Caulk in Art Revisited - Yummy Texture and Dimension

Oh my goodness, where does the time go?  I'm really trying to post more consistently so my blog doesn't grow old and become stale.  I'm so honored to have so many followers and people who visit my blog, and I feel like I'm dropping the ball this year because my posting has been so intermittent.  On the other hand, when one is fighting the cancer battle, art becomes secondary or even further down on the priority list.

These pictures are not of new, recent art, and yes, they've all been posted on my blog before.  But they are three of my favorite works using caulk....which is a product I love to use, write about, and show and tell how it can be used.  I guess I just love promoting the use of caulk for great texture and dimension.  Some artists out there already know about it and have used it in their art, but there are also many artists who don't know about it and haven't used it.  Those are the ones I'm trying to reach and inspire to at least try using caulk.

I love the fact that it's so inexpensive (meaning cheap), so easily accessible, so easy to work with, and gives such great results.  What could be better than that?  It can be found at Family Dollar stores for a mere buckaroo ($1.00).  It's a little more expensive at the home improvement stores, ranging in price.  I buy the 5 ounce hard cylinders that need a caulk gun to extrude, but even caulk guns are cheap.  Or, you can buy it in the tubes that don't need a caulk gun.  I extrude it into a glass jar (the more shallow jars salsa comes in work great), and then put two layers of plastic wrap over the top, and then screw the lid on.  That helps keep the moisture in.  I've never had any caulk dry out on me, it can stay moist and usable for at least year, or even longer.

It can be colored with acrylic paint and liquid inks, and possibly even food coloring.  Or painted any color after it dries.  It can also be sanded after it dries.  It can be stamped or impressed into when it's wet, or frosted over stencils for a great but subtle dimensional effect.  It's a great adhesive and things can be embedded into it, or it can be used like glue to attach and adhere heavier items to a base or assemblage.  It can be applied to rubber stamps or any item with a make-up sponge, to get some dimension.  It can be diluted with water, or I suppose with any acrylic medium, to any consistency you desire.  You can put it in a plastic squeeze bottle to get the effect of dimension, or dilute it even thinner and use it more like gesso.  You can mix things with it when it's wet to get different textures, such as sand, cornmeal, tea grounds from used teabags, used coffee grounds, saw dust, small beads, torn paper, etc.  The sky is the limit as to what can be mixed in with it.  Oh yeah, and caulk can also be used on fabric and almost any surface.  If any of you have any more suggestions on how to use it, please share that information in a comment so all of us can learn about it.

What I've shared here so far are general tips on all the different ways to use caulk.  For more specific information on how I made certain art pieces using caulk, here is the link to all my caulk pieces.  So just scroll down that page.  And here's the link to my very first post on caulk, posted soon after I started my blog in February of 2008.

Regarding making some new art, I am actually working on an 11 X 14 canvas panel, a gift for my dear younger sister (and only sister) Jan, who requested an art work from me.  She has helped me so much and been so supportive during my battle with cancer.  And I love her and appreciate her so much.  I've managed to get the canvas panel painted in different shades of blue, green, and purple, and duh....I'm not liking it much at all.  Which is disconcerting to me.  No, more than that, it's bugging the heck out of me.  It doesn't happen very often that I dislike my art while in the process of creating it.  Occasionally, yes, but not that often.  Usually the more I do on a piece, the more I like it as it progresses.  And I consider this to be a very special and important piece, as a token of my love and appreciation for my sister.  

 The problem is, I'm really in a quandary as to where to go from here.  I suppose I could just gesso over it and start over again, even though I have many layers of paint on it, first with the credit card technic, then the sponge technic.  It has lots of paint on it, but I don't like the way it looks.  Even though it may sound crazy, I've never started over on a piece of art.  It shouldn't be a big deal, but it feels like a big deal.  I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head regarding what I want to do, I can't pick a direction to go in or focus on what to do next.  The ideas are: 

1.  to use caulk and/or wallboard joint compound for a very textural abstract piece.

2.  to do a layered collage, which I haven't done in a long time

3.  to use fabric and lace on it, and maybe even some kind of transfer

4.  to do a nature piece

All of these ideas are competing in my head, and I'm even trying to figure out how I can do all of them in one piece.  That would be great if I could manage to do it.  Or would it be?  Maybe not.  I just don't know.  So right now I'm very stuck.  I wonder if I should start over on it or just set it aside for a while, until I can focus on where I want to go with it.  There's no time deadline or urgency to get it done, and yet I'm very impatient to get it done.  Not only for her sake, so she can hang it in her home, but for my sake, to prove to myself that yes, I can still make art that I like or love.  Because I am concerned about that since I've made only one piece of new art since January, when I found out about the cancer.  At this point, I'm afraid I've lost a lot of the confidence I used to have, regarding making art.  And that is not a fun place to be in.  Oh well, this isn't earth shattering, I'm sure I'll work through it.  But I'd like to be there already!!!  I really need to gain my confidence back.

Oh, one more tip.  When I go to thrift stores or yard sales, I always look for frames. Sometimes I find canvas panels of different sizes, either clean and unused, or already painted on.  This panel I'm working on was already painted on, it was a painting of flowers.  It was not a very good painting.  So I just gessoed over it, and voila it was like a new large canvas panel that I paid a buck for.  I've been able to accumulate six canvas panels so far. Sometimes I find wooden plaques that would make good, sturdy bases for a piece of art.  So keep your eyes open for any kind of base that would work for an art piece.

And if any of you have any great tips for anything regarding making art, please leave that info in a comment.  I think tips are always fun and interesting to read, and it's great when I haven't heard them before.   Tips can really inspire me, and I could use some inspiration right now.  So how about sharing your own tips?  Please do!!!  You'd be doing me a favor.  I have the rest of the day to work on art.  Here's to hoping I find my way out of this quandary today.

