Welcome to the old blogitty-blog

If your here from Scrapbook News and Review Magazine's newsletter then I send you a very warm WELCOME.

If your one of my 5 regular visitors, thanks for keeping me in business.

:)

I've been so lucky to be a staffer at SNR for the past few years and lately I've been learning a lot about mixed media and "goop" (as we like to call it) by being a regular contributor on the SNR forums. There are such great conversations going on over there about all kinds of things "art" related like scrapbooking, card making, digi, and altered art. The best thing about SNR is that everyone is so open and friendly and even my silliest questions get answered by people who really want to see all of us succeed in making things that make us happy.

So...what are you waiting for? Do you like to paint? Have you ever wondered what gesso is? Or how you even SAY gesso???? What about watercolors? Or how to make your own mists? All of that and more is waiting for you in the forums. Don't just read it behind the scenes, interact with us so that we can all learn together.

Now onto the cool stuff. Below is my very first ATC....ever. I did it after reading some extremely inspiring threads in the altered art/mixed media forums. I went out and bought some of the "goop" that everyone was talking about and just started playing with it. It's pretty basic. Be gentle...it really was my very first one.

Here are the steps I used to make it:

1. Painted ATC with acrylic paint watered down slightly to give it that "washed" look. Let dry.

2. Stamped the dandelions using UTEE but didn't like the effect so I stamped over them using gesso (pronounced jesso in case you were wondering. LOL) Let dry.

3. Added extra course pumice gel to the bottom to simulate dirt/sand. Let dry.

4. Inked edges a tad. Added word stickers. Done.



So...as a "goop" newbie I learned a few very big lessons on this tiny ATC.

First, I used a regular ATC card (made from regular cardstock) which was a bad choice. I clearly used wet stuff like paint, gesso, and gel so I should have used an ATC made of watercolor paper (because as soon as I put the goop on the card warped and I had to let it sit under a book to straighten out for a few hours). Lesson learned.

Second, I purchased extra course pumice gel which is cool stuff but not what I expected. I should have purchased regular pumice gel since the little sandy bits are much smaller and finer than the one I used on the card (if you look you can see that the bits are larger and more spread out which would look cool on a canvas or larger piece but might be slightly too big for my tiny ATC). Another lesson learned.

Third, and more importantly, my UTEE skills are not quite stellar yet. I learned that using UTEE on a tiny stamp with tiny details isn't as productive as using it on a stamp which has more surface area. I'll try again soon with a larger stamp because I refuse to let the goop win.

Thanks for stopping by!

:)