Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Theme Thursday - Marbeling with Shaving Foam



Thanks to Quinn McDonald http://quinncreative.com/ for suggesting members of her creative incubater http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuinnCreative_Rawart/join share some interest in the form of Theme Thursdays.


Fun, easy, messy and colorful - right up my alley. Maybe yours too. I first tried this technique about a year ago with a group of crafty friends who love to experiment like I do. We used everything from acrylic paint to watercolor inks and tried them on various types of paper & fabric.




I have collected some links (see below) that give similar directions for this technique, see below. I used some styrofom trays to hold my shaving foam but you could just put plastic down on a flat surface as your shaving foam will sit wherever you place it. You could also use an inexpensive flat foil pan or the bottom of a tin like cookies come in, just think slighty outside the box. I spread my shaving foam with a hard plastic spatula that I bought at the dollar store. An old credit card or one of those that sometimes arrive in your junk mail.




The other handy item I used was a wide-tooth comb. Once I placed my paints or inks on the shaving foam, I ran the teeth of the comb thru it, in wavy or straight lines or whatever. I also used a wooden skewer to make more swirls in the colors after the first print. I am usually able to get 3 or 4 prints off of one set of colors. The prints tend to get lighter as you continue to lift off prints.

The hard plastic straight edge is essential because you need to scrape foam off of your paper or fabric after you have lifted it from the shaving foam. If you click on any of the photos throughout this post, it should bring up a closer, clearer image.

The images just below are all done on silk from Dharma (see link above). The fun thing about the silk is that the moment it hits the color on the foam, you can see the design on the back of the silk.



Enjoy experimenting and please let me know how it goes if you try it. You can email me your photos and I can post them here or I will link to your blog when you post photos.

My sample photos: done w/ lumiere, Adirondack Color Wash and acrylic paints, but MX dyes and other things will work too. Try it, you might like it.

Here are the links:

http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/2006/10/14-other-techniques-sky-painting.html - demo using dyes and incorporating shaving foam into/onto the piece

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/marbling.htm - marbeling with shaving cream (onto paper) same can be done using fabric and acrylic or fabric paints (on top of shaving cream layer)

http://www.wikihow.com/Paint-Marbled-Paper-Using-Shaving-Cream - another using shaving cream & food coloring (on top of shaving cream)

http://my-croft.blogspot.com/2008/10/play-time-marbling.html - more step-by-step directions (tsukineko inks). Sample pics at end of this post.

http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/site/how_to_foam.php - same technique using inks/paints with some suggestions for ways to use the finished products.

Also some pics http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/site/shaving_foam_card_gallery.php - samples of cards using the shaving foam marbeling technique.

Last but not least, http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1498922-AA.shtml?lnav=gifts.html Dharma trading has many how-tos on their website and this one for shaving foam is done using Fiber Reactive dyes.

That's it for this Thursday. All of the paper ones pictured above were done as samples for a demo tonight at Quinn's Raw-Art-Journaling group in Glendale, AZ at http://www.thecreativequest.com/ . If you're local, we meet the last Thursday of the month from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you visit any of the links or try out the technique, or if you have questions I will try to answer them.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Hold On? or Let Go?

What you hold onto – holds you, and drives your actions. That old hurt from childhood, or from last week. That person you tolerate, who slighted you or hurt your feelings or embarrassed you. The person you thought would love you and protect you, but did not. Those people we choose not to forgive because we think they do not deserve to be forgiven.

Well, when you choose to hold on to anger and resentment, it festers like a sore and grows bigger and more powerful. That anger and resentment begins to take you over. That anger and resentment forms a blockade around your heart and soul. What does the blockade keep out? It keeps out the blessings spirit is trying to deliver to you through others.
How often do you consciously or unconsciously turn away something positive? Do you even notice that you are doing so? How often do you question why others are so much more fortunate than you? Consider that they do not have walls of anger and resentment turning away most of the good things that are coming to them.

Consider that they accept compliments for what they are – acts of kindness, small, intangible gifts, that many people give freely. Consider that the fortunate ones simply say thank you and do not argue or deflect the kindness, they accept the gift without protest. Maybe the fortunate ones are the ones who accept kindness even from those who have hurt them previously. It is possible for gifts to come to us in many forms. They may come in the form of favors, gestures, a connection we needed but did not expect, a chance meeting with just the person who can help you forward something you are committed to. How many of those gifts do you turn away, not realizing that you are blocking a blessing, a gift?

Consider that you do not have to carry around bags of anger and resentment labeled with the names of people who have hurt you or wronged you. Consider that your energy is better spent if you set those bags down and focus your energy on where you are headed. Imagine how relieved your soul would be if it no longer had to be concerned with the weight of all those bags of unforgiven hurts and the energy it takes to drag them around.

Forgiveness is not for the people who hurt you – it is for you. Forgiveness is one of the ways to lighten the load with which you have burdened your soul and your entire being.
You have the power of choice to lighten that load at anytime.
When will you lighten your load? When will you free your soul?
Will you hold on or will you let go?

Written by Rosaland Hannibal ©

A note about copyright: Thank you for respecting my work and not copying this to another blog or other form of print without my permission. You may link back here to the blog or request to use this piece in some of your work by simply contacting me.

Journal prompt – this subject could be used as a journal prompt and if anyone is so inspired, I would love to see what you create. And please feel free to leave comments about this post. I am quite curious as to what it says to people, how it is received or perceived.
Thanks for visiting & have a wonderful day in your world!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Nature's Give & Take

They say inspiration is everywhere and I believe it is true.

I saw this when I arrived at work this morning and I just had to break out the camera. It is such a great example of the ‘give & take’ of nature. And I love the way the photos came out. I will do something creative with this . . . at some point in time.

This bee is coming in for a landing!



These are actually two different flowers and the bees are loving them!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Baby Quilt & a Birthday

First - Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!
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Now on to the Baby Quilt
Have you ever bought the fabrics for a quilt and then weren’t sure if you did the right thing? Weren’t sure if it would turn out ok or not? That seldom happens to me but it did with this one. This is another quilt for a customer and she and I spent a long time trying to find a combination of pink and green that she liked. Turns out, they worked perfectly together and made a very soft-looking and adorable quilt. She was so happy with it that she gave me a tip. First time that’s ever happened. And the person she gave it to was thrilled with it as well.
Here it is:



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