Underwater World

I remember (was it really just a year ago?) that I thought ATC's were kind of beyond me. Now I have quite the little love affair going on with these miniature pieces of mixed media. The current challenge at Fun with ATC's is underwater. I was working on a piece inspired by Dion Dior last night and it was a big AHA moment. One of the techniques I thought would be great for making seaweed!

Dion works a lot with Twinkling H2O's, a watercolor paint with mica crystals embedded in the paint. They are very sparkly. One of her techniques is to get the paper very wet, lay down some color  and then put stretchable strips of bandage down and let it dry in place. Didn't have that, so I substituted regular first aid gauze.

First I put down a combination of yellows, greens and blue greens on some very wet paper. They I curved strips of the gauze and pushed them down into the paint.; partially dried it with my heat gun and then put a tad bit more water and color on top.

The next step required patience. Darn it. I covered the whole thing with a piece of sran-wrap and put a huge, heavy book down on top it and let it dry overnight. 

I thought it was kind of magical this morning when I peeled it apart before I took off for work. And as an added bonus was I really liked the colored gauze which had become significantly stiffer than when I started the project. 

When I got home, I started playing the waste gauze, some shells and beads and this is the end result. I hope you can see the sparkle. One of the nice things about using so much water in this process is the entire paper isn't sparkly so you get some good contrast. 

Let's pretend they're shells or air bubbles, or whatever you'd like them to be. 

I've been turning a lot of these into magnets and I'm guessing that's what will become of my entry into the underwater challenge at Fun with ATC's. 

Here's hoping you get lots of creative time soon! Enjoy. 

WOYWW #201

Ah yes, the Tuesday night ritual.

Whoops. Secret's out I guess. Yes it's still Tuesday night here in beautiful, SNOWY Palmer Alaska but it's already Wednesday in Julia's World where for some amazing reason I can not fathom she has been linking us up so we can peak into other crafty dens and see what's about. It's an amazing group of kind, generous souls and I really do look forward to seeing what folks are up to Great Britain, Oz, the US, South Africa and points beyond. And the kindest is our friend Julia, who organizes it every week - when she's not looking for little white squares.

I'm afraid I'm a tad bit boring this week. Had to  finish some class samples and a birthday present which you can check out here if you would like, and then horror of horrors, I actually spent most of Sunday cleaning (which tells you I do not spend most Sundays that way). I did tidy up a bit in the Fun Room and moved in a TV tray at the end of my desk which gives me a little bit of space.

See? At the other end of the desk, but the wall.

Well maybe not, but it is nice to have a bit more space on the desk. The baggie in front is a full of NEW paints - twinkling H2O's and Silk Acrylic Glazes for a class I'm taking from Dion Dior in 21 Secrets. I can't wait. I had forgotten how sparkly and luminescent they are. I have a totally crush on Dion right now. Her work is spectacular and she seems like such a nice, grounded person.

Back to my desk - my art journal is right where I left it with an unfinished 21 Secrets project called Doodling our Way which has been amazingly fun and restful. And then there is the usual this and thats.

I was actually pretty disciplined about the doodling project. I  pulled out a color range of Copic markers and then stuck to it...certainly helps the page flow better. When it's done next week, I'll show you. I'm posting this page because you can actually see the window sill....I thought it might be nice to have proof it was clean--once.

Hope you all have a lovely week and enjoy the people you love.