Little Mermaid

- by Palma Rea

The inspiration for this piece came from the Grimm Brothers' tale of the Little Mermaid. After attending Michael DeMeng's workshop in Portugal, The Navigator's Journal.  The other artists who attended the workshop kept in touch via a Yahoo group and one of the ladies suggested that we all make another altered book with the theme of Fractured Fairytales, fairytales with a twist or altered versions of them. Whilst in Portugal, I bought an resin plaque of an ancient Mermaid stone carving and I also took my inspiration from that.

The torso of the mermaid is from an old Barbie doll that had only one arm. You will see that she has a wing in place of the missing arm that I cast using paper clay. Her body was also made from paper clay.  A structure was first made usind newspaper and I wrapped the clay around it. The scales were singly put on one by one. When it was all dry I painted the mermaid using acrylic paints . The textured background was achieved by putting down strips of hot glue . The beads are made of metal and also painted to give a patina look. I used real shells around her head and I handmade the metal roses which were coloured with red spraypaint.

At the base, I applied a layer of artist's mortier crystal,  a thick resin that contains glass and quartz crystals. This, too, was painted over when left to dry for 24 hours.

On the inside of the book, I printed my altered version of the little mermaid and glued it down.

On the opposite side, I carved into the 120 odd pages to create the cavity for the cage which I made from crafting wire. The pieces inside were all glued in place using E600. The texture around the cage is molding paste that I pressed an embossing folding into and the border around the arch is a piece of painted fabric.

Palma Rea is a self taught mixed media artist and a stay-at-home mum who lives in Italy.  She told us that "Art and crafts are my passion and I have dabbled in many things over the years. I started out with paper crafting and then my passion for painting portraits returned." Palma has recently discovered the art of altering objects and assemblage. She also enjoys jewellery making, art journaling, altered books, altering images and sketching. You can find more of her art at her blog, A CrEaTiVe JoUrNeY.

'' Under the Sea '' with Cornflour and Water

- by Annette Goatley

Stamps by Stampotique, Inkadinkado and LCD.

Caran D'Ache Water Solubles, Archival  Black Ink,  Inka Gold Kobolt Blue and Turquoise Stickes.

Recipe for the Background

Cornflour and water, make up as you would a white sauce, heat it until thickens then let it cool down.

Instructions

Spoon some of it on an A4 watercolour sheet and spread.  Then add your choice of Acrylic Paint and swoosh around with a wide toothed comb or anything you have on hand which is suitable.

I used a groove spreader in this particular project.  You can make swirls and curls, almost anything you like.  Set it aside to fully dry.

This is great fun to do and not too different from Wallpaper Paste Painting except the texture is different.  Hope you enjoy having a go at this technique.

Annette xx

Annette Goatley is a papercrafter and mixed media artust.  She is a member of the Happy Daze design team and her art has been published in Craft Stamper Magazine.  See more of Annette's art on her blog, Netty's Craftings.

Evolution: Plenty More Fish in the Sea!

- by Deborah Powell

Hello fellow Unrulies!

This great beach/water/sea theme had me thinking of the phrase - plenty more fish in the sea, and thus a wrestling doll with the aid of some tin foil and card evolved into Triton, Greek God and son of Poseidon the sea God. Seeing as this is my final article for Unruly I had to do something special for you and give you some eye candy!

OI!!!!!  Where's my legs?

There's nothing better than having the time to play with your inks, paints etc and in this article we are going to look at some paint techniques.  Last summer, getting frustrated with paints, my mind wondered to my dad telling me that the base colour/undercoat had an effect on what you painted on top, so I had a little play to investigate this for a mermaid tail that was foxing me for how to get that fish scale sheen.


So, what is the secret? The base colour and the mixer.

Use silver for the base, a cheap silver paint in the plastic tubes is good enough. If you want a nice barnacled texture stipple the paint on and apply heat gun then do it again for double bubble.  Make sure it is dry - it could be wet underneath a bubble, which in turn will burst and the wet silver will mix with your paint which you don't want.  You can use a more expensive silver on the top (why? higher pigment (more intense colour), why not? you are painting over it!).

For the mixers  use the more expensive paints in silver tubes, use irridescent silver - ordinary silver is too opaque and 'milky' and ordinary acrylic colours - not the milky chalky paints.  Mix them with the tip of your brush handle to save overloading the brush - do remember to wipe the brush handle unless you like nipping out for milk with paint streak(s) on your face, clothes, hair... mmmmmmmmmmm!!

