Tag Technique #4: paint resist

Hi there everyone, it's Monday so time for another technique, this one 'borrowed' from Tim Holtz. Are you playing along?

These are the completed tags. A very simple series of steps. This is what I used: 

Select one of your tags and a stencil. Lay the stencil over your tag. Select a light colour acrylic paint from your stash. Either use a blending tool as I did or some craft foam to pounce your paint colour through the stencil completely or partly over your tag. 

Remove the stencil and place straight into warm water. You don't want the paint to dry on your stencil. Heat dry the painted tag. Now, again using craft foam or a blending tool, select two or three Distress ink pads or Distress Stains or the Distress Oxides and blend the colours over your tag.

Although I didn't do this, you can continue to layer more stencils over your tag to create more interesting backgrounds. 

A few more tags using different colours: 

And another: 

The final step is to flick some water over the completed, inked, tags. This just adds to the distressed look. From this...

To this...

A very simple technique but the first of several 'resist' techniques, so more to follow. Hope you are inspired to have a go. Until next time!

Technique Tag #3: Ghosting

Hi there everyone, Thankyou for popping over for the third technique of the Mini Marvel 12 week Tag challenge. This week is easy-peasy and only needs a few supplies! This technique is 'borrowed' and learned from Dyan Reavely.

Supplies needed are: tags -a good weight as this technique used a lot of water, preferably watercolour or mixed media; ink sprays - I'm using Dylusions Ink sprays, just ensure they are waterbased. You can try different inks though to explore different outcomes; water spray bottle or mister; variety of stencils; kitchen roll.

Start by spraying your tag with water. Then spray a puddle of ink in a couple of places on the tag. Repeat with another colour. Then lightly mist water across the tag to gently blend the two colours.

Immediately place a second tag on top of the wet tag and press down firmly to transfer the excess ink. Peel apart and blot both with kitchen roll.

Select a stencil of your choice and lay this across the top of the two tags and spray through the stencil with water. Try to make sure that the stencil is lying flat to avoid water creeping underneath. This is all a bit trial and error really. You will have varying results depending on the stencil you use and how much water you spray! Just play around until you are happy with your results.

Next, lift the stencil and immediately flip it over onto the bottom half of your tags. Press down firmly and remove. I found more success if i dabbed the flipped stencil with kitchen roll before I removed it. 

You now need to blot the entire surfaces with the kitchen roll. Can you see the 'ghost' effect where the water has removed the ink? It creates such a pretty background doesn't it? However, these inks are not permanent so they will need sealing at some point. Tomorrow I will make some suggestions as to how you can build further layers from this first layer. Meanwhile here are some other colours I played with. 

I hope you have as much fun as I have had if you decide to join in with this weeks challenge. Happy crafting until next time! 

Tag Technique 3: Using Pigment inks on a gelli plate

Hi everyone,
Have you tried any of these techniques yet? My third and final post using pigment ink pads on the gelli plate is also my favourite. It is inspired by the tags created by the uber-talented Birgit Koopsen. She has produced many videos for Gel Press and are easy to find on YouTube.

Pretty, aren't they? First, I used the VersaFine Clair ink pads that I used in my previous posts, but I didn't get a great result. I think the pads are too new and tended to bubble as they dried. The Distress Oxides were a lot more successful and were used in the samples above. 

As you can probably make out in this photo, I smeared each ink pad across the gelli plate. Take care not to let the colours touch as you can contaminate the ink pad. Best to use a small brayer afterwards to carefully blend the colours together while keeping each colour discrete. You now need to let these dry. 

When I used the VersaFine Clair pigment inks, I blocked the colours. Another idea Birgit Koopsen used. However, you can see it starting to 'bead' on the gelli plate. I suspect the ink pads were just too juicy as they were mostly new. 

I used several of my Carabelle art texture printing plates and pressed them into the ink to create patterns across the plate. I then placed a few tags across different parts of the gelli plate to pick up the print. However, I was disappointed with the result.

So, I tried again with the Distress Oxides. I used the art printing plates again followed by the foam stamps again.

This time when I pulled some prints off with my tags it worked beautifully as you can see from the first photo. I do hope you will have a go with this particular technique. It is so rewarding! Thankyou Birgit for another cracking idea! Until next week, happy crafting! 

Tag Taechnique 2: Pigment inks on the gelli plate

Hi everyone! I have had a couple of extended crafty sessions over the last couple of days playing around with different pigment ink pads and acrylic paints on the Gelli plate. Tonight's techniques follow on from the previous technique using Shaving foam (see previous post if you missed it). I do hope you will have as much fun as I have had playing around with these different mediums.