One more tip.  If you like using lace in your art, look for lace tablecloths at thrift stores and yard sales.  I bagged a large, mint condition white tablecloth at a thrift store on sale for $2.00 a few weeks ago.  It's the thicker cotton lace, which I prefer.  And cotton lace can be dyed.  All lace can be painted.  The easiest and fastest way to paint it is to use spray paint.  Painting it with a brush can be slow and tedious.  I figure this large tablecloth will last me a good, long time.  I won't be running out of lace anytime soon, that's for sure.                                                                                                                         

Big Reveal of 2nd Collab Project

I'm so thrilled to be able to post this beautiful art work. This is my second collaboration project of this type. My dear friend Heather Robinson and I teamed up to put our hearts and minds together to create this piece. One I am in love with, I don't mind saying, and I'm so excited and grateful that it's MINE ALL MINE!!! This arrived in the mail last week, and I've been admiring it ever since.

The first picture is of the background I made on this 8x10 inch piece, done on thick piece of chipboard. Then I mailed it to Heather for her to work her artistic magic on it. And so she did, and I'm in awe of what she turned this piece into.  The second picture is what it looks like now.  I totally LOVE what she did, and the result of our heartfelt collaboration. She made her background on stretched canvas, and sent it to me, and I did my part on that and sent it back to her. From what she told me, she loves her piece too. We chose to synchronize our blog posts of "The Big Reveal", so you can click on her name above to see her piece, and what I did on that.

I'm happy to post the before and after pictures here of my piece. Because it shows how Heather transformed my background into a totally different work of art, by using what I did as a jumping off point. One that never would've happened or been created if we hadn't done this together, as a collaboration. And I did the same with her background. I was oh so excited when this arrived in the mail, and I could finally see how she chose to complete this piece. I kept wondering and guessing in my mind, but had no clue what she was doing on it. Once I opened it, I was in heaven, and at peace. Because this was perfect, and meant to be, and far exceeded any expectations I had.

I realized that she finished this piece in a way I never would have, meaning it never would've occurred to me to do what she did, not in a million years. Because we are two different and individual artists. One interesting and even surprising thing about this collab effort is that although Heather and I have the greatest respect for each other's art, we both admit that our art and art styles are very different, indeed almost opposite. She uses a lot of vintage images and text in her art, whereas I rarely do. My art style is more raw and unexpected and unconventional, and hers is more refined and elegant and generally conveys a message. Initially, this was a bit of a concern to us, that our art styles are so very different.

In the beginning, I think both of us, secretly and privately, felt like we had to reach for the "middle ground", and try to make art more like the other person's style. But over time, in a number of wonderfully honest  and vulnerable emails, we expressed our thoughts and feelings about this, and realized the goal was not to meet in the middle, or compromise our own art styles, but to make our own art in our own styles, and be true to ourselves. Once we established that and agreed, we felt freedom and excitement and anticipation at what the other would do on our backgrounds. That made it so much more interesting and exciting, knowing that our art styles were so different, but that we could still be true to ourselves.

Heather and I were online acquaintances and friendly before we embarked on this collab effort. But in the process of doing this, we became true friends and got to know each other much better, in a much deeper way. Our friendship grew and blossomed, because we shared our true thoughts and feelings about our art and ourselves and this whole process and collab effort. Now we have a wonderful and special friendship that we intend to maintain, that we both appreciate so much. And I don't think that would've happened if we hadn't embarked on this venture and adventure, and both said an unqualified YES to it, even though we both had some underlying fears and concerns.  I am just so grateful that Heather and I agreed to do this project. Grateful for the awesome, beautiful art piece I ended up with....but even more grateful for the friendship and connection we developed, which to me is the real prize!!! Thank you so very much dear Heather, for this awesome art piece, and even more so for your friendship.

I have to shout out to the world -- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- beyond my hopes or expectations, regarding this collab effort. And I also have to say that the same thing happened in my first collab effort, with Mary Schweitzer. Click on her name to see my finished piece from her. Mary and I also became friends as a result of our collab effort. Gee, it's funny how that happens. No, not really. I think it's the extra bonus, the special gift, of doing this kind of cooperative venture and adventure with another artist.

So as you might expect or understand, I'm very big on doing the collab thing right now. It's rather a life changing experience, as a person and artist. At least it has been for me and for Heather, as she told me that. I see it as the next step of my art journey, and life journey. And it's not like I sat around and thought about it, about doing collab projects, before the idea came to me last summer. Because it just popped into my head, out of nowhere, totally unexpected. And I just went with it, and invited Mary and Heather to jump in and go with it too. I simply did it on impulse, and am so happy and grateful I did and they did. (Because sometimes when I do things on impulse, well the outcome isn't so great, LOL.)

For those of you artists out there reading this, I totally encourage you to jump in and do a similar collab effort, for the first time. At least try it once, but most likely if you do, you'll want to do more than one. (I've got two more going right now.) I am very fortunate to have a local art group here in Denver metro that meets once a month, and I totally love it. But many of you don't have that. And so I know, you make your art alone at home. Yes, you may belong to great yahoo groups and visit blogs, and know a lot of artists online as acquaintances, but when it comes to online art friendships, and really connecting with other artists, do you have that? Well if so, that's wonderful. If not, and you'd like to have that, then you might need to reach out and take the initiative, and propose a collab effort with another artist. The most likely by-product of that will be friendship and a beautiful piece of art.  And gee, if they should turn you down for whatever reason, that's okay.  Just know there are other artists out there who would love to do this and would say YES!

I don't know, maybe I'm trying to start a movement here. My muse hasn't confessed to me if that's what she's up to or not. I just know doing a collab effort is a very special thing, with so many positive benefits. It's a challenge, a growth experience, a cooperative experience -- that isn't available doing art alone. It's a totally different experience, and a positive step forward in my opinion, in the art journey. It requires trust, cooperation, communication, vulnerability....all things that build friendship.  All things that may not be easy, but the rewards make it totally worth it, in my opinion.

