Dimensional Die Cutting

Happy to have a guest post on the Spellbinders blog talking about techniques to create dimensional die cuts.

It's all about the layers...

4 New Video Workshops

I am thrilled to announce that my 4 new workshop videos from North Light Media are now available as either immediate downloads or DVDs.

Card Play: Mixed-Media Techniques for Small Works of Art

based on my 52 Card Pickup live workshop

Interweave online shop: immediate download or DVD

my online shop: DVD

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Seth Apter's Top 10 Collage Principles

based on my Collage Camp live workshop

Interweave online shop: immediate download or DVD

my online shop: DVD

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 Photo Play: Techniques for Altering Photos with Paint and Ink

based on my Photo Op live workshop

Interweave online shop: immediate download or DVD

my online shop: DVD

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The Altered Book: 10 Mixed-Media Techniques 

based on my For Your Eyes Only live workshop

Interweave online shop: immediate download or DVD

my online shop: DVD

Happy viewing!

New DVD 4: The Altered Book

Based on my For Your Eyes Only live workshop, The Altered Book: 10 Mixed-Media Techniques contains 95-minutes of instruction on all things book making.

You will learn to make a handmade book from scratch using repurposed book covers and paper. This is a no-sew binding that allows you to bind single sheets into what appears to be a traditional bound book. You will see how to make a binding bar that is the basis for the book and create multiple interactive pages with doors, windows, flaps, and more. I will demonstrate a paper quilting technique to add a dynamic and complex background to your pages and also talk about using dimensional objects to embellish your cover. This class is suitable for both beginning and more seasoned book artists.

Here is a preview...

This is available now as an immediate download or you can preorder the DVD at the Interweave online shop. It will soon be available via my website shop, through other online shops, and at a store near you.

And check out this (very) short preview of all 4 of my new DVDs

New DVD 3: Photo Play

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

Take your photos out of your phone and take them to a new level. This workshop introduces a series of subtractive techniques to prepare the surface of you photographs and add texture and pattern to the images. This is followed by demonstrations of additive techniques, where we hand-color our photos using watercolor paints, dye inks, and water-based pens and markers. The focus then shifts to integrating these photos into your art. After an introduction in how to create and alter die cuts, we put it all together by creating a dimensional and layered journal page where your photo is the star.

Here is a preview...

This is available now as an immediate download or you can preorder the DVD at the Interweave online shop. It will soon be available via my website shop, through other online shops, and at a store near you.

And check out this (very) short preview of all 4 of my new DVDs

New DVD 2: Top 10 Collage Principles

Based on my Collage Camp live workshop, Seth Apter's Top 10 Collage Principles, this video is 119 minutes long and filled with ideas and techniques for your collage and other mixed-media work.

In this workshop I share 10 principles to bring your collage to the next level and help you move forward if you feel stuck while creating. We start by creating a reference manual complete with 10 mini-collages, each of which demonstrates one of the core principles. Next you will learn a fun, layered painting technique to create unique background for your collage. All the steps are put together as we then create a collage together and review finishing touches to further enhance your artwork.

Here is a preview...

This is available now as an immediate download or you can preorder the DVD at the Interweave online shop. It will soon be available via my website shop, through other online shops, and at a store near you.

And check out this (very) short preview of all 4 of my new DVDs

New DVD 1: Card Play

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

In this workshop, I will demonstrate how to turn a deck of playing cards in to a year-long art journal. You will learn, step-by-step, a series of mixed-media layering techniques involving gesso, paint, ink, stamping, stenciling, collaging and more. The focus is on creating dynamic layers, loosening up, and creating without thinking. With Card Play, you will always be dealt a winning hand.

This is available now as an immediate download or you can preorder the DVD at the Interweave online shop. It will soon be available via my website shop, through other online shops, and at a store near you.

Here is a (very) short preview of all 4 of my new videos

The Pulse 2016: Week 3

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday and see all previous posts in the series here.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Jacki Long

Paper and junk mail. I can almost salivate over papers. Whether using glue sticks in journals or gel medium... I can't live without papers.

Jade Herriman

Water soluble crayons from Caran d'Ache. Sometimes I use them to create a wash of colour, sometimes to add bold opaque colour over another background. I love the way I can use them over rough surfaces to create great texture.

Shelby Pizzarro

Paper weaving within my collage work is the technique I can't live without. The physical weaving process is meditative. Using this technique, I can relax into the piece and allow the found objects to truly speak and guide my work.