Then it is down to you as to how pale or dark you want to go, if you want subtle just add a little and brush on sparingly.  don't worry, it blends in - just put a bit of one colour here and there and then another and your third colour sweeping around to finish - let some silver show through too, it doesn't matter if you miss a bit, however if you are going darker, a bit of silver showing through will look like you missed a bit!

Samples of the range of colour strength below, as you can see the darker you go, the more jewel like the colours - I want to play more with these! I hope you will too and I look forward to you posting what you do with them.

Lighter pearlescent effect

Stronger jewel effect

It's not so easy to show the effect on camera - get your silver and your acrylics out and have a play. You need the normal acrylics, not chalky milky eco paints or those dabber bottled paints. The trick is to use a translucent acrylic and those ones are opaque.

If it's too bling for you in the darker tones, to bring the darker colours together/tone them down, pick one of the colours you used and water a blob of it down, then brush across the work - don't overload the brush, if it is too dark/heavy, use a damp cloth or wet wipe and wipe it off - this is better done in a few layers, you want it thin - see through, this is what is known as a 'wash'. It looks dodgy as you brush it on but when dry the paints are coming together and the pearlescent/metal effect still 'pops'.  On this model I did a few layers of green and then some black to make it more macho.

Green wash enriched

Black wash depth

Barnacles - depends on how light or deep your colours - if they are light, dry brush over the high point barnacles with iridescent silver, if darker then use iridescent  or ordinary silver - a higher pigment metal tubed paint will give better result but you can use the plastic tubed paint. The surface paint should be totally dry and your brush dry too, go very lightly, you can add more after. If it is too bling, do a wash over and use a tissue to wipe off the tops or leave to dry and apply a little more silver with the brush or your finger.

Now you have another thing you NEED - iridescent silver - I look forward to seeing your fish-scale effect work and remember to think about your base coat and play with that - you can see in the photo above I did a test card to play with the colours before committing to them on the tail. You could also do multiple layers of a coloured wash over silver paint - very thin layers and let that build up.

This is my final article and it has been great fun being on the team, doing the articles and art quests, being on the Unruly team, you have all been very inspirational and I hope I have given some inspiration too.

I leave your hearts a flutter with Triton!

Check those pecks!

......must dash, I need to dust off my snorkeling mask and go find me some fish in the sea!

I may be some time...!!

Best Bouquet Reader Art Quest Showcase

In the spirit of our Buds and Blossoms Issue, we asked our readers to put together their best bouquets in June! Our showcase is a lovely selection of these gorgeous entries.

Best Bouquet Showcase

Scrapbook layout by JennieA

Fairy by Cathy Calamas

Wall Decor with Crochet Flowers by Chrissie

Patriotic Tag by Terry

Birthday Card by Stamping Sue W.

There's still time to play this month's Reader Art Quests - Beautiful Beach and Marvelous Mermaids! You have until July 25th to upload your art!

Spring Thing Reader Art Quest Showcase

Last month, we embraced spring and we had many great entries for our Spring Thing Reader Art Quest. Below is a selection of some of the participants.

Spring Thing Showcase

Altered Box by Kim

Bucket of Flowers by Starr T

Journal Page Addition by Ingrid Vient

Poppy Tag by momelisse

Monochromatic Card by Gisele

There's still time to play this month's Reader Art Quests - Beautiful Beach and Marvelous Mermaids! You have until July 25th to upload your art!

Gingerbits: Watery Background Tags

- by Carol Fox

I wanted to share some watery backgrounds with you and I thought the best way to show them off was with tags. I have shown each background, explaining exactly how it was done. They are all pretty basic but they all do give a lovey base to show off your stamped images.

They are quick, easy and fun to do, because as much as I do like to do big projects, sometimes I just want to sit down and faff with inks and paper and make nothing in particular, and these are perfect for those moments. So I usually end up with a pile of these made ready for when I need them. I tend to stamp onto them and send them in place of birthday cards, as basically my cards do leave a lot to be desired, and these larger size tags are perfect for this.

For these tags I have used the same two colour inks.

Tag 1

Spray the two colours of ink onto your craft mat, or other non stick surface. Lay your tag onto the inky surface, try to lay it down flat and not to twist it so the colours blend into each other rather than mix. Carefully remove trying to keep it straight as you lift it, dry with a heat gun. Lay a stencil over the top of the inked tag and spritz with the water, blot dry with some kitchen roll and then dry with a heat gun.

