I was so excited when I saw today's Mixability Challenge where Polly has challenged us to use a technique that transfers text onto our projects. I picked up Claudia Helmuth's book on collage a little while ago and I've read it through 2 times and have been chomping at the bit to give some of the techniques a go. Lucky for me, one of the techniques was the very one from the challenge today! I pulled out a thrift store wood plaque to start. I began by putting a coat of Aqua acrylic paint onto the plaque. I then mixed some black and dark blue paint together and thinned with some water to create a glaze (Claudia technique #2). I painted that over the whole piece then used a paper towel to wipe off most of it. I used Matte Gel Medium with a scraper to add the text transfer. Gel onto plaque, paper over gel, burnish well with scraper then peel off paper. I glued some words that I tore out of the same article. We had a series of 4 deaths in our small community right around Christmas and the community was really rocked. I had an article from our small town paper and used that for this piece. I didn't like how white the paper looked so I took my toweling from removing the glaze to dab some paint over the top. I saved the wand from a used up mascara and scraped some bronze paint around the piece. My tree is stamped on vellum in Stazon and colored with markers. I had intended to use the piece front side up, but ended up with it backwards to have more vibrancy from the colors since the bg piece was dark. Once I had the tree in place I started adding "stuff" to the piece: some rusty metal I picked up on a walk, dried hydrangea petals and a piece of dry wall mesh I'd used as a stencil previously. I did some more transfer to the sides and other "bare spots" at the end of my piece as I'd covered up a lot of the transfer with "stuff" I went back and added some of the original aqua color to lighten up some areas and I used a transparent brown gel on others to darken and add some shading. Step by step photos on my blog
Date: Friday, February 24, 2017 GMT Views: 714
Favorited:3
Registered: August 15, 2007 Location: Twin Cities MN Posts: 50398
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 @ 10:14 AM
This turned out really cool and I like how you tied the theme in to events in your community and your great message. Thanks for including the pictures of your process on your blog...always fun to see those. I loved the use of the mascara wand..good idea! And I have that same Claudine Hellmuth book She has some great MM techniques. Good job on the text transfer. I like all the repurposed items on your project, too. Thanks for playing along today Gail!
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Registered: July 27, 2007 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 131363
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 @ 11:23 AM
I always admire people who can get that tree to look good, I always struggle with it! I really like the collage elements you've added, especially the rusty scraps and petals. And the background looks great!
Registered: February 23, 2016 Location: El Paso, TX Posts: 22778
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 @ 2:25 PM
Rusty metal is a first for me but it surely grounds the tree so well. I can see the text transfer int he aqua bg but I also like that addition of the torn pieces in contrast. Love all the artistry you've achieve in this piece.
------------------------------ Linda aka Bubbles
I'm not a Hoarder . . . I'm the Curator of an extensive collection of embellishments!!
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