Butterfly Kisses

I am a couple days behind my scheduled Creative PaperClay post, for that i apologize! Life is VERY busy right now with our 8 wk old puppy. And Yes I am completely in LOVE with her.

But as they say the show must go on....LOL

Today this tutorial is inspired by nature. A few months ago my family and I went to the Butterfly Conservatory here in Niagara Falls. (If you ever get a chance to go to a Butterfly exhibit please do so, its truly magical)

Here are a few gorgeous pictures that inspired me and perhaps inspire you.

They say Mother Nature never lies. How true, colors are perfectly matched and so pretty.

Today I am working with "Delight - AirDry Modeling Clay" Its abit different than "Creative PaperClay" ,
                                       
                                                     1. The color is snow white and it dries white.
                                                     2. Its is very lightweight.
                                                   
Its also similar!

                                                    1. It's an airdry clay. No firing, no baking is needed!
                                                    2. Takes paint, any paint, very well!

I did not take a picture of the beginning, but its rather simple, take a piece of clay and roll it into a ball. (Depends on how big you want your bowl to be will determine the size of the ball of clay)

Begin to mold it into a bowl. I took one of my old bowls to help me mold my clay around the bowl so that I could get the size right.

Once I got the size i wanted I took my favorite rubber stamp of a butterfly and stamp directly into the clay to leave an impression. I then painted it completely black.

I gathered a few fun supplies, some mica pearl ex powders , an old paintbrush. and some acrylic meadium.

I then began to layer the different pearl ex powders by mixing them with the acrylic medium.
****Sidenote - Acrylic medium can really be anything: elmers glue, golden gel medium, mod podge. Mica powders need something to make them stick to whatever you are painting them on, and if you can't afford Mica powders -  Use your old eye shadows! Create your own Mica Powders by mixing them with a little glitter!*****

When doing this kind of layering you either have to work fast or wait for each layer to dry!

And as always i love to embellish, "Delight" is really nice , I was able to put holes in it to hang the little leaves on it and it does not crack.

I initially made this for my workstation to put paperclips in it, to remind me of the beauty of nature, the grace of a butterfly and to remind me Mother Nature never lies! (grins) My mom had other ideas.....she took it home with her. LOL

Art on my friends,
ANg

Back In the Saddle

Artist trading cards - (ATC'S) Have always had a special place in my art world, but to be honest its been a couple of years since i actually participated in a swap. BUT I'mmmmmmmmmmm bacccckkkkkkkkkkkk! LOL Here are a couple i have made over the last day, i have been suffering from some severe nerve pain. It was better yesterday but today its been pretty bad so to take my mind off my woes i created some ATCs.


 

These are Laurel Birch inspired Cat art, created using Promarkers by Letraset and gold gel pen by Pentel and a white gel pen by Sakura, i think the black background one needs a little something so that one may change.

Little Red Riding hood, for my June partner over at iATCs.com. This one was done with Graphtint by Derwent. I have since joined three other swaps. Swaps are so much fun as i created and mail my cards to the host and then at the duedate in a few weeks i receive awesome art from all over the world all for the price of a stamp and creating. Art on sistahs~! L. ANg

Tuesday Tip with ANg and Creative PaperClay

HI everyone! A very easy tip. I hear people ask...how do you keep Creative PaperClay from drying out? So lets break this down abit. What dries something out? Well if you answered AIR you are completely right! So keeping it stored properly is pivotal in keeping the clay soft and pliable. What i do.... I use..... Are you ready..... THIS IS MY SECRET WEAPON! Its a small terra cotta brown sugar disc. IT WORKS~! Soak the disc in water for 15 minutes,take it out of the water and place it in a ziplock bag with your clay (I usually leave the orginial package on the clay) and seal it up. The disc keeps a small amount of moisture in the bag and prevents the clay from drying out! Everytime i take my clay out to work with it, i rehydrate my disc by soaking it in water for 10 minutes. Awesome eh? Art on everyone! L. ANg