Well, I hope I didn't go on too long here, but this means a lot to me. Not only in my own collab efforts and experiences, but in my hope that YOU out there will try this also, and reap the wonderful rewards and benefits I have. So yes, I'm trying to start a Collab Movement here.   I'm wondering, what is the next step in this MOVEMENT?  Perhaps the sky is the limit.

The rest of my heart postcards

Ahh yes, these are my last seven out of ten postcards, if you include the post below. I wasn't able to upload all seven photos in one post, so this is a "split post", so to speak. I've had hearts on my mind and brain for well over a month now, while making all these postcards. It was a fun swap and I love the heart theme. However, at this point I'm glad all my postcards are made and in the mail.

I won't go into detail on how I made these, for fairly obvious reasons. Suffice it to say I used a fabric background on all of them, which was my goal. On some the fabric is glued to frozen pizza cardboard (FPC), on the others I used the Mod Podge technic (explained in a previous post). They are all different, which was my plan.

Soon I'll be starting another collaborative effort with another online artist. Something I look forward to. And also working on my own fabric book, the first time ever. That is if I can get over my fear and intimidation of my new electronic Brother sewing machine. I totally love it, but am not familiar or comfortable with it yet.

Ahhh yes, another fabric heart postcard

Well, I'm involved in a heart postcard swap in a favorite yahoo group right now, and I have to make nine of them. So far I have five done, and four to go. Obviously I have hearts on the brain while I'm making these, and will be posting all or some of them on my blog. All the ones I've made so far are different, but I'm a bit worried about running out of original ideas for all nine of them. We'll see if my muse, Bonita, comes through for me, or if I end up duplicating some of them. The heart theme is right up my alley, because I love using hearts in my art, and have done it fairly often.

I used yellow fabric for the base of this piece, and frayed the edges. I often do that when I use fabric in my art. (I used the Mod Podge on plastic technic that I explained in my post of March 11th, so scroll down to read about that technic). Then I stamped with lavender and green acrylic paints, using my new harlequin stamp and a bottle lid for the green circles. Then I glued down the threads from fraying for great texture.

The cute bird is stamped onto a distressed paint chip (I've explained the distressed paint chip technic in a number of previous posts), and for the heart I glued lace fabric cut from a blouse onto paint chip, then painted it yellow, then rubbed over it with lavender paint. I also glued down a small skeleton leaf, and five seeds that I painted with my very cool three tip paint brush. I also used that brush on the edges for the lavender lines.

I'm proud of myself that I actually used some stamps on this piece. As I've said before, I have sooo many cool stamps and yet so seldom use them in my art. I'm not sure why that is, but it bothers me. Especially when I have so many great stamps, most of which I've never used even once. How sad/crazy is that??? And yet, I keep buying stamps, which makes it even crazier. In fact, I have to fess up that I bought some new stamp sets from Addicted to Rubber Stamps just a week ago, when they had their 31% off sale. They haven't arrived yet. I saved money on the sale, but the shipping cost was a big "ouch"! Due to the high shipping cost, a whopping $8.37, which totally made me wince, I only ended up saving a few dollars on the whole deal. I just can't believe the shipping was so high, when I know the unmounted stamps don't weigh that much.

I rarely buy things online for that very reason -- the outrageous shipping costs! But these are stamp sets I haven't seen at Hobby Lobby or Joann's, so I could only get them online. And now, I'm wondering (and fearing) how long it will take me to actually use them in my art. So anyway, I'm trying to make myself use my stamps more in my art. At least that's a goal of mine.

Another heart fabric postcard

Well, I seem to be in the mode right now of making fabric heart postcards. And actually, being in the mode and mood of making art, any art, whatever it is, is a good thing in my book....since I'm just recovering from being in a dreaded art slump/funk. I love using hearts in my art, and also using fabric. I have a wonderful stash of accumulated fabrics, many of them remnants bought at thrift stores, some at yard sales. Sometimes I buy clothes at yard sales, which tend to be very very cheap, for the purpose of cutting them up to use in my art. It's rare indeed that I actually buy new fabric to use in my art, except for quilting fat quarters (always on sale) occasionally, because I love the colors and patterns.

When I make art postcards, they are always 4x6 inches, the standard size for a postcard. Or as near to that as I can get. And most times, when I work with fabric in my art, it's hard for me to resist fraying the edges, especially with postcards. I love the way frayed edges look, and also love using the threads from fraying, glued down for great texture. Which is what I did on this piece, and then rubbed the threads with lavender acrylic paint for contrast.

I used the same Mod Podge technic on this piece as on my last post, to add strength and flexibility to the fabric. It just works so well, it's almost amazing. MP is also relatively inexpensive (still, after all these years), and I always use a 40% or 50% off coupon when I buy it. The fabric I used for the two squares is the same fabric I used for the pc base. The middle piece is cut out of a window blind sample I got at Lowe's, the same as in my last posted piece. (Lowe's has a wealth of great things to use in art.) The hearts were punched out of a paint chip. Last but not least, I chose to glue down (using gel medium) two small skeleton leaves.

I do like the colors on this, and experimenting with color combinations. Although I don't think I do that often enough in my art. I don't really know much about color, so I mostly just go with what colors I think look good together.

I'm submitting this to Saturday Surprise (http://saturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/) for their challenge this week.  The theme is Sewing Basket -- using anything that can be used for sewing in our art. 

Heart postcard for a swap

I'm so HAPPY to be posting again with some more new art, after a too long dry art slump. I worked on this piece yesterday, and had fun making it. Well actually, I started on it two days ago, because it had to dry overnight. I love using hearts in my art, which I do fairly often, so signing up for this swap in one of my favorite yahoo groups was right up my alley, so to speak.

