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.

The rest of my heart postcards

Read above post about these postcards.

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?

Cyber Fyber Gallery Exhibition

The Cyber Fyber Gallery Exhibition is set to open in Columbia, South Carolina on January 8th, in just three days. Susan Lenz, a very generous and talented fiber artist, put this massive project together, and has been working on it for over a year. Thank you so much Susan, your hard work is appreciated. Here's a link to her blog, just click on it. http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/ There are links on her blog to where you can view the fiber art submitted, and get other information on this fantastic show.

The fabric/fiber postcard I posted here is the one I made for this show. I swapped with Susan for one of her beautiful fabric postcards. I didn't do any sewing on this postcard, but did use lots of fabric and fiber. The background is fabric and lace I rusted myself. (Here's a link to my post on that on my blog. http://valsalteredheartjourney.blogspot.com/2008/02/these-are-photos-of-various-fabrics.html) Then I glued down tea dyed cheese cloth, rusted found objects, some cool fiber trim, and the sun charm.

This piece is a bit unconventional, compared to the vast majority of postcards submitted, 276 in total. Here's the link to where you can view all of the postcards. http://cyberfyberonlinepostcards.blogspot.com/ Many beautiful postcards were submitted, so you should take a look and feast on the eye candy and huge variety of fabric/fiber art. I think it will excite you!

There will be a People's Choice Award given for the winning postcard and the winning ATC. The postcard with the combined "most comments" and votes from the exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studio will be the winner. Consequently, comments do count and are important on that. Sooo, if you like my postcard, then please go to it and leave a comment. Here's the link again -- http://cyberfyberonlinepostcards.blogspot.com/, and my postcard is number 121, so just scroll down to it. And if you see other postcards you'd like to comment on, please do that too. I'm totally amazed and pleased at the variety of postcards submitted, it's totally awesome. I just wish I could go to the show, and see it in person.

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.

Oh my gosh, I've been remiss.

Gee, I cannot believe that I haven't posted on my blog in three weeks, and I feel bad about that. Good grief, this is the first time this has happened. I don't quite know what to say, except that time got away from me and I haven't made any new art lately to post. Nothing major or bad happened in my life, I just took some time off from making art. So for now, I'm posting these art pieces, that I made a while back and never posted on my blog, except for being in the slide show on the side. The first two were for swaps, and are no longer in my personal collection. Which is a good thing, because my personal collection of my own art is getting quite large. Thankfully most of them are small pieces so I still have space for them.

Hopefully, soon enough, I'll be posting new art. And hopefully, I won't go this long between posts again.

I've been busy making art -- woohoo!

Yes indeed, I've had more time to make art lately, and have devoted it to that end. Which pleases me because I don't always accomplish that. This top piece is a layered collage postcard, 4x6 inches. I used dress pattern tissue paper, gold wrapping paper, napkins, and paint sample. I used the paint sample distress technic for the shapes, which I explained in my August 20th post. I've only used napkins a few times before in my art, and I think I need to get them out and use them more often. They aren't doing me any good stuck away in a drawer.

I used light spackle on the second piece. Since it has very little moisture, and is harder to work with than caulk or wallboard joint compound, I chose to add some water to it with a spray bottle. I didn't add a lot of water, but enough to mix in with it and make it spreadable. Then I spread, or frosted it on with a plastic pallet knife on one area, but not all over the whole piece. Then I stamped into part of it with a heart stamp, cut from vinyl carpet runner. I bought it at a yard sale, and it has swirls on the under side, so I cut it into different shapes for stamps that work great for stamping into caulk, joint compound, and spackle. I also used a swirl stamp with paint on the left upper side.

The small heart in the center of the swirl heart just happened when I pulled the stamp up. (When stamping into caulk, jc, or spackle, you have to use a release agent. I use Armor All protectant, which works well and has no odor to it.) It looked like the shape of a heart, so I outlined it with a brown marker. I embedded the key into the spackle, but it didn't adhere when dry, so I had to glue it on. I used brown acrylic paint, brown shoe polish, and gold Lumiere paint on the piece. I also used an awl to distress parts of it, the parts without the spackle. I used tea dyed cheese cloth on the lower left corner. I'm happy with the texture on this, but not so thrilled with how the colors came out, especially on the scan. The parts that look almost peach are actually gold. I suppose I could repaint it, but don't know if I will.

I have a new needle felt piece posted below, that I made a few weeks ago. So yes, I've been working on art more than usual, because I've had more time to do it. I'm happy about that.

