Arts & Crafts with Yarn

Katja Blum likes to find creative solutions for ugly or broken things around the house. Before branching out into collage and other paper arts about ten years agoshe had first started with yarn, fabric and papier mache. However she confirms that yarn is not just pretty; it is a ball or hank of raw artistic potential. One more thing about using yarn is that it would be making it and while spinning is one of her favourite activity Katja Blum spins more yarn than she could ever knit or weave up. It’s great fun to make the big, crazy, textured yarns that are commonly referred to as “art yarns”.

If you are a spinner, here is a tutorial for you to start making art yarn. You will need:

• Craft wire, 28-30 g
• Yarn
• A sturdy clamp or vise
• Fabric strips, paper strips, ribbons, beads, sequins – any embellishments that can be strung or spiked on your thin craft wire.

How to do it.

• Prepare the wire. A length of craft 28g craft wire is going to be the “spine” of your yarn.Yarn is made by twisting fibers, so that they for a long string and hold together.
• Paper strips are best spiked on the wire in a harmonica fashion for a firm hold, but with fabric and ribbon
• Secure the ends of your base yarn and wire in a heavy clamp or vise.
• Twist away. Make sure to twist in the same direction throughout.

If spinning is your thing, make as much yarn as you need and embellish to your heart’s content.

What is your Obsession?

icki has always been involved deeply in the creative arts is always focused on sharing her journey to art and how life events can shape us through creativity. She confirms to be a studio person by nature and finds more pleasure in figuring out all the ins and outs of a subject long before she experiments with it. Serious life changes back in 2002 pushed her to learn how to paint and instead of experimenting with watercolours, she studied the chemical formulas and what made some pigments play nice together and that some made mud.

After a lot of work her conclusion was that she hadn’t really crossed over to the dark side of crafting and she thought she could start art journaling as a means of technique experimentation for implementation in her ‘real’ art pieces. She spends hours making journals and she has to choose her materials very correctly otherwise she would not get the right product. She prides in being able to see books she has made earlier while experimenting using different watercolours.

She is into many aspects of art from professional soft crafts publications (knitting/crochet/needlework) to French Hand-sewing, stencilling to macramé, oil painting to encaustics. Whatever your leaning could be, she believes in the healing power of creating. The desire to grow and create is what has driven her into doing what she does now. Join the club and start crafting.

Water Colour Painting with Simple Materials

You will find a lot of Melanie Statnick style artwork in many art galleries and shops in NY as well as within international collections. Being a published artist, she creates art daily from her private studio and you could also get to learn more from her website http://www.melaniestatnickart.com.

One or the activities she loves most is watercolour painting on Old Paper Ephemera and this is how she does it:

Materials Required:

• Old papers from textbook and Paint Brush
• Pencil and Eraser
• Clear Gesso and Gel Medium
• Water Colors
• White uniball
• Micron
• Form Board

Step to follow include:

1. Cut foam board to 8×10 and while using gel medium, cover one side of old paper taking care to get each corner and the sides.
2. Flip glued side down to foam board and use brayer to roll flat and to get out any bubbles or folds in the paper.
3. After drying use the clear gesso to prep you surface to accept the watercolour. This will dry clear and leave a “tooth” texture to the paper that will feel somewhat like sand paper.
4. When the gesso is dry you can draw a boarder around your paper and begin to draw your pictures where and what you like.Go over your drawings with a micron pen and white gel pen before you add your watercolours.
5. Your drawings are ready for the watercolour. You can paint just your designs and leave the background plain or paint and splatter it all.

It’s all about creativity at its best.

Collage and Creativity

The key ingredients in the work of Elaine Brady Smith who loves creating encaustic and mixed media art include vintage papers and hand printed collage papers made with repetitive marks, simplistic shapes, and transparent layers.She attempts to give you a tutorial on adding Collage and imbedding objects.

Handmade papers such as Japanese mulberry, lace papers, your own handmade pulp papers, and other natural fiber handmade papers are perfect for encaustic collage.Tissue paper is a good and inexpensive alternative, whether it is white, coloured, or printed. You can build up many transparent layers with tissue paper and incorporate your own marks by drawing or writing on it.

