Tag Archives: paint

March 27, 2016 · 1:18 pm

Growing in Art–Part Two

Hello again and Happy Easter!

This piece seems like a fitting way to start. I was in a state of joy when I created it, in a place of geographic joy, and a with people who bring me joy!

Used lots of found and upcycled items in the construction–scrap wood, muffin papers, sari ribbon, and circuit board remnants.

Another piece on canvas panel. Experiments with dripping Izinks ink, acrylic paints, stencils, ink pens, foam letters on corrugated cardboard colored with Shiva Paint Sticks, also used heated molded plastic, and Pico embellishers. I am learning more about water soluble vs. non-water soluble as evidenced by smearing of some of my details.

I still like to upcycle certain used clothing tags and here is a batch I did at Christmastime. It is a good way to use up all those little bits and bobs I have leftover from other projects.

Because who doesn’t love a pic of art supplies??!!

A sweet and swirly Valentine!

My latest on a canvas panel. Mounted on an upcycled backing from a frameless glass frame. I used modeling paste, a Patti Tolley Parrish stencil, Silks acrylic glaze, glass bead gel, Shiva Paint Stiks, a frame I filled with resin (and a worry doll), heat moldable plastic, a fortune from a fortune cookie, Pico embellishers, and well over a dozen layers. At one point I was so disgusted with the whole thing that I covered 95 percent of it in black paint and then uncovered parts and continued on. I really think that you have to hate your project at some point before you really get to something. Or maybe that’s just moi….

In any case I wish you all a good day and I welcome all comments!

ArtOutWithYourHeARTOut

4 Comments

Filed under Doodlydoo, Flash Trash & Glitter, Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as black, flowers, glass bead gel, katyoparty, layers, mixed-media, paint, Patti Tolley Parrish, sparkle, texture

January 4, 2014 · 2:56 pm

Which Path For The New Year?

I hope today’s post finds all of you healthy and happy in this new year! Even though the world in my area is freezing and cold, I am feeling warm and creative on the inside. I enjoyed creating ornament gift bags for holidays….

I really enjoyed decorating the tree….

Now that all of that is behind me, like a lot of people, I’ve been considering my goals for the new year. Personally my goals are much like many people–work on balance in my life, lose a few pounds, be fiscally responsible, yadda yadda yadda.

Artistically my goals are not so clear these days. I love working with paper and mixed-media and paint and art journaling and beads. Over the years my skills and interests have expanded and changed and morphed and melded into a wonderful and colorful experience. With the start of the new year I find myself wanting to turn some sort of page with my creativity.

For the past few years I’ve experimented with selling my one of a kind mixed media cards and met with some success but now there are various outlets (i.e. discount stores, box stores, kits) that now sell handmade “looking” cards for cheap. I’ve decided to continue making cards for my own personal giving and also for art abandonment and charity purposes but no longer for retail sale in the traditional sense.

I’ve also enjoyed scrapbooking for the past 8 years or so. I’ve filled some nice fat albums with my layouts and given them as gifts at times. My family enjoys looking through them from time to time and appreciates the work I’ve put into them. I’ve belonged to several monthly scrapbooking kit clubs over the years (currently Swirlydoos), but there is no denying it is not the be-all and end-all of my creativity these days. I will continue to do my kind of scrapping but I’ve decided to really limit my participation in challenges and round robins. Sometimes I have so many deadlines to meet that I am not taking time to experiment and explore creatively outside those things.

2013 found me delving into the world of YouTube videos and photo tutorials for learning things and laughing at things. I even delved into making some video and photo tutorials myself (yikes!) Look up the Katyoparty channel if you want to check those out. I am enjoying the fumbling and funny learning curve that making videos entails. There is so much more to it than just clicking record…… I am going to continue to experiment in that area.

My fascination for mixed-media has been growing over several years and that is what I am whole-heartedly embracing these days. Art journaling is my current obsession for experimentation. I am completely enamored of art journaling because there are no rules or expectations and you can mix any technique, medium, and/or elements you desire. Do what your heart desires–it’s all good! I am going to continue with my art journal play.

