Thursday, June 21, 2007

Animal Photo Shoot







Some photos I did for an animal photo swap on swap-bot
Top to bottom
an Amish workhorse team
the cutest hairless rat I've ever seen
a nest of robins
Howie, my SIL's Conure
a sweet cow face.

I really credit Swap-bot for reawakening my love of photography.

Saturday, June 16, 2007


More workshop from Bernie Berlin
The first is the stencil technique. First problem, didn't really have any stencils. So, I found some mesh, and used that in a couple of colors for the background, then i had a heart stencil that I used on the top. Surprisingly simple and loved the effect of layering the stencils.
Next is the inky papers. Well, I love layering papers. I did a whole cardstock sheet and then cut it up into ATC size. More bang for the buck and i'm all over that. Next with the glazing, i just mixed acrylics in with gel medium. Then some ink and whala! Add some images, stamp some keys, add a few letter and fiber -and you're done. This technique was right up my alley.
Next, the leafing pen resist. I (and my son) tried several different pens. For me, the paint pens, the sharpies and a fiskars pen in metallic did not work. Had to use the leafing pen. But, some of the pens sort of worked and had they been new may have worked better. That being said, I drew some swirls added the watercolor paint and stamped the dragonflies. I loved this. My son who is seven had very good results with this technique too. Cool technique for you AND the kids! what more could you want. My son always wants his cards to look as good as mine and may i say, his (with more vibrant color choices) were really cool.
I will do some more cards like this for sure.
One techie note - it seemed that the resist did not work too well the wetter you get your paper, and i tend to work really wet with watercolors. Note to self, dry off the brush a little!

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Painted Paper Towel Examples

























Painted Paper Towel Examples from Bernie's ATC Workshop

For the paper towel i did both the Lumiere paints and the Watercolor Mists (on different towels, this example is with the mists). The metallic watercolor mists did not have enough color alone to color anything, but it was nice to add a sheen on top. I really liked them on the paper towels because they didn't get as bulky to collage with my gel medium. I brought in some c-fold towels from work and redid the lumiere paints and liked it on those towels a lot better.
For the intuitive watercolor on my last post i used my twinking H2O's just cause they get kinda neglected in a lower corner of a cabinet. So they have a sheen you can't see as well.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

ATC Workshop



I am participating in the ATC Workshop based on Bernie Berlin's Book. These are some of the results.

These are "intuitive watercolors." Basically you "find" the picture." I'm not really sure I like them all that much, just not my cuppa tea. I do really like the purple and red lady though.





These are more backgrounds - baby wipes spritzed with watercolor
sprays.
I like these and can't wait to turn them into cards.












Next we have a paper towel painted with lumiere paints, which, by the way, if you're looking for them, i found them at AC Moore with the FABRIC paints and TYE DYE, why the heck they are there, i have no clue!