Coffee-staining paper...

Good morning my friends!

Years ago when I first started taking collage classes at one of the rubber stamp stores that my friend and I went to when I lived in Florida, we did some work with coffee-stained paper. In the essence of time, the instructor had already stained some tags for us to use, but I never actually did much coffee-staining myself. I always had the intention of doing more, but of course I never really did.

When I decided recently that I was going to start working on some junk journals, I looked at several tutorials on the process, and of course, everyone has their own way of doing it. This weekend I combined a few techniques and stained some myself, alternating between regular white printer paper and ivory resume paper just to compare the outcomes. There wasn't really a marked difference between the two, so when I do it again I will continue to alternate, using whatever I have on hand.

No complicated technique at all. Here is my process:

1. Mix a strong batch of instant coffee. I mixed it in a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup, using two cups of almost-boiling water and a couple of heaping teaspoons of coffee.
2. Cut several sheets of waxed paper to fit two old cookie sheets. You will need the same amount  as the number of pages you hope to stain. (For my first run I found 16 sheets of paper a good number to work with.)
3. Lay one sheet of waxed paper down on one of the cookie sheets with a sheet of printer paper on top.
4. Using a cheap 2-inch wide bristle brush, "paint" the coffee onto one side of the printer paper, then flip it over onto the waxed paper and "paint" the other side. Don't completely soak the paper. 
5. If desired, you can sprinkle a few coffee granules randomly over some of the wet pages to give some of your sheets an even more aged look.
6. Place another piece of waxed paper on top of the page you just stained, then add your second piece of printer paper to the top. "Paint" each side as you did in step 4.
7. Repeat this process until about 8 pages are stained, each time alternating the paper with the waxed paper, stacking them as you go along. They will be a bit buckled but this is a good thing. 
8. Do the same thing with another batch of papers on the second cookie sheet.
9. Set the trays aside to dry over night.
10. The next morning the top ones will be pretty dry, but the ones underneath will still be a little damp or wet. So spread them apart on a protected table or counter, each one with the sheet of waxed paper underneath it. This way they will dry faster.
11. After they dry, iron the pages, one at a time, to flatten them out a bit. Place a piece of muslin over the paper, press using the cotton or linen setting, and do not use steam. Flip over the page, and iron the reverse side, this time without the sheet of muslin. They won't get real flat, but after all, they will be used in a junk journal!
12. After each sheet is ironed, take a look at the waxed paper sheets. You will find that they are also coffee-stained and have a marvelous color and texture. They will take on a vellum effect and could be used for little aged envelopes, or additional pages in your book. Or, you could just reuse them for your next bout of coffee-staining!

Here is the batch I did this weekend.

The page in the middle with the dark stain was from

adding the extra coffee granules.

To me it looks really old...

Each page will be so different.

This one looks like a paw print from

an animal!...

The darkening at the edges happened all by itself.

Almost the way the pages in an old book

actually look.

And the delicious smell of coffee isn't bad either!...

So, since the first journal I hope to make will be

nature-inspired,

I couldn't resist copying a couple of pages from

one of my vintage botanical books

onto a piece of my lovely "aged" paper.

Happily, the paper slid through the copier without

a problem.

What a pretty effect this had,

and I didn't even use my printer's "best" setting...

And then, of course, this led to planning

some papers for the cover of my book,

which will be made from a vintage

Reader's Digest book cover,

 covered with this

pretty pink and green paper,

a little corrugated cardboard,

and whatever else I decide to add...

And here is how the waxed paper ended

up looking...

Here it is on an ivory quilt so that you can

get a better idea of how it looks.

This part wasn't mentioned in any of the

tutorials that I saw,

but I really liked getting twice as much

"stuff" for my efforts...

Next time I will try this with tea. Perhaps some nice cinnamon-apple. 

My, wouldn't that make my journal smell good!

I'd love to know about any experiences that you have had with aging paper.

Thanks for coming by!

Fused: Double Exposure Video and Photo Blender

Good morning!

The other day while fiddling around with some Microsoft apps, I downloaded another free one. It is "Fused: Double Exposure Video and Photo Blender". You use it to merge two photos, almost so it looks like overlays, and you can then use it to blend the images together. They have backgrounds to choose from, or you can upgrade for a fee and purchase even more. But I decided to use my own background and diddled around a little just for fun.