My mixed media play has now jumped to canvas and I’ve been adding more paint and other mediums but I’ve only experimented on small substrates. I want to work on something bigger–something really messy!

I’ve never been published so I’m going to submit something to somewhere at least three times this year. How’s that for a vague-ish goal????

Another of my goals is one that is very well-known by many…..

Dance Like No One Is Watching

Dance Like No One Is Watching!

Until next time….Art Out With Your HeART Out!

3 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Mixed Media Mania, Musings

Tagged as mixed media art journal, paint, Swirlydoos

June 20, 2013 · 7:03 pm

It’s Mixed Media Madness Baby!

I am away at an art retreat for a few days and having a great time! Here is what I’ve been creating today! TFL!

Art Out With Your HeART Out

2 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as blue, burlap, flowers, green, katyoparty, paint, texture

May 24, 2013 · 3:38 am

Learning From My Art Journal

It’s been several days since I began my Art Journal Experience and I look forward to it every time. I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned so far.

–You can use up a lot of bits and bobs that you’ve been saving. The entry above I finally used the rose in the vase illustration which I had cut out of an old children’s book and had in my stash for at least 5 years.

–Don’t put a brad through the previous page without figuring out how you are going to camoflauge the back of it on the next page. Lesson learned. My least favorite part of this page is the metal tape embellishment I put over the back of the brad (upper left corner).

–Put masking tape over the center seam of the book before you cover it in gesso so your paints, inks, etc., don’t leak down into the book spine and bleed over into other pages.

–Put scrap paper under each page you are working on to keep any overflow mediums from going over the edges onto already done pages or the next page. Some people may not be as picky about this as I have discovered myself to be!

This page is pretty much strictly paint and a bit of Lindy’s Stamp Gang mist. I started out wanting to use up some of the scads of leftover alphabet stickers in my stash. You know how when you buy alphabet stickers and use up all the “good” ones and then you’re left with lots of consonants? I’ve created several items in the past using these poor “old maid” letters. If you look closely you’ll see the stickers are the base of the stems, leaves, and flowers on this page.

I started out this page wanting to use some InkaGold color pastes. I started with those vibrant Dylusions Spray Inks and then progressed to Luminarte Silks paints, some metallic 3d paints and finally added some painted masking tape I made months ago. On this page I learned that I love all these rich and shiny colors together!!

Other things I’ve learned:

–Roll with whatever you’re doing–there are no rules in your own art journal. Use whatever colors you want and put things anywhere you want. You are the Boss With The Hot Sauce…or the metallic paint as the case may be.

–Be patient when it comes to waiting for things to dry. I am completely impatient with this and my heat gun is my best friend. There are some mediums that dry differently if you force dry them and it kills me to have to let them air dry naturally. I will keep working on this.

The most important thing as always is….

Art Out With Your HeART Out

7 Comments

Filed under Art Journal, Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as Dylusions, flowers, InkaGold, katyoparty, mixed media art journal, paint, Silks

November 8, 2011 · 8:18 am

Alone Time

Kusadasi Turkey

Sometimes I need some alone time. Pretty regularly actually. I know I’m not the only person who feels this way because I have friends who tell me they are the same way. I can tell when I need alone time because I start to get annoyed by every little thing. I get short with people. I find every question or comment like nails on a chalkboard. Doesn’t matter if it’s family, friend, or foe. I know it is time to get away for a bit. Doesn’t have to be for long–even a couple of hours is adequate but longer is better. I hear there are some people who don’t know how to be alone. Maybe it has to do with your upbringing. I’ve always been this way as far as I can remember. I love people and I love to have fun and interact, but in between I need solitude. My dog is allowed to hang out with me during my alone time–she actually enhances it by being generally adoring and silly and calm!

Today I am feeling like I need alone time. I’ve been “on” for several days now and I need to be off for awhile. My ultimate master plan is to hunker down in my art shack and immerse myself in a vat of gel medium and then roll in glitter and paint and ink. Well, that’s my fantasy ultimate master plan…more realistically I will be thrilled and satisfied to gel medium some object and then beautify it with stuff!

Here are some things I’ve been working on lately. Did another piece of doodle art–this time colorized with colored pencils and Copic markers and Signo markers.

