If you haven’t tried Tattered Angels Mixed Media ORIGINS Collection papers, you need to try them! During this LIVE episode of Drama-free Friday, I chose the Harvest Moon paper. It’s double sided with a beautiful giant sunflower on one side and leaves, pinecones, and acorns on the other. The only disadvantage with this paper is that both sides are too beautiful to choose just one! When that happens, I buy duplicates so I don’t have to make a choice. 😉
I debated about how to color the sunflower. All the shading is already included with each paper and I didn’t want to hide it. That meant I needed translucent colors and since I didn’t know how I would use the paper, I wanted them to be permanent when dry. Drumming fingers . . . what to do . . . I love Ken Oliver's Color Burst dry pigments . . .
I poofed a small amount of Color Bursts on my Palette Paper, dropped a couple of drops of water to hydrate them and also added a couple of drops of Liquitex Professional Matte Varnish to see if that would make the colors permanent without destroying their translucent quality. I painted the flower with yellow, orange and gold. The flower center is brown, orange and gold. The acorns and pinecone are brown and gold and the leaves are various shades of green. As my experiment progressed, the colors dried beautifully and indeed seemed to be nicely permanent! Success!!
The next decision was how to color the background. I really love Distress Oxide Inks, so I chose Broken China, Iced Spruce, and Spiced Marmalade and smooshed (technical art term) some of each color on my Palette Paper. When I first tried them, I obscured the background lines because the Oxides are opaque due to the fusion of pigment and dye inks in their formula. My solution was to simply add a lot more water and it worked beautifully. Once it was dry I brushed a small amount of Crystal Stickles in a few places to add a bit of sparkle.
I finished the other sheets after the show was over. I decided to try something different for the Leaves on a second sheet of the Harvest Moon paper. I mixed Color Burst powders into Golden Matte Medium. Just like the sunflower side, it worked like a charm and kept the pigment translucent with an acrylic paint-like consistency. I painted the background exactly as the sunflower side with Oxide Inks.
For the paper entitled Barn, I used Matte Medium mixed with Color Burst Powders to paint the beautiful rooster.
Once each sheet was dry, I sprayed it with a coat of Kyrlon Matte Spray 1311. I find that most water soluble products (like the Oxide Inks) are stabilized by spraying over them with Matte Spray. When I add a varnish coat later, the spray coat will act as a barrier to protect the inks.
With 3 beautiful finished sheets, I needed to use them! (See all the Photos below) I love adding covers to Composition Notebooks that I always have on hand. I selected the part of the sunflower that I loved and glued it to the front cover with Aleene’s Tacky Glue. Once it was fully dry, I trimmed and added Cobalt Archival Ink around the edges. I’ll add something else on the back cover later. I have scraps of all 3 sheets left over, so I may create a patchwork, but I’m not sure yet. I should just do it and quit debating about it!!
I love the small Pocket Moleskine notebooks. I keep them on hand because they make wonderful little books to carry with me for capturing class ideas, Drama-free Friday ideas, etc., when I’m away from my studio. The only disadvantage with these little gems is that they look SO plain. 😉 I used some of the left over Harvest Moon paper and it’s SO CUTE!! These make great gifts, too.
I used the Rooster image as a slip-in binder cover. I have almost as many binders as Composition Notebooks, so I always try to add something to the cover to make them unique. I used scraps from the side of the Rooster paper as labels for the binder. The words are written with Paint Pens and detailed with Moonlight Gelly Roll pens. Cool, huh?
I always keep simple handmade cards on hand and the Leaves sheet creates perfect card fronts. I cut the sheet into 6 pieces (with a leftover strip, too) that I edged with Cobalt Archival Ink and attached to colorful cardstock mats. These are now ready for some words and to attach to a card base.
Composition Notebook
Pocket Moleskine Front Cover
Pocket Moleskine Back Cover
Binder Slip-in Cover
Vertical Card Fronts
Horizontal Card Fronts
I love the way each of these sheets and projects turned out! Thanks for joining me each Drama-free Friday at 2pm Eastern. I love chatting with you!
Until next time ~
Remember to Get Creative today! It's Easy!!
Barb
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