Purple Mail Art!

Four days left and counting! The packing is done except for the last few bits, all the boxes are taped up except for three of my art supply boxes, so we’re almost there!!

Carrying on the addiction, here’s another recycled padded envelope. This one originated from my pen supplier!

I started out with the ‘Fragile’ tape again – I do like how that looks through the paint! Then I added a couple of small gel medium transfers, and followed it up with lots of acrylic finger painting, recycled stamping, homemade stamping and stencilling. I finished off with a little metallic paint drippage. I think this one may have a face lurking in its depths … keep watching to find out!

Ironing My Images

No … I’ve not gone completely mad … I really have been ironing my images! I’ve been trying out another technique from the Image Transfer Workshop Book. By some magical process (the physicists out there will be able to explain exactly how it happens) heating a magazine page that is next to some cling film (plastic wrap) enables the two to bond. You can then remove most of the paper backing which leaves you with a new very thin, waterproof version of the image. Clever stuff!! This is my first attempt … and I’ve stuck it in my altered fiction book before adding paint to the page.

I’ve been busy completing more pages in my Wreck this Journal as well. This page was done using the Gel Medium method described in my last post. I used last week’s church bulletin (which was printed using an ink jet printer). I love the distressed look this method gives to the transfers!

I’ve been struggling over what to do with this next page for some time. The page was headed “Space for Negative Comments” – not something I thought was very constructive! But then I thought … what if I wrote my negative thoughts in thin black pen and wrote their opposite on top in thick red pen – it would be following the instructions, but putting a positive spin on it. So that’s what I did! Next I painted the opposite page and squidged them together to transfer some of the wet paint. That obscured some of the words, but it was still too legible for for my liking, so I added a blur filter to the right hand page after I scanned it!

… sorry … you don’t get to read my secrets … but I like the way it looks 🙂

Simple Image Transfers!

I’ve been wanting to try out image transfers for such a long time … but every time I’ve found a set of instructions they’ve involved using substances which were either dangerous or else difficult to obtain. So imagine my excitement when I came across this book, Image transfer Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy which has a huge variety of very simple step by step instructions for transferring images, many of which use common safe substances! I’m planning on trying them all over time, but I started with the ink jet / gel medium transfers as they were so simple. All you need is a pot of Gel Medium, a paint roller/brayer and an ink jet printed image!

The image on the left-hand page of a rose bud is my very first attempt … pretty impressive I thought. I got so excited with my success that when I did

the next one, after remembering to reverse the image when I printed it, I stuck it to the page upside down!! Luckily it was in my Wreck this Journal Book so I figured it was meant to be!!

This next transfer forms the first completed page in my creative business plan which was inspired by The Right-Brain Business Plan devised by Jennifer Lee. The page is in the middle of

the book I have made and I have written ” Development and growth are vital to my business. I need to experiment, experience, and constantly be trying out new ideas. Having Fun!`’ around the the image. This is much more fun than a traditional business plan 🙂

This last image is my favourite of the lot! Inspired by my Wreck this Journal Book, I have decided to alter one of the many fiction paperback

books I have littered throughout my house waiting to be taken to the charity shop. I love the way the text looks like it’s been aded after, when in fact it’s the only bit of the original page that you can see!

I can’t wait to get started on trying out some of the other techniques in the book … keep watching this space!