Sweet Valentine ATCs

I love the color pink. I love the heart shape. And lace ...and cherubs ...and vintage images, which pretty much makes creating valentines irresistible.

This year, one of my art groups, StencilClub, hosted a small art trade with a valentine theme. So, I create these sweet little Artist Trading Cards.

First, I took a sheet of watercolor paper, squeezed out magenta and white paint onto my teflon® craft mat, mixed up some delicious pink shades, and sponged the colors through some of my favorite StencilGirl and StencilClub designs.

After it was dry, I cut the stenciled paper (using a cutting mat and exacto knife) into 10 little pieces (2.5" x 3.5") for the ATC base. I decided to keep half of them without any more embellishment, and added lace and vintage images to the other half.

One of my "go to" sites is the Graphics Fairy. They have a huge and wonderful selection of all kinds of vintage images. Along with the Graphics Fairy images, I used a beautiful rose from Gwen Lafluer's website.

For all of the cards, I used sepia archival ink and a fingertip dauber (purchased at The Ink Pad NYC) to finish the edges and add to the vintage look. A happy accident was realizing that I could use a thin strip of the leftover paper, instead of ribbon, to thread through the eyelets on the lace.

For some of the images, I tore them and aged the paper with an ecru stain. I love the antique linen Tim Holtz distress stain, but it is not being made any more. A light tan watercolor or solution of coffee achieves the same effect. After aging the paper roses, angel, and vintage French postmarks, I again added sepia ink to the very edges.

To adhere the lace, flowers and hearts, I used either a glue stick or heavy gel medium.

Here's my set of ATCs...I wonder if my trade partner can guess which one will be landing in her mailbox?

Vintage Photos With Grunge and Bling

I have always loved vintage photos. After taking a course called "Radiant Rust" with Seth Apter at Ink Pad NYC a few months ago, I got addicted to the grunge effect, and love combining it with vintage photos to enhance the aged look of my art pieces. These two pieces use similar techniques and materials, and both honor my own parents, and turn old faded photos into keepsake artwork. 

On the left is the piece I call "Football Hero Circa 1936," and on the right is "1942 Wedding." Both pieces developed as I went along, rather than being carefully thought out and sketched in advance. 

During the Radiant Rust workshop, I had created a center piece that I didn't like at all. (Click here for my blogpost about the workshop.) Rather than trash the imperfect artwork and fine watercolor paper, I decided to paint over it and keep experimenting.

This was the painted, stamped center piece that I didn't like and decided to paint over.

After painting over the original artwork with Seth's chalk paints, I added some of my favorite stamps--a dragonfly and a Julie Balzer geometric--with radiant rust and patina oxide Baked Texture.

The dragonflies and geometric stamps didn't work with the painted background.

I didn't love it, so I added more texture with a woodblock stamp from Gwen Lafluer. It was better, but still needed something more.

A little rust baked texture powder was added to the background.

One of Gwen's carved wooden stamps was added around the edges with rust baked texture.

I thought a steampunk image look might be cool with the rusty grunge effect, so I set to work with a few steampunk stencils. This time, I used an olive green embossing powder that I had on hand.

The olive embossing powder didn't work with the background, so it was covered with chalk paints.

It was pretty much a disaster. The olive was hideous, so I  painted over sections with the chalk paint and cheesecloth, and eventually ended up with a rusty, grungy background that I liked.

Eventually the color and texture looked just right.

The football hero photo was "auditioned" on another grungy background, which was later used in the "1942 Wedding" piece.

I was working on a few backgrounds at the same time. I auditioned a photo reprint of my father in his football uniform on one of the other backgrounds; I liked the effect. He was born in 1918 and the photo was taken in high school, so it is probably from 1936. He had been the quarterback for his team--what a difference from today's uniforms!

My father loved to read, so I found some old dictionary pages and tore them to give a frame effect. To go with the grungy idea, I decided to use distress stain to age the paper.

A frame effect was created around the photo with torn vintage dictionary pages.

The distressed paper frame looked good, but the piece still needed more.

A little more distress ink was added to the paper, as well as some extra rust baked texture.

The final touch was trying some baked texture Beeswax over the photo and dictionary paper.

 I was really happy with the final piece. The beeswax baked texture united the background and foreground, and added to the aged effect.

For the 1942 Wedding piece, I used one of the grunge backgrounds that I had considered for the Football Hero. The wedding photo contrasted nicely with the grungy background, but I knew it needed more. I auditioned a lot of elements until I found just the right combination.

A piece of sari scrap was just the right color for the background.

Sheer lace added contrast with the earth-toned background and sari scrap.

I liked the idea of lace with some of Gwen's Sari Scraps from the online shop. The colors were great with the grungy background and they added a nice contrast. I set about carefully cutting some coffee-colored silk and beaded medallions. 

I also decided that rather than pasting the photo on top of the background, I would cut out a center section and use the grungy background as a frame. Not only did this add depth, I also ended up with a nice little piece of the grungy background for later use in another project.

On the back of the background, I carefully measured and marked before cutting the frame.

The photo was mounted on some heavy, smooth paper before placing the frame over it.