Needle Felted postcard

I'm switching things up a bit here, as in not posting a collage. This is something I made, gee, over a month ago. And I wasn't happy with it. Well, I was fine with it, except for using an orange paint pen to outline and make marks on the hearts. That was the last thing I did back then, and felt like it ruined the piece. Which really frustrated me, since I liked it until I did that, and went too far. So it sat in my work room/studio all this time, because I didn't like it and didn't know how to "fix" it, and didn't want to post it on my blog.

Then today, in a bored state of mind, I picked it up and thought gee, I think I'll sand these hearts, punched out of paint samples. And then rub brown shoe polish over them, and see if that improves this piece. So I did that, and liked the result. Then I did the same to the small squares, and liked that too.

I know in the scan, the outlining of the hearts looks pink, but no, on the piece it's a light orange. I find that the true color quality in scans can leave a lot to be desired, at least on my printer. So anyway, I like the result now much better than it was before, and am willing to post this piece.

The main feature of this piece is the needle felting onto a piece of cotton fabric. This is my second real art piece, using the needle felting. And I love how that part turned out. It took a while to fashion a heart out of the yarn, but I stuck with it and was able to make a heart. I really enjoy doing the needle felting, but haven't done any since I finished this piece. I need to get back to felting soon, or maybe not. There are simply too many choices and options in what kind of art to make....and I tend to get overwhelmed by that. Nothing new there.

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.

Fabric Postcard

Yes, this is actually made out of fabric, although it doesn't really appear that way. Here is how I made it. This was made by taking a 4x6 inch piece of muslin fabric, Mod Podging (matte) it to a piece of plastic bag, then spreading MP on the front and gluing down various fabric pieces. Such as ribbon, pieces of fluffy yarn, pieces of jean pants seam, and fibers from fraying fabric. The one thing that is not fabric is the piece of veggie mesh, the mesh bags veggies come in. Then I Mod Podged over all of the front again, let that dry, then painted it with acrylic paints. I used purple, violet, light blue, and citrus green. I sealed it with Future Floor Finish, which gives it a nice glossy finish and makes the colors pop. Then I peeled the whole postcard away from the piece of plastic. No other base was used for this, other than the muslin fabric. So gluing it to the plastic bag seemed to make the difference, and increase the strength of the fabric, as opposed to brushing Modge Podge on the fabric alone.

I would love to say this is a recent piece of art, but I can't say that. No, this was a postcard I made for a technic swap last year, and is no longer in my possession. I feel kind of bad for posting "old art" as opposed to new creations, but my goal is to keep my blog updated and fresh, with new posts. Ideally new posts twice a week, at minimum once a week, and I'm rather upset with myself that it's been over two weeks now since I posted some art. So even though this isn't new art, it's art that all or most of you haven't seen before, so it's new to you.

I did actually get some new art done just yesterday, a piece I really like and am happy with, but I haven't had time to take a digital picture of it yet, and it's too dimensional to scan on my computer. And the batteries for my digital camera need to be recharged, so I can't take a picture of it now, today. And yet I feel compelled to post on my blog, since it's been a while, so I chose to post this art piece. Hope you don't mind it's not a new art piece, but chances are, it's something you haven't seen before.

Ahhh, I feel better already! Just getting a new post on my blog, and being honest about my situation. Hopefully I'll get a picture taken of my new art soon, and get that posted within a week.

Two More Attempts with Gesso

Well okay, I don't give up easily. I wasn't happy with my first try (the post below), so I tried again. I like these better. And once I pretty much accepted that I wouldn't get much, if any, dimensional texture with the brand of gesso I used, I was reluctantly okay with that. On these I sponged the gesso onto the stamps, and stamped onto the surface. Which I had also gessoed, and let dry, before I stamped. I think one reason my first piece, Doodle Bird Haunting, seemed so washed out was because I stamped onto the brown side of the pizza cardboard, then painted over it. It didn't allow for much contrast with the paints, I think. I'm glad I learned from that.

I did use straight caulk sponged onto stamps, then stamped onto another piece. That gave me the dimensional texture I wanted and expected. I love that stuff!!! However, it didn't show up well at all in the scan. But I like that piece, and will most likely use it for the postcard swap.

So, I guess all is well that ends well, and I learned some things along the way about gesso. Thanks for all the info about gesso people gave me, in comments, and also in yahoo groups.

Doodle Bird Haunting

What a strange title for this art piece, no? I agree. After all, doodle birds are supposed to be whimsical and cute, not haunting at all. So why did I name this piece that? Well, first of all, because it just popped into my head, second of all I'm not very good at naming my art, and thirdly, I named it that because this piece seems rather washed out to me, and nothing like my idea of what I wanted it to look like when I started.