I remembered I had done a certain technic on a postcard swap a few years ago that worked out well, so I chose to revisit that technic for this postcard. I cut out a piece of muslin fabric and frayed the edges and saved the threads. Then I put it on top of a plastic bag, and painted it with lots of matte Mod Podge, basically saturated it. That's why it had to dry overnight. Then I peeled it off the plastic. This technic is quite simple, and gives the fabric some strength and stiffness, and yet is totally flexible. It almost ends up feeling like a thick piece of plastic. It totally changes the feel of the fabric, but doesn't affect the look of it.

Then I painted it with Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint, and then glued down the thread I'd saved from the fraying. I love using threads for texture, especially on fabric art. Once dry, I rubbed orange paint over them with my finger, to bring out the texture and the contrast. I used the same orange paint on the frayed edges, to frame the whole piece. The three strips on the right were cut from a window blind sample I got at Lowe's. I painted them with yellow paint first, then rubbed orange paint over them to bring out the great texture. Then used a paper punch to punch the three hearts out of a yellow paint chip. After I glued the hearts on, I used a triple tip brush to paint on the parallel lines. I love that brush, and bought it at Joann's a while back, but they no longer carry it at the Joann's I shop at. What a shame, it's a great way to paint on parallel lines. I take really good care of that brush!

The large heart was cut out of paint chip, and then I glued down printed fabric over it. The details of the pattern on the fabric don't show up very well on this scan, but it has a cool linear pattern, with just the right colors for this piece. After I glued that down, I pulled out some squash seeds I'd washed and saved, and glued those down around the heart. Then I painted them, and used the triple tip brush again to paint the lines on. I'm amazed at how those lines changed the whole look of the painted seeds. I sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF), which gives a glossy finish.

Regarding the colors I used, I love this color combination, it's one of my favorites. I've used it a few times in my art, but actually not that often. I was using brown so much in my art for so long, and I love it for sure, but felt I needed to get back to using more color in some of my art. Because I also love using bold color. I don't know, maybe I just go through certain phases at certain times, which never seem to be predictable.

I think it's fun to revisit certain technics that I forgot about. This is a great and simple technic, and I'm glad it came to my mind for this piece. I love the way it gives strength to lightweight fabric, and feels so different than gluing fabric to cardboard. I didn't "invent" this technic, I learned about it online, but forget the source. If I could remember, I'd include the link, but I simply don't remember.  I'd also like to say that although the Mod Podge easily penetrated to the back of this muslin piece, it doesn't penetrate the same way with all fabrics.  So if it doesn't penetrate through to the back of the piece, you may have to turn it over when it's dry and Mod Podge the backside, or Mod Podge both sides more than once, to get the strength and stiffness you want.  Basically you can play with this technic to get your own desired results.  

So that's how this piece was made, with no pain or angst or problems. Woohoo for that. Any questions??? Or suggestions??? It was so great to have fun making this piece, and I'm excited it's for a swap. I just hope the person I send it to likes it. That's always a consideration in a swap, isn't it?

Three Hearts

This is a 5x5 piece I created yesterday. I haven't been doing much art in the past month, so I was happy to get this done. The background is a dyed paper towel, glued onto frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). Then I painted random lines onto that in lavender, and glued down a frayed piece of muslin fabric. I took the frayed threads and glued those down also. When dry, I rubbed green paint over them. I used an embossing tool to make the dots with turquoise paint. An embossing tool always makes perfect dots, although I didn't get them on there very straight. I cut the hearts out of corrugated paper, rubbed them with different color paints and glued those down, and sprinkled very fine glitter on them. Easy peasy, and now I can finally say I got some new art done. Ahhh, now I feel so much better! It bothers me when I go this long not posting on my blog. Then again, sometimes life intervenes.

Washboard Effect

This is a 5x5 art squared piece I made a few weeks ago. After I made my "Starkness of Winter" piece with the weathered by nature corrugated cardboard, I still had some left over, fortunately. So I decided to use some on this piece, and just play around. I've been "into" the harlequin pattern lately, and finally bought a harlequin rubber stamp, my first one, and wanted to play with that too. And then I noticed that the bottom of a styrofoam meat tray I had washed and kept also had a harlequin pattern, which excited me, so I cut a rectangular piece out and used that for a stamp also, in the lower left corner.

So this piece is about weathered corrugated cardboard and the harlequin pattern, and as always, texture. I started with frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) as my base. I used the brown side, and etched random lines in it with a sharp awl for texture, then rubbed the piece with paste brown shoe polish. Then I glued down corrugated cardboard, and then some tea dyed cheese cloth on top of that. I also glued down a piece of rusted dryer sheet in the lower left corner. Then I used lavender and green acrylic paint and stamped with my harlequin stamps, and also painted over the corrugated cardboard. Then I rubbed brown shoe polish over the cheese cloth and dryer sheet and corrugated cardboard.

Then I distressed lavender and green paint chips by sanding them, and etching diagonal lines to get a harlequin pattern, then rubbing with the brown shoe polish. Then I used paper punches to punch out the shapes and glued them down. I don't often use beads in my work, although I have lots of cool beads, so on this piece I decided to use them. Just one more art supply I have that I should use more often. So I glued various beads down, and then sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF), which gives a glossy finish. The last touch was the cool rusted old key, from my stash off ebay.

I had to take a digital picture of this, rather than scanning it, due to the dimension on the piece.
I prefer to scan, because it's so much easier, although the colors don't always come out true. That's the downside of scanning. And the down side of taking pics is that oftentimes, there is unwanted glare. I even took this picture outdoors, so my flash didn't go off, which was what I wanted. Even so, there's some minor glare over the cheese cloth, which ends up looking like glitter, but there's no glitter on this piece. I enjoyed using the weathered corrugated cardboard as an element on this piece, and think it gives a washboard effect, hence the title.

