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

Paste Paper Waste Paper

I have been literally throwing myself into paste paper making. You'll get what I mean when you see my arm in one of the photos coming up. I use deli paper to clean my brushes, and to brayer paint off stencils in between color changes. Inspired by this beautiful paper Patty gifted me at last years Art and Soul, I decided to try and use my "waste paper" artistically so I could reuse it. Tell me if you like what you see. First, though, here is Patty's yummy paper. Visit her blog, her art is lovely and she is one classy dame.

You will have to click on photo to enlarge for a better look. Her paper is wrapped around a collage that I consider myself VERY LUCKY to have been gifted!! Thanks, again Patty. Still loving it a year later!
My deli papers:
This is how this one started.
And here it is complete. Next ones:



The deli paper on the left below is from my yankee's collage. Lou is still not home yet. I miss Lou and M. sigh.

Those are gold foil candy wrappers from Rouchet ? spelling could be wrong. And my Stewart Gill paints, yum yummy.
Ok, so I had some GunShot Wounded Hearts I previously printed out on acid free tissue. I decided to use the paste paint as glue and add them to a red deli sheet.


Here I am adding what I call "Ironic Bows" to the Gun Shot Wound deli paper. Notice my arm??? The tissue is from Blackberry Designs. Be very careful at thier site. You will overspend. You have been warned.

I may add these cool flames coming out of the hearts, too. The tissue is from the store Torrid. Not only is their tissue awesome, but they carry very sexy panties and lingerie for the ample, but still interested, woman. I'm just saying...... My next deli paper is embellished with a Phrenology head stamped onto acid free tissue. I had it waiting in my stash.

Flaming Hearts courtesy of the Torrid Tissue, again. I may or may not paste them on. Time will tell.
So that's the end of the deli paper dalliance. Now on to the paste papers. Here are the first layers of paint without embellishments:

Ok, kind of boring right? Here are the embellishment tools: stencils, stamps, contrasting paint etc:
Messy, messy, messy. I know, I know. It's a curse. Here's what happens next:
And what would a blog post be without gratuitous close ups:

In case you are wondering what in the name of all that is holy, that I will actually "do" with these papers, they will become backgrounds for my ATC's. So there. They do have a use. Not just to fill up the empty time in my empty life. Oh, did I type that out loud? teehee.
Hope you have enjoyed my latest foray into paper and paint. Please leave a comment. I need to feel the love. And nobody wants those quilt square kits I posted about last week? Free. Free. Free. Have I mentioned that they are free??? Next week I am going to post some tissue papers I probably will never use.

xoSusan