Mixed Media Artist

Without any sort of plan for what these would eventually become, I spent an afternoon scribbling, stamping, stenciling, and painting on some silk dupioni pieces.  Each panel is about 8 x 9 inches, so they'll most likely end up being used in a larger piece.  We'll see! I painted in a variety of colors, but in only two main styles, both of which I'll show you below. 1. Gather your pens, stamps, stencils, paints, and fabric.  Prepare your work surface. 2. I used Koh-I-Noor Nexus Studio Pens to trace around my shapes.  I didn't worry about being neat, and I also didn't have to worry about the ink running once I added water media! 3. Add several thinned layers of acrylic paints over the ink shapes.  I finished with a bit of interference green which would help play up the shine of the silk.  4. My final step was to stencil through the waste paper from those reinforcement circles you use on notebook paper.  5. My second style of fabric

  Grocery Bag Paper Turkey Card Cherie makes a homemade Thanksgiving card out of an old grocery bag. Mo(o)re Whimsies Exciting Times and a Great Giveaway!   Beading Arts Polymer clay + greeting cards = a fun mixed media necklace!   CreativeDreamer June's starting a new tutorial... come join us in creating an art doll similar to the "Ode to Kate" doll!   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Here's how to use 3D clay accents to make your decoupage projects pop.   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world This week at Craftside there are tutorials on how to needle felt a bat and a pumpkin with a cute mouse, an early recycled sweater Christmas tree designed with the new Sizzix die, a chance to win a copy of How to Draw Steampunk, how to build garden row covers, a reportage video and a recipe for a fast fruity skillet cake. Eileen - The Artful Crafter Rather than stashing your mom's jewelry away to tarnish and gather dust, combine some of your favorite pieces into a M.O.M.s (Memories of Mom) necklace. Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery See how to make a secret window in a glitter decoupaged book with a Fiskars Everywere Punch. Aileen's Musings Hard to believe but Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Aileen is gearing up by offering you a freebie pumpkin biscotti recipe card and a pumpkin label for you to download and print for your own use.   Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi create

Have you read about the paper sculptures that are appearing around Edinburgh?  Very mysterious...and fantastic! Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media by Veronica Lawlor Mixed-Media Doll Making: Redefining the Doll with Upcycled Materials by Linda O'Brien and Opie O'Brien Fabric Painting with Cindy Walter: A Beginner's Guide, 11 Techniques, From Colorwashes by Cindy Walter Adventures in Design: Ultimate Visual Guide, 153 Spectacular Quilts, Activities & Exercises by Joen Wolfrom New Creative Collage Techniques by Nita Leland Colour in Art Quilts by Janet Twinn Easy Batik Landscape Quilts by Patricia L. Brown Jewish Threads: A Hand's-On Guide to Stitching Spiritual Intention into Jewish Fabric Crafts by Diana Drew and Robert Grayson The Cloth Paper Scissors Book: Techniques and Inspiration for Creating Mixed-Media Art by Barbara Delaney The Quilters Hall of Fame: 42 Masters Who Have Shaped Our Art by The Quilters Hall of Fame , Merikay Waldvogel, Rosalind Webster Perry and Marian Ann Montgomery

An unbreakable toy is really useful for breaking other toys. Image: Wikimedia Commons, DemonDeLuxe Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  As Daylight Fades 3' x 2' Here are the last few steps to finishing off the quilt.  The photo above shows the edges as even, but they aren't completely straight.  Where blocks of silk fabric stuck out unevenly on the edges, I allowed them to stay that way and cut the backing fabric to match.  Pin the quilt top and batting to the backing fabric and cut it to match.  Using one strand of embroidery floss, in one of the lighter colors (light blue), blanket stitch around the outside.  You can see in the photo above how I allowed the uneven blocks of fabric to stay that way.  Pick some spots around the back of the quilt to add buttons for stability.  I stitched through all the layers, aiming to stitch around a seam on the front and adding the button to the back.  Stitching around the seam does two things: it helps to hide the extra stitch on the front, and it gives it a bit more strength rather than stitching through a single layer of delicate silk.  I

