Mixed Media
A Journey Into visual Journaling + Mail Art Volume 1
Supplies
Mail Artist
Visual Journaler
We’ll share our favorite supplies to create our Mixed Media Art with and why we love them!
Mandy Collins combines her love of mixed media art with world traveling and shares mail art you can make too!
Catherine Scanlon shares how she creates beautiful journal pages in easy to follow, step-by-step photos!
Mixed Media A journey into visual journaling + mail art With Catherine Scanlon + Mandy Collins
Contents Page 2
Table of Contents
Page 4
About the Authors
Page 5
Catherine's Favorite Supplies
Pages 6 – 14
Plant Seeds of Abundance Visual Journal Page by Catherine Scanlon
Page 17
Mandy's Favorite Supplies
Pages 18 – 22
Blue Hearts Mail Art Post Card by Mandy Collins
Pages 24 – 31
You are Wonderful Visual Journal Page by Catherine Scanlon
Pages 32 – 38
Purple Haze Mail Art Post Card Mandy Collins
Metric Conversion Chart to convert
to
multiply by
inches
centimeters
2.54
centimeters
inches
0.4
feet
centimeters
30.5
yards
meters
0.9
meters
yards
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The materials contained within this electronic resource are the property of Catherine MatthewsScanlon and Mandy Collins, unless specified otherwise and cannot be reproduced without the express permission and credit back to the copyright holders. Please do not post this document and all photographs included within on the internet without proper credit and reference back to Catherine Scanlon + Mandy Collins. The materials contained within this E-Book are for your inspiration and reference, please do not teach classes, or reproduce this work without express permission from the authors. Please respect our hard work and years of experience and use this information for inspiration ONLY. Thank you for joining us, Catherine Scanlon (cmscanlon@comcast.net) Mandy Collins (collinsmandy@bigpond.com)
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About the Authors Catherine Scanlon Author, Illustrator and Mixed Media Artist Catherine Scanlon is a Mixed Media Artist, Illustrator, Paper Crafter, Card Maker, Watercolorist, Collage Artist, and Art Journaler loving life in Maine with her family. She works from home as a Licensed Artist for Art Gone Wild! A Stampers Anonymous Company and an independent designer for Sizzix. Catherine is also a full-time free–lance designer and Mixed Media Art Instructor. She teaches Art Journaling and Mixed Media Art classes on-line at My Creative Classroom, on her blog and in-person workshops. Favorite Quote: Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nathanial Hawthorne
Find me here: My blog: http://www.catherinescanlon.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/cm_scanlon# Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cmscanlon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/cm_scanlon Instagram: http://instagram.com/cm_scanlon# Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catherine.matthewsscanlon
Mandy Collins Mixed Media Artist, Publisher, Marketing Mandy Collins can be called a global citizen. Born in Canada’s eastern Maritimes or Anne of Green Gables country, raised on the foggy shores of The Cape (USA) and currently living under tropical skies of Australia, Mandy has travelled the world. Her journey into mail art started a long time ago with many letters from home or postcards for friends travelling overseas. Many international publications have featured Mandy’s creative projects and editorials. Mandy teaches on-line with My Creative Classroom and at regional events. Favorite Quote: Happiness is a state of mind it is all about how you look at things. Walt Disney
Find me here: My blog: http://pearlmaple.blogspot.com Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pearlmaple/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/collinsmandy
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Visual Journaling An art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including Mixed media elements such as collages. Such books will frequently contain rough workings, in cartoon form, of ideas later to appear in finished works, as well as acting as a normal diary, by allowing the artist to record their day-to-day activities and emotions. Quote From Wikipedia
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Catherine's Favorite Supplies It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of buying new supplies for a new project or class you want to take. While I do recommend that you try new things, I think it’s super important to use what you have. Before you use any of the recommendations here, please look around at what you already have and use it up. Perfect the technique and then use the new stuff!
Should you use craft, student or artist quality paints, mediums and brushes? That’s a great question and one that I am asked all the time. If you are just getting interested in mixed media art (or any kind of art) it’s a good idea to start your journey with craft or student grade art supplies. You will feel free to create and not worry about making mistakes or like you are wasting your supplies. As you become more experienced and run out of each supply you can upgrade to Student Grade paints and mediums. Student Grade art supplies are still affordable but they have more fillers and less pigments making them affordable to the intermediate artist. When you do make the jump to artist quality supplies the fear of using expensive materials in your artistic experiments is typically gone and you can create with ease.
