Mixed Media Artist

  Crafty Princess Diaries Tammy takes a look at another new felting book. This one shows the method to the madness.  Eileen - The Artful Crafter Are you making Homecoming Mum corsages this year? You'll find everything you need at The Artful Crafter - from suppliers to directions, including love chain weaving instructions. Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Bead and button spiders have been made kicking off the Halloween decorating.   ACreativeDream June is building houses now. Come see what's going in... maybe even build one of your own!     Beading Arts Cyndi shares her thoughts on Kim St. Jean's magical book, Metal Magic! Blue Glass Garden Sculpture With Bud Vases and Beads Cherie makes a glass sculpture with some gems she got at a rummage sale.   Carmi's Art/Life World This is the week I am gathering flowers to dry for the winter projects I have planned. Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world T...

Here's a book that I'm considering buying, available only (I think) from Volcano Arts .  It covers adding patinas using chemicals, heat, paints, colored pencils, and more.  I'm kind of torn between it and the DVD by Time McCreight called Patina Basics (at the same link).  Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

Journal Fodder 365: Daily Doses of Inspiration for the Art Addict by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler The Graphic Designer's Digital Toolkit: A Project-Based Introduction to Adobe Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6 & InDesign CS6 (Adobe Cs6) by Allan B. Wood Stitch it for Christmas: Festive Sewing Projects to Craft and Quilt by Lynette Anderson Journey to Inspired Art Quilting: More Intuitive Color & Design by Jean Wells Enchanting Art Dolls and Soft Sculptures: Sculpting Crazy Quilting Embellishing Embroidery by Marina Druker Blanket Stitch Quilts: 12 projects for easy stick-and-stitch applique by Lynne Edwards Artful Collage from Found Objects by Ellen Spector Platt Tatting Collage by Lindsay Rogers Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

I told you earlier that I received a copy of C. June Barnes's fabulous new book called Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art .  You'll find a review of it here .  One of June's structures that really caught my eye was a mobius strip piece that she had slit before twisting and stitching it into place.  Fabric sculpture...bracelet...what's the difference!  I was immediately intrigued and went about figuring out how to make one.  I had to try 4 times to finally get it right.  One was too stiff, one was too long, one hadn't been cut accurately enough.  You get the idea.  If you want to make one, I suggest that you experiment with length before using your favorite fabric!

  Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world This week at Craftside there is a knit wrap pattern, 4 different times of day cloud color combos, drawing style inspirations and the archetypes of fermentation from the new book Real Food Fermentation.   Crafty Princess Diaries The Crafty Princess shows off some of her latest fiber stash-related enhancements.  Crocheted Pumpkins Cherie takes a break from making glass sculptures to create these fun little crocheted pumpkins instead.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Start your sewing machines, ladies. September is National Sewing Month.   ACreativeDream June is seeing stars, and making them... and now she's sharing her pattern so you can too.   Aileen's Musings Aileen offers you a freebie word sheet for you to download and use in your art!   Beading Arts Cyndi has reviews of the best books out there on working with metal clay. Carmi's Art/Life World Ca...

Hi Cyndi, I have frequently heard you refer to printing on fabric with your computer's printer. How on earth do you do that without jamming it up? I have an HP Photo something-or-other...I'd love to use it in that manner. Please advise. Thanks! Mary Guerra, Miche Founding Leader McKenna's Magnetic Handbags Hi Mary, There are a couple of different ways you can do it.  The easiest is to buy ready-to-print fabric sheets that are already cut to size and anchored on a thin piece of paper.  You print, peel off the backing, and voila!  I like the ones by Jacquard.  These printable sheets are available for inkjet printers, and I believe for other types of printers as well.  The other way to do it is to cut your fabric to size and iron it to a sheet of freezer paper.  The slightly tacky side of the freezer paper will keep the fabric from wrinkling as it feeds through.  Some people like to treat their fabric first with Bubble Jet Se...

