Mixed Media Artist

Materials and Tools: images scissors packing tape or contact paper water canvas foam brushes acrylics matte medium liquid or self-leveling medium (optional) cardstock 1. Paint a small canvas with the acrylic color of your choice. Cut or tear out pictures from a glossy magazine or catalog. Apply packing tape and burnish well. (more details on making packing tape transfers can be found at this tutorial. 2. Cut the transfers to the sizes you need and arrange them on your canvas. Soak in water and remove the paper backing. 3. Moisten the canvas with a thin layer of matte medium and apply the transfers. Top them with another thin layer of matte medium to cut the shine. The shine you see in this photo is from my flash…the surface has a satin look, not glossy. 4. Without waiting for the top layer of medium to dry, paint around and in between your images to soften the lines. Add any colors that you want. 5. Make a tape transfer of a phrase that you want to add to your collage. The nice thing a...

This is one of the most simple collages that I’ve done in a long time. The biggest departure for me was to mirror image what I might normally do: most often I would have the bird on the left side, looking towards the writing on the right. I am still not sure if I like the final results here, but it was an interesting exercise to flip things around. And I didn’t even sew anything onto the collage!! Shock! It is so hard for me to keep it this pared down. Anyway, here’s how I made it: 1. Print out an image that you wish to transfer onto an inkjet transparency. The instructions for doing one of these transfers are in this image transfer post . Transfer the picture to smooth colored cardstock instead of fabric. Cut it out and top it with gloss medium. 2. Take two similarly sized squares of patterned or colored cardstock. Keep the background square whole, and rip a strip out of the other. Cut a piece of dark cardstock (I used black) slightly bigger than the patterned square. 3. Adhere the st...

While I can’t tell you the exact settings that you will need to use to alter your photo into a slightly blurred "fuzzy memory", I’ll take you through the steps that I used on Joshua’s portrait. It’s a bit hard to tell online, but Joshua’s features are in focus while the rest of the image is softly blurred. And the color has obviously been changed. So, grab an image that evokes sleepytime or daydreaming for you, and let’s go! 1. Open your file in Photoshop, duplicate the image, crop and size it. 2. Add a curves adjustment layer. Lower the contrast, dim the highlights, and dull the whites. 3. Add a hue/saturation adjustment layer. Tick off colorize, and add sepia tones (hue approximately 38, saturation approximately 25). Shift the lightness slider left until satisfied. Adjust opacity. 4. Merge all layers onto a new layer. 5. Add as much gaussian blur as you like and adjust opacity. 6. Apply a layer mask, and bring the child’s features back with a large soft brush. Copyright 200...

Photoshop "stamps" are really easy to make. You’re actually using the Brush Tool, but instead of dragging it to paint with, you merely click it in place and your image is stamped onto the background. You can change the color of “ink” that you use, fool around with the opacity and blending mode, anything that you’d normally do in Photoshop . After I cut out my expanded square with an exacto knife, I mounted all the pieces onto white cardstock. Then I scanned it. So here’s how you can turn your scan into a Photoshop brush in 3 easy steps: 1. In the layers palette, double click on the background layer and rename it to layer 0. 2. Use the Magic Wand Tool to select the white background and delete it. Don’t forget about any white parts that are inside the square. 3. Go to Edit —> Define brush That’s it! Give it a name and start playing with it. Try painting with it too…you never know. I suggest saving your file in a folder outside of Photoshop as well. When you ...

Not every landscape photo is well-suited to the tranquil feel of this one. I look for strong lines, not too much detail, and water! As usual, when it comes to manipulations done in Photoshop , I can’t really give you exact settings for filters and colors. Each photo is different, and you’ll have to do some experimenting with your own. Still, here’s basically what I did: 1. Open your image file and duplicate it. 2. Apply the smart blur filter to the entire shot. I used a fairly high radius and threshold on this one because I wanted the water and sky very blurred. 3. Apply a layer mask, and fill with a black to white gradient, bringing back the sharper edges of the land and dock. 4. Add a channel mixer adjustment layer. Check off monochrome, and adjust the sliders to give you a good looking black and white shot. I usually keep red very low or even on zero, and make blue and red add up to around 100. 5. Add a curves adjustment layer. Lower the highlights so that there are no harsh whites....