• S ta mp in g Ink : When I’m creating mixed media art journal pages and incorporating stamps, I like to use permanent black ink. Archival Ink from Ranger is a great option. • Ma tte Me di um or G el Me d ium: When adding collage elements to pages that will face each other staying away from glossy mediums with a high water content like Mod Podge is a must for me. I usually reach for Liquitex Matte Medium for collage, mixed media painting and image transfer techniques. • G esso: this supply is usually used to prime a canvas to prepare it for paint, like you would prime the walls of your house before you paint them. I’m not as worried about the brand for this one, so the most affordable and easiest to find is usually what I purchase. • Colored Pe nci ls: I love using colored pencils in combination with my
watercolor paints, however a higher quality pencil like Caran D ’A che Pablo is my first choice. They last a long time and don’t break when you sharpen them. The Picasso line comes in a wide variety of colors – both in sets and individually. + Watercolor • A crylic Pai nts: I’m not stuck on anyone brand – I use a variety of craft and artist quality watercolor and acrylics in my everyday art. I’m usually drawn to the color over the name or quality. • E ra ser: I usually look for a white one that won’t mark up my paper. • Pen s: I like a variety of them and here’s why: o S harp ie: When I need a permanent long lasting pen Pitt o Fabe r-Castell Pen s: When I need an archival, long lasting pen with multiple tip sizes D ual Ti p o Tom Bo w Wa te r-Base d Ma rke r: When I’m looking for a brush tip marker that I can use with a water brush to get a watercolor look that comes in a large variety of colors and is very affordable o S akura G e lli Ma rke rs: These markers come in a nice selection of colors and are Opaque, which makes covering over small mistakes an easy job.
In the end, it doesn’t matter what you use as long as you are happy with the results! 6 5
Plant Seeds of Kindness journal page by Catherine Scanlon
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If writing about your feelings isn’t your thing, use a favorite quotes to convey the emotion or feeling you are working through.
Supplies used for this page: • •
Canson XL 7” x 10” Mixed Media Pad, 100 lb. Paper Ranger Distress Paints o Broken China (Blue) o Picked Raspberry (Pink) o Spiced Marmelade (Orange)
• Spray Bottle filled with • • • • • • • • • • •
Water Art Gone Wild Clear Stamp Set: Edna’s Flowers LC-2733 Clear Stamping Block Ranger Archival Ink, Black Pencil Caran D’ache Pablo Colored Pencils Scrap Paper or Post-It Pad Scissors Waterbrush Hair Dryer Faber Castell Pitt Pen, Medium Tip Repositionable Tape
Getting Started with a Visual Journal It’s not as hard as you think!
Visual Journaling doesn’t have to be hard, nor does it have to be done in a certain style or process. The pages I will share in this book show you how I create journal pages and the steps I take to get from start to finish. This is meant to be a journey, an artistic way for you to work through your thoughts and feelings to deal with whatever it is you are working through. Whether the resulting art makes sense or doesn’t make sense isn’t the point, it’s the process that you used and the steps you took to help work through your happiness, angst or the multitude of emotions between. Follow along with me, or use the steps and tools that appeal to
you, but make sure that the journey you take makes you happy and the resulting pages help you through whatever it is you need help with. If you are a beginner, following the steps outlined here will help you come up with a process that you like. Experimenting with the tools and supplies as outlined will help you determine what you like, don’t like and maybe want to change the process slightly so it fits what your thoughts were when you started. If you are more experienced with visual journaling use the accompanying steps to inject some new colors, techniques or style into your current journal.
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Plant Seeds of Kindness journal page Created by Catherine Scanlon I like to start my visual journal pages by creating an interesting background. It doesn’t have to be complicated or even use a lot of supplies. Adding color to the paper removes the “white page syndrome� that many feel when starting something new. Bright, random bits of color here and there certainly do the trick! 1. Start by choosing two bright colors of any acrylic paint with a dauber, (like Ranger Distress Paint) and quickly apply random dots of color on the journal page. 2. Before the paint has a chance to dry, spritz the dots of color liberally with water using a spray bottle. The paint spreads and mixes together to create a beautiful and random background that is unique and different each and every time. Be careful not to use to many colors, as the resulting background page may look more like mud. 3. To get interesting drips, pick up the page and move the color around by tipping it back and forth to achieve the desired look. 4. Let the page air dry or use a hair dryer to accelerate the drying process.