This was supposed to be for a postcard swap using gesso as the technic. Using gesso for the texture. And I'm a big texture nut, as some of you know, so I was excited to use gesso for great texture. So I sponged the gesso on the stamps I used for this, and gee, it didn't produce texture at all, it was like using white acrylic paint. And I used wooden mounted stamps, so I couldn't re-stamp over what I'd stamped. The gesso is supposed to work as a resist and for texture.

Well, it worked pretty well as a resist, but not well at all for texture. After I stamped, I sponged glazes in violet, yellow, and blue, and then rubbed them partially off with a paper towel. Oh, and I also used gold glaze on the very top, the last glaze I used. Then I sealed with Future Floor Finish, which gives a glossy effect and makes colors pop. Which it did. But I was very disappointed in the texture, or lack thereof. So I brushed gel medium over it, in different directions, to get some real texture. And that worked, but then it was so glossy, it was glaring with reflective light. So I tried to tone down the gloss and glare by sealing with Acrylic Floor Finish (Family Dollar Brand), which gives a satin effect.

So that's what I did with this piece, but I'm not very happy with it. I don't intend to use it for the swap, I plan to make a new postcard for that. I may, however, use this piece in another piece of art, in some way. I'm also considering using diluted caulk, instead of gesso, for the stamping and texture on my swap piece, because the gesso I used just didn't do the job for creating texture. Or maybe not even diluted caulk, but just caulk, to get the kind of texture I'd like to get.

So, this is a piece I'm not thrilled with at all, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Just to show that I sometimes make art that I'm not satisfied with. However, I learn from that, which is a good thing.

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.

More Texture!!! With Caulk this time!

Well, Sunday is a good day to do blog posting. I've gotten some requests to post about using caulk in my art, so that's what I'm posting about today. These six pieces are all made with caulk, and again, my main goal was lots of texture and dimension. I use latex or acrylic caulk that you can buy in the tubes (used with a caulk gun) at home improvement and hardware stores. They are easily accessible and also cheap, around a few dollars. Family Dollar stores also sell it for a buck. You don't want to get the kind of caulk that has silicone in it, because that kind is stickier and messier, and I've heard that it can ruin rubber stamps.

This technic is basically very simple. I spread the caulk in a thin layer over the base. I want the layer thick enough to imprint, but not too thick. For the base, I often use frozen pizza cardboard, my old stand-by. However, it can and does curl after the caulk is applied, so I apply water to the back with a paint brush before I spread the caulk to minimize curling. I apply caulk to the image side of the cardboard, after sanding it down to give it tooth. When I want a stiffer base, I generally use box (corrugated) cardboard, but the pizza cardboard works fine for smaller pieces. Even if they are slightly curled when the caulk is dry, it's very flexible, so the piece can be flattened out. After the caulk is spread, I take an old credit card to smooth it out evenly.

I use WD-40 as a release agent on the edge of the credit card, and on the stamps and tools I use for texture, so they don't pull up the caulk. Also, it's better to use sparingly, so I spray it on waxed paper and use my finger or a foam brush to spread it on stamps and tools. It works well, but smells bad. NOTE: on thinner unmounted rubber stamps, it can cause the edges to flute. On the thicker unmounted rubber stamps, it has no effect (that I know of). I've also used it with clear stamps, and haven't noticed any detrimental effects. However, long term, I don't know if it could damage stamps. I always wash off the WD-40 right after I use the stamps. There might be other, better, release agents to use. I'm thinking that vaseline would probably work, and need to try it next time I use caulk.

Once the caulk is spread, I give it 4 or 5 minutes to "set up", and then I start stamping and texturizing with various tools. Any tool can work, so be creative, because what you're doing is imprinting into the layer of caulk. You don't want to press too hard though and smoosh the caulk, you just want to get a good imprint. If you make a mistake, no problem. You can just smooth it over with the credit card and start over. But you have to work fairly quickly while the caulk is still wet enough, so it's a good idea to have all your stamps and tools out on the table for ready access. If you're doing a large piece, it would be better to work on small areas at a time.

Not only can you stamp and texturize the caulk, but you can also embed things into it, because it acts as an adhesive, whereas spackle and joint compound don't. In the bird postcard, you'll notice I embedded a puzzle piece into the caulk. So, use your imagination!

