Traci Bautista COLLAGE UNLEASHED Experiments

The more I read and experiment with Traci Bautista's COLLAGE UNLEASHED . . . the more thrilling her techniques become . . . I'm not good at following directions nor recipes so these are my INTERPRETATIONS of her techniques . . . Chapter 1 deals with paper towel dying . . . instead of dipping the towels in dye . . . I used my purchased and/or homemade color washes . . . homemade color wash recipe can be found at http://www.fredbmullett.com/ . . . Click on TECHNIQUES . . . Click on ADIRONDACK COLOR WASH SPRAY CHART . . .
Chapter 2 deals with Paint Scraping . . .
Yesterday, my family friend/stamping buddy, Lori Tokita and I experimented with Chapter 3 . . . Crayon Techniques . . . we were amazed at how exciting ordinary crayons could be in an art form . . . my internet stamping buddy, Cathy Yamashita, taught me how to do the spots . . .


I hope you can experience the adventure of this book first hand . . . I'm so glad I heard about it through my internet stamping buddies!!!!

My Messy Stamp Room

One of my local stamping buddies, Kerry O'Connell, asked me to email her pics of my stamp room . . . sooooooooooo . . . here are some pics of my messy stamp room . . .
This is my "standing" work space . . . after back surgery . . . standing for long periods of time is easier on the back than sitting which is very hard on the tail bone . . .
I try to "lift" supplies up from the work area with wire shelves from Wal Mart and/or Target . . . it gives me more space for creating and/or storage . . . my stamp press is stored underneath my TV . . . my power punch is stored underneath some Sterlite drawers . . . I like storing colored cardstock upright in a bookshelf according to color family . . . it's easiest to see the colors . . . white, is another story . . . I find I need to separate them by type . . . Kromekote . . . textured . . . matt . . . etc. . . specialty papers get sorted separately . . .
Stamps I use a lot are stored on large acrylic frames according to stamp companies since the "style" will match each other . . . I have lots of Sizzix dies and three die cutting machines . . .
I also store some stamps according to category, such as PEOPLE . . . OCCASIONS . . . FLOWERS . . . etc. . .

THANKS for visiting my messy stamp room!!!!

DISCLAIMER: This does NOT include the stuff I have stored in the Master Bedroom . . . the Master Closet . . . the garage . . . the extra frig in the garage . . . and the attic!!!!! LOL!!!!!

Have fun!!!!!!

This is going to bore you silly . . . but . . .

YIKES!!!! I haven't posted since June 17th . . . Here it is July 19th . . . time sure flies when you're having fun!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!
Here are some of my Art Journal entries . . . one technique . . . a sample of a color chart . . . a sample of color combinations that appeal to me . . .
I've been playing with color and background techniques continuing to be inspired by Chris Cozen's ALTERED SURFACES and, now, Traci Bautista's COLLAGE UNLEASHED . . . what a playful spirit Traci Bautista encourages . . . I'm anxious to try more of her techniques . . .
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . . are you still awake?!!?!?!?! I hope I didn't put you to sleep with this basic information . . . I hope you totally HAVE FUN!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Collage-y Art Journal

One of my talented internet stamping buddies, Lori Roberts, encouraged me to experiment with collage images recently . . . these are from Paper Imagery Designs . . . I combined them with Paper Bag Studios rubber stamps to create front and back covers for an art journal I just started . . .

The beautiful printed papers were part of a printed paper swap from one of my groups . . . the front cover was swapped from Kathryn McAllister . . . the paper is beautiful on its own . . . but really set off a nice contrast to the blue outfit of the little boy . . . The back cover was swapped printed paper from Francine Groulx . . . I felt the delicate nature of the collage image deserved a likewise softly printed background . . .

What a cool swap that was!!!! It's TOO MUCH FUN having internet stamping buddies!!!!! LOL!!!!!!

Friends of Sylvia Valle . . . June 3, 2008

This week was the last meeting of my stamping class at the local community center, taught by Sylvia Valle, the former instructional editor of Stampington for 10 years . . . summer vacation is here and all her students including me await to take her classes, again, in the fall . . . I volunteered to make a Thank You card from our class . . . but at the last minute had a BRAINSTORM to make a memory book with photos of each student on a memory book page designed by the student . . . everyone did such a BEAUTIFUL job and were so positive and supportive of my last minute idea . . . here are a few pages that I created for the book . . .
The local newspaper published an article on her classes at the community center . . . what a perfect subject for a memory book layout . . .
Sylvia can have 25 students or more in her Greeting card class . . . and she warmly welcomes new students never saying her classes are FULL . . .
I can't believe how talented this gracious lady is . . . she also teaches (and LOVES) beading, calligraphy, journal writing, bookmaking (bookbinding), and probably other stuff I don't even know about!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She tells us that her teaching is a LABOR OF LOVE!

You just gotta love this special lady!!!!

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!!!!