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The Resulting Background is colorful and the perfect start for many different options for your visual journal page.
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Once you have created the background you can let it dry and come back when you have time for the next step or use a hairdryer or heat gun to dry the background so you can continue working without disturbing the paint.
5. Once the base is dry, move on to stamping the design on the page using permanent stamping ink.
7. To preserve the original image create a mask by stamping the same image on inexpensive white paper and roughly cut it out with scissors. 8. The first time the image is stamped is really the hardest, because the decision of where to place it sometimes can be hard. Once the first one is placed, it’s easy to fill in the design on the entire page.
6. For a full, natural look on the completed design overlap stamped images on the page.
9. To use the mask, position it over the first image and secure in place with repositionable tape and stamp again. Remove and repeat until you have created a design you like. Tip: Use Washi Tape, Post-It Notes or Painter's Tape to secure the mask in place while stamping overlapping images.
Here are a few quotes that you can use on your visual journal pages • There are always flowers for those that want to see them. Henri Matisse • Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nathanial Hawthorne
• Do small things with great love. • You have my whole heart for my whole life. • When nothing is sure everything is possible. Be open to possibility. • The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness. John Muir
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With the floral border stamped the journal page is ready for words. You can free write for a few minutes to fill the space or use a quote to convey your feelings.
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Finishing up your Visual Journal Page At this stage of the journal page I determine the type of journaling I will create. Most of the time I use quotes that speak to me or embody the feelings I’m trying to work through or feel. Since I have a tendency to write down hill due to my lefthandedness I do take the time to draw guidelines to keep the lettering straight. If this is not a concern, skip this step. 5.
Use a #2 pencil to add the quote to the page – always double check the lettering before finalizing it with a marker in case a word was forgotten or misspelled!
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Feel free to use a lettering template to help with letter spacing, or just free hand it like I did here.
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When the quote is complete and it fits nicely in the allotted space, use a permanent marker to trace over the pencil lines. The Medium Tip Faber-Castell Pitt Pen is a pen with permanent ink that won't run when painted over with watercolor paints on the paper.
8.
Make double or single lines – double lines are another opportunity to add color to the page -- but do what feels good to you. Make the lettering as simple or add details, flourishes and fancy scrolls to create pleasing designs and words on the page.
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To add color feel free to use a variety of mediums. This page has a light blue colored pencil added to the background. This really enhances the flowers (blue and orange are complimentary colors) and helps them be the focus of the page. In areas where the colored pencil didn’t show much over the background a blue acrylic paint mixed with water was added using a waterbrush to paint the color in.
10. When using acrylic paints to add detail color, put a small bead on a non-porous surface like a clear acrylic block and mix water to lighten the color with a water brush. Then apply to areas that need a bit more color added to them. 11. For these flowers the stamens (center of the flower) were colored with yellow colored pencil and enhanced the pink in the background using pink acrylic paint. Using acrylic paints like watercolor paints offer a nice fluid look like watercolor paints but dry permanent. This allows you to layer colors on top of each other without disturbing the previous layers or getting mud by the mixing of paint. 12. It's typical to work back and forth adding color to the design switching between the colored pencils and acrylic paint when the need for the different medium arises. 13. To finish the page, use a large paintbrush loaded with color to add random splatters of color over the entire page.
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Experiment with a combination of mediums to finish your page: Colored pencils, markers, acrylic paint and lettering using a permanent medium tip marker.