I have briefly explained a simple technique on the main group page for Mini Marvels. This involves stamping directly onto the gelli plate with a pigment ink pad. I used VersaFine Clair ink pads. The trick is to allow this to dry sufficiently before brayering a light coloured acrylic paint over the top of the stamped image and then pulling a print off.  Here is another sample of this first, simple technique. It does make lovely backgrounds when you use different colours.

Using a much larger gelli plate I then tried stamping onto acrylic paint with the pigment ink pads and adding several layers before pulling a print. It gives a much more detailed background which I love.

I started by choosing several acrylic paint colours - I used Dina Wakely paints by Ranger -  and brayered them across my Gelli plate. The next step was to layer some stencils across the paint and pull off a print leaving the stencils in place. I then removed the stencils and allowed this to dry. 

Once dry, I added more paints and brayered a couple of different colours sparingly in different places on the gelli plate. Then,  I took some Claudine Helmuth foam stamps and stamped into the wet paint and left this to dry. You do need to be patient between layers. 

Once the stamped images were dry, I overstamped again, but this time using the Pigment ink pads. And again, I let this dry. Don't be tempted to use a heat gun. It dries the gelli plate too fiercely. 

Here I've used a couple of Indigo Blu dinkie stamps and one of Kate Crane's stamps from one of her Carabelle stamp sets. The next step, once these images have dried, is to lightly paint over the whole thing with a light coloured paint. I use either White, light/pale pink or blue. All work well for this technique. I got this idea from a class with the lovely Kate Crane. 

As you can see I have brayered a very thin layer of paint across the plate. You can still see the pigment stamped images through it. I then quickly pulled my print. It wasn't perfect, but I love the distressed result. I even managed another print! 

This now ready for die-cutting a couple of tags from or I might use this one for ATCs. I hope you'll have a go at this technique too, although there is a lot of waiting around for the layers to dry. Have a look at You Tube for more ideas. This is mainly where I got my ideas from. I will post another technique tomorrow using pigment ink pads on the gelli plate. I hope you can drop by! 

Mini Marvels:Tag Techniques 1

Hi everyone. Thankyou so much for joining me over here for a visual journey through the first technique. Fortunately, and probably because, I recently showed this technique to one of my Grandfairies who just loves creating art and thought what fun it would be to show her a variety of art techniques to help relax her while preparing for and during her fast approaching SAT tests. Not a big leap then to suggesting this for a new challenge in my Mini Marvels group. I love learning new techniques and revisiting old ones! I was reaquainted with this technique during a recent class with the uber-talented and very lovely, Tracy Evans. I hope you enjoy it too.

For this technique you will need:
-shaving foam (not gel),
-a tin foil dish to squirt the shaving foam into,
-card stock or ready made Tags
-either paints,food colouring or reinkers - I've used Distress dye ink reinkers with my granddaughter here,(Tracy used the Distress Oxides reinkers) -
-a ruler,
-a heat gun.

1. The Shaving Foam technique

I am cutting my own tags, using PaperArtsy 340gms Smoothy card stock. I love this card and generally use it for all of my mixed media techniques, but you use your own preferred card. Just ensure it will withstand wet media. I cut 12 tags using Ranger's Tim Holtz Thinlets Tag dies. I've used the largest one for mine. However, there is no rule as to which size tag you should make. Circle tags would be fun too. Now for the fun part. Hopefully the photos will do a lot of the explaining!

I

Having squirted a really good amount of shaving foam into the foil dish, add drops of either paint, food colouring or reinkers onto the surface of the shaving foam. Add as many colours as you like. Now, using a cocktail stick or coffee stirrer, mix through the colours carefully making swirling patterns.

As Imogen has done here, lay your tag onto the surface of the swirly coloured foam and press it down quite firmly to allow it to absorb the colours you have added. It's a bit messy but smells heavenly! 

Gently lift the tag from the foam surface. It will pull up a lot of the foam with it but not to worry. Lay this gloopy tag down on your surface and then take a ruler to slide all of the foam completely off the card. You can discard this foam or pop it to one side to use it again later. You should still have plenty left in your foil dish. 

Imogen is demonstrating this step beautifully isn't she? You really should gasp at the resulting pattern you will see left on your tag. The next step is to use your heat tool to gently waft over the tag. The colours will appear a little brighter depending on which colour agent you use. This didn't happen when I used PaperArtsy Fresco chalk paints but the colours definitely brightened when I used the Distress Oxides reinkers. You will also need to use a paper towel after drying to thoroughly remove any oily residue from the Oxides. Make as many tags, using various colours to vary the backgrounds you create, as you like. Play around with different media! 

And this was what Imogen made with her backgrounds! 

What will you do with yours? Have fun and post your results on the group page! Until next week for Technique 2! Bye for now.