MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

And now - for something different

Today I was fed up with working on 'THE BOOK' and thought I'd try something creative to feed the brain cells something other than history.  If this publishes as it should, the left picture is part one and the right picture is the end result (shown stapled into my art journal....staples aren't part of the technique!).

Anyhow.....

I had fun, so thought I'd share what I did. 

You need:  a piece of card stock (I used white); gesso; a paint brush; a newspaper (I used the ad section); acrylic paint. 

I tore the newspaper into pieces being sure to remove any really black or any overly blank sections.  Then I painted a layer of gesso onto the card stock and placed the newsprint on top(while the gesso is still wet).  You can rub it down with your hands or a brayer.  Leave for 15-20 seconds and remove the newsprint.  If you leave it longer than that, the newspaper will stick and won't come off, which is what happened to me when I tried to cover the entire large piece of card at once.  I finally tried  just coating an area of the card with gesso and then applying a big enough piece of newspaper to cover the wet area and that worked much better.  If you are unhappy with any section, just reapply the gesso and newspaper. 

Allow to dry completely.  The final step was to water down some acrylic paint and 'goop' it on however you'd like.  I used three colours, one of which was a metallic gold.  This would make great backgrounds for atc's, postcards, or greeting cards. 

You can click on either picture to embiggen it!

11 comments:

  1. now that looks like real fun, but i'm a bit 'concerned' about "embiggen" it....lol...k.

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  2. Thanks, MA! I really like this technique and promise to try it on something creative in the future.

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  3. OOOO, i do like that--have to try on fabric! dreamy..........

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  4. Love that look MA! I will be using your technique. thanks for the tips.

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  5. Yeeh I can see it now--forget the e-mail that I sent you.
    I love the technique that you have used.

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  6. Same as Arlee, I think it would look great on fabric. Like the instructions. Very helpful.

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  7. Looks as though my first post didn't make it. So I'll repeat. I'm with Arlee on applying this technique to fabric. Like the good clear instructions you gave.

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  8. I love this idea. Must get me some gesso and try this when I get home. I liked both the black and white and the colored. Both would have a place in our artwork.

    Are you having your book published professionally? It must be wonderful to have family history from that far back.

    Hugs

    FredaB

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  9. Anonymous9:53 PM

    That's really pretty! And I like the buttons you're using.
    Diane

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  10. Very pretty - love the way the gold mixed with the purply-pink color - gorgeous!

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