creating stickers/transparent images

Well, this weekend, after doing the canvas image transfer, I was reminded how much fun, how easy, and how cool it is to make transparent stickers from magazine pictures. It is not exactly the same process, but it has some similar elements. Also, you need very little in the way of supplies or art equipment.

Once you have the transparent image, you can then transform them into stickers or use them in mixed media work. I wanted to show you how I created a meditation piece for my art studio out of one  issue of Tricycle.

First, find a cool image to transfer, from a magazine or newspaper. This process only really works well with magazines/newspaper print. Inkjet printers are water soluble and you are going to be submerging this in water. You are basically transferring the ink to a piece of plastic, so you need to have a kind of substance behind the ink. I wanted to do a meditation piece for my studio, because I often do tonglen meditation and paint. But like all meditation, my mind wanders, and I think about groceries or people I love. So, I wanted to hang something front and center to remind me to focus.

I used this issue:

I ripped out pages with images that interested me. I like how this x-ray of the Buddha looks exactly like that small Buddha on another story. I cut and used both of those. I also dug the picture of Darwin.

First you cut out the image that you want to use.

Next use some packing tape. The transparent type. You pull out enough to cover your image.

Put your image face down onto your tape. You can use a burnishing tool, or anything really, so get it all up in the sticky of the tape.

After I did this, I decided I just wanted the Buddha head, so I cut the rest of it out.

Then you submerge the entire thing in water. Just dunk it in there. Swoosh it around. Obviously, bigger pictures need bigger vessels. Or patience.

You can keep it submerged for a few minutes. Then you rub the paper off the back.

Or peel, if the paper is willing.

And then, you have a transparent picture.

You can add glue on the back to stick it anywhere.

I also used that x-ray Buddha picture. For this one, I used two pieces of tape, because I wanted to split the image in two.  To do that, it take lining up the tape, so they don't touch. I could have also made one large transfer by overlapping the tape. This is before the water submersion.

This is after. I put it on paper towel, so you can see the transparency. I like how the dark ink areas get a little worn away. It gives it a really cool effect of antiquing or something.

Here is the final meditation piece I created. I used canvas paper. The base layer is a red/purple/white acrylic combination. Broad strokes. I did want the piece to be vertical. Then I used gold acrylic on a brayer, or an ink roller for print making. Just a few dabs directly on the brayer and then on the canvas. In the same issue, I found a shot of six Japanese calligraphy brushes made out of human hair. I made a transfer on that too. I then found a headline that read "focusing". I just cut out the focus. I used the x-ray Buddha head to head, but it makes it look like one of those optical illusions. Is it a woman, or two vases? I just don't know. After the brayer, I covered the canvas in gel medium, and just fiddled with the placement of these pieces. I love the way it turned out. Art makes me happy.

Oh, and I also made a transfer of the Darwin, because I just thought I could use a Darwin sticker some day.

I just have to say, I love the way these look when you are using animals. I really thought about making Valentine's cards with these and wild animal pictures that said, "I'm Wild about You." Just an idea. Go ahead. Steal it. Hope this helps. I would love to see what you do with this technique.

canvas transfer.

Ssssssh, this is a gift for my husband for Valentine's Day. We don't usually exchange gifts, but I wanted to try this project. He never reads my blogs, so don't worry.

I used this tutorial from Elsie Larson.

I really wanted to do this with a wedding picture of ours. It seemed antique enough to match up with this technique. So, first you print a picture onto photo paper. I think you need an inkjet printer. Not totally sure on that, but I have one, so that is cool. I printed this one, which is one I love, but got overexposed in the corner, so I can't use it very much.

I printed this on 8.5" x 11" photo paper, then trimmed it to 8" x 10" I bought a simple, cheap canvas at Michael's. I think it cost me $5.99.

I used this Utrecht acrylic--matte gel. I had bought some a long time ago, and really have never used it. You cover the canvas in this. Make it a rather thick coat. then press the picture into it, lining it up. Now, remember that your image will be reversed. There is a feature on many basic photo programs that allows you to mirror flip your image. I think you can do this in MS Paint. So, if you want to do it the proper way, you can. I didn't care.

