AlteredPages Artsociates

Spring is finally here!  Although it has still been cool, the sky is blue and sunny and the plants are beginning to stir.  In their honor I chose to work with blues and greens this week. I started with two gel prints which were made with the same paints.  One was more green and the other more blue.  In fact, one of the prints is even on blue paper.  I cut them both into 1" strips.  I wanted an uneven mosaic so I used one long piece and 6 shorted pieces of various lengths.   Each of these pieces had the edges darkened with green ink so that they would all blend together.  It also hides the fact that the card stock of each print was a different color. I tried to get an even distribution of green and blue.  Double sided adhesive holds all of the pieces in place on the black card stock. I just bought to lovely stencils from Altered Pages and couldn't wait to use them!  I chose blue and gree...

Today I have for you a mixed media piece  featuring a  feather stencil. This project started with a substrate of cardboard.  (actually it is about a 9x10 inch piece of ceral box)  With matte medium, I adhered scraps of patterned paper, vintage music sheet  and inked up vintage text pages to the cardboard.  Then, I gave the whole piece a thin coat of  gesso. Next, I used a flower stencil and added a bit of texture with white acrylic paint.  Then came time to  ink it up. This piece basically used all the same steps.   This was a smaller piece of cardboard, gesso, a feather stencil with  modeling paste and inks.  I felt it needed a bit more dimension so I added a vintage text page flower that I made previously.  The colors were spot on and I had the perfect  feather giant gem  for the center of my flower.    I just happened to have a few chip board peacock fea...

A stencil provides a cosmic glimpse. I had two new Stencils from  The Crafter's Workshop arrive in the mail only yesterday so it was a quick project needed to showcase them for you today.  I immediately had ideas pour into my head particularly for the beautiful 6 x  6 Constellations Stencil by Carmen Medlin.  I new I had some uplifting and inspirational star and light related quotes in my stash of stamps so these were my starting point for my quick card makes I am sharing with you today. I stamped and embossed my quotes in white onto black cardstock that I had cut down to card front size. I then cut a mask to cover my quotes so I could stencil over the black card using the Constellations Stencil.  I did this using some white gesso and a sponge. I then stamped and cut out a star and colored this with some yellow paint and my finger.  While these were drying I sponged a little white and yellow paint through my constellation also. Once my...

Debi here and I am so excited! It is fabulous to have the great collage sheets and supplies that AlteredPages carries to use to express myself. And then the unbelievable occurs The Crafters Workshop stencils are my absolute favorite. They are fun to use with inks, paint, pastels and even airbrushes. I have even used them with decorating cakes. How exciting to be able to share some of my work using all of this great stuff! Supplies used were: Watercolor Pencils  Aleene's Glue Scissors Palette tools Over sized Tags (used as template) Ribbon Red Ruler razor knife Molding Paste (homemade) Pan Pastels Black cardstock Emery Board (for rough edges) Miscellaneous paint brushes AlteredPages  Collage Sheets : Vintage Architecture AP 1029 Faces From the Past AP-1684 Victorian Butterflies AP-1066 The Crafters Workshop Stencil Fly Away (you will love it) Thank you to The Crafters Workshop!!! See you soon,  ...

Have you ever used beeswax in your artwork?  I've been experimenting with this technique, and today incorporated some stenciling into the process.  Thanks to The Crafters Workshop stencils for inspiration. This wax is a little more milky than I'd like, but I'm still enjoying the depth it adds.   The tiny canvas is 3x5, with some paint pen and melted crayon to start. with an additional layer using the TCW stencil Dahlia Blooms 6x6 stencil (designed by Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk), using black ink . A little Altered Pages collage and a "Boo!", attached with a layer of wax. Some stars, and glitter around the edges. Boo! Check back all month for more stencily inspiration with The Crafter's Workshop! :)trisha

This month Altered Pages is partnering with The Crafter's Workshop.  I don't think there is any better way I like to play with stencils then with lots of colours and mess about in my journal. I broke out some Free Flow Acrylic Paints and squeezed and scribbled paint across pages in my Dylusions Journal. Lifting the pages and tipping the book up and down I allowed the paint to run, merge and pool across the pages and then taking a piece of watercolor paper I pressed over and blotted up excess paint and in turn another background paper to work with later.  I used my heat gun to dry this a little also. Next I reached for some stencils I own many from The Crafter's Workshop today I chose three designs by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Circle Explosion, Blazonry and Mini Square Scrolls and worked with some Black, Ultramarine Blue and White Paint and a sponge. Mini Square Scrolls Stencil Blazonry Stencil Circle Explosion Stencil Some areas I then paint...

Sometimes things just speak to us. The Crafters Workshop Aspen Trees Stencil (art by Victoria Case) spoke to me. Being Fall it felt right, but you know me.  I did not follow my initial plan.  I had printed a Halloween collage and felt it would be a great one with children walking in the woods.     Then as I mixed colors I got a deep dark European forest feeling. As I worked I found that a tryptych was my goal. Same stencil, different colors and techniques.                             My 6x6 gel press plate was the perfect tool, along with my daubers.   They make the paint glide on! Working with negative space can be tricky, I went through several attempts and tossed the papers,  because I was not getting the results I wanted.   ( I used an 8.5 x 11 smooth white cardstock) I layered the mixed colors using both the Gel Press plate with the stenci...