Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sunday Afternoon Creations

I have been taking a break from drawing for quite some time now and I miss it. Today my hubby took the boys to the movies and I was left home alone (well, not completely alone, I had my animal babies with me) and it was a day of good health, so I did some creating.

I turned the music up and got busy having some creative fun. The first creation was an experiment on making clear embossing powder crack. I learned the trick the other day at a friends house. She has card making classes once a month and it is always fun. Apparently she was going to do the crackle technique with some other stuff, I cannot remember what it was. She called around to the various craft stores but no one had it. However, one of the stores a store employee told her that the technique would work with several layers of clear embossing powder. We tried it and it worked out just great. It does not crack as much as the other stuff but still it did crack. (I will give directions at the end of this post). I was so excited about the technique, I just had to try it again. I used a bit of watercolor paper and made it almost the size of an ATC. It worked so well that I now have a new technique to try in my art journals and other works of art. The best part of my day with friends is being out of the house and creating with like minded and fun women. We were of different ages, two grandmothers (me being one of them, young grandmas of course;-) and two young mothers. We got to chat and create, a great day!

The other piece of art work I did today was a colored pencil ATC drawing of a rose. I had taken several very gorgeous photos of my neighbors beautiful roses a few weeks ago and decided to draw some of them. This red rose is my favorite photo (I will put the original on my nature blog). The colors that the camera capture were wild red and very bright. I did not have all the right pencils but enough to do a red rose. This drawing did not come out the same as the original, which is okay with me. I used another piece of the same watercolor paper as I did with the crackle piece above. It is roughly the size of an ATC, close enough for me. After I finished the drawing I antiqued the edges with a bit of black ink. It took layers and layers to get the rose to where I could say that it was done. In order to do any more of the roses that I took photos of I will need to buy more pencils. I did like drawing on the watercolor paper and will probably do a series of these beauties on the same paper and similar torn edges. So much fun, so few pencils! ;-)

I loved having my day alone and not freaking out because I was alone (taking a Valium always helps;-) No excuses anymore, I will create without pain or through the pain, which ever I will not let it get to me. Create, Create, Create!!! I will use the gifts that the Lord has given me. I hope you can, too! Have fun.....

(The technique for the crackle process is to do your stamping or what have you then use Versamark clear ink and clear embossing powder. Do the heating as usual and then let cool. Repeat the process at least four times. After it is done put the piece in the freezer and leave it there for a bit. Take it out and bend it the way you want the cracks to go. I had to put the piece back into the freezer several times to get it to crack. After I was happy with it I used black ink to antique it. It turned out rather well. Next time I may do a couple more layers and/or try my gold embossing powder with some of the clear. It is all good, because it is more play time for me.)

5 comments:

Aveen said...

I love the rose ATC, it's so pretty, it looks like a vintage illustration.

nanke's stuff said...

The rose ATC is lovely! Thanks for sharing the technique of how to make the clear embossing powder crack. nancy

Timaree said...

The rose turned out great. Sometimes it's good when we don't have just the right item or just the right colors. You made do and turned out two great pieces. Talking about creating even when you don't want to, someone told me to just start and do it for 10 minutes. Then you can stop but usually by then the moment has passed and you are busy creating. Just 10 minutes seems more doable than just do it.

Marilyn (Ottawa) said...

here's another suggestion for coloured pencils. Use hot pressed w/c paper, it is extremely smooth and requires less laying of pigment. Also another trick is burnishing, blending the colours. I don't use waxed based pencils due to the wax residual buildup thus preventing layers upon layers of different pigments to get full values, therefore using oil based pencils I have no wax buildup and find my colours/values are more true. Layering with the, is a cinch as well. You've done a good job on your rose.
Where is the pic of the freezer crackle art? did I miss that?
Thanks for sharing!
Marilyn

Tammy Freiborg said...

The rose photo was so vibrant I thought I was smelling roses! And your ATC rendition is absolutely beautiful.