I call this technique the Affix-Paint-Directly-To-Fingers technique. Martha Stewart met with me to talk about my doing a demo of this technique on her show, but she shook my hand and that was basically the end of the meeting. She's so 'proper', that woman. I mean, it's not like she couldn't get another Hermes sweater set whenever she wants one.

My blue-green sticky fingers aren't my fault! What happened was this: the group I art with agreed to use Bernie Berlin's Artist Trading Card Workshop as their theme for an artist trading card (ATC) swap. In that book are detailed instructions on painting a paper towel for use as an ATC surface. The technique is really very beautiful, as you can see on the cards in the above photo. The colors bleed together for a soft and colorful background effect. Then, the paper towel is affixed to a card using gel medium, to both glue the towel to the card, and also to provide a nice sheen to its surface. In the course of spreading gel medium on the card, the medium got on my fingers, then I picked up the paper toweling and placed it against the card, the paint impressed to my fingertips, and the paint/gel medium dried on my fingers. Giving me green and blue painted fingers. And who really minds, besides Martha? I used this technique on Saturday evening to make place cards for a dinner party, and they were a big hit, but it took three days to get the paint off my fingers. Who says Lava soap is just for car mechanics?