I used some ink and a dabber tool around the edge of the cut-out center to give a more finished, professional look.

A small piece of the background was cut out, and the photo inserted.

The hard part was deciding on exactly how many medallions to use, where to place them, how much and what kind of lace to use, and how to arrange it all so it didn't look too busy or too stagnant.

Audition 1

Audition 2

Audition 3

Audition 4

Audition 5

Audition 6

Audition 7

Audition  8

Audition 9

Audition 10

I finally decided on an arrangement, and set about adhering the elements. I used a gluestick for the lace, and heavy gel medium for the Sari Silk scrap medallions. The gluestick went on purple, which is great because it shows where the glue is and is not, but it dries clear.

Just before the glue had dried, I decided I didn't love Audition 10, so I added some triangular shapes of lace at the top and bottom, which kept the design from being too square and boring.

The final "1942 Wedding" artwork.

The football hero of 1936 became a groom in 1942, and later a WWII hero, receiving a Purple Heart medal.

I just may get orders for a bunch of these from my extended family--my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews all love the family history and vintage photos.  But, even if I do make a few more, each one will be unique, depending on which colors of paint, embossing powder, lace, trim or sari scraps that I decide to use.

Love is in the Air

Valentine's Day brings out the little kid in me, with memories of small, inexpensive valentines exchanged between elementary classmates, eating teeny heart-shaped candy stamped with romantic words, and making elaborate heart shaped valentines trimmed with paper lace for my parents.

Seeing the new rag paper hearts on Gwen Lafluer's website brought out my inner artsy-crafty kid. They were in several shades of pink, and pretty all by themselves, but I knew I wanted to embellish them. After all, Valentines are meant to be over-the-top and schmaltzy, aren't they?

Lots of new supplies recently arrived. I used the new stencil, pink hearts and scrap cherubs
and flowers for this year's valentines.

I got to work mixing up shades of pink, and sponged various stencils onto the paper hearts. I found that some of the designs that I didn't expect to work, such as the deco series, looked wonderful on the paper hearts. I started out carefully, but as I got into the creative groove, I began mixing and matching stencils and colors and working on several hearts at the same time. And I got a little sloppy, but I covered any blobs and misprints with other stencils. I also knew that I would be adding cherubs, lace and words and some of the mistakes wouldn't show.

White acrylic was sponged through the Ornamental Petals Mask stencil onto a pink heart.

A Deco Border looked surprisingly good on the hearts, and covered up some blobs of paint that
leaked out when I printed the Ornamental Petals.

On a mauve heart, a pink Decorative Folk Flower looked just right.

The Ornamental Petals Screen looked good with shades of pink on a mauve heart.

The Ornamental Petals Screen was carefully lined up with the point of the heart before printing.

The Deco Border has a 1960s look when used with pink paint on a peach heart.

Here the Decorative Medallion stencil was applied in light pink on a mauve heart.

This valentine has a peach paper base, with the Deco Border and Decorative Medallion stencils. The white blobby misprint didn't matter once the center hearts and wings were added.

The stenciled paper hearts could have been left un-embellished, but what's a Valentine
without words, or cherubs or flowers or lace?

When I finished, they looked good. However, my inner child cried, "More, more, more!" So, the next step was adding some scrap cherubs and flowers. And some lace. And yarn. And decorative brads. And little hearts.

So I pulled out my boxes and bins and rifled through my stash of ribbon, trim, brads, buttons and lace looking for things that said "valentine." I "auditioned" different arrangements to find the right harmony of color and design.

My work table...creative chaos!

"Auditioning" various elements to see which to place where.

One thing I particularly wanted to use was some handspun yarn created by Artist Tribe member Lynda Shoup. I found a valentine in just the right shade of pink to harmonize with her yarn, and decided to stitch it along the edge.

The beautiful, hand-spun pink yarn matched the paint nicely.

An awl was used to punch holes, then the yarn was carefully threaded through.

After the yarn had been threaded through, I added white Nuvo Drops between each stitch.

I had carefully trimmed the excess paper away from my scrap cherub and floral bouquets. I also decided it was the perfect time to use some pink and white covered brads that I had been hoarding for about 10 years.

Fabric covered brads were placed along the edges of one valentine. The placement was planned on the back of the valentine, and an awl was used to poke the holes.

I had a rusted folk-art heart that went on one valentine, but I traced around it and cut several paper hearts from scraps of pink painted cardstock.

An elongated metal folk-art heart was the template for some pink paper hearts.

They still needed words, so I stamped "be mine" and "love" on some pink paper. I also used pink Nuvo Drops for dimensional interest and hand-wrote the word "love" on one piece with the pink Nuvo Drop dispenser tip. On another, I used a small floral punch to create peach daisies, and used pink mini brads as the center, then decorated the edges of a pinkish heart. They circled around the rusted heart, to which I added some whimsical mini wings.

This valentine had a border made of punched paper flowers with a mini brad center.

Here are the final valentines...now I just need to decide who to send them to!

In February, many of the Gwen Lafluer Artist Tribe are showcasing creations that honor Chinese New Year. You can check out their work here, and also save 15% on any of the items in the Exotic Orient section of the website with the coupon below.