Let's Play

I had an artist play date last weekend.  My friend and I played with molding paste and stencils.  I shared with her the technique of creating texture by spreading molding paste over a stencil.  The only bad thing is that the paste takes a while to dry.  We used a hair dryer to speed things up.

We decided to create a collage using a canvas board, paper and paint.  My friend has an extensive stamp collection so she used stamps on her project as well as paper.

My friend's collage with paper and molding paste (the
green leaves and light pink splats are paste)

I tried 2 different stencils on my board.  One worked well (the flowers on the right) and the other one did not look as good (squares on the left).  I painted over the dried molding paste with Golden fluid acrylics.

My collage - paper, molding paste,
and paint

I love having art play dates with my friends.  We each have different kinds of items in our artists stashes and it fun to share new things.  Luckily, I have 2 more play dates on my calendar already.
-christina

Black and White

Last year the art teacher at my son's junior high did a cool 3D art project involving paper rolls. I asked her if she had any paper rolls left over and she kindly gave them to me.  I painted the rolls with gloss medium, added black acrylic paint to the ends, then set them aside for many months. I just found them again last weekend.  

My normal inclination would be to contemplate possible projects for a few weeks before creating anything, but instead I decided to just get something done right away.  I created 2 pins - one for me and one for the art teacher. A completed project is a wonderful thing.

-christina

T-shirt necklaces

A friend and I decided we wanted to make t-shirt necklaces after she scored a bag full of old white t-shirts last summer.  First we dyed the shirts, an activity that sounded more fun than it actually was.  We chose purple, black, red, green, and blue.

It took until this month for my friend and I to get back together to play with the newly dyed shirts.  I started by cutting them into 1 inch strips using my rotary cutter.  From what I read online, using the rotary cutter is key to making the material curl properly.

T-shirt strips

Materials all laid out (yes, we drank wine too)

Next we pulled out all sorts of supplies: beads, ribbon, buttons, waxed linen, thread, wire, chain, brads, and rubber o-rings.  We played for about 3 hours.  Here are the results.

Chain, buttons, and beads tied on
with waxed linen

Ready for when summer weather
returns

My friend and I had fun with this "instant gratification" project.  Go to Pinterest for more ideas of what can be created with old, cut up t-shirts.
-christina

My friend made a Halloween
eyeball necklace
(great eyelashes!)