  Eileen - The Artful Crafter Rather than stashing your mom's jewelry away to tarnish and gather dust, combine some of your favorite pieces into a M.O.M.s (Memories of Mom) necklace.  Finished Afghan Cherie finishes her stained glass afghan.   Beading Arts Cyndi explains how to turn a cabochon into a simple bead embroidered pendant!   Creative Dreamer A Gnome... and a free pattern for him too!   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  Cindy Gimbrone Beads Cindy reviews Craft Activism just in time for Make a Difference Day! Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world This week at Craftside there is a blanket stitched felted flower pattern and tutorial, a chance to win a copy of The Wine Lover's Devotional, some high fashion clothing details, and a recipe for an oven smoked roast. Crafty Princess Diaries The Crafty Princess takes a trip and talks a little about the benefits of attending functions away from home.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Got tea lights? Look at this darling mini birthday cake favor you can make with them. You’ll find directions for a coordinating birthday card as well.   Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery How to make a recycled wool sweater pumpkin with flower die cuts. About Family Crafts The current craft challenge is all about crafting with plastic bags. Submit your project and browse through the pumpkin projects submitted for the last

You already know that I love the interface between science and math and art.  Not that I am particularly knowledgeable about science or math, but I know some people who are!  Check out the Harvard Natural Sciences Demonstrations , starting with this beauty that demos pendulum waves!   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

This is the best inspirational book that I've read in a long long time. There, I said it!  I am so blessed to get to see many many mixed media art books as they are published, and all of them have something to recommend them.  There are always new techniques to learn, new materials to try, new artists to be inspired by.  But it's been forever since there was a book that took my breath away as much as this one. Masters: Art Quilts vol 2 is just stuffed full of gorgeous images.  Even if that's all it was, I would still want it.  But there's so much more.  Each featured artist, and there are 40 of them, talks about his or her creative process, training, inspirations, materials, specially developed techniques, and vision for future work.  You won't want to dash through this volume too quickly, but rather savor it over several evenings, preferably with a cuppa tea or a glass of wine. There are only a few of the artists who are featured that I even had heard of

  Indecision is the key to flexibility. Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

Last week, I showed you the process of piecing my painted silk quilt.  My next step was to add paint embellishments to the surface; this included adding interference paint with a dry brush around some leaves up near the top of the quilt, and adding a very light application of copper foil to some of the lower (and darker) pieces of fabric.   As soon as all top-stitching and embellishing was complete, it was time to square the quilt off a bit and pin the edges.  I decided not to cut all the fabrics exactly even with each other, but rather to allow the outer edge to be just a bit ragged. I added a backing fabric, re-pinning the edges.  This backing is the only commercial fabric in the entire piece, and next I clipped the batting and backing even with the top.    Here's what the backing fabric looks like.  You can see that most of the edges have now been stitched with a single strand of light-colored embroidery floss, using the same blanket stitch as I used for t

  Creative Dreamer June's making Christmas trees now... Beading Arts A bit of silver leaf, a bit of acrylic paint, and some polymer clay...beautiful results!   Stained Glass Afghan Cherie makes a multi-colored afghan for her house.   Halloween Party Recipe- Guacamole Ghouls Linette's Spooky Guacamole Ghouls are finalists in the Spookamlole recipe contest, check them out and then go vote for your favorite recipe.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Got tea lights? Look at this darling mini birthday cake favor you can make with them. You'll find directions for a coordinating birthday card as well.   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  About Family Crafts Looking for a fun Halloween gift for your neighbors? Check out these fun ideas that will have you ringing the door bell and running! Aileen's Musings Aileen shares a couple of holiday Artist Trading Block's she created for a swap. Don't know what an ATB is stop by and check them out.   Carmi's Art/Life World A sweet pop out card featuring a rubber stamp launch from the Crafter's Companion is this weeks special post. Craft Buds Pick up some free Halloween printables at Craft Buds, including subway art and a cut-and-assemble Halloween banner for your mantle. While you're there, you can look for the easy fabric pumpkins tutorial, and get your home ready for fall!     Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world This week at Craftside there is a chance to win a copy of the book The Art of Vintage Journaling and Collage with a tutorial on how to make a rock collage paperweight, a link to enter t

