Blue House Art Group

Wednesday and today I taught all about alcohol inks at my Blue House Art Group classes. We had alot of fun playing with many techniques.  One was a resist technique using Archival black ink (for whatever reason this seems to only work with that ink).  In a nutshell, you apply one or several colors of alcohol ink to acetate or any clear, non-porous surface.  Once this is dry you stamp an image with Archival ink. Let the ink set on the surface for a minute but do not let it completely dry and then wipe the ink off.  The ink will remove the alcohol ink below the stamped image.  This is one of my favorite techniques and it's fun watching the clear image appear.

Once the class practiced this a few times, we made little charms/pendants with Ranger acrylic fragments.  This was my sample:

We also had a fall-themed ATC swap.  I used alcohol inks on a larger piece of glossy paper and then stamped the pumpkins with black Staz On.  I cut these out and popped them on a fall-colored plaid paper over a small piece of frayed burlap.  The stamp is an old Hero Arts stamp embossed with a "Chile Red Pepper" powder.  I punched the tiny maple leaf in the upper right corner and edged the card with Krylon gold leaf pen.

These are the other ATCs that were swapped. I love how everyone interpreted "fall" differently.

Next month we will be creating a 10"x10" Christmas canvas. Can't wait to teach all the techniques I'll be using on that project.

Awesome ATCs

Last month the Little Blue House Art Group learned about ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). Many of the ladies had never heard of them nor had they made any.  We decided to have an ATC Swap with the theme being "Springtime." That was the only "rule."  Everyone made 6, kept one and swapped five at our meeting last week.  It was exciting to see the variety of ideas and techniques used.  

This was my ATC.  I used a Distress Ink technique on a watercolor paper base.  I swiped Stormy Sky, Broken China and Peeled Paint inks directly on an acrylic block, misted it lightly with water and then "stamped" the block on the paper.  The bird and twig is a beautiful napkin which I adhered over the watercolor background. Because the napkin is so thin and translucent, some of the background shows through.  Then I stamped the nest and word, used colored pencils and Stickles on the eggs and added a dot of Stickles to the eye.  The music notes is a bit of Tim Holtz tissue tape.

In addition to the swap, we altered Maya Road divided "memory boxes."  This was the sample I made for the class.  The exterior of the box was stained with Broken China Distress Stain and the interior was painted with a metallic bronze acrylic paint.  I added the butterfly design tissue tape around the sides.  The hanger is a piece of black wire threaded through some buttons with a handcut banner added.  

I used a "Tim technique" on the bird diecut. I covered a small piece of chipboard with random strips of different-patterned tissue tapes then die cut it with the Caged Bird die.  Wild Honey Distress Stain was used to color the body and brown chalk ink for the branch. I love how the "eye and head" of the bird was serendipitously revealed! No manner of planning could have accomplished that!

Here are some of the other boxes that were made.  You will see the great variety of ATCs in these pictures since we all received a mix.

made by Carolyn

made by DeeDee

made by Hilary

made by Sandy

made by Kathleen

made by Jill

Didn't they do a great job, both on the boxes and the ATCs?  I'm so proud of them. (I hope I managed to attribute the boxes to the right people - if not, I hope they will correct me.)