Digital 4x4 collage

Another page for Pam's Color Chunky page swap. This one is for the color Pomegranate.

I just love the beautiful photo of actress Ziyi Zhang from Memoirs of a Geisha. Apparently she had a really hard time during filming because she was allergic to the blue contact lenses.

1x1 Collage Square Addict

I had an interesting discovery this week - it actually takes me much longer to create these tiny collages in Photoshop than it does using a stack of magazines, scissors and a glue stick. I think it's because I take more time endlessly messing around with all the elements, colors and fonts because anything is possible, vs. just cutting and pasting what I have available on my art table.

It took me an average of 30-45 minutes to do each of these damn squares - but I do like the results, so I'll just try and not think about all those hours I should've been exercising or flossing or cleaning house, instead of sitting hunched over my keyboard endlessly clicking away in the glow of the monitor's light.

I'll admit it - I'm an addict. A mouse-clicking, keyboard-clacking, color-worshipping, sore-ass-having, teensy-tiny-square-loving addict. I think I better go stretch my legs while they still work.

Fun with paint backgrounds

I love doing these background papers. Just squirt a little acrylic paint around on a piece of cardstock then lay another blank piece of cardstock down on top of the paint and squish and pat it around. When you peel them apart - Voila! you have faux marbled paper!

New canvas panels

I spent the day yesterday working on some new canvas panels and reworking an existing one. I'm uploading pics of all of them, even though some of them are still in progress.

I think this first one is done, but then you just never know with collage! ; ) The rest I am not happy with, so they'll need some additions or changes, I just don't know what yet.

Shimmering background papers in a flash

My two favorite products for creating quick and easy background papers for collage or altered books. Both are translucent - not opaque - which I like, because it lets the text or images on the background pages show through.

The first is Pearlescent Liquid Acrylic and the second is Silky crayons by AMOS, or the same product by Elmers called Colorslicks. The Liquid Acrylic is a quick-drying ink that comes in around 20 different beautiful pearlescent colors. The crayons come in tubes of various sizes - some shaped like a marker, others like a glue stick. They have both regular and metallic colors and are watersoluble. They glide onto paper like a lipstick or oil pastel, but quickly dry to the touch - so there is no smudging or mess. Neat color blends can be created by adding water to the page.

Click here for a link to the inks












Click here for a link to some of the crayons