Like all altered book projects, there are really no rules that must be followed. However, there are a few things that will make your life easier if you want to make one of these! The first tip is to use a box cutter to make the holes for your image or images. Make sure you’ve got a sharp new blade - book covers take some work to get through, and you’re much more likely to have skipping (and cuts!) if your blade is dull. I used clear silicone caulk and Elmer’s carpenter’s glue to create a “frame” around the cut out. When they are thoroughly dry, they both accept acrylic paint quite well. I also used the carpenter’s glue to attach the fabric to the one cover. I used acrylic paints on both covers, and added some texturizing media to the Homer cover before painting. I checked in with my favorite folks at the Altered Books yahoo group to gain the benefit of their collective wisdom. Here’s what I’ve been told: If the cover is shiny, prime, sand, or gesso it. Otherwise, not really necessary....

Back when I was using a film camera, I managed to collect tons of shots that were…well, ok…but certainly not remarkable. Fortunately, I saved them. All of them. (Remember our motto here: don’t throw out anything! I practice what I preach.) Anyway, I’ve learned a number of very fun and fairly easy altering techniques that can be used on photos, so if you have already thrown out all your duds, just have a handful of your digital shots printed out. Many techniques work on shots printed on either photographic or regular printer paper (like inkjet prints), but I like the way the real photographs respond the best. Your mileage may vary. Here’s what I did to these poor photographs: 1. Soak them briefly in water to soften the top layer. Rub all or parts of the photos with medium grit sandpaper while they are still damp. The “Long and Winding Road” is the only one that I thoroughly sanded. The others are selectively done. 2. Apply spots, streaks or lines of bleach. I used a Clorox pen on “Pictu...

Here’s a fast and easy project you can do with left overs from the painted foil backgrounds that you’ve made. Haven’t made any yet? Well go ahead…here are the instructions …I’ll wait! 1. Cut out pieces of painted foil to use in your pin. Cut one larger one that will be the background, and as many smaller pieces as you want. 2. Trace around the background piece onto a piece of foam-core . Cut it out with an X-acto knife . 3. Paint the back and sides of the foam-core with Carbon black acrylic paint . Let it dry. 4. Use two-part epoxy resin to adhere the foil piece to the front of the foam-core. Attach the other pieces as well. 5. Apply an image or some text to the back of a flat-backed glass stone. Glue it in place. Glue on any additional embellishments. 6. When the front is thoroughly dry, use resin to attach a bar pin onto the back. Let it dry. This post contains affiliate links Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. Ma...

Plain old aluminum foil makes a wonderful background for collage, and also can be a nice accent to add to a larger piece, especially when the foil is painted. There are only a couple of tricks to making paint work with foil, and as long as those points are observed, your experiments with these techniques can go on and on and on! 1. Use very thin washes of acrylic paints and build up your layers slowly. However, do not thin your paints with water. It will seem ok at first, but later on the paint will peel off or chip. The painted foil pieces will only stand the test of time if you use an acrylic medium to thin the paints. My preference is Golden’s GAC 100 , but I have also used Golden’s glazing medium . I like to make the paint layers very thin so that the metallic sheen of the foil shows through. Otherwise, there’s not much point in using foil as a substrate! 2. Let your layers of paint dry slowly. You can use a heat gun, but keep it well back from the foil. Since the foil...

I’ll bet you remember doing paper weavings when you were a child. My memories of this craft involves blunt-nosed scissors that you couldn’t possibly get a clean cut with, and trying to keep those cuts as straight as possible. Not the most artistic results! Now that I’m a big girl, and I get to use an exacto knife, my shapes and weavings are a bit more interesting. Although my slicings and weavings are nowhere near as intricate as Georgia Russell’s, I’m still much happier with them than the laminated woven paper placemats that I used to make! 1. Cut and decorate two pieces of paper that are approximately the same size and shape. For my piece, I cut the background paper that I made last week in half. 2. Using a very sharp exacto knife, slice one of the pieces vertically, varying the width and shape of the slices. Leave 1/4 inch still attached at the top so that all the slices stay in order. 3. Slice the other piece horizontally, all the way through, also varying the size and shape of the...

