Tips on Tuesdays #008 Mixed Media Collage

I often say that Christmas brings out the blue in me—no, I don’t mean holiday blues—I mean in reaction to the proliferation of all things red and green, I am drawn to the color blue. Which is perfect for this, my final ToT for our International Mail Art Celebration of Sapphire which falls during the holiday season!

My holiday themed idea was to create two mixed media collage tree ornaments on a postcard using found painted papers, specially created painted papers (because, of course), and snippets of blue culled from magazines. To draw the ornaments onto white card stock, I used a circle template, choosing two sizes which would fit on the 4”x6” card. Next I drew in the top hangers. Once the ornaments were cut out, I began searching through my stash of painted papers and old magazines for just the right shades, patterns, and textures of blue to create the ornament collages.

In a lovely moment of serendipity (during which I exclaimed aloud and woke Luna from a sound sleep), I found this Van Cleef & Arpels “Treasure Island” advertisement, which included the word Sapphire, in blue!!

On the back of this image in the magazine, there was a blue outlined version, which suited my needs PERFECTLY!

Of course, I HAD to use this, and it formed the basis of the larger of my two ornaments. I also found a satellite view of the Earth which fit the smaller ornament exactly (also magical, right?!), which became the anchor for that one. Everything else fell into place, and once the elements were glued, each ornament contained a combination of painted paper scraps and magazine finds. For a final flourish, I added Posca Metallic Blue pen details to accent the ornament tops and hooks.

I didn’t have a pre-painted paper in just the right shades of blue for the postcard background, so I created one. I sponged a layer of DecoArt Metallic Peacock Pearl over a Lumiere Pearlescent Emerald overall background. Once those layers were dry, I swiped swaths of almost dry paint from the center to each side with Golden Fluid Acrylic Anthraquinone Blue, to suggest evergreen (or everblue?!) boughs.

Once I placed the collaged ornaments on the painted background, it was clear that something was missing—the various blues complimented each other, but in some areas, the ornaments seemed to disappear. Black Sharpie pen to the rescue! I ran the side of the fine point nib around the edges of the ornaments, and voilà! The thin rim of black defined the edges just enough; subtle but effective.

I added a bit of black Sharpie fine line detailing on the ornament tops too.

So, check your paper and magazine stashes for shades, textures, patterns, photos, or advertisements for your own Sapphire serendipity…who knows what treasures you’ll discover!

And, there’s still time to join the fun: the deadline for Celebration of Sapphire postcards to be postmarked is December 31st.
Need a refresher on the ‘rules’ and where to send?
Click here for our original post.

Penny will round out our Tips on Tuesdays posts soon, so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Michelle


Tips on Tuesdays #007: One Stencil Three Ways

Greetings intrepid explorers! Penny here with our latest installment of ToTs. How many stencils do you have? I am (not entirely) embarrassed to say that I don’t actually know!? Let’s just agree that there are many few stencils in my stash and move along (fair enough? ;) For today’s exercise, I have chosen a 6x6 inch stencil that reminds me of the of the gently rolling waves that the dolphins frolic in at the Seaside Sessions house at the beach….

Having chosen my stencil, I grabbed a few postcard blanks (these were cut from larger pieces of 140# watercolor paper) and gathered a few other helpful bits (a mechanical pencil, a Micron pen [0.3], a 1/4 in. roll of washi tape, a fine line grey gel pen (not shown here), and a few blank sheets of copier paper).

To begin, I anchored the blank postcard and the stencil to the blank copier paper with washi tape. The washi tape I selected is the same width as the border of my stencil - this ensured even borders all the way around my postcard. I traced each of the openings on the stencil onto my postcard using the Micron pen. Additionally, so the I would have a “map,” I also traced the corresponding openings onto a blank sheet of paper and numbered them (not shown here).