Reader question: Hi, I'm very new to this and I've been trying to find a method to get tissue paper to look like the purple in the bottom right of your Seasons Change collage (shown above). It is very beautiful and would like to make a piece for my home, but I can't figure out how to do it like that. I've read through your background techniques and they look somewhat similar, just wondering if you would share how you did the purple in that collage. Thanks so much, Dave My answer: Hi Dave, That paper was actually a piece of card stock that had cheap coloring that bled.  I got it wet, let it puddle and run, and ironed it back flat after it dried.  I see what you mean...it does look like tissue paper, but the only trick here was cheap cheap cheap card stock!  I scanned the collage and added the words digitally, so the final result is a mixture of physical and digital work. Thanks for visiting! Best ~ Cyndi Technorati Tags: mixed media , coll

The Art of fiber Deadline: 10/28/11       Small Works Exhibition Deadline: 11/01/11       Haute Handbags Deadline: 11/15/11    Carve It Up! Deadline 11/21/11 Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  Someday we'll look back on all this and plow into a parked car. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Ildar Sagdejev Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

After I finalized the placement of all the fabrics, I began to pin them down.  I used all raw edges in this quilt.   Starting with the top-most pieces of fabric, I stitched each down through all lower layers of silk and also through the cotton batting of the middle layer.  I used a single strand of embroidery floss, either cotton or silk depending upon the color, and added a blanket stitch all around the outside of each piece.  The silk in the photo above was heavily salted as it dried in the sun to get that effect.   This is one of my favorite pieces from the painting session.  I sunprinted the fabric using some of our ferns.  I liked the results so much that this is the piece that became the focal point of the quilt once it was torn down to size.   The dark turquoise piece above and the dark pink below are two of the fabrics that I painted to fill in what was missing.  The turquoise fabric was sunprinted with round aquarium glass pieces to get the bubble look.  Th

  Glass Garden Sculpture Redux Cherie remakes a broken glass sculpture. Beading Arts Cyndi really enjoyed making her challenge piece for Michelle Mach's "Very Vintage Challenge"!   CreativeDreamer Remember the Halloween cupcake stand? June's giving it away to one lucky follower! Eileen - The Artful Crafter Here's a quick and easy tutorial for making vintage-look bottle vases.     Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

  Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery How to make a recycled plastic milk jug Halloween skeleton. Aileen's Musings This week Aileen shows you how to make a frightful Halloween mail art tin.   Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world This week at Craftside there is a crochet cone flower granny square pattern, how to make a mood board and chance to win a copy of the book One Drawing a Day that it's from and a recipe for slow cooker vegan pizza.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Did you know that you can recycle greeting cards into cute little gift boxes?   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

Even though I'm too old to play dress up, I'm going to be a fairy (probably a bad fairy) for Halloween this year. My daughter Dani's newest venture is to make and sell fairy wings.  She is best known for her articulated angel wings , and has in fact sold many pairs, including one that was used in a music video! These new wings are just beautiful - far more colorful and iridescent than photos can show, and they are also translucent.  The set that I got from her are very similar to the ones she's wearing in these photos.  If you know anyone who wants to be a very realistic fairy for Halloween, you can send them to TruWings on etsy.  These are not your typical "stretch a pair of stockings over a wire frame" wings! Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

This is my second time doing Michelle Mach's blog hop challenge, and you seriously need to go visit her blog and subscribe so that you don't miss out on the next adventure...you just never know what all is going to be in your package!  To see the story behind what I made this time, visit the full post on Beading Arts ! Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

52 years of coasting through life on my good looks. Image: Wikimedia Commons, Paulo rsmenezes Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

Last week, I showed you a rack full of silk fabrics that I had painted with various surface treatments.  My next step was to iron them to fully set the paints and then begin laying them out into the approximate color progression and design that I wanted.  This actually took quite a bit longer than I first thought it would, and when I was "finished", I realized that I wanted the exact opposite orientation than I'd been fooling with. I used a piece of very thick felt as a work surface.  On top of that, I laid out a single thickness of natural cotton batting, which is my preferred quilt middle layer.  The felt is a great surface to work on: it's thick enough to just stick pins into to try out various designs, and it can be rolled up loosely with the work inside to move it.  When I begin pinning fabrics down to the batting, the pins almost never slip into the felt layer by mistake.   Once I knew which orientation I wanted, I began to tear the fabrics and put

Eileen - The Artful Crafter Did you know that you can recycle greeting cards into cute little gift boxes? Packer Mixed Media Page Cherie takes photos and other bits to help finish her Packer scrapbook.   Beading Arts Cyndi has a really fun giveaway book with great projects for fall weekends!   Creative Dreamer June's made a Halloween cupcake stand, come see!   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals