Musin' about Infusions for Paper Artsy!

When I saw the call from Leandra for a chance to participate in the July 3UP, I immediately submitted my name, and was thrilled when I was named to the Lynne Perrella/PA Infusions team, along with Ellie and Autumn!  As some of you will know, I am a huge fan of Lynne's work, including her stamps - in fact, I used one of her Japanese images for my first posting with Brenda's 2015 Visual Journey, and continue to look toward Lynne's collections for many of my makes.

Leandra was more than generous!!  We each got three stamp sets, AND four colors of the new Infusions to play with....  I had Are You Cerise, Violet Storms, The Sage, and Black Knight.  After a LOT of experimenting, as you will see below, I ended up using Are You Cerise and Violet Storms.... and decided to showcase different substrates.  So let's get going!  And PS, this is very photo heavy!  And as usual, forgive the funky spacing....sigh.

Here is the final project, with five different substrates.

The first layer is Bristol paper with gesso tinted with Are You Cerise, and then more plain gesso applied with my fingers to knock it back a bit, and to get some texture for the next step.

Once the Bristol board was dry, I added more Infusion powder and water.    I kept everything towards the edge as I knew the center would  be covered.

The next layer was created on matte photo paper, using Violet Storms.  This is the finished layer, which has a thin edging of Lindy's Stamp Gang Midnight Copper embossing powder.

I applied several layers of the Violet Storms and generous amounts of water, letting it dry thoroughly between repeat applications to achieve the final effect.

The next layers are the Michelle Ward stencil flourishes, which are Violet Storms on glossy photo paper....These are actually mono prints made on the powdered and moistened stencil.  Further down, you will see some other stenciling approaches.

The layer behind the Lynne Perrella image is watercolor paper, using the Violet and Cerise colors.  You can see how the various substrates affect the brightness as well as the spread of color and those wonderful specks of walnut powder, which make the Infusions so unique.  

The lady herself is stamped with Stayzon onto Yupo paper that had been sprinkled very lightly with Violet Storms, spritzed and left to dry.  I got this idea from Helen Chilton, who has made some beautiful pieces using the Infusions and Yupo.  The Infusions dry very light colored on this synthetic paper; I love the marble look I got.  But I need a lot more practice to achieve Helen's outcomes, lol!

So now onto the other experiments!

Here is Grunge Paste through a script stencil, then sprinkled with Black Knight, and water - then left to dry.  I've learnt that to keep the beautiful mingling evident in the detail shot, I need to dry with the heat tool.  Otherwise, things continue to meld, and one loses all that lovely distinct color, as you can see in the dry piece.

Next, some stenciling.... on card with some mono prints as well.

The left is mono print on card, and the right is on Yupo.

Here are more examples on Yupo, left to dry.

Here is paper monoprinted from the above stencil directly.

This is a second print, made after I spritzed the stencil with water again, on matte photo paper.

Here are some example  using The Sage on the left, with various amounts of water, and with Violet Storms and The Sage on a tag.

Here I played with Are You Cerise on watercolor paper and a lot of water.

I saw Ruth's posting so tried some of The Sage with 3D matte gel.

Here is an example of a stencil onto Yupo, with a lot of water, and then dried.  The darker colors penetrate the Yupo for a lovely ghosted effect.

Since that worked so well, I thought I would try a script stencil on Yupo.  Here you can also see some mono print tags (with backwards script!)

Here is the dried Yupo - but this time when I wiped it off, I essentially lost everything....

A couple of mop up tags.

Another technique from Helen, which is to rub the powders into the paper first, then wet.  I used matt photo paper here....

And you get this....

which some of you will recognize as the background for Paloma when she visited.

Here is an example on watercolor paper - also very lovely!

Here is Bristol paper with rows of Infusion powders, swiped with a very wet mop brush.

And here is the same thing, but the powders were first rubbed into the paper.  I also added some more powder and mopped it as the first layer of color was drying.  The powder continues to react to water, so I got some beautiful washes along with some beautiful deep color.

This turned out to be my favorite piece, but it did not work with my project!

Here is stenciling using Violet Storm and Ranger Glossy Paper.  Again, this is a mono print.

This is deli paper, with The Sage powder sprinkled, water spritzed, and then crinkled  up, then spread apart again to dry.  I think this would make a great background....

  And last, some stamping by rubbing powder onto the stamp, then spritzing and stamping, here on a tag.

Well, that is it for this round!  If you made it this far, thank you for hanging in there with me!  And if you've time, please do comment - I love hearing from you!  xxx Lynn

Playing in the new studio!

I'm out in Idaho in my new home, though it will be more of a vacation spot for a few years.  I am so glad to be closer to family (literally next door!) after many decades of physical distance, and the last 20 years across the continent.

I love the house, and especially my new studio space - and today I played with paper marbling, having just taken an incredible workshop recently in Connecticut.  I have a small set-up here, that I purchased from Galen Berry, and although it seemed a lot at the time I bought it (prior to ever marbling anything), it is a rather limited palette, as you will see!  More colors on the way, now that I know a bit more.

This post is mostly marbling pictures, for my own records.... so lengthy!

First, though, here are some pictures of this beautiful part of Idaho.  Below is a picture from my backyard.  We lease the land to a wonderful young farmer, who plants and cuts hay for cattle and horses.  He has just baled the hay (in anticipation of rain this coming weekend).  The very dark green sliver you can see just to the right of the top forested area on the left is garbanzo beans, planted by our neighbor.

 Here, you can see our farm as we come in from Deary (a small town about 10 minutes away).

 And here you can see the place as we approach from the other side, from the canyon where the small towns of Kendrick and Juliaetta are located.   The bit of white just the right of the barn is my house.

 And here is my house - a back patio and large roofed front porch are scheduled in the coming weeks.  This view is from my brother and sister-in-law's side gate.  My new studio is on the rear of the house toward the back of this picture - deliberately placed so as not to interfere too much with anyone's view!

Now, onto marbling!!

I used today as a play session, to explore pattern recipes, and to make sure I knew how to make the marbling bath (known as size), as well as how to get the paints fluid enough to spread on top of the bath before creating the patterns.  So here goes...

Throughout I am using Masa rice paper, a bit larger than 8.5 x 11 inches.  One thing I learned is to be more careful with my application of alum (which acts like gesso to hold the paint to the paper).  But I was pleased that my size worked fine.

First - an attempt at Spanish Moire, which creates that dimension look of rolled fabric/paper.... I only managed to get this on the bottom half....

I did better on this one, though still missing a lot of the paper!  This is the whole sheet; the top half is detailed at the start of the post.

Playing around with the double (bouquet) rake...

 This is supposed to be Feathered Wings pattern.....

Below on the top is the Bouquet pattern.... and below that the same but with double combing.  This produces much more detail in the pattern, and is one I will certainly want to hone.

Some more play....

 And a try at the French curl...

as well as the Thistle.

As I get a chance to unpack my studio at some point, I look forward to playing with my stamps and paints, like usual - but love indulging in the marbling as well.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and if you've time, please do comment..... I love to hear your thoughts!   xxx Lynn