Remember our friends from ToTs #003 - Security Envelopes? They make a triumphant return this week to fill the sections of my stencil (same thing, only different)! After numbering the openings on my “side sheet,” I used a selection of security envelopes to make the “puzzle pieces” to fill the design. For the tee-niny openings that would be impossible to fill with paper, I used varying shades of blue markers/gel pens.

By tracing the shapes to fill each section on the back of the envelopes, once I flipped them over they were properly oriented to drop into the corresponding placement on the postcard. After tracing lightly with a pencil, I went over the pencil lines with a ball end stylus to emboss the line. To further “loosen the fibers” in the envelope paper, I then went over the embossed line with a fine point gel pen. After that, the pieces could nearly be torn from the envelopes - making a softer line on the edges before gluing them to the postcard.

After all of the pieces were glued in, it seemed like too much white space…. So, I decided to outline the sections with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie marker. Who knew the standard Sharpie blue was the same color as “security envelope blue”? That tightened things up a bit, so I decided to add dotted lines to the broad white lines that separated the sections. BINGO!

The set up for the 2nd card was much the same: mask the stencil with washi tape, trace inside each segment, and fill. This time, however, I opted for a watercolor fill using a small set of pan watercolors called “Ocean and Forest". Of course, I only had eyes for blues ;)

After filling all of the sections with varying shades & washes of blue, I outlined each with a slightly shimmery gel pen. Once again, the white areas in-between seemed too stark. This time, I filled the white stripes with a silver acrylic paint marker. Much better - I then added a darker, glittery outline. BAM! With the slightest movement under the light, it almost looks like the waves are undulating across the surface of the card.

For the last one, I decided to switch the orientation from landscape to portrait. The setup was much the same: anchor the card to the stencil with washi tape, trace the openings, and fill. This time, I opted to doodle my way to bliss. Using an assortment of blue hued gel pens, I filled each section with a different pattern/color. At the end, I added extra depth/dimension by adding extra fine lines in a neutral grey. Once all of the sections were filled, I was quite pleased with the remaining open space. It provided relief between the various patterns. Each section was outlined in the same grey, lending cohesion to the overall design while providing a subtle visual link between them all.

So, that’s a wrap on this episode of ToTs. Will you take on the challenge of One Stencil Three Ways? Admittedly, the security envelope thing was beyond fiddly; however, I thoroughly enjoyed the practice of creating three very different postcards with the same underlying image. You needn’t replicate my efforts. You could do this exercise with any medium: colored pencils, Sharpie markers, tissue paper, pastels, acrylic paints/markers, crayons…. Like all things creative, the possibilities are endless! I do hope that this has inspired you to look at your materials a bit differently. Further, I hope that you are inspired to join us in The Celebration of Sapphire and create a postcard of your own.

Looking for additional inspiration? Join us on Facebook in The International Mail Art Celebration of Sapphire group to see all of the submissions we have received so far. We can’t wait to see what you come up with*!

Michelle will be back in a couple of weeks with our next ToTs. Until then, stay safe and keep on creating beauty.
~ plw

*and no dilly-dallying - December 31st will be here before we know it!

Tips on Tuesdays #006: Custom Pattern Rollers

Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the latest installment of our ToTs Series designed to inspire you to join in the fun of creating postcards for our International Mail Art | Celebration of Sapphire. This week, our topic is custom rollers. These rollers can be used to create patterns on gelatin prints, and you can create your own for a fraction of the price of commercially available ones.
If you’re like me, you’re cheap frugal, and you look for ways to spend less, and to use what you already have around the house. This is a perfect project for that. Here’s all you’ll need: recycled cardboard tubes, adhesive-backed foam sheets*, and an X-Acto knife or scissors. Note: these rollers can be used again and again, which makes them even more economical. Winning!

THE ROLLER DESIGNS: To begin, draw a design on the adhesive-backed foam (*although a bit more expensive than regular Dollar Store foam sheets, the adhesive backing makes glue unnecessary), keeping in mind the length of your cardboard tube.