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Let's Correspond! Correspondence art [mail art] is an elusive art form, far more variegated by its very nature than, say, painting. Where a painting always involves paint and a support surface, correspondence art can appear as any one of dozens of media transmitted through the mail. While the vast majority of correspondence art or mail art activities take place in the mail, today's new forms of electronic communication blur the edges of that forum. In the 1960s, when correspondence art first began to blossom, most artists found the postal service to be the most readily available - and least expensive - medium of exchange. Today's microcomputers with modern facilities offer anyone computing and communicating power that two decades ago were available only to the largest institutions and corporations, and only a few decades previous weren't available to anyone at any price. Ken Friedman
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What is Mail Art? The simple answer is mail art is a style of mixed media that you can send in the mail, like a postcard or decorated envelope. What draws people to mixed media is the idea that the process is free form and invites you to play with a variety of products or techniques that feel good to you. Mail Art is a small creation that is designed to be given away or sent through the mail to someone. What could be nicer than making a gift of your art and trying out new techniques or tools? With a visual journal people talk about the creative journey and use them as a diary of sorts, in mail art you can take that journey a little further maybe even to an exotic destination. The next few pages are examples of decorated postcards and envelopes designed to inspire you to try mixed media in space of a small canvas. Postcards are generally about 6x4 inches at that size, the examples will work just as well on a greeting card or Project Life style multi pocket page or a small page in a journal. Need to find a closing sentence about capturing the essence of different places, be far flung destinations or closer to home Mail Art is the perfect way to share the joy of creating with others.
Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu
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Do you like to Recycle and want to start creating Green Crafts? To start Mail Art you do not need a huge collection of tools or products at your disposal. Creative Recycling can be the base of mail art projects; old postcards or greeting cards and envelopes can start a new life with a splash of paint and your creativity. Many mixed media techniques are about using products you already have in different ways. Like every crafter I have purchased plenty of new tools over the years, some not so exciting and others have become important parts of my worktable. My favorite supplies list is a quick guide to tools that have stayed strong after lots of testdriving and a summary of products used in the samples. Postage stamps are often little pieces of art in themselves. I always peel them off envelopes to save for craft projects. Other places to find stamps are at your local postal authority, tag sales or on line venues like eBay. Don’t forget all the par avion, fragile and the other tags or stickers that can be found on parcels.
Mandy’s Favorite Supplies • The stamps on the samples are Est e r’s Ga rde n L C -2 73 4 and Da ffodil Spra y M C2 7 36 from Ar t G on e Wild Sta m ps by Ca th eri ne Scanlo n D esi gns. There is a large stamp that makes up part of the backgrounds of random script or text about 4 or 5 inches in size. • F ran ki ng st a mps : Once you start on the mail art journey, you will start to see more postal and mail themes popping up everywhere, it is popular and very user friendly. I have used a postmark stamp from Kaiser but there are lots of others too choose from, Tim Holtz, 7 Gypsies and many other brands include a postmark or two. Being able to stamp the word “postcard” or add a postmark is the finishing touch to mail art. • St am ping Ink: ColorBox Crafters Ink has been a long time favourite. Being able to use the ink to tint everything from paper, ribbons and trims in one swipe is a real bonus. Recently Eileen Hull designed their new Color Blends that uses the crafting ink in a convenient foam applicator and as the name implies makes blending a synch. • St enci ls: have become a popular tool over the last few years, we can use stencils in many different ways, color in with a pen, misting, puffy paint and textural details. • Wa te rco lo r pa int s o r G lim m e r M ist : yes I know they are completely different products but I find it just as easy to use the spray mists as a watercolor paint. Simply swirl the Glimmer Mist and pour into a paint pallet, what could be easier? The shimmer and shine adds a pretty edge to your projects. • Co lo red P en s a nd a Sha rpie for feature lines: TomBow's dual brush is the pen I always reach for. Being water based the colors blend nicely and with the two points, one a fine line and the other end shaped like a watercolour brush you can achieve all kinds of different looks. Everyone needs a fine line Sharpie in their collection for adding small details that make your creative projects pop. • Scisso rs for a deckle edge or postage edge are a nice touch if you want to trim papers to make your own stamps. Spellbinders has dies that can cut postage stamps. Fiskars and Stamping Up have punches in the shape of a postage stamp that will make quick work of DIY postage stamps. • 3 L Scra pbo ok Adh esi ves: Nothing disappointments me more than glue that does not hold on. Having travelled to lots of different places including the super humid tropics, I have seen firsthand how weather impacts our craft projects. Mail is more often sorted by a machine than hand so you want to make sure your projects are well secured. 3L Scrapbook Adhesives has a range of products I am enjoying.
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Blue Hearts Postcard by Mandy Collins
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Blue Hearts Postcard
To send your Mail Art through the postal service, you need to check the local rules. Every postal service has rules about a ‘standard envelope format’ and may charge more for anything bulkier or larger than the standard.
