I haven't been a total slacker either. I just finished my ATC's for the latest trade - Sew What's Buggin' You? Mine are dragonflies! The write up for them is on the blog - http://artsinthecards.blogspot.com/

I am also working to get some pieces ready for submission to Art O Mat. I have two ideas but need to get them sent off and have them ok'd before I post pics. Wish me luck!

Going Green ATC Trade

I am actually early on my next trade. It isn't due until March 1st but Hubby's birthday is next weekend and the weekend after, I have to go on a girl scout camping trip. So this was it for me to get them done. I am really excited how they turned out but my photography is not so great.




The background is a paper towel I used to soak up excess dye during my summer experimentation with daughter and friend. I thought the colors were cool so I kept them. They were perfect for this challenge. I stamped a fern type pattern on each with a hand cut stamp. Then machine quilted around to accent them. I added some left over angelina fibers and some green netting I had on hand from a lime bag. They make great grasses! I sewed over them with some thread to make blades of grass. I added some sequins and beads for a little extra something and then finished the edges. I am really happy with these and have 3 left over!

Comfort

The Fiberarts Group I belong to had a challenge. Every two months, we will get a new theme to work with. Our first was Comfort and what it means to you. I am late getting my entry in as I am getting over a nasty sinus infection and the in-laws have swooped in for an impromptu visit. Was supposed to be two weeks but is going to be 4. I love them to pieces but the little time I have to work on art has been whittled down to near extinct. Oh well.

So my entry was born out of a small snow storm that we had. There is something very peaceful about the world blanketed with snow. (Not the 30 inches in DC mind you) but a few inches that makes you stay home and hang out with your family.

I used some fabric from a previous experiment. I drew the background with Neocolors watercolor crayons and then added water to blend. When dry, I used various rubber stamps of trees and leaves and grasses to create the treeline. I placed the stamp underneath and rubbed using the same water color crayons. I misted them with water to let them bleed and blend a little and then quickly ironed the fabric (from behind) to heat set and stop them from disappearing all together. I thread painted the trees and grasses. I also added angelina fibers to create the snow in the foreground. The tree in the middle was beaded with some metallic beads to add some texture.

I still feel it needs something in the lower right hand corner. I wanted to add some tall grasses but my hubby thinks it looks great the way it is. What do you think?

ATC Challenge - Red

I was invited to join a small Artist Trading Group and we just finished our first trade. The challenge was the color red. Originally I was thinking Valentine's Day but that was so obvious. But then I ran across some Chinese envelopes I had in a drawer and the inspiration took hold. This year, Chinese New Year lands on Valentine's Day! So I created ATC's based on the year of the Metal Tiger which is this year's animal.

First I used a red fabric background and stamped a chinese character in dark blue. Then stamped some other oriental motifs in cold and a darker red. I then used a puffy paint to paint individual tigers on each card. When dry, I used a heat gun to puff them up and then painted them copper using H20 watercolor paints. When that dried, I added in details and stripes with a dye pen. The pen with the H20 paint trashed two of my black pens. Apparently they don't play nice together. So note to self, don't do that again. I sewed a Chinese coin onto each and finished the edges with a satin stitch in black.

I made 8 so that I could pick the best of the bunch for my trade which included only 5 people. So I have 3 left but need to do some adjustments to the faces.

Stamps and such

I am trying to get back into a creative groove. School starting up for the kids has thrown my schedule into the twilight zone! So we are finally settling back into a new routine and I am trying to carve out some time for myself. Soccer was canceled on Saturday which gave me time to play catch up on projects! Yeah!

So I went to work on an idea I have had rolling around in my brain for a while. My inspiration was the fields of natural prairie grasses that grow so plentiful here in the midwest. I took pictures last fall (good thing as this fall has had nothing but rain!) I bought some fabric from my good friend Katherine Sands.


Well about a year ago I bought it! Anyway, I carved some stamps this weekend and played with them in my sketchbook to get my ideas down for the composition.




Not there yet but thought I would post and get some feedback.


This has a graduated background of blues and then I stamped the grasses in three colors. I added the other stamps and realized that I could do this as a piece near water and add reflections! Another avenue I hadn't considered.



This one was a simplified version of the different grasses. But I had sketched it in with colored pencils a while ago since I hadn't done the stamps yet.



This one was created like the first but on a previously painted background in my sketchbook. The colors are blending into the background so I need to add more darks. But this was just for ideas and working out everything.

The large stamp was of a teasel weed. Didn't realize it was an invasive plant until I was at a rest stop in Illinois and saw it posted on the wall! Yikes. I first noticed them last year and thought we were getting a cool thistle with some great flowers. All it did was turn brown.