This will be part of a 3/12” cardboard tube design. The adhesive back foam sheet was $1.25, and the tube was recycled.

The idea is to create a repeating pattern with your design which, once rolled onto the gelatin printing plate, will form a cohesive whole. Here, in photos, was my process for creating the 3/12” texture tubes:

I used an X-Acto blade to cut the notches, but if you prefer scissors, go for it! Pro Tip: Cut the design with the adhesive backing still attached (your blade or scissors will thank you).

Here’s the first strip of the design adhered to the tube. The next one is a bit different, which will make the resulting pattern more interesting. I also purposely misaligned the notches, again, for more interest.

The finished roller. I also alternated between straight and notched sides facing each other…for that visual interest thing again.

Above are the next 3 roller designs, plus the scraps! As you can see, curved elements can work. You can also treat the tube as a ‘canvas’, filling in empty spaces. Just remember that the foam will remove the paint from the plate, and the “empty” spaces will be the color of the paint on the plate, as you’ll see below.

THE PLATES AND PAPERS: After adding a thin layer of paint onto the Gelli plate with a brayer, I placed one roller at the bottom of the plate, lined up with the right edge, and rolled it to the top. I did the same on the left edge, which created two rows of my pattern. Try using the roller in different directions on the plate, too. (if I’d had a longer tube, I could have used just one pass over my 8” x 11” Gelli plate). Tip: use gloves if you don’t want your hands to get almost as much paint on them as on the plate.

Once the plate was dry, I used a pick up color of paint to create the final patterned paper. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the full pages of printed papers (oops!), but here are some scraps left over after I created the postcard-sized finished collage:

Partial printed papers. I used Golden Fluid acrylic paints: Teal, Anthraquinone Blue, and Titan Buff on regular printer paper.

THE POSTCARD COLLAGE: I created the collage below using each of my printed papers. I used circle punches to break up the linear aspects, and repeated shapes around the card. I love how the two colors and their tints and shades play across the surface, and I don’t even mind where the white specks from the Gelli plate show through.

The completed 4”x 6” postcard.

I hope this project has inspired you to create custom pattern rollers to add to your stash of Gelli plate tools. And I hope you’ll create a fabulous postcard with them to add to the Celebration of Sapphire collection. ‘Can’t wait to see what you’ll design!

Penny will be up next month with another edition of ToTs, so stay tuned!

~Michelle

Tips on Tuesday #005: Washi Tape

Greetings! Welcome to the latest installment of our ToTs Series designed to inspire you to join in the fun of our International Mail Art | Celebration of Sapphire. This week, we are looking at the wonderment that is Washi Tape!

If this is your first encounter with this lovely stuff, let me tell you a bit more about it. Washi tape is a decorative adhesive tape made from traditional Japanese paper. The name comes from “wa,” meaning Japanese, and “shi,” meaning paper. Unlike regular masking tape, washi tape is made from natural fibers like bamboo, hemp, or the bark of trees native to Japan, such as the mulberry, mitsumata shrub, or gampi tree. One of the most appealing aspects of washi tape is its versatility. It is easy to tear by hand, can be re-positioned without leaving residue, and comes in a wide array of colors and patterns. Whether you’re looking to add a subtle accent or a bold design, there’s a washi tape for every occasion. Due to its recent popularity, it can be found in craft stores as well as from online specialty markets and importers.

I thought it would be fun to make “mini quilts” with washi tape; to that end, I gathered a selection of blue tapes from my treasure trove (those less kind may call it a hoard - but we’ll not be bothered by that, today). In an effort to avoid the pesky angles found in many patterns, I decided to do a couple of variations on the Log Cabin pattern. The pop of red you see in the center (above) is a traditional centerpiece to this pattern - it represents the fire in the hearth at the heart of the home.

