Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tutorials. Show all posts

Friday, August 13, 2010

neat-o crafty links, website updates, workshops

Dear Readers, Thank you for all of your lovely comments and emails. It means a lot to me. I'm all caught up with emails at this point, so if you have not received a reply from me, Please! send again. I kinda think a couple of emails were accidentally deleted during the recent crazies. ohforheaven'ssake

I've just finished a website update, which includes descriptions of all of the workshops I'll be teaching at Journalfest and Art Is this October. I re-opened my Etsy shop today as well. (go me)

Are you are looking for something crafty to do this weekend? I've been building a list for a while. It'll be added to the Tutorials tab (below the banner). 

Washi tape twisty ties, From Zakka Life. You know how much I love that Washi tape.
Japanese Paper Dolls, from Kimono Reincarnate
Simple Paper Lanterns

Thinking ahead for cold weather, here is a pair of super simple mittens for non-knitters to make
and speaking of cold weather, these lovely Handstitched Ornaments made with scraps and a bit of embroidery would be a nice gift. Speaking of ornamentation, why not decorate your shoes, from Craftzine.

I made a bracelet using this tutorial from Mairuru. I can't say enough great things about her, her blog and her Etsy Shop.
I love this whimsical Hedgehog Pincushion, Craftzine again - a great resource.
And finally, The Chicken Pincushion

Enjoy.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Tute Tsunami, Day 2

Here is Lyric Kinnard's Painted Shoes tute in which she inspires us to leave no shoe unpainted. Fun! I love these patterns on her shoes. Here is Alisa Burke's altered striped t-shirt tute. All links are listed on my side bar over ------------------------> there :)

Here is Alisa Burke's altered striped t-shirt tute. All links are listed on my side bar.



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sumi Smoosh Tutorial

Wooooo ! It's time for the Tute Tsunami with Art Sparks.

My Sumi Smoosh with Vellum tute is below. I've also uploaded YouTube vids: Part 1 and Part 2.

Here is Melly Testa's tute on hand dyeing from her book Inspired to Quilt and here is Jane Lafazio's tute on Needle Felting. Next up: Lyric Kinard and Alisa Burke. I'll have their links up Thursday!

Sumi Smoosh with Vellum let's get to it!

Supply List
White Vellum Paper
Plaste folder, or sheet that you can fold
Inks: 2 colors and a metallic (or what you have on hand)
Spray bottles (1 per color, I use Ranger's Mini-Misters)
   if you don't have the spray bottles you can just drop some ink onto the plastic sheet
Brayer (or just rub your hand over the plastic to move it around)
Water
RUBBER GLOVES!
If desired and at hand:
alcohol
needle and thread
tape

One of my students named this technique and it stuck. Great name: sumi is the Japanese word for ink.

First open up your plastic folder (clear plastic)
and drop or spray some inks in like so:
Now, close the plastic folder and rub or brayer the ink around, like this
Open up the plastic folder and lay your vellum in on the right hand side, like so:
Close up the plastic and brayer again. Open it, and voila!
There is always plenty of ink left over on the plastic sheets. So do it again. You can make more marks on the paper with stamps by picking up some of the leftover ink. Shown below are roller stamps made with double stick craft foam and wallpaper seam rollers. 
While the ink is wet, and the paper is still on the plastic, try spraying with alcohol or dropping alcohol. That's a neat resist. I love to fold the vellum paper and create a creased pattern that will accept the ink in a different way. You could also crease the vellum after it is dry. You could try other resists as well.
Here: I used one of the pages in my journal. I sewed it in at the top of the page (could have stapled, taped, brad-ed, eyelet-ed, paperclipped). I used a Black Sharpie and a White Sharpie here as well as washi tape from Pretty Tape on Etsy.
Yes, very important to give directions on your journal page, right? Or perhaps, I'd have forgotten ...
Here's a close up of the sewing bit (bottom right)
I hope you will enjoy this simple technique. Let me know if you try it out. I'm looking forward to seeing Melly's and Jane's tutes. There are more coming every day for the rest of the week! Fun, right?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Big Stuff Coming up ...

Drum roll please .... tomorrow begins the Tute Tsunami.  Melanie Testa, Jane Lafazio and I will be posting tutorials on our blogs (I'll do YouTube as well). Each of us will be posting the links our our blogs. Thursday, Friday and Saturday there will be more tutorials by more members of the Art Sparks. We will all have all the links up on our blogs. This'll be fun

And ... 
I'll be posting on Fridays with the BIG FUN SUMMER PAINTING PROJECT. This week we'll be doing some composition talk. Get out your construction paper.


And even more: Interviews with Kelli Perkins, Dale Anne Potter and Alma Stoller. 
Last night: A journal page inspired by my recent visit to the NorthEast Kingdom

Watch this space ...