The original inspiration for this background was a bag of letter blocks that I found in an antique store…SCORE!! Using my new toys, I decided to make some background papers for use in other projects. Here’s how to make a very simple style of mixed text background paper. Materials and tools: Watercolor paper Assorted texts Letter and/or other stamps Matte medium Foam brush Black ink Acrylic paint Glazing medium 1. Rip up different texts, including foreign text, dictionary pages, envelopes, and any other ephemera you want to use. I included old sheet music as well. 2. Arrange them on a heavy piece of watercolor paper and use matte medium and a foam brush to stick them down. Brush more matte medium over the top surface. Let it dry. 3. Use a permanent black ink to stamp the surface with the letter blocks and stamps. Apply acrylic glazes to pull the colors of the text together. Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for perso...

My daughter recently bought a roll of metallic vinyl with an adhesive backing. It seemed like the perfect material to use in order to try the weathered metal technique that everyone on the Altered Books email group was talking about. It’s a very simple technique, and you probably already have everything you need between your paint box and your basement! If you don’t have a wide piece of vinyl tape like mine, you can substitute automotive foil tape or even plain old duct tape! Materials and tools: Wide brushed steel vinyl tape Cardstock Foam brush Heat gun Medium grit sand paper 3 colors of acrylic paint (I used Golden’s heavy bodied cobalt turquoise, cobalt teal, and titian buff) 1. Cut a piece of card stock to the size you want for your finished background. Cover it with metallic tape, layering the tape if needed. If you are using thin tape, criss-cross the surface of the card stock somewhat randomly. 2. Sand the surface lightly, going in all directions, including in a circular pat...

1. Cut two pieces of craft foam into identical sized squares. Using an exacto knife, cut geometric shapes out of the middle of one piece, leaving at least a thin border all the way around the outside. Mount one on top of the other using spray adhesive. 2. Paint a background piece of cardstock or watercolor paper with thinned acrylics. Let it dry thoroughly. 3. Use a brayer to roll out either black acrylic paint or ink on a piece of waxed paper. Use your craft grid like a stamp, making as many impressions as you can on your painted paper. Let it dry. 4. Cut out a grid that you like, and mount it on black cardstock or matt board. Finish it off with a quote or images of your choice. Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact. Technorati Tags: mixed media , collage , assemblage , digital art , photography , altered boo...

This is what happens when you try to use texture plates as a stamp! Not much!! Another use of texture plates is to use them as a reverse stamp. They don’t make good stamps in the classic sense, because the ridges are not all the same height. Therefore, when you try to apply ink to them, you end up with little dots on your paper instead of the pattern. However, if you place the texture plate underneath thin paper and press the inkpad down onto the paper from the top, you’ll get a much better texture impression. Use slow-drying ink, add embossing powder, heat, and you’ll have an even more noticeable texture. You can use your texture plates to texture thin metal. Tape the piece to the plate and rub the metal either with your finger or with a spoon. Using a piece of waxed paper over top of the metal will make your finger or spoon glide more easily, but can leave a residue on the metal that you’ll need to remove afterwards. When you’re done, you can use a stylus or an old dried up ballpoint...

I bought a set of texture plates recently, and then sat there trying to figure out why I had wanted them! In typical fashion, I got interested in the tool before I had thought through the results. But with a little experimenting, I found out that there are a whole host of things you can use these for…besides using them for interesting water glass coasters! The old classic is to place a thin paper overtop of the texture and rub with crayons, pastels, chalks, or colored pencils. This is one of the easiest ways to add texture to your work, building up layers of rubbings and then overstamping or painting. Crayons will act as a resist, so you can add water media on top and still see the pattern you’ve made. If you use a crayon that matches the color of the paper, or a clear wax stick (even a candle), the paper will show through. To texture a small shape, you can either go ahead and texture a larger piece of paper and then cut out your shape, or you can cut it out first and use a small piece...