Since winter is on the horizon, I decided to use the following two images, both of which I have shared with you previously.

I used this one for the background...

...and this one for the foreground...

This is the blend.

The words and frame were added with the KVADPhoto+

app that I talked about the other day.

Kind of pretty and was fast to do!...

Enjoy the season,

whatever it is!

2016: One Simple Word

Hello there! I hope that you are having a nice day.

Well, here we are into the New Year and I only now just decided to post about my word for the year. The last time I did this was in 2013. Yikes! Did three years already go by?

In any case, once again I decided to pick a word that I will live by this year. One that shouldn't present a challenge in and of itself, since I pretty much do this on a daily basis anyway. The word is:

LEARN

(to gain or acquire knowledge of, or skill in something

 by study, experience, or being taught)

The challenge was not to decide what I would REALLY like to learn to do, or do better, but to stick to it until I get it down. And we all know how that goes! So I got to thinking about what things I already love to do, and how I could make them better. 

I love cooking, flowers and gardening.

I love creating textile art.

So, how about taking vegetable skins, 

and flowers grown in my garden...

...and learn how to make natural dyes for the textiles

that I use in my art.

This is nothing new for others in the art world,

but it is certainly something new for me.

I bought these books last month,

and will give it a try!...

Then, I started thinking about my blog

and the photos that I take for it,

most often shot at close range,

and decided that I could make THOSE better too.

So I finally gave in to purchasing a macro lens for

my Canon ("real camera") with which I 

will attempt to learn how to take much 

better photos of the things I love for my blog...

The books are really good,

and hopefully will give me a start...

I didn't have much time to play with my lens

during the holidays,

but the day that it arrived

(bought used on eBay and in pristine condition)

I did fire off a few photos of the stuff

on my dining table.

Not great photos,

but fun to see the close-up detail

and the blurry background.

I concede that I have a long way to go!

All of the books shown above were purchased on abebooks.com,

or on Amazon. I usually compare the prices and condition of any given book

between the two sites.

Many times the books are new and a fraction of the cost of what

you would pay in bookstores which never provide very good discounts 

even on older books. 

And I have never been let down on the condition of any used book that I have bought.

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Of course,  Mr. Perch would likely tell you that my word of the year should have been

STOP

(as in stop buying books)

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And yes, I do know that you can buy books to read on your iPad, but where is the fun in that?

Please do come back next year at this time and see how much I have accomplished with my word!!

What are your plans for the new year?

Mixed Media Collage: "Dancing"

Valentine's Day is around the corner, and I couldn't let it pass by without creating a piece of art to honor this day of love. 

I took a slightly different approach with another mixed media collage, and it speaks of Valentine's Day only through the use of pink.

"Dancing"

I have wanted to use this beautiful 

ballerina photo and the

sweet vintage sheet music

 for a long while...

I delicately colored her dress

to match the green in the Basic Grey

paper scrap...

I also used a piece of the lovely pink 

vintage velvet ribbon that I showed you in a 

recent post,

along with a mother of pearl belt buckle...

This time I made use of one of my long 

forgotten rubber art stamps,

and cut out each word separately.

It felt good to use this one again!

I shaded her skin ever so slightly...

The best part about these pieces is that there is no requirement

to be perfect with your painting.

And that is certainly a perk for me!!

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Many thanks for coming by.

Mixed Media Collage: "At the Fair"

Good morning!

I am still working on some collage pieces, and couldn't resist using this image on one. I love this vernacular photo of the two couples munching down on watermelon, so I assembled some things that I thought would enhance this image.

"At the Fair"

I could picture these couples back in the thirties

going to the county fair,

and eating too much watermelon...

I wanted to let the image speak for itself,

so I used minimal color on it, 

but had fun playing with the background painting...

I found the ferris wheel image on Pinterest...

...and in my stash I have an old ledger book

that must have belonged to a doctor.

In it I found this note written by someone

whom I assume

was an employer asking the doctor to treat 

Frank Moran for a nail in his foot.

I covered over the nail part with this great

Basic Grey paper scrap and some vintage rick rack,

leaving the date showing.

I thought the date suited the photo,

and imagined that maybe one of these guys

got a stomach ache after eating all of

the watermelon...

Another fun piece!

I am still really having fun with the tutorial from 

Heather Murray.