Barb wrote: I came across your site by chance with the help of Google.  I want your opinion regarding when I use an imagine from a magazine (which is glossy)I want to know what your expert opinion is to seal my finished product without ruining the magazine part of the mixed media project. I want to be able, if possible to use the products on most of the project. I use gel medium for my go to glue at all times, but not sure it is what I should use on the top of glossy magazine papers. Any multiple ideas or suggestions would be a great help to me. Hi Barb, Using gel medium is usually fine on a glossy magazine image, but it you've found that other images from the same magazine smear (test an unimportant one first), then I would recommend spraying it first with Krylon acrylic spray.  Several light coats are better than one heavy one.  Krylon comes in both matte and glossy finishes, so make sure you get the right one for your purposes. Here is a tutorial for ...

My special thanks go out to Michelle Vackar , from whom I first learned about the fact that you could make sidewalk chalk.  I read through her directions, and then tried a couple of test batches myself in order to get an accurate measure using the specific type of plaster I had on hand.  Mine is called ArtPlaster, and it is a much more finely milled powder than most that I've played with over the years.  After experimenting a bit, I searched online and found that lots of people were aware that you could make colored chalks this way...just not me!  There seemed to be lots of different methods and formulas, so I just continued to do tests until I found what worked best for me.  Here are the results: Materials and Tools ArtPlaster by Activa, 5 lb box Measuring cups, 1/3 c and 2/3 c Tempera paint powders, red, blue, and yellow Tablespoon Disposable containers for mixing Stirring stick Water Toilet paper tubes or cut down paper towel tubes Duct tape Waxed paper P...

  Carmi's Art/Life World Carmi has redeemed her pincushion making reputation with a new design!   Beading Arts Have you gotten into metal stamping yet? Come and see how easy it is to make a word-inspired necklace... Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world This week at Craftside there are patterns, tutorials and techniques galore as we celebrate the back to school season! Pop on over to read all the great knitting and stitching ideas and inspiration we have from a whole bunch of our latest books!   Crafty Princess Diaries Needle-felting is an amazing low-tech hobby, and Tammy gives you a review of a new needle-felting book, "Felted Feathered Friends."   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Eileen shares an August-themed envelope for her hubby’s birthday, along with how to make custom envelopes the easy way and the hard way.   Evergreen Glass Sculpture Cherie makes a green glass sculpture with some pieces she has on ha...

Ok, so I certainly didn't need to worry about whether or not the grandbaby would like the crocheted hedgehogs I made for her! Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

Glen Alps was a printmaker and educator who is credited with having developed the collagraph .  A collagraph is a print whose plate is a board or other substrate onto which textured materials are glued. The plate may be inked for printing in either the intaglio or the relief manner and then printed onto paper. Although the inventor of the process is not known, Alps made collagraphy his primary art form and coined the word "collagraph" in 1956.  He disseminated the techniques he developed for making collagraphs during his long career as both an artist and a teacher.    Wikipedia, Glen Alps Val Holmes has written this excellent guide for Interweave Books on using collagraphy in your mixed media work, paying special attention to printing on fabrics.  Print with Collage & Stitch covers all the details so you won't be guessing about anything.  She starts with materials to use for the collagraphy plates and what types of materials to add to them ...

I have enjoyed reading through C June Barnes's new book Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art so so much! ( here's my review ).  I became enamoured of several geometric shapes that she played with, but not being quite sure of my own mathematical skills, I decided to do a sample of one shape in felt rather than using fabrics that I was terribly attached to.  This is not a project book, so any pieces that you want to make can only be inspired by it.   Now that I've done the sample, I don't think I'd hesitate to use my own painted, embroidered, or quilted fabrics. Materials and Tools Template paper, pen, and measuring tools Felt Sticky-backed felt Embroidery floss, 2 strands Seed beads and accent beads (I used size 8/0 seed beads) An embroidery needle that will fit through the beads 1. Cut out your template.  For a pyramid, cut an equilateral triangle (each angle is 60 degrees) and one side piece.  2. Cut out the felt pieces.  Be ca...

