Downloadable Collage Elements

As part of being the artist of the month for July at Cloth Paper Scissors...

I am offering downloadable, resizable and printable collage elements, each of which comes from a recent piece of my artwork. 

They are available free here. And if you use them, I would love for you to share the results with me.

5 Principles of Collage

I love collage. It is accessible, enjoyable and just plain fun. I look at collage as taking bits and pieces that do not belong together and using them to create a cohesive whole. By that definition, it is almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I say almost because the pieces are not typically created to fit together, and in that lies the challenge. I often tell participants in my workshops that it is easy to make a collage. But it isn't easy to create a good one.

In my video workshop Seth Apter's Top 10 Collage Principles, I outline 10 approaches to collage to help guide artists to a more satisfying result. These are ideas to consider ion you are a beginner, a seasoned pro who is struggling with completing an individual piece, or if you find yourself in a dreaded artist block.

As Artist of the Month for July at Cloth Paper Scissors, I have written a guest post here on the CPS blog outlining 5 of the 10 principles and sharing an extra tip for each. Check out the post to read about Overlapping, Outlining, Repeating, Contrasting, and Guiding. 

And until the end if July, you can save 30% off this video workshop as well as all my other media products at Interweave.

Artist of the Month for July

Thrilled to be the artist of the month for July at Cloth Paper Scissors. 

I will be sharing blog posts and downloadable art images throughout the month to celebrate.

And...for the entire month, you can take 30% off my products in the Interweave shop. These include my workshop downloads, my webinar, the download of my book The Mixed Media Artist, and more.

Thanks to Cloth Paper Scissors...and to all of you for your support.

Make it Your Own: 24

For the last several years, I have begun to collaborate with a number of companies to develop a collection of products to be used by artists and crafters. It has been important to me to create products that work together, even when they are coming from different companies. That way, when you add to your collection with one of my new releases, you can actually use these new items seamlessly with the old. I recently came across two different works of art, both by Debi Adams, which illustrate this concept perfectly.

Debi's first piece, featured in this post on her blog, is pure mixed media magic and beautifully illustrates how my collections from different companies work together.

Debi included my stencils from StencilGirl Products, my dies from Spellbinders, my stamps from Impression Obsession, and my paint from PaperArtsy.

Truly in love with the color palette and all that grungy surface texture...

And all the little details and marks that are part of Debi's signature style. 

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The second piece was just published in the current January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

In this mixed media masterpiece, Debi uses my dies from Spellbinders, my stamps from Impression Obsession, my stencils from StencilGirl Products and my paints from PaperArtsy.

I swear this frame looks like distressed metal rather than painted paper.

And these paper die cuts look just like metal with the perfect patina.

One of the coolest aspects of this artwork is that it is an interactive pop-up. Debi shares step-by-step how she made this in Cloth Paper Scissors and you can easily use her instructions to make your own unique mixed media pop-up.

BTW, a big congrats to Debi who has her studio featured in the Studio Spotlight section of the same issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.

Possibiity

I have never been one to choose a word for the year, although I have often been drawn to words that other people have selected. I see 2108 as a time of change and so this year, I decided to go for it and make a choice. I thought about the word Change but in the end I selected the word Possibility.

I chose Possibility because this year is all about being open to any and every possibility that comes my way. 

In many ways this will be a year of transition for me in my creative life, and as such it is even more important to see all things as options. 

On the notion that anything is possible, I am thrilled to start this new year with this piece being featured in the January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.

Cloth Paper Scissors

Gift Giving and Receiving

The Do's and Dont's of Handmade Gifts.

"Every year, as the holiday season approaches, my thoughts turn to gift giving... This got me thinking about the hows and whys and the dos and don'ts of giving handmade gifts. Why do people give handmade gifts in the first place? Does the giver have different expectations of the recipient when the gift is handmade? Are these handcrafted gifts appreciated by the receiver, or do they somehow add an extra burden or level of obligation that might not be appreciated?"

Read the entire article here on the Cloth Paper Scissors blog.

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Have you ever given and/or received a handmade gift? Share your thoughts in the comments about your experience.

Technique Tutorial

I love handmade books. Travel journals and artist books are among my favorite. But I will put just about anything in between two book covers. Here I am sharing a manual of techniques that I created to keep track of some of my go-to approaches to mixed media.

The book was created using one of my most favorite book binding techniques. It is simple, requires no stitching, and allows you to bind single sheets of paper rather than folded book signatures. A person who has never bound a book can easily make this one happen.

Today on the Cloth Paper Scissors blog, you can see and follow a full step-by-step tutorial on how to make this book binding. You can also watch the process unfold in my video workshop The Altered Book, available on DVD or as a downloadable video.