You allow this to dry to several hours. I did overnight. Then you get a spray bottle of water, and spray the back. Now, I have done a similar technique for art journaling to make stickers. (Hey, should I do a sticker tutorial? Does everyone know how to make stickers?) I am just warning you that this part is very time consuming, messy, and tedious. But I like the results. This is what it looks like when you first start rubbing and start seeing your image.

Now, remember that the rubbing is a kind of rough process, and yet, you don't want to rub too hard, because you will rub off your picture. So, find a kind of middle road of rubbing. (Oh, geez, like you know what that is.) You'll see what I mean. Unlike me, start at a corner that can bear to be rubbed to the canvas. Once you see the picture without a film, stop and move to another area. I rubbed some parts of my photo off, but it actually makes it look very antiqued.

And the finished product:

Hanging on a wall.

Which looks exactly like the one on the desk. Awesome. I forgot to mention that you should put a layer of gel medium on top of the picture after you are done rubbing to protect. That is all.

crayon valentine's cards

We received a note in the pre-K folder last week that said we could start sending valentines on Monday, and that there needed to be either one for everyone or none. Which makes sense. Nothing stings more than being Pig Pen with one valentine, or worse, Charlie Brown with none. This being my first year as a mother of a child in school, I was scrambling. Do I make? Do I buy? What the hell?

I checked out Pinterest and saw a lot of tutorials for homemade valentines. I preferred doing that, but also didn't want it to be insanely hard. Beezus and I looked through a lot of ideas together. She did wonder why so many people post pictures of boys on Pinterest. Yuck. Boys.

We do like to riff on other people's ideas and create our own thing. So, go ahead. Open up your Valentine!

Shoot, kraft paper came with the sticker. Sorry about that.

Yes, that is a circle crayon. (I couldn't find heart-shaped silicone pans. DAG! I am too impatient to wait for Amazon on this one.)

ANYWAY, this valentine was so super easy to make, and really a lot of fun to do with Beezus. This morning, we made swirly circular crayons. The tutorial for that is right here. Those take half an hour at the most. And that time is mostly removing paper from crayons.

Basically, you need the crayons you are attaching. And this:

I found those felt heart stickers at Michaels in the sales section for 15% off, or something. I thought it would be a good sealer for our valentine. So, I cut cardstock Kraft paper into 4" x 6" rectangles. I created a very simple document that read "color the world with love. happy valentine's day. love," and printed it on construction paper. I used red, but I think it would have looked great with black ink. I liked the organic and faded feel of the construction paper. It looked earthier, if that is possible, than the bright cardstock I had. I did have to trim the construction paper before loading my printer. I printed four copies for each sheet. I then cut them to 3" x 5". We then glued the paper to the kraft paper with glue stick. Now, we just dotted each corner, which was important for attaching the crayon.  Then, we attached a foam sticker to attach the crayon. The crayon bottom was a little concave, so that is why only gluing the four corners was helpful. We could press the paper up into the crayon. Then pretty much we were done. Bea signed her name on each of them. I did half and Beezus did the other half. So this is definitely a craft that you can prep and then have kiddos help. I cut everything while Beezus was at school, and we put them together when she got home. As you can see, she inherited my sense of balance.

 We created a lot of different color combinations. Purple/pink/peach, orange/red/yellow, green/blue/teal, magenta/purple/pink. And in the same way, we used different color construction paper and matched them up with the crayons as best we could.

I thought I would do a close up of the different color combinations.

Then we sealed them up with a kiss and sent them to school.

Button, button, who's got the button?

I have been struggling to start this introduction, because I am just so dang excited. So, as most of you probably know, I have an identical twin sister named Sweetie Pumpkin Kitty, SPK, otherwise known as KellyAnn. You may have seen her comments around town. I am blessed to share my life with someone who loves crafting, art, sewing, and finding funky shizzle as much as me. We have literally been hitting thrift stores together since we were walking. (Thanks, Mama!) We are always collaborating, talking craft, getting together to do stuff, and bouncing ideas off each other. Interestingly, she and I have very different styles that intersect beautifully. We like much of the same stuff, but have totally different aesthetics. For example, we noticed that in her house, she has a lot of curved furniture and items, and everything in my house is straight lines and boxy. Hmmm...genetics are cool. ANYWAY, since I started this blog, I have been trying to convince her to share her cool crafts on here. So, today, I am so excited, because my sister finally finally agreed to share something on this blog. I'm hoping she will do this more regularly, but for now, I'm just excited about this one. Please give her lots of love and a very warm welcome.