I still have a few small pieces left of the weathered corrugated cardboard that I'm sure I'll use in one way or another. I'm so glad I accidently discovered it behind my garage a while back, and don't know where it came from, perhaps the trash, but am grateful. What a cool gift it was! And just to make sure I don't run out, I put a large pizza box, (not the frozen kind but the kind delivered, the corrugated kind, and no it wasn't for me but for my housemate) out behind my garage, where it can be weathered by nature. I sprinkled twigs and dried leaves over it, just for good measure, and weighted it down with a brick, so it won't blow away. Since I live in Colorado (Denver metro), and it's only February, I'm sure we'll be getting more snow and winter weather. I don't know exactly how long it will take to adequately distress and weather the pizza box, but I figure that is up to Mother Nature. At some point it will end up looking very cool and I can use it in my art.

However, today, at 11:30 am, it's 59 degrees outside, with the sun shining and a beautiful blue sky. The high is supposed to reach 64. Yesterday it was even warmer, close to 70. I don't know why we've been blessed with such beautiful, spring like weather, but I'm certainly enjoying it while it lasts. Because I know it won't last, but it sure gives me a case of spring fever. Anyway, it'll be interesting to check on the pizza box from time to time, and see how it's coming along, see what Mother Nature is doing to it.

Understand with Your Heart

This is something I made yesterday. I don't often use text in my art, but I think maybe I should more often. Other than the text, I didn't really plan this out, which is mostly normal for me. Once again, I used frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) for the base, which is 5x7 inches. I cut up a lace blouse for the background, which I bought at a yard sale a while back and forgot I had. It was a cute blouse, but much too small for me. But I definitely liked the texture of the lace and knew I'd use it in my art.

After I glued it down, I painted it with Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint, then rubbed paste brown shoe polish over it. Then I used a bold yellow paint, and rubbed it over some the lace with my finger. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF) from the Family Dollar store. The rectangular piece at the top is a distressed paint chip, sanded and etched with an awl, and then rubbed with brown shoe polish. I used a corner rounder punch for the corners. This was the kind of paint chip that already had the "windows" cut out of it, so I glued a fiber ribbon piece across those on the back of the paint chip, then glued it to the background. I punched the hearts out of another paint chip and glued those down.

The text piece came from an Inspirations daily calendar. I tore around the text and the image (a parrot), then crumpled it up, then rubbed over it with brown shoe polish, and glued it down. I also used a green skeleton leaf to repeat the green of the text piece.

I thought it was done at that point, but then the idea to make a cross came to me. But I didn't know what to use for that. So I looked around my studio and spotted some screening that I thought would work, and cut it out of that. Lastly, I glued on the rusted bottle cap. Just because I love using rusted found objects (RFOs) in my art, and I have quite a stash of them by now. I chose an assymetrical, imperfect one, because hey, none of us are perfect, right? At least that's what it meant to me, and why I used that one.

Once again, I used some of my favorite things on this piece. Such as lace for texture, distressed paint chip, hearts, a skeleton leaf, and an RFO. I keep coming back to using some of my favorite things. I see that as a good thing. Also, I'm glad I chose to use text to convey a wise message, mostly for myself. If it reaches anyone else and touches them too, that's all the better.

Playing with my image editor

Well, this is kind of interesting. I used the fish eye lens special effect on my image editor to get the second image. I think it looks cool -- what do you think? I've never tried that before.

This is a 5x7 inch piece I made yesterday. The base is frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). I had some dyed paper towels, so I decided to use one on this. I wanted something colorful, and purple is one of my favorite colors. I also used a purple watercolor crayon, on the left side and bottom, from my Lyra Aquacolor set. I used water and a brush, and painted parallel lines, and they looked nice and even. But later I sealed the piece with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), not realizing that the watercolor crayon marks would run. Like duh....I should've known that, but I didn't think about it. So my nice, even lines all ran. Ahh, but not to worry, the way they ran looks fine to me.

The hearts were punched out of a distressed (sanded) paint chip. Usually I then rub it with brown shoe polish, but I didn't want brown on this piece, so I rubbed it with a violet glaze and then wiped it off. The pony is stamped onto the same distressed paint chip. That is a new stamp I just got off ebay. The company is 2nd Nature Arts, and I think it has some neat stamps. You might want to check them out. Here is a link to the ebay store http://tinyurl.com/7hwxzu  I ended up buying five. These are unmounted stamps. I shouldn't be buying new stamps, because I have so many I haven't used yet, but I thought some of these stamps were unlike any I'd seen, so I just had to have them. At least I'm proud of myself for using one on this piece.

I also used a harlequin stamp and stamped with yellow and then violet acrylic paint, but it barely shows up, due to how textural the paper towel is. That's dyed cheese cloth under the hearts, and the piece under the key is some yellow fabric rubbed with gold waxy stuff (kind of similar to Rub n Buff). I outlined the hearts and pony with purple glitter glue (GG), and the yellow fabric with gold glitter glue.  I really like outlining with GG, but I get very nervous when I do, afraid I'll screw up. Which isn't hard to do -the screwing up part - and I've screwed up with it before. But on this piece, all went well with the GG. The key is from a lot of old keys off ebay.

Time to post again

These are two works I'm entering into the Crazy Amigo Challenge at   http://crazyamigochallenge.wordpress.com/. I don't often enter weekly challenges like this, but lately I've been following Heather Robinson's lead, who enters lots of weekly challenges. Heather, http://creativesolace.blogspot.com/, is an excellent artist and good art buddy of mine, and I so admire her art. Some of you already visit her blog, but for those who don't, you really should -- it will be a treat! Heather and I have a personal swap coming up soon, a collaborative effort we'll be working on. I'm looking forward to that a lot. I think it will be very interesting to see what we end up with, considering our art styles are totally different. Greetings Heather!

