Painting the Apron

Last year I painted an apron to submit to the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine for the Mixed Media Apron Reader Challenge.  It was selected as a finalist, and I was really thrilled to see it in the July/August 2016 issue.

      

The apron was created in layers with fabric paints and my own designed stencils and masks.  Below are some pictures of the process and some details.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

The background was created with stencils over a round Tyvek stencil with a sponge.  The idea was to cover the background with interesting shapes and different colors.  I think I got a bit carried away with the colors :)

Using leaf and flower stencils and masks, I added a watery layer over the background.  I held the flower masks in place, and pounced with the sponge around it.  The leaves were done with the stencil first (painting the inside), then a mask over it, to get the shapes inside the leaves.

The leaf and flower shapes were outlined with a fabric pen.

Next the shapes (from the first layer) were now outlined inside the flowers.  Shadows were added to the flower shapes to make them stand out a bit more.

Some of the background shapes were still too strong and competing with the foreground, so they got a layer of white dots through sequin waste.

Finished!  Added some doodling to some of the leaf shapes, and put it away so I wouldn't keep messing with it :)

While it was gone, I started another apron and a tea towel with some of what I had learned.  I got Textile paint and decided to go with greens and blues.  Below you will see the first step and the finished pieces.

Challenge #212 and Pattern Inspired by Indian flower

Challenge #212: "UMT: Fanz by Susan Goetter"

This week's challenge was to use the Fanz tangle created by Susan Goetter - you can see step-outs through a link in the Diva's challenge page here.

I loved this tangle (the one on the top right) as it is very forgiving.  I decided to try out a few variations, but you can just have them quite plain and it looks really nice!  I can't wait to see everyone's entry in the challenge - they are always so inspiring!

Pattern Inspired by Indian Flower

When I was in India last month, I had a weekend "free" and visited several temples and palaces near Bangalore.  As my mind has been stuck on patterns recently :), I took some pictures I would hope would inspire me to create new designs. 

I have not yet created anything with the patterns other than sketch some of them, but saw the sculpture of a flower, that inspired me to create this very simple hand-carved stamp. 

When you print it all the way around (4 times) you get this pattern - and you can see the flower in the center.

If you print it again but with the "flower center" towards the outside corners this time, you end up with a very different pattern (I love this one).

I tried it out again, now printing it 4 times across and 4 down, starting with the flower center at the corner.  You can see how different it looks from the one below where the stamp was pointing the other way.  These were finished with colored pencil, pen and ink, and Sakura gel pens 

(to highlight the shapes - cross vs. flower)

This next set is the same, except these were painted with H2Os (shimmering watercolors) and finished with pen and ink.

Challenge #183 and Stamp and Art Journal Play

Challenge #183

This week's Diva Challenge (here) was to use a new tangle by Annette Carlo called X-Did.

I had a lot of fun with it, even though I haven't really had very much time to explore the possibilities.

Please check out the beautiful art always displayed on the Diva's challenge by all the participants.  I have not had a chance to do it, yet, but will definitely try to make time for it this week.  It is always a treat to see everyone's interpretation of a new tangle and it is always a source of inspiration to me.

Stamp and Art Journal Play

I started getting into art journals a few months ago, but have not had much time to dedicate to it.  So, I created a journal a while ago (shown here) from junk mail with lots of pockets.  The pockets are supposed to hold work-in-progress pieces that I can work on when I don't have much time.  This is exactly what I did this week.

I had about 10 minutes one night, and I painted this little piece with watercolors.  The following night, I had about 10 minutes again, and I added some details with pen and ink.  I'm not sure what I will use it for, but I felt pretty good to have spent those 10 minutes each night doing something fun and relaxing.  Sometimes it is all the time I will have, so this method of using the pockets for something I can work on a bit at a time, is working for me.

This is a bit less than 2 x 2 inchies... so, pretty small

Last Monday was Labor Day in the US and so I relaxed a bit finishing this piece.  It was stamped with my "Well Inspired" stamp, painted with watercolors, with details added in with pen and ink and colored pencils.

I also took another print of a hand-carved stamp from one of my journal pockets and worked on it while watching TV with my husband.  This stamp was created during the workshop (here) and I hadn't done anything to any of the prints I took at the time.

I added details with colored pencils and pen and ink

Regarding the new house... things are still uncertain right now.  I'm trying to keep positive and hope everything will work out. :)

Carve, Stamp, Play Workshop

This week I did not manage to enter the challenge; with the new job and trying to get adjusted to getting up around 5 in the morning, the week just got away from me.

I did manage to create a few carvings and prints for the Carve Stamp Play Workshop based on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's book (her blog here):

The Flowers:

I think I mentioned here I wanted to create a coloring sheet with the flower carvings.  I did just that, and scanned it so I can print it in whatever paper I want and have fun painting or coloring it in.

Stamped flowers and leaves

Outlined flowers and leaves and added shapes to the background

It will be a lot of fun painting or coloring it in :)

Interlocking stamps - abstract shapes:

These are rather small stamps but I had a lot of fun with them.  The idea is to create two stamps to work together.  So, this is what I came up with:

Something simple:  background color (right) and shape outline (left)
I wanted to create them so I could use them together or separately

So, I tried printing them with different colors to practice aligning them, and to see which color combinations I liked.