Once your piece is the way you want it, set it aside to dry. Caulk can dry in a few hours, but I generally let it dry overnight. Once it's dry, you can paint it, or not. Or rub brown shoe polish over it for a more vintage effect, over the white or painted caulk. That's what I did on the patriotic piece, and I really like the effect. I used the shoe polish as an afterthought, so now I know shoe polish works well on caulk.

So, that's pretty much the whole technic. Pretty simple and easy, right? And very inexpensive to boot. Caulk can also be used for neat dimension with stencils. Just frost it over a stencil, let it dry, and voila, you have instant dimension. When dry, it's very flexible and doesn't crack or flake off, which spackle and wallboard joint compound tend to do. I use both products for different effects. Sometimes, I want cracking and flaking, sometimes not.

For the caulk inchies, I do the stamping/texturizing on a larger piece and then cut it up into inchies when dry. I draw a one inch grid on the back of the piece before I start, and use a utility knife and a metal ruler to cut them out. I make up a bunch ahead of time, and then just pull them out and paint them when I use them in art pieces. I paint the inchie first with a brush, then use my finger to rub a different color over the elevated parts.

So there you have it. Now....run, don't walk, to your nearest store to buy some caulk, and start caulking. Have fun and please let me know how it works out for you. BTW, caulk also comes in clear, so there are possibilities for that too. I'm trying to come up with some.

Roadmap to Texture

The goal of this piece was texture, in a different way than I've done before. It kind of looks like I used caulk, and some of you may think it's caulk, since I use caulk and love it. However, I used wallboard joint compound (JC) on this piece. This wasn't exactly the look I was going for when I started, but it's how it ended up. Anyway, it looks more like caulk since I painted it and used a gloss finish on it. I used Future Floor Finish (FFF).

I cut strips and punched circles out of pizza cardboard, and after I spread the JC, I tried to embed them in the JC, thinking it would act as an adhesive, (which caulk does). Oh, silly me, that didn't happen. I could've glued them in after the JC dried, but instead chose to pull them off and use the piece as it was. In a way, this ended up being a happy accident.

Then my next big issue was what colors to use. I kind of just played around with that part, although I like how it turned out. I might try this again with watercolor paints and see how that looks. I'm assuming, or thinking, the JC would absorb the watercolors to some extent. Not sure about that either, but I guess it's worth a try. I used acrylics on this piece.

Another heart postcard

Yes, another one. Well, the dimension is 4 x 6 inches, which is the size of a postcard, so I'm just calling them postcards. On this one, the hearts on the left and the strip in the middle are cut out of rusted fabric. The threads are what came from fraying the fabric strip. I find that I like using the threads almost as much as using the fabric. As you can see, that's cheese cloth on the right side. I used that technic again of cutting or punching shapes out of cardboard, gluing them down, then gluing down crumpled/uncrumpled tissue paper over them. In this case, I used tan tissue paper. Then on the right side, I glued down the cheese cloth over the tissue paper.

This cheese cloth was tea dyed, so it was sepia color, but I chose to paint it with Moccasin Brown, and then rubbed Burnt Sienna over the heart and circles with my finger to get some contrast there. I added the buttons last, and like them on there. Up to that point, I felt it wasn't finished, it needed something more, but was having a hard time deciding what. I tried a few other things that didn't seem to work, so then I raided my button stash. Fortunately, I had some buttons the right colors.

This is most likely going to be for a personal swap. I haven't decided for sure yet, but I think so.

One more new postcard

Gee, I seem to be on a postcard kick, don't I? Oh well, I can get one done in a few hours, so it's kind of like instant gratification. This one might be for a swap....I haven't decided yet. It's a good thing I have a bountiful stash of rusted found objects.

Another new postcard

I didn't think I'd have any new art to post today, but last night at 8:00 I started playing around with some technics. And this is what I ended up with. I punched circles and a square (then cut in half into triangles), out of a frozen entree box. I also cut out some strips. Then I glued them onto the base, a piece of frozen pizza cardboard (my old standby). Then I crumpled up white tissue paper, uncrumpled it, and glued it on top. Then I brushed lots of gel medium over that, in different directions, because I wanted to give it more texture. After it dried, I painted the whole piece with Moccasin Brown acrylic paint. After that dried, I used my finger to rub on different colors of Lumiere metallic paints, to highlight the shapes and the texture. To finish it off I painted on a coat of Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze, which made the colors pop and further highlighted the texture.

I'd like to experiment more with this technic, but I think I'll glue fabric over the shapes and see how that turns out. Maybe some light fabric such as muslin, so the shapes will be well defined. I like how this postcard turned out. I've always liked using crumpled tissue paper for texture.