• To pre-wax a piece of collage paper for the Tacking Iron Method, place the paper on your palette or griddle.
• Pick the paper up with a pair of tweezers, and allow excess wax to drip off.
• When the pre-waxed collage paper is cool, place it on the surface of your art. With a preheated tacking iron, gently iron the piece into place.he process of using the tacking iron automatically fuses the wax layers
• Once the wax cools, you can add more collage layers to your piece, overlapping them as you go.

On imbedding objects some objects to add might be buttons, game pieces, jewelry pieces, and natural plant materials.To add objects,

• Brush a small puddle of encaustic medium to the area on your art where you’d like to place the object.
• Dip your object into the encaustic medium and lay it on your hot palette to allow some of the excess wax to drip off.
• With a pair of tweezers, pick up the object and place it on the wax puddle on your surface.

There you have it!

Learning How to Make Min Art books

Martice Smith II stunning illustrations reveals her love for fashion, typography and wildlife while being able to use a combination of analogue and digital techniques. Below she brings to you a fun twist on the classic matchbook style design which she uses to create beautiful, miniature artbooks with a variety of decorative cardstock, sketchbook papers and a stapler.

Materials Required

• A variety of stamps
• Ruler and Pencil
• Stapler and Scissors.
• Bone folder
• Blank Sketchbook paper
• Cardstock or decorative papers

Steps to follow

• Cut the cardstock and sketchbook papers to size with the measurement for artbook cover being 4.5 inches long by 2 inches wide and Measurement for blank sketchbook paper: 2 inches by 2 inches.
• Fold up one edge with the decorative side facing down then fold up one of the edges about 1/2-inch.
• Gather the pieces of blank sketchbook paper and tuck them inside the fold.
• Staple the fold 1/4-inch up from the folded edge.
• Take the other end of the cover over the blank sketchbook paper and line it up with the bottom edge of the fold.Tuck this same edge under the 1/2-inch piece of stapled cardstock to form the matchbook-styled artbook.

It takes less than 30minutes to make one hence you can make so many at a time. This is easily achieved by use of imagine which brings out very unique shapes.  Lightweight paper works best for this project. Have fun creating.

Putting Poetry into a Creative End Product

Mixed Media Art has found a place in the heart of Leeanne Oschmanns as declares that a craving for harmony and balance in her creativity brought up the need to express her poetry in more than words. Merely drawing or painting a picture didn’t work because it was too stifling and usually limited the expressive elements to one aspect of the poem. However, the beauty of poetry is that it is many things and something different to each person and the same can be said of mixed media.

Since Mixed Media is versatile and diverse, the power of symbols and the beauty of texture and medium render a flexibility that is more difficult to achieve in styles of singular medium and subject. Sometimes a thought so profound that it should not pass can be symbolised and articulated with visual richness and subtle suggestion.  This is the single reason why she recently felt encouraged to contemplate the 100th anniversary of The Great War by burning only a single light, preferably a candle, in the darkness. She has this strong urge to express her thoughts.

It is referred to as the power of creativity by use of words.  Her passions include personal growth and understanding. However, people and animals complete her experience of what it is to be human. And being a poet is her way of shedding light on the things that seemed darkest or most beautiful. On the other hand the power of symbols and the beauty of texture and medium render a flexibility that is more difficult to achieve in styles of singular medium and subject.

Crafting in Different Situations

Ann StreckoKoeman enjoys many types of crafts and art making. She spends way too much time in waiting rooms, but is grateful for small size sketch books and mechanical pencils. She says such like challenges end up bringing great works while at the same time she acknowledges that Artists are human and not immune to facing challenges and crisis in their lives that can range from health, financial, family, work and a myriad of other difficulties. Surviving and thriving as an artist takes persistence, perseverance and preparedness.

She explains that with time and having had to haul around a diaper bag filled with everything she needed for her babies, she has also adopted the same idea of having her own activity bag to keep her busy while waiting around for her kids during their own obligations. By having a small project bag to keep her thoughts preoccupied for sure made the time go by faster but also alleviated any stress she was feeling. For example a sewing project and in a small baggie she has a dozen pre- cut fabric circles, and a small sewing kit which consists of some thread and needles. Any waiting time is for sewing up some fabric. She also has a pen and paper in her purse to jot anything down any time and to also sketch in case the waiting time is longer.

