Size may not matter............

.......but EQUIPMENT does!! :)

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MORE COLOR WASH/LEAF PRINTING EXPERIMENTS .

I decided to recreate my "leaf print" using my homemade color washes. "Ha-ha", I thought to myself. I'll just repeat that cool leaf I got with the Color Mists (from Outside the Margins) with my OWN color washes.

Well, sometimes you get what you pay for.........

I don't know what "mojo" Aileen has got goin' on in those little bottles, but it isn't what I have in my homemade color washes!!! :) I followed the same steps that I did before (see entry from April 27) and THIS is what I came up with. Now, they aren't "bad", but, they were NOT what I was going for!!!!!

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ALL OF THE SAMPLES I HAVE DONE FOR THE LEAF AND FLOWER PRINTS HAVE BEEN DONE ON CANVAS BOARD.

These are daisy-like flowers I have in my yard. A neat background, but not defined or crisp like my first leaves. I like the colors, though...............

Here I used some grape leaves and a plastic bunch of grapes. You can sort of make out where the leaves were. And, you can definately tell where the grapes were..........again.........not bad, but not what I was going for.

For whatever reason, my homemade washes did not "dry" under the leaves/flowers like the Color Mists. This allowed everything to bleed together and not hold any lines.

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SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO..........back to the Color Mists for more experimentation!

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Now........that's what I'm talkin' about, baby!!!!! THAT'S what I was going for:

Lime Jello, a little Lemon Head and a hint of Magenta on the "underlayer". Bordeaux Burgundy, Copper, Lime Jello over the top.

THOSE are grape leaves! :)

Here is one in Cobalt Blue: (I think this is now my favorite!)

A "negative" look. White/Pearl with a hint of blue underlayer with copper, burgundy, and bronze over the top. (You can also see some blue and green sneaking in there.......)

Here is one more of the daisy-like flowers in my yard. (Osteosperum) NOW you can see the petals!! :)

This was done with a "potpourri" of the Color Mists! :)

So, look out Aileen at Outside the Margins, I'm comin' in for more Color Mists!!!!!!!!!

Oh!!! I Made Something I Really LOVE! :)

Ok!! I was playing around with my new Outside the Margins - Color Mists (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!) I had a brain jingle.........GRAPE LEAVES!!!!!!!!

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I sprayed some Lemon Head and Lime Jello on the "nekkid" canvas board. I placed 2 grape leaves onto the canvas and pressed them into place. Then I sprayed some Bordeaux Blush over the entire canvas. Allowed it to dry. Sprayed around the edge of the leaves with more Lemon Head and then highlighted the corners and edges with Margarita Magenta.

I let it dry for a while (until I knew that the colors would not run) and then removed the leaves!!

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LOOKIE! LOOKIE! I'm so happy with how it turned out!!!!!

Now, help me out here......do YOU think I should leave as is........or.......do more with it???? My inclination is to leave it alone. But, I would really love to hear what you think!!!

I'm so thrilled with this little experiment.......I do believe I'll be picking more grape leaves tomorrow! :) :) :)

Don't forget!! Leave me your email address so I can comment on your comment! LOL!!!!!

Altered Book Tip In Swap

How about some artwork for a change???? :)
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Earlier this year I joined my first "Altered Book" swap. This is a "tip-in" swap. Each participant in the group has a theme. We make 2 - 5x7 pages for them (using thier theme) to put into their own altered books at home. They can add the pages by gluing, sewing, stapling, using eyelets, or ....???? This has been a great way to get my feet wet in Altered Books. It has been fabulous fun and I have really enjoyed all of the themes I had to work with. I have 5 of the 6 done.... I'll post number 6 later! (Like, after I DO it! LOL!! :)

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Here are the themes and what I came up with:

Beatles:
Lyrics are printed on a transparency. Background papers are dyed paper towels sewn onto cardstock.

Bad Girls:

Mesh veggie bag used on the background. Quotes printed on transparency.

Vintage Girl Scouts:

Distressed cardstock background. Right page overlaid w/ transparency attached w/ brads.

Blue is Beautiful:

Used one of my Faux Soldered UTEE pieces on the left page.

Pirates of the Caribbean:
My first sucessful Gel Medium transfer (Skull on the upper left). Background painted and sponges w/ acrylic paints.

By the way, MY theme is: Fanta-sea. (Fantasy Sea Creatures and Water Gods and Goddesses) I have received some WONDERFUL pages for my book! :)

Homemade Color Wash II - Dye Reinkers and Water

There has been a buzz about Color Washes lately. There are oodles of FABULOUS commercial washes available:

Color Mists -- Outside the Margins

Color Wash Jewels -- Stamp Zia

Tim Holtz™ Adirondack® Color Wash -- Ranger Ink

Starburst Stains -- Lindy's Stamp Gang

Radiant Rain -- LuminArte (available at Marco's Paper)

and others!!!

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(I have made some Color Wash sprays using StazOn Reinkers and Rubbing Alcohol. I like the vibrant colors I got by using the StazOn inks. (See January 07 archives for recipe)

Since I have TONS of dye reinkers, I wanted to try and make some washes using dye inks and water. (also, I don't think the StazOn Washes are conducive to the Faux Batik technique which I have seen and loved!!)

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I started with some cheapo spray bottles from Wal*Mart. I decided to start with 5 colors from the same ink manufacturer. (Tsukineko) You can see the colors that I used here: Tangerine, Nile Green, Wisteria, Lemon Yellow, and Cherry Pink. I filled the bottle approximately 1/2 inch up from the bottom. ( I didn't count the number of drops, but it was well over 100) I added regular tap water until the bottles were about 1/3 full.

(Picture taken after I had used the Washes)

These are samples of the sprays on White Glossy Cardstock. You can see that these particular spray bottles are not very "mist like". If you are looking for a true misty quality to your spray, I advise you to invest in some of those cute little micro bottles I have seen for sale online! :)

Here is a close-up of the "spotty" effect of these spray bottles. I kinda like it! You can compensate for the spottiness by spraying a lot of the wash on 1 spot on the paper.

Here are a few Faux Batik samples. Basic instructions: Stamp image onto White Cardstock with clear embossing ink. Heat emboss with clear powder. After cooled, spray over paper and image with Color Wash and allow to dry. Place plain white text paper over embossed image and iron with HOT-DRY iron. (the embossing powder will remelt into the text paper and pull off of the Color Wash paper)

I have not done this technique before and I think that floral, nature, and fine-lined images would be very nice. If you use bold-lined images, you will have too much white space after you pull off the embossing powder (for my taste).

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These images are from Cherry Pie. I'm thinkin' Mother's Day Card for the top image!! :) The bottom image is a little difficult to distinguish. I think I will use my Stamp Positioner and over stamp. We'll see how it turns out!

Some of my most favorite floral images are from Toybox Art Stamps (big "WAH" since she decided to go out of business!!) This was done on Matte Cardstock. You can see that the colors are much more muted. The stamped image, however still has enough embossing powder "residue" to highlight the image very nicely! :) (click on the image to look at the close up.....you'll see what I mean!!)

The marvelous Mr. Freezer Paper! :) I did not emboss this paper, but WOWZERS on the vivid colors you get! We'll see if I get fading with these inks, but for now these samples are

Va-Va-Voom! :)

My incredibly scientific mind (stop laughing!) tells me that because the colors cannot diffuse through the paper (because of the plastic backing) the colors stay on "top" of the paper and therefore remain bright. Any takers on my theory?!?? :)

AS ALWAYS I LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS!!!! PLEASE LEAVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN RESPOND BACK TO YOU!!! :)