A mixed media piece I’ve been messing with for awhile and can’t decide if I even like it right now. Sometimes I like how things are progressing and then add another something and wish I had an undo button.

We’ll see how it looks at the end. The last piece is a scrapbook layout. I was completely enamored with scrapbooking a few years ago, but I’ve gotten away from it for a couple of years because I was exploring other creative options. I’ve decided I want to do some scrapbooking lately because I’ve had so many wonderful adventures and events and memories that I want to preserve for my family in a meaningful way.

TFL!

13 Comments

Filed under Flash Trash & Glitter, Mixed Media Mania, Paper Beauties

Tagged as alone time, Copic, dog, Doodling, ink, mixed-media, paint, signo, sparkle

September 25, 2011 · 2:40 pm

Tag–You’re It!

Ha ha..I crack myself up sometimes! I love to decorate clothing tags to use on other things. Not all of them–certain ones that have just the right weight and size or if they have a cool texture or a cool graphic. Apparently I’m more discerning about tags than I realized! Anyway here are a couple I made last week.

Before

After the katyoparty treatment!

Coated with gesso then drug a bit of texture into it. After that painted with acrylic, went to town with paint pens and Stickles!

and repeat…gesso, acrylic paint, stamped image enhanced by paint pens and stickles and another scrap of the fancy schmancy painted paper!

1 Comment

Filed under Flash Trash & Glitter, Mixed Media Mania, Paper Beauties

Tagged as collage, doodles, fancy tags, leaf, leopard, paint, purple, stamp, stickles

September 14, 2011 · 6:15 pm

Embossed Metal Shrine

Today I am posting a photo of my first embossed metal shrine which I created at CREATE in August, 2011. I took a class with Judy Coates Perez and it was a great experience! She gave us ample supplies and many, many options and ideas for focal point art. The painting of the focal points was fun even with my rudimentary paint skills. I chose a bee for the small focal point and a hand with an eye in the palm for the larger focal point. I enjoyed the painting process even if I didn’t excel at it as much as some of the very talented painters in the class. I saw some bees that were so realistic they looked as if they were about to buzz right off the page! I took artistic license and made mine a smoky eye as is the fashion these days.

I learned how to use transfer paper and fusible webbing and simple metal embossing tools. The actual embossing was quite enjoyable and I loved the instant gratification of the embossed design appearing with every stroke of the embossing tool. When I chose my embossing design sketch I chose it because I believed it was a fairly open design that would be easy to emboss for a beginner. Well…I was partly right. The pattern was simple to emboss–but there was just sooo much of it! It took me quite awhile to get it all done. In the end I was completely pleased with the results and it didn’t take THAT long for the hand cramps to go away!

Once the embossing and painting of the focal points was finished it was time for sewing the metal onto the fabric background using a sewing machine. I am reasonably proficient with a sewing machine as long as it involves long straight runs. It never occurred to me to sew sheets of metal to anything. It was fun to use those expensive Bernina sewing machines and now I’m probably spoiled for life! Push a couple of buttons and the machine practically sews on it’s own. I never used a zig-zag stitch before and it made a nice frame around the focal points. I realized it is pretty important to make clean cuts in the metal in the area around the focal points because as I was sewing around them I lost alignment in a couple of areas and my framework isn’t perfect. I got more experience doing the zig-zag stitch all around the edges of my shrine. In the end I was happy with my project but learned a lot about the process.

Make sure you make really clean cuts in the metal anywhere you are going to be sewing later. If your lines are off then your stitching will be off.

When you heat fuse your fabric sandwich with the iron make sure you get the edges down really well–this is important when you stitch it down so things don’t start to slip and go askew along the edges. If you look at my shrine you can see the metal is a bit crooked on the fabric base. I’m embracing the wabi sabi-ness of my piece and my next one will be better.

I enjoyed doodling with ink around the edges although it was an effort to cover up the crookedness. In my book there can never be too much gold doodling on a piece! In the end I also decided to color the metal background nice vibrant purple with a copic marker. I do plan to make another embossed metal shrine soon! Wish me luck!