This postcard is a little lumpy bumpy and might be safer hand delivered or inside a padded envelope. The features on this postcard are texture hearts and the spray of flowers flowing off the right edge. The size is approximately 4x6 inches.
1. Creating a base color in the background helps to visually link the different parts of what could be considered a tiny collage. This Crafter’s Workshop honeycomb stencil is a good choice. Hexagons blend nicely into the background and don’t take over center stage of your project.
The daffodil spray stamp reminded me of England’s famous blue bells and the blue lady orchid in Australia. These flowers were my inspiration to create in shades of blue.
Supplies used to create this postCard: By Mandy Collins • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Cardstock or Postcard base Postage stamp Art Gone Wild Stamps by Catherine Scanlon Designs Daffodil Spray MC2736 Kaiser Postmarks Clear Stamp Timeless Collection ColorBox Color Blends Sunshine yellow and a Hydrangea blue Black StazOn or Black Permanent Ink Crafters Workshop Stencil: 6" Honeycomb Crafters Workshop Stencil: Rebekah Meier’s postmark Glimmer Mist: Electric Blue or Watercolor paint Tiny Paint brush Metallic Gold Pen Black Sharpie Scissors 3L Scrapbook Adhesives Pop Dots Texture Paste Twine or gold string, Approx. 4" Long
2. Lightly dab on ColorBox Blends Sunshine yellow ink. To achieve a random flow of color, try pulling your hand around in circles while moving from one side to the other. It helps to keep the color from becoming too flat.
3. Rebekah Meier’s stencils from the Crafter’s Workshop with postmark details and hearts are a great combination for fans of mail art. 4. Texture adds interest to the foreground of your Mail Art. Be careful not to be too heavy handed. Too thick can take forever to dry, warp your card or crumble off. Texture paste is much more fun if you play with the surface instead of trying to get it completely smooth.
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As a bonus if an accident does happen, a nick or bump will blend in with the overall effect instead of ruining your smooth finish. 5. My tip for keeping stencils clean and fresh is to place them into a sink of water as soon as you have completed filling the spaces. When you get back to your work, the texture will be starting to set but still open to taking texture with tools you have on hand, old tooth brush, side of a credit card or tapping with a dry terry cloth with help rough up the texture. 6. When the texture paste is dry, it is time to start building up color. The ColorBox Blends makes quick work of dabbing the ink across the texture. Start lightly to gradually add layers of color till you achieve the effect you like. 7. With the lightest of touch bring out some of the texture features with gold metallic ink. A flat all over layer of gold would be too heavy and grab too much attention from the rest of the details on the card. By dabbing only a few of the raised edges and edging the entire card with the gold the color will work to unify the different parts of the postcard together.
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8. Add a postage stamp inside the circle postmark and finish with postmark stamps. 9. Stamp the daffodil spray on a scrap of good quality cardstock or watercolor paper. 10. Spray misting is fun but this is one of those times when a little more control was wanted. Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists work beautifully as an alternative to watercolor paint. Swirl the bottle to blend the glimmer particles and pour into a paint pallet. 11. Always start with a light hand giving a base layer of color and build up, Vary the depth of the flower petals by painting some a little darker and create shadows with a darker stroke. To finish and blend the layers of color, finish with a light wash of color again. 12. Making a postcard too lumpy is not usually a good idea but we built this card with texture paste, so why not keep going and add pop dots to the back of the flowers to match the height. 13. Pop Dots can act as an anchor to hold ribbons or twine in place to complete your spray of flowers. 14. Maybe not a practical postcard for sending in the mail but it is a new take on the daffodil stamps and a fun use of texture.
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From the time people first started to send mail, they started creating mail art as well. • The first letters were set with a wax seal and the official mark of the sender. • The first commercial postcards were plain little note cards and sent much like we would use a txt message today. • Fun tourist souvenir images and pretty messages did not appear on postcards until the Victorian era and are highly collectable today.
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You are Wonder Full journal page by Catherine Scanlon
For and unique journal page, mix a large background or focal stamp with doodle or Zentangle designs around the edges to fill in the border. The result is a beautiful and colorful page.