The theme of the Crazy Amigo Challenge this week is Hearts. And I do love using hearts in my art! The first piece I created yesterday. I used a sharp awl to scratch diagonal lines into the brown side of a 5x5 piece of frozen pizza cardboard. (I should start abbreviating that into FPC, lol, I use it so often for a base.) Then I rubbed it with brown paste shoe polish, so the lines would show up. Then I glued some torn music paper, and text and an image torn from an old Cumberland General Store catalog published in 1976, and rubbed them with shoe polish. I don't even remember where I got that catalog, maybe at a yard sale, but I think I should start using the images, they are great. The rectangle on the right is a distressed paint chip. I've shared how I distress them in previous posts. I outlined that with a gold paint pen. The hearts were cut out of brown candy wrappers, the the gold circle was punched out of a foil bag that once contained coffee. After the fact, I don't think gold was the best color to use for the circle, but oh well. And the letters and number were burned into the piece with my Wallnut Hollow Hot Stamps tool. I finished by sealing it with Future Floor Finish (FFF).

The second piece is one I made a few weeks ago, and entered into a yahoo group challenge, the theme being using the colors red and green. I used the FPC as a base, but used the colorful image side, after sanding it a bit. Then I used my sharp awl to distress it and scratch the text into it, then rubbed with shoe polish. Then I rubbed magenta acrylic paint over it and quickly wiped some of it off, then rubbed green glaze over certain parts. I stamped with scroll stamps in the green. Then I glued down the hearts and the frame, made from distressed paint chips. Lastly, I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF from the Family Dollar store that gives more of a satin finish.)

As an aside, I wanted to say that I stumbled onto this website yesterday, myartfriends.com http://www.myartfriends.com/index.php, and decided to join. It looked interesting to me, and there's some good art there, and lots of different artists. So, I posted some of my work there, and will be posting more as time goes on. The works I posted have already been posted here on my blog. Just wanted to share that site with all of you.

That's all folks.

An art gift for my niece

This is a new piece I created on Sunday. It's a gift for my 16 year old niece for Christmas, to go along with a gift card to a bookstore. Her name is Shannon, and she's a fine young lady who has a voracious appetite for reading books. She's been an avid reader for many years now. She is also a fine writer, and has been writing and journaling for years also. I've read some of her writing, and am so impressed with her intelligence and talent. She's a darn good writer, and I believe has the potential to be published at some point.

Well, I was an avid reader and writer at her age, so I can relate to her in that way. I think I can relate to her very well. And I'm so proud of her and I love her, and am lucky to have her as a niece. And so I thought it would be nice to make her a small piece of art for Christmas. I wanted to make something to encourage her in her writing. At least that was the goal of this piece.

This is a 4x6 inch postcard format, and the base is frozen pizza cardboard. The background is a multi-colored piece of scrapbook paper glued down on the base. Then I used gel medium to glue down a piece of dyed cheese cloth on the left half of the piece. I cut some quotes on "Authorship" out of a book, crumpled it up, then rubbed brown paste shoe polish over it, and glued that down over the cheese cloth. The hearts were punched out of paint chips. The circle and triangle shapes are vinyl paper clips. I wrote the text with Bic permanent markers, and then rubbed the shoe polish over that whole part, including over the paper clips. I sealed the whole piece with Acrylic Floor Finish. (You can find it at Family Dollar stores.)

This was a fun, simple piece to make. I hope the message will mean something to Shannon, and that she'll find it encouraging. Because I really want to encourage her to pursue her writing, I think she is that good.

Two more collages

These are my most recent works, and just happen to be collages. I'm so proud to say that, because I believe I'm making some progress on this front. These are 5x5s, the art squared format I like so much, and feel very comfortable with. One of these days, I hope to make a book with all my 5x5 art pieces that I've been making and saving for quite a while now.

In the first collage, I punched the hearts out of paint samples. The small frame is also cut out out of a paint sample. Then I sanded them with sand paper and used a very sharp awl to distress them, then rubbed brown shoe polish over them. (My oh my, but I do love that brown shoe polish!!!) I used the awl and shoe polish on other distressed areas too. The "J" is light spackle packed into a stencil. I've learned it's more difficult to frost light spackle as I do with caulk and wallboard joint compound, because it has a lot less moisture. So I can't frost it over a stencil, but can pack it into a stencil.

This is the first time I've used an awl to distress with, and I'm kind of liking the result a lot. However, you have to use brown shoe polish to get a much more cool distressed look. Good thing that shoe polish is cheap and accessible. The idea of sanding and distressing paint samples in my art just kind of jumped out and bit me on this piece. I'm thinking my muse was paying close attention and making herself available -- which is not always the case. So now, I'm glad I have a lot of paint samples in my art stash. Woohoo for that. I plan to use this "distressed paint sample technic" again and often, and maybe try to expand and perfect it.

In the second collage, I used images torn from a book for the sea creatures. And some tea dyed cheese cloth, but then rubbed over it with blue glaze. Then I added some rusted screen and a rusted washer. Oh right, I started out packing the light spackle on the piece in various areas.

I pretty much used the same technics I've explained before with these collages. If I try something new, I explain that too. The distressed paint sample/awl technic is new.

These are not for a swap, so I get to keep these. And hopefully incorporate them into my own book, at some point. Hope you like them, I do.

"Playing with Layers" collage

I don't do "layered" collages very often, and so far, I've only done a few. Why? I think because I have far less confidence in attempting them, I don't feel I know the technics used very well. Also, it's difficult for me to want to cover up things I've already done, as in the layering aspect. Consequently, I've mostly steered clear of them, except for occasionally. When I do attempt one, I do much better if I'm just playing around and experimenting.

When this first started out, I wasn't thrilled with it, and I almost wanted to toss it. Because I hadn't planned for it to be a layered collage, but it looked so bad, I felt it was the only way to salvage it. So I thought....hmmm, this is a good chance for me to play with layering.

