A few bookmarks with Prima

I've been making a lot of bookmarks lately.  Every year I like to give a token gift to my co-workers for Christmas.  Last year it was plastic candy canes full of candy and this year it's going to be bookmarks. I'm making a lot of them so that each person can choose a design that they like best.

All of these bookmarks came from one paper pad by Prima.  It has designs in several earthtones so they all play really well together.

There are pages in this Prima Life Time paper pad that have tiny elements and they work beautifully on small size projects like bookmarks, tags and ATCs.

After matching up backgrounds to color card stock, I tried out several layouts on each one until I found the looks that I liked best.

The images below are in sets of two.  Each bookmark in the photo has the same background paper.  I posted them together to show the different looks you can get using the same set.

A little mixed media

This week I have been playing around with color.  Fall is inching closer and Michigan will be a flood of reds and golds in a few short weeks.  I love Fall colors and that's what I've used on this canvas.

I started with a layer of gesso.   Right after the layer was complete, I dipped my brick stencil into the wet gesso to leave an impression.

To better show the texture of the dried gesso, I smeared on a few light spots of Gelato to highlight the ridges.

The entire canvas was covered with Dixie Belle's Grunge Glaze.  Since I was going with a Fall theme I felt like the brown in the glaze would be a good fit.

The glaze interacted with the Gelato and gave me some different undertones.  Gelatos are water soluable so they are activated with paint just as easily as with water.

I chose a few more Gelatos that reminded me of fall and used my finger to apply them in random spots on the canvas.

Now to add some fun texture!  Punchinella is a great way to add dots to a background.  You can sponge or paint over the surface.  This time, since I was using Gelatos I chose to lay down the ribbon and wipe over the top with a baby wipe to remove some of the pigment.  This lets the spots remain the same basic color as the surrounding area.

I made sure the ribbon was going in a couple of different directions so that the spots would be random.

At this point I sprayed the canvas with a fixative to keep the Gelatos from reactivating in the next stages.  The gesso was still out so I dipped a paper tube and a pencil eraser in it to add circles and spots.  Gesso is thick so these are slightly raised.

A little water was added to the grunge glaze to form drips.

Our paper towels at work have a gear on one end to go on the feeder.  There was an almost empty roll on the counter so I rescued this little piece of plastic and used it here to create these gear circles in the copper Art Alchemy paint.

I applied a few patches of a white pearl paint with my fingertip .  They look really white in the bright light at this angle.  At other angles you can barely see them.  I like that effect!

These letters are from a tag alphabet.  I have them just laid on the canvas right now because I am thinking of adding more layers to it.

Supplies Used:

Your choice of canvas or art journal

Gesso

Dixie Belle Grunge Glaze

Gelatos in your favorite colors

Punchinella

Spray Fixative

Art Alchemy or other acrylic paints

Tag Alphabet

Halloween Pocket Page, part one

If you haven't yet searched for Halloween goodies at Altered Pages then please let me recommend them to you!  There are collage images of every type so whatever type of project you're making, you won't be disappointed.  Which Halloween collage did I use for this project?  All of them.  Well, it seems that way.  Let me explain.

When you're making an altered pocket page project you need a lot of collages to work with.  So I printed off each of the Halloween collages that I've collected over the years and cut them apart while my husband and I watched baseball.  That way, I could work on a project, still have our time together, and because I wasn't coloring or assembling, I could put it down and pick it up with ease.

When you are printing your images at home, you control the size and color.  I printed a couple different sizes for each page and I also used a couple of different color papers.  It's important to keep in mind that the ink will appear different on each paper as well as having the background darker or lighter.

Another tip that I'd like to share is that it's important to ink the edges of each image to help them blend together to be more cohesive.  You can use an ink page, dauber, cotton swab...any method you choose.  The goal is just to mask the color of the paper.

It's also important to judge how to use your "white space".  This golden card stock was very plain so I just added very light dots to give it a little hint of color.  You can go with a fancy pattern or just use what's close at hand.  I chose this little foam disk.  It's one of those self stick things you put on the bottom of lamps and things to keep them from scratching your furniture.  I had to buy a big pack and had a few left over.

Some images may not fit perfectly on such a small project.  Pocket projects are a series of nine ATCs on each side and they measure only 2.5 x 3.5 each.  I kept the mitered edges of the frame on the image below, trimmed the picture down and reattached them so I get the same feel and it fits on my card. 

So, how do I decide which images to use?  I go for the main image that I like and then pick out smaller things to fill in like cats and bats from other pictures.  

And here is side one, complete in their little pockets.  I hope you'll come back to see the flip side next time!!