T Stands For Second Thursday Tutorial, Part 1

 

I realize I'm a bit early sharing this post.  I shared so many tutorials last month, I didn't feel the need to create one for the second Thursday of the month.  And because there are so many, many photos and techniques this week, I've decided to break it into two posts.  It will also allow more drying time for the pages, several of which took nearly three days to dry.

For all of these techniques, I will be using 90 lb watercolor paper.  You can see the specifics here.

For all of these techniques, I have included these specific products.  I will add others as needed, but all will take these. From back to front:

Used pie tin

Instant coffee that got damp, then dried in one mass in my basement studio

Parchment paper (or any product that will keep excess water off your table)

Watercolor papers cut to 6 X 9 inches (15,24 X 22,9 cm)

For this first technique, we are going to do a bit of blowing.  I have included a spoon and a straw. 

 

 For the first technique, I withdrew blobs of coffee from the jar using the spoon.

Using the straw, I blew into it over the various blobs of coffee.

I had to remember to keep rotating the paper so the blobs were distributed.  Some of the coffee blobs overlapped each other.  I tried to wipe up the excess coffee using a paper (kitchen) towel (which I didn't think to show).

The next technique is quite simple.  I accidentally got some excess coffee on the paper when I was transferring the coffee to the pie tin, but didn't feel that would hurt anything.

 I pressed the bottom of the take-out cup to the coffee in the pie tin and stamped circles on the watercolor paper.

I swiped the next watercolor paper on the parchment paper to remove excess coffee.  I wanted the effect.  I have added another "stamp" from my stash of things to stamp with.

I was really very happy with the marks this made.

I couldn't have been more pleased.

Then I turned the "stamp" over and stamped the other side at a 90 degree angle.

This made me very happy, too.

 

I look forward to seeing this one after it's dry.

These three are finally dry.  I see a great deal of potential for great backgrounds.

 

Now let's play with a little resist.  I'm using sea salt, but I might throw in a bit of rock salt, too.

I have to add coffee to the watercolor paper first, though.

After adding the sea salt, I applied more coffee so it would saturate the salt.

While the other paper was drying, I decided to play with my food.

Rice absorbed the coffee nicely.

Once the rice was dry, and it had been removed from the paper,

this became my favorite design.  Personally, I'd like to make about a dozen of these.

What was possibly more interesting was when I turned the watercolor paper over.  The pattern on the back was note-worthy, too. 

Who knew rice could be so interesting from an art standpoint.

Finally, it was time to remove the sea salt from the watercolor paper.

 

This pattern was interesting, but what I was most pleased with

was how the coffee sparkled when I moved it back and forth in my hand.  Sadly, the camera doesn't pick up that sparkle.  When I showed them to my friend Scott, he asked if I added glitter to the page.  I told him no, that was the magic of the salt.

Ruminations:

1.  I need an area where I can dry my papers.  I had to wait while some dried because I didn't have enough space on my table and counter to dry all of these at once.

2.  I used a paper/kitchen towel to wipe up excess coffee, but when I did, I often disturbed the pattern.  I'm sure there is a magic amount of coffee that should be used with this paper, but I haven't found it yet.

3.  By far and away, my favorite was the watercolor paper and rice.

I don't expect you to create a tutorial, or even make coffee infused papers.  However, I'd still love for you to share your own drink inspired post this week.  It can be gifts you received, photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, mail art, junk mail, catalogs, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Regardless, please share below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.   Please link only your T post and not your blog in general.  Bleubeard would like to remind you that old photos are acceptable because they may be taken any time, not just on Tuesday and most assuredly not just this year.  

 

 

 

 When this post goes live, you'll be able to access it forever on my Tutorials page.

Bad Language

 

Today I am sharing this journal entry with Elle from Empire of the Cat, our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  

Elle's theme is Language and this entry is about what happens when language turns evil and destructive.

It's also about getting rid of evil and destructive language.

It seems more and more Hate sites are showing up on the internet than ever before.

Many readers have either become immune, or are too afraid to speak up.

 

It's now time for those of us who believe in good to speak up.  We must show how much we care for others.

Therefore, it's time to Erase Hate.

 

This very simple journal page took forever to create.  I began by cutting the letters by hand from a sheet of 110 lb cardstock I colored red using watercolors.  I used a ruler to mark the lines that I added to the back of the cardstock.  Luckily, these were easy letters to reverse. 

