Experimenting with Creative Medium

I have to tell you about the fun I've been having! A week or so ago, I got a big box of happy from the fine folks at IMAGINE Crafts. They carry all manner of Tsukineko products as well as their own relatively new line of acrylic mediums, inks, and sprays, etc.

One of the things I've had fun playing with is their line of Creative Medium. Creative Medium comes in a variety of metallics and iridescent colors. It's a somewhat thick consistency that works well for adhering paper bits when making collages, or it can be slathered on with a palette knife like thick paint, with or without the use of a stencil.

For this piece, I used Creative Medium in gold and a stencil by Tim Holtz. I simply placed the stencil on my canvas (in this case, a 5 x 7" panel) and spread the Creative Medium over the top just like soft, creamy butter! I carefully scraped the excess off of my stencil and then, just as carefully, pulled the stencil away from the canvas, resulting in the image you see below. The stencil cleaned up easily with soapy water and a rag.

Once the Creative Medium had dried, I went to work giving it all the abuse I could think of. I really wanted to test this stuff and see what it could do. Boy, am I ever impressed with how it holds up! I dripped ink (from re-inker bottles) on it and spritzed it with Ink Potion No. 9 to make it blend and drip and run. Once it dried I dribbled more ink on it and spritzed it with Windex (which gives it a more puddled, mottled look). I let everything dry well and smeared white acrylic paint down the "blank" side to mute the color a little, and then stamped* gear images and wording and butterflies on it.

For the butterfly, which comes from Gina's Designs: Butterfly of Gears, I used IMAGINE Crafts' line of irRESISTible Pico Embellishers. I colored the gear side with gold and the wing side with bronze and the butterfly body with Tuxedo Black. I traced the wing on clear acetate and used StazOn Studio Glaze in Gothic Purple to color it. While it was still sticky, I simply used the glaze that was already on it to adhere it to the wing. As you can see a little bit in the picture below, when the light hits it right, it has a stained glass effect. I did use a spacer to adhere the butterfly to my background just to give it more air and light that would highlight that stained glass effect.

As you can no doubt tell, I had all kinds of fun playing with my new goodies! Here is the background for another piece that I did. This will give you some idea of how absolutely striking the Creative Medium iridescents are against a dark background.

I began with a canvas (again a 5 x 7") to which I applied various colors of blue, green, and white acrylic paint. I let it dry and cure thoroughly over night. Then, same as before, I used a stencil (this time from Stencil Girl) and my palette knife to spread on the Green Iridescent Creative Medium.

I let it dry overnight and... Voilà! As you can see, the "white" paste magically dries to a beautiful, shimmery green against the dark background.

I wish I had a way to show you how much the iridescence makes the piece "move" depending on how and where the light hits it. You'll just have to take my word for it... it is gorgeous!

This is only the beginning of all the things I can imagine doing with my IMAGINE Crafts products. So, stay tuned, because I have all kinds of other things I want to show you.

Until next time... here's to wild imaginations and crafting!

*Stamped images are: Gears by Stampin Up! and Butterflies and Curiosity Definition by Tim Holtz

The Whimsical World of Art

There is a word that I love (just one of many, if you know me at all).

That word is:

whimsical
/adjective

1. spontaneously fanciful or playful
2. given to whims; capricious
3. quaint, unusual, or fantastic

It's a word that doesn't get used nearly enough.

In the art world, in my humble opinion, it's a concept that doesn't get used nearly enough.

Don't get me wrong. I admire "serious" art, and especially the skill it takes to produce it. However, as someone who appreciates art, it's always the more whimsical stuff that draws my eye.

After all, where else in our lives can we completely give ourselves over to whimsy if not in art? In art, it's acceptable to have a chartreuse sky, swimming camels... anything that doesn't quite belong in all the most amusing ways.

Truly, art should be spontaneously fanciful and playful. Art should be capricious and given to whims. Art is at its best when it is quaint, unusual or fantastic. Art ought to be whimsical.

So it is there that my love of RubberMoon's stamps is based. They make it easy to wander the whimsical path.

The card above was made using RubberMoon's Squeak, "Oh, Rats!", and Black Cattitude stamps, along with Tim Holtz's clock stamp.