Hey Y'all...Ang told me I should guest blog and do a tutorial for my infamous button flowers that I totally ripped off from Pinterest, which let's face it, is the whole reason Pinterest exists for me...inspiration and blatant thievery.  So I love love love flowers.  Let me just put that out there.  Except that most everyone in my family is allergy-ridden.  I buy flowers every week from Trader Joe's and 7 times out of 10, someone is allergic.  Sigh.  What's a flower-loving hippie to do?  Well, I say break out those buttons and let's get to it.

Yeah, that is what it looks like now, but how did it get that way?  Okay let's start with the very easy button/paper flower...find some interesting paper.  I used some old collage paper I had.  I was trying to do a black and white theme, but there is no reason not to use whatever appeals to you.  I cut all my flowers into four petals, but I think it would look great as a circle or pointy petals, really this ain't science.  Whatever works for you.  I cut a piece of floral wire about 6 inches long.  It's kinda pointy so I just stuck it right through that paper.  Kinda angry like.  It was freeing.

Now, Audrey, my daughter and Angie's spirit animal, and I picked some buttons in white and some in black and stacked them.  I tried to use interesting buttons that looked good together.  But one cute button will work as well.

Then you bend the floral wire and poke that sucker through the other hole of the buttons and through the paper flower.  

Now that the wire is through everything, twist it tightly around the longer piece of wire.

Now here is where I decided to go a little different.  By all means you can be done with your flower at this point, but I bought these really cute floral stems at the craft store.  They were all wrapped in a pretty green paper, and they were really sturdy.   So at this point I got the floral stem and made a loop.

Then I twisted the floral wire around the loop so the flower was secure and standing up on the floral stem.  As far as the fabric covered vase goes, Audrey and I found an old, empty Pringles can sitting around so we washed it out.  We found some pretty black and white fabric to go with our flowers.  We measured the can and added a half inch to top and bottom to fold it under so we wouldn't have fraying.

Then I applied some Mod Podge around the can, and wrapped it with the fabric.  Then I added some hemp rickrack with fabric glue because I love me some rickrack.  Small, large, pink, hemp.  It doesn't matter.  If I can add rickrack to something, I generally do.

And done...pretty button flowers for all those sneezers out there.  Unless you are allergic to adorable!!!!  Thanks, Angie for letting me share!  And thanks to Cooper Satterfield for taking pictures for me!

"Someday, I'll be a real flower."

v.d. t.p. f.y.i.s

In the last few weeks, perhaps because I find so many brilliant crafts for children on Pinterest which leads me to  blogs I have not seen and crafty mamas working with toddlers, I have been keeping our toilet paper cardboard rolls for crafts. It's not that this hasn't occurred to me before, but I just couldn't think of anything cool to make with them. I found these very cool yetis made with toilet paper rolls.

After I did the birds on a wire, I was thinking that toilet paper rolls might be cool candle holders. So Beezus and I kind of brainstormed. Beezus rushed headlong into hers, but I wanted to plan it a little more.  More on Beezus' craft in a bit. The candle holder was a fun one.

As you can see below, I cut a heart out of the roll and kept a strip to hold up the heart. Then I cut another heart out of the center of the original heart. Using kite paper and newspaper, I mod podged newspaper print on the cardboard. Using kite paper, I glued the transparency onto the inside of the heart. That is my pre-newspapered heart there on the messy desk.

After everything dried, I then cut the back in a snip.

I have many yarzheit candles for Lucy, so I used one of those.

I then put the heart around the candle and lit it. Hard to see the candle here.

And all lit up in the dark, it has a lovely effect.

This was the first one, but I am pretty sure we are going to make more in different shapes, like Waldorf stars, or maybe even birds. I would think this craft could be made without a toilet paper roll.

Beezus on the other hand drew the heart and cut it out. And without looking back at me...

started putting heart stickers all over it. She had no desire to make a candleholder herself. So, she invented her own craft, which I thought was quite clever.

Then we cut the back of it.

Punched holes in each side...

Braided three pipe cleaners in two strips, tightened them into the holes.

And created a little Valentine princess crown.