Experimenting with Acrylic Paints

Last Friday . . . dh#2 was away for most of the day . . . so I was able to invite some of the retired teachers/stamping buddies over to play . . . I served my FAMOUS Costco pizza and Bag 'O Salad (salad that comes in a bag!!! LOL!!!!)!

We played for 6 - 11 hours . . . I decided to experiment with some techniques I found in Chris Cozen's ALTERED SURFACES, her new AWESOME book . . . but as I was telling Lisa Gifford, an internet stamping buddy who owns STEP OUTSIDE YOUR BOX SATURDAYS, an internet mixed media challenge group . . . I was too CHICKEN to use my expensive paints so I used Liquitex BASICS to start off my experiments with . . .

I used modeling paste . . . stencils . . . string gel (also known as tar gel) . . . splattered paint with a silicon basting brush I bought 2 for a dollar at the dollar store . . . scraped paint with an old credit card thingy (Traci Bautista technique) . . .

All images are Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Collection . . .

Do you like it?

Mr. & Mrs. Paper Artsy & Family

Woo!!!!!!!! Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't win first place . . . but I qualified for "highly recommended" for my entry in the Paper Artsy Big Fat Competition contest for May 21, 2008 . . .

My family friend/stamping buddy, Lori Tokita, encouraged me to alter a papier mache box . . . that introduced me to 3-dimensional objects . . . I found this charming wooden bird house at Joann's for only one dollar which became my altered object for the contest . . .

I painted gesso and Liquitex Basic White acrylic paint on the birdhouse . . . the trim was painted with Joann's Magenta Craft Paint . . . inked the School Boy and Strange Little Girls in Kaleidacolor Spectrum . . . spritzed the stamp with denatured alcohol (I hope this doesn't damage my stamps!!!! YIKES!!!!! LOL!!!!) . . . let it drip until I was happy with the result . . . let it dry . . . huffed on it to re-moisten . . . stamped it on white glossy Kromekote cardstock . . . the other images were stamped with the Spectrum Kaleidacolor without spritzing . . .

The stamped cardstock was trimmed to fit and adhered with PVA Glue . . . then sprayed with Krylon Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze with plenty of ventilation . . . let dry . . .

The charms were inspired by Sharon Diskin from LuminArte . . . they are shrink plastic stamped with Staz On ink . . . beads and charms were added to embellish . . .

Whew!!! I now have a new respect for 3-dimensional artists!!!!