Spray Play

I had the best time playing 

in my studio last week. 

Altho I was inspired by the mono-print workshop I attended last month, it got me to thinking about where my strengths and skills are, 

and what exactly do

 I Love to create. 

Along those always present lines of "what is my style, do I have one, what am I trying to say, why do I do this etc" .

Scroll back to re-visit my post about the workshop and

the soul searching comment I received from Stewart Gill Paints

on facebook. 

So, I've gone back to LOVE. 

What do I love to do?

Make Backgrounds.

Messy painty textury Backgrounds.

What else do I Love to do?

Collage on wood. 

And most of all?

I Love to make 

 Artist Trading Cards.

Every one of my prints that I have for sale on etsy, began with 

the humble ATC beginning.

So maybe all my soul searching

is a no-brainer.

I Love to make messy backgrounds 

and turn them into collages on wood or ATC's.

Done. 

The technique:

I began with some vintage 

ladies crafts/recipe/ magazines

called The Workbasket.

I started with dripping some

alcohol ink randomly.

I like the intensity of the ink.

It does not get diluted with

water or paint that is added next.

Keep that in mind, cuz, it aint goin nowhere!!!

I then added some Glimmer sprays, home made sprays, Ranger sprays.

I am not thrilled with any of the commercial sprays due to the nozzles clogging.I adore the colors but the clogging is 

frustrating. I use cheap body sprays I get at Walmart.I just dump the "perfume" gag, down the sink and add my ink with water, 

or paint with glazing medium and water. 

I love the look of the oxidized copper and think I got it good this time. I also scored some cross stitch patterns in the magazine and decided to cover some baseball cards to turn into ATC's at a future date. 

By the way, I lightly dry brushed the vintage papers with gesso before spraying. To toughen up the delicate papers and push some of the writing to the back.

I used some scrapbook paper as stencils for spraying and then glued the actual papers down on some of the vintage papers.I love the texture!

I only stamp occasionally now, but I wanted to add some curvy fonts and organic shapes, thus the Italian font and the thorns.

I gesso'd thru scrapbook paper onto some old calendar pages.I also laid a light layer of gesso down and wrote into it with a stick. 

Then after drying, I cut and glued the papers onto illustration board for ATC's and adhered the calendar page onto a wooden shadow box.

So there you have it!

Spray Studio Play! This week I had the mother lode of all hauls!!

Work was getting rid of over 100 solid wood 5x7 plaques.

I was able to take them!!! 

I am sooooo tired of paying $$$

for wooden shadow boxes!

This is the perfect size for me.

So maybe it was a good thing I figured out 

what I LOVE.

teehee. 

Thanks for visiting!!

xoS