Get ready for a year’s worth of mixed-media art techniques and inspiration! One of the benefits of receiving this newsletter is that you’re among the first to know about our special offers, such as this Mixed Media Year of Inspiration collection for beginners and beyond. It includes the Top 10 Art Journaling Techniques DVD, the 2015 Annual CD of Cloth Paper Scissors, and a discount coupon for ArtistsNetworkTV, where you can watch hundreds of art workshops from the comfort of your home.
To celebrate this new collection of mixed-media art resources, enjoy these tips from Cloth Paper Scissors featured artists! ~Cherie
Waste Not, Want Not Pam Carriker
Keep your art journal out while you’re working (if you don’t journal now, it’s a great time to start). Making several background pages at a time makes journaling a very “doable” routine to get into. Here’s what I do:
• Mix paint 1:1 with water and then add a bit of Golden® Acrylic Glazing Liquid to extend the paint. Apply a wash of color to your journal page and go on to the next page. Keep going until you run out of paint. The pages will dry while you continue with your project, and you can keep adding the leftover paint colors to your journal pages.
• If you’re using stamping in another project, add some stamping to your journal pages before you clean the stamp(s). If a tool is already “dirty,” use it in your journal, too, before you clean it. You’ll end up with lovely backgrounds for future journal pages, and it takes hardly any extra time, with no extra mess, because everything was already out.
Another Option… Sue Pelletier
A medium I have used on canvas to build up the surface is Pariscraft. This is sold in arts and crafts stores; it is plaster gauze strips that you dip in water (years ago it was only sold in hospital supply stores because it is what casts were made of). It also has major potential as a sculpture medium; my elementary school art students use it for mask making. Be sure to use warm/hot water with the strips; it makes it more pliable. Also, if you are using Celluclay®, you can mix glue into it (with the water). This will give it a different consistency that you may like to play with.
How about this? Devorah Sperber
I like to go to hardware stores and look at things objectively–not in the context of what the items are intended for, but rather what they could be used for. Check out those little drawers filled with specialized fittings.
Plan Ahead… Jodi Ohl
• Lay out a full sheet of dress pattern paper on your worktable. Stamp multiple images using your favorite color of Sta–zOn® Ink. Try stamping an image over an image (for example, use a script stamp as your base, then stamp over it with a butterfly). When complete, you’ll have a large assortment of images to use in future collage projects that are easy to position and will essentially float on your piece once adhered to the substrate.
• When you are in a creative mood, compile a list of projects or inspirational words. Cut the words apart and place them in an “idea jar.” Keep the jar on hand for a time when your muse is just not speaking to you. Simply pick one of the slips and you’ll have an instant prompt to jump-start your next project.
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