When you talk of being creative, sometimes it is the conversations going on around her that give her inspiration for an interesting quote to use in her art journals. She affirms that sketching relieves a tiny bit of stress from mind and body.

Using DecoArt Media Line Products on Mixed Media Canvas

Kathi F. Rerek who is a mixed media artist has been crafting for almost fourteen years and has been lucky to have served on several design teams. After receiving a package containing products from DecoArts’ new Media range she decided to try them out on a flat canvas.  This is what she did: –

• She started out by applying White Gesso to smooth out a bit of the canvas texture as well as cover up a rejected project.
• Mixing Primary Cyan, Titanium White, and Paynes Grey Media Fluid Acrylics (MFA) on a palette and sponging them onto the canvas.
• White Modelling Paste using Media Fluid Acrylics. She scooped out a palette-knife bladeful of the paste and blended a few drops of Primary Yellow MFA into it.
• Using a palette knife, she again scooped out some White Crackle Paint onto a palette and mixed in a few drops of Pthalo Green-Yellow MFA and Primary Yellow MFA.
• Adding colours but first Quinacridone Gold MFA was painted and allowed to dry.
• She scooped some of the paste onto a palette and added Burnt Ochre MFA and Transparent Yellow Oxide MFA to it, then used a palette knife to apply it to the base of the canvas.
• Pthalo Green-Yellow MFA and Interference Green MFA were combined and spritzed with water to thin it to a wash-like consistency.
• The last step was to combine Cobalt Turquoise MFA and Cobalt Blue MFA with some water to create a wash, which was brushed over the entire canvas.

Kathi applauds the performance of the products from DecoArt’s Media line and can’t wait to explore them further.

Making Jack O – Lanterns with Creative Paper Clay

Gloriann Irizarry love to sculpt and will never stop creating.Art has been a great way to be creative and to express herself.Seeing your creation take form is an awesome feeling because ART is so rewarding. According to her, it’s very easy to use household items like LED lamps to light. This is how you do it:

• Hunt down some LED battery operated lamps and take the LED lamp apart.
• Grab a pack of Creative Paper clay and roll the clay into a ¼ thick sheet and use the clay sheet to cover the top of the lamp
• Pinch the clay all around the top of the lamp and make sure you cut any excess out and smooth all the edges with water to make it easy to work with.
• To give your sculpt the smile you’re looking for grab a sewing needle and free hand cut the eyes, nose and mouth off while removing any excess paperclay.
• Grab the aluminium foil and sculpt a dress form which you Press, twist and turn until you are completely satisfied with the form.
• While you wait for the dress core to dry work on sculpting the face. Add a little more clay on the eyebrows, cheeks and jaw to create the shape you want. You can make if chunky or thinner is all up to you.
• Smooth the edges all around the head to make sure is all round a plump. This will give Jackie O Lantern the pumpkin look you are looking for.
• Don’t forget to give her a set of arms and let the whole thing dry.You are good to go.

There you have it. Happy creating!

Have you tried the Irresistible Pico Embellisher?

Melanie Statnick published artist/writer enjoys working with new products. However, even with her happy and whimsy style at some point she did not know what to do with an Imagine Craft irresistible Pico embellisher even with its precise tip applicator and the needle that inserts into it. But never the less as foreign as it was she still wanted to try it out.

She is a visual artist and has numerous ways of adding texture into art pieces. With her love of being detailed in her artwork, Pico embellisher tip will just be perfect. With the tip the embellisher has, there is an allowance for control and as one draws up a doodle on a piece of Bristol paper, you can easily make lines and dots thick or thin depending on the pressure of how you squeeze.

According to Melanie, Pico embellisher is irresistible and such an excellent tool for texture and more. With the verity of colours who know what your imagination will create. From her website, http://www.melaniestatnickart.com you can learn a lot and you can also find a lot of her artwork in art galleries and shops. From her private studio, she creates art daily. Creativity is within her blood and it is something she enjoys on a daily basis.