What's the best type of journal for visual journaling? There really is no hard and fast rule about the type of journal or paper that is used for a visual or art journal. The most important factor is that you, the artist be happy with it and look forward to creating in it. If you don't like the journal or find yourself frustrated with the paper inside then the regular routine of creating art in it just won't happen. Here are a few things to think about when choosing a new journal to create in. Will the paper hold up to the type of mediums you plan to use on the pages? Meaning, if you are using mediums with lots of water or have a tendency to use a lot of water lighter weight papers have a tendency to pill and can sometimes tear out of the book at the binding. Stay with papers that have a weight of at least 100lbs, but the best weight paper is 140 lb. Journals that have a traditional stitched binding allow the water and color to seep through the binding spreading color and mediums to bare and completed pages. If this is doesn't appeal to you then look for a book that has a spiral binding. Or, use tape to cover the seam at the spine to prevent your completed pages from getting ruined. Do your journal pages spread over two facing pages? If not, then a journal that has a spiral binding would be a nice choice. If money is an option, a composition notebook can be used. There really are no hard and fast rules about the type of journal that should be used. My biggest rule is to choose a book that I will be called to create in over and over until each page has been covered with beautiful and colorful work.
Supplies used: •
• • •
• • • • • • • • •
Canson XL 7” x 10” Mixed Media Pad, 100 lb. Paper Spray Bottle filled with Water Art Gone Wild Cling Stamp: Flower Frame Two AGC-2731 Tombow Dual Tip Brush Markers o Red 845 o Yellow 055 and 985 o Lavendar 553 o Orange 912 o Green 133 o Blue 491 and 452 o Pink 673 and 703 Clear Stamping Block Ranger Archival Ink, Black Pencil Scrap Paper or Post-It Pad Scissors Waterbrush Hair Dryer Faber Castell Pitt Pen, Medium Tip Repositionable Tape
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You are Wonder Full Visual Journal Page Created by Catherine Scanlon There are times when the blank white page is daunting and can be hard to decide where to start a new page. In these cases a large background or focal stamp can come in handy just to give you a starting point. 1. Start by determining where the large stamp will be located on the page. Use a ruler and pencil to create a vertical and horizontal guide on the paper with a pencil to help achieve a straight stamped image that is in the desired location. 2. A permanent black stamping ink is the best choice when stamping on the page. This will insure the design doesn't smudge when water-based color is applied. Stamp the large background stamp using the guidelines to help with placement.
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Journal Prompts to Help You Started • Choose 5 Words that describe you right now and use those words anywhere on your journal page. Feel free to make one or all the focal point. • Journal about what makes you happy right now. Doodle designs around the journaling to enhance some of them, add color to enhance the design and help the journaling to recede to the background.
• Fill the journal page with random designs from things that you are surrounded by. Be inspired by fabric, clothing, wallpaper or magazines. Add color and journaling in white spots. • Write a letter to your future self. Tell about your hopes and dreams, daily struggles and include anything that you may want to remember in the future. Add designs and color to enhance the words.
3. Use individual stamps that coordinate with the background stamp to fill areas around the edges. The masking technique discussed in the "Plant Seeds of Happiness" tutorial is a great way to preserve the base design. 4. When the desired border starts to emerge put the stamps away and grab a sharp pencil to start doodling repeating designs to fill in the rest of the border.
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Fill in around the image to create a border using repeating decorative designs to complete the base of the journal page. Starting with a pencil is a great way to avoid mistakes – but a permanent, medium tip marker is always an option as you begin to feel more confident with the concept that there really are no mistakes in visual journaling. 31
Adding Color Using Markers Before adding color be sure to use an eraser to remove any traces of the pencil lines. Colored erasers have the tendency to leave eraser marks on the white paper, look for a white eraser. They do not leave any colored marks on the paper. Kneaded erasers are also a good choice for this step. At this point, the method used to color the design is greatly determined by the stamping ink and markers chosen to create the base image. If permanent versions were not available choose dry methods like colored pencils, pastel pencils and crayons to color the designs. Tips for success: •
Start with one color to add color to all the designs that are the same or similar. One the example I started with a pink marker and colored all the flowers that were the same basic design that color.
•
Add color to the background toward the beginning of the coloring process to help the focal designs jump off the page. This will help to determine what color the focal designs should be.
•
Start with light colors and gradually add more color to darken them.
