Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Nature Walk Painted Transparency Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that distinguish me from a doormat. - Rebecca West, writer
I saw this quote in a book called The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women written by Gail McMeekin and it really struck me.  Maybe it struck me right now because I have recently been noticing how much I hate bras!  Yes - I confess!!!!  I know, I know - they are a necessary evil at times - or at least we've been led to believe they are.  But I can totally understand the Burn Your Bra movement back in the '60s!  For some reason bras make me feel trapped or "contained" - two things, as an artist, I seem to loathe.  So maybe my current distaste for bras right now goes well beyond the bra itself.  Maybe it is much more about a desire for freedom - a need to release myself from any limitations or bounds that I have put on myself in my artwork and, maybe even, my life.  So while I am here at home - undershirts and tank tops, here I come!!!!  And maybe, when I do need to wear them (I haven't quite decided what the criteria is for determining when is a "yes I need to" day and when is a "no way in heck will I wear one" day), I can take the metaphor of the bra into my art making - maybe on those days I can set certain limits on my artwork and see where that leads me.  Maybe I can see both freedom and containment as ripe seeds for growing some art!  Phew - that felt good :)  Now let's get on to some art :)
Yes, I do seem to be in love with this bird from the Nature Walk stamp set right now.  Maybe it's because in the midst of winter, painting this bird makes me feel like spring inside :)  This card was created by stamping the bird image, using Jet Black Staz-On ink, onto a transparency/window sheet.  I then painted the back of the image with acrylic paint.  I stamped the kraft tissue paper using a stamp from the Elements of Style stamp set and Crumb Cake ink.  Can you see the score lines on the card?  I love adding these lines using my scoring board - they create a wonderful frame for your stamped and painted transparencies!  For more details on how I created this card, feel free to watch this video - the steps are the same - I just used different stamps and paint colors.  You can also skip the step of stamping on the tissue paper and instead adhere designer series paper to the backside of the transparency/window sheet.  Here is a card I created using designer series paper in place of the tissue paper.  Enjoy!

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