Then I had fun :)

Both together in same cases, and then separately

... and even more fun!!

Same print after adding watercolors, pen and ink, and colored pencil

Patterns with a simple carving:

The idea was to use a simple carving and use it to create different patterns.  I decided to carve a leaf and created these patterns, although I could keep going :).  I haven't had the time to play with this leaf yet, but the little carved away spots inside of the leaf will be fun to paint or color, or even tangle in.

One Fish, Two Fish...

The purpose of this lesson was to carve a stamp that printed multiple times will create a continuous pattern.  I decided to do something different here... to create a tessellation Escher-like (or rather, the same type; his are amazing and fabulous!!).

So, I went online and created a tessellation, carved it, and added some designs inside.  I started with one fish, but it was really hard to print it and get everything aligned, so... I carved a second fish :)

Fish one (left) and fish two :)

Then, printed them together to form my tessellation:

The values are too close together so it is a bit hard on your eyes :)

And had some fun with a card:

All fish outlined
the darker ones had the carved away shapes painted with shimmering watercolors,
the lighter ones had the background lightly colored with coloring pencil

I think these are easier on the eyes.  I know I will have a lot of fun with these fish!  I'm already have an idea for a bigger piece.

Challenge #170 and Flower Stamps

Challenge

This week's challenge (on the Diva's blog) was to use Bugles by Joyce Evans (step outs here).  That is the darker tangle below.  I had fun with it, as always :)

Flower Stamps

After playing with the house stamps (I've shown them here) with my 4-year-old niece, she said next time we needed to play with flower stamps.  So, I grabbed some cheap erasers, designed some simple flower centers, petals, and leaves, and carved them on the erasers (see them below on the left side).

Then, we played with them and had a lot of fun.  At one point, she grabbed one of the leaf stamps, and created a flower with it.  Go figure!!  I had not thought of doing that, but see below right how they can look pretty cool!

When I got home, it was time for me to play with them :).  I got some Bristol paper, and went at it with the flowers and the leaves.  I then doodled all over the background to fill the empty spaces, and then painted the flowers, leaves, and background shapes with H2Os (shimmering watercolors).  Oh what fun!!!

I'm now working on a 8.5 x 11 in piece; I stamped the flowers and leaves in grey, and have started outlining them with black ink.  Once done, I will add shaped to the background (as in the piece above), and hope it will turn out to be a really fun page to color, or paint, or tangle in.

Camelia Challenge and Carve Stamp Play Workshop

CAMELIA CHALLENGE

This week's Diva Challenge (#165) was to use the Camelia tangle created by Anne Marks (steps here).  I had fun learning this tangle and then creating this ATC-sized piece for the challenge:

Camelia is the black and white tangle.
Other tangles: Flux, 'Nzeppel, Amaze, and Fescu
Colored and shaded with Inktense and colored pencils

Carve Stamp Play Workshop

After the Zentangle workshop, the Artists of the Round Table group started working on the Carve Stamp Play Workshop based on the book by the same name by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  As I love to carve and I always learn so much from these worshops, I decided to participate in this workshop as well.  


 The first few lessons went through some basics, but now things are definitely getting interesting and I'm having a lot of fun.  Here are a couple of my favorite finished carvings so far.  I hope you enjoy them.

Print from my faux wood carving lesson

On the left is the print , on the right is the carving

Earth Day and Cloth Paper Scissors Challenges

Earth Day Challenge - Diva's weekly challenge #164

I'm really enjoying participating in these weekly challenges; it forces me to do something every week, and also post consistently on the blog :).  You can see this week's challenge and all the wonderful submissions from other participants here.

Because the challenge was for Earth Day, I decided to use recycled paper - used tea bags - and because the Earth is round, I went with the round tea bags.  I used Sakura gel pens, Inktense, and colored pencils.

The challenge for me was then to create nature inspired art with tangles.  Some are very obviously organic in nature, but I enjoyed using others which may not be so obvious.  I definitely could keep going, it was so much fun!!!

Top:

• Left - Sedgling Forest
• Center - Angel Fish Tree
• Right - Isochor Flowering Trees

Center:

• Left - 'Nzeppel Flowers
• Center - Rain trees
• Right - Tipple, Printemps, Amaze, and Flux Mountains 

Bottom:

• Left - Aura-Leah Plant
• Center - Flux Plant
• Right - Eke Plant

Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine Reader Challenge

Cloth Paper Scissors is one of my favorite magazines; I absolutely love it.  Last year they had a challenge to create a mixed-media stitched square (6" x 6" - around 15 x 15 cm).  I decided to enter and submitted my piece below, which was then published in the January/February 2014 issue.

So, here is the finished piece and some of the in-progress pictures.  I hope you enjoy them.

Finished Piece

Finished Piece - close-up

Background - started with a piece of my husband's old jeans
and layered old book pages, stamped and drawn-on tea bags, gesso, and inks. 

Drew and stitched a tree, and then started adding flowers

Close up of the tree branches and flowers

In the end I added more color with Inktense as you can see in the finished piece and stitched it to a piece of felt.

It was so much fun to open up the magazine and see my art in it :)