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Water-based markers like the TomBow Dual Tip Marker are great for many different uses on any type of art journal page. Use them straight out o the pen on the paper to color the designs quickly. They are easy to include in an art journal toolbox and are quite affordable. Other ways to use the a Water-Based Marker: •
•
•
•
Apply the color to the page and use a Blending Pen to remove any brush marks or blend darker applications of color away. Apply color directly to the page and use a paintbrush loaded with water to move the color around. Vary the size of the brush when working in small or large areas. Apply the marker to a non-porous surface (like a clear stamping block) then pick up the color with a water-brush and apply to the designs. The final result resembles watercolor painting. Enhance the marker with colored pencil.
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Purple Haze Mail Art Postcard by Mandy Collins
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Purple Haze PostCArd
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Use your imagination! T rave llin g to diff er ent part s o f t he wo rld, you get t o e xper ienc e lot s of dif fe re nt f orm s of flowe rs .
Supplies for th is Postca rd: Created by Mandy Collins • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Cardstock or Postcard base 6" Strip: Silk or rayon or any lightweight fabric Postage stamp Art Gone Wild Stamps by Catherine Scanlon Designs Ester’s Garden LC-2734 Kaiser Postmarks Clear Stamp Timeless Collection Large Text Background Stamp ColorBox Color Blends: Sunshine Yellow and Hydrangea Blue StazOn White and Gold inks, or any permanent ink Dark Ink for the postmarks 6" Crafters Workshop Honey Comb Stencil Glimmer Mist: Pomegranate Tiny paint brush Metallic gold pen Black Sharpie Ranger Perfect Pearls Gold or Bronze Fussy Cutting Scissors 3L Scrapbook Adhesives Double Sided Sheet Adhesive Texture Paste 4" Coordinating Ribbon Melissa Frances Resin Buttons Poly-fiber or stuffing from a pillow about a pea sized ball
T hat is wh y I s aw th e daf f odils as a s im ilar sh ape t o Au st ra lia’ s La dy Slippe r. F lower s in nat ur e a re of ten a w ild ex plo sion of color an d a gr eat e xc us e f or yo u to pr ac tice you r sk ills wit h Copic pen s or co lo red penc ils or w ate rc olor paints . T he beau ty of us ing you r f avor it e paintin g o r co lo ring me diu m to co lo r s tam ped flor al image s is you ca n add c olor to t he m in a r ealist ic ma nner u sing im ages f ound on t he int ern et f or r efe ren ce or be f re e t o u se color s th at f it in w ith t he th eme or any s pe cific palet te you wan t. Star ting with a black an d wh ite image s tamped on wh ite or patt er ned pape r gives you th e f ree dom to do as you ple ase .
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hard right margin, all the writing finished at the same length making it a very square block.
The shape of the Ester’s Garden stamp reminded me of bright hydrangeas of Cape Cod and inspired this color pallet of purples and salt washed blues with a little old gold. Painting on fabric looks intimidating, we know that paint will run on fabric but there are some easy tricks for having a little control but for the most part it is about embracing the fluidity of fabric and color runs.
Start with a card base of about 6 inches long by 4 inches high. Create a light background color with a stencil and ColorBox Blends Sunshine. Adding text or script writing across the background is a nice touch for a Mail Art theme card. This stamp had a
A really hard line creates an obvious break divides the background rather than blending the layers. To achieve a fade out of ink and more random lines tear up a Kleenex or facial tissue. Add ink to the stamp and while it is wet stick the torn tissues across the edge of the text and stamp as normal. Some of the ink might come through but the lines of lettering will gently fade away.
Use a heat gun to ensure the text and background are set before adding the next layer of color. Working with a light hand use the ColorBox Blends Hydrangea blue, starting from the bottom left corner working out towards the opposite corner.
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Cut a 4-inch length of ribbon and swipe both sides with the Hydrangea ink. Melissa Frances resin trims are designed for ink and paints in mind. All those lovely detailed impressions allows for lots of color variations. Swipe the resin buttons with ink and heat set. With a very light hand add a little touch of metal gold in the buttons, that will help to visually link them with other parts of the card. Glue the ribbon to the left margin and line the buttons up at the top of the card. There is always room in my workroom for products that will do double duty like the ColorBox Crafters Ink. It will work on any porous surface, so that means the ink will create a similar color pallet across the paper and trims. Different products absorb color at different rates based on what they are made of. Exactly the same color on everything will be hard to achieve without resorting to paint but when you use opaque paints you lose the texture and texture is the spice that makes a creative project interesting.