Tag 2

Spray your colours as before, but this time when you lay your tag onto the colours swish your tag around a bit so the colours blend a bit more. Lay your wet tag onto a clean section of your craft mat and using a pipet drop water onto your tag in several places, blot with kitchen roll, repeat until you are happy with the marbling effect that the water gives on the inky tag. Dry with a heat gun.

Tag 3

Lay your tag onto your craft mat. Place your stencil over the tag and spritz generously with water, remove the stencil and spray with your two colours of ink, mop with kitchen roll and then dry with your heat gun.

I shall be incorporating some tags similar to these into my project next month, but as to what I shall actually be using them for you will have to check back next month and see..

Marine Scene: Glue Gun Art

by Toni Burks

There is so much talent on the web and artists are very often gracious to share some wonderful ideas and techniques. Always looking to try to ways to create texture, I came upon this wonderful 3-part tutorial by Tim Coffey in which he transformed a typical cereal box into a canvas and then demonstrated a fun technique using a glue gun. It was then time to get messy with my paints.

I used Tim Coffey's glue gun technique via his YouTube channel for this piece.

1. Prep your canvas first and then choose your images and glue randomly.

2. Outline your image with your hot glue gun... this project took me about 8 glue sticks to complete.

3. Apply gesso to prime the surface.

4. I used several different colors of acrylic paints in which some I watered down and allowed to drip and others I dry brushed over the top.

5. For the final touch I used INCA GOLD to rub over the letters and some of the high points of my images. This was a fun project and I totally enjoyed the Journey. Hope you did too.

Toni Burks is a mixed media artist who loves working with texture and splashes of color. She loves to create art with "a taste of edginess but with a well-loved vintage feel". Visit her blog, Studio Gargage Band, or her Etsy Store of the same name.

Getting Inky: With Water

- by Zoe Sanderson

We are exploring water and water mediums this month at Unruly, Water and rubber stamping go so well together. Well, we have to colour those images once they are stamped, don't we? Going to share a few of the water colour ways I enjoy.

Starting with watermark ink such as VersaMark, simply just stamp with clear 'ink' onto colour uncoated card.  That's all quick, easy and a very effective background.   A couple of years back more sparkling Versamark inks were added to the range comparing these two side by side there's no real difference to my eye.

Then, there are watercolor pencils these can be used without water as colouring pencils or brush them out for a watercolour effect.   When colouring stamped images make sure the ink you use to stamp with is waterfast.

 
Stamp your image(s) and scribble over them with the pencils.   Use a simple paint brush or water brush to spread the pigment.   If the colour is not deep enough, add more pencil and brush it in.

Recently, I've been experimenting with these water soluble wax pastels.   Like ordinary wax pastels or 'Children's' crayons, these produce more of a block of colour and are not so useful for fine detail.   Now if you do not mind going outside the lines or like to use colour as more than just a filler these can be a lot of fun.

Just like the pencils, scribble the colour onto the card and brush it out.  Add more colour until you get the depth you are seeking, changing the direction of the pastel strokes further adds depth and interest.   On this card, the images became a little lost behind the colour so I went over them with a fine nib black pen, just making them pop again.















You might not want to add colour but use the ink you stamp with.   Ranger distress inks can be moved with water.   Just stamp as usual and then with a wet paint brush or a water brush use the ink to fill the image in.

Once the colouring is finished the image might have become a little blurred a simple fix is to go over the outline with matching coloured pens.   Not having Distress Markers it is not possible to comment on how they would work here; if you test them out let us know.

No-wrinkle distress has been well documented and is another terrific background technique.  Here it has been over-stamped with distress inks that have been softened with a water brush and then water sprayed over the card.   The dragon from the previous section has found a home here as well.

I am rather fond of this Welsh Dragon and used it again.   Once again, I used a water fast ink to stamp with and felt pens.   This time the pens are scribbled onto a pallet picking the colour up from the pallet with a water brush.

The result here is varying depth of colour.  With the focus on where the ink is first applied, you achieve shading without having to go over and over.





The results of a wonderful messy inking and wet day of play is a small set of scraplings and a couple of toppers just waiting to be mounted.  All very different but each used a water technique of one sort or another.

Contributor Calls

Calling all you Unruly Artists! Come share your talents us! Unruly PaperArts is looking for guest contributions for the following issues!



