Challenges!

A wonderfully artful Yahoo group which I belong to is "embroiled" in a series of background challenges from our creative genious, Trish Bayley.

Shining Stones:
The first one is a relatively simple but effective background. Dye ink is brayered on glossy CS and set aside to dry. A paste is made with water and Perfect Pearls, then the CS is spritzed with water. The paste is applied, spritzed again with water, and finally "smooshed" with a paper towel. The results are beautiful which, unfortunately, don't totally show up very well in the scan. Here are two samples I made. I also tried it on black glossy as well as red. Here is a link to directions and more samples: http://trishbee.co.uk/?p=309

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Faux Chipboard:

The second challenge for 2008 is "Faux Chipboard." Again, this is simple and achieved with products/items in most mixed-media artists' stashes. Fun foam (!) shapes (such as the snowflakes I had) are glued down to sturdy CS, then lightly gessoed. When dry, acrylic paints are stippled on and left to dry. Finally, the entire surface is overstamped. Here is a link to more complete directions and samples:

http://trishbee.co.uk/?p=318

I tried a few different things such as using Versafine black on the sample to the left and regular dye ink on the sample to the right when I did the final stamping. I decided to finish everything off by spritzing with Radiant Rain. As you can see, the Versafine did not run, but the dye ink did. I like both effects and am glad that I tied both to see what would happen.

Now all I need to do is get my technique book started. I received a great sketch book for my birthday from my good friend Chrissy and covered it yesterday using some background paper made in a class that I took from Traci Bautista. All I need to do is add the title on the cover and include my first two challenge samples. I'll post when the cover is finished.