MELTED CRAYON BACKGROUND

 It's been 14 years since we last used crayons for a technique, and it's still just as wonderful to create such an amazing piece with the very basic Crayola crayons and a mini craft iron. I bought myself the 64-pack of crayons, so I have lots of colour options, and the pack even comes with a built-in sharpener on the back. It also includes silver and gold; these are excellent additions that add a little shimmer to the other colours. The most important part is to use an iron that has no holes in the base, so not a steam iron, just a normal craft iron with a flat base, or you can use a Clover mini iron. I've had one of the Clover mini irons for over 20 years, and it still works great. Spotlight also has an excellent Semco mini craft iron for only $16, which is a great buy.
All of these backgrounds have been created with just melted crayons.

"Common folks"
(The horse & rider is a die-cut from a piece
of watercolour paper that was painted
with a granulating paint. A perfect effect.)


"I bury things"
(The black flower above the leaves is a dead
weed flower from my garden that I coated
in clear embossing powder. Turned out
better than I thought it would!)


"Grab life"
(Homage to the Cultured Magazine shoot
with Connor Storrie. IYKYK 😏)


"Eileen"
(I've been wanting to use this quote
for ages! lol)

"Sky above"
(So lovely to be able to create scenes
with a crayon and an iron.)

"Mind like a lens"
(Not sure what I'm going to do when I run
out of the Tim Holtz film strip tape?)

CORRUGATED CARD REVISITED

It's been several years since I've used corrugated card on ATCs, so I thought we'd revisit it. It's such a versatile addition, adding great texture and depth to the backgrounds. For my samples, I've kept to a very neutral brown/white/kraft colour scheme, but of course you can easily add colour if you want. Using book pages further complements this particular style of ATCs; after attaching them to medium-weight cardstock, they become sturdier and can be easily die-cut into shapes.

First though, I finished my cover for this current book, #36. This was from my Metal Grunge class at the beginning of this month.

Technique Book Cover #36
(This is 8" x 6")


"Trowel & error"

"Life's a garden"

"It's not hoarding"

"Fun fact"

"Don't look back"

"Deleaf"

CRAYON BRUSHO RESIST

 Brushos and other similar powders are a great way to add colour to watercolour paper or, as I've used here, photo paper. There are quite a few different brands of these highly pigmented powders available, and I have used the following for my samples: Brushos, Nuvo Shimmer Powder, Lindy's Magical Shakers and Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powder. They are all dry pigment powders made up of several different colours that create the final colour when mixed together, but the amazing effect you get if you don't mix them is wonderful! You end up with little bursts of several colours all in the one powder mix.

I've used a white crayon for the resist technique portion of this technique. That's all of the white marks that you can see on the photo paper. 

"Don't judge"

"Probably bad"

"Someone's perfect"

"Run"

"Mr businessman"


"Steampunk"

METAL GRUNGE

 Metal foil tape is something I've been using in my artwork for many, many years, and it never ceases to amaze me how different it can look, depending on what you layer on top of it. This technique uses Distress Paints, a little alcohol ink and stamping with Black Stazon ink to build up the layers. I've also used chipboard numbers underneath to add extra dimension, which is also another technique I did nearly 20 years ago, and it still works wonderfully with this technique too.
Still on an HR kick, sorry, not sorry. 

My cover for this new technique book (Book #36) will be in the next post as I'll be using it as my demo piece for the first class. 

"casualdejekyll"
(I had to explain this one to
my husband. 😏)


"69"


"Bad idea"

"Blushed"


"Dibs on the villain"

"Smudge"

GRAPHITE DOUBLE EMBOSSING

 Graphite paper is a great resource that can be used in a few ways with art or craft projects. For this class, I have used it with 3D embossing folders, Distress Inks for added colour, as well as embossing powders over the top to pick up the high points of the embossing folders. So it is a multi-step process, but the end result can be wonderful.
The last image is a card I made using Kraft paper instead of white and then gold embossing over the top, so no added colour with the Distress Inks.

"Wildflower"


"Last responder"

"Sparkle"

"I shoot people"

"Gears"

"Breathe"

A card made using the same Graphite Double Embossing
Technique, with no added colour. Simply graphite and
gold embossing powder for the image.

NEGATIVE WATERCOLOUR PAINTING

 Negative painting is when you pick out specific shapes on a completely covered, coloured background, then fill the areas surrounding the shapes with another colour, making the shapes stand out. I used either white acrylic paint pens or oil-based gold pens to outline the shapes. This is generally created at a larger size than the size I work on, with ATCs being only 2.5" x 3.5", and it's always a challenge to translate some of the techniques I try onto this smaller size. I was quite happy with how these turned out, and I have no words; I literally have no words on 5 of these 6 samples (which led to these oh-so-creative titles for each ATC). I wanted the paintings to stand alone without the distraction of words, except for the fish one, as that one needed something in between the waves. 😃🐟

Pot 1

Pot 2

Poppies

Leaves

House

Fish

FAUX LEATHER BACKGROUND

 The very first time I did Faux Leather as a class was in 2008, so it's been a while since we've done this easy, but effective background technique using a staple in many homes, masking tape.
Acrylic paint is what gives this tape the colour, and I find it works better than using any inks on top of the tape, as they have a tendency to wipe off, whereas the acrylic paint sticks very well. Dry-brushing the paint on means you are much more in control of how much colour you add, although it's easy to wipe/scratch some paint off if you've applied too much.
My first three samples are dedicated to my current obsession. IYKYK. 😉

"Yee'd your last haw"

"Obsession"


"Gimme kiss"


"til death we do art"

"Imagination"

"Heart sing"