Swap Your Art Out

My latest backgrounds made for the swap, along with a reprint of the first one.



I then wanted to try a resist technique, so I covered a page with crayon and metallic pen swirls, knowing they would be covered with black paint.



Then I crumpled the page to create troughs before painting over the page with black paint. I think a brick red or rust color would have been a better choice, because this made the page too dark for my tastes. Still usable as a background for certain elements, though.

To lighten up the surface, I stamped the entire surface using a white pigment inkpad. I liked the antique-y look of it, so I stopped there.

I love tissue paper or paper napkins for layering, so for the next page I laid down a rich multi-colored paint surface, and layered over it with plain white tissue paper and gel medium. It was less than successful. Not as much color came through as I would have liked. But the pastel effect was nice. I took some fabulous rubber stamps from Michelle Ward's Printed Matter rubber stamp sheet, and put down an entire suface over the tissue with gold ink. This photo doesn't do it justice. I would keep it myself, if I weren't too lazy to make a replacement sheet!

Lastly, I returned to the stenciling and embossing for my Forest Floor sheet:



It's a bit busy, but for a background, that can work out. I hope the other artists enjoy getting one of these backgrounds. When I get my four, I'll post photos of how they look before I collage on them.


I think I'm going to ease off the swaps for awhile, because this project taught me a lot. The biggest lesson it taught me is that I know so little about working larger and making my own backgrounds. The work I've been doing for the group is a lot of fun, but it's on a small scale, and I feel I've become a bit too comfortable in that format. I think I'm in the mood for a few months of working bigger.

You know what I mean.


Next up: Chris has three days to make 20 tin-foil-and-masking-tape charms (with tissue paper overlay).