Texture Tips with Melissa--September Frog Dog Studio Kit

Good morning all! Melissa here with September's texture tip :)

This month I received the neon themed kit to play with, and play I did! For my first project I did some work in my art journal using a little bit of everything in the kit.

I started by rubbing the neon green ink pad all over the journal page to create the background.

Next, I added some of the Dylusions white spray ink.

Then, I began adding little bits and pieces of the paint chips, the stickers, and the color fragments. I attached them all with matte medium.

The next step is where I brought in some texture. I laid down a flower stencil and then covered it with Golden Fiber Paste. This paste has a very fibrous feel to it, like a handmade paper. It has a very rustic look that I enjoy.

Using the Viva Liquid Pencil, I added in some doodles along the top and bottom areas. I also cut up the neon pink plastic roll and attached a few of them as circles on the page.

For the final step, I did an exercise that I learned from the book Unstuck. You take a random page in a book and just begin selecting words and phrases that jump out at you. Then I arranged them into a little poem--fun! I cut them out and attached them to the page, then went around them with the pink Faber Castel big brush pen to highlight each phrase and add a little depth.

Here is the finished product and a close up:

Thanks for stopping by!!

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Mini Envelope Album Cover : "A Trip to the Sea"

A Trip to the sea

I haven’t completed my photo book yet, it still needs images from our trip to sorrento italy and our boat trip to the isle of capri.

Faraglioni rocks located in Campania, Italia...on the way to Capri

 Isle of Capri

 Blue Grotto

The whole Family in Italy:)

I hope you will be inspired to try an envelope album of your own or find a technique to use with our wonderful august kit! 

 If you have any questions about how I put the book together, please ask.  My focus today is the cover.

I love hanging out with you!

creatively yours,

sue

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Texture Tips with Melissa

Good morning! This is my first post in a new series that I will be doing each month featuring ways to incorporate texture into your mixed media art. This month in our Frog Dog Studio kit we received several blank artist trading cards (ATC's) to alter. Also in the kit was some awesome Viva Glitter Paste, which is fantastic for adding texture. For my main project, I wanted to create and show off my ATCs in a different way. So I started by making the ATC's first.

For the first ATC, I painted the entire card with Luminarte Silk Acrylic Glaze. Then I placed a stencil from Heidi Swapp over the top, and using an old credit card, I coated the top of the stencil with the Viva Glitter Paste. When you put the paste on over a stencil, you want to have a light touch. It should feel like you're icing a cake. The glitter paste reacted beautifully with the Silks and it really added a nice built up layer of texture for the background.

When the paste had dried, I embellished the card using the Maya Road sparkly buttons and some of the ArtChix clip art. Due to the thick texture on the background, I found it was easier to use a bit of hot glue to adhere everything. Below is the finished card.

Moving on to the second card I thought I'd try a different texture technique. This time I put a bit of acrylic paint on my palette, then scooped out a bit of paste and added it to the paint. I loosely mixed it up. I painted another ATC with the same dark blue Silk and when that dried, I used a paper towel and dabbed the paint/paste mixture in random spots all over the card. It added a nice rough but sparkly texture to that background. You can see it here:

I finished off this card using one of the cute wooden anchors found in the kit and a bit of blue ribbon bling trim that I had in my stash. I went back later and added one of the wooden buttons from the kit along with some cut out words from the clip art sheet.

For the third ATC, I really loved a particular piece of the clip art so I used the entire piece, then cut out the moon from another piece and added some of the iridescent Inka Gold to the moon to really make it luminescent. I also added the wooden wave piece from the kit to the bottom.

I finished off the project by purchasing a small printer's tray and attaching the ATC's in the top spots. We had just recently taken a trip to the beach for a week and I had this cute picture of all my girls together in the water that I wanted to display in the large opening at the bottom. I felt like it went with the whole evening, beachy, mermaid feel of the ATC's. I further embellished the tray using other items from the kit like the blue trim, the wooden whale, and small window openings. I used some washi tape to cover all of the edges and tie all of the colors in together. Below is the finished product, along with a few close ups:

Thanks for stopping by!!

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Love Canvas

 Hello artsy divas! Rita Barakat here with my first post at
Frog Dog Studio!

Woot!

I love the idea of a Mixed Media kit because you always
know you are going to get something (hopefully) that you''ve never worked with,
or something you've wanted to work with but haven't picked up yet.

I also love challenging my self to use EVERYTHING in the kit. This was the result!

That's my baby girl (a couple if years ago)and she looks darling on this little canvas!

 First impressions:

This was my one thing in the kit that I thought,
"what am I going to do with that?"

Now that I've used it I am thinking,
"COOL! What else can I use this on? 

 The process:Tear a piece of the pattern big enough to cover your canvas

crinkle it up into a ball and flatten it back out (see the wrinkles?).

Use *heavy gel medium to adhere it to the canvas, tucking in  any edges underneath.

*The reason I prefer using heavy gel medium on my projects is you you get full coverage

and it is not runny & messy like glue. Once it dries you can paint it
sand it whatever- it's not going anywhere! I like this for pictures on projects too, because there is not bleeding or distortion of the image.

 Then I used the gel medium to adhere my picture and letters into place.

 And I added more texture ( I know its hard to see but I promise its there) by using the stencil

to add random triangles over the piece with the gel medium. I am using the gel medium

because I know later I am going to use alcohol inks and they like a non porous surface.

 

I used the blue and green Alcohol inks over the entire surface,
once dry, I added the twinkling H2o watercolor paint in various places.

I also used the inks on the twine.

 Here is a close up!

I love all the wrinkled texture form the pattern!!!

And I love the saturated color!The darker spots are where there was no gel medium!

 I cut these angel wings out of the plastic sheet enclosed and
used gold alcohol ink (not in the kit) for polka dots! I added 

a little crown - it was silver, changed it with the alcohol inks.

***

 I hope you enjoyed this project, I know you will love this kit!

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Art Journaling With Stencils and Texture

Hello...hello! Martha Richardson here...I'm so excited to be designing for Frog Dog Studio. I love the concept of this new mixed media kit club...not only will we share our projects from the monthly kit but also tutorials on how we created our projects. I have found my true passion in mixed media!

Today I have tutorials for you using the exclusive stencil in June's kit and the Pink Paislee Expressions Wood Shop in Sawdust. I used these to finish a page in one of my art journals. I have several art journals that I work on at a time and love the NO PRESSURE behind creating a journal page. I was never happy with the before page...random colors wiped onto the page as I was cleaning up from other pages {I just hate to waste any my paints, inks, sprays}. It was a page that I knew would someday come together and now I love the final effect.

I'm trying a new way to do a tutorial...more pictures...less writing. So let's get to it!

I hope you enjoyed these tutorials and I would love to know what you think about the presentation...too much...too little? Any suggestions would be truly appreciated!

Have a great weekend...hope to get some creative time in..how about you?

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