October 2012 - Canvasing

Is creating canvases your passion?  Share your inspiration and ideas with UPA! We want to see how you handle a canvas! 

Submissions must be received by August 20, 2012..

November 2012 - Gifts Galore

Part of the joy of papercrafting and mixed media art is that it is meant to be shared! This issue will focus on handmade gifts of all types and their wrappings and trappings!

Amaze us with prefect presents and wonderful wraps!  


Submissions must be received by September 20, 2012..









Submission Guidelines

If you are interested in being published on Unruly PaperArts, please submit a brief synopsis to rogueredheaddesigns@gmail.com with a picture of your finished project for consideration.  Include your name and your blog or online gallery. Please put UPA Contributor in the Subject line of your email.

Your article must be original and include artwork that you personally have completed.

There is no financial compensation for being a contributor or having a project featured on Unruly Paperarts.

We accept tutorials, step-by-step projects, reviews and articles for consideration.  Reviews cannot be submitted for products for which you officially design. 

For more information and some tips for submissions, check out our Contributing Artist Guide.

By the Seashore: Custom Backgrounds

- by Stacey Dunning

The patterned papers available to stampers today are amazing, but sometimes I like to go back and make my own backgrounds. This is a really fast and foolproof method for making subtle backgrounds. All you need is a detailed stamp that will repeat nicely for a background, light colored cardstock with and ink pad in a slightly darker color, and a white colored pencil.

You can use darker colored cardstocks but the end result will not be as subtle as it will be with a light color cardstock. First, randomly stamp your image on your cardstock in an ink a little darker than the cardstock but the same color. You can even do this with a watermark ink if you like, as I did in the aqua sample I created.

Next, using a dull white colored pencil generally color each image shown very softly. I usually scribble a bit on scrap paper to get a nice flat surface on my pencil.

Turn the pencil to get a sharper edge and go back over some selected details of the image to lighten them further. Add some highlights if you like.

That is all there is to creating a simple monochromatic background.

When stamping the sand frames, I generally ink the entire stamp with a light color of dye ink, like Memento Desert Sand and then use a darker ink to ink around the edges, like Memento Rich Cocoa. The Tsukineko Dew Drop stamps work great for this. If I am worried the contrast will be too strong, I use the round end of the light color to go in a blend in the edge of the darker color a little.

If you find you weren’t happy with your blending on the frame, you can add in some colored pencil, watercolor or, in this case, I used an alcohol marker to the inside edge of the sand.

A little blender pen will blend that original color into the background and some alcohol marker accents on the frame add some color.

I like to use colored pencils a lot on these seashell stamps, as I did on the trio card, but my Marvy Le Plume Permanent alcohol markers can also be fun to work with, especially when my hand is tired from previous coloring. If I’m using a good absorbent paper like Neenah Solar Crest I always start with the lightest colors first, add some darker color and then go back with the lighter color and blender pen to blend. Here is how I colored the wentletrap shell. These shells in real life are white and peachy-pink color but look somewhat translucent as the light shows through the thinner areas.

I didn’t want the ink to overtake the light colors of the seashell so I first stamped using the new Memento Gray Flannel ink pad and then stamped again without reinking. It is this lighter image I used for my card.

I first colored in all the pinkish areas with a light color, then outlined all those areas with a darker color.

You can see that the inks don’t blend very well or look natural at this point.

Using the first light color I color again over the transition line, which pushes some of the dark color down a little further into the paper and darkens the lighter colors.

Finally I use a blend pen to lighten the center of each area and further blend the colors. I didn’t have any pens light enough to tint the white areas, so I picked up some light pink with the blend pen and added some color to the ridges.

With some dark card stock for contrast and some ribbon and two more colored shells, my card is finished, and here are a couple other examples of cards that use the subtle stamped and penciled background and the seashell stamps with sand frames.

Stacey Dunning has been stamping since 2001 when she saw an idea on HGTV for stamping a pattern onto a wall. After that project, she was hooked on all the ways she could decorate household items using rubber stamps. Since these first few projects, Stacey has been stamping cards, altered books, art journals, and fabric. She soon found  she wanted stamp designs she couldn’t find and that’s what prompted her to start her own line of rubber stamps and her company, Blockheads Paper Arts. She misses the days before patterned paper when all backgrounds had to be stamped or created using inks and paints and is excited to see art journaling bring some of those techniques back around.