Barbara Bytwerk

I have an endless supply of cheap paperer painting, experimenting, cutting, ripping... anything that I want to try. My painted pages often get cut into shapes that I use when I make cards. I flip the paper over, draw shapes on the back and cut them out. This "cutting blind" prevents me from just using the best parts of my decorated paper.

Jo Myhill

The technique has to be distress, the build-up of layers to show age and decay, either with subtle soft colours that remind you of faded wallpaper or heavy rust colours and textures. All of which have to be touched!

Annette Bouchey 

Old books, covers from these books and pages for altering books, making journals and assemblages on boxes.

The Pulse 2016: Week 3

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday and see all previous posts in the series here.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Debi Adams

The best tool for me ever is just a plain pencil...with an eraser. I can take it anywhere, the cost is small, rewards are huge and unlike life, I can erase anything I don't like ;-) It takes me to a happy, creative place at any moment, from my home to a world far away. It is silent, causes no confusion (except for the artist), has no political agenda and its results can bring a smile to recipient as well as the creator.

Raylee Syrch

The tool I like to use to create texture in some of my paintings is the palette knife.

Jacqueline Quinn

This took some consideration, wondered if it would be my beloved printing press...but it's not...it's Brusho and pastry brushes, which make interesting marks. All that money I've spent on fancy products and the humble pastry brush and powdered watercolour win the day.

Marjie Kemper

My favorite technique and tool go hand-and-hand, as I love blending colors using an ink blending tool. I like saturating the foam on the blending tool and building up layers of colors on my projects, and I've not found a better way to do it than this tool from Tim Holtz/Ranger.

Candi Harris

My metallic paint/mica flakes which I mix with soft gloss gel to use as paint. I love the soft sheen and glitter it imparts and the depth it adds to whatever I am working on. I especially love using the gold or the bronze around the edges and into the corner of a painting to give the piece a dreamy quality. 

Claudia Neubacher

Stencils. To me stencils are so much more than just a means to add random shapes, decorative texture or patterns to projects - I love to layer with them to create sceneries, add words or numerals, or simply use them as a kick off means if inspiration fails to strike. Scraping paints or pastes with a palette knife through a stencil onto a substrate is a technique I turn to when in need of some creative me-time but without a precise project in mind. I also love to use the negative left over shapes from die cutting as stencils. I love that moment when I lift a stencil to find out if I succeeded in creating the wished for effect.

The Pulse 2016: Week 2

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Annie Coe

Venetian plaster. I discovered it about 9 years ago and never looked back. There are a few other tools that I love but this tops the list.

Sue Marrazzo

Palette knives. I use them to mix and blend paints, mediums and more. I build up texture in layers and use them as mark makers in my mixed media work.

Janice Paine Dawes

Stitch. Stitch can be a mark making device, it can hold layers together to be an embellishment. Stitch can be real by the use of thread or implied by painting/drawing.

Kathy Fritz

My awl. As a compulsive bookbinder, I get the shakes if I do not have it by my side and at the ready. You can make a book with just about any materials but when it comes to binding, if you don't have the useful awl, forget it. It is not the prettiest of crafting tools, but it is tops in my book.

Darlene Campbell

Watercolors. I must use watercolors everyday in a wash, glazing or wet on wet techniques. This process also includes line quality with black ink.

Nancy Lefko

Clearsnaps ColorBox Fluid Chalk Inks - specifically their Cat's Eyes. Seriously I dread the day they decide to stop making them. I use them on virtually every piece on the outside edge, as a frame; to distress or add a touch of color to cut out text; and always with stencils. It is my go-to ink.

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If you would like to be a participant in The Pulse, please email me (shap97@gmail.com) the following:

1. Your response (which I might need to edit to keep all answers relatively consistent in length)

2. ONE photo that somehow relates to your answer

3. A link to ONE of your online sites

If you would like more Pulse, check out my books from North Light Media: The Pulse of Mixed Media and The Mixed Media Artist.

The Pulse 2016: Week 1

 

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Pulse - a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, further your own artistic expression, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. Stay tuned for a new post every Wednesday.

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What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

Amy Duncan

My diluted Elmers glue solution applied with my simple chip brush. I like using Elmers diluted with just a little bit of water when I am working on my collage pieces. It stays wet for awhile so you have a little flexibility in moving bits around. You don't get any bubbles/creases/burps. And I love the fact that it is so affordable.

Deborah Guthrie

My wooden honey dipper. I love line work in my art and I also love a loose approach to the desired line work and my work in general. When dipped in paint and used as a drawing tool, the honey dipper will give me uncontrolled results which are so often exactly what I am looking for.