After a romp with Mr. Google, I mapped out two variations on my theme on graph paper. In the pattern on the left, 1 indicates the “center” (or fire), the even numbers are the dark colors (representing the night), and the odd numbers are the lighter colors (representing the day time). For the pattern on the right, 1 remains the red block; it could be worked in any number of ways. I opted to have the dark colors opposing the lighter colors. It is truly fascinating to explore all of the different ways one pattern can be altered to create many, many different end results. (I highly recommend your own romp with Mr. G on this subject).

Here is the 1st card (albeit upside down) after piecing my tapes together. Below, you can see the 2nd design. With a jaunty angle it fills more of the card - you can see the darker colors on the left and lighter ones on the right.

I wanted to add handwritten quotations to each of them, but first I needed to do something to bring some more BLUE. I turned to my trusty FineTec iridescent watercolors to add a little somthin’ somthin’ to the open areas.

When it came time to photograph them, I realized that this might not have been the best choice - but they sure are pretty in real life. ;) The one on top has the Midnight Blue from the Rainbow pearl colors set; the bottom features Sapphire Blue interference color from the iridescent set. It looks oddly yellow and flat, here (above); on the completed card however, it is a shimmery, pale, flashing blue/pink — like the inside of a well-worn seashell (below). I used a 005 Micron pen to add tiny stitching to my “quilts.”

Card 1 completed. The iridescence is more visible here.

Card 2 completed. Again, the shimmery effect of the paint
is more visible here.

…and that’s a wrap on this episode of ToTs! While I used Washi Tape for these examples, you could easily to the same thing with any printed papers (i.e. security envelopes, photos from magazines (cut into strips), decorative/scrapbook papers, etc.). Before mailing, I would recommend a this coat of matt medium, ModPodge, or similar sealant. Likewise, you could actually use strips of fabric; however this might make your finished card somewhat weighty. I hope that this has provided you with a wee bit of blue inspiration! We can’t wait to see how you do blue.

Michelle will be back with ToTs #006 in a couple of weeks. Until then, keep making beauty in this crazy world!
- Penny

Tips on Tuesdays #004 - Tempera Paint Sticks

Welcome to our 4th installment of ToTs; our series of posts designed to spur you on to creative success as you create your entry into our International Mail Art Call: Celebration of Sapphire.

Shuttle Art Tempera Paint Sticks: https://www.shuttleart.com/collections/tempera-paint-sticks

Have you ever heard of tempera paint sticks? I hadn’t either until several years ago when I was searching for a medium to use in my art classes with young students (3-4 year olds) which would allow them to color and blend without making a huge mess (even though they LOVE making messes). I found tempera paint sticks, and discovered that they fit the bill perfectly! As the name implies, they’re solid compressed tempera paint, with a consistency like an oil pastel, though not as soft. In fact, the paint sticks are virtually mess free since they go on dry. And as you can see above, they come in a pretty wide variety of colors including metallics. Tempera paint sticks can be used on just about any substrate, and smooth or textured results are easily attained. Although they’re marketed for children’s art, there’s no need for kids to have all the fun!
In the gallery below, I’ve shown the five shades of blue in the 32 color box; what it looks like when you put one shade over another to blend; the way they look on white paper when you add a bit of water to blend; and what the blended piece looked like after it dried.

Paint stick colored papers can be used as a complete composition, or as a background; it’s up to you!
So there you have it: Tempera Paint Sticks—another arrow in your mixed media creative quiver!

The original tempera paint stick sample used as a painted paper background with black Sharpie designs on top

To catch up on the three previous ToTs posts, click on the images below:

ToT #1: Substrates

ToT #2: Contour Lettering

ToT #3: Collage Stuff: Security Envelopes

Stay tuned for the next ToT from Penny. If you have a question about anything we’ve presented or a technique you’re curious about, let us know in the comments!

Until next time,
Michelle

Tips on Tuesday #003 - Collage Stuff: Security Envelopes

Greetings and Welcome to our 3rd installment of ToTs,
our ongoing series designed to spark your imagination
for your entry in our
International Mail Art: Celebration of Sapphire

Did you miss weeks 1 or 2?
No worries, You can find each of them by
clicking the link below their respective photos below.

