Liquitex Playtime on a Rainy Day

Rain.  More Rain.  We've had enough Rain!  But there's a pleasant side effect.  Even here on the coast where we are supposed to be used to rain, we get tired of it....and then we stay inside and do something else that pleases us.  My house is clean, the floors are washed, I baked, and then decided I'd do something in my studio. 

I perused the situation in there.....had a look at a number of different projects on the go.  Several quilts ready to be quilted, but I didn't feel like getting the table cleared and set up for quilting.  One project on the design wall, which is arguing with me so I didn't want to tackle that one.  Some dolls I could finish.  Some mending to do.  Some hand stitching to do.  And amongst all these started projects I couldn't find anything I wanted to do so I started something new!  Well....it's better than retail therapy isn't it? 

So I decided on a journal page.  8 1/2 x 11 for size.  I've had an idea percolating at the back of my mind after seeing all the eclectic funky houses in my Mum & Dad's neighborhood (see my post of March 2, 2011).  I thought why not do a small version of it and see how it works.  Well....it wasn't long before I was buried in scraps and having scads of fun with my machine. 

I had a piece of fabric that I scrunched up, dampened and painted with Liquitex Inks.  The experiment was to see how much differently/the same it worked like fabric paint.  Here are some photos of the results.  It seems it worked very much like fabric paint in this method. 

This piece seemed like a good choice for the background as I wanted to portray bright sunny skies but with lots of snow and ice on the ground.  I used it so that the darker green areas got covered and the white/pink/light blue areas showed.  It has a little bit of Liquitex pearlescent medium in parts, and I hoped that would be the sparkle off the snow. 

Next to the houses.  I used only scraps and most of them in the shape they were already, just trimming here and there.  These were glued down on the background with a bit of UHU glue stick (I'm not a fan of fusing).  From there I proceeded to stitch the pieces down with satin stitch.  It wasn't long before I was trying out the variety of stitches my little machine offers as embellishment.  Here are the results so far.  I should iron things before I photograph them!


I have another piece of fabric done while I was playing around with the Liquitex Inks.  This one was a "mono print".  The inks, thickened a bit with the opalescent medium, were painted onto a big ceramic tile.  When I was pleased with the arrangement of the colors, I put a dry piece of pfd cotton on it and rolled it with a little brayer.  It was left sitting there for about 5 minutes and then lifted.  Here is what came of that experiment: 

I plan to cut this piece and use the brownish red piece on the bottom to add a "sidewalk" to the bottom of my little "cityscape", and then will quilt the little journal page.  When that's done,  I will do a bit of hand embellishing with beads and buttons and whatever else I can find.    All in all, great fun on a rainy day! 

Liquitex Playtime sort of a Tutorial!

My publisher, C&T Pulishing, has designeated me, amongst many others, to be an "Author Ambassador".  That means I'm willing to accept gifts of new products and provide them with samples done with the products. 

About two weeks ago I came home from work and as I came down my road, noticed a Purolator delivery truck cruising the neighborhood.  I pulled into my driveway and got out of the vehicle to open the gate.  By then the Purolator truck had turned at the dead end and was on the way back.  As he pulled up behind my vehicle he said "You live here?"  I said "Yes."  he said "Got a parcel for you."  I wondered what it could be as I couldn't remember ordering anything (but that doesn't always mean anything!!).  I signed for the package and came in the house to open it and discover a package of 12 Liquitex Inks and one bottle of medium to use with them.  Woo Hoo....such fun! 

So, for a couple of weeks, things have been percolating.  This is particularly important because since moving I've done nothing but unpack, organize, renovate, paint, purge, sort some more.....going from a big house to one half the size isn't easy!  The price paid is that I didn't have a creative bone left in my body, unless it had to do with finishing the outside of the house!  Here's what we accomplished this summer.....doesn't look like as much work as it was!

But after some thought and some puttering around I've tried two techniques with the Liquitex inks.  They work beautifully.  And I am grateful for the creativity spurt they brought on.  

The first technique I tried was stamping on fabric.  I painted the rubber stamp with straight ink and stamped on fabric.  The results weren't thrilling because the ink dried too fast.  Then I tried mixing the ink with the medium, painting the rubber stamp, and I got these results.  I was happy with this for a start.

Then I decided to try a paintbrush with the inks and a teeny bit of water, and painted in the design of the stamp.  It worked!

Once the stamped portion of the ink dried, any new ink added didn't make it bleed or spread.  I did try wetting a portion of one stamp when it was fresh and it did bleed, but a couple of days later it is dry and did not spread or bleed with the addition of new wet ink or ink and water.  Nice!  Here is the second step. 

Then I decided to try monoprinting.  I got out a big ceramic tile kept for such experiments, and spread a smooth coating of the medium over the entire surface of the tile.  Next I placed drops of Liquitex Ink in rows down the tile.  I used White, Blue, Yellow, Blue, and Red.  Then I added a bit of iridescents in between.  Like the picture to the right. 

You have to work quickly with just ink, but with the addition of the medium, it gave some plotting time!  I used several different brushes to spread these inks and mix them.  I forgot to take a picture of the tile with the inks spread on it, but when I was happy with the mix, I placed a piece of dry fabric over it all and used a brayer to press it into the ink. 

The fabric was lifted off the inks immediately and here are the results.  This will be a fun piece to work with.  It may get rotated to the right and it may get cut up a bit!

But there was still ink left on the tile.  I couldn't resist poking my finger into it and making a squiggle.  It was still moist, thanks to the medium, so I decided to lay another piece of fabric over it and brayer that too.  The results were lighter, and I had brushes that still had ink and medium loaded in them.  So I put that second piece of fabric on a surface to dry, and then decided to scrunch it up to see if it would make ridges in the color the way fabric paint does.  So it's now sitting drying in this position: 

More tomorrow.....I've had fun and am beginning to think of millions of ways to use these inks.