Discover Bister

Bister is a concentrated color wood stain from the Netherlands. It comes as a granular, water soluble powder in 8 colors and can be purchased from I Brake for Stamps. All the information I found on the internet was in Dutch so in this video I explore how the product reacts with other art mediums.

Til next time...

WOYWW 282 & 283

I was getting my supplies ready to film a mixed media project last week and even photographed my workdesk for last weeks WOYWW when our main computer was hit with multiple viruses simultaneously. My husband called me immediately and I was able to disconnect my network from the internet and isolate the computer to stop the spread but the desktop was toast. Windows and Office were rendered useless and after 3 days of chasing down and killing viruses I finally gave up, wiped all the hard drives clean, bought Windows 8.1 and started over. All is back up and running, I have better virus and malware protection and my husband is actually handling the change to Windows 8.1 better than I expected. He usually does NOT handle change! Now I can go back to crafting.

This was my desk last week just as the viruses hit. The big clear bottle with the black top is my new spray bottle that was designed in Holland and purchased through my hairdresser. It sprays such a beautiful mist with no drops.

And this is my desk today all ready for my next project to be filmed today as soon as I design one more Christmas card.




Til next time...

We've been bombed

I had 2 videos and several projects to post but we were bombed with multiple viruses last week. These were some of the worst viruses out there and they were in a multi-virus bomb that literally exploded on our desktop and released so many viruses at once that the virus protection couldn't keep up with it.  After finding 15 of them and still having issues with the system, I did a complete wipe of all hard drives and did a clean install of Windows but I am still installing all of my other software.

I am so careful about protecting my computers and yet this mess got through so obviously there were weak spots that I wasn't aware of. I am now so paranoid about getting anything that I am running 3 different kinds of virus and malware programs and you can't even check the time of day without inputting a password.

It will be several more days before I can upload anything to the blog but I'd like to leave you with a wee hint... Bister.

Til next time...

Finding My Style

Being fairly new at Mixed Media, I find that I spend a lot of time reading blogs and watching videos of Mixed Media Artists. This is how I learn what products are out there, what techniques the experienced artists are doing and hopefully I can use what I learn to develop my own style and find my own little niche.  This piece was inspired by Vivian AKA contadinaK and this video she posted on YouTube.

I started by spreading white gesso on a piece of mixed media paper with a palette knife but I didn't cover the whole page.  While the gesso was still wet I pressed into it randomly with an old rubber stamp. Next came embossing paste through a Damask stencil from UmWow Studio followed by random swirls of hot glue that were sponged with gesso once cooled.

Now that all the base texture was done I sprayed the page with Dylusions in Chopped Pesto and Slate Grey. I added poofs of PearlEx in Gold and Interference Green as I was spraying so the Dylutions would spread the powder and act as a fixative.

Once everything was dry I added Colorbox Chalk Inks from the Autumn Collection to the gessoed hot glue. Unfortunately it looks like a scene from "The War of the Worlds". I hid most of it by stamping and cutting 2 vases from some scraps of monoprinted paper using stamps and matching dies from Papertrey Ink then coating them with 2 layers of UTEE. The flowers were stamped with PTI's Larger Than Life set and die cut. The label was cut with a die from StampinUp's Chalk Talk set, stamped with PTI's Damask Designs then aged with Distress Inks. The sentiment from PTI's Meadow Greens set was stamped with Walnut Distress Ink and embossed with clear powder. The label and vases were mounted over the hot glue disaster with foam tape.

Til next time...

WOYWW October 22

Well my workdesk is rather boring today as I am in between projects. There are mostly remnants of a organizing project I did off and on for the last few days. I have an old Quickutz cabinet that really wasn't living up to its potential so I made 3 x 3 x 4 1/2 boxes to fit in the cubbies. Made some labels with my Brother P-Touch and now have storage for some odds and ends that needed a place to hang out.







Til next time...

City On The River

I managed to not only create a new Art Journal page but filmed the process, edited the video, added the narration and uploaded it to YouTube. Pretty impressive especially considering I'm really new at most of this. I apologize for the sniffling during the second half. We had tremendous winds today and since Utah IS in the desert, my furniture is now crunchy with sand and my nose is running. At least I didn't have a sneezing fit. Those can last for several minutes when the air is really bad.

This will be my last video with the Sony camera. The resolution is only 420 or so with the Sony which was pretty good 8 years ago but I splurged and got a Panasonic HC-V550 HD Camcorder. Can't wait to play!

So any who way, here is the video...

 

Enjoy!