This time out, I’m breaking out my stash of security envelopes (it’s not hoarding if you use them, right?) to explore the icy aspects of blue. It seems that they can be had in virtually any color; far and away, the most common coloration is either black or blue (me thinks that works quite nicely for our purposes, eh?). I find them a lovely way to incorporate texture and pattern in collage work. I started by selecting an assortment of blue-patterned security envelopes from the aforementioned “stash.” After cutting strips from my chosen envelopes, I cut those strips into various “shards” (i.e. imprecise, long-ish triangles).

You may recall my substrate (a perfectly trimmed panel from a Labatt Blue beer carton) from Week One - I loved isolating the word “Pristine” below the main line of type - pristine/crystalline/pure/reflective - these were my thoughts when I decided to marry the “Blue” substrate with bits and pieces of the security envelopes. After a bit of fiddling about, I found a rhythm to the different patterns and hues that I rather liked and set about gluing them down (a Craft Bond glue stick was perfect for this job).

I like where this is headed, but it seems a bit “flat,” don’t you think? I decided more blue was in order and turned to the acrylic markers. Giving some contrast and relief to the “Blue” was a great start. I then added some smoky blue dots, white gel pen lines, and silver gel pen highlights to the spiky shards around the perimeter of my postcard. Almost there….

…yep, Yep, YEP! I like it - a whole bunch! A few more little tweaks - a bit of doubling up on some shimmery highlights (OMG - who AM I!?) - and we have ourselves a fine piece of mail art, my friends! Seriously, when I was finished I could hear Idina Menzel - I could see Elsa in her tower of ice - I’m ready to stick some postage on this baby and LET IT GO!

So…. That’s it for this weeks ToTs. I hope you are picking up on the pattern here: you have everything you need! Not a hoarder of envelopes? I bet if you set aside your “junk mail” for a week, separated any and all blue bits therein, and let those gleanings marinate you would have the stuff for more than 1 postcard. You could send one to us and the others to friends and family. Then, not only will you have participated in an International Mail Art event, you will have brought joy to others with your creativity! That’s some next-level Good Stuff right there.

Michelle will be back, week after next, with our next installment of ToTs. Keep an eye out, as postcards are arriving almost daily - we post them here first and look forward to sharing yours here (and on our Social Media outlets), soon.

Creatively yours,
~ PLW

Tips on Tuesdays #002- Contour Lettering

As you know, our International Mail Art Call for the Celebration of Sapphire is underway, and we hope you’re beginning to think about what your postcard will feature—will yours be the first one we receive?
We hope so.

For this, our second installment of “Tips on Tuesdays” (affectionately known to us as ToTs*), I bring you one possible solution for the question:
“I want to use words on my postcard, but how can I make them look interesting?”
If you’d like to feature words, here’s a fun and easy way to do it. (without having to be an expert calligrapher to achieve a really cool looking design).

Step One: on your 4”x 6” (or 10.16 x 15.24 cm) postcard, draw some contoured lines across the full width, separated by enough space to insert letters into the sections (when I teach a project using this technique, I call it the ‘wavy line way’):

I’m using plain, white, smooth card stock, and regular lead pencil lines. Because I’m going to use colored pencils and water-based markers, I don’t need to do anything special to the substrate. (Note my pencil in lovely shades of blue!)

Step Two: figure out what you want to write—actually, you probably should be thinking about this before you draw your wavy lines! In this case, I knew I wanted to use fairly large letters, but you’ll see in the examples below that you can use letters of various sizes.
Step Three: following the contours of the wavy lines you drew, fit your letters into the sections. The cool part happens when letters in the same word occur in very different-sized parts of the waves:

You can pencil in your letters to figure out the spacing first, or just “go for it” with marker!