Beading Arts Cyndi has gathered up all her favorite resources and tutorials on working with metal clay. Do you have any more to add?   Carmi's Art/Life World This week carmi shares her cursed hexagon sewing project. Cherie Burbach Cherie makes Green Solar Light Glass Sculptures for the garden.   Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world This week at Craftside there are a tutorials on how to paint with pencil, make patterns with letter stamps in metal , and sew two tone doll arms.   Crafty Princess Diaries Tammy won another podcast contest and gives you the scoop on how these contests work and where to look for them.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter Eileen missed the blog hop this year but went ahead and made blue jeans themed bracelets for the 7k Bracelets of Hope Campaign anyway. Note to self: watch for blog hop notice in January next year!   Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digit...

Drew Emborsky , best known as The Crochet Dude , has created these adorable coasters, just perfect for summer!  You can see the free pattern at the Simplicity site . Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals

This is an amazing amazing book!  It has quickly become my new favorite.  There are no projects in it. What??? How can a quilting book with no projects be any good?  Well, I'm going to try to explain.  C. June Barnes has written Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art in order to push the current boundaries of our two dimensional thinking.  Yes, some of us add texture to the surface of our quilts, but June wants us to think of quilting as a totally three dimensional possibility. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate math?  Well, Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art has got me rethinking that.  Simple (and at times not so simple) geometry stands behind a lot of June's amazing quilted pieces.  June starts with surface manipulations, which many of us are familiar with, but I'm going to bet that most of us have never tried the ones she shares!  She then moves on through manipulating and rearranging the plane of the piece into woven, folded, gathe...

There are lots of different ways to achieve a sepia tone in your photographs using Photoshop .  I recently decided to use a few of the shots I took of DH while we were in Hawai'i and print them out on cottom inkjet sheets to use in a future quilt.  The first step was to get a sepia result that I liked.  After trying several methods I've used in the past, this is the one that I liked the most for this application: Duotone Sepia Technique 1. Duplicate image 2. Desaturate 3. Curves adjustment layer > darken whites and lighten blacks 4. Mode > Graytone (discard color info) 5. Adjust Contrast and/or Brightness sliders if needed 6. Mode > Duotone > sepia tritone option with magenta, black, and yellow 7. Size for printout. 8. Print out on cotton fabric sheets Copyright 2012 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically pro...

  About Family Crafts Have you ever experimented with chalkboard paint? If so, share your stories! Aileen's Musings Aileen offers you some of her freebie e-postcards to send to your friends and family.   Beading Arts August is Metal Clay Month on Beading Arts!!   Carmi's Art/Life World A trip to the antique market can be very inspiring! Cherie Burbach Cherie makes a clear glass garden sculpture.   Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at our crafty world This week at Craftside there are a whole bunch of designs created with new Sizzix Dies, a tutorial on how to make a Blackletter "S" , 12 ways to make the letter "K", plant a container garden featuring red twig dogwoods and a recipe for Tuna Tartar.   Crafty Princess Diaries The Crafty Princess has another giveaway going on. Enter for your change to win a wonderful new knitting book.   Eileen - The Artful Crafter How to make polymer clay food safe.   ...

Dusty  (left)     Wheel of Dusty (right) Date: 2011 Materials: Acid etched copper, glass, print in a metal frame Measurements: 10 x 10 1/2 x 2 inches (25 x 27 x 5 cm) Cava Glass J oseph Cavalieri created these piece during a teacher's retreat at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Cavalieri says: “It was a new way of working, combining acid etched metal and digital imagery I created especially for the retreat." The process includes image transfer onto copper, acid etching and finally a patina is added to make the image pop. Joseph is an artist and instructor working with painted glass. His studio is located in New York City. Time for SEX (bottom detail) Date: 2011 Materials: Acid etched copper in a metal frame Measurements: 10 x 10 1/2 x 2 inches (25 x 27 x 5 cm) TIme for WAKE, WORK, SEX, SLEEP (bottom detail) Date: 2011 Materials: Acid etched copper in a metal frame Measurements: 10 x 10 1/2 x 2 inches (25 x 27 x 5 cm) Tech...

Congratulations to Carly , who writes True Color .  She just won a copy of  Stash Happy Felt !

Quilt National Sweet Silhouette reader challenge Deadline: 09/03/12       Craft Forms 2012 Deadline: 09/13/12       Quilt National 2013 Deadline: 09/14/12   Green Craft Deadline: 09/15/12        Altered Couture Deadline: 09/15/12       Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered books , art journals