Munday Murals: Prismatic Rabbit

I'm once again joining Sami at Sami's Colourful World and her Monday Murals. Although I post at my regular time, please be aware that Sami's mural linky won't go live until 10:01 a.m. my time, at least if I have calculated correctly.

This latest mural created for Avenue Art Days this past September

is called Prismatic Rabbit.  It was painted by Autumn Noir.

I almost missed the Avenue Art Days sign.  It is located at Cero's Candies, 1328 E. Douglas, Wichita, Kansas (USA).

If you enjoy murals, please don't forget to visit Monday Murals at Sami's Colourful World.

This is Day 17 of Art Every Day Month (AEDM),
and I photographed a mural while freezing in the cold wind in my home town.

Onions, then and now

I'm once again joining Rike at Rike's Art our host this month at Art Journal Journey with her theme of Fruit and Veggies.

I call this journal entry Onions, then and now.

The text reads

Onions: still the same over the years.

These photographed onions look similar to those in the drawing.

For this page, I began with a background of 110 lb card stock, similar to one I showed on Thursday, except this time, I added three colors of dye reinker ink directly to a baby wipe and swiped it directly on the page.  The focal onions were taken from a 1970 cookbook.   According to the cookbook, the drawing was created in 1824.  It appears onions haven't changed that much in nearly 200 years.  In fact, according to Vegetable Facts, the very first onion could have been cultivated 5500 years ago.   Vegetable Facts further writes:

Onions are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables in our history, originating in central Asia from where it spread across entire world. Modern archeologist, botanist and historians are unable to determine exact time and place of their first cultivations (because this vegetable is perishable and its cultivation leaves little to no trace), . . .

Further:

There are two schools of thoughts regarding the home of onion cultivation, and both look at the period 5,500 years ago in Asia. Some scientists believe that onion was first domesticated in central Asia and others in Middle East by Babylonian culture in Iran and West Pakistan. Those are of course based on ancient remnants of food cultivation that survived the tooth of time, but many believe that organized cultivation started much earlier, thousands of years before writing and sophisticated tools were created. Onions were grown in Ancient Egypt 5,500 years ago, in India and China 5,000 years ago, in Sumeria 4,500 years ago. 

Next I added a color image of some purple onions, good for fabric dyeing, and the sentiment I printed on my ink jet printer.

Thank you so very much for joining Bleubeard and me today.  We love it when you drop by to visit.  We further hope you learned something new about onions because we certainly did.  We would also like to see you at AEDM and Art Journal Journey.

This is Day 16 of Art Every Day Month (AEDM), hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas and I created a journal page for Art Journal Journey.

Berries and Cream

I'm once again joining Rike at Rike's Art our host this month at Art Journal Journey.   Rike's theme is Fruit and Veggies.   

I call this one berries and cream.

This may be stretching the prompt at Try it on Tuesday, but that ice cream looks Cold, Cold, Cold, their theme this fortnight. Awhile back, I was gifted with a few pages from a French cooking magazine, and found one that looked like it dealt with desserts.

The magazine appears to be from June, 2013.  I'm always on the hunt for foreign language pages, so, even though I can't read the words on the page, I can understand the pictures.  

I used my translator to get baies et crème.  Hopefully it is correct.

It certainly looks like berries and some kind of ice cream or sherbet in a waffle cup to me.  And the instructions at Try it on Tuesday were to use something cold like ice!

For this mixed media journal entry, I began by gluing a page from a French cooking magazine to 110 lb card stock.  While it was drying, I fussy cut around the waffle cup and affixed it to a doily I swiped with turquoise dye ink.  I wanted to give the doily a hint of color, but not completely obliterate the white.  I printed the French and English words on my laser printer and colored around the words using the same dye ink. 

Thank you so much for joining me today.  I really appreciate your visit.  I hope to also see you at AEDM, Try it on Tuesday, and Art Journal Journey.

This is Day 15 of AEDM hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas, and I

created an art journal page for the challenge themes at Try it on Tuesday and Art Journal Journey.

Second Thursday Tutorial: a review of a few backgrounds

I had intended to have a tutorial today, but I've been putting out fires that have popped up and spread like wildfire both in my personal life and my blogging life.  One good thing is, I got my wireless mouse to work again after several months of it refusing to play nice.  Maybe it started working again because I threatened to feed it d-Con.I have a tutorial started, but mostly I moved art that was drying on my craft table and retrieved a few supplies I intend to use.  That means the tutorial will have to wait till next Thursday.  Here instead are two of my favorite backgrounds.

Acrylic and Baking Soda Background

I had a ton of trouble with this "easy" background. I didn't copy the materials or the instructions like I should have, so this was a real trial and error process.

Materials:
Acrylics*
Baking soda
Substrate (copier paper, paper bags, card stock, etc)
Brush (foam or bristle, not shown)
Craft mat, plastic bag, or something to protect your work surface

*I show bottled acrylics in the photos, but I ended up using some cheap craft paint in a jar to get the results I wanted.

Instructions:

1. Place a large amount of acrylic paint on your substrate.

2. Spread the paint using a brush. Cover your paper completely.

3. Immediately sprinkle baking soda into the WET paint. As you can see from the photo above, I accidentally dumped the baking soda when I was taking the photo. After I put the camera down, I placed the baking soda in my hand and sprinkled it evenly all over the page.  That may be why the first background was not successful.

Sprinkle baking soda over entire surface. Allow to dry flat.

4. When completely dry, brush baking soda from the page using a dry towel or cloth. A brush will not remove the baking soda, so you'll need something more substantial.

Here's how I used this particular piece.

I really didn't like how the background turned out, so I got some cheap craft paint and slathered it on a sheet of copier paper.

I put a LOT of paint on the page, then added the baking soda. I used red paint, but the baking soda changed the color dramatically.

I made two sheets, one with brush strokes and one that I pounced the brush strokes out. I really like it best.
Top image: with brush strokes showing. Bottom image: with brush strokes pounced out.

Baby Wipe Background

This is another quick and simple background technique that gives you a bonus.

Supplies:

Acrylic paint (color of your choice)

Baby wipes

Card stock (CS)

Plastic or craft sheet to protect your work surface

Place a small amount of acrylic paint on about 1/4 of the CS. Since acrylics dry quickly, you should only work on a small part of the page at a time.

Spread the paint using a wet baby wipe. Be sure to pick up all colors and spread evenly. Don't overwork the paint, or you'll end up with mud.

After you are pleased with the first area, add more paint to another area and continue spreading the paint with the same baby wipe.

Continue adding and spreading the paint until the page is complete. When finished, you will have a background sheet as well as a coordinating color baby wipe you can use as an accent on your page or to create a matching tag.

Now wasn't that easy? And it produces great results quickly, too.

Thank you for joining me today while I shared two of my favorite backgrounds.  I'm so glad you dropped by and the Second Thursday Tutorial will be next Thursday, at least I hope that's the case.

This is Day 14 of Art Every Day Month (AEDM), hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas and I shared two of my favorite backgrounds you can use in altered books, art journals, ATCs, or tags.