The concept behind this card perfectly, yet oh, so whimsically captures my behind-the-eight-ball frantic feeling with regard toward getting everything done between Halloween and Christmas.

Hey, what day is it? Wait. What time is it?! Oh, rats!!

The rats race around the clock (rat race... get it?) as if trying to keep up with time, capped off by the wry look on the cat's face as one of the rats gets away.

Here I am at my last post on this blog for 2014, with holiday presents made and gifted, cards made and sent, cookies made and eaten, well-wishes bestowed upon beloved family and friends...

...but for this final wish...

May you have a very 

Happily Whimsical New Year!

Coffee and Templates

(Fitztown digistamp used: Halloween 9)

It's no secret that I'm a freak for coffee. Not only is it not a secret, it's probably a fairly well-known fact. Rumor has it that I can be a little scary if I don't get my coffee.

And it has to be decent, deep brew for me to be really satisfied and happy. Weak coffee only serves to make me fractious. But decaf? Boy, howdy. Serve me that stuff and you'd better just run for your life!

But enough about my (completely reasonable) demands.

Somewhat lesser known is my love of stencils. They can be used in so many different ways and combinations and on any number of projects.

I have a dozen or so of them and it's not nearly enough. Which runs frighteningly close to being the same as not having enough coffee. Yeah. It's that bad.

Anyway, when I saw this Fitztown spectre, I knew that poor ol' ghoul wasn't so bad really. He just needed some decent coffee to bring him back to life. So, I poured myself some and went to work.

I colored him in using Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and a small brush dipped in water to blend them. Then I cut him out.

I felt like he needed some ghostly looking flames and I had just the ticket - a template from The Crafter's Workshop.

Using a template is ridiculously easy. All I did was to lay the template on black cardstock and sponge over it with ink. I shifted it slightly to vary the placement of the flames, and using a different color, sponged over it again. I repeated this four times using Brilliance Pearlescent inks in: Lightning Black, Poppy, Olive, and Ice Blue.

Your templates can simply be wiped clean and put away for later use. If they get really messy, you can gently wash them in soapy (dish detergent) warm water.

Here are a few other examples of cards I've made where I  used templates.

Another Crafter's Workshop template, 

combined with a Tim Holtz stamp (sentiment). 

I don't know what company made the bird stamp.

Tim Holtz template over Stampin' Up's Harlequin background stamp. 

Floral stamp is by Penny Black. Sentiment is by Sweetgrass Stamps.

Tim Holtz template. 

Stamps by Blockheads, Eclectic Omnibus, 

Stampin' Up!, Scottish Borders and Rubbermoon.

Get some templates and start playing! You'll be amazed at the creativity they inspire.

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

William Blake penned the following lines at the end of his poem, Tiger:

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

I will forgive Mr. Blake the blatant misuse of an adjective in place of an adverb if he will forgive me attempting to frame a tiger. Because that's just what I did for this week's Fitztown Design Team post.

For this card, I used Fitztown's Tiger digistamp (available here).

I printed it out on ivory colored cardstock and then colored it in with Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils. If you're not familiar with these amazing pencils, you are missing out! I love working with them - they can be used as regular old colored pencils or you can dip them in water for a more intense color, or brush over them with a wet paintbrush for a softer watercolor effect.

I colored in the tiger and the leaves and then very lightly went over much of it with a damp brush.

From there, it was time to move on to the frame. To cut it I used my trusty old Coluzzal... does anybody use those any more?! I don't have any of the fancy cutting/embossing machines, and this has always worked just fine for me for mini matting/framing needs. It also takes up no room on my desk!

I wanted to give the frame a little depth, so I used my Tim Holtz canvas stencil and sponged in a little distress ink. Then I put some darker brown spatter effect on it using an old Stampin' Up! stamp. To give it some good border and draw the eye back in, I went around the edges of the rectangle as well as the edges of the oval with a sponge that I'd swiped on the same brown ink.

All that was left was to assemble the card and trim off the excess ivory cardstock.

For those of you who aren't satisfied with a mere taste of William Blake's work (I never am!), I invite you to read the entire poem (here). I promise, you read the entire thing and you'll be checking behind you to make sure there's not a tiger crouching and ready to pounce.