Christina Evangeline: A Mixed Media Painting

Christina Evangeline was my great-grandmother, my dad's maternal grandmother. She was born in Paris, and later met my great-grandfather, who was German, in Alsace-Lorraine. That they met and fell in love was interesting, since the relations between Germany and France in this area were perhaps not always the best. They eventually came to America, where they raised a family, and though they both passed away years before I was born, I feel like I knew them based upon the stories that my dad has told me. I especially feel a bond with Christina, as until I saw her photos after the death of my grandfather, I never realized that I looked more like her than I did my grandmother. It's funny how the genes can pass down through three generations.

So after taking Heather Murray's Memory Portrait Painting Project class (see yesterday's post), I decided to try my hand at doing a piece centered around one of my own relatives.

Meet Christina Evangeline...

The background image of the Eiffel tower is from

The Graphics Fairy...

Though I didn't apply her makeup very well,

it's fun to see what this cabinet photo might have

looked like if it had been in color...

I got to use some of my old lace

and more of my Basic Grey scrapbook paper...

I'm really having fun with these!

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Have a great day!

Taking a class for a different twist in my art...

Hello there and happy February.

January is over. Hooray. My least favorite month of the year. I hate cold weather, and since Christmas is over, there is no need for it anymore. At least February holds the hope of spring here in North Carolina. If we're lucky!

Before boring January ended, I decided that not only was I ready for a change in the weather, but I was also ready for a change in my art. I found my self yearning to return to my mixed media roots of having some paper fun. With some color. Of course my love for vintage photos, fabrics, laces, and buttons will never go away, so I wanted to find something new to work on that would enable me to use all of my little lovelies. Not to mention doing something with all of the gorgeous scrapbook papers that I have, but rarely use. Oh, and let's not forget those rubber stamps!

If you purchase Somerset Studio magazine, you may remember the May/June 2014 issue, where the Artist Portfolio featured Heather Murray, a wonderful Canadian collage artist. I was instantly drawn to her art, which is colorful and vintage at the same time.

Here is the cover of that issue...

...and a portion of the article...

...along with some of Heather's work...

So I purchased one of her on-line classes, and am glad that I did. The class that I took was "The Memory Portrait Painting Project", and in it she shares how she builds up her substrate, and then applies color to her vintage photos and ephemera. What fun!

You can find the class here at The Trodden Path. And you can see more of Heather's art on her blog, My Ephemeral Imagination.

The class is geared to someone who wants to use family photos in their mixed media art, but of course, you can use any photo that you like, which is what I did. It was so much fun to work with acrylics again. And I got over my initial fear of taking an online class. The videos are great and the artist works in real time. It is the best of both worlds, as it almost feels like you are in the same room as the artist, but without other class interruptions and trying to keep up, since you are able to stop and restart the video as needed. I even signed up for a second class with another artist. More about that in a future post.

This is my first piece,

which I have entitled

"The Echoless Shore".

It's all about using what you have,

with a little color from cheap acrylic paints...

I got to use one of my favorite old beach photos

(I concede that I need a little practice on

the faces!)...

...and another for the background...

Not to mention some vintage sheet music,

a starfish from Florida,

and some fibers and paper from 

Basic Grey...

As I said before, I can't wait for warm weather, 

and I guess this piece proves that!

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Have you tried anything new lately?

Plaster Cloth Wrap on Fabric: "Just Me and My Friends" fabric and lace collage...

Good morning!

Continuing with my post from yesterday, 

below is the collage that 

I made with the drop cloth fabric to which 

I had applied texture by using Plaster Cloth Wrap. 

(It is impossible to get a decent photo due to the 

low level of light in our house these days, 

so you may need to enlarge this photo.)

I made the little collage separately,

adding the photo, more laces

and embellishments to a piece of a vintage

hankie, which I used as the base.

I then glued the little collage to the textured

substrate fabric,

positioning it to the upper left

so that the best plastered areas would not be

covered up.

Don't you just love the photo of the sweet

little girl with her dolls in the carriage?...

I used my handy-dandy 

Crop-A-Dile to set the eyelets at the top.

This baby easily went through all 

the layers of fabric, plaster and lace...

In the spirit of Valentine's Day,

I couldn't resist using this beautiful

rhinestone heart,

along with some of my lovely

vintage velvet ribbon which I shared 

with you in a recent post...

I also began creating something with the 

burlap pieces, 

but that will have to wait for a future post.

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Have a peaceful and creative day!