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Travelling through Asia you can see many beautiful examples of silk painting and batik. Silk is a beautiful natural fabric and can be a bit pricy. Rayon and other lightweight fabrics sold, as lining for clothing can be an affordable alternative. These lightweight fabrics not only take paint well, colors can really pop on fabric but then again paints are guaranteed to run. Some tips to help control paints are to give the fabric a backing, using StazOn ink as a resist to hold color inside the margins and a really dry brush will help.
Use StazOn ink and stamp at least 3 flowers. By having multiple flowers, it is insurance in case the first flower does not look the way you wanted it to. Having a couple of spares, you can test drive your skills and build up your confidence. Small sections can be cut out of the inside petals to build up layers of the flower.
Glimmer Mist can be poured directly into a paint pallet and painted into the petals will give you lots of control with a dry brush. Remember to tap the brush on the edge of the paint pallet to keep from being too wet, lightly touch the brush into the middle of a petal to see how fluid the results are. The StazOn will act as a resist and hold most of the color inside the stamped petals. Take regular breaks to let the fabric dry while building up color. If your fabric becomes too wet, the color will seep through to the adhesive backing and start to run.
3L Scrapbook Adhesives has a double-sided adhesive sheet that works well on this type of project, it will hold on while getting wet and flexible enough to bend your flower into shape. Lay the adhesive sheet on a flat surface, peel back the paper cover and lay the fabric across the top. Bubbles and wrinkles are likely to a happen, either lift and smooth or leave a couple small wrinkles to add another texture. Leave the backing paper on for now. 40
As the flower will be fussy cut out of the fabric and mounted on to the card, color spill is not so much of a worry. In nature the petals of a flower are not always the exact same tone or a flat color. Paint some petals a little darker or sides of the petals a little deeper. Use a heat gun to set the color. Cut one full flower and two or three flowers of the middle and inner layers of petals.
Now to add a little more pop, use a bean sized piece of poly-fiber, stuffing used in pillows and soft toys. Peel the backing off the large flower; roll up the poly-fiber into a tiny ball and quickly position on the bottom corner of the card. Having part of the flower spilling off the card is a nice touch.
Turn the card over to stop with the top layers of petals. If you want to be really lumpy, you could include another tiny piece of filler under the top layers. A light dusting with the perfect pearls across the top of the flower is a sweet finishing touch.
But that leaves sticky adhesive exposed on the backside of the card. The best option for managing the exposed adhesive is to top it Perfect Pearls. Turn over the card and lightly sprinkle grains of pearls across the adhesive, gently pat in and then rub. If still sticky, repeat again. The adhesive is strong enough to hold the pearls and the pearls are absorbent enough to control the adhesive. Lining fabric can be recycled from clothing that you are tossing out. Cutting a sleeve out from a jacket is enough fabric to create dozens of this style of flower for a card. The StazOn ink acts as a bit of a fray stop as well on most tightly woven fabrics. 41
Carrying the flower and text theme out onto an envelope for the card, the flap is an easy spot to add a little personal touch. Facial tissue can come in handy as a mask. If a bit of the text ink bleeds through it could blend the collage as long as it is not too overpowering. Then top with the Ester flower stamp and fill with paint. There you go, a colorful card featuring painted colorful fabric flowers with a sprinkle of gold accents and an envelope to match.
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Catherine's Stamps The stamps that we used for the projects in this book are from Catherine Scanlon Designs and Art Gone Wild and Friends. These stamps were created from pen and ink illustrations straight from Catherine's journal pages and are true works of art suitable for Project Life, card-making, art journaling, Mail Art, scrapbooking and collage work. View the entire stamp and stencil catalog at http://www.agwstamps.com/ Sharing the experience of exploring creativity is the best fun. Working together we inspire and cheer each other on to try new things. Inspiration for creative souls comes from lots of different sources. Â Â Creating this E-book of projects to share with you has been a great joy. Mandy and I are looking forward to seeing you soon in one of our inperson or on-line workshops for more creative play.
Mixed Media A Journey Into visual Journaling + Mail Art With Catherine Scanlon + Mandy Collins Volume One