Rachel Stewart 

My dental tool set I bought from Harbor Freight for less than a dollar! I use them in every line of work I do. I pull bubbles out of resin with them. I ream beads with them. I use them to create textures in polymer clay. They are great for positioning and moving around tiny collage parts. And I use them for making marks in wet paint as well. 

Gwen Lafleur

Stencils. For years they have been my go-to-tool for adding pattern, texture, depth, dimension, and more to my work. I've used them for everything from creating simple patterned paper to to making the base for an armature for a sculpture. They can hide in the background and layers of my work so you don't even know they're there, or create a fantastic foreground or focal point. I love that you can stencil with all or part of them, use them with nearly any medium, or completely change the look by m,modifying the application method.

Kim Henkel

My stamp carving tool. I carve  - usually from erasers - quite rustic, simplistic designs that I often use in combination with other bits and pieces in my creative work. I love being able to use my hand carved stamps rather than always using stamps I have purchased as it puts more of "me" into the final piece. A package of erasers, a carving tool, and a bit of time is all that is needed to get started.

Cindy Chinn

My X-acto knife. I have about 20 of them, one in every studio, room, car, a couple on my counter where I set the things from the day that I forgot to put away, right next to my collections of small tape measures that were left in my pocket. I use an X-acto knife in every medium I work in. To carve pencil, to weed vinyl, to trim a paper pattern, to open that box of art supplies that just arrived, it is endless! I have many different blade styles but I prefer the #16 for most things. 

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If you would like to be a participant in The Pulse, please email me (shap97@gmail.com) the following:

1. Your response (which I might need to edit to keep all answers relatively consistent in length)

2. ONE photo that somehow relates to your answer

3. A link to ONE of your online sites

If you would like more Pulse, check out my books from North Light Media: The Pulse of Mixed Media and The Mixed Media Artist.

Reviving the Pulse

If you have been a long time follower of my blog, you might remember The Pulse. If you are a relative newcomer...keep on reading.

Between 2008 and 2013, I hosted an online collaboration called The Pulse where I posed questions to creatives and posted their answers on my blog. At its peak, there were more than 150 participants. There were 5 online versions and the project was the basis for my two books.

Like everything else on the Internet, things live forever. All the responses are still posted and links can be found on my blog -- scroll down towards the bottom of the sidebar and plan to stay awhile.

With the decline of long form blogging in recent years, I have thought long and hard about ways to bring traditional blogs back to life. The most basic answer in my mind is to provide must-see content. With that in mind, it feels like the right time to bring back The Pulse to life.

With very limited time on my hands though, I am going to start small with one question:

What is the one technique or tool that you cannot live without?

If you would like to be a participant, please email me (shap97@gmail.com) the following:

1. Your response (which I might need to edit to keep all answers relatively consistent in length)

2. ONE photo that somehow relates to your answer

3. A link to ONE of your online sites

In the post, I may also be adding a link of my own choosing - could be to a video, a tutorial, a product, a piece of art, another post, or something unexpected. The participant will not know what the link is until my post goes live.

If you want to play, please email me the requested info by March 1. If there is a big enough response, there will be rolling submissions until the well runs dry.

Please help to spread the word and let's get this party started!

The Pulse: Medium Well 3

Welcome to the third edition of The Pulse: an artist survey. This collaborative project aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. For links to the sites of the participating artists, please click here.


Today's question: If you could work in one medium or format that you haven't yet tried, tell us what it would be and why. The following is the third of four posts to answer this question.


Lisa Hoffman I’d get up on a scaffolding and paint the broad side of a barn. I love seeing Big, Brave work from other artists. Maybe I’ve worked in a smallish format for too long. I just wanna go Big, Bigger, Biggest.

Harry Bell Although I've been interested in it for years, I've never used collage as a complete medium. One of my early heroes was Max Ernst who always maintained that he never knew what he was going to produce when he started to work. I'd love to learn to really embrace that uncertainty. But if I had to choose something more radical, then it would be electronic music, mashups, ambient, sound collage, that kind of thing.

Mary Buek I have tried just about everything at least once. I would like to learn more about jewelry making utilizing random found objects. I would also love to learn about print-making. Two things that fascinate me, but I don't think I would ever really try, are pottery (love the sensuousness of that clay and shaping with the wheel) and working with glass.

