Forgive to Forget mixed media piece

I got introduced to the artist Tamara Laporte's whimsical style of portraits and creatures last year and was captivated. I was always convinced I couldn't paint landscapes leave alone portraits! But she makes it so achievable with her step by step video lessons and how she plays with a variety of media.

So after doing her Art, Heart and Healing class, I took the time to write all the negative things I was feeling, down on my paper and pondered it. I then Gesso'd over it all as a way of letting it all go. My beautiful lady emerged. People say that your emotions come through in your art and I guess it's true because everyone says she look sad. But the most important thing for me is that I replaced my negative thoughts with a positive quote that I feel will help me every time I look at her. Shes not perfect but then neither am I, or you or anyone for that matter. I used  a mixture of Gelatos, Lyra Aqua colour crayons, acrylic paints, Versamark and Archical ink stamp pads and various stamps to complete this piece.

Adding Texture and Dimension to air dry clay AND my first youtube Video!

This video thing is a huge learning curve for me. I love watching tutorials on different techniques and products. I had signed up to a swap where I had to make 10, 2x2 inch tiles to send to my partner. Initially we were to use cardboard, paper etc but then I thought to use the pack of DAS air dry clay I had sitting there. But I needed it to be the thickness of chipboard and I wanted texture and dimension.
So out came the manual pasta rolling machine that was still in its box in the cupboard. I got my supplies together, got my hubby's Go Pro and the rest is history. I do however take my hat off to all the You tubers out there that do videos all the time.

Here is the link for my video on using embossing folders with air dry clay to get texture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44ydZkRO0I
Unfortunately, I only found the clamp to hold the machine to the table AFTER I had shot the video. Isn't that always the way??

Otherwise, here are some pics of using stamps on clay.

These babies have all been sent of to be distributed without being painted so that others can customize them to their own projects. I love using Silks acrylic glaze pints to paint them though, and covering them in a hi gloss varnish like JOSONJA's . I will post more pictures another time when the project I am using them in is finished.

Fabric Tissue Paper Tutorial Outcome

One of my fellow artists had posted this link fabric tissue paper tutorial on our FB page and it fascinated me. How to use scraps of material and tissue paper and Gesso and Modpodge to make flexible fabric paper! So.. I did it! Here are the results. The only Modpodge I had was the glitter kind which did just beautifully!

And then I got to manipulate and trim them into 2 index card sized pieces fabric swap for the AASG group. It was so easy to paint (Tim Holtz distress acrylic paint daubers worked very well and were so easy to apply) and spread colour around on. After it dried, I applied neutral shoe polish with a soft buffer as a sealer on top.

TA DA! Just do it, it was really fun. I will upload pictures later of how I used it for myself in my art journal when I finish the page.