This started out with frosting lightweight spackling onto frozen pizza cardboard. Now I'm well familiar with using caulk and wallboard joint compound, both of which I've used fairly often in my art. But I had never tried the spackling, so I decided to get some and try it, and see if and how it differed from the other two. I wasn't sure if I wanted regular spackling or the lightweight kind, but that's what I ended up buying. At first, when I first started frosting with it, I wasn't too happy with it. It seemed harder to work with, harder to frost, and harder to adhere to the cardboard, because it has a lot less moisture content than the other two. But I persisted and got some to adhere.

I wanted to embed some text into it, which was the first time I tried that. I had never tried that with the caulk or jc before. So I tore two short poems out of a book, one about Mom and one about Time. And tore another small piece out of a dictionary, and two small pieces out of a song book. I also used a few pieces of torn tissue paper and dress pattern tissue paper. That's the point at which it wasn't looking too good, and I was tempted to toss it. I set it aside to dry overnight and went to bed.

The next day is when I decided to try salvage it with a lot more layering and collage. I glued some netted fabric, lace fabric, and cheese cloth on, which I liked. Then I added the bird image and strips of rusted fabric, and few small pieces of decorative papers. Then the idea of stenciling the "B" occurred to me. I frosted more spackling over the stencil for that, and I really liked how that worked out. Then I did some stamping, glued on the punched out shapes and the feather. I also added some micro beads in gel medium on a few spots. I used my finger to rub on some different colors of glaze in different areas, then rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece. (I love that brown shoe polish.) I wrote the word "play" on there, and added some touches of gold rub on. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), bought at the Family Dollar store. The last thing I added was the rusted piece in the top right corner.

Making this piece was fun and challenging, and I should maybe try doing this more often. Maybe it would help increase my confidence at layering.

Mosaic Heart Fabric Postcard

It's Sunday, so soon again, and a good day to post. And I actually got some new art done yesterday -- yippee for me! I'm SO happy I did, because I've been in an art slump lately, and was really getting frustrated about it. So, this one small piece is a breakthrough of sorts, but certainly no major breakthrough, and no guarantee "the slumps" won't return. I'm a bit nervous about that, and will just have to take things one day at a time.

I posted some questions on most of my yahoo groups recently relating to this, and other things, that frustrate me about making art. I posed the questions to get responses and feedback from other artists, to open a dialogue, that would hopefully help me out and give me some new ideas/solutions to my making art dilemmas. And I suppose also to discover if other artists out there have the same dilemmas I do, so I wouldn't feel so all alone. And I did get a lot of great responses, that hopefully will help me, and I'm very grateful to those who took the time to respond to my questions. Thanks very much to all of you.

This piece is a postcard I made for an online art friend. I will be mailing it out soon. And yes, the background is all fabric. First I glued down the the netted fabric, which was black and shades of brown. On top of that I glued down some pale yellow lace fabric, then rubbed over it with brown Brilliance pigment ink. The lace part shows up better on the postcard than in the scan. Regarding the gold heart, which I love, I pulled out a stencil I've had for over a year and never used, and frosted it with my old standby, white caulk. After I did that, I thought gee, why in the world haven't I used this stencil before now??? At least now I know I'll use again, for sure.

I love the way this mosaic heart looks, especially with the caulk which makes it dimensional. And it was a piece of cake to do, the hard part was waiting for the caulk to dry so I could paint it. I used Lumiere Sunset Gold, and then Lumiere Metallic Rust inbetween the mosaics. The strips of fabric were cut from a frock blouse, made in India, that I picked up at a yard sale a few months ago. I loved it on sight, and knew it would look cool in my art. I love the color and the embroidery on it, and it went perfectly with this piece. The hearts were punched out of a paint sample. So overall, this was an easy piece of art to make, and I'm very happy with it. Gee, if only all art could be this easy.

Pink Silk

The title Pink Silk may seem strange for this piece, but let me explain. This is a 5x5 for a book project, In the Pink, by Jo Anne Owens. So that's why this piece is pink, pink, pink. Hot pink as a matter of fact. I titled it Pink Silk, because this is actually made from approximately one inch strips of silk fabric. Yes indeed, I pulled out an old silk blouse that didn't fit me anymore, and cut it up to use in my art. This blouse was made out of teal smooth silk. After I cut the strips, I frayed the edges, then Mod Podged them down onto my usual -- frozen pizza cardboard -- in different directions, with some overlapping going on. I tried to glue them on with lots of wrinkling for good texture. I let it dry overnight, and when dry, the surface almost felt like plastic.

Then I did the painting with Anita's Acrylic Paint, first fuschia, then baby pink rubbed over the elevated parts. After painting, I glued down pink cheese cloth, dyed in beet juice, on the right side. (Although it's kind of hard to tell it's cheese cloth in this photo, but up close it's easy to tell.) The vertical pieces on the cheese cloth are painted large, flat toothpicks, and the horizontal pieces are seeds from my yard, painted with the baby pink. The heart was punched out of a paint sample, then painted fuschia. Underneath it is a pink feather, that got rather segmented when I applied gel medium, but I decided to leave it that way.

The most amazing part to me about this piece is how using the silk came out, and provided such great, different looking texture. This is with using one inch strips. Next time I think I'll cut one large piece, and scrunch it up as I glue it on, and see what that looks like. It might look very similar to this piece....or maybe not. Maybe it will have a different effect. Well, one thing is for sure. Experimentation is FUN!

Floating Through Grunge

Thanks to Diane on the clothpaperstudio yahoo group, I can post the whole picture of my collage. She was able to rejoin the three scans I took of it. You can view her blog here. Thanks so much Diane.

So anyway, here is what it looks like as one cohesive piece. Better than the three separate pieces I think. I came up with the title of FLOATING THROUGH GRUNGE kind of off the top of my head. I didn't want to over-think it. I must admit, I've gotten quite attached to this piece. Thank goodness I didn't make it for a swap, and then have to part with it. That would be very difficult. Thanks to all who left comments about this collage, or emailed me about it.

