Using What I Have!

It's easy to forget to take time to come up for air as I've been getting ready for Spring Fest this week (April 24th in Southern Pines, NC on Broad Street from 10-4pm)...well, truthfully, I've been preparing for  it almost all year.  I'm still not where I wanted to be.  You know how it is, you think you have so much time so you put things off....and put things off...until, oops, before you know it, it's the week before the dang show!  I can say, I'm in much better shape then I was last year so I decided to take a break and bring the studio outside this weekend and enjoy the weather.

I'm having a hard time figuring out this new blogger set up so forgive me if the post is a bit wonky!  Hmmmm maybe I ought to get back into blogging more regularly and it would be easier :)

Anywhoo...As I was creating some of my Sweet HeART blocks for the show, I decided to use some of my graffiti papers for the backgrounds for a few of the heart bases.   You could do this with really any of your painted papers as well. 

Here's a quick tutorial on how to make your own Graffiti Sweet HeARTS:

1) On 90-120 lb watercolor paper, create your own graffiti style papers, using stencils, spray paint, paint drips, paint splatters, funky lettering, and layers of paint.   Allow to dry between layers to get the best effect without muddying up your work.

 

2)  Cut papers  and add to a substrate of your choice

I used Masonite blocks cut and primed with a mixture

of black acrylic paint and black gesso to seal the substrate.  Use matte gel medium to adhere the cut papers to the blocks. **Use a brayer
over the paper to ensure the paper
is sealed to the
substrate.

3)Next, cut coordinating hearts out of scraps of your favorite paper.  Using more gel medium, adhere to the top of your blocks.  With a firm hand, brayer over the hearts to remove any air bubbles.







4) I have a file on my computer full of inspirational words that I've typed up at on time or another which I use for many of my projects.  I try to categorize them based on the project itself like "cool words, holiday
words, inspirational words"  Of course you can add found words from an old book but in my case, it's more time efficient to type up my own list of words.     Add your own words or phrases to your hearts with gel medium.


5) Using a soft charcoal pencil, shade around the inspiration word and around your heart.  Further distress   or add your own extra embellishments until you are satisfied with the look.

6)  Re touch the paint on your blocks around the edges and on the back side.  I like to mixe matte varnish in my black paint to finish the pieces. 
Once the paint is dry all over, I finish with a matte spray sealer.  This is necessary especially if you use charcoal.


I love experimenting with new things and I especially LOVE finding uses for my EXPERIMENTS!  Ummm, you know how us artist, collectors,and  hobbyists are. We sometimes are too creative for our own good (is there such a thing) and have piles of collections of painted papers, crafty experiments and so on that tend to add up over time.  Finding unique ways to actually USE what you've played with is icing on our creative cake :)

Hope you find a way to reuse, recycle, and repurpose some of your creations this week.  If you have, please share your link in the comments, we'd all love to see!