This is what I love about artists: Somewhere, someone was having a ham and cheese on rye with a dill pickle, looked down at their lunch and thought, “Hey, I bet this translucent paper littered with seeds and smelling of garlic would make a great art supply.” Kari McKnight-Holbrook uses her hand lettering to write…
Washi, washi everywhere! You see it on Pinterest, in magazines, and everywhere supplies for creative paper crafts are sold. Washi tape is not just for paper collage! Bracelet by Jen Cushman. Washi tape is decorative, low-tack adhesive paper that is easy to use in everything from handmade cards, to paper collages, to jewelry. The word…
If you read this blog regularly, you know that I consider gesso something of a miracle medium. Most of my collage projects involve gesso somewhere along the process to prime a substrate, create texture, or add a bright white accent. The trees on this mixed-media collage pop against the black gesso background. Art by Jenn Mason…
This morning on my way to work the driver ahead of me sprayed windshield washer onto my car. Yes, you read that right: even though it was two car-lengths ahead of me, when the driver spritzed his windshield the spray launched over his car so far that it sprayed my windshield. I actually had to…
Once I discovered paper cutting, I started collecting any and every tool or knife I could get my hands on. It wasn't until I had tried a wide variety that I found my preferred knife, and which knives just didn't work with my style. Some of them I have retained in my arsenal, utilizing…
Learning about art supplies and techniques is like knowing a variety of languages-you can go farther and converse more eloquently. So it pays to know the fine art and mixed-media supplies available to you, how they can be used, and how they interact. Mixed-media drawing supplies go beyond graphite. Drawing magazine is running a…
Custom rubber stamps are fun and easy to make. There are many ways to make your own stamp–rubber and otherwise–but in my opinion, rubber stamp carving gives you the most opportunity to create a detailed custom stamp. Julie made the "arting" rubber stamp by writing out the word, transferring it to a rubber eraser and carefully…
Earlier this week I asked our Facebook friends what college-level art school they would attend if they could go anywhere. Some people named well-known schools. Some were more focused on the location (such as any art school in Hawaii). Jacqueline Newbold works on a page for her travel journal, demonstrating how she uses the bleed…
I’m going on a trip and I’m packing . . . Remember that camp/school game? Where everyone sits in a circle and names an item they’re taking on a trip, starting with the first letter of their name (or the sequential letter of the alphabet)? A small tin can hold a host of supplies for…
Our last CREATE Mixed-media Retreat of the year just wrapped in Chicago, and I’m not sure the dust has settled yet. By dust, I’m talking figuratively about the excitement of so many artists coming together and learning new techniques and also the literal dust created in Sue Pelletier’s classes where she and her students work…