Check out the pages from my techniques manual below...

Translucent Layering

Acrylic paint has multiple properties, both within and across brands. When we're choosing which paints to use for a project, most of us typically base the decision on color. My go-to palettes are usually blues or browns. To take your mixed-media work to the next level, you can also consider the level of transparency and opacity of your paint.

Happy to have a post on the Cloth Paper Scissors blog that focuses on using transparent paint in your mixed media layering and shares a step-by-step tutorial with images on how I add translucent paint to my work to create complex, dimensional surfaces. It is a favorite technique and one of 10 that I share on my new DVD/downloadable video workshop 10 Techniques for Creating Layers in Mixed Media.

Cloth Paper Scissors: Down Under

The July/August issue of Cloth Paper Scissors is all about artful travel and journaling on the go.

 Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine at North Light Shop

One of the articles is all about the 2016 trip to Australia taken by the Art is You Down Under Road Show.

This special 6-page feature includes personal memories and photos from my traveling mates Michael deMeng, Kecia Deveney, Andrea Matus deMeng, John Creighton Peterson and myself. 

Looking like an art journal itself, this article sums up why connecting with a group of artists can be life-changing.

Time to (Card and Photo) Play

I am excited to share that 2 of the Top Ten products from 2016 in the Cloth Paper Scissors/North Light Media shop were my workshop videos. These are fun workshops, available as immediate downloads or actual DVDs. Each one has a "student" taking the workshop, making it much more real, interactive and interesting.

Based on my 52 Card Pickup live workshop, Card Play: Mixed-Media Techniques for Small Works of Art is 96 minutes of creative fun.

Have a peek below...

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Based on my Photo Op/Cutting Room Floor live workshops, Photo Play: Techniques for Altering Photos with Paint and Ink, this video is filled with 91 minutes of artful techniques.

Here is a preview...

More information can be found in the North Light Shop, where both workshops can be ordered (along with the other Top 10 products) as DVDs or immediate downloads at a special price.

Embrace Mistakes

Creativity is stifled when a person approaches any creative endeavor with a fear of doing something wrong. Options are removed and possibilities are taken away. There have been times when I have felt too intimidated by the fear of ruining a piece of art to allow myself to move on, though I knew the artwork was incomplete. This fear can sometimes hold me back from pushing my creative boundaries and stepping outside my comfort zone, which in turn can keep me from taking my art to the next level... Art is all about risk. Creativity should not be bound. Once you embrace mistakes, the door swings open and the possibilities are endless.

Excerpt from my The Creative Pulse column in March/April 2015 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and one of ten tips for finding inspiration recently featured on the Artist's Network website.

Read more, along with other tips from Roxanne Evans Stout, Dina Wakley, Crystal Neubauer, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and many other artists here.

Handmade Gifts

My column The Creative Pulse in the November/December issue of Cloth Paper Scissors is entitled The Do's and Dont's of Handmade Gifts.

"Every year, as the holiday season approaches, my thoughts turn to gift giving... This got me thinking about the hows and whys and the dos and don'ts of giving handmade gifts. Why do people give handmade gifts in the first place? Does the giver have different expectations of the recipient when the gift is handmade? Are these handcrafted gifts appreciated by the receiver, or do they somehow add an extra burden or level of obligation that might not be appreciated?"

Read the entire column here online. 

Have you ever given and/or received a handmade gift? Share your thoughts in the comments about your experience.

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This is my last column in Cloth Paper Scissors. It has been a wonderful 2 years and 12 columns and I thank Jeannine Stein and Barbara Delaney for the opportunity and all their help. 

For those of you who may have missed some of the earlier columns, Interweave has put together a digital compilation called Art Inspiration: Advice and Support for the Creative Life that includes 6 of my columns from 2015/2016, 6 columns from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and 4 additional essays from a variety of artists. 

My columns include: 

Own Your Own Voice

Embrace Mistakes

An Artist's Calling

Rejection Correction

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

The Benefits of Art Journaling

Book Binding Tutorial

In the September/October issue of Cloth Paper Scissors, I share a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a book from scratch so that you can bind single sheets of paper (rather than folded signatures).

The theme of the issue is Books with a Purpose and the sample I created is a compendium of mixed media techniques. 

The article describes and illustrates, step-by-step, how to put together the structure of this book.

Index/Rubber Stamping

Stenciling/Embossing

Texting/Collage

Gesso Resist/Die Cutting

White Space/Altered Photo

Textiling/Metallics

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If you are unable to get a copy of the magazine or prefer video, this is the same technique that is featured on my video The Altered Book from Interweave. It is available as an immediate download or DVD.