Jen Bradford Did a little printmaking in school, and would love to get a small press at some point and get back to intaglio, woodblock, monotypes - processes that don't require me to set up chemical baths which make me nervous. Unfortunately I am one of those people who thinks everything is liable to explode or catch fire at any moment, so I have tended to do faux-processes, like using wax medium versus real encaustic. It would probably be great if I did a residency somewhere and used their equipment, so I could just relax about that angle and experiment.

not mass produced plastic encrusted with diamonds

Gwen Buchanan Probably printmaking, or glass fusing.. Life isn't long enough.. I want to try them all.. I find all art forms and methods relate to each other.. and the way they interpret in each field inspires me.

Fran Meneley I would like to try my hand at abstract painting. I’d like to take a chance and work bigger and this is something I have never tried. It scares me a little. It’s so unknown. I want to always challenge myself and see where I can go in finding my own voice.

Sarah Fishburn Gosh, it's difficult to narrow down. Plus, I've actually worked a little in many mediums. Okay, fine. Not sure what this is called, but I like the idea of embedding photographic images and my collage/paintings in altered acrylic. . . is there a name for that? Can someone please show me how to do it???

Gillian McMurry I have tried every medium and format that I want to - so far. Over time new ones come to the fore and I try the ones I want. I never deny myself the desire to try new arts and crafts. Due to circumstances I have been denied or, in some cases, denied myself a variety of things but my art is one place I will not compromise. It does not hurt anyone (except for myself when I am let loose with a heat gun - I accidentally burned myself again this week) nor interfere with anyone else. It's all mine!

Roxanne Stout If I could learn about and work in another medium in would be encaustic painting. The layering sounds and looks amazing and somehow mysterious to me. I would also love to learn how to put my rusty pieces of metal into my art more often and in different ways. I have done some of this, but want to do more.

Sarah Whitmire I’ve worked in beeswax quite a lot but someday I’d love to invest in a professional Encaustic set and try my hand at that.

Cynthia Gaub For many years I have wanted to create art in the medium of Stained Glass. My glass window collage series was aiming to have the transparency and feeling of stained glass. Many of the pieces look wonderful with light shinning behind them. I like the compartmentalized look of stained glass and have even tried to translate that idea into fabric.

Deryn Mentock I've dabbled in a lot of different mediums; stained glass, pottery, painting, sewing...lots of others. One thing I'd like to try that I've never even dabbled in is lampwork bead making. I love glass work and the colors in lampwork beads are gorgeous. The process, using the torch and glass rods, just looks like fun!

Vivian Bonder I would love to work with silver, the banging of the hammer and shaping of the metal simply appeal to me.

Lelainia Lloyd I would love to become more adept at painting, or at least at incorporating paint into my work. I've dabbled around the edges of it, taken a few classes, but I know I have tons more to learn. Working with paint makes me feel free and happy. I love moving it around on the on canvass, mixing the colours and playing with the layers. I can completely lose track of time when I am experimenting with paint.

Leslie Marsh I would love to learn more about working with encaustics. The layered, multi-textured surfaces that so many capture are very appealing to me.
Paul Sears I'd love to learn more about painting or drawing. I've really never had the hand/eye coordination. Even my penmanship is bad!

Patty Szymkowicz Painting with oils or watercolors is something I have wanted to try. As I am a seat of the pants artist, with no formal training, I guess I would be curious what I might tap into….

Kelly Parker I would like to work on very large canvases (at least 30” by 40” or larger) to create oil paintings that are bright colorful landscapes that would envelope the viewer and make them feel as though they were standing in that particular landscape.

Maralena Howard Encaustic is very interesting. I really like the rich coated way the finished pieces look. Right now I do some faux encaustics with acrylics rather than the wax… but I so admire the actual art of encaustic.

Lisa Dalke Probably building something large from wood...why?...I think it would feel good in my hands & arms

Kate Strickland A format or medium that I haven’t tried yet? Technically this is cheating, because I did try it once in art school briefly, but something that I’ve been yearning to do lately is raising and planishing metal. In my limited experience with silver one of the things I love doing is hammering it (the other is melting it with a torch!). I find this to be very satisfying and somewhat therapeutic. And, considering that everything I make seems to end up as a nest or some kind of a vessel, learning how to do bowl shapes in metal makes sense to me.

Jen Worden I'd love to be able to weld. I want to create large pieces - garden pieces - that can withstand the elements with some of the large rusty detritus from our farm's old junk piles. Some day...

Sue Pieper Fabric! Even though my mother does professional seamstress work, & my paternal grandmother made her living as a seamstress, the genes from both sides seemed to skip right past me! I love everything about fabric & fiber arts, but still I'm "fabric impaired" and how to use it totally eludes me. Maybe in my next life----