Step Four: time to decide about color. As you can see, I chose to use a different shade of blue colored pencil for the background of each section, and used a metallic sapphire Sharpie marker for the word ‘sapphire’. You can do this, or you could begin with a colored paper background (blue, perhaps?), or you could start with a watercolor paper painted postcard, or color the postcard with colored pencils before you draw the wavy lines (with muted shades of blue, so your letters will show up)—the possibilities are almost endless here. For mine, after applying the colored pencil, I bumped up the wavy lines and put in a bit of detail onto the word ‘celebration’ for some added visual interest, and to make each stand out.

Step Five: finishing up; I might increase the weight of the wavy lines (or not), add more details to the letters of the other words, or even add an illustration of a sapphire to the right of the word connection—it’ll be up to you to decide how much embellishment you want to do!
Below are some examples of how other artists have used contour lettering and color:

Contour lettering two ways; at left, the white letters really pop out of the 4-color background. At right, the artist has used the spaces between the block letters to add different colors with either marker or watercolor.

And lastly, another example of using contoured lettering around an illustration:

I drew the flowers in and colored them first, then fit the words around them. I will confess to have done this one while chatting on the phone with a dear friend…do I have blue on the brain these days? Yes, INDEED!

I hope this has sparked ideas for simple ways to incorporate words into your mail art if that’s your jam (blueberry, of course—more evidence of the aforementioned blue on the brain!).
Stay tuned for more ToTs* next week from Penny.
Until then, happy creating!

Welcome to Tips on Tuesdays #001 - Substrates

Greetings, creative adventurers! Welcome to the inaugural episode of “Tips on Tuesdays” (affectionately known by no one but me as ToTs) * For the duration of our International Mail Call for The Celebration of Sapphire, Michelle and I will be posting Tips on Tuesdays to highlight the ease with which one can take part in this fun, collaborative, creative exchange.

This week, I want to show you how to use what you have vs. purchasing something you may not need. We are going to look at the myriad was to create a base for your Mail Art: i.e. the substrate. If you have a pad of watercolor postcards, they are great; however, if you don’t there is no need to purchase them…. You can easily make your own by cutting a larger sheet of watercolor paper to the proper size. For our purposes, the proper size = 4 x 6 inches (or 10.16 x 15.24 cm).

Newly born watercolor postcards, cut from a 9x12 inch sheet of 140 lb paper.

Let’s say you are fresh out of watercolor paper and just don’t want to go buy any…. Have you recently finished a box of crackers? …or used a cake mix? …cookies? Essentially, any stiff food packaging that allows you to trim it to size will work.

A cracker box yields a perfect surface for a lovely postcard.

The printed side of the cracker box was covered with gesso - now it’s ready to take on any number of mediums (paint, markers, colored pencils, etc.). The Labatt Blue box, cut to size, provides a background that perfectly compliments the theme of our Mail Art Call and presents a great substrate for collage - no gesso required.

Not feeling like food boxes are your jam? No worries, how about repurposing a rigid mailer (such as a book or magazine mailer)? Perhaps a no-longer-needed-file folder? Any number of options are available to an intrepid creative adventurer - take a look around. You are guaranteed to have “the perfect thing” already!

Postcards four ways. Clockwise from top left: manilla file folder, cracker box (with and without gesso), 140 lb watercolor paper, and rigid mailer (with and without gesso).

There you have it! Many ways to do a thing. Which will you choose? We can hardly wait to see.

Just a few things to keep in mind as you create your Mail Art Masterpiece:
- the thicker the substrate, the heavier your postcard will be.
- be sure to use the proper amount of postage for your postcard.
- remember: no dimensional elements
- your postcard needs to be flat to avoid damage and ensure its safe arrival.

That’s a wrap on this weeks ToTs! Are there other materials that you think would make great postcards? Drop us a comment - you may inspire a fellow creative. We’ll see you back here next week for more Tips on Tuesdays.