A gradient fill can be used on just part of a photo (to beef up a wimpy sky, for example) or on the entire image. It can be used to correct or change lighting, and can also add a great stylized look to the colors. Changing the colors is not a technique that I’d recommend using on every shot just because it looks cool, however. It’s like every other trick with Photoshop that can become very boring very fast. I like to play around with it only when I’ve got a shot with great lines but not much else! 1. Open your image file, size it, and save it under a new name. Make copy of background layer. 2. Up the contrast and desaturate slightly if needed. You want a high-contrast, dull colored image to work with. 3. Using an adjustment layer, add the gradient fill of your choice in an orientation that suits the light of your image. Choose the color blending mode and adjust the opacity to suit. 4. Merge all visible layers into a new layer, and use this layer to add any filter effects you desire...

In this tutorial today, I’m going to show you how to use tissue paper as a tool rather than as an actual art material. Using plain white tissue paper as a guide, you can create really fun found poetry pieces in your altered books and collages. 1. Gather together a picture that you would like to use, a sheet of text, a sheet of tissue paper, a pencil, and an exacto knife. 2. Find some words on the sheet of text that make an interesting found-word poem, or somehow relate to your picture. Lay the sheet of tissue paper over the text and draw a box around the words with your pencil. 3. Now lay the tissue paper over the image, and move it around until the word boxes are in a good location. Using your exacto knife, carefully cut through both the tissue paper and the image below. 4. Carefully line up the text sheet behind the image so that the words show through the cut holes, and use acrylic medium to glue them together. Trim them even with each other if needed. Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. N...

White tissue paper can be a really helpful material when you want the paper surrounding a stamped item to almost disappear into the background. By stamping onto white tissue, you can make it look like the image (or text) was stamped directly on the substrate. Why not just stamp it that way to begin with? Well, sometimes your background is too textured to take a stamp impression well. Experiment with these…I’m sure you’ll come up with lots more uses for them! 1. Prepare your background paper with as many layers as you want. Set it aside to dry, and stamp your desired image onto white tissue paper while you wait. Tear each piece out to use separately, or use the entire sheet, whichever you prefer. I tore each star out. 2. Apply a light layer of acrylic medium, the liquid kind, in either matte or gloss, your choice. Smooth down each stamped image, letting the medium soak through it. You can also apply another layer of medium over top of everything when you’re finished if you want to seal ...

Today we’re going to look at the mixed media techniques used to create the digital collage, Stone Lily. This digital collage was made with steps very similar to a technique that I shared before . Previously, though, most of my work was done using either the overlay or the hardlight blending mode of Photoshop . Each digital collage presents its own unique set of challenges, and this time I found that using the multiply mode and adding an embossed layer was just what was needed. As I explained before, you’ll have to just take these steps and tweak them for each new piece that you work with. 1. Create background paper, using one of the crinkled tissue techniques . Scan the finished paper at 300 dpi. 2. Open your collage image and make sure that it is also 300 dpi. Choose a color from this image with the color picker tool, and use it to colorize the background paper. 3. Drag and drop your image on top of the background paper. Change the blending mode to multiply, and tweak the colors and l...

Welcome to part 3 of our Technique Tuesday series, what the heck to do with tissue paper! There is lots of tissue paper available that is not just plain white! That may be a shock after the last two weeks, where all we looked at and worked with was white tissue, no patterns, no pictures, no nothin’. This week, I want to share a technique with you that is perfect for working with patterned and pictorial tissue, including napkins. If you decide to use napkins, make sure that you have split them down to just a single layer…some of the fancier napkins actually have 3 layers, and it’s easy to miss one. 1. Assemble the materials you’ll need, including a piece of cardstock or watercolor paper to use as your base, patterned tissue paper and/or napkins, liquid acrylic medium, a foam brush, lots of waxed paper, parchment paper, and an iron. I used the piece of black and gold tissue to completely cover my substrate, first spreading a thin layer of acrylic medium and smoothing the tissue over it....