Fun with Chemical Reactions!

I have been playing around with chemical reactions yesterday and today. Yesterday i created a background for an ATC.



I started with green watercolour on watercolour paper. And then i added some glaze medium. And then i added some blue caligraphy ink. And then i added some pearlescent ink. And then i added some pearlescent medium. And then i added some water..... Well something in this don't mix together easily. I don't know which one did it (i do suspect it may have been the caligraphy ink) but one of them separated from the others and made a chunky, bumpy texture to this. Is tehre oil in any of these paints i wonder? i wouldn't be suprised. Somehow i got a grainy texture when dry, although it started out smooth.... cool....



And then i worked on a card today that had REAL chemical reactions (lol). As much as i like unexpected texture, the science nerd in me loves the way this happens. Take a photo, and then add bleach from a bleach pen(taking all necessary precautions of coarse). Trust me.... it's the neatest thing. Anywhere you draw the bleach on the photo will leech the colour out, layer by layer. If you only leave it on a little bit, then it will be a brilliant red orange colour. Then to yellow, and then finally to white. It happens quite fast, it goes all the way to white in under one minute. Once you are just before your desired point, put the photo in water to stop the reaction.

Once they were suitably bleached and rinsed, i scraped them up with sandpaper. I then painted with a green colour, and then repeated the sanding texture. All done, ready to trade! I hope the person who recieves them loves them as much as i loved making them. I may now have slightly dry hands from the weakened bleach water, but i have 3 fabulous ATCs :)

This atc was created for a swap on my favorite ATC website, atcards. For this swap, you were supposed to create 3 cards that involve windows and doors. Mine are now finished, time to mail them away!

ATC swap day

So, my goal of doing something creative every day is going well :). Yesterday was a great day. Once a month, there is an ATC (artist trading card) swap here in my city. I was at the swap yesterday, and totally had a great time. Not only did i trade all 9 cards i had ready for this, i also got lots of stuff.

I would say my favorite parts of ATC swaps are the 'perks'. For those of you who may not know, an artist trading card is a piece of art 2.5 by 3.5 inches, that you trade with other artists. Therefor, since they are fairly small, you often have LOTS of leftovers when you create a project using a certain bought material. Whether it be fabric, paper, ribbons, lace... pretty much anything... there is always extra left over. So people bring these leftovers to the swaps. You get to take home some of their extras, and give up some of the extra stuff you have. I just love it. Others people's stuff is always more interesting than your own! hahahha

Today is starting out as a pretty good day too. Finished off 2 atcs that i'd been waiting for the printed water slide transfer paper:



It's too bad that they don't scan very well. THere is too much 3D texture to them for my scanner to handle. I really do need a new scanner. There has to be a better way....

So now i'm just chilling on my computer, listening to some Panic! at the Disco and some Streetlight Manifesto. If you aren't familliar with the Streetlight Manifesto and you like music that has some energy and some brass to it, i would highly recomend checking these guys out! Here's a song of theirs with a cool video on YouTube.

Blog ready to go?

So.... new header that reflects my art style? Check. Non ugly and obtrusive template? Check. Picture for creative every day in the sidebar? Check. Now if only i could make that picture a link.... (i have some html skills but only VERY basic. I could do it if it was in the main body but it isn't working for in the side bar. Any suggestions?)

I would call this blog serviceable and ready to go!

Renewing my blog

So, i think it's time to try my hand at the whole blogging thing again. This is my third time creating a blog now (although i didn't recreate this one, i'm just restarting my old one). Thank you to google for not deleting it after over a year!

So, the purpose of this blog is to document my creative growth as an altered art artist. In the past i have had blogs for showing my digiscrapping, and for keeping in touch with family and friends. While i encourage family and friends to read this blog, that is not it's purpose. Essentially, for the first time, this blog is for me :).

I recently saw at a website the idea of being 'Creative Every Day'. Essentially, it is what it sounds like. I am planning to TRY to do something creative every day, and i would like to use this blog to somewhat document that, and reach out to other artists around the world while doing it. Now, in this I will take the word 'creative' very loosely. Whether it be:


working on an artist trading card,


practicing my trombone (jazz band practices and lessons totally count haha),


seeking inspiration from other blogs or pretty much anything else. 'Creativity' is definately a loose word here hahaha.

So, i realize i need to update the blog look here. Maybe put art that's actually mine in the banner, not just some stuff i liked off fliker, play witht he background, change the links.... but i now officially have a start :)

Wish me luck!