 

The next thing was to sew the recycled paper bag I deconstructed to a sheet of 110 lb cardstock.  I used two different colors of variegated threads to hold the background in place.   I then cut and glued the individual letters to the background.  Finally, I computer generated the word Erase using my laser printer, which is nearly out of toner.  It gave the appearance that something was about to be erased.  I cut and colored the words using blue watercolor.  All the letters and words were attached using a glue stick.

Thank you ever so much for joining me today in my attempt to Erase Hate.  Bleubeard and I also hope to see you at Art Journal Journey.

 

Monday Murals: Kansas Gem

 

It's time once again to join Sami at Sami's Colourful World and her Monday Murals.  Even though it's still Sunday in my world, please be aware that Sami's mural link goes live at 11:01 a.m. my time today.   I forgot that I had to miss last week because I host a monthly link party on the 2nd of every month.  Turns out, that was last Sunday.

I thought since we are celebrating Mother's Day in the states today, I would show a gem.  I suspect many mothers will receive one of those today from their husbands or children, primarily in the form of jewelry.  This gem is a bit different.  It is called Kansas Gem.  For my international friends, this is basically what my state looks like.  The state would probably be completely rectangular were it not for the Missouri River that cuts into the tiny north eastern portion of the state.

 

Note the Wichita, Kansas (USA) symbol that is part of the Wichita Flag.  The solid white dot shows the basic location of Wichita relative to the remainder of the state. 

 

This is an Avenue Art Days sponsored mural.  The mural was created by Jessie Sterling and can be found at 3700 East Douglas, Wichita, Kansas (USA).

 

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there.  Thanks for visiting today, dear fellow mural lovers.  If you enjoy murals from around the world, please don't forget to visit Monday Murals at Sami's Colourful World.  

Home is where my heart is

 

Today I'm sharing this journal entry with Elle, from Empire of the Cat, our host this month at Art Journal Journey with her theme, which is Language.

Appropriately, I named this

Home is where my heart is.

I used a very good translator, neither of which appears at the top of my left sidebar, to make these as exact as possible.  I recognize German and Spanish, but I didn't keep track of the others.  I'm sure someone, possibly Sirkkis, will be able to tell what other languages are represented.

However, something didn't feel right.  That's when I realized I hadn't actually added the heart of the home.  

It certainly felt a lot better once I added the extra hearts.

For this page, I began by creating a background of watercolors and water soluble crayons on 110 lb cardstock.  I was going for a mottled look and using both products fit the bill.

I computer generated the words Home is where my heart is in several languages.  After printing the words on copier/printer paper, I used a water soluble crayon to add color to the house.  I colored the roof using blue watercolor.  To hold the two pieces together and delineate them, I cut a length of the beautiful fabric washi tape I received from Linda on my birthday.  I also added the hearts on the roof because I didn't leave room for them on the house.  The chimney was cut from a magazine.

The tree on the left was a gift from my stash.  It was on photo paper and fussy cut.  On the right, I used one of my pressed leaves and one of my pressed flowers from around my home.  Since the bottom of the house looked bare, I found this cyclist in a magazine and added it to the page.

Thanks for stopping to check out my mixed media journal page. I appreciate you taking time to visit.  Please also join Bleubeard and me at Art Journal Journey.

Friday Smiles 420: revisiting Indian Hills Community Center

 

Welcome to Friday, dear friends.  It's time for Friday Smiles which is hosted by Annie (at A Stitch in Time).   Let's join her and the other wonderful ladies who also share their smiles each Friday.

We've all seen these funny, punny signs 

from Indian Hills Community Center.  I've even shown some on my blog.

I went looking to find out more about Indian Hills in Colorado, a state just west of Kansas where I live.  Indian Hills is a real town.  They even have a web site.  On it you will find that all the people who work at the Community Center are volunteers.  

One of those volunteers is Vince Rozmiarek, who according to a web site called Bored Panda is:

a Colorado native and the man behind all the funny signs.

Apparently, the first sign appeared one year on April Fools Day and became such an instant hit, Rozmiarek decided to keep creating them to the tune of a couple times a week. 

I now give you a few favorites.

And finally, this is for all you moms out there who are celebrating Mother's Day this weekend.

 

Now let's join Annie (at A Stitch in Time) and the lovely ladies who join her.  Thanks again for visiting and spending a bit of time with me this Friday.