My Own Grunge Painted Collage (done on upholstery fabric sample)

This is a piece I worked on over several days, since last Saturday after our local book arts group meeting. Doing the grunge painting on fabric there must've really inspired me. (Scroll down to see a post and photos on that project). I really enjoyed doing the grunge painting, and love the results of it....and started thinking hmmmmm, can I produce similar results all by myself, as just one artist? Because the painting we did at the meeting involved the whole group, 13 artists.

At our meetings, oftentimes members will bring things to share with the group. At our last meeting, some people brought fabric remnants and wallpaper sample books to share. So, I brought home an upholstery fabric sample. It's dimensions are 17 x 12 inches, and it's quite thick and somewhat textured. I didn't care for the color, it was kind of an orange/tan, and I didn't know what I planned to do with it. Then it occurred to me I could just use it as a "practice" piece for grunge painting, that it would be perfect for that. And since I considered it a practice piece, and just for fun, I lost all fear of ruining it.

Now you have to know something about me. I am fearful about the "C" word. Doing "collage" scares me, for some strange or stupid reason. Anytime I think I'm doing a "collage", I get fearful and anxious and tense about my art and what I'm doing. Because I feel like I DON'T know what I'm doing. I start to over-think what I'm doing, or should be doing, and start second guessing myself, and get all concerned about placement and composition. I also get that way about layering. I have a really hard time with much layering at all, because I find it hard to paint over or cover up something I've already done, especially if I like the way it looks.

That being said, I really wanted to see if I could cut loose on this "practice" piece, and do a layered collage -- spontaneously, and with abandon. And see if, and to what degree, I could overcome my fear of collage and layering. That was my main goal with this piece, much more than being concerned with how it turned out.

I really, really got into working on this piece bigtime, and everytime I thought, okay it's done, more ideas would come to mind on what more I could do, what more I could add. Although I must say, in the beginning, I really didn't care about what I painted over or covered up. But the further along I got, the more attached I became to the piece, and the more concerned I was about what got covered up, and where to paint and stamp and glue down. I felt much more free about that in the beginning than later on. So in that sense, I didn't totally achieve my original goal, but only to a certain point.

So anyway, I think it's finally done. That is if I don't add something else. I couldn't scan the whole piece because of its size, so I had to do three scans. It would look better and more cohesive to see it as one piece, but this will have to do. The bird was one of the last things I added, and is embroidered on denim. I embroidered it on a pair of bell-bottom jeans in the 1970's!!! How "groovy" is that? So gee, it's over 30 years old! I cut it off the jeans many, many years ago, and held onto it all this time. I'm amazed I still have it, and more amazed that I actually found it and thought to use it on this piece. I think this is the exact piece it was meant to be on, and was waiting in a drawer for all these years. I was also able to use three of my caulk inchies on the right edge of the piece, and I added those last too.

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! In comparing this to the grunge painted fabrics posted below, I think the results I achieved are somewhat similar, but also different, because this turned into a collage, and I used other elements in addition to just paint, such as glued on crumpled tissue paper, yarn, cheesecloth, ric-rac, fabric, silk leaf, and of course the embroidered bird.

So, what do you think? I'm almost afraid to ask.

Paper and fabric woven postcard

This postcard was made for a swap on a yahoo group. The theme was a technic theme, this month doing weaving. I've seen this type of weaving on art, but had never tried it myself. I chose to use my crumpled rusted (copy) paper and then some fabric for the weaving. It was not as difficult as I thought it might be, but also not as easy as I wished it to be. It took me an hour to weave this 4 x 6 inch postcard. I had the option to paint over the weaving, and do more layering, as some people did for this month's swap....but I liked the way it looked too much and didn't want to cover that up with paint or glaze. You see, I kind of have a fear of "layering" like that, because I have to cover things up, and that's hard for me to do. I think I need to get over that fear, because I love the look of layered art. And it takes guts to do!

The image of the woman was printed on transparency film in sepia ink, then tranferred onto a paint chip or sample. When it was totally dry, I rubbed brown shoe polish over the image. The hearts were punched out of the crumpled rusted paper. And in the center I stamped Lumiere metallic rust paint with some new swirl stamps that I like a lot.

I almost forgot to mention the piece the image is glued to. It too, was a sample I picked up at Lowe's, a sample for window shades. Something I hadn't seen at Lowe's before.

I think I'd like to try the weaving again, perhaps with two pieces of fabric. I like the way the weaving looks, but to be honest, actually doing the weaving is kind of a pain in the zorch. But that's just me.

Unconditional Love

Well, it's Sunday again, (where does the time go?) and time to post some new art. This one I made a few days ago, for an online art friend, Brigitte Pugliese. She's making a chunky book for a fund raising auction for the Greyhound Rescue & Rehab Organization. This is a good cause, so please visit their webite for more info. Brigitte emailed me and asked me if I would make a 5x5 page for the chunky book, so I of course said yes. She then emailed me some photos of rescued Greyhounds to use on my page. I chose this dog, whose name is Alex. Isn't this a great photo of him? He looks happy and healthy, thanks to this rescue organization.

I decided to keep this page simple. I used some rusted (copy) paper that was crumpled up before rusting to give it more (what else?) texture. I used frayed fabric on the right side, one of my favorite prints, a thrift store find. I cut/punched the heart and tag out of paint samples. Then I used a rusted utility knife blade and etched the name Alex on it. I used an electric etcher I have, another thrift store find, for the first time, and discovered I'm not very good at etching. The name is crooked, but oh well. At least it's readable. I used some neat new swirl clear stamps for the first time on the left side, and really love those.